Volume 5 - CH 2.14

Jeffren Francesc, who was gazing at the night sky from the balcony of his office wearing a dressing gown, heard the clinking sound of glass rubbing each other and looked back.

「—If I remember correctly, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Heidelauta will be coming tomorrow, right? To discuss the matter of the aforementioned mine?」

Jeffren Isaac, who had arrived holding a bottle of wine and two glasses in both hands, spoke to his father with his usual smile that seemed insolent.

「I don’t think you can oversleep too much that day… but are you that concerned about it?」

「Of course, though I don’t think it’ll fail」

「If that’s the case, you should go to sleep quickly」

Isaac poured the wine into a glass and held it out to the king.

「It’s all right, Lucius-kun and Dii-kun will manage it successfully」

「You seem to have a very high opinion of them, huh? Well, they’re the son whom Orvieto is proud of and his childhood friend, so I also thought of entrusting it to them」

「Those two people are excellent, you know」

「Hmm」

As though drinking water, the king gulped the quite cold wine down. For Jeffren XI, who was said to like sake after battles and women, wine was undoubtedly the same as water, and this probably wouldn’t amount to a drink before sleeping.

Here, Isaac sat down on a chair, which was placed on the balcony, while sipping his wine bit by bit.

「…Even so, will that woman be obediently apprehended?」

「Purna? You’re the one who said that it’s all right though」

「By “obediently”, I mean will she be apprehended gracefully, or will she resist in an unseemly manner」

「That’s well—」

The king pondered for just a moment and then answered.

「Ironically, she’s a strong-minded woman who is likely to commit suicide before the eyes of the people catching her… but if possible, I wish that it’ll be like that」

「Hee」

「Though I ordered that she’s to be sent under escort to Roma, if it really becomes so, I don’t know what she’ll scream about during the journey. She knows various secrets of mine, you see」

「Ah, it’s like that, huh」

「…Besides, Purna herself probably can’t endure the matter of her becoming a person shamed in front of others any more. Though that woman still hasn’t reach thirty, she has been living exposed to inquisitive looks for more than enough in just the first half of her life」

A feeling of pity towards his ex-mistress, who had committed a serious crime, distinctly appeared on the profile of the king, who had murmured with a sigh. Isaac flicked the rim of the glass with his finger and asked questioningly.

「…If you sympathise with her to that extent, why didn’t you give the countess a warning or keep her at a distance before she had that kind of outrageous ambition?」

「No no, it’s because she didn’t show that sort of behaviour that she could swiftly climb up to this point」

「Are you saying that you don’t have a discerning eye?」

「Even if you were in my position, you surely wouldn’t notice it」

The king, who had snatched the bottle of wine from his son’s hand and put it to his lips directly as though it was troublesome and then gulped it down, let out a sigh smelling of alcohol towards the night sky and murmured, looking as if he was mocking himself in some way.

「…I didn’t realise her aim until she complained that she wanted a son in the bedroom… until then, she had been acting continuously as a woman free of avarice in front of me the whole time」

Jeffren XI still had several other mistresses, but his child was just Isaac, who was the son Queen Almudena bore, alone. Even if he had women somewhere else, Jeffren XI made sure not to let them bear children at all so that troublesome matters wouldn’t occur at the time of the succession to the throne in the future. The women who became his mistresses should have been severely told that as well.

If Purna told the king that she wanted a son in that situation, it probably could be seen as evidence that she wasn’t satisfied with her current status of a mistress. At the very least, the king thought so; at the same time he returned to Roma, he had Purna’s surroundings carefully investigated. It was actually because those few casual words were the impetus that the assassination plot against Almudena emerged.

「She’s a good woman… but she tried to kill Almudena; as one would expect, I can’t forgive her」

「Or rather, wouldn’t it just be fine if Chichi-ue didn’t faithlessly have nothing but mistresses from the beginning?」

Isaac, who had emptied his glass and stood up, announced that he’d go to sleep already and withdrew from the balcony into the office.

「Oi, Son」

「—Yes?」

「In my case, it can’t be helped already」

The king spoke to his son, who had stopped temporarily, with a serious look.

「—You must think of me as a bad example from which you can learn and not have women here and there, all right? At the very least, be a faithful man after you marry a consort」

「I’ve been saying so continuously to Chichi-ue since about five years ago, you know? You have Haha-ue, so stop womanising already and be a faithful man」

「…Is that so?」

The king tilted his head to the side unnaturally and immediately laughed heartily to gloss over it.