Chapter 196

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: A Parent's Heart
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“My dear, it is a parent’s heart to care for a child, even an ungrateful one.”

Leo III gently chided Countess Rubina.

“Don’t you feel the same way about Cesare?”

Countess Rubina bristled, about to snap back, ‘Cesare is your son, too,’ but she bit her tongue.

Now was not the time to anger the king.

A mistress must be keenly aware of such moods to maintain her long-standing position, and Countess Rubina was the best on the continent at being a long-reigning mistress.

And the intuition of the continent’s longest-reigning royal mistress whispered to her that Leo III was nearly won over.

Had he not been swayed without resistance by the grand premise that ‘Alfonso is ungrateful’?

“But, Your Majesty,”

Countess Rubina said, feigning a sorrowful tone.

“There are times when a parent must be strict to guide a child who has gone astray.”

Her expression was so poignant that Leo III found himself nodding before he could even process her plea.

“That is true.”

Countess Rubina pouted, pressing Leo III.

“You must establish your authority. Shouldn’t he know to fear his father?”

Here, she deployed her ultimate weapon. She leaned forward, bringing her lips close to his ear, and whispered.

Though its effect had diminished after more than twenty years together, it always worked.

“If the knights and war funds he wants keep pouring in from his home country after he’s acted so willfully, he’ll grow arrogant.”

Leo III’s ears perked up.

“You think so?”

“Of course! Look at how I’m raising Cesare. Because I’m strict, isn’t he a very pleasant child?”

To any observer, Alfonso was clearly the more exemplary son, but there was one thing Cesare did far better than his half-brother: curry favor with their father.

It was less a result of strict upbringing and more a difference in their stations as the legitimate heir and the illegitimate son, but Rubina chose to ignore such trivial facts.

“Three months. Make him wait just three months before sending them. He needs to starve and struggle on his own to know how to be grateful to his father!”

She poured a glass of grappa and placed it in the king’s hand.

“The 1113 grappa, you’ve been wanting to drink it, haven’t you? I contacted the southern region and had a difficult time acquiring it.”

“Oh! Is this from the Trani estate?”

“It certainly is!”

She winked.

“It’s a secret from the royal physician, you know?”

“Hahahaha!”

Leo III melted completely at Countess Rubina’s pillow talk.

And so, the war funds and knights destined for Prince Alfonso were delayed by three months.

Three months, they said, but three months from now would be the beginning of winter.

* * *

The fact that Prince Alfonso’s letters had not been delivered to his home country was no simple delivery accident.

The Republic of Porto, which was in charge of all rear support for this Crusade, including supplies and correspondence, had become heavily indebted to the Kingdom of Gallico in the process of being selected as the transport provider for the Third Crusade.

If Philip IV, as their sponsor, had not strongly advocated for the Republic of Porto to handle the rear, they would have had to concede the position to their rivals, the port city of Pacaroli.

This was because the bid proposed by the Republic of Porto was twice as high as Pacaroli’s.

Thanks to Philip IV, they had profited by at least 25,000 ducats.

And the one coordinating everything with the Republic of Porto on Philip IV’s behalf was Grand Duke Odo, who had decided to intercept all of Prince Alfonso’s communications to determine whether to kill or spare his potential future son-in-law.

“If it becomes known that the letters were intercepted, the Kingdom of Etruscan will not let the Republic of Porto go unpunished.”

“Nothing in this world is free,”

Grand Duke Odo answered triumphantly.

“The Porto fellows succeeded in their bid thanks to us. It’s time they paid us back.”

Grand Duke Odo stacked Prince Alfonso’s letters, handed over by the Republic of Porto, neatly on his desk.

It wasn’t just Prince Alfonso’s letters they had tampered with.

An official letter sent by Grand Duke Yuldenburg to the Kingdom of Etruscan was also reported first to the Kingdom of Gallico.

Through the stolen letter from Grand Duke Yuldenburg, Philip IV learned that Prince Alfonso had successfully escaped and joined forces with him.

Realizing Alfonso had slipped from his grasp and was heading to Yesak, Philip IV smashed the furniture in his office and spewed curses against the ungrateful Yuldenburg.

If Auguste hadn’t somehow managed to lead the king into his private chambers and calm him down, someone would likely have been killed.

