Chapter 25

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: In Perfect Harmony
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“Wait!”

Lucrezia's voice stopped Ariadne in her tracks as she started for the third floor. Her stepmother's tone was exceptionally sweet.

“Ariadne. It is quite an honor that all the jewelry bears Her Majesty the Queen's crest. But there was something else, wasn't there?”

It was a voice as soft as a chick's down, a rare tone for Lucrezia to use with Ariadne.

“Good fortune is meant to be shared, but what's the point if you can't even share the jewelry with your family? Since that's the case, how about you celebrate your honorable prize money by treating us?”

If Isabella's target was the jewelry, Lucrezia's was the cash.

“Entrust the gold coins you received from Her Majesty to me, and I'll have an entire cow brought in for dinner tonight.”

“Wow! Hooray!”

Arabella began to run around, spinning in the first-floor entryway. Normally, Lucrezia would have snapped at her for being a nuisance, but she ignored Arabella, exercising patience as she pressured Ariadne.

“And hand over that coin purse. What would a young lady like you need with so much money? I'll keep it safe for you and give you some whenever you need it.”

*I knew it.*

“Come on. Hand it over.”

Lucrezia took a step closer. Ariadne reached into her dress. Lucrezia's expectant gaze eagerly awaited Ariadne's hand. But what emerged was not the heavy coin purse Lucrezia anticipated, but a single sheet of paper. Ariadne handed the thin parchment to Lucrezia.

“What is this?”

It was a piece of smoothly tanned parchment decorated with silver foil. Inside, it was written as follows: 「‘Fifty gold ducats, received in full. - Queen Marguerite, on behalf of the Rambouillet Almshouse.’」 *Does this mean she'll get the 50 ducats later?* Ariadne nonchalantly answered Lucrezia, who was staring intently at the text and flipping the paper over to see if there was anything else.

“The fifty gold ducats have been donated in the name of the second daughter of the de Mare family to the Rambouillet Almshouse, which is run by Her Majesty the Queen.”

“What?!”

“This is the receipt Her Majesty gave me as proof.”

Lucrezia, who had been excited about using the 50 ducats Ariadne was to bring to plug the various holes in the household budget, crumpled the queen's receipt in a fit of rage.

“Why on earth would you donate something so precious?! Are you out of your mind?!”

Lucrezia shouted, pointing a finger at Ariadne.

“You're well-fed and well-clothed in this house, so you have no idea what money's worth, do you?! How could you not even think to show a little consideration for your family and just donate all that money away?”

Ariadne lowered her head, but unlike before, she did not remain silent. The incident with the Apostle of Acereto and the royal couple's charity had earned her the right to speak.

“A child's role in the family is to polish their name and bring honor to the household. Her Majesty the Queen also praised the de Mare family's noblesse oblige in not forgetting the poor.”

“You...?! Are you looking me straight in the eye and talking back to me?”

Just then, the front door opened, and Cardinal de Mare walked in. He had returned home shortly after dropping Ariadne off at the palace and running a quick errand.

“I, I knew you'd be doing this! That's why I hurried back!”

Cardinal de Mare waved his sleeves, shooing Lucrezia away as if swatting a mosquito.

“Stop trying to snatch a child's allowance and stay out of it!”

Irritably, the Cardinal added another word.

“Do you have any idea how many eyes are on our house right now? There are so many rumors—that the Cardinal's mistress is jealous, that she starves the second daughter, locks her up, raises her with the maids! Don't get greedy over loose change and embarrass us like last time. Just behave yourself!”

The Cardinal continued to grumble.

“A carriage was following me the whole way from the palace... I can't live in peace!”

The Cardinal took off his outer coat, handed it to the butler who had followed him in, and said to Ariadne.

“I hear you received the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea'? Yes, let's have a look.”

He threw open the lid of the ebony jewelry box for the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea', which sat on the table in the center of the entryway. Nestled in the middle of the splendid red velvet lining was a dazzling, ultramarine sapphire necklace.

“Ooh!”

Cardinal de Mare didn't take the jewel out; he simply stared at it in its box, mesmerized.

“So this is the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea'…!”

The entire family gathered around the central table in the entryway to gaze at the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea'. It was the size of two and a half adult thumbnails put together. An absurd size for a gemstone. Thanks to its immense size, it had a sense of volume, and its brilliance seemed to explode upwards from its very depths.

“It's truly mystical!”

Arabella exclaimed. Cardinal de Mare nodded in agreement and replied.

“Legend has it that the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea' wasn't mined, but brought up from the sea by a dolphin.”

“Our family crest is a dolphin, isn't it?”

“That's right, Isabella. Doesn't it seem as though the precious jewel has finally arrived where it was always meant to be?”

Isabella shot Ariadne a meaningful smile.

“It's perfect to become our family's heirloom! It would look wonderful against Ippolito's ash-gray hair.”

Cardinal de Mare did not bother to correct Isabella. He snapped the lid of the ebony box containing the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea' shut and spoke to Ariadne.

