🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 8
An Ominous Feeling (1)
“They’ve started making their move.”
At Molina’s words, Ana Rosa lifted the corners of her lips.
“You knew?”
“Menios may have come because of Father’s illness, but there is no way Casella would come all the way here over something as trivial as Father’s being bedridden. He isn’t the sort of man who moves for such an admirable reason.”
Molina lifted his lips in a faint smile.
She was right.
Casella was different from Menios.
If Menios was a formal suit worn to a party, Casella was a sword used to kill a man.
At Ana Rosa’s words, Molina nodded.
“By the way, the King’s illness has become quite serious. From what I’ve been able to find out, they aren’t sure whether he’ll survive the year. The royal palace, of course, is denying it.”
Molina spoke in Ausian.
No matter how trustworthy the people of the Empress’s Palace were, this concerned the King’s health. It was confidential information, so they naturally had to be careful.
“Who is his personal physician?”
“Jordi Segalo.”
“Never heard of him.”
“He studied medicine in Adlen. In other words, he’s foreign-educated.”
At the mention of Adlen, Ana Rosa’s eyes glinted coldly.
She intended to abandon her homeland, Ausis, and establish dealings with Adlen.
Molina was also aware of her plans to some extent.
Adlen’s scientific achievements were far more advanced than those of Ausis.
Cotton spinning machines, steelmaking, steam engines, airships, airplanes…
Ana Rosa’s emerald eyes took on a cool, calculating light.
It irritated her to see Ausis sneering at Mun as backward, but the truth was that there was a considerable gap between East and West when it came to scientific advancement.
Mun did not even have a single gas lamp yet, while the streets of the Ausian capital were already lined with them.
Mun was technologically behind, but it possessed a brilliant culture.
It would have to open its doors and walk a fine line, trading with the Western powers that coveted Mun’s abundant resources, works of art, and culture.
Ausis had probably anticipated exactly that when it recklessly placed a twelve-year-old princess on the throne as Empress.
“Just like Father. How very like him to want to meet an ‘Ausian’ who learned medicine in Adlen.”
Her father, King Carlos III, avoided foreigners.
He discriminated against people for their race, nationality, social status, gender, age, and countless other reasons.
He was always fond of saying, Those who can associate with me, the King, must be exceptional.
Influenced by her father during her childhood, Ana Rosa had struggled considerably after coming to Mun.
Mun naturally had a social hierarchy as well, but status in this country was not inherited through bloodlines.
Compared with Ausis, people could move between social classes much more dynamically.
Senior Court Lady Min, who was responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Empress’s Palace, was technically a palace slave.
Yet she was unquestionably an official—and a member of the nobility whom commoners could not treat carelessly.
Of course, Mun’s system of status had its own complicated rules.
But in Ausis, even if the world turned upside down, someone of Senior Court Lady Min’s status would never be allowed to stand before the King.
“Was Segalo unable to treat Father’s illness?”
“Very little information has leaked, but putting together what I’ve heard from several people, His Majesty is suffering terribly. I imagine the pain must be severe enough that he would no longer care about meeting someone of a different country or even a different race.”
The belief he had cherished like some great moral principle—that human status was an immutable and noble thing, and that the exalted should only meet those of equally exalted birth—seemed to scatter like dust when confronted with the pain of illness and the prospect of death.
Ana Rosa wondered which her father would choose: the deaths of ten thousand of his own people, or his own death.
It would be a miracle if he didn’t scream for those ten thousand to be killed immediately so that he could be freed from his suffering, without even hesitating.
“Is Menios having any luck finding physicians?”
“The Count is a capable man. I’m only somewhat concerned that his abilities are the sort that function primarily within Ausis.”
At Count Molina’s diplomatic phrasing, Ana Rosa laughed.
Menios was an exceptionally rigid-minded man himself.
I wonder how such a man is going to find a physician in a country this flexible.
But then another thought occurred to her, and Ana Rosa clicked her tongue.
If Menios failed to find one, Ana Rosa would ultimately have to find a physician herself.
If she didn’t, Menios would never leave.
She didn’t want to see Menios running wild throughout the country under the protection of the Empress’s Palace.
But more important than that was Casella.
Casella had undoubtedly entered Mun with another purpose.
“Madam Han, what is Casella doing?”
At Ana Rosa’s question, Blanca, who had been standing nearby, stepped forward and answered.
“He is touring the city of Yeongyeon. His stated purpose, at least, is sightseeing.”
“How ridiculous.”
“You are quite right. We assigned several people to watch him, and he has been visiting pleasure houses under the pretense of sightseeing. He even purchased the services of one courtesan for an entire month. Her name is Seoryeo, and she is one of the most famous courtesans in Yeongyeon.”
