BERTINE had returned to her home with Franz and Elise after their meeting with Cecilio and Ignacio in the capitol building.
“Franz, Elise, won’t you stay tonight for dinner and enjoy the cuisines this country has to offer?” she invited. “I have all sorts of things. Stingers, of course, but also fruit marmalades and jams and bounties from its far-off ocean. We also have fresh vegetables and meat on hand too.”
“I’ve become quite proficient in cooking Federation dishes, so I’m confident in my abilities now,” Dorothée politely added.
“Her cooking truly is sublime,” Bertine said proudly.
That night, Dorothée used both black and white stingers unsparingly on everything she made. Fried giant clams. Grilling jarred bumpfish. Roasting the cuts of pork she’d bought at the market. It was a feast for the older couple, one which they thoroughly enjoyed.
“Ahhh, this was all so delicious,” Franz remarked. “These stingers do wonders on all sorts of ingredients, eh? I’m particularly fond of the combination of white stingers and fried clam.”
“The white ones make sweet things taste so refreshing,” Elise said, impressed.
A short time after their meal ended, the carriage Bertine had arranged in advance for them arrived. Pleasantly tipsy on the star fruit wine, both Franz and Elise cheerfully boarded the vehicle along with their mountain of trunks. Then the driver set off for their hotel.
Once Dorothée and Bertine saw them off, they headed back inside, where the younger woman spoke.
“Dorothée, the dream in my mind is finally starting to take shape in reality. Now that the former manager of a high-class hotel has arrived, there really is no going back for me. I certainly can’t afford to fail with their lives at stake too.”
“You will succeed, my lady. I have no doubt. After all, there are so many people willing to help you. And I’m one of them. I shall do my utmost to support you as well.”
How could I have forgotten I have Dorothée on my side? Bertine thought to herself. She had always been there next to her, quietly believing in her and supporting her. Throughout all the moments, despair, happiness, and everything in between.
“Yes, you’re here. I can endure anything again and again because of you.”
“Oh, my. How unusual for you to say such things, my lady. Is something the matter?”
“Not at all. I myself will continue striving to be someone you’re proud to work for.”
Bertine started cleaning up the kitchen. Dorothée quickly followed suit. While she bustled around efficiently, she discreetly wiped away happy tears with her fingertips.
✦ ✦ ✦
AT the imperial villa, the second prince, Claudio, devoured the books he’d brought from the library. Ever since meeting Bertine, a singular idea had grown larger and larger inside him. It was the desire to live his life on his own terms, without his imperial identity or the Empire itself.
For as long as he could remember, he and his mother led suffocating lives so as not to attract the attention of the empress and those loyal to her. But once his studies in academics and swordsmanship began, he realized that the harder he worked, the more those people resented his mother. It had been years since his realization of the consequences of his achievements. Yet still, he couldn’t forget how every time he was praised, days later he would find his mother’s eyes reddened from crying.
He had always known how much the empress hated his mother because of the way she looked at her. My schedule of lessons is completely different from the crown prince’s, so we don’t ever cross paths. How then does the empress know of my results? Do my teachers go out of their way to inform her? In the beginning, he hadn’t been sure of anything.
Once Claudio grew older though, he finally understood why his mother always remained unusually tense whenever she was in the presence of three particular attendants. Because they were all in the empress’s camp.
He’d learned the truth one day from one of his mother’s other attendants. This particular woman had accompanied his mother to the imperial palace from her childhood home. She’d told him that those three women reported every detail of his and his mother’s conduct to the empress. Furthermore, when the empress and the trio encountered Diana outside the villa, they deliberately gossiped about her loud enough for her to hear their ridicule. The attendant had tearfully confided all this to him.
Once Claudio knew, he rushed immediately to Diana.
“Mother, what did they do to you? What did they say?”
But no matter how much he pressed her, Diana refused to answer. When he asked her why she wouldn’t tell His Majesty, she only had this to say: “I refuse to lower myself to their level. It’s better to deal with them by feigning ignorance of their words.”
Why was his father allowing such a situation to continue? He wanted to unleash his frustration directly on the man, but whenever he mentioned the thought to his mother, she pleaded with him not to. So he silently grit his teeth and took care not to provoke their enemies’ hostility by making a spectacle of himself.
Yet in one fell swoop, Bertine blew away the struggles suffocating his life. Forcibly sent to the Federation with no allies there, she nevertheless managed to carve her own path. Alone, no less. She successfully completed all of her tasks, one bigger than the next. Her smile was so blinding it made him ashamed of how timidly he’d been living his life thus far.
“There is always a path that leads to hope.” Since that day, Claudio hadn’t been able to forget Bertine’s words. Since that day, he’d been wondering if he and his mother could leave the Empire. Go somewhere his father and the empress’s reach didn’t extend.
It was entirely possible his mother wouldn’t go with him because of her love for his father. In that case, he would venture out on his own. If his existence was the reason this society shunned his mother, derided her, then it would be best for him to leave this country. So the young boy concluded.
Though he couldn’t deny he was worried about going to another country on his own, without his guards. But hadn’t Bertine survived as a woman alone? Not just survived but thrived, seeing how brilliantly her aura glowed? He would much rather live and die with hope instead of allowing pain and anxiety to continue their reign of terror.
Brooding, the twelve-year-old boy dedicated himself to finding a way out of the Empire.