Sister I am the Queen in This Life [Novel] Chapter 147

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 147
Chapter Title: Just a Moment, Please
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Once she confirmed that Lariesa de Valois and the Gallican delegation had left the royal palace, Ariadne knew it was her time to leave as well. She returned to the room she had been using in the Queen's palace and packed her belongings.

She hadn’t planned on a long stay, so her luggage was simple. It was mostly just the clothes she had worn that day and some trivial necessities gifted to her by Queen Marguerite.

“Are you all packed, my lady?”

A maid from the Queen's palace spoke to Ariadne with a friendly demeanor. She was a maid Ariadne had become quite familiar with over the past ten days.

“I’m finished. Thank you.”

Ariadne gazed at her neatly closed trunk. Handing it over to the maid would mark the end of her visit to the royal palace.

“Wait a moment.”

“Yes?”

“Could you possibly deliver a letter for me?”

The maid seemed hesitant. Queen Marguerite herself had personally forbidden any correspondence with Prince Alfonso. For the maid, the Queen's command was absolute, and disobeying it would surely lead to trouble.

“I won't cause you any trouble.”

So Ariadne had written the letter in such a way that it wouldn't be a problem even if Her Majesty the Queen were to open it herself.

Ariadne took out the letter she had carefully tucked away in her pocket and handed it to the maid.

“Please deliver this to Sir Bernardino.”

Asking her to deliver it directly to Prince Alfonso would be beyond the maid's abilities anyway. It was difficult for a maid to even meet the prince.

When the maid was reluctant to take the envelope, Ariadne placed a ducat gold coin she had set aside on top of it and offered them both together. It was a magical catalyst for creating will where there was none. The maid hesitated for a moment before accepting Ariadne's letter.

“Thank you.”

Ariadne smiled brightly and took the maid's hand. She then handed over her travel trunk as well. It was truly time to go back.

***

Alfonso, too, was in the process of moving. The urgent matters were settled, and it was time to return to the Prince's palace.

Alfonso's mind had been a tangled mess lately.

‘Elko…’

His childhood friend, who had been with him since they were young, had been falsely accused in his stead and dragged away to the Kingdom of Gallico.

He felt a simultaneous rage toward the Kingdom of Gallico for its unreasonable demands and toward his father, the King, for handing over one of his own subjects for political convenience. But what he felt even more strongly was self-reproach.

‘To save myself, I sent my own man to his death.’

Standing by the window, feeling the breeze, he rubbed his dry face for no reason.

No, in truth, Prince Alfonso hadn't sent Sir Elko to his doom just to protect himself. He had turned his back on him to protect the woman he loved, Ariadne de Mare.

‘Was that truly the right path? Is my love so important that it’s worth sacrificing Elko’s life?’

It was a worry that kept Alfonso awake at night.

- Knock, knock.

“Your Highness, it is Dino. May I come in?”

Sitting on the windowsill, Alfonso glanced toward the door.

“Come in.”

Sir Bernardino entered with a bow and handed him a letter.

“A letter has arrived for you, Your Highness. I thought you might be pleased…”

Prince Alfonso had been noticeably dispirited lately. Sir Bernardino wanted to do anything he could to cheer up the prince he served.

“It’s from Lady de Mare.”

Imagining Alfonso's delight, Sir Bernardino left the prince alone so he could read the letter in peace.

With bloodshot eyes, Alfonso immediately tore open the envelope and took out its contents, but he couldn't bring himself to read the letter just yet.

He and Ariadne had been in the same building for the past ten days, yet they hadn't seen each other once. It must have been his mother's doing.

It was only natural that Ari couldn't come to see him. She was a guest, a person of lower status, and couldn't defy the Queen.

But Alfonso could have gone to see Ariadne. What stopped him was his guilt over Sir Elko.

And now, a letter had come from Ariadne first.

‘How long must Ari have waited for my word before sending a letter herself?’

The thought made his heart ache. He had sent his friend to his death because he was weak, and he had made his woman tremble with anxiety because he was weak.

He had no redeeming qualities, nothing to be proud of, and so he had failed to protect either of them completely. He shuddered at his own inadequacy.

Alfonso mustered his courage, picked up the letter, and read its contents. He had braced himself for a confession of love, resentment for his absence, an outpouring of sadness and loneliness. But the letter's contents were the complete opposite of what he had imagined.

「To His Highness, Prince Alfonso de Carlo.」

From the very first line, Alfonso couldn't believe his eyes. She never addressed him by his title.

The rest of the letter was so incredibly stiff, one might have mistaken it for an official document.

「I trust you have been well. Thanks to Your Highness's boundless grace, I was able to rest safely under the wing of Her Majesty the Queen.

I shall soon be returning to the de Mare estate. As I believe there will be no opportunity to see Your Highness after my return, I am writing this letter now.

Her Majesty has expressed her wish that Your Highness and I refrain from associating with each other. In truth, this is a sentiment with which I, in my humble position, wholeheartedly agree. I believe now is the time to lie low and avoid the storm.

I ask that you refrain from contacting me in the future. Letters to the de Mare estate and meetings at official events seem inappropriate. When the time is right, I will be the one to seek you out.

May you always be in good health.

With adoration, your loyal subject, Ariadne de Mare.」

When Alfonso had confessed to Ariadne while trapped in the wardrobe in the 'Queen's chamber,' she had recited an oath of loyalty, the kind a knight would swear, instead of a song of love in return. And that had been the last day they saw each other.

