Episode 87 Governor Government – Mirror
“You are truly so beautiful, princess.”
“Thank you always.”
Eris responded with a smile to Jenny’s fuss.
In Eris’s eyes, her makeup and hair look gorgeous today thanks to the maid’s great effort in decorating her with great care.
“But this time, I really wanted to make you wear a dress.”
“I’m sorry Jenny. “I guess that’s a bit much…”
“It looks like an extravagant dress, but if you have money to spend, you spend more on charity work.”
Eris smiled awkwardly at the maid who nodded and answered as if she knew everything.
Everyone thinks that way, and Eris looks like a dress, but I think it’s better to spend the money on something like that, but that’s not the real reason not to wear a dress.
The real reason is that I am afraid that if I wear something like that again, I will miss the days when I wore dresses and stayed at the palace with my mother and lived without knowing any shortcomings or difficulties.
Since people have mistaken such extremely personal reasons for saintly reasons, I do not bother to correct them.
As Eris was smiling awkwardly, the carriage stopped and a knock was heard.
“We have arrived, Her Royal Highness.”
The carriage door opened and Eris smiled when she saw Pierre’s outstretched hand, took his hand and got out of the carriage.
The soldiers of the Germanian Empire kept their distance and showed respect, and in the distance, Eris could see a familiar emblem.
Coat of arms of Archduke Leopold.
Pierre whispered lowly as he escorted Eris.
“I told you before, but you must not eat anything the Empress gives you.”
“Wouldn’t it be rude at tea time?”
“It’s rude, but there’s no need to show such trivial courtesy to an enemy country. What is important is Her Majesty’s safety. Despite the Alpine Kingdom’s warning, the Empress is making a deal with the devil. Even if it is a poison that is not immediately effective, you can use it as much as you want.”
Even so, Jenny, the maid making a lot of fuss from the delegation, is following along with a basket filled with tea as well as refreshments for Eris to eat at tea time.
“all right. Well, if something happens…”
“Then just draw out your divine power and explode it. “I will save you no matter what happens.”
They are so calm that they are telling us to cause chaos in the middle of another country’s capital city.
Pierre was both reassuring and a bit amusing, so Eris answered a little louder on purpose.
“I will only trust the Marquis de Lafayette.”
What about Sir Frédéric de Beaumont, the escort knight who was following behind? Eris made a face and laughed.
“Uncle Frank too.”
After walking, the time for small talk came to an end, and Eris faced the veteran of the enemy nation with a natural smile.
“Welcome, Her Royal Highness Princess Eciliste Liliane de Francia. …and it’s been a while. Marquis de Lafayette.”
“Nice to meet you, Archduke Leopold.”
“His Royal Highness Archduke Leopold.”
Archduke Leopold, with his white hair, looked at Pierre for a moment, then fixed his gaze on Eris.
“…I had no idea that the Saint of Francia was such a young and beautiful person.”
“That’s too much praise, Grand Duke.”
Archduke Leopold’s feelings seemed very complicated.
Eris protected Frangia’s army with her divine power, ultimately contributing to the deaths of countless of the Archduke’s men.
She may be a saint to Francia, but to the Archduke she is no different from a devil.
Even while thinking that, Eris just smiled.
“…I will guide you.”
The Archduke looked at Eris for a long time, but without saying anything, he turned his back and began to guide her.
The rented residence in the underground city, which was not a formal palace, was not as spacious as a palace.
“Kaiserin is waiting inside this room. The marquis and his escort must wait outside.”
It arrived quickly, and after hearing Archduke Leopold’s words, Eris glanced back.
Pierre and Lord Beaumont showed courtesy, so Eris nodded.
“Her Highness 3rd Princess Esiliste Liliane de Francia of the Kingdom of Francia has visited us!”
Eris entered the room with a confident smile as she heard the attendant’s shout.
* * *
“Welcome, Three Princesses.”
The half-sister in her 30s, who welcomes Eris with a dignified smile, is a similar age to her mother, whom Eris last remembers.
“It’s our first time meeting, but we’re sisters, so it would be nice to have a comfortable stay.”
“Thank you for the invitation, Her Highness Cecilia.”
When Eris answered that way as she sat down, Cecilia smiled softly.
“Now that I’ve finally met my hometown family, it would be nice if you called me Cecilia in the Frangian way.”
