Ⅱ. The Reunion He Wanted and Didn’t Want
“...Your Highness, Your Highness the Prince.”
“Mm...”
As he drifted in sleep, Etienne knit his brow at the voice calling him. He turned onto his side to evade Ben’s voice. But Ben did not give up.
“Please get up, Your Highness.”
“Just a little more...”
“Even starting now, we’ll be cutting it close. Please, up.”
Ben urged Etienne in a stern tone. On any other day he would have left him be until he opened his eyes, but not today.
“You must go to the triumph ceremony.”
“Agh...”
At Ben’s words, Etienne let out a groan. Whether from a hangover or not, his head throbbed and his body felt heavy, like cotton soaked in water.
“Water...”
“Here.”
Barely had Etienne finished speaking when Ben held out a glass. Having served Etienne for over ten years, Ben was used to tending him through bouts of drink.
“I’m dying.”
Etienne drained the glass in one go and let out a long breath. He hadn’t drunk that much, or so it felt, but his stomach was strangely queasy.
“You overdid it last night.”
Receiving the empty cup, Ben spoke with a worried face. Perhaps from the hangover, Etienne’s face was utterly haggard.
“At this rate you might be diagnosed with alcoholism. Please cut back.”
“It may already be an addiction.”
Etienne spoke with half a certainty. Lately he had been drinking almost every day.
It wasn’t benders like last night, but at some point it had become a habit to drink before bed. Otherwise he couldn’t fall asleep.
“From now on, I won’t bring you any.”
Ben set his face in resolve. Until now he had tolerated Etienne’s drinking because he had to, but he no longer intended to.
“And if I order you to bring it?”
“Then I suppose I’ll go to prison for disobeying orders.”
“What?”
“I’m not joking. Your Highness, have you forgotten the Palace Physician’s warning? He said it would be dangerous if you grew any more dependent on alcohol.”
“He did, but...”
Etienne trailed off, avoiding Ben’s eyes. The Palace Physician assigned to him had been advising him to cut down on drink for some time. Etienne hadn’t so much as listened with the back of his ear.
“You can barely be managed as it is, and then you binge again last night... What are you going to do with yourself?”
Ben looked at Etienne with a face full of hurt.
“That doesn’t mean I can quit. It’s not that I drink because I want to.”
“I’m not telling you to go teetotal. I’m saying, regulate the amount.”
“Haa...”
At Ben’s stubborn words, Etienne pressed his temples hard with a look of headache. By any measure Ben was crossing a line. If anyone else had done this, he would have gotten angry and punished them—but this was Ben.
Etienne could not get angry at Ben. He knew Ben did all this out of genuine concern. In this hellish Imperial Palace, Ben was Etienne’s only ally and sole loyal retainer.
“...I’ll try.”
In the end, Etienne took a step back. He wasn’t confident, but if only to ease Ben’s worry, he thought he should at least try.
“You’ve decided well. I’ll work hard to help you, too.”
Hearing the answer he wanted, Ben smiled wide like a child.
“Now then, shall we get you ready for the triumph ceremony? This isn’t the time to dawdle—we’re already late.”
“I don’t want to go...”
Etienne murmured in a small voice. Ben promptly hauled him up.
“Want to or not, you must go. Come along to the bath. I’ll attend you.”
“All right.”
Etienne answered with a resigned face. His steps toward the bath were unusually heavy.
***
“You’re late.”
“My apologies.”
Arriving at the main palace, Etienne bowed his head to Leona, who was shooting him a glare.
“Did you sleep well, last night?”
“Do you think I slept well?”
At Etienne’s greeting, Leona’s eyes sharpened. Her face was full of irritation.
“I told you so many times—what exactly did you do last night?”
Leona rebuked him with an edged voice. Etienne said nothing. He simply held his head bowed. He knew well that anything he said would only rile her more.
“Hoo... No. Forget it.”
When Etienne remained silent, Leona exhaled long as if to tamp down her temper. Then, in a markedly softer voice, she said:
“I heard from the count yesterday. The young lord of Marquis Namia picked a fight with you first, did he not? Even daring to put that man in his mouth.”
“...Yes.”
“Tsk.”
At his answer, Leona clicked her tongue. She did not bother to hide her displeasure.
“I’d heard that those who support that man were strutting about everywhere these days... but to flaunt it even at a gathering hosted by our house.”
Leona’s voice sank, ominous. After a moment thinking how to deal with the young lord of Marquis Namia, she looked back to Etienne.
“In any case, next time something like that happens, just ignore it. Or call the count.”
“I will.”
Etienne answered in a compliant manner. Just then, a voice announced the Emperor’s arrival.
