A Mad Lady’s Confession - Chapter 14

Standing before the door adorned with gold, Klaus checked his attire. Only after confirming there wasn’t a single fault to pick at did he tip his chin at the attendant.

As soon as the attendant announced him and permission was granted from within, Klaus stepped through the opened door.

Deep in the imperial palace, befitting the place where the Emperor resided, this space overflowed with splendor everywhere, along with its majesty.

At the summons of his father, whom he was seeing again after a long time, the steps he’d been taking so lightly faltered for a moment.

The Emperor wasn’t alone. Beside him was Madam Charlotte, one hand resting on her round, swollen belly. Klaus quickly smoothed down the expression that was about to twist and walked forward as if nothing were wrong.

“Glory to the Sun of the Empire.”

The Emperor, silent, merely nodded. He leaned toward Madam Charlotte seated beside him and whispered something. The woman cradling her belly quietly left the room.

“It’s been a while.”

“I have faithfully carried out Your Majesty’s commands and kept to my duties.”

That wasn’t an empty claim. Klaus strained to shake off the Emperor’s disfavor. From dawn until night, he did everything in his power to fulfill the heavy obligations placed on him.

Without any particular reaction to Klaus’s words, the Emperor picked up a sheet of paper that had been set on the table.

“A permanent tax reduction for the Gammelstad fief. Is it true you granted this with the authority you hold?”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

Klaus bowed his head and bit down on the inside of his mouth. These were the things he’d promised when he pushed that madwoman onto Matthias.

“Your reason?”

“…Gammelstad is the Empire’s number one trading port, and as a place burdened with the grave duty of monitoring and defending against Tuscan, a vassal state, considering its loyalty thus far….”

Thud. A paperweight flew in, grazed Klaus’s temple, and fell to the floor.

“Did you overlook the fact that the people of Gammelstad are the wealthiest in the Empire!”

With an enormous flow of goods and people passing through, Gammelstad had a large commercial district and many big-handed trading merchants. There was even a saying that there were no beggars in Gammelstad, and the people there paid the largest amount of tax to their lord, Matthias.

Klaus had permitted a tax reduction on the portion of the taxes collected from the Empire’s most lucrative land that was to be offered to the imperial family, stupidly.

The Emperor closed and opened his eyes, as if to press down his anger.

“What on earth did you ask of Matthias?”

“….”

“You idiot!”

Unable to contain his fury, the Emperor hurled whatever his hand could grab, indiscriminately. All sorts of things flew and struck his body, but Klaus stayed on his knees, silently taking the blows.

“What in the world is wrong with you…!”

How could he be this foolish! The Emperor roared and let out rough breaths.

Even with two previous empresses and countless mistresses, he had only three children. One of them was in the womb, so he couldn’t even know the gender, and as for the one son he did have, he couldn’t trust him at all.

“If what’s in Charlotte’s womb is a son, I’ll reconsider. As much as I like.”

“…Your Majesty!”

The Emperor let out a deep sigh. He opened a box on the table and tossed several sheets of paper onto Klaus’s knees. Words like emperor, bastard, and the like stabbed into his eyes in disorder.

“…It’s circulating among the nobles. You’ve heard about it too, haven’t you?”

The Paper. Klaus repeated the name to himself.

“This is an insult and deception directed at the imperial family. …Find it. Find the one who made it and is spreading it. …Then I’ll reconsider my assessment of your abilities.”

He instinctively knew this was the Emperor’s last chance for him. There wouldn’t be a second.

“If you can’t find them, make one and bring them before me.”

So he could use it as a lesson for the nobles.

Klaus read what the Emperor hadn’t said out loud between the lines.

A last chance. Klaus’s hands desperately clenched the stack of papers.

***

For the first time since the wedding, Matthias’s carriage came to a stop at the mansion long before midnight.

Before getting out, he stared quietly at the box he’d left on the seat across from him. That, why did I, what was I thinking?

Tap, tap. The coachman politely knocked, announcing their arrival. Matthias ended his deliberation and leaned out of the carriage.

