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Chapter: 25
The second day dawned.
The Crown Prince seemed to have forgotten even about the monsters, throwing himself wholeheartedly into conversation with Duchess Schumann. The topics flowed smoothly, ranging from domestic and foreign politics to music, poetry and paintings, currently running plays, and even games.
Based on Duchess Schumann’s preference for bright and comfortable places, the locations where they spent their time were usually gallery corridors displaying famous paintings or the quiet garden balcony behind the Great Hall.
In other words, they were places where our knights and attendants could escort the Crown Prince with much less difficulty.
Once again, I felt grateful toward Duchess Schumann.
“I have heard quite a bit about Sir Olaf’s latest work. They say the aria sung by the lead actress is a masterpiece that will remain in the history of the Empire, is that right? Yet the Crown Prince has never heard it with these ears. Do you think that makes any sense?”
At the Crown Prince’s almost childish complaint, Duchess Schumann lowered her eyebrows with sympathy.
“That is truly unfortunate, Your Highness. How can you endure a life where you lose sleep every night over the affairs of the nation? You must find some time occasionally to enjoy a play.”
“It seems it has been about three months since I last watched an opera.”
“Even so, you must make time, Your Highness. I have already watched ‘Fantasy’ three times. I have not seen a single audience member who did not cry during the scene where Philia sings while reminiscing about the past. I do not even know how many years it has been since I last wiped away my tears.”
“Ho! Is it truly such a great masterpiece?”
“Since we are speaking of it, how about inviting Sir Olaf to the Imperial Palace and holding a performance?”
“‘Fantasy’ had its premiere at our Imperial Palace when I visited Elcon. I hear his schedule is booked until the end of this year, so there is nothing I can do.”
He gave a bitter smile, saying that as part of the ruling class who upheld fairness as a virtue, he could not abuse his authority for personal gain.
“What about you, Duchess?”
Then suddenly, the Crown Prince looked at me.
Until that moment, I had been watching their conversation as if I were watching a play, so I could not immediately react to the Crown Prince’s sudden question and only blinked.
It was a foolish mistake.
“I made a mistake.”
However, the Crown Prince seemed to be in such a good mood that he simply corrected himself, saying it was his own error.
“There are two duchesses here. I was asking our Duchess Wayriver. Do you enjoy plays as well?”
I quickly recovered my smile and answered.
“Fortunately, Sir Olaf’s tour schedule also includes a stop in Wayriver, so I was thinking of making time to go as well. I am not very knowledgeable about such things, so I did not realize it was such a famous work.”
The truth was that I had never had the chance to watch anything like a play in my entire life. In my hometown, there had never even been a small orchestra performance, let alone a stage play.
Therefore, whether I would even enjoy plays or not was uncertain.
But I carefully hid that answer.
I only hoped the conversation would not continue into my past or my circumstances.
“Oh my.”
The helping hand naturally came from Duchess Schumann.
“What should we do, Your Highness? At this rate, His Highness the Crown Prince will become the last among us to experience it. Why not enjoy being behind the latest trend at least once?”
“The Crown Prince’s dignity is truly in danger.”
Although he exaggeratedly acted as if his pride had been wounded, the corners of his mouth were raised.
He seemed to be enjoying the role of the ‘main character’ who was teased and became the center of attention among friends.
“You are not going to tease me and leave it at that, are you? For the sake of this poor Crown Prince who has fallen behind the latest trend, how about Duchess Schumann kindly singing me that famous aria herself?”
At the Crown Prince’s request to sing the theme song from the play, Duchess Schumann placed a hand over the front of her dress and pretended to bow.
“I shall gladly sing it with all my loyalty.”
She asked me if she could use the piano in the gallery, then stood up and sat before it.
Now I felt like I had become an audience member sitting in the front row, waiting for the true performance to begin.
Somehow, I looked at Duchess Schumann with a little excitement.
“Now then, let me briefly introduce the song. It is a comforting song sung by fairies in the scene where a man who could never express his deep love for his wife regrets it only after losing her.”
“Fortunately, I am a husband who knows how to express affection to his wife, but I shall open my heart and listen.”
Without realizing it, I clasped both my hands tightly together on my lap.
Was this how an audience member who had already become a fan before the performance even started felt?
As if answering my anticipation, Duchess Schumann turned her gaze toward me for a moment with a gentle smile.
Her green eyes shone brilliantly, like fresh spring leaves under the sunlight.
The end of a soft conversation during afternoon tea.
At the same time that the piano melody began flowing from Duchess Schumann’s fingertips, a graceful soprano voice filled the air.
—
“Wyrens, who let go of the love you could not speak of, wandering through the mist as an empty shadow.
We cannot turn back your time. Oh, no one can do that.
You are wishing for something impossible, even with the magic of the greatest fairy.
But it is not too late.
Your wife is still there.
Rejoice.
Now, true love will return everything to its rightful place.”
—
I stared at her without being able to close my mouth.
Her incredibly rich and sweet voice resonated through my heart.
Did every cultured noble have to be skilled at singing as well?