But no matter how furious Philip became, the sponsorship funds were already entirely in Grand Duke Yuldenburg’s pockets.

Philip was paying dearly for the risk of paying in advance.

Even the Kingdom of Gallico did not dare to destroy Grand Duke Yuldenburg’s official letter.

Prince Alfonso’s personal correspondence, however, was an exception.

It was Philip IV’s petty act of revenge, born of resentment, to forbid even a single one of the prince’s letters from being sent out.

“Tsk, tsk, the prince is in a pitiful state. And his father is so heartless.”

Grand Duke Odo unfolded a letter Prince Alfonso had sent to his father, Leo III.

It was the second letter, following the one he had sent before, which now lay in a corner of the grand duke’s desk.

Just like the last one, it was a plea for war funds and ships for the return journey.

“I’ve never seen a father like that.”

“Indeed. It’s not as if the son is threatening the throne, nor is he one of many unruly children being disciplined. What is he doing to his well-behaved only son?”

Even to the grand duke of Gallico and his aide, who were seasoned in the ways of court intrigue, Leo III had crossed a line.

As he was clicking his tongue, a second letter caught Grand Duke Odo’s eye.

“Hmm? What’s this?”

The grand duke’s adjutant, knowing that the engagement between Prince Alfonso and Princess Lariesa had been broken, watched Odo cautiously.

“…Well, that is.”

Grand Duke Odo didn’t wait for his subordinate to finish and unfolded the letter.

It was a letter to his beloved back home. It began with the first sentence, ‘To my dearest Ari.’

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk.”

So this is why my daughter was rejected.

Seeing the proof with his own eyes left a bitter taste in his mouth. The boy was so devoted, a perfect son-in-law.

The only drawback was that he was so infatuated with another woman that he wouldn’t give his own daughter a second glance.

No, there was another reason Prince Alfonso was disqualified as a son-in-law.

He was now thoroughly on Philip IV’s bad side, and there was no telling when he might die. No matter how upstanding a man was, one could not give a daughter to a dead man, or one who was soon to be.

Before Grand Duke Odo’s eyes, his own daughter’s misdeeds were laid bare through another man’s letter.

「…I heard you petitioned His Majesty for Count Cesare’s recognition, but I don’t believe it.」

It wasn’t written who had conveyed such a story, but at the time, there was only one person who could have had an audience with the prince and spouted such nonsense.

Grand Duke Odo’s eldest daughter, Princess Lariesa.

‘The child had no way of hearing such a thing, so she must have searched my office.’

Grand Duke Odo made a mental note to keep important documents in a safe from now on and continued reading the letter.

「Ari, if you did something, there must have been a good reason for it. Right?

I won’t fall for the slander of others. The only thing I wish for is to hear your voice.

It won’t be easy to find someone traveling to Yesak, but I truly want to see your handwriting.

When we exchanged letters in Taranto, I thought it was too far, but now, I desperately miss even that distance.」

“Good heavens…”

My child is the villain sowing discord. I am the villain’s father.

As this thought crossed his mind, Grand Duke Odo let out a dry laugh.

Since he was the one intercepting the letters from Yesak, he was, strictly speaking, not just the father of a villain but a fellow villain himself.

“Wait a minute…”

If he was going to be a villain, he might as well be a thorough one. A good idea flashed through Grand Duke Odo’s mind.

Perhaps this would be enough to persuade his daughter. Surely, a life spent clinging to a man who didn’t want her couldn’t be a happy one.

“Summon Lariesa.”

* * *

“Father. You called for me.”

Lariesa had been insisting on wearing the attire of a married woman, declaring herself already taken, until even the indulgent Grand Duchess Bernadette, who typically spoiled her children, had scolded her into tears.

In the end, Lariesa had to give up the headdress favored by married women—a style where the entire hair was wrapped in white cloth, topped with a tiara or hat. She was now back to wearing her hair in braids like other girls her age, though she did not stop mimicking the gait and speech of married ladies.

Right, this unsightly display will end with this.

“My child. Take a look at this.”

Grand Duke Odo handed his daughter Prince Alfonso’s letter.

He would have shouted ‘Bravo!’ if there had been a passage explicitly insulting Princess Lariesa, but unfortunately, this well-raised son of another house did not stoop to openly criticizing her, even in this situation.