“His Imperial Majesty approaches!”
Hardly had the chamberlain announced it when the Emperor appeared. Etienne straightened and greeted him.
“Good morning, Father.”
“...Mm.”
The Emperor gave Etienne, who had greeted him, a single sidelong glance and a short reply. That was the end of words between father and son. He passed by Leona and Etienne as if they were not there. He did not even exchange greetings with Leona.
“Hmph.”
Leona shot a fierce look at the Emperor for treating her like air, then turned her head. It had been twenty years like this.
“Our apologies, Your Majesty the Empress.”
“It’s fine. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
When the chamberlain offered a contrite apology, Leona waved a hand as if to say never mind. In the meantime the Emperor climbed alone into his carriage.
“Let us board as well.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Etienne quietly followed after Leona. The Emperor did not spare so much as a glance for the two boarding the other carriage.
“Proceed.”
When the chamberlain closed the door and signaled the driver, the wheels began to roll. Imperial knights moved as one and formed up along both sides of the carriage. Behind them followed the chamberlain and the palace staff.
“...”
“...”
Unlike the clamor outside, the inside of the carriage was steeped in silence. Feeling the heavy air, Etienne pressed his lips together. A silence so weighty it clogged the breath. It was always like this when the Emperor and Empress met.
Swallowing a sigh, Etienne shut his eyes as if to shut out everything. In any case, there was nothing he could do.
***
Waaaaa!
Tempest Square, where the triumph ceremony was to be held, was packed with an innumerable crowd. People who had flocked to see the hero who saved the Empire from crisis went even wilder when the Emperor and Empress appeared.
The Emperor waved to the cheering masses with a smiling face. The Empress, too, spread her fan with a benevolent smile. Opposite the two, Etienne sat like a doll.
“We’ve arrived.”
“Mm.”
As soon as the carriage halted, the Emperor went alone up to the dais set at the center of the square.
“Mother.”
Alighting from the carriage, Etienne reached a hand toward Leona. Customarily the Emperor should have escorted the Empress, but whether in public or private he never attended to Leona. As a result, escorting Leona had naturally become Etienne’s task.
“His Grace the Grand Duke of Eckhart has just entered the capital!”
As Etienne mounted the dais with Leona, the court mage holding a communication orb reported that the Grand Duke of Eckhart had come within the city.
“Earlier than expected.”
At the court mage’s report, the Emperor showed his first smile of the day. Pretending not to see, Etienne cast his gaze past the square.
Tempest Square was in a festival mood. People sang each their own songs and clustered in groups to dance.
Wooooaah!
Not long after, a thunderous roar rose from the entrance to the square. Amid the cheers of tens of thousands, flowers and colored paper of every sort whirled through the air. Someone even set off fireworks.
“The Grand Duke! Your Grace!”
“Our hero!”
“General Eckhart! Please look this way!”
He’s here.
Etienne swallowed dryly and looked to the entrance of the square. The louder the cheers grew, the harder his heart pounded. Soon a standard-bearer holding the banner of House Eckhart aloft rode into the square.
“...!”
Beyond the vigorously snapping banner, he glimpsed hair black as the night sky.
In that instant Etienne clenched his fist without knowing it. Though the distance was so far he could barely make out a shape, instinct told him.
It was Rishar.
“Ah.”
A sigh-like sound escaped his dry lips. Etienne stared at Rishar with a dazed face. From the moment he recognized Rishar’s presence, everything around him vanished.
As the hero of the ceremony, Rishar sat tall upon a great black stallion. He waved leisurely to the people cheering for him.
The crowds packed into the square reacted to even the smallest of Rishar’s movements. Each time he gestured, cheers broke out here and there.
“Noisy.”
Leona clicked her tongue softly at the shouts that shook the air. She plainly disliked the turn of things.
Etienne stood like a block of wood and fixed his eyes on Rishar. He barely heard Leona’s muttering or the crowd’s cheers. His gaze was pinned to Rishar.
Amid the flurry of paper blossoms, black hair caught the sunlight and shone with a cast of blue. Beneath it were thick brows and deep-set eyes. A straight bridge of nose and a neat mouth.
“...”
Watching Rishar draw nearer, Etienne wet his dry lips with his tongue. His mouth felt strangely parched.
Three years ago, half-boy and half-young man, he had now become a complete adult. The boyish face was gone, replaced by that of a mature man. A body firm to begin with had grown larger and harder.
Above all, the air about him had changed. Rishar emanated a force like a well-honed blade. Etienne knew people who carried such a force.
Generals of the Military who went to the field as routinely as eating, or knights who had faced death in real combat.
