Chapter 9: Schemes and Misunderstandings

“You sent a letter?”
“And you even told them to give our country special treatment?”
“What on earth have you done?”

“What are you talking about?”
“I only wrote what was obvious!”
“To begin with, Aurelia is a duke’s daughter of our country, isn’t she?”
“It’s only natural that she should come to greet us, yet she hasn’t even done that!”
“If she won’t, then she should be doing even more for us instead!”

“Don’t say such foolish things!”
“Lady Aurelia, the Empress, holds a higher status than we do.”
“We are subjects of a vassal state.”
“It is unacceptable to act rudely toward the Empress.”
“You are not even permitted to address her without honorifics.”

Belinda scowled at Freddy’s words.

Freddy had come to the Empire as a diplomat from the Lind Kingdom.
He intended to ask the Empire to mediate in order to improve the current situation, where other nations were freely setting prices for Lind’s mineral resources.
Even so, Freddy did not believe that Eugene would be indifferent even if Lind were destroyed.
He trusted that the Empire would protect the homeland of the Empress.
Of course, he had ulterior motives, but he had not planned to say anything directly at first.
He intended to hint at it gradually and proceed in stages.
That plan was ruined by Belinda, who insisted on coming along simply because she was his wife.

After getting married, Freddy realized anew just how shockingly ignorant Belinda was of the world.
The Lind Kingdom was nothing more than a small vassal state of the vast Balba Empire.
It possessed only mineral resources and was hardly important.
From such a country, an Empress of the Empire had emerged.
Normally, the entire nation should have celebrated.
However, because all the nobles knew the circumstances under which Aurelia had gone to the Empire, they could not rejoice honestly.
If Lind had treated Aurelia with respect and sent her off with the status of a princess, she might have granted them favors.
In reality, however, she had simply been driven out due to Princess Belinda’s selfishness.

Belinda did not understand Lind’s position within the Empire.
The status of a Lind princess amounted to little more than that of a viscount’s daughter in the Empire.
And yet Belinda believed herself superior to Aurelia, who was the Empress.
Freddy wondered who had raised her to think that way, though the answer was likely her doting father, the king.

“You are now merely a duchess consort.”
“You do not even hold the title of princess anymore.”

“That has nothing to do with it!”
“I am royalty!”

When Freddy married Belinda, he became a duke and inherited the Nouge Duchy’s lands as they were.
Belinda had left the royal family and become a duchess consort.
Yet she stubbornly continued to insist that she was a princess.

“In any case, behave yourself while you are here.”
“If you are too much trouble, I will not even take you to the soirées, so be prepared for that.”

“That’s awful!”
“Not being allowed to go to the soirées!”
“I’ll tell Father!”

“Tell him if you like.”
“If you say something foolish at a soirée, the Lind Kingdom will be destroyed.”
“You do not understand that.”

“The kingdom will be destroyed?”
“Freddy, what nonsense are you talking about?”
“There’s no way that would happen!”
“Our country mines rare ores.”
“If something happened to us, even the Empire would be troubled!”

“You should study a bit more.”

Saying that in a weary voice, Freddy left the room.

“What is this!”
“Fine then!”
“If Freddy is going to treat me like this, I have my own ideas!”

Though distantly related, Belinda’s great-aunt had married into a count’s family in this country.
By following that connection, she believed she could easily meet the Emperor.
Surely they would listen to what a princess had to say.
In the Lind Kingdom, anyone with a count’s title could easily meet the king.
That was because Lind was small and had very few nobles.
Belinda assumed the Empire was the same.

In the vast Empire, there were many count families, including those that existed in name only.
Holding a count’s title did not mean one could easily meet the Emperor.
Belinda did not know this.
Believing a count could easily secure an audience, she wrote a letter to the house her great-aunt had married into.

“Heehee, a princess is asking for help.”
“How honorable that must be.”
“Someone!”
“Deliver this to the Miller Count House!”

Watching the servant leave with the letter in satisfaction, Belinda began checking the outfits she had brought with her.

“Ohohoho.”
“If things go well, His Majesty might take a liking to me and make me Empress.”
“If someone like Aurelia could become one, then I would be far better, wouldn’t I?”

At that point, the now-unneeded Aurelia could simply be handed over to Freddy.
After all, originally, it was supposed to be Belinda who married into the Empire.
She had been a little scared back then.
But after coming to the imperial capital, her thinking had changed.

“I was just a little scared.”
“His Majesty will understand that.”
“It’s just going back to how things were meant to be.”
“This place is where I belong.”

The imperial capital spreading out beyond the window looked brighter than anywhere in the Lind Kingdom.

