Chapter 11.1

The Crown Prince Ceremony (1)

His Highness the Crown Prince passed away at the age of twenty-eight. He was still so young.

As I watched Cermiane work day and night, I thought that the duties that come along with being the Crown Prince may have shortened His Highness’s lifespan. From then on, I kept an eye out for Cermiane’s health. To start, I slept while firmly embracing him so that he wouldn’t be able to slip out and work during the night. Cermiane was a little troubled by this, but I didn’t care, his health was more important.

His Majesty and Her Majesty’s grief was grand. They were gifted with three princes, yet they outlived all of them who had passed away to war, illness, and illness, respectively. That was indeed heartbreaking. I consoled Her Majesty to the best of my abilities.  She kept telling me how glad and grateful she was that Cermiane and I were here. Since as long as we were here,  the imperial bloodline would continue. Even though she must have wanted her own children to continue the bloodline, she suppressed her sadness and kept saying this. I was awed by Her Majesty’s stance of trying to be the Empress before being a mother. If I had lost my own child, would I be able to act this nobely?

His Highness the Crown Prince’s funeral was magnificent yet solemn: there was a certain beauty to the funeral procession. With Cermiane at the front, the imperial family and close subordinates guarded the carriage that carried his coffin as it proceeded between the rows  black mourning flags and cavalry with the mourning sashes tied to their arms. But, a funeral was still a funeral. Everyone was grieving, and Cermiane, who had deeply admired his older brother, was especially grief-stricken and his shoulders were slumped the entire time.

The funeral service was held at the Grand Temple inside the imperial palace, and once His Highness was blessed one last time by the high priest, he was put back into the carriage so that they could bury him in the sanctum, which was located in the innermost part of the palace. This sanctum was apparently where all imperial family members were buried, starting from the very first Emperor. It was the most sacred place in the Empire, and only the Emperor was allowed to enter the innermost parts of the sanctum. Since even the Empress was prohibited from entering, that meant I would never be able to go in. The thought of sneaking in sometime never crossed my mind. Trust me.

Once the funeral ended, there was a month-long grieving period, and it was decided that Cermiane’s Crown Prince ceremony would be held after that. As such, even though I was supposed to be mourning His Highness, I was so busy with preparing for the ceremony that I was in no situation to do that properly. Or rather, since Cermiane’s Crown Prince duties didn’t lessen nor did my socializing responsibilities, it didn’t really feel like we were in a grieving period. It just felt like we had a black ribbon attached somewhere on our clothes. However, Her Majesty the Empress became bed-ridden due to her grief, but she still tried to attend the social events with me since she was worried about me, which I stopped her from doing. I insisted that I was fine by myself.

Of course, there was no way I would be fine by myself, so I summoned Mother and my sisters and received their assistance. O Mother and dear sisters, thank you very much! Truthfully, I hadn’t really given much thought to how I was born into a marquis family, but now that I’m in this situation, I became extremely grateful to my background. If I hadn’t been born into the Caliente family, it would have been difficult to call Mother and my sisters to the imperial palace. During these past few months, I was finally becoming used to noble etiquette and manners, so I was able to not make major mistakes while attending social events in Her Majesty’s absence. Phew.

I continued to sneak out during dawn. In addition to the military uniform, I was successfully able to get my hands on a lower-ranked maid’s uniform, so I was able to lower the chances of getting caught even more. I would listen in on the gossip spreading among the palace workers while I mixed in with the maids and helped clean, do laundry, and work in the garden with a nonchalant face. Everyone was heavily mourning His Highness, who was apparently a free-spirited and good person, and they were also worrying about the Empire’s future as well. However, since Cermiane was a hard-working and serious man, he had a good reputation among the workers; I often witnessed the maids debating and getting excited over whether His Highness, who had a masculine beauty, or Cermiane, who had a more feminine beauty, were more their type. On a side note, they thought of me as a beautiful, delicate, and reserved princess, so it seems my cover hadn’t been blown yet. However, the maids, who were rumored to be strict about etiquette, seemed to find fault with my manners.  Darn. I guess my current level still wasn’t enough. Though, weren’t they a little too strict?

Anyway, one day, I witnessed something strange when I was out sneaking out.

While I was wandering around the garden pretending to be a maid, there was a maid who looked like she was cleaning the garden. However, she wasn’t holding a broom or anything. She flicked her wrist, a gust of wind arose, and it carried the leaves to where she pointed.

I became really excited since I had never seen this happen before. I ran up to the maid.

“Hey! Excuse me!”

“Oh my?!”

When  startled maid turned around to face me, the wind disappeared and dropped its leaves haphazardly. It was apparent that the wind was being controlled by her.

“Excuse me! What were you doing just now?!”

“I-I’m sorry! I couldn’t find a broom, so I couldn’t help myself!”

Hm? I didn’t really understand what she was trying to say, but that didn’t really matter. I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her while excitedly yelling:

“What was that just now?! How did you make that gust of wind?!”

She was a timid-looking lower-ranked maid with chestnut brown hair. She didn’t look familiar. That meant that she wasn’t a maid who worked at Cermiane and I’s detached palace. In conclusion, I didn’t need to worry about my identity being revealed.

“Huh…? Um, it’s magic? You didn’t know?”

Magic? In my entire life, I’ve never… Actually, I feel like I’ve heard the term somewhere before. But it was a term that I didn’t often hear to the extent that my memory was hazy regarding it. What the heck is magic?

“So, um, using magic, you can create wind and also create fire. Though, the use of magic is prohibited inside palace grounds…”

So that was why she was agitated when I called out to her. But, that doesn’t matter at all. I bombarded her with questions right up until I had to go back.

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