Chapter 6 (1/2)

Lucia Chapter 6

Shall We Marry? (4)

translated by: iseuli

edited by: lili

Lucia let Hugo wait in the receiving room, while she returned to her bedroom to change.

“Princess, where are your maids?”

“Um… You see…”

When she mumbled out the reasons to the maids following behind her, their faces paled into a blue hue. The top palace maids were usually the ones responsible for assigning palace duties among themselves. Thus, they would be the first ones to be punished following today’s events.

While she was changing, the maids put in all their efforts to care for her. They were doing anything possible in order to lighten their punishment.

Lucia feigned ignorance. They were the ones who chose not to carry out their duties. She didn’t have any intention to call them out for this, but she didn’t intend to protest if they were to be punished.

The palace maids who were here today were not here because they were worried about her. They were here because they feared the honored guest who was visiting. In other words, they were afraid of the princess who had the backing of a powerful Duke.

In the receiving room, Lucia looked at the tea served by the palace maids with amazed eyes. They actually had such skills. There was no tea in this palace, but they managed to get a hold of some and prepare it so fast. How long had it been since she’d drunk tea served by the palace maids?

He looked to the corners of the receiving room; two palace maids were standing in each corner. They were ready to carry out any orders and they were here so that an unmarried princess would not be alone in a room with another man.

“Have you been well? From your strength before, you seemed to be well.”

Lucia’s face flushed red upon the Duke’s greeting.

“Yes, Your Grace. Have you been well? I was shocked from your sudden visit.”

“I’ve just followed your example.”

He was currently pointing out her previous action of suddenly visiting the Duke’s mansion. She was the one in the wrong, so she couldn’t say anything. This guy really held his grudges.

‘So when there are other people around… he will speak formally to me.’

It was not a surprising action, but it felt like he was being very kind toward her. It seemed his sudden change of tone shocked her quite a bit.

“I have some important things to discuss with you, so it would be better if you could replace those maids with your most trusted servants instead.”

“Huh? Ah… I don’t have any maids with me at the moment…”

“Did they leave for a task? There isn’t a single one?”

To be precise, she didn’t have any maids at all. However, Lucia just nodded her head. He thought silently for a moment, then stood up.

“Would you be alright with going for a light walk?”

Lucia glanced at the two maids on standby and stood up as well. The only place they could walk around was the tiny garden by the palace, but if they distanced themselves a bit, they would be able to talk without being overheard.

“Why are you personally overseeing your maids’ duties? Have you mistaken yourself as a maid? You even leave the palace with a maid’s permission slip.”

As soon as they were alone, he dropped all formalities. It seemed it was his own style to talk casually when they were alone. It was shocking last time, but listening to him talk that way a second time, it felt like they had grown a bit closer and it didn’t feel so bad.

“…There’s no one else around to do it.”

“What are the maids doing then?”

“Um…. That is… Truthfully… I live here alone.”

“…You don’t have maids?”

“I don’t.”

“In this detached palace, you live alone?”

“Yes.”

“How about your meals and cleaning? Do you take care of those yourself?”

“…Yes. It’s not too tiring. I’m not looking after others, I only need to take care of myself after all…”

“Do you think that makes sense?”

He had been suppressing his voice all this time. He suddenly burst out in roaring laughter.

“Since when?”

“…It has been several years now.”

“Unbelievable.”

So that was what it meant when Fabian reported that she had no other maids residing in the palace with her. He had assumed she had a unique personality that caused people to run away.

Although she was low in rank, she was still royalty. It didn’t make sense that a person of royal descent wouldn’t have a single servant. That was a major mistake on the administrators’ side. It was mind-boggling that they would handle the administration of palace workers so poorly. If the subordinates working under him carried out their duties in such a manner, they would be killed by him on the spot without another word.

“What important things did you want to discuss with me?”

“His majesty has given his permission for our marriage. When the exact date of the wedding is decided, I will let you know ahead of time. You won’t have to wait longer than a month.”

He felt fatigued after a long morning struggling with the Emperor to get the upper hand. The Emperor had never bothered himself with the princess before, but during the exchange he had spoken of her like the most precious daughter of his royal palace. The Emperor’s mind was full of greedy intentions as the intense war of nerves had kept going for a while. In the end, they had compromised on terms they both agreed with.

