Chapter 178: Meet the Queen

The royal palace gardens were tended with painstaking care by countless gardeners, and the nobility called the place the Garden of Eden for the mystical atmosphere that hung over it. Even I had only been here once before.

The queen loved this place dearly and was said to spend a great deal of time here. The fact that the gardens had been chosen as the audience site was almost certainly her doing. I was being guided by the royal palace chamberlain.

"It is an honor to escort you, my lord."

The chamberlain had served the royal house since the late king’s reign. Though only a lower noble, he wielded influence even high nobles couldn’t afford to ignore. He was a man who enjoyed what you might call gatekeeper power.

His disposition was loyalty (neutral), similar to the Administrative Minister’s. He had looked after the Altringen household for many long years and was on close terms with Marquis Bertheim—which meant the chamberlain was also a collaborator of Hoenir.

At the center of the garden stood an elaborately sculpted fountain, and that was the spot chosen for today’s audience. What caught my eye was that a neatly dressed musician and painter had been brought along as well.

I could tell they were artists the queen personally patronized. The attendants were positioned around the fountain at even intervals, and what stood out was how perfectly still they stood, not so much as a twitch.

These attendants weren’t commoners but lower nobles.

Serving the royal family was itself an honor for the lower nobility. Back when I was a ducal knight, I’d been nominally at the same rank as these people. Now things had completely flipped.

And there was a Hoenir agent among them.

One of the attendants near the queen had to be a hidden ear of Hoenir, planted there in disguise. They’d already revealed themselves to me and offered their cooperation, but the organization still raised plenty of questions.

I kept quiet, since acknowledging anyone could blow their cover.

I found myself taking in the scenery despite myself. If the rose garden at Rosengarden boasted a bright, vivid beauty, this place had a grand, orderly, almost religious elegance.

A moment later, the queen appeared, her expression impassive, with the crown prince at her side holding her hand and escorting her. I rose from my seat and paid my respects to the crown prince first.

The chamberlain, seeing I hadn’t made a misstep, gave a faint, knowing smile.

People generally placed the queen second only to the Grand Duke, but in the royal hierarchy the crown prince actually ranked above the queen. Quite a few nobles didn’t realize this, but I’d been taught court etiquette by Hilda.

"You must be suffering, Your Highness. I’m truly grateful that you kept the promise you made me."

"It’s a promise between you and me. I couldn’t carelessly put it off."

Despite his haggard, exhausted face, the crown prince offered me a smile. He really was a good man. That was why I could trust him. Bastard or not, that much was certain.

"I will support Your Highness for as long as I live."

"That’s a strange thing to say. Have you ever not supported me?"

"I always have. The same is true now."

Smiling with his eyes, the crown prince introduced me to the queen. I dropped to one knee before her and offered a respectful greeting. The posture brought a kiss on the back of the hand to mind, but that was a French custom.

"Up close, you do indeed look like a fine knight worthy of representing Beren."

"You flatter me, Your Majesty. It is an honor to meet you."

Despite her words, the queen’s expression radiated cold. I couldn’t tell if she was always like this, or if she simply couldn’t compose herself with the man who’d been wrecking her plans at every turn now standing right in front of her.

But the crown prince didn’t seem to think anything was off, so this had to be her usual demeanor. I remembered her at least managing a smile during the post-victory ceremony. You really do have to meet someone in person to know them.

She really was beautiful enough that I could see how she’d captivated Baron Constance. Her venomous edge gave the impression of a fierce cat with its claws out. A woman who’d had both a baron and a Grand Duke.

The truth the Scouter showed didn’t lie.

I steeled my mind further.

Obsession (evil).

This was a trait that meant fanatical fixation, and when paired with Evil it meant she would use any means necessary. She was the root cause that had destroyed Baron Constance and ruined the lives of countless others.

"If not for Sir Streit, the crown prince might have faced a serious ordeal. Late as it is, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you."

"I only did my duty. I’m only sorry I didn’t realize it sooner."

"A humble man. It’s your achievement. You’re welcome to boast about it freely in front of me."

The eyes that met mine held thick wariness and something sharper. The matters the queen had tried to bury were now rising to the surface one by one, so naturally she was on edge.

A subtle tension hung in the air.

The crown prince didn’t seem to pick up on the strange undercurrent between us.

"It’s a shame Hilda isn’t here. I wish she could have come."

"She’s doing her part as the lord’s wife back in Feuzen."

"I had once considered making her my crown princess, but she ended up marrying Sir Streit instead. I was disappointed by that for some time. Our Franz was quite fond of Hilda as well."

She had just casually exposed the crown prince’s former feelings for Hilda right in front of me. This felt like a small bit of spite directed my way. But it was something I already knew.

I hadn’t heard it from Hilda—I’d heard it from Michael. The ministers, fearing that the War Minister’s family would grow too powerful, had opposed making her the crown princess.

Hilda had turned down the crown prince’s earnest courtship.

She’d said the position of crown princess felt like too much.

The fact that she’d chosen to become a ducal knight’s wife over a glittering crown princess’s seat only made her cooler in my eyes. That was why Hilda avoided talking about the crown prince in front of me.

If her current husband knew she’d been the crown prince’s first love, things would inevitably get awkward. But Michael had been so eager to share that I’d already known the whole story. I just played dumb.

In the end, the queen’s spite ended up cornering not me but the crown prince. The crown prince, who placed great weight on relationships, looked as startled as a child whose dangerous secret had just been dragged into the open.

"Mother, why are you bringing that up now?"

"I was being a little spiteful. It was such a shame to lose Hilda."

"Sigh. Sir Streit, my mother gets mischievous like this sometimes. I’m sorry to put you in this position."

It seemed the crown prince, caught between the queen and me, was the only one being worn down by all this. I reassured him not to worry about it—that it was already in the past and Hilda was my wife now.

"Sir Streit, what do you think of Louis?"

Hmm. Cutting straight to the heart of the matter, then.

"I don’t know him well, but he seemed to be a man who keeps his true feelings hidden."

"You saw correctly. He’s my son, but he’s unsettlingly like his father."

"Mother!"

The startled crown prince tried to stop her, but the queen paid him no mind.

If anything, she pressed harder, lashing at him like a whip.

"Do you still not understand? Louis is no longer your brother. He is your political enemy."

"Louis is my brother, and he is not the kind of person to scheme like that!"

"Open your eyes to reality. How long are you going to treat this like a child’s game?"

The crown prince hung his head, deeply wounded by the queen’s cold words. As the atmosphere abruptly turned grave, the chamberlain, who had been reading the room, dismissed all the attendants in the area.

"What do you think would have happened if Sir Streit hadn’t traced the source of that rumor?"

"That was Viscount Dumarck spreading lies to use Louis, wasn’t it?"

"Is that how desperately you want to believe in Louis?"

For a crown prince with a Justice disposition, this had to be a cruel reality. He looked tormented under the queen’s sharp rebuke. Smart as he was, he had to know—know that the Louis he thought he knew wasn’t real.

"Franz. Whether you want to deny it or not, the political war has already begun. Even with Louis under house arrest, do you really think the foolish Dumarck is the only noble connected to him?"

"Mother, are you suggesting Uncle is behind this?"

Duke Radensdorf was the one behind it. We hadn’t yet found a direct link, but in the current situation it was a connection well worth suspecting. Louis wouldn’t have moved without someone to lean on, would he?

"Our relationship is a complicated one, but we are in agreement about supporting the crown prince. That is why I permitted this meeting."