novelraw Chapter 87: Directory Government - Mirror
Chapter 87: Directory Government - Mirror
"You are truly beautiful, Your Highness."
"Thank you, always."
Amidst her handmaiden Jessie's fussing, Eris answered with a smile.
Even Eris could see that today, thanks to her handmaiden's meticulous efforts, her makeup and hair were radiantly beautiful.
"Still, I really wanted to dress you in a dress this time."
"I'm sorry, Jessie. I'm still a bit……"
"Yes, yes, if there is money to be spent on such extravagant dresses, you would rather use it for charity."
Eris smiled awkwardly at her handmaiden, who nodded as if understanding everything.
Everyone thinks so, and Eris agrees it's better to spend money on such things than dresses, but that’s not why she avoids them.
The real reason was that wearing dresses again would make her miss the days in the palace with her mother, a time without hardship or difficulty.It is a very personal reason, and people mistake it for a saintly one, so she doesn't bother to correct them.
As Eris smiled awkwardly, the carriage stopped, and a knock was heard.
"We have arrived, Your Highness."
As the carriage door opened, Eris smiled, saw Pierre's extended hand, and took it to step out.
Germania Empire soldiers kept their distance and paid respects; far away, Eris noticed a familiar crest.
The crest of the Leopold Grand Duchy.
As Pierre escorted Eris, he whispered lowly.
"I told you beforehand, but you must not eat anything the Kaiserin gives you."
"Wouldn't that be rude at tea time?"
"It's rude, but politeness is unnecessary with an enemy. Your Highness's safety is paramount. The Kingdom of Alps warned us, and the Kaiserin deals with demons. She could use any poison, not just fast-acting ones."
Even without that warning, the delegation was already in a fuss, and Jessie followed, carrying a basket with refreshments and tea for Eris’s tea time.
"I understand. Well, if something happens……"
"Then just unleash your divine power and cause an explosion. I will save you no matter what."
He said it so casually, to cause chaos in the middle of another country's capital.
Pierre was both reassuring and a little funny, so Eris answered a little louder on purpose.
"I'll trust only you, Marquis Lafayette."
Sir Frederic De Beaumont, the guard following behind, looked at her as if asking, 'What about me?' and Eris chuckled.
"Uncle too~"
Small talk ended as they reached the steps, and Eris smiled naturally, facing the enemy country's veteran general.
"Welcome, Princess Erisliste Lilianne De Francia. ……And it's been a while, Marquis Lafayette."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Grand Duke Leopold."
"Your Highness, Grand Duke Leopold."
The white-haired Grand Duke Leopold glanced at Pierre for a moment, then fixed his gaze on Eris.
"……I had no idea that Francia's saint was such a young and beautiful person."
"You flatter me, Your Grace."
Grand Duke Leopold's feelings seemed very complicated.
Eris protected Francia's army with her divine power. As a result, she contributed to the countless deaths of the Grand Duke's subordinates.
She is a saint in Francia, but to the Grand Duke, she must be no different from a devil.
Thinking that, Eris just smiled.
"……I will guide you."
After looking at Eris for a long time, the Grand Duke turned his back without saying much and began to guide her.
It was not a formal palace but a borrowed residence in the underground city, not as vast as one.
"The Kaiserin is waiting in this room. The Marquis and the guard must wait outside."
The arrival was quick. Hearing Grand Duke Leopold's words, Eris glanced back.
Pierre and Sir Beaumont showed their respects, and Eris nodded.
"Her Highness, the Third Princess Erisliste Lilianne De Francia of the Kingdom of Francia, has arrived!"
Hearing the attendant's shout, Eris smiled confidently and entered the room.
*
"Welcome, Third Princess."
The half-sister in her thirties greeted Eris with a graceful smile, appearing about the same age as Eris's mother when last remembered.
"It's our first meeting, but since we're sisters, I hope you can be comfortable."
"Thank you for the invitation, Your Highness, Cecilia."
As Eris answered while taking a seat, Cecilia smiled softly.
"I wish you would call me Cecilia in the Francia way, since we're meeting family from our native land for the first time in a while."
"Thank you for your consideration, Your Highness. But this meeting is between the Princess of Francia and the Kaiserin of the Germania Empire, before it is between family."
