Chapter 187

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 187
Chapter Title: You Don't Know Anything
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In early August, the Kingdom of Etruscan welcomed a new royal, and about a month had passed since then.

The Kingdom of Gallico, located further north than Etruscan, was already in the full swing of autumn.

Confined to the Palais de Montpellier with only the freedom to gaze out the window, Prince Alfonso could clearly feel the change in the weather.

“At this point, I’m even starting to look forward to the grand duchess’s visits.”

Sir Manfredi, leaning against the windowsill next to Prince Alfonso, made a joke.

At some point, the Palais de Montpellier had shifted from treating Prince Alfonso as an honored guest to treating him like a prisoner.

Not only had the number of guards increased, but the once-plentiful meals had also been reduced.

The meals provided to Prince Alfonso and his ten or so personal knights grew progressively poorer, eventually dwindling to little more than corn soup, without even bread.

Strangely, they only ever served liquid food.

“It’s not her you miss, but the meat and wine she brings.”

“Ah, you’ve found me out?”

Every time Grand Duchess Lariesa visited, she brought a wicker basket packed with cheese, ham, and wine.

For Sir Manfredi, whose greatest pleasure during this period of no duties or training was to get drunk and lounge about, Grand Duchess Lariesa was his only recent source of meat and wine.

“They say the one who feeds you is the best, don’t they? Lately, whenever I see the grand duchess, I feel like a dog licking its bowl clean.”

Sir Manfredi looked ready to climb onto the windowsill and bark like a dog.

‘Wine! Give me wine! Awoooo-!’ Prince Alfonso chuckled. Without such jokes, it would have been difficult to endure.

“Prince Alfonso!”

And speak of the devil, there was the Grand Duchess Lariesa.

As soon as her clear, sharp voice rang out, Sir Manfredi shot to his feet.

“Oops, the dog owner has arrived.”

He quickly fled to an inner chamber.

“I’ll make myself scarce. Good luck, Your Highness!”

“The owner? If the owner is here, where is the puppy running off to?”

“You’re the boss, Your Highness. That’s what leaders are for—to handle these things. Best of luck!”

It seemed he enjoyed the wine, but the person was too much to handle. Left alone, Alfonso gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

What sin did I commit in a past life to be the one responsible for this situation?

And into the room Sir Manfredi had just vacated, Grand Duchess Lariesa entered triumphantly.

“Prince Alfonso! I brought wine!”

Her expression clearly read, ‘Aren’t I great?’ Had the grand duchess somehow overheard their conversation?

Prince Alfonso, trying not to show his displeasure, rose from where he was leaning against the window and gestured to the guest table.

“Please, have a seat, Grand Duchess Lariesa.”

His etiquette was impeccable. But Lariesa deliberately ignored the seat opposite him and sat right next to Prince Alfonso.

Lariesa had been like this recently. Alfonso shifted slightly, uncomfortable with her proximity, but she paid him no mind.

“A chef from the Palais de Montpellier just became the new head chef at our estate. This is his special foie gras. Say ahh.”

Lariesa had been utterly unrestrained these days. She visited whenever she pleased and said whatever she wanted.

She showed no consideration for others.

She knew Prince Alfonso was in no position to refuse her, and Alfonso, sensing this, felt all the more uncomfortable.

She placed the goose liver dish on a silver spoon and pushed it toward Prince Alfonso’s lips.

Alfonso turned his head slightly to avoid the offered spoon, but the Grand Duchess’s aim was persistent.

- Poke.

Eventually, the spoon she held out poked Prince Alfonso’s cheek. The seasoned goose liver on it fell and stained his thigh.

Alfonso’s brow furrowed for a moment, but the clueless Grand Duchess just giggled.

“When the spoon poked your cheek and made a little dimple, you looked soooo cute.”

Carried away, Lariesa then took a napkin and tried to wipe the food from Alfonso’s mouth.

Before the grand duchess’s hand could reach him, Alfonso quickly wiped his mouth with his own left hand.

“Grand Duchess.”

“Oh, look. It got on your clothes, too.”

Despite Alfonso’s attempt to stop her, Lariesa paid no heed. She reached out with the napkin in hand, extending it toward Alfonso’s thigh.

It was his inner thigh. He couldn't avoid it just by turning his head.

Lariesa’s hand finally touched deep on Alfonso’s thigh, and, unable to bear it any longer, the prince raised his voice.

“Grand Duchess!”

His voice must have been quite loud. Lariesa looked at Alfonso in surprise.

But instead of apologizing, she blamed him, her voice on the verge of tears.

“Your Highness, did you just raise your voice at me…?”

“Grand Duchess. Please, maintain some boundaries. This is going too far!”

Alfonso’s face was red with humiliation, but Lariesa showed no sign of remorse.

“*I’m*… going too far?”

She was purely resentful toward Alfonso.

“Are you saying *I’m* the one going too far? I brought you foie gras, and last time it was caviar, and wine, and fine cheese…”

“How can you even say that…”

Prince Alfonso finally exploded.

“Was that a favor I asked for?”

Alfonso was not one to speak harshly.

Despite growing up in an environment perfect for fostering arrogance as the sole legitimate prince, his innate nature was gentle.

He would endure what was endurable, and if he had to speak indirectly, he would say only half of what he meant, and in a pleasant way.

He fundamentally pitied everyone and was good at finding the best in others.

But this grand duchess, truly, was beyond even Prince Alfonso’s ocean-wide limits of tolerance.

“Do you see me as some kind of pet dog, Grand Duchess? One that wags its tail happily whenever you bring it food?”