“You’ve returned, sir. You’re home early today.”

“My business ended early, that’s all.”

“Madam is in the bedroom.”

“Already?”

“It seems she’s been doing something since midday. She said not to disturb her unless it’s something important, so….”

Matthias paused midstep and said as if something had come to mind, “There’s luggage in the carriage. Bring it in.”

His long legs strode down the corridor and up the stairs.

He changed in the dressing room, and until the butler asked him a few questions about dinner, not a single strand of his wife’s hair appeared.

He stared at the box set off to one side of his dressing room as if it were baggage he couldn’t dispose of, then, as if he’d made up his mind, he picked it up and left.

The lady of the house’s quarters were located in the corridor on the exact opposite side from his. Until Matthias knocked and quietly opened the door, there was no sound from inside.

Swallowing his puzzlement, Matthias slowly stepped into the room. This was his first time coming here.

Unlike his room, the lady of the house’s room was decorated brightly, and it carried the faint apple scent that used to cling to the woman. He drew a breath as if to drink in the air and headed toward the inner space where she would likely be.

Is this rude, or not? He tried to weigh it, but in truth, he didn’t feel any need to show that kind of courtesy to the woman. Matthias was arrogant without malice. Especially when it came to Eleanor.

He thought that no matter what he did, she wouldn’t be displeased. Before he knew it,

The woman was slumped over the tea table beside the bed. When he came closer, he saw she’d fallen asleep at a table cluttered with an embroidery hoop and balls of thread in various colors. Her breathing, faintly whistling, sounded unusually even.

He quietly lifted the embroidery hoop the woman had tried to work on.

What is this supposed to be… Is it some abstract embroidery technique?

“…Del? Del, is that you?”

At once, the woman stirred and woke.

“….”

“You’re here now…?”

Del? Matthias held on to the unfamiliar name that had slipped from the woman’s mouth.

“I waited so long. How could you come this late… I was worried.”

As she sat up, rubbing at her eyes, her voice was tender, full of affection.

A voice she’d never once shown him when it came to the duty of a wife welcoming her husband.

Without meaning to, Matthias’s brow tightened, a sharpness rising there.

“I’m sorry for making you worry.”

“…Huh, huh! Your Grace, huh…! What brings you here, no, have you just returned?”

When she recognized him, that affectionate voice from a moment ago was gone without a trace. Was she flustered by the sudden appearance of a man, or was she embarrassed by the sleep talk from just now?

Matthias opened his mouth, gauging her reaction.

“Yes. You must’ve been very tired.”

“…Yes. I was doing something.”

As she spoke, Eleanor hurriedly gathered up the things on the table.

He already knew what they were, but he didn’t show it. More than anything, Matthias wasn’t in a very good mood right now. Why, exactly… he didn’t know himself.

“Then why are you here…?”

The woman asked, her eyes round with puzzlement.

At that, Matthias’s irritation deepened. Since when did a husband need a reason to come to his wife’s room?

And yet he didn’t remember. He had pressed Eleanor to state her purpose when she came to his room.

“…Take it.”

Forcing down his displeasure, Matthias set the box he’d been holding on the table.

“What is it? Is it mine?”

“If it weren’t, why would I bring it all the way here?”

The words came out curtly. This wasn’t the way Matthias Nielsen, a man skilled with words, usually spoke, yet it happened on its own.

Whether he was like that or not, Eleanor didn’t seem to notice. She drew in a small breath. Even down to the ribbon tied around the square box, it was a gift. Something you only ever saw in fairy tales as a child.

Eleanor carefully untied the ribbon. When she opened the box, a single dress lay neatly inside, white with scattered blue floral embroidery.

“…It’s not like I was thinking of you in particular. I just happened to see it as I passed by, so I bought it. Throw away all those tacky, cheap dresses like the one you wore last morning. If the lady of House Nielsen goes around wearing something like that, anyone who sees it will think it’s an embarrassment…!”

“…Hic.”

Staring down at the dress, the woman suddenly covered her mouth with both hands. Her small shoulders trembled faintly.