Chapter 139

“Then why don’t you put off the dinner at the mansion and dine together with Duke Kling and the emperor at the palace? If I order the kitchen staff even now, they can prepare the meal right away.”

“Dining with my father and the emperor?”

“Yes. After returning from Roshan, you haven’t seen the emperor with your father, so I think it’s a good idea for you two to have a meal with the emperor. You can discuss the protocols on the engagement reception and the next ceremony comfortably over a meal.”

He gave her some plausible excuses for the three-way get-together, glanced around and twisted his body slightly toward her and whispered, “His Majesty hardly has any food these days. I think it’s because he usually eats alone…Please do me a favor. Have a meal with the emperor together with your father.”

Kloud then corrected his posture. Marianne bit her lip, frowning a bit.

In fact, she didn’t want to see him for the time being as she was distracted so much after seeing Mrs. Renault, but when she heard that, she began to feel more worried than resentful about him.

She recalled Eckart’s haggard figure some time ago. He said he was okay even when he looked so pale and haggard as if he had taken a dip in the frosty sea.

“…Got it. But don’t report to him that I came here first. Let me wait until he’s done reporting.”

* * *

A little earlier, Duke Kling took the documents from Kloud and headed for the study of the main palace where Eckart was staying. At the end of the long corridor were an attendant and two servants who stood in front of the study.

Duke Kling pressed on them to go back home early as his meeting with the emperor would be very long. When he even lied to them that the next servants on duty would come to take their place, those who guarded the door politely greeted and left, believing him.

When they disappeared out of his sight, Duke Kling opened the door of the study and stepped in.

The inside of the study was more calm than outside. He smelled the scent of cool peppermint from the incense burning on the wall. At the end of the golden rug was a large desk by the window which was surrounded by a forest of tall bookshelves.

“May the glory of our great god Airius be bestowed upon you. I’m honored to see you!”

Kling walked up to him to show his due manners. Eckart slowly put down the documents he was reading up close.

“I would like to wish you the same protection of Airius.”

Even though a different man came to see him at a different time, the emperor accepted Kling’s formal greetings casually.

“Do you have the list of nominees for the National Knights Division in each province that I requested?”

“Yes, here you are.”

Eckart even asked for the material he wanted. The documents that Colin had put together early on before giving them to Duke Kling were now handed over to Eckart.

Silence fell again.

Kling was standing still. Eckart turned the pages and read a couple of pages before saying casually, “Don’t you see a chair next to you?”

“I’m fine.”

“I know you’re not as old as Duke Hubble. But I just think you are not young enough to stand until this meeting is over.”

“I won’t take up too much of your precious time.”

“Well. I don’t think that’s true. You must have a reason for coming here in person to see me with these documents rather than asking your deputy to do the job.”

Duke Kling grinned awkwardly when the emperor came up with a very sophisticated response.

“Sit down. Fortunately I’m willing to listen to you, even if it takes time.”

“Thank you.”

Eckart scanned the list again with his eyes. He checked several names with a silver quill.

With his eyes and attention focused on the documents on the desk, he waited until Kling took his seat and sat down.

While looking at the emperor seated in the chair, Kling took something out of his pocket and put it on the table.

“Your Majesty.”

He touched it with his middle finger, which had a callus as he had been holding a pen for too long.

“Do you resent me, Your Majesty?”

He stopped moving the iron pen for a moment and quickly moved it downwards.

“Do you want to reply in the negative?” he responded coldly, to which Kling smiled bitterly.

“No. I know you and your late mother resented me a lot.”

“Duke Kling!”

Eckart put down the pen he was holding wildly on the table. His eyes staring at him were cold.

“You’d better watch your language.”

His elegant advice turned into an eerie warning to Kling. He saw Eckart was burning with anger as if the emperor asked him how blatant and brazen-faced he was enough to mention his late mother.

While looking into Eckart’s sharp eyes, Duke Kling recalled the face of someone who was more familiar to him than Eckart.

His blonde hair was bright like a mix of sun and honey, and his eyes as blue as the sea on the far shore.

Those were the words of the empress of Aslan who smiled beautifully while holding her son in her arms.

Those were the words of the princess of the exiled kingdom who hid her crying under the black veil and straightened her back as Eckart’s mother.

“Do you recognize this?”

Duke Kling rose up from his seat. He opened a small box in his hand and politely put it in front of Eckart.

When he looked down at it coldly, he became nervous and agitated.

“Duke Kling, why did you bring…”

Eckhart now blatantly frowned. Although he hardly expressed feelings usually, he could not pretend to be casual and indifferent even when he saw it himself.

Inside the box was a small ring. In the middle of the gold ring was an embedded blue hexagonal sapphire.

‘Surely. No way, it can’t be true… ‘

He took out the ring carefully with one hand. He flipped it slightly and looked inside the ring, catching a familiar phrase.

It was the first and last verse of the sacred scriptures that prayed for divine blessings.

Eckart looked at Duke Kling with an unbelievable look. Apparently he was demanding some kind of explanation from Kling.

Duke Kling caught his breath and replied clearly.

“The late empress gave it to me.”

***

There was only one type of golden ring that engraved the verses of the sacred scriptures.

Namely, it was the Kimel ring that the bride, the groom and their witness received at the engagement. It was the very same ring that Eckart, Marianne and Duchess Lamont received at the engagement ceremony in Roshan recently. It was Aslan old practice that the bride gathered the three rings and wore them as her wedding ring.

Among the keepsakes left by the late empress Blair, the middle Kimel ring was the second ring that the temple craftsman made to celebrate her twenty-seventh birthday. Unfortunately, the first ring she put on at the wedding ceremony was lost early on. So, she wore her second Kimel ring all her life, which she made again the next year. And the ring was buried together as an accessory when she was buried in the sunny imperial mausoleum, which became a treasure found only in her portrait.

Then, that second ring of Blair’s was kept by Kling. It was right now in front of Eckart.

Besides, it was in the hand of the very person who betrayed the owner of the ring most persistently.

Duke Kling understood the fierce question reflected in Eckart’s eyes and opened his mouth with a long sigh.

“… Twenty years ago, it was on the night before I voluntarily requested to the emperor to give me the right to rule Lennox.”

On March 6 during Frei VI’s reign in 572 by the imperial calendar, spring rain came down in Milan where early spring already began. The rain that started in the morning didn’t stop until night. The roads were wet and slippery, while the air was heavy. Cool moisture drifted around every corner of the capital.

Thanks to this, the streets of the eastern part of the city, which would be crowded with people usually as well as the Noble Road were quiet like a tomb. The mansion where Duke Kling, the emperor’s best friend of the time, resided was quiet like a marketplace that had closed a long time ago.

A day seemed to pass quickly on cloudy days. The servants and maids who were in charge of the official mansions finished their work before dinner and went back to their quarters. Because of the dark clouds, the place without artificial lights turned into a world of darkness after dark.

Knights occasionally moved around with glass lamps that seemed like fireflies.