The way Grand Duchess Lariesa treated Prince Alfonso was akin to how one would handle a pet dog.

Winning favor with treats, touching him whenever she felt like it, doting on him arbitrarily in her own way, whining when things didn’t go her way, and always maintaining the stance of, ‘I am your master, and you are my property.’

“From the very beginning, I spoke of respect. Respect for the Kingdom of Etruscan, respect for its royalty, respect for its customs! Not only have you failed to observe this, Grand Duchess, you have now decided to abandon even basic human respect!”

“…”

“Even when you were in Etruscan, I found your behavior somewhat abrasive. I let it slide, thinking you must be anxious so far from home, and that perhaps I was partly at fault. But seeing you here in the Kingdom of Gallico, you are truly insolent! I must commend your efforts. How on earth did you manage to hide this magnificent personality of yours back in Etruscan?”

Lariesa’s hand trembled. The napkin she’d intended to use to wipe Alfonso’s trousers was crumpled into a mess.

“Bringing mere scraps of bread and acting as if you’re bestowing some great favor, doing whatever you please…”

“…You don’t know anything.”

Lariesa spat through her teeth.

“You don’t know anything!!!”

Tears welled in her eyes, and her pale, dry skin was flushed red.

“Mere scraps of bread? This is your lifeline!”

Grand Duchess Lariesa grabbed a large loaf of bread from the wicker basket and shook it in the air. Her harsh words threw Alfonso into confusion.

A normal person would have some profound meaning behind such words.

But this was Lariesa.

The Grand Duchess Lariesa he had come to know better recently was the type of person who would say something like, ‘I’d rather die than not eat delicious food,’ and mean it.

“…What do you mean…”

Alfonso asked, bewildered.

Seeing that Prince Alfonso didn’t believe her, Grand Duchess Lariesa, filled with a sense of injustice, dropped a bombshell.

“Your meals contain arsenic!”

Alfonso blinked his blue-gray eyes, so much like his mother’s.

“Arsenic…?”

“Yes, arsenic. The very same arsenic that killed your mother! If you consume minuscule amounts of it with every meal here, your life will be shortened without anyone knowing! In three or four years, they can announce you’ve died of natural causes after growing weak!”

Horror spread across Prince Alfonso’s face.

“Then the one who killed my mother… the one who summoned me here…”

It was all a conspiracy by the Kingdom of Gallico.

The assassination of Queen Marguerite, the summoning of Prince Alfonso to Montpellier—it all meant that everything had proceeded according to a premeditated plan.

But there was one part he couldn't understand.

“The Kingdom of Gallico… But why me?”

The Kingdom of Etruscan had friendly relations with the Kingdom of Gallico, and the King of Gallico and Prince Alfonso were cousins.

From Philip IV’s perspective, Prince Alfonso was someone to be placed on the throne, not someone who needed to be eliminated.

Lariesa drove her harsh words into the bewildered Alfonso.

“Because he thinks that if he gets rid of you, the Etruscan throne will fall into his hands! His Majesty, King Philip IV, has proposed to your second cousin, Bianca of Taranto!”

Lariesa was feeling a strange sense of exhilaration.

Neither a direct royal nor particularly intelligent, Lariesa was a pawn in the chess game of politics, never a player.

Aside from trivial society gossip, she had rarely held an informational advantage over anyone.

This was especially true when her counterpart was a true royal like Alfonso.

All the while he was in San Carlo and Taranto, Prince Alfonso had been an object of desire, always just out of reach.

Now, that man, both wings broken, was caged and at her feet.

Until now, she had been taking care of Alfonso with a sense of superiority, believing she was the only one who could save him.

But this broken-winged bird, instead of being grateful for his only salvation, was defying her! How ungrateful!

Lariesa intended to crush Alfonso so thoroughly today that he wouldn't even be able to cry.

Her habit of cruelly treating those beneath her, like her companions and housemaids, was rearing its head.

In response to Lariesa’s revelation, Alfonso replied with a look of utter devastation.

“My father… His Majesty… He would never allow such a thing, would he?”

“Ha, ha, hahahahahaha!”

Laughing boisterously, Lariesa at that moment seemed to resemble Philip IV, to whom she wasn't even particularly close.

It was also as if she were mimicking Princess Auguste, whom she had always admired and yet hated.

“You naive prince. You haven’t heard, have you? Your father has abandoned you!”

Prince Alfonso’s pupils trembled. Lariesa straightened her back and stared directly at him.

As if she were the one who had abandoned him.

“The King of Etruscan, His Majesty Leo III, sent a reply to the Kingdom of Gallico! He said they should slowly discuss the details of Princess Bianca’s marriage!”

Alfonso was in deep shock. His eyes were unfocused, his mouth slightly agape.

He didn’t particularly love Leo III, nor did he feel very close to him.

Compared to the late Queen Marguerite, Leo III was a distant father whose words and actions were difficult to respect.

But having never clashed directly with his father under his mother’s care, Prince Alfonso held the level of faith and trust a son in a typical family would have for his father.

…He had never even imagined being thrown into enemy territory and abandoned like this.

“And that’s not all.”

Lariesa’s sharp, nasal voice cruelly struck Alfonso’s ears.

“Do you know what your father has done?”

More? There was no way he could know. With nothing to say, Alfonso simply stared ahead, his lips sealed.

When she didn’t get the reaction she wanted, an irritated Lariesa twisted the knife even deeper.

“He has legitimized your brilliant older brother!”

At this, Alfonso had no choice but to respond. A single, hollow word escaped his lips.

“What…?”

“Count Cesare de Como’s full name is now Cesare de Carlo! He is a proud heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Etruscan!”