Rishar bore the same aura as such men. No doubt it was because he had rolled across battlefields over the last three years, crossing life and death.
At the thought, his already-murky light-blue eyes sank even darker. Then Rishar lifted his head and looked to the dais where Etienne stood.
“...!”
The instant their eyes met, Etienne nearly stumbled back without meaning to. A surge of impulse to turn his head seized him.
But he could not look away. Deep-navy eyes, like the night sea poured whole, ensnared him.
Bearing Rishar’s gaze, Etienne set strength at the corner of his mouth. Like prey caught in a spider’s web, he could not move.
Just then, while Etienne stood frozen like a fool—neither avoiding Rishar’s gaze nor meeting it straight on—Rishar’s eye-corners softened without warning.
Smil... ing?
Etienne stared blankly as eyes tightened with pent-up tension eased and narrowed, and lips clamped firm curved upward in an arc.
At Rishar’s sudden smile, his startled heart reacted. Feeling his heart thud, thud, loudly, Etienne pressed his lips between his teeth. He was plainly unsettled.
In the meantime, Rishar reached the front of the dais and dismounted. Only then did he withdraw the gaze he had fixed on Etienne.
“I pay homage to the Sun of the Empire. Your subject Eckhart has returned safely from the campaign!”
Standing before the Emperor, Rishar bent to one knee with crisp precision. Following him, the tens of thousands of the expeditionary force saluted the Emperor.
“We offer our homage!”
Voices loud and taut with discipline rang through the vast square.
“Come quickly!”
The Emperor all but brushed aside the salute and strode to Rishar. Etienne watched, strangely, the bright bloom of a smile on his face—a smile the Emperor had never once shown him.
“You’ve grown so much. You’ve become dependable.”
The Emperor raised Rishar up with his own hand. In the Emperor’s eyes, looking upon a distant cousin returned as a hero, there was deep affection.
Etienne held his ground with a calm face. It had been a long time since he had seen the Emperor smile wide. Precisely three years. The Emperor smiled like that only before Rishar.
He did not feel slighted or hurt. The age when he craved the Emperor’s affection and expected his attention was long past. Etienne now expected nothing of the Emperor.
“So that’s how you’ll play it?”
Leona, grinding her teeth, glared at the Emperor fawning over Rishar. Before a multitude, the Emperor was displaying his affection for Rishar.
To an onlooker, it might seem the Emperor cherished a distant cousin or was welcoming the Grand Duke, the hero who had saved the Empire from peril. Not to Leona’s eyes. What the Emperor did now was not pure affection but a thoroughly calculated act.
Countless nobles had come to today’s triumph ceremony. More than expected had gathered to see with their own eyes the Grand Duke of Eckhart, spoken of as the next emperor.
Before such witnesses, the Emperor was revealing his intent: the one he had marked as successor was the Grand Duke of Eckhart.
Sure enough, the nobles flanking both sides of the dais were busy signaling one another with their eyes. No doubt their minds were whirring, calculating which side would profit them more.
Leona bit her lower lip, holding her face from twisting, and spread her fan to hide her anxiety. No matter how she turned it over, she saw no sharp move.
Until quite recently she had not concerned herself with the Neutral Faction and the minor blocs. She had confidence she could make Etienne emperor without their power.
But the Grand Duke of Eckhart’s exploits had changed the situation. If neutral and minor nobles began to support the Grand Duke and joined hands with the Emperor’s Faction, there was a high chance she would lose the initiative. That, at least, had to be prevented.
But how? Leona’s head grew as tangled as a skein of thread.
“It has been a while, Your Majesty the Empress.”
Lost in worry, Leona returned to the present at Rishar’s voice addressing her. She put off her thoughts and forced a smile. For now, fretting was useless. This was a matter to be moved on gradually, with time.
“...It has been a while, Grand Duke of Eckhart. I am glad to see you in health.”
“I am glad as well.”
Exchanging the formal greeting with Leona, Rishar turned his head to Etienne. Blue eyes like the deep sea flashed, bright as if holding pearls.
“Your Highness.”
Rishar approached Etienne with a look of pleased recognition. The stiffness he had shown Leona moments earlier was nowhere to be seen.
“It has been a long time. Have you been well?”
“Ah...”
Etienne looked at Rishar, who addressed him in courtly speech and offered a punctilious greeting, with awkward eyes.
Over the last three years, Etienne had imagined the moment he would meet Rishar again countless times. But he had not imagined such a reunion—Rishar calling him not Etienne but Your Highness the Prince.
“As for me... so-so.”
Like a man caught unawares by a surprise attack, Etienne mouthed silently before mumbling a reply.
“Have you been well... Your Grace?”