She had said the Emperor would not remember her existence. During their discussion, it was clear as day that the Emperor didn’t know who she was. His lies were too obvious. Hugo had referred to her as ‘the 16th princess’ from beginning to end, being careful not to reveal her name. The Emperor as a result, referred to his daughter as ‘the 16th princess’ until the end, without being able to bring up her name once throughout the whole proceedings.

Right about now, the Emperor would be busy trying to find out the identity of the ‘16th princess.’ Though in reality, it would be the servants under him that would be running around the palace like their feet were on fire.

Hugo didn’t understand why, but he felt great irritation toward the Emperor. He never liked him to begin with, but held no grudges against him either. Even though he was a father, how negligent could he have been that a lone girl had to walk into a man’s house for his hand in marriage like that. Inside her own palace, she had to do her own laundry and clean with her own two hands. She was clearly being discriminated against even with her royal identity.

He empathized with her distress a little, while agreeing with Kwiz’ malicious criticism of the Emperor; the Emperor only knew how to piss his seeds in the palace.

“…You’re incredibly… fast with taking care of business.”

Lucia had to take some time to understand his words. She had thought it would take at least half a year to finalize everything. This speed was astonishing.

“I will look into what happened with the maids.”

“You don’t need to. Even if you don’t act, someone will be punished eventually. If Your Grace personally gets involved, everyone will end up with a harsher punishment. I don’t wish for such an end.”

“The people who didn’t properly carry out their duties should be rightfully punished. You’re being uselessly tolerant.”

“You might think so, but I liked living alone in this palace. I had complete control of my freedom. In the end, you’ve also benefited as a result.”

“…How so?”

“This marriage. Aren’t you satisfied with our deal? I believe it’s the reason you were able to close the deal so fast. If I remained quietly in the palace, I would have never been able to offer this marriage, either.”

She had a strong spirit. Where could such strong willpower come from such a small body? She seemed like a good candidate to become the lady of the house. Hugo dazedly started picturing her future as Taran Dukedom’s lady of the house.

“As soon as our marriage becomes official, I plan to return to the North. We will remain there for a while.”

The Duke of Taran’s territory was located in the North. It was a wide, barren land with unending wars.

“I don’t plan to hold a wedding ceremony. What are your thoughts on this?”

Without the ceremony, all they would need to do was get a couple of people to witness the two sign their names onto a marriage certificate. She didn’t want to walk down the church aisle holding her father’s hand. The only person who would want to congratulate Lucia for her wedding would be Norman, but because of her commoner status, she wouldn’t be able to attend. Lucia didn’t care how their marriage would be settled.

“Yes, that’s fine.”

Any other woman would have been jumping with anger if their wedding was composed of signing documents. A marriage was something women dreamed of their entire lives. However, this wasn’t a common marriage, as one party was shamelessly leading it, while the other party agreed like it was some trivial matter.

“Your Grace, I have one request. It’s about Norman… the female author you’re familiar with. I’ve written a simple letter to her. Would it be alright if your people delivered it for me? There isn’t any significant information in it. It’s alright if you read the contents as well. If we are going to the north, it will be some time before I’m able to contact her again. I don’t want her to worry about me.”

“That’s fine. Hand me your letter, I will deliver it for you.”

It became strangely quiet and Hugo looked away while his eyebrows twitched. Lucia had been staring at him with eyes that were flowing with overwhelming gratitude as she held her two hands together. Those were the same eyes he would get from females after he gifted them expensive jeweled necklaces. In fact, Lucia’s eyes were sparkling with even more blinding joy.

“Thank you, Your Grace. Your Grace is much more considerate than I thought- I mean you are a gracious person as I originally thought.”

This female didn’t fear him, but she had thought of him as a shameless villain. It seemed very simple to change her prejudiced view of him as a villain to that of a good human being.

He was confused whether it was something to celebrate or not. Anyway, he felt very strange at the moment. However, it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.

‘It seems I won’t have to spend too much money.’

He lightly cleared his throat and spoke.

“You will need to move out of here. This place is too isolated and with poor security. The news that I’ve come by will travel quickly. Those who are interested in me won’t leave you alone. Many guests will come to find you.”

“…I see.”