Cecilia chuckled. As Jessie approached to place refreshments and pour tea, Cecilia twisted her lips, as if amused.
Cecilia, who had been looking at Eris for a while, spoke.
"Indeed, you are the daughter of the one whom His Majesty cherished. You have a beautiful appearance. It would be even more prominent if your clothes better supported it."
Cecilia said, looking at Eris, who was wearing a white robe.
"The clothes and crown that Your Highness is wearing reveal the elegance and authority befitting the Kaiserin of the Germania Empire. It has a different charm from Francia."
Eris replied, looking at Cecilia, who was wearing a splendid dress and the Kaiserin's crown.
Cecilia, though attempting to praise Eris's appearance, subtly criticized her attire. Eris retorted with a compliment on Cecilia's clothes, then added that they did not suit Francia. Cecilia chuckled and drank her tea.
She did not offer the refreshments or tea she had prepared, so Eris also smiled and moistened her lips with the tea Jessie had prepared.
Cecilia, who had been looking at Eris silently for a while, spoke.
"I'm glad to see blood relatives from my native land after a long time. I would like to have a cozy conversation."
At those words, all the attendants waiting behind Cecilia began to retreat.
Eris also turned her gaze and nodded to Jessie, who looked nervous.
Jessie was fidgeting, but eventually retreated out of the room with Cecilia's attendants.
Before the open door closed, Pierre and Sir Beaumont were seen standing in their places. Eris was able to smile softly.
When the door closed, Cecilia's demeanor, which had been friendly until then, changed.
"You don't seem to be a weak-hearted puppet. Shall we get straight to the point?"
"As you wish, Your Highness."
Eris answered as if she had been waiting, and Cecilia smiled.
"Renounce your claim to the throne and step down. If you do so, I will guarantee your safety and help you to carry out your charity work as the Queen of Francia to your heart's content."
Eris smiled softly.
"I'm not sure what's better than when I was elected Queen."
Cecilia said firmly.
"Your Nation will not be embroiled in war, and far less blood will flow."
"You don't deny that blood will flow."
"It is the virtue of a wise ruler to care for the people, but it is the negligence of a foolish ruler to leave alone those who do not know their place and try to control the king."
"They are those who have risen up because they could no longer bear the suffering due to the monarch's dereliction of duty, Your Highness."
Cecilia twisted her lips.
"If you won't curb their indulgence, what do you intend to do as Queen?"
"I don't want to do anything."
"You don't want to do anything?"
"I will watch them build a country for the people. If they do not go the way the people want, I may have to step in, but I hope that will not happen."
"Ha, if a Queen is to do as you say, why would she be needed?"
Cecilia laughed hollowly. Eris looked straight at her and answered.
"Because there are those preparing for war, labeled rebels simply for lacking a king."
"Will you become Queen purely for their sake?"
"Yes."
There was not a single waver in Eris's purple eyes as she answered, and Cecilia became blatantly unpleasant.
Eris, who is good at reading people, could not read all the complex emotions that appeared on Cecilia's face.
Disbelief, no, denial. Jealousy and anger?
After countless emotions swirled, Cecilia spoke softly.
"If you claim no desire for power and are truly there for the people of Francia, you should step down here. If you truly care, don't let war break out to protect your throne."
"If I step down and Your Highness becomes Queen without war, will the people of Francia be happy? They do not want Your Highness's rule. Those who have tasted freedom and learned equality cannot go back to the past."
Eris looked at Cecilia quietly and added.
"If you truly have a royal sense of responsibility to care for your native people, if you want to make them happy, Your Highness should step down."
"It was my right from the beginning."
Cecilia's eyes were burning like fire.
This time, Eris could understand Cecilia's feelings exactly.
The deprivation and anger stemmed from what she had been deprived of, and directionless vengeance arose from it.
"……You are caught up in a sense of deprivation."
"What do you know!"
Cecilia was furious.
"……Because I know similar feelings."
"You were loved by the father who sold me to the enemy. You are revered as a saint. How dare you understand me?"
She knows.
Before the late king's death and the civil war, her mother relied on Sir Beaumont and left the palace with Eris.
Eris grew up in the palace, loved by the late king and her mother, receiving a good education and lacking nothing. She suddenly found life outside the palace to be merely shabby and impoverished.
