TSTRP 14

Chapter 14

Pedro Serga usually arrived at work early in the morning.

He would make a round of the palace, stop by his office to deal with any urgent matters that had piled up overnight, and then head straight to the First Imperial Prince’s room to check on the prince’s condition. That was his usual routine.

He had heard that the First Imperial Prince had gone to a tavern again during the night. Had he returned safely?

Or perhaps…

“It seems nothing happened during the night.”

He had come to make sure nothing had happened to the First Imperial Prince.

For once, the First Imperial Prince was not glued to the sofa. Instead, he was sitting upright, flipping through several sheets of paper.

The gold leaf embossed on the papers indicated that the letter had been sent by someone of considerable importance.

“Nothing happened. I merely obtained some information from the tavern owner.”

Pedro immediately understood the hidden meaning in Lynel’s words.

The person Lynel had met last night was not merely a tavern owner. He was an information broker operating in the shadows of the empire.

“Is it information concerning that letter?”

As expected of Lynel’s longtime confidant, Pedro understood the entire situation at a glance.

Lynel tossed the letter aside without much care.

“Our secretary brought me garbage.”

Pedro walked over to the table and picked up the letter.

At the top was a name he knew very well.

[Empress Gisela]

It was a letter from the Empress herself.

In terms of rank and importance, Empress Gisela was second only to the Emperor in the imperial palace.

“You’re the only person in the imperial palace who would treat a letter from the Empress as garbage, Your Highness.”

“Right. It’s even worse than garbage.”

Pedro ignored Lynel’s comment and examined the letter.

“It concerns the debutante ball next month. I suppose Her Majesty sent it because Your Highness has been of marriageable age for quite some time.”

“Pedro, do you think that’s all there is to it? Our dear Empress wouldn’t send me an invitation for such a simple reason.”

Lynel gestured with his chin, telling him to keep reading.

As Pedro continued, he came across something astonishing. Even Pedro, who rarely showed emotion, couldn’t help but flinch.

[The date has been set for May 1st of spring, and the location will be Rose Palace.]

May 1st in spring was none other than the anniversary of the death of the former Empress Louise.

Rose Palace was the palace the Emperor had once gifted to Empress Louise, who had loved the place dearly.

The letter was inviting Lynel to a debutante ball held on the anniversary of his mother’s death, at the very palace that had belonged to his mother.

Every year on Empress Louise’s death anniversary, Lynel went to Rose Palace alone to quietly pay his respects.

Choosing such a precise date, as though deliberately targeting that habit, made the malice behind it obvious.

They were trying to prevent a son from mourning his deceased mother.

And His Majesty the Emperor actually approved this?

Pedro wore a troubled expression and moved the letter out of Lynel’s sight.

No matter how powerful and cunning Empress Gisela was, she could not simply manipulate the Emperor at will.

The current Emperor was no puppet.

On the contrary, he was the man who had made the crumbling empire strong once again.

Which meant Empress Gisela had already obtained the Emperor’s approval.

It was difficult to believe that an Emperor known to have loved Empress Louise would permit such a humiliating act.

Lynel irritably poured water from the kettle and gulped it down.

Then he roughly wiped the water from the corner of his mouth and spoke cynically.

“The Empress must have worked very hard just to screw me over. I wonder what kind of sweet words she whispered into the Emperor’s ear this time.”

It was the sort of disrespectful remark that could get even Lynel severely punished if the wrong person heard it.

Fortunately, there was no one else in the room besides the two of them.

Unlike earlier, when the secretary had been present.

“Come to think of it, rumors about Secretary Albre have already spread quite a bit. There are many people mocking her, saying that she must be a secretary Your Highness brought in because of your appetite for women.”

“I shouldn’t have brought that woman into the palace.”

In truth, Lynel didn’t care about such rumors.

He was deliberately pretending to be a good-for-nothing, so why would he care?

The person those scandalous rumors would cause trouble for wasn’t him.

It was Solana Albre.

Pedro felt a brief pang of guilt toward Solana, but he decided there was nothing he could do.

If he hadn’t selected Solana Albre, she would have been trapped in a hellish marriage.

And Lynel, who was watching her because of their connection in the past, would have been troubled by it as well.

He would have pretended not to care while worrying tremendously after seeing Solana’s misfortune.

