XIII: Carmilla and Shirley
AFTER the anti-Farune coalition army was repulsed from near the border with Dorssen, Carmilla devoted herself to the defense of the country. She did not join the Farunian army’s invasion of Eyland. This went against Carmilla’s warlike nature, but considering Dorssen’s internal situation, it only made sense.
To put it simply, Dorssen still hadn’t fully recovered its strength. It had already been dealt a grievous blow in the war against Farune under the previous king, and after Vulcan and Eyland had taken advantage of the confusion, the king’s younger brother, Alan, had led a rebellion. The country had been falling apart. Its army had been less than half as strong as in its heyday, and while the Palace Knights Carmilla had brought from Farune were elite fighters, there weren’t nearly enough of them. Even if Carmilla had wanted to go fight, she wouldn’t have been able to.
How dull, Carmilla thought. She was sitting on the throne of Dorssen, bored. She had entrusted Gamarath’s bureaucrats with governing and the economy, so there were no problems there. She had also selected some outstanding young Dorssenians to be educated as prospective bureaucrats, which meant she was prepared for the future. As for the military, she had created a branch of the Hundred in Dorssen, and was making progress in training powerful warriors. With time, the army would be up for anything.
Still, it was all contrary to Carmilla’s basic disposition. If she had still been the Carmilla from before she had married into the Farunian royal family, she probably would have just done as she pleased after seizing power in Dorssen. She wouldn’t have cared one bit about internal administration, and would have ended up completely surrounded by sycophants.
However, Farune had changed her. By undergoing the hellish training of the Hundred and being forced to eat vile monster meat, her personality had been thoroughly scrubbed clean of anything haughty or aristocratic. She had learned the painful lesson that the things she was given couldn’t be taken for granted, and she had lost her interest in overly expensive jewelry and lavish meals. Now, she only used money to keep up royal appearances.
She had also realized that she loved her son, Leon, more than she had expected she would. She had made it her purpose in life to develop Dorssen as much as possible before handing it over to him. If it hadn’t been for him, she might have gone to Eyland alone and fought to her heart’s content.
Until recently, Carmilla had left Leon with Cassandra in Farune, but now that the situation in Dorssen had calmed down, she had gone to Farune herself to pick him up. Leon was stronger and had more powerful mana than before, perhaps because of Cassandra’s influence, which pleased Carmilla. Currently, Leon’s tutor was looking after him.
“But there’s still nothing to do,” Cassandra said, unconsciously letting her thoughts slip out. The handmaidens around her all shuddered. They had been working for her since before she had married Mars, back when she’d had a despotic personality, so they had an unconscious physical response to her announcing her boredom. Carmilla quietly chuckled at her servants’ unchanging behavior. I’ve mellowed out though, haven’t I?
As she reminisced about her changes, a direct subordinate of hers, Shirley, smoothly appeared like a shadow. Shirley was originally a master assassin, and now she was serving as one of the five Champions, the symbols of Dorssen’s military might. While Carmilla had deployed the other three Champions she had appointed—Minerva, Rhea, and Sasha—to important points along the border, she had put Shirley in charge of intelligence.
“I have a report,” Shirley whispered. She was cloaked in long, black robes, and her face was hidden under a veil. The veil concealed quite a beautiful face, but she rarely ever exposed it, even around Carmilla.
“Yes, what is it? Something fun?” Carmilla asked. She welcomed Shirley’s report—it was just right for staving off her boredom.
“The Theocracy of Mauve has officially annexed Eyland.”
“My, that was quick.” Carmilla wasn’t surprised. This was just another step in Mars’s plan.
Of course, her secretive husband never let slip to others what he was thinking, so this was only a guess on her part, but Carmilla suspected that he had been planning this course of events ever since he had welcomed Maria to Farune. Mars’s specialty was using women to rule over other countries indirectly, just as he had used Carmilla herself in Dorssen and Sheila in Vulcan. Carmilla had heard that Cassandra was from the Ronzan Empire, so even his marriage to the Swordmaster could have been laying the groundwork for the future. Maria was a saint, so he couldn’t marry her, but there was no doubt that they were in an intimate relationship. He was planning to take over even the Church of Mauve with his bloodline.