“Thank you for your consideration, Your Majesty. But before we become a family, this is a place where the Princess of Francia and the Empress of the Germanian Empire come face to face.”
Cecilia laughed, and when Jenny came over and placed refreshments in front of Eris and poured her tea, the corners of her mouth twitched as if she was amused.
Cecilia, who had been looking at Eris for a while, opened her mouth.
“I wonder if she is indeed the daughter of someone Abamama cherished. You have a handsome appearance. “It would have stood out even more if the clothes had supported it.”
Cecilia said while looking at Eris wearing a white robe.
“Your Majesty’s clothes and crown reveal elegance and authority befitting the Empress of the Germanian Empire. “It has a different charm from Franzia.”
Eris answered as she looked at Cecilia, who was wearing a fancy dress and an empress’ crown.
Cecilia laughed and drank tea when she was criticized for her appearance under the guise of a compliment on her appearance, only to be told that the outfit was flattering and that it did not suit her in Francia.
Since she didn’t offer the refreshments or tea she had prepared, Eris also smiled and moistened her mouth with the tea Jenny had prepared.
Cecilia, who looked at Eris in silence for a moment, opened her mouth.
“I’m glad to see my relatives from my homeland after such a long time. “I want to have a private conversation.”
At those words, all the maids waiting behind Cecilia began to retreat.
Eris also turned her gaze and nodded at Jenny, who looked nervous.
Jenny was restless, but eventually retreated out of the room with Cecilia’s maids.
Before the open door closed, Eris could see Pierre and Sir Beaumont standing there, and she could secretly smile.
As soon as the door closed, Cecilia’s mood, who had been smiling friendly until then, changed.
“Looking at you, you don’t seem to be a weak puppet. “I’d like to get straight to the point. What do you think?”
“Do whatever is convenient for you, Your Majesty.”
Cecilia smiled as Eris answered as if she had been waiting.
“Give up your right to succeed to the throne and step down. If you do so, not only will I guarantee your safety, but I will also help you, as Queen of Francia, to carry out any charity work you wish to your heart’s content.”
Eris smiled softly.
“I’m not sure what’s better than when I was elected queen.”
Cecilia spoke firmly.
“Your country will not be involved in war, and there will be much less bloodshed.”
“You don’t deny that there will be blood.”
“Looking down on the people is the neglect of the Ming army if you do not know the virtues or virtues of the Ming army and leave alone those who try to control the king.”
“These are people who were forced to rise up because the monarch could not bear the pain of failing to fulfill his responsibilities, Your Highness.”
Cecilia twitched the corner of her mouth.
“What are you going to do as queen if you’re not going to correct their self-indulgence?”
“I don’t want to do anything.”
“You don’t want to do anything?”
“I will watch them build a country for their people. “If they don’t go the way the people want, I may have to step in, but I don’t want that to happen.”
“Why would you need that if you’re a queen who does as you say?”
When Cecilia asked with a laugh, Eris looked straight at her and answered.
“There are people who accuse us of being traitors and prepare for war just because there is no king.”
“You don’t have any self-interest and you will become queen purely for them?”
“yes.”
Eris’s purple eyes didn’t even flinch as she answered like that, and Cecilia’s face became blatantly displeased.
Even as Eris, who is good at reading people, she couldn’t read all the complex emotions on Cecilia’s face.
No distrust, no denial. Jealousy and anger?
After countless emotions swirled around, Cecilia quietly opened her mouth.
“If you are going to say that you have no desire for power or anything else and that you are serving the people of Francia, then you should step down from here. “If you really care for them, you shouldn’t let a war break out to protect your throne.”
“Would the people of Francia be happy if I stepped down and you became queen without war? They do not want your Majesty to rule. “Those who have already tasted freedom and learned equality cannot go back to the past.”
Eris quietly looked at Cecilia and added.
“If you, as a royal, have a sense of responsibility to take care of the people of your homeland and want to please them. “Your Majesty must step down.”
“It’s my right from the beginning.”
Cecilia’s eyes burned like fire.
This time, Eris was able to accurately understand Cecilia’s feelings.
The deprivation and anger that came from what she had been deprived of. The directionless desire for revenge that arose as a result.
“…You seem to be caught up in a sense of deprivation.”