Instead, Prince Alfonso’s letter to Ariadne de Mare was filled with his heartfelt love for her, his painful longing, and his firm resolve that dismissed Lariesa as one of the ‘others.’

‘Once she sees this with her own eyes, her pride will be wounded enough for her to give up.’

Watching his daughter read Prince Alfonso’s letter with an intensity that made it seem like her eyes would pop out, Grand Duke Odo lowered his voice as gently as possible.

“My dear. In my experience, the most important thing is for a husband and wife to have a good relationship.”

His daughter paid no mind to her father’s words, turning the parchment to the next page. Her eyes were burning.

“I know that arranged marriages don’t start with love. But regardless of the beginning, if you meet the right person, love and respect will eventually blossom. You only live once; shouldn’t you spend it with a man who cherishes and loves you?”

Grand Duke Odo, lost in his own speech, failed to properly gauge his daughter’s mood.

“Look at this man’s letter. This man is completely distracted by someone else.”

- *Flip.*

“Your father has seen many things, and for a noble lady’s husband, men like this are the worst, even more so than outright philanderers. To be so deeply in love with one woman…”

“…No!”

Grand Duke Odo’s monologue was cut short by his daughter’s scream.

Princess Lariesa glared at her father, crumpling Prince Alfonso’s letter into a ball.

Then she threw the letter violently onto the office floor.

“This trash is full of lies…!”

“Lariesa!”

Grand Duke Odo shouted her name, half in bewilderment and half in shock at his daughter’s behavior. But Lariesa was already in a full-blown rage.

“This isn’t the prince’s letter!”

“You won’t believe it even after seeing it? This came through a reliable channel…”

“The handwriting isn’t the prince’s, and the ink isn’t the kind he uses!”

Prince Alfonso always wrote with blue ink and a slightly thick pen nib.

But on the battlefield, one could not be picky about writing instruments.

Even obtaining the parchment had been the result of his aide’s considerable effort.

But to the ears of Lariesa, who refused to believe it, no explanation could be heard.

“The prince loves me. The prince doesn’t love that Cardinal’s bastard!”

Tears streamed from Lariesa’s eyes like a flood.

“You’ll see! Once he suffers on the battlefield, he’ll realize that the only woman who can save him is Princess Lariesa of the Grand Duchy of Valois!”

“Lariesa! That is not something you can control. How can you force a person’s heart…?”

“Papa, you can do it for me!!”

Lariesa slammed her hands on Grand Duke Odo’s desk, pleading through her tears.

“Help the prince in the name of the Kingdom of Gallico! Then the prince will be grateful to me!”

“Lariesa, that is not something your father can do!”

“Aaaargh!!!”

Princess Lariesa began to roll on the floor of her father’s office.

“Lariesa!”

“I’m going to die! I’m going to die!”

The commotion was growing. This was not what he had expected… Grand Duke Odo nervously checked for any sounds from the hallway outside his office.

The news that his daughter was having a fit must not reach the ears of Grand Duchess Bernadette.

“There are things I can do and things I can’t! Your father is not a magician!”

“Lies! You just don’t want me to be happy!”

“What parent in this world does not wish for their child’s happiness!”

Lariesa began to list every piece of evidence she could muster from her short life that proved her father did not love her, starting with ‘the time she was five and he hugged Suzanne first and never hugged her at all’ (on that day, Princess Lariesa had been in Grand Duchess Bernadette’s arms from beginning to end).

Under the fear that the Grand Duchess might burst in at any moment, and after being mentally assaulted for nearly half an hour by the daughter who was once the apple of his eye, Grand Duke Odo finally threw in the towel.

“This father will grant you whatever is within his power, Lariesa, Lariesa.”

Exhausted from spewing her anger and resentment, Lariesa wiped her tears with the back of her hand and replied.

“I will be the one to write to the prince. If I have to win a man’s heart on my own, I can do it. I just have to!”

She sniffled, then continued.

“From now on, bring all of the prince’s letters to me.”

“Seeing them will only upset you, what good will that…?”

“Aaaaaaaargh!”

“Alright, alright! I surrender. Please, just calm down!”

Having gotten her way, Lariesa wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

From now on, she would watch Alfonso’s every move and, by writing perfectly tailored letters that seemed to know all his worries and concerns in advance, she was set to become his customized lover.