With a childish heart, she constantly whined and got angry at her mother.
Without knowing that her mother suffered the most, she longed for what she had lost, until her mother suffered from severe depression.
Without knowing that her foolishness would cause her to lose even the remaining precious things.
Eris looked at Cecilia, who was full of anger.
"……I can't dare to say that I understand Your Highness, nor can I do anything for you. However, Your Highness."
If she hadn't experienced losing her mother due to her own foolishness, she might have been like Cecilia now.
If it weren't for Sir Beaumont...
If the knight who loved the king's woman had not abandoned all honor to follow and protect her mother and Eris until now.
She knew then that the beauty inherited from her mother and the power she possessed would have been poison instead.
Eris, who believes that she was able to come this far thanks to experience and luck, cannot blame Cecilia.
However.
"If you crave only what you have lost, and lose even what remains, greater suffering will remain. I hope Your Highness does not experience that."
"Ha! You, you dare to threaten me?"
But her words didn't reach her.
It cannot reach.
If Eris had been in Cecilia's position and had only her experiences, she might have had no choice but to think the same way.
Eris slowly lowered her eyes.
"……This is my only path. War preparations are almost complete, and Francia will bleed for your decision. To place you on the throne, the very people you claim to care for will die in droves. Are you content with this outcome, you hypocrite, who feigns nobility while lusting for power?"
Eris, who opened her eyes at Cecilia's words, answered.
"I really want to avoid such a thing, but if it is inevitable, my place is not on the throne, but beside them. On the battlefield where they will shed blood, under their banner, I will protect them until my body breaks. I am prepared."
Cecilia was speechless.
"Are you prepared for that, Your Highness? Will you stand on the battlefield with the soldiers you send to war? Have you thought about the families who will mourn their deaths?"
The pure white saint, with her purple eyes shining, interrogates the Kaiserin.
"Your Highness. How is such an act any different from His Majesty, who ignored your sorrow and hardship and sent you to the empire?"
Cecilia trembled her lips and spoke.
"However plausible your words, however noble your hypocrisy may seem. You are, after all, a puppet of the National Assembly."
The pity that appeared on Cecilia's face as she spoke seemed genuine.
"After the war, when your usefulness is diminished, do you think the assembly of commoners will serve you, who have no authority? Will the Marquis, who made you a saint and is trying to put you on the throne, act without self-interest?"
That seemed to be something she needed to believe.
"At least my position is something I have achieved with my own hands. My destiny is mine, and I will continue to move forward. What about you? You begged for love from my father, are praised as a noble saint by relying on others, and are even being nominated for the throne by others."
Malice spread on Cecilia's face.
"You, who have never grasped anything yourself, your destiny will be swayed by others. By me in this war. If not, by the one trying to raise you to the throne for his ambition."
Eris smiled sadly.
Cecilia is right.
Much of what Eris has in her hands now was prepared by Pierre de Lafayette.
However.
As a wandering healer, she met many people.
Some coveted her beauty, some her ability.
Some wanted to use Eris as a saint.
Those who knew her status wanted to use her as a princess.
Either way, they were not interested in Eris's dreams or desires.
They just wanted to restrict her and keep her in their grasp in the way they wanted.
Even Sir Beaumont, who has cared for Eris until now, knows he protected her because she was the last legacy of the woman he loved.
Pierre was neither.
He was the only person who tried to understand Eris as an individual, knowing her as Erisliste Lilianne De Francia, including her status and ability.
Because he always offered her a choice, Eris chose him.
Because he chose her as his Queen and waits outside to protect her.
Eris is here with confidence.
-You can't abandon me later after doing this, my fraudulent supporter.
-I may have hidden the Truth, Your Highness, but I have never lied to you. Isn't it too much to call a conscientious supporter a fraud?
Remembering the conversation they had at the ceremony to make her a saint, Eris smiled.
"Your Highness."
But Cecilia, sold to an enemy country alone, must have had no one like that, doubting everyone and making her place lonely.
To her half-sister, a mirror image of herself, terribly similar yet irreversibly reversed.
Eris spoke with regret.
"I wish we all, if possible, would no longer lose anything."
Cecilia, who had been silent for a while, answered.
"It's regrettable, but since you've stolen my rights, I have no choice but to take them back."