What a formidable man. He was normally kind to the point of being fickle, and he didn’t display any sort of overpowering royal presence to speak of—but that was all part of what made him so impossible to predict.
“I thought it would be several more years before she absorbed Eyland,” Carmilla said, tilting her head in puzzlement. She wasn’t all that surprised, but it did seem a bit premature.
Carmilla didn’t have any direct acquaintance with Maria, but she had heard that the woman had an honest and saintly character, so she had assumed that she wouldn’t use force, and that it would therefore take time for Eyland to be annexed.
“After her mediation established peace between Farune and Eyland, a movement in Eyland emerged to support the country’s restoration to the Theocracy of Mauve. It appears that not only the people, but even the nobility were in favor of it.”
“There have to have been some nobles who were against it. Maria was born a commoner, was she not?” The nobility had a natural aversion to obeying those of low status.
“Indeed, there does appear to have been sizable opposition. However, during a visit to Eyland, Lady Maria was attacked by a violent criminal.”
Carmilla smiled, delighted. “Oh my.”
“She was injured, and the man who was captured on the scene apparently confessed that a noble of the opposition had been behind it,” Shirley reported dispassionately.
“I see. I suppose the enraged masses started a riot and attacked the nobles of the opposition? And the opposition quickly lost power?”
“It is as you say. Rumor has it that some of the nobles in the opposition died mysterious deaths.”
“Mysterious deaths, you say?” Carmilla smiled enigmatically. Something similar had happened in Dorssen after she had seized power. In that case, the person responsible for the deaths was the woman in black standing in front of her. “You said she was injured, but Maria is a powerful priestess, so I can’t imagine that she was ever at risk. It’s too good to be true, don’t you think? I wonder who drew it up. His Majesty? Or was it my elder sister? Or maybe Gamarath…”
The bored Carmilla happily began to theorize about the truth of the affair. Of course, the elder sister she referred to was Frau. Carmilla suspected the wizard had consciously sacrificed her ethics, taking on Farune’s darkness for the sake of Mars’s conquests—and with a singular resolve to boot. Frau was why Carmilla had contented herself with the position of second princess.
“Perhaps it was Lady Maria herself,” Shirley suggested unexpectedly.
Carmilla’s mouth curved into a smile. “Maria? She isn’t a straight-laced saint?” she asked with great interest.
“I am told that ever since coming to Farune, she has been working conspicuously in the arena to gather the support of the people. She also made significant contributions to the Farunian army as a healer in the war with Eyland. There are even rumors that she actively encouraged the citizens of Eyland to eat monster meat. And if she was a true saint, she would never ascend to the papacy, let alone to Eyland’s throne.” As a member of the criminal underworld, Shirley didn’t buy the surface-level appraisal of Maria.
“Maria will be His Majesty’s princess consort—no, in her case, his mistress, perhaps?—and a simple-minded woman could never be fit for that role.” Carmilla laughed derisively.
There was no way Mars would ever choose an ordinary, respectable woman. Each of his four current wives possessed inhuman strength. He decided on the women he kept by his side only on the basis of their power, and not by their looks or other qualities. Only then did Carmilla realize that she was lucky to have been chosen to be one of them. If she hadn’t been, she may very well have been deemed an enemy and mercilessly killed.
“Making Lord Mars’s acquaintance is quite demanding,” Shirley said.
Carmilla got the feeling that the assassin was smiling beneath her veil. Come to think of it, Shirley had also participated in the Consort Selection Tournament, and she had once had an eye on the position of Mars’s wife.
“Do you still wish to become His Majesty’s consort?” Carmilla asked out of curiosity.
“No, I think I’ll refrain. I don’t think I’d survive it…”
Carmilla smiled awkwardly at Shirley’s reply.