The bells ringing out from Rheinkalsen Cathedral were announcing the end of the day. As people gathered in twos and threes for evening Mass, I was finally granted an audience with the crown prince.
The fact that security had grown extremely tight after the attempted assassination played a part too.
The princes were paying especially close attention to the crown prince’s safety. Because if the crown prince were assassinated, then even winning the war would essentially amount to a victory for the rebels.
Under Salic Law, Louis would ascend as the next crown prince, and if that happened, a major rift would form between the Altringen royal family and the Western lords, which was by no means a desirable future.
Eisenach, the captain of the guard, was deeply worried about the health of the crown prince, who’d been under severe stress lately from his mountain of problems. Pulling all-nighters was a given, and he couldn’t even eat properly.
"It’d be a disaster if His Highness collapsed at this rate."
"Don’t worry. I’ve come bearing good news."
"Have you? I sincerely hope you’ll sweep away His Highness’s worries."
The truth was there was bad news too, but there was no need to add to Eisenach’s worries. When I opened the door and went in, the crown prince was reviewing a mountain of documents one by one.
"Why are there so many documents?"
"Reports coming up from the lower departments. If I don’t handle them bit by bit, they pile up fast."
"Why not keep an aide by your side? You’ll wear yourself out at this rate."
"Leo always used to help me."
At the mention of Vermeer, the crown prince’s expression turned utterly gloomy. I’d thought he’d gotten over it after meeting Lily, but the crown prince was still dwelling on the matter of Vermeer.
"Is it still hard for you to face Sir Vermeer?"
"No. After the war ends, I’ll have to face him in earnest. I can’t run forever, can I?"
"Would you like to read the letter Lily sent me?"
A while back, a reply had come to the letter I’d sent Hilda, and Lily’s letter had been tucked in with it. The letter was filled with little everyday happenings and some grumbling. It brought to mind the image of Angela, raised in luxury, having a hard time of it.
The crown prince thought of his oddball fiancée and gave a faint smile. Then, realizing the letter had been sent to me, he complained. The crown prince was jealous.
"A letter never once came to me, yet she sends one only to you. It stings. Could it be she’s shy about sending one to me? Hmm, with that child’s personality, that’s entirely possible."
I had no idea what about Lily had led him to that conclusion, but I couldn’t really picture Lily being shy. She’d clearly forgotten the crown prince entirely, no question about it.
But since she was to become the crown princess, I refrained as much as possible from saying anything unflattering about her in front of her future husband, for the sake of the girl in white’s honor. I said to the crown prince, who was dispirited over not receiving a letter from the girl he liked,
"Then why not take this chance to send one first?"
"I don’t have your talent for writing sweet words and sending them off."
"It doesn’t have to be sweet. The significance lies in the act of sending it. First, let’s clear this away."
I shoved the stack of documents on the desk off to one side and spread out a clean new scroll for him. The crown prince hesitated a moment, then dipped his quill pen in ink and began writing a letter to Lily.
Perhaps it served as a change of pace, because a smile never left the corners of the crown prince’s mouth. In the meantime, I picked up an apple from the snack tray on his desk and bit into it.
Once he’d finished the letter, the crown prince rang a bell.
At that, the attendant who’d been waiting outside came in.
"Send this to Fräulein Rudelich in Feuzen."
The attendant courteously paid his respects and was about to leave carrying the letter, when he saw the apple I was biting into and frowned. How dare you eat His Highness the crown prince’s snack? That was the look on his face.
"Your Highness, it’s all right if I eat this, isn’t it?"
"Why are you asking when you’re already eating it? Eat whatever you like."
When I grinned and glanced pointedly at the crown prince, the attendant cleared his throat and stepped outside. He was one of the crown prince’s attendants who’d followed from Breisburg, and his standing was quite high.
He was none other than the eldest son of a count palatine family. Even so, he was a noble without a domain, so I didn’t pay him any mind at all. If he ever picked a fight with me, the count palatine family would have to apologize to me, a man without a title.
"He’s stiff and inflexible, but a good fellow."
"Are you perhaps thinking of him as a replacement for Sir Vermeer?"
"Who knows? Anyway, this is only the second time I’ve written a love letter, so I’m not sure I did it right."
"Hmm, I think I know who the first love letter was for."
"Ahem, I suppose you would."