When Cyrus received the letter, he was bewildered.

“Princess Belinda of the Lind Kingdom?”
“Where is Lind, anyway?”

Recalling an old map of the Empire from his studies, he finally remembered it as a mountainous country with mineral resources.
It was also the Empress’s homeland, but since it was rarely mentioned, Cyrus had completely forgotten about it.

“Ah, now that I think about it, someone married in from there several generations ago.”

That would make it a distant blood relation.
However, he had never exchanged letters with them before, so he did not understand why one had arrived so suddenly.
Reading further, he learned that Princess Belinda was staying in the capital and wanted him to arrange an audience with His Majesty.

“…Ridiculous.”
“As if I could meet His Majesty so easily.”
“And if she is truly a princess, it would be more certain for her country to formally write to His Majesty.”

Cyrus himself could not readily meet the Emperor.
Even as a count, the Miller House was not especially influential.
Submitting a petition for an audience would take at least ten days to be approved.
Unless it was urgent, that amount of time was normal.
Belinda’s letter stated that she wished to meet immediately.

“Brother?”
“What’s wrong?”

Daisy asked casually as she peeked into the study and saw her brother looking troubled.

“No, I received a letter from Princess Belinda of the Lind Kingdom…”

Cyrus explained the connection between himself and Belinda to Daisy.

“What!”
“Amazing!”
“Then royal blood flows through me as well!”

“Royal blood or not, Lind is a small country and not particularly valuable.”

“But it’s still royal blood!”

Cyrus himself had no interest in such useless connections, but the word royalty alone thrilled Daisy.

“Brother, can’t you grant Princess Belinda’s request?”

“His Majesty is very busy.”
“Even if we submit a request, it will take time.”
“It would be faster for royalty to communicate directly.”

“But Princess Belinda is troubled because she can’t do that, right?”

“Even so, there is nothing we can do.”
“I will write a letter explaining the situation.”

“…Then may I deliver that letter myself?”

“You, Daisy?”

“Yes.”
“I would like to meet Princess Belinda.”

“…Well, I suppose that’s fine.”

From the tone of the letter, Cyrus thought that if Daisy and Princess Belinda, who seemed close in age, became friends, that would be acceptable.
He allowed Daisy to deliver the letter.

Taking the letter, Daisy immediately boarded a carriage and laughed softly.

“My brother has forgotten about that woman, hasn’t he?”
“Even if it can’t be done officially, she is beside the Empress.”
“This is exactly when to use her.”
“I’ll bring the troubled Princess Belinda to the palace under the pretense of visiting my sister-in-law.”
“We can just say she came along as a relative.”
“If a foreign royal comes with us, they can’t treat her lightly.”
“Then my sister-in-law can speak to the Empress, and have her arrange a meeting with His Majesty.”
“That would make it look like we helped a distressed foreign royal.”
“His Majesty would surely look favorably upon us.”
“Then maybe I could even secure a match with someone of higher rank.”

Even if she could not meet her sister-in-law, that did not matter.
What mattered was getting Princess Belinda to meet the Emperor.
Belinda’s letter claimed that if she met His Majesty, he would understand her.
Daisy’s role was to go to the palace with Princess Belinda, arrange an audience with the Emperor, and have her achievement recognized.

Daisy knew she would eventually marry.
If she was going to marry, it should be someone with as high a title as possible.
A quick-witted count’s daughter who could help those in need and earn the Emperor’s favor was an exceptional credential.

In Daisy’s imagination, she shone brilliantly.
If this went well, several marriage proposals would surely arrive for her brother within the month.

If Cyrus had known Daisy’s thoughts, he would have stopped her.
Visiting a sister-in-law she was not particularly close to was strange enough.
There was no guarantee that Dorothy, her sister-in-law, would even agree to meet.
More importantly, the palace was not a place where things worked out so conveniently.
Bringing an unregistered foreigner into the palace, especially near the Emperor and Empress, was unforgivable.
Family visits were permitted, but only after formal application and only in designated areas.
No matter how Daisy imagined it, showing up unannounced would not result in a meeting.

Daisy did not know the circumstances under which Aurelia had married into the Empire.
All she knew was that the Emperor had chosen Aurelia as Empress from among many wives.

“As long as I get her into the palace, Princess Belinda will manage the rest.”

Up until now, Cyrus had taken care of everything for Daisy.
Likewise, Belinda had always left all preparations and personal matters to her attendants and to Freddy.
For both of them, if something displeased them, someone else would fix it.
They had never experienced things not going their way.

Living within their small worlds, and especially with Belinda being a princess, neither had imagined that those they looked down upon could ever become people beyond their control.