“Don’t stray off on your own, be good and stay home. Don’t agree to meet everyone who wants to see you.”

How was it possible for a person to speak so unkindly? As if she were a stupid girl, like he was speaking to his subordinate. Earlier, Lucia had seen him in a new gentle light, but now all those feelings were no more. All the charming points he’d managed to gather, had gone in the negative.

‘It’s weird… that I don’t hate him…’

Was this the charm that had all those women clinging onto him? He was selfish and rude, but he didn’t feel disagreeable.

“Yes. Do you have any other commands?”

He paused for a moment and answered, “No,” with a smile.

This woman was definitely different somehow. She always spoke her mind about everything, but remained dutiful during the important moments. Yet at the same time, she wasn’t servile. He found the shameless and proud bunch unpleasant, but he disdained those who groveled while licking his shoes. It was difficult to find the perfect balance between those two points. She was a satisfactory person for the contract.

***

The Duke returned to his mansion and made his way to the receiving room. Jerome and Fabian followed him in. Hugo took off his coat, while Jerome took it and left the room. Fabian, who had been keeping quiet all this time, suddenly opened his mouth and a flood of words spilled out.

“Where did you go? I’ve told you that you shouldn’t go off alone in secret. Is it so hard to at least let us know where you are going?”

Fabian was the only person brave enough to nag at Hugo. Even the vassals whose hair turned gray from old age didn’t have the bravery to do so. Hugo would often imagine slicing this guy’s chest open to see it filled with nothing but guts(1).

“Didn’t you say it was your day off today?”

Fabian kept to his scheduled hours like it was the law. After working five days, he would make sure to get a day off. Fabian stated his family was as important as his duties under the Duke. He was the only person who would shamelessly state that to the Duke’s face.

Even so, Fabian never hesitated to follow the Duke into months long wars. Fabian wasn’t an underhanded or calculating fellow by nature. He never refused important duties, but still made sure to get all the additional side benefits in the process. In this manner, Fabian and Jerome, although brothers, were complete opposites.

“You didn’t say anything about leaving the house yesterday. If you brought it up, I would have assisted you.”

“I went to the palace.”

Fabian let out a sigh. How could a Duke enter the palace without a single attendant by his side? He wasn’t like this because he was worried dangers would befall the Duke. There probably wasn’t an existence that could get rid of the Duke by physical force under the heavens.

This wasn’t the battlefield. Even without a sword, this place had countless other ways to kill a person. A small pretext to an event could snowball into a huge disaster.

The Taran family was originally neutral to all political factions. But it was different this time. It was the first time in history that the Taran family decided to support a side. It wasn’t publicly announced as of yet, but holding hands with the crown prince was the same thing as stepping into the whirlpool of power struggles between the different factions.

The crown prince had many enemies. Everyone was eyeing them, looking for the smallest fault in order to create havoc. The nobles with strong political power never went around alone. There had to be an eyewitness around, in case something happened.

There were times when the Duke would be too callous. The person who would have to run around tying all the loose ends was Fabian. The Duke didn’t show any care to the circumstances at all. After ordering Fabian to settle the problem, he wouldn’t put his mind on the topic again. There wasn’t anything more annoying than finding the Duke going around by himself.

“…Did you go visit the Crown Prince?”

“Hmm? Ah… I should have done so since it was on the way.”

“If you didn’t need to visit the Crown Prince, what was your reason…?”

“I’m getting married. I just got permission from His Majesty.”

“…”

Fabian took deep breaths. He had his mouth shut tight as only rude words would come out at the moment.

“With that princess?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Probably within a month’s time”

One month? Fabian tried his best to suppress his chest heating up with anger.

During war, he was his adjutant. During regular day to day life, he was his aide. He had always known this about the Duke, but the Duke would often throw him into a random situation without a single explanation. In other words, the Duke would make all the decisions, then he would be responsible for making it all happen.

“Don’t let this spread around the Kingdom.”

“…Huh?”

“As soon as we finish the necessary documents, we will be leaving for the North.”

‘And when did you decide this?’ Fabian was despondent over having to organize a moving company to the North. Fortunately, he had one month to take care of everything.

“There’s no reason for people from the Dukedom to come over for the wedding. A simple note of my marriage will be enough.”