It was none other than my wife, the one I love most in all the world.
Embarrassed, the crown prince cleared his throat.
He found it terribly awkward and embarrassing to look at me. This was all the queen’s fault, for laying bare the crown prince’s tender first love to me without so much as a warning. I’d be mortified too, in his place.
"It was the first love letter I’d ever written in my life, but in the end I never managed to send it to Hilda. No, to Lady Brünhilt."
"When it’s just us, you can comfortably call her Hilda. I’m a generous man."
"Because of Mother, things nearly became awkward between us, so I’m glad you’re so understanding."
The crown prince apparently still found that day’s events nerve-racking. Hilda, who’d played with them since childhood, had been the first love of both the crown prince and Vermeer, and the top candidate to become queen.
Hilda herself had been completely oblivious to the two men’s feelings. The cause seemed to be that, as a child, Hilda had been a total tomboy, so she’d never once regarded the two of them as members of the opposite sex.
Unfortunately, since I’d snatched her up, the two childhood friends must have seethed. The crown prince, who’d meant to take me on as a close aide, had apparently resented me for a while because I ended up becoming Hilda’s husband.
In effect we’d been rivals in love, but now we got along very well. The crown prince had come to feel it was actually for the best that Hilda married me. It would have pained his heart if she’d married some worthless noble.
The righteous crown prince was, on a human level, far more pleasant and easier to be around than the conspiring Grand Duke Karlus, who harbored hundreds of cunning serpents within. The difference between someone who gets a joke and someone who doesn’t is enormous.
That was probably why I’d gone to such lengths to thwart Louis and the Duke of Radensdorf. Aside from the old man and the Grand Duke, I really don’t mesh well with those of a conspiratorial disposition.
"But what brings you to request an audience? Surely not because of the letter?"
"I’m sorry to say there’s good news and bad news."
"Haa, so where there’s good news, there’s bad news. Let me hear the bad news first."
He seemed to feel it was better to take the beating first, but in truth this bad news concerned the defected Hoenir, so I’d agonized considerably before deciding to reveal it to the crown prince.
The Hoenir were an intelligence force directly under the Grand Duke, charged with the central role of guarding the Altringen royal family from within the shadows. The true nature of that organization was shrouded in mystery, known only to a select few.
Revealing their existence to the crown prince was a daunting matter, but from the moment the Hoenir fractured and some of them sided with the duke’s army, all of that became meaningless.
The Hoenir had now risen above the surface in earnest. And so I boldly decided to inform the crown prince of everything about the Hoenir, who’d been hidden beneath the surface all this time.
"Your Highness, are you familiar with an organization called the Hoenir?"
"Hoenir? You mean the shadow god of Germanic mythology? Why bring that up all of a sudden?"
"It’s the name of an intelligence organization that exists within the shadows of the Altringen royal family. Quite literally, they’re people who live in the shadows. Only a select few know their true nature."
It was such an out-of-nowhere thing to say that it would have been easy to dismiss as an idle joke, but the crown prince saw the seriousness in my eyes and thought better of it. Because it was no joke at all.
"The Hoenir were His Highness the Grand Duke’s secret eyes and his deadly dagger. It was they who uncovered the queen’s affair, Prince Louis’s ambition, and the Duke of Radensdorf’s rebellion."
"Is that... true?"
It must have been a shocking truth for the crown prince. His expression hardened gravely, and he paced by the window. He seemed to be sorting out his thoughts. It surely wasn’t unrelated to all the questions he’d harbored about the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke had known everything.
He’d known an abnormal amount, so only now did the crown prince realize that the source of that intelligence had been the Hoenir, who’d lived hidden in the shadows.
Wouldn’t it feel like being a pawn moved about on someone’s chessboard? It was the same for me. I’d been playing the Grand Duke’s faithful piece all this time, after all.
The reward had been sweet, but it wasn’t a pleasant thing.
Having learned the truth, the crown prince let out a long sigh.
"I see. So that’s why Father knew everything."
"And the head of those people was Marquis Bertheim."
"What? That can’t be! The marquis I know isn’t that kind of man."
Outwardly, Marquis Bertheim had been regarded as a loyal servant who’d earned the late king’s trust, but with no heir, he was nothing more than an elder noble appointed marquis as a gesture of honor from the late king.