I could never become like her.
The maturity she had gained from a life where she lost her husband early and inherited his position, proudly building her own path as the head of a ducal family, and the thoughtful kindness that seemed to flow from her heart—those qualities in her voice were something no one could imitate through effort alone.
Then what would the aria of the actress, who supposedly sang it even more skillfully than her, feel like?
The testimony that every audience member in the hall had cried could not have been an exaggeration.
What about Kegan?
Would he like plays too?
Would even a stiff and expressionless man like him shed tears at a moving aria?
Yes, it would be amusing to see him sitting among the audience with the only dry eyes, staring blankly.
I reminded myself again of the schedule for the August performance of Fantasy.
I should ask him to go watch it with me.
He seemed uninterested, saying he had already read the story in the script, but how could watching it as a play be the same?
—
“Place the red rowan berries and pure flower petals inside the drawer.
Just as you keep the things she loved close to you, she too will keep your love close to her.”
—
Before I knew it, the final line of the sorrowful aria had ended.
When Duchess Schumann, who had been playing the lingering final notes, lowered her hands and smiled at the Crown Prince and me,
I wiped my now-moist eyes and gave her a wholehearted round of applause.
“May Mr. Wyrens meet his wife again and become happy.”
It seemed the Crown Prince had also come to support the male protagonist in his heart.
Judging by how he kept nodding beside me, murmuring “Hmm, hmm.”
The only person here who knew the ending of the story, Duchess Schumann, merely smiled mysteriously as she watched the two of us cheering for Wyrens.
“To be honest, Duchess Schumann has been our savior since long ago.”
I had just crawled under the fresh, fluffy new blanket spread on my bed and peeked out with sleepy eyes at Mila.
Her hands were full of energy as she rolled up the laundry and stuffed it into a woven rattan basket.
It was rather late to replace the Duchess’s bed covers, but neither Mila nor I cared about such a small matter.
“How could I not love her? She is practically the one who made our Duke become the Duke of Wayriver.”
Mila gazed into the distance as if recalling the past, her eyes full of affection.
Her attitude was completely different from when she talked about the Crown Prince, Prince Zeke, or the people of House Rigen.
After giving a small yawn, I answered.
“I heard Duchess Schumann had known Kegan since he was a boy. Though she said they were not very close because they only met maybe once a year.”
In the late afternoon, the Crown Prince had gone out with only Kegan accompanying him, so I had been able to spend time alone with Duchess Schumann and hear a few stories about the past.
About Kegan’s past—the very thing I had originally hoped to hear from Marchioness Rigen.
Fourteen years ago, Duchess Schumann had met Kegan in Norden, a village below Noska, where she had gone to provide medical assistance.
At the time, twelve-year-old Kegan had been recovering in the village after being injured while working as a monster hunter.
Duchess Schumann had watched over him for several days, given him her address, and formed a connection with him.
She told me that she wanted to give a chance to a remarkable boy who said he would one day become a true knight and protect people.
Yet somehow, Duchess Schumann’s story felt like it had skipped over an important part.
“Well, our Duke was lucky enough to catch the attention of Grand Duke Brangier and receive a knighthood. But if Duchess Schumann had not introduced him to the previous Duke of Wayriver, when would our stubborn young Master Kegan have ever found such a good path and risen in status?”
Because Mila was openly praising her lord’s contribution to his rise in rank, I giggled softly under the blanket.
“Was Kegan really stubborn? I do agree that he is somewhat conservative and overly polite.”
After all, he was someone who was good at flattering the Crown Prince and pleasing him.
“Overly polite…?”
Mila frowned as if she had swallowed a sour lemon and trailed off.
Then she waved one hand in the air.
“Oh, right. I shouldn’t ruin the sweet dreams of a newlywed.”
“Are you saying Kegan is pretending?”
When I laughed in disbelief, Mila wiggled her eyebrows mischievously.
“It would be better if you never found out. Besides, in front of Madam, he is just a well-behaved puppy.”
A puppy?
“I’m going to tell on you, Mila.”
Where could there possibly be such a large, fierce, dignified-looking puppy?
“I’m not scared at all. After all, isn’t the Duke someone I practically raised with my own hands?”
“Hahaha. You’re not even that much older than him, yet you always say you raised him.”
“I’m serious. Do I need to tell you again how I raised the Duke? Ahem! Now then, Sir Kegan? Today’s lesson. A man must always keep his body and mind clean and prepared, so that when he meets the woman he thinks ‘this woman is mine,’ he can quickly and safely love her…”
“Ah! Stop! What if someone hears you? How can you say such embarrassing things?”
I threw off the blanket and jumped up, reaching out to cover Mila’s mouth, but she easily lifted the large basket and left my room.
“And so Sir Kegan followed Mila’s teachings, always washing his body and heart with sincerity while waiting, but in the end, even at twenty-six years old, he never once managed to hold the young lady’s hand and his fleeting youth—oh my!”
The very next moment, the woman who had been laughing and trying to run away stopped because she had bumped into something.