They had important things to accomplish in the future. They couldn’t afford to be held back by something so trivial.

No matter how he calculated it, bringing Solana Albre in as Lynel’s secretary had been the best option.

After calculating Solana’s situation once again, Pedro spoke with a hint of genuine admiration.

“More importantly, the fact that she has already asked about Your Highness’s schedule suggests that she has the makings of a good secretary. Compared to your previous secretaries, she is quite impressive.”

“……You didn’t bring that woman into the palace just because you didn’t want to work, did you?”

“How long am I supposed to keep doing miscellaneous tasks in place of the secretary?”

There was only so much an attendant could do in place of a secretary—simple letter management and errands, at most.

Pedro had to take care of almost everything else.

And since he also had to handle numerous matters behind the scenes for Lynel, there simply weren’t enough hours in his day.

He had reluctantly hired someone with the thought of saving a person from misery, only to discover that she was actually quite a capable talent.

Pedro didn’t show it, but he was extremely pleased with how things had turned out.

“I suppose I should give her a proper handover soon.”

The moment I entered the loathsome Albre residence, I heard someone calling for me.

“Miss!”

There was only one person in this mansion who greeted me like that.

I turned my head, and sure enough, Mary was running toward me from a distance, carrying a huge pile of laundry.

I had spent the entire day clutching documents and was practically staggering with exhaustion, yet Mary, who had spent all day doing household chores, was still full of energy.

She didn’t even get off work until she went to bed.

Come to think of it, this is basically a sweatshop.

As a member of the Albre family and Mary’s direct superior, I felt a stab of guilt.

“Miss Solana!”

Mary called out to me again, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Miss, I’m so sorry! I woke up late today, so I couldn’t even fetch your washing water or prepare your meals. Good heavens! How could I possibly have slept so late?”

In fact, Mary hadn’t appeared this morning.

Normally, she would have woken up earlier than me and gotten everything ready, but perhaps because of what had happened with Alice the previous day, she hadn’t shown up.

I had wondered if she was angry with me because of it…

Then I remembered that Mary had been beaten by the maids and that I hadn’t properly treated her injuries.

Judging by Mary’s reaction, apparently that wasn’t the case.

“Oh, um… you woke up late?”

“I’m terribly sorry that I couldn’t attend to you today!”

Mary was flailing around so much that several pieces of clothing fell from the laundry pile, but I didn’t care about that.

The worries weighing on me scattered like snowflakes.

“What’s the big deal about sleeping in once? Why are you apologizing so formally between the two of us?”

Looking more closely, I noticed several small scratches on Mary’s face.

She must have been scratched by one of the maids’ fingernails when she was beaten yesterday.

She has wounds on her face because of me.

How is someone this kind supposed to survive in this world?

After getting worked up for quite some time, I finally spoke in a much quieter voice, overcome with guilt.

“I’m more sorry.”

“What? You are, Miss?”

“You guarded my room yesterday. Thank you. Really.”

“Ah! No, I couldn’t even protect the necklace…”

“The necklace really isn’t that important. It’s not like it was the only keepsake that was taken from me.”

“But it was the last keepsake you had! I should have protected it no matter what!”

Apparently, what I had intended as comfort had only made things worse.

Mary lamented with tears welling up in her eyes.

After blaming herself for quite some time, Mary carefully pulled something out of her clothing.

At first glance, the shape was familiar.

It looked like the necklace that had been damaged during my struggle with Alice yesterday.

“I found a few more beads and strung them together. It looks strange, doesn’t it?”

The necklace had none of its original elegance or beauty.

It was simply a roughly strung necklace made of beads.

And yet, I liked this one even more than the original.

“Why did you go to all this trouble?”

Only then did I notice the dark circles beneath Mary’s eyes.

Thinking about how she must have spent the entire night searching for beads, I felt a wave of emotion.

I had given up on the necklace almost immediately.

But Mary had done everything she could until the very end.

“It was something precious to you, Miss. I’m not very good with my hands, so it turned out looking a little strange.”

“This is enough.”

The necklace I had thought was broken beyond repair, something I would never see again, was now in my hands.

After running my fingers over it for a long while, I hung it on the mirror.

Unlike the elegant necklace it had once been, no one would likely bother touching this rough-looking one.

It would be better to leave it somewhere I could see it every morning.