“Ariadne, since you don't have a safe of your own for your necklace, how about this father of yours keeps it in the study's safe for you?”

“Father, about that…”

Ariadne nervously picked at the hem of her dress. *She said she would send it right away, so why hasn't it arrived yet?*

“Your Eminence!”

The front door clattered open, and a servant, his eyes wide with surprise, announced.

“A visitor has arrived.”

Following the servant was one of the Queen's officials, dressed in formal attire with a golden insignia. This was the carriage Cardinal de Mare had been worried was 'following' him. It wasn't following him. They simply had the same destination.

“A message from Her Majesty, Queen Marguerite!”

The Queen's official, holding a royal decree, recited its contents before Cardinal de Mare, who bowed his head, and the rest of the family, who knelt.

“Today, a magnificent gift from His Majesty the King was bestowed upon the second daughter of the de Mare family. For ease of storage, a safe is also granted by order of the Queen. It is to be installed in the second daughter's chambers.”

The official approached Cardinal de Mare and handed him a contract.

“Please sign here. It is the installation contract with the safe-maker. Her Majesty the Queen has already paid the cost in full.”

The Cardinal, taken aback, signed the contract. Behind the official, four workers struggled over the threshold, grunting under the weight of a safe as large as a waist-high bookshelf.

“Your Eminence, where shall we install it?”

Ariadne answered.

“My room is in the third-floor attic...”

Cardinal de Mare's expression twisted. With rumors already circulating about his mistreatment of his second daughter, he couldn't let the Queen's official see that her room was a corner attic on the third floor. It might have been different if it wasn't obvious, but the path to that room was surrounded by too many servants' quarters.

“No! No! The westernmost room on the second floor!”

This time, it was Lucrezia's turn to be shocked.

“Darling! That's Ippolito's room, isn't it?”

“Address me properly!”

At Cardinal de Mare's roar, Lucrezia shrank like a turtle pulling its head into its shell. Though the Cardinal was often irritable, he rarely raised his voice in front of others. This time, he seemed genuinely furious.

“You can't just put a hunk of metal in a young girl's bedroom! There needs to be a study to place a safe!”

He moved right next to Lucrezia and hissed in her ear.

- “If you had handled things properly from the start, none of this would have happened! I respected your domain and entrusted you with the household affairs, and this is the result?”

- “Your Eminence…”

- “I have given you many chances. Yet you haven't corrected anything, and now you're tarnishing my reputation in front of outsiders! I will be taking measures, so be prepared!”

Amid the chaos of the couple's argument and the workers installing the safe, Ariadne picked up the queen's receipt that Lucrezia had crumpled and thrown, smoothed it out, and tucked it back into her dress. After clutching the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea' jewelry box tightly, she had Sancha, who had come down from upstairs, carry the Queen's other jewelry box. All preparations to retreat were complete.

“Let's take this chance to go upstairs quickly. We can go to the new room. This worked out well.”

* * *

“Your Majesty, please write me a receipt stating that I have donated the fifty ducats to the Rambouillet Almshouse. However, I will withdraw it later when I need it. If I take the money home, it will no longer be mine. The first use for that money will be to purchase a personal safe and have it installed in my room. Your Majesty need only issue the order for the safe to be installed.”

Such was the request Ariadne had made to Queen Marguerite. She was essentially asking to use the Rambouillet Almshouse as a bank. It was a request she could only make because she trusted the Queen. For a moment, she had wondered if installing a safe was truly necessary. Not only did it cost 15 ducats, but she also thought that offloading the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea' onto Cardinal de Mare might actually lessen her burden. If control of the item lay entirely with the Cardinal, anyone targeting the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea' would go after him, not her. But she had changed her mind. No matter if the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea' was in the Cardinal's safe, it was ultimately a gift from Leo III to Ariadne personally. Nominally, it was her property, so it could not be completely separated from her. Furthermore, Cardinal de Mare was the sort of man who would include the 'Heart of the Deep Blue Sea' in her dowry list to drive a hard bargain for her marriage, only to conveniently omit it when it came time to actually send the bride. He wouldn't have the slightest concern for an empty-handed Ariadne facing all sorts of mistreatment. When she was young, she had resented and envied Isabella, whom she believed her father truly doted on. She might have even felt a little inferior. But not anymore. She knew full well that when it came to his core interests, Cardinal de Mare would abandon even Isabella without a second thought. Since the item had come into her possession, she would make good use of it. It was a difficult and tricky card to play, but an excellent one nonetheless. Unlike in her past life, the winds were changing. And that evening, Ariadne received a parcel from the royal palace. A palace attendant had delivered it personally.

*If this is from the palace, why wasn't it brought with the other things this afternoon?*

Ariadne's question was answered when she unwrapped the bundle and opened the box inside. It was a large, flower-shaped golden hairpin, made with a dozen or so marquise-cut, deep pink tourmalines of about three carats each. The hallmark indicated it was from a high-end jewelry store on the Tiber River. The sender was the Prince's palace.