Chapter 8: A Letter from the Past

As usual, Dorothy was in the Empress’s office together with Aurelia and Leticia when Eugene entered, clearly in a bad mood.

“Eugene, what is the matter?”

When Aurelia asked with concern, Eugene handed her a letter.

“It’s an infuriating letter. I thought they would hold out a little longer, but they are more pathetic than I expected.”

On the letter Aurelia received, there was a crest she recognized at once.

“…This is the crest of the Lind Kingdom.”

The Lind Kingdom, Aurelia’s homeland.
The country where her former childhood fiancé and the princess who stole him resided.
A country ruled by a king who had calmly broken a state-level promise with the Balba Empire to marry off his daughter.
A small, mountain-encircled nation with nothing to export but mineral resources, whose upper ranks had always been poorly informed about other countries.
After Aurelia’s father, the duke who had handled all diplomacy, moved to the Empire with her, Lind lost its eyes and ears to the outside world, as well as its negotiating skills.
The young diplomats trained under her father had all followed him to the Empire, leaving Lind to be taken advantage of by other nations.
Those from Lind had been gathered up by Eugene and now handled diplomacy for the Balba Empire.

“The top letter is from the King of Lind.”
“The one below is addressed to you personally, Aurelia, but I opened it.”
“Of course, I do not mind.”
“To begin with, who would even send a personal letter to me?”

The only one who ever sent Aurelia letters was the Queen of Lind.
The queen, the only royal who had taken Aurelia’s side back then, still exchanged occasional letters with her.
But she never asked for help.
She intended to perish with the country as its queen.
Aurelia wished she could save at least the queen.
She wanted her to come to the Empire and live the rest of her life in peace.
But the queen intended to take responsibility as queen.
To be destroyed together with her foolish husband and daughter.

“It’s from the princess.”
“Well, we are hardly close enough to exchange letters.”
“I know.”
“There is no need to associate with that woman.”
“However, it seems she still thinks you are beneath her.”

It appeared that the source of Eugene’s anger was a letter from Princess Belinda.
Aurelia opened the letter and read it.
She was dumbfounded.

“This is unbelievable.”
“It says that because I am a duke’s daughter of Lind, I should funnel Balba Empire funds to Lind.”
“It is sheer stupidity.”
“It also demands special treatment and that Lind’s standing be raised.”
“This is not the sort of letter a vassal state’s princess should ever send to an imperial empress.”

“And she issues these demands as if they were orders.”
“A Lind princess is worth no more than a provincial viscount’s daughter in our Empire.”
“And those mines are nothing special when the Empire has countless others.”

Lind had been overlooked simply because it was a small, worthless country tucked away among the vassal states.
There was no value in crossing mountains to conquer it.
Though called a vassal state, it was a country the Empire neither needed nor cared about.
The promise to marry the princess to the emperor had been proposed by Lind as proof of vassalage.
Eugene had never demanded it.
Receiving a wife as a hostage was common enough, so he had simply accepted.
But proposing it and breaking it were two different matters.
The Empire also had its pride.
If the promise had been broken for unavoidable reasons, that would be one thing.
But breaking it simply because the princess did not want to go was unforgivable.
Lind should have been reduced to ashes the moment that was discovered.
The only reason nothing was done was because Aurelia, who actually came, captured Eugene’s heart and became Empress, and because her father and his capable subordinates were absorbed into the Empire.
To Eugene, Aurelia, Duke Nouge, and the talented young officials were worth more than all of Lind combined.

“The only praiseworthy thing that country ever did was send you as a substitute.”
“I’ll give them credit for that much.”
“They even sent plenty of extras along.”

“Eugene, calling my father and the others extras is rather rude.”

“Haha.”
“Lind gave me my beloved empress and capable diplomats.”
“In this Empire, no, anywhere outside Lind, your status is far above that of their princess.”

“Yes, I understand.”
“No matter what anyone says, I will never prioritize Lind.”
“And I have no intention of meeting them personally.”

“It seems your former fiancé, a man named Freddy, is coming as a diplomat.”
“I will accept a formal greeting, but I have no intention of meeting him privately.”
“That is the bureaucrats’ job.”
“Convenience because he once knew the Empress, my foot.”
“If he wanted to speak with me, the king himself should have come at the very least.”

Even if he did come, whether the emperor would speak directly with a minor king was another matter entirely.

“Aurelia, no matter what your former fiancé or his wife say, you may refuse them.”
“There is no need to meet them.”

“Yes.”

With that reply, Aurelia threw the princess’s letter into the trash.
It was not worth reading seriously.
Beyond demands for favors, it also asked for gifts and even territory.
The emperor and empress were far too busy to entertain the wife of a vassal state’s diplomat.

“Leticia, Dorothy, be even more vigilant around Aurelia than usual.”
“Do not allow any unfamiliar individuals to approach her.”

“Yes.”
“Understood.”

After instructing the two who had waited silently so as not to interrupt, Eugene left the room.

“If anyone from Lind approaches you, just engage in harmless conversation.”
“As you heard, neither His Majesty nor I intend to meet them directly.”
“Since my father left, that country has apparently failed repeatedly in diplomacy.”

It was reported that Freddy was trying in his own way, but being the princess’s husband offered no protection, and other countries were taking advantage of him.
Aurelia felt no desire to help.
Her heart belonged entirely to the Empire and to Eugene.
Any affection she had for her homeland had vanished.

“Heehee, am I heartless, I wonder?”

“Not at all.”

Leticia replied immediately.
She understood Aurelia’s heart.
Leticia herself had abandoned her homeland, her sister-favoring family, and everything she had built there to come to the Empire with the one she loved.
Because only here could they be together.
She had said she did not regret it.
And as she lived in the Empire, she found she could hardly remember her homeland at all, having had so few good memories there.
Aurelia, too, had often remembered it painfully when she first arrived, but with Eugene by her side, her days filled with him, she eventually stopped thinking about it altogether.
Both Aurelia and Leticia no longer held feelings for their homelands.

But what about Dorothy.
Born and raised in the Empire, she had likely never left it.
She did not carry complicated feelings toward her homeland like they did.

“She was simply born in that country.”
“Demanding favors just for that reason is unreasonable.”
“And especially when Aurelia herself feels nothing toward it.”

“Do you not think, ‘but it is your homeland’?”

“Even if my birth family demanded something of me, I would not comply.”
“And even if Count Miller asked, I would not do anything.”
“It is a smaller matter than a country, but the lack of sentiment is the same.”

“Oh my.”

Aurelia laughed softly.

“Then we are three heartless women together.”
“If our families had sent us to the palace expecting returns, they would be furious at how useless we are.”

Their cheerful laughter echoed through the room.