🐉 🐉 🐉
THEY went back to their lodging, taken by a royal carriage, where they were welcomed by the aroma of roasting meat and fragrant herbs.
“Congrats on a huge job finished. I’ve pulled out all the stops today, so go ahead and nourish your spirits,” said Viola in her apron and glasses.
“Whoa.”
On the table behind her was an array of exquisite items: a giant freshwater fish, roasted while wrapped in fragrant leaves, another of the same type of fish, browned in a golden sauce, chicken stuffed with cheese, a pot of bright-red stew letting off a spicy aroma, baked pâté made from ground offal of some animal, a leafy salad with chunks of bacon as large as dice, a pie of seasonal fruit…
“I’m more shocked than excited. Viola, you really made all of this?” asked Lushera.
“Timm and Weyne lent a hand.”
“Seriously was just the one hand I lent!” said Timm.
“Viola’s a pro,” said Weyne.
Timm was still lying upside down on the sofa reading a newspaper, while Weyne was maintaining his lock picks, wires, and other thieves’ tools.
“I wasn’t busy today anyway,” said Viola. She must be an insane perfectionist to make all this for no reason other than she wasn’t busy.
Viola had shown Kaphal and Lushera a bit about cooking before, but now Lushera was realizing the menu that day had been selected as something even beginners could handle. And, with how stingy Lushera was, her first thought when she saw the food was to wonder how much it all cost.
“All right, hurry up, before it gets cold,” said Viola. “You’re back a little later than I expected. Did something come up?”
“I don’t think there was any problem with the negotiations themselves. But we had tea afterwards, and then had to wait after that…” Lushera took out a velveted jewelry box, just about small enough to fit in her hands.
“What’s this?”
“A present from the king to Lady Monica. He wants me to take it to her.”
“Oh?”
After tea, Lushera and Kaphal had to wait for a little bit while this was readied, and then they were sent home with it.
Adventurers were often used to carry things for people of high station, but this gift was likely just an excuse to get Lushera to go see Monica.
“He said…he wants me to be Monica’s friend,” said Lushera.
“That would be nice! They say adventurers stand outside the normal social order, but they do form connections. I doubt anyone will complain, since it’ll be a connection with a dragon.” Viola nodded, looking triumphant. “Hey, Lushera. Don’t you think sharing a meal with good friends or family is all you need to be happy?” She let out a sigh while looking at the table bursting with food, her eyes focused on something beyond that.
It came out of the blue, knocking Lushera off-balance, but she did feel the same. She wanted normal friends and a family. She understood the happiness of sharing a table with someone.
This huge amount of food set a scene, that it was made with the intention of dividing it up and sharing it with everyone. If all this were for one person…it would be luxurious, but it would also be empty. And they wouldn’t be able to finish it.
“Yeah…you’re right. I definitely agree,” said Lushera.
“Eating alone can be relaxing, though. But anyway…it’s just nice having someone to share with. You take it for granted if you have it every day, but it’s not something everyone has. Let’s reflect on that happiness every once in a while.”
Viola’s tone was heartfelt, and there was an unexpected weight to her words.
✦ ✦ ✦
🐉 🐉 🐉
THERE was a mansion in the high-end district of Alhyura, where lords kept extra homes for when they visited the capital, or where successful merchants lived.
Its name, Willow Mansion, was forgotten long ago. The people of the town had a harsher nickname for it: Prison Mansion. It had once belonged to the family of Duke Foster, father of Lorraina, former Queen Consort, but the court had borrowed it, so it was now jointly managed.
There was only one resident: Monica. Though, it perhaps wasn’t appropriate to call her a resident. Her schedule was managed entirely by the court. She couldn’t leave of her own will. It was essentially house arrest.
The only other people there were the live-in servants. No one ever visited.
To the Foster family, Monica was a symbol of their betrayal of the court’s faith in them. She was a black mark in their history, one they loathed dealing with, and she wasn’t even permitted to visit her mother.
The high-ranking nobles had the important duty of maintaining the bloodline of people who could wield the dracovitae through marriage into the royal family, but, whether for better or for worse, the duke’s family was not so desperate in their attempts to control the family pedigree that they needed to use Monica.
From the court’s perspective, which was essentially from the viewpoint of guiding a country, Monica didn’t matter, so long as she didn’t go off and have children where she shouldn’t—unnecessarily spread the blood of those who could use the dracovitae—it was most likely true that they didn’t care if the Fosters took care of the issue themselves. But there was more than one noble who said that wouldn’t be enough. The situation wasn’t completely disconnected from the troubles surrounding the selection of a marriage partner for (the then) Crown Prince Lazlo.
There was a gentleman’s agreement that there would be meetings for deciding the prince’s wife, but the Foster Duchy advanced discussions with the court about this while holding negotiations regarding taxes on the domestic cultivation of green tea, a product that had been imported from overseas (in effect, using those negotiations as a bargaining chip for the marriage discussions). They slipped past the other noble families who had potential candidates for the marriage and forced Lorraina in as the Queen Consort.
As this was a decision made by the former king, Lazlo’s father, Lazlo didn’t learn of the decision until it was too late to stop it, since the king’s public stance was still that the decision would be made at the aforementioned meeting.
In all honesty, considering the various families and political situation of the time, Lorraina would likely have won the position even if the Fosters had followed normal rules of engagement, but that didn’t mean the losers liked having the decision made in such a ridiculous way.
Lorraina’s indiscretion became fodder for these noble families to attack her image.
When Monica was born, King Lazlo (with little time on the throne) already had a daughter named Francesca with Queen Consort Lorraina, though people began to question whether or not Francesca was also another man’s daughter. That was nothing more than an attempt to find fault though, as even those saying it knew it was absurd. Both Lazlo and the Fosters denied the claims.
The result was that, while she did lose her position and title of princess, Francesca was allowed freedom with the Fosters responsible for keeping an eye on her. Monica didn’t get that.
She wasn’t a child of the king, and she was largely abandoned by her mother’s family. Under the name of “controlling the bloodline of dracovitae users,” she was put under surveillance and her actions limited to prevent her from interacting with the opposite sex while she was of marriageable age (which was both a vague and very long period).
You could say she was a sacrificial victim meant to neatly tie off this scandal by giving the angry nobles a place to vent their frustration. She was constantly paraded around the capital as a display of the Fosters’ mistakes.
Lazlo tried to stand against that, insisting the royal court was above lashing out like that, and especially when the target was a girl born through no sin of her own! She might not be his own flesh and blood, but he believed this was entirely inappropriate when considering the dignity and humanity their country should have.
But it was bad timing that around then, their ally, the Guffarr Union to the northeast, went to war against the Martgarz Empire on the other side of Mount Kugus.
Setrayu was small. The country might find its ruin if steered incorrectly through the clash of two large countries. The nobles, unable to let go of their anger, pushed back. The international situation worsened. Stirring up trouble domestically at that time over one baby girl would only put all the citizens in danger…
It was a decision a young king had to make when he had only recently ascended the throne, leaving him on unstable ground and with few possible moves.