Chapter 02
“This is Lady Olga Ryabova, who will be serving you from now on. She previously served as the head lady-in-waiting to the late Queen Anna.”
Before Nadia, who had ended up going to the Queen’s Palace before she knew it, stood a middle-aged woman with smooth wheat-colored hair neatly pinned up.
Nadia raised her head and gazed at the noblewoman with dark brown eyes. Her impression was quite gentle, but as if the phrase “iron on the outside, soft on the inside” suited her, her eyes looked strong.
Because of her history as Queen Anna’s head lady-in-waiting, Nadia sensed something like the chill and sharpness of an ice pick in her seemingly calm gaze.
“I will serve you with all my heart.”
Olga Ryabova bowed her head to the daughter of the woman who had brought about the death of the one she had served.
Nadia found herself bowing her head as well, without meaning to. It felt as though she had to.
Not long ago, Queen Anna had passed away. She had been found hanged, dishonorably so, Nadia had heard.
Nadia knew the reason. Because King Ivan had declared that he would make his mistress’s son the heir, setting aside her only sonāthe legitimate heir.
The queen’s opposition had meant nothing. The queen, who had sent her precious son away to the north ten years ago and had suffered from depression ever since, had ended her life in vain just like that.
“…I am sorry.”
Nadia wanted to apologize on behalf of her dead mother’s sins. When she raised her head, Olga’s expression was somewhat peculiarāshe looked taken aback, yet her brow remained furrowed regardless.
Rather than easily uttering the conventional phrase “You mustn’t do that,” Olga seemed to swallow her true feelings inwardly. Of course, the content would be something like “So she does have a conscience, after all.”
“Since His Majesty the King has commanded that you become queen, I will not do anything to harm Your Highness.”
It was in fact a rude thing to say, but Nadia found it rather preferableāeven grateful.
Someone who says such things will not stab her in the back. She quietly opened her mouth.
“I don’t know what he intends, but I will live quietly, as if dead.”
Olga looked at Nadia with still-unreadable eyes. Nadia added, as if whispering.
“I won’t cause trouble for you, my lady.”
Unless she were a fool, she could not think there was good intent behind taking the daughter of one’s enemy as a consort.
That was probably why, unexpectedly, no one had spoken out against this absurd marriage. Or perhaps…
‘Perhaps it’s because there is already someone at His Majesty’s side.’
Nadia briefly searched her memory and recalled the woman who had sat to the king’s left at the execution grounds that day.
“I, Lev Arbat, take Nadia Turik, daughter of Agnes Turik, as my queen.”
After that shocking declaration, when everyone wore expressions of horror, only one person accepted the king’s decision with a calm face.
The new king had risen from his seat right after that single sentence, and the woman on his left had risen immediately to follow him, so there was no mistaking it.
Her first impression was like the moon rising at noon.
The woman with brilliant silver hair braided long in two strands had a haughty bearing, and her skin was so pale that she seemed like a matched pair with the king’s cold atmosphere. She was quite tall; when she stood beside the king, she seemed to reach his shoulder.
Her body had almost no excess fat, but it was not the soft, muscle-less body of ordinary noble ladies. Her figure was firm and well-balanced, her large, full breasts and hips voluptuous.
As she left the seat with an expressionless face, her eyes naturally met Nadia’s. What had clearly been dwelling in those deep violet eyes was…
‘Hatred and contempt.’
She soon linked arms with the king, and the king accepted it naturally. So guessing their relationship was not difficult.
‘The only thing I don’t understand is why he would take me as queen when she is there…’
If the purpose was to humiliate her, besides the lofty position of queen, there was also the role of mistress, or at the very least a maid, or even a slave.
In a situation where it would not have been strange for her to be executed alongside them, she could not understand why he would bestow such a noble position upon her.
Yet it seemed he intended to keep a woman who was clearly his lover as his mistress. For a man who would likely loathe mistresses because of his father’s affairs, this was unexpected.
‘In any case, he will never keep me close.’
He would not want the daughter of his enemy, so the likelihood was high that she would live as a queen in name only. If the meaning was for her to endure that humiliation, then for her it was no hardship.