Has he fallen head over heels for an Eastern beauty?
Ana Rosa’s eyes turned cold.
Count Molina shook his head.
“That’s strange. If she is a courtesan, wouldn’t that make her a courtesan in the Western style? Count Casella is famous for never consorting with them. Aristocratic ladies praise him for his refinement, but every gentleman who frequents the salons knows that the real reason he avoids courtesans is because he dislikes the medical examinations they are subjected to.”
Courtesans were required to undergo medical examinations once every two years.
As long as prostitution was their profession, there was no way for them to avoid this obligation.
More than a decade ago, syphilis spread among the upper classes through prostitution, causing dozens of people to die miserably.
And more women died than men.
That was because one man would have relations with multiple women.
If a single man contracted syphilis from a prostitute and then passed it to both his wife and his mistress, that alone made two victims.
Society had been thrown into an uproar.
Afterward, all prostitutes, regardless of sex, were required to expose their genitals and undergo medical examinations by physicians.
And some people believed that while it was acceptable for prostitutes to engage in prostitution, spreading their legs for a medical examination was sacrilegious.
Count Casella was one such man.
“Mun conducts those examinations too.”
“Then we should assume that Count Casella’s purchase of a courtesan has another meaning.”
At Molina’s words, Ana Rosa turned to Blanca.
She looked at her, silently asking for her opinion.
Blanca lowered her head slightly.
“Count Casella… even without that reason, he would never touch an Eastern woman. The type of woman he touches is strictly defined, Your Majesty. She must be Ausian, it must be immediately apparent from her appearance, and she must be a virgin.”
Blanca’s eyes were filled with contempt.
Ana Rosa thought her own eyes probably held just as much contempt and disgust.
“Find out who Count Casella is meeting.”
Just as Ana Rosa spoke, the door of the guest hall suddenly opened.
A court lady loudly announced, clearly intending for Ana Rosa to hear.
“His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived!”
At those words, Ana Rosa twisted one corner of her lips upward.
“The snake has arrived. Count, you may go.”
With those words, the Crown Prince of Mun appeared.
He was not yet fifty, but his forehead was already beginning to widen.
He entered with a hearty laugh.
Count Molina immediately rose from his seat, gave the Crown Prince a bow in the Ausian manner, paid his respects to Ana Rosa, and quickly withdrew.
He moved so quickly that the Crown Prince didn’t even have a chance to stop him.
Watching Molina disappear, the Crown Prince clicked his tongue.
If Molina had been a Mun citizen, he might have been able to order him to stay.
It was unfortunate.
The Crown Prince knew that Count Molina could speak Mun, but he had no idea how proficient he actually was.
If he told Molina to stop and Molina failed to understand his elevated vocabulary, either disappearing or simply staring blankly at him, the Crown Prince would be mocked throughout the palace for being unable to control even a young foreign envoy.
He couldn’t take that risk.
“That man is always coming here.”
So instead, he decided to attack the blonde Empress, whom he knew could certainly understand Mun.
“He manages my estates. Welcome, Crown Prince.”
As always, the Empress did not fall into his trap.
She answered indifferently and offered him a seat, pretending not to hear the implication that she was far too close to this young foreign envoy.
The Crown Prince clicked his tongue as he took the seat she offered.
He would soon turn forty-five.
His own son, the Crown Prince’s heir, was older than the Empress.
Given the circumstances, this young stepmother was nothing more to him than an eyesore.
“All the envoys from the other countries have already left, so I came because I was curious why only the envoys from that country remain, Your Majesty.”
“I couldn’t say. I didn’t ask them myself.”
“Your Majesty, it is understandable if a country unfamiliar with the laws and customs of the Great Mun Empire inadvertently commits a breach of etiquette. However, as the Empress of Great Mun, should you not help your countrymen observe proper etiquette?”
Ana Rosa looked at the Crown Prince.
She had never had a good relationship with him.
She probably never would.
The Crown Prince was a man dissatisfied with everything in the world.
His greatest complaint was that his father was healthy.
And his greatest concern was that his father might live a long life.
He wanted the throne.
Yet his great father wasn’t dying.
He was alive and perfectly healthy, ruling the empire.
The Crown Prince was already forty-four.
He was approaching fifty.
Fifty.
The current Emperor would turn seventy-six this year, but he was the longest-lived Emperor in Mun’s history.
The previous Emperor had died at fifty-five.
The Emperor before him had died at only twenty-four.
So at forty-four, it was only natural for the Crown Prince to feel anxious.
He might very well end his life as Crown Prince and never become Emperor.
But even so, was it really reasonable for him to look as though he wanted his father dead at every opportunity?