Alfonso had tried to convince himself that her oath of loyalty was merely a promise to protect him in that moment.

He had thought she wasn't rejecting his love, that if he peeled back the layer of loyalty, he would find love underneath, and that love was the essential element of her feelings for him.

“...No way.”

Had Ariadne truly been serious? Was the oath meant to establish a relationship of only lord and subject between them? Had she really erased him from her heart?

Clutching Ariadne's letter, Prince Alfonso shot up from his seat.

“This can't be true. There must be some misunderstanding.”

For Ariadne de Mare, Prince Alfonso had broken out of his shell. He had abandoned his duties, defied his parents, and committed his first murder. It was an incident of international proportions. And what he got in return was a farewell letter.

Had his mother threatened Ariadne? Had she warned her to give up her dreams, telling her that her status was far too low?

Until now, Prince Alfonso had never once doubted his mother. She had always been just and benevolent, and had never turned her back on her son.

But now, Alfonso's world was beginning to doubt even Queen Marguerite. It was less painful than the thought that Ariadne—the other world he had discovered for the first time in his life—had erased him.

Prince Alfonso kicked open the door and ran out.

The Prince's palace was less than a twenty-minute walk from the Queen's palace. For a young man's sprint, it was just a dash.

He could find his way there with his eyes closed, a path he had imagined countless times but had never taken due to guilt. He now threw open the door he couldn't bring himself to open before.

It was the small guest room in the Queen's palace, the one Ariadne had been using.

- Bang!

“Ariadne!”

A maid who was cleaning looked up at Prince Alfonso with a startled expression. The room was clean, with no signs of having been lived in.

“Your Highness...”

Forgetting all decorum, Alfonso asked urgently.

“Ariadne, the young lady who was here, where did she go?”

“The guest who was staying in this room returned to her residence yesterday.”

- Thud.

His legs gave way, and Alfonso collapsed to the floor. The startled maid stared at the prince with wide, frightened eyes.

The prince asked the maid desperately.

“Did she leave anything for me? Anything at all?”

The maid thought it couldn't possibly be true, but the prince's tone sounded as if he were begging her.

“...I am sorry, Your Highness, but the guest left nothing behind when she departed.”

Prince Alfonso buried his face in his hands. This couldn't be happening.

***

Ariadne returned to the grand de Mare estate in a royal carriage bearing the Queen's seal.

“My lady!”

Sancha rushed out from the entrance of the grand estate, her face welling with tears, and threw her arms around Ariadne.

“I thought something terrible had happened to you!”

Queen Marguerite had sent an official notice to Cardinal de Mare, stating, ‘Your second daughter is so bright that I wish to keep her with me for about a week as a companion.’

However, with the royal palace in an uproar over the death of the Gallican delegation's leader, the Queen's sudden decision not to send Ariadne home was suspicious. The quick-witted members of this household didn't take the Queen's notice at face value.

“Don't make such a fuss. Nothing happened.”

Having allowed the bruises from Duke Mireille's strangling and the scratches from jumping out of the carriage into the bushes to heal completely, Ariadne entered the house with a deliberately relaxed smile.

But not all the faces she met upon returning home were welcoming.

“Nothing happened? Who would believe that?”

A sharp voice rang out. It was Isabella, leaning askew against the wall in the corridor connecting the entrance and the drawing room, her arms crossed as she stared at Ariadne.

“A grown maiden, sleeping away from home for ten days without a chaperone. Unannounced. Who would believe in your purity?”

Ariadne's brow furrowed. Isabella was spouting nonsense, but like her mother, she had a certain animalistic instinct. Though she knew nothing, she was getting rather close to the real reason Ariadne had to stay at the Queen's palace.

But Ariadne was not one to be pushed around.

“Isabella de Mare.”

Her voice was low and heavy, clearly showing she wasn't hiding her displeasure.

“Are you saying you don't believe an official notice from Her Majesty the Queen? Is there a more trustworthy chaperone in the entire Kingdom of Etruscan than Her Majesty the Queen herself?”

Ariadne glared at Isabella and snapped.

“Shut that little mouth of yours. Before I go and report to the palace that Isabella de Mare doubts an official document from Her Majesty Queen Marguerite.”

Isabella bit her lip and lowered her head. There was nothing more to say. Not that Isabella had any other means of winning against Ariadne if she were to challenge her.

In the past, she would have flared up and lunged at her. This was a huge improvement.

“Tsk, tsk, Isabella. I thought you had come to your senses...”

Cardinal de Mare appeared at the top of the second-floor staircase. Caught in her disgraceful behavior by her father, Isabella bit her lip and lowered her head.

“However, Ariadne. Your sister is partly right. If you were going to stay out, you should have told us in advance.”

“I apologize, Father. There were some circumstances.”

“Shall I hear what those circumstances are?”

Cardinal de Mare gestured toward his study.

“Will you come to my study?”

It was his office, a room Cardinal de Mare never allowed any family member other than his eldest son to enter. It was where he primarily worked, a room piled high with important documents. With the exception of the accounting ledgers Ariadne held, all important matters concerning the de Mare family and the San Carlo parish were handled within those walls.

Invited into Cardinal de Mare's study for the first time in both her past and present lives, Ariadne lowered her head, her face flushed.

“Yes, Father.”