Having been pushed by her mother’s command to go abroad to marry, she had ended up here instead. Whether there or here, a lonely lot was likely her fate.
So Nadia thought she might be grateful to Lev Arbat for sparing her life and even giving her the position of queenāshe would have no reason to hate him.
It was a rather naive thought.
***
Lev returned to his palace immediately after the execution ended.
Albina had kept her arm linked with Lev’s the entire time, and only let go after they entered his chamber.
Albina fidgeted with her hand awkwardly, as if quite unable to get used to it. Lev, meanwhile, had his attendants help him change clothes with an indifferent face.
“Do you have more to say to me?”
Lev asked when the attendants finally began unbuttoning his shirt. Albina looked at her lord with a worried gaze that even conveyed a sense of solemnity, then asked.
“Are you truly sure you won’t regret it?”
“Yes.”
Lev’s answer was indifferent to the point of being perfunctory. Albina knew even so that the answer was sincere, but she was still not pleased with this situation.
At last the attendants unbuttoned his shirt further down. When his chest began to show, Albina turned around and let out a sigh.
“I understand Your Majesty’s intent, but is not the position of queen a sacred one?”
“If you’re truly against it, you’re welcome to be queen yourself, Sir Albina.”
Albina waved her hand so he could see, as if just hearing it gave her chills.
“Oh, no thank you. Just serving as Your Majesty’s mistress is more than enough for me.”
“I don’t think you’ve particularly done anything, though.”
At the words dismissing her role, Albina let out a breath of disbelief.
“You rose the moment you stood up at the execution grounds, didn’t you? I even linked arms with you!”
At her indignant words, Lev let out a small laughābut at what followed, his expression vanished.
“And above all, I glared at that womanāAgnes’s daughterāfor you. Isn’t that enough? What more do you want me to do as mistress?”
“No matter how I think about it, it was a good choice.”
At the sudden remark, Albina looked puzzled.
“Taking the woman I hate as my wife.”
Lev clearly remembered the last appearance of his foolish father, who had grown weak beyond measure over the ten years he had not seen him.
He had aged greatly, and the sharpness in his eyes was gone. At the sight made so ridiculous that the hatred honed over long years felt futile, Lev felt severe contempt.
He had lost his mother to such a man. Because of such a man, he had been confined to that harsh north for ten years. He absolutely did not want to follow in his father’s footsteps.
The deposed King Ivan had been blinded by love for his mistress and had become so foolish. Love makes a man foolish.
What of himself, by contrast?
Ten years of hatred had made him strong. So now that revenge was done, in order to keep sharpening himself like a blade going forward, he had to continue to hate.
Hatred makes a man powerful. At his side there had to be a queen he hated, not a queen he loved.
The daughter of the woman he hatedāNadia Turikāwas a woman who fit that perfectly. It would be hard to find a woman he could hate more than her.
“The moment you mentioned that woman, my mood soured. I feel my blood running cold.”
“You must be the only person in the world who chooses a consort by such bizarre criteria, Your Majesty.”
“Then, would you have me take the one I love as my wife?”
Lev let out a hollow laugh. He absolutely had no intention of getting close to anything like love.
“Unless it’s a curse wishing I become like my father.”
“Even if not love, you could simply choose a lady from a suitable family and…”
Albina caught herself and shut her mouth belatedly. The one who had become queen that way was Lev’s mother, Anna. Everyone knew well that the outcome was a tragedy.
For a moment, the room fell quiet. Both of them thought of their respective mothers, who had been sacrificed to the deposed king’s worthless love. It was then.
“If not, then it would be good to cast her out at an appropriate time. Miserably.”
Albina broke the silence in a low voice.
“How will you live your whole life with a woman you hate, this long, long life? No matter how much Your Majesty does not wish to be weakened by love.”
“……”
“Your Majesty’s remaining life is too long for that.”
Lev let out a small laugh.
“Is that so.”
“Of course.”
No, Albina was wrong.
For he was, in any case, a man with a limited time whose death could come at any moment.