“What do you know!”
Cecilia was furious.
“…Because I know similar feelings.”
“You, who was favored by my father who sold me into the middle of an enemy country, and who is revered as a saint in your own country, dare to understand me?”
Know.
After the death of the previous king and just before the civil war began, the mother left the palace with Eris, relying on Lord Beaumont.
For Eris, who had been loved by the previous king and her mother, received a good education, and had grown up without any shortcomings, her life outside the palace was suddenly shabby and destitute.
As a child, I constantly whined and got angry at my mother.
Not knowing that my mother was suffering the most in such a situation, I only missed what I had lost until my mother suffered from severe depression.
Without even knowing that that foolishness would lead to the loss of what was still precious.
Eris looked at Cecilia filled with anger.
“…I wouldn’t dare say that I understand Your Highness. I can’t do anything for you. Just your highness.”
If she had not experienced losing her mother due to her own foolishness, Cecilia might have been the same person she was now.
If Uncle Frank, Lord Beaumont had not been there.
If only the knight who admired the king’s woman, gave up all honor, followed her, and protected her mother and Eris, had not remained until now.
If that were the case, I know that the beauty and power that I inherited from my mother would have become poisonous.
Eris, who thinks she was able to get this far only because of experience and luck, cannot blame Cecilia.
but.
“If you long for what you have lost and lose what is left, only more suffering remains. “I hope Your Majesty never has to experience something like that.”
“under! “How dare you threaten me?”
I can’t reach it.
I can’t reach it.
If Eris only experienced things from Cecilia’s perspective, she might have no choice but to think the same way.
Eris slowly closed her eyes.
“…This is the only way for me. Now that all preparations for war are over, Franzia will bleed because of your choice. Those who you pray for will die in countless numbers so that you can sit on the throne. Now, are you satisfied with the outcome of being a hypocrite who pretends to be noble while being greedy for power?”
Eris, who opened her eyes to Cecilia’s words, responded.
“I really want to avoid that, but if it’s unavoidable. My place is not on the throne, but next to them. I will protect them until the moment my body breaks under their banner on the battlefield where they will bleed. “I am prepared.”
Cecilia was speechless.
“Do you have that kind of determination, Your Highness? Are you going to stand on the same battlefield as the soldiers you are sending to battle? Have you ever thought about the families who will be saddened by their deaths?”
A pure white saint interrogates the empress with shining purple eyes.
“majesty. “How is such an act any different from Abama, who ignored His Majesty’s sorrow and suffering and sent him to the empire?”
Cecilia’s lips trembled and then she opened her mouth.
“No matter how you disguise it with plausible words, the hypocrisy you are wearing seems noble. “You are just a puppet of the National Assembly created by others.”
The pity on Cecilia’s face as she said that seemed genuine.
“Even after the war is over and your usefulness declines, do you think that council of commoners will serve you without authority? “Do you think the Marquis, who wanted to make you a saint and put you on the throne, did so without any selflessness?”
It seemed like I couldn’t bear it if I didn’t even think about it that way.
“At least my position was something I built with my own hands. My destiny is mine and I will continue to move forward. What about you? “What about you, who begs for love from your father, leans on others, is praised as a noble saint, and even wants to be given the throne by others?”
Malice spread across Cecilia’s face.
“You, who have not even achieved anything for yourself, will have your destiny swayed by others. To me in this war. Even if it’s not true, to the man who wants to elevate you to a mere throne for his own ambition.”
Eris smiled sadly.
Cecilia is right.
In the end, many of the things that Eris now holds in her hands were prepared for her by Pierre de Lafayette.
however.
As a wandering healer, she met many people.
Some people coveted her beauty and others coveted her abilities.
Someone wanted to use Eris as a saint.
Those who knew her identity wanted to use her as a princess.
Either way, they didn’t care about Eris’ dreams or what she wanted.
He simply tried to limit her to what he wanted and keep her in his grasp.
Even Lord Beaumont, who has cared for Eris all this time, knows that he protected her because it was the last legacy left behind by the woman he loved.
Pierre was neither.
He was the only person who tried to understand the individual Eris, despite knowing everything about her identity as Esiliste Liliane de Frangia.
Therefore, what he asked for was always an option, and that is why Eris chose him.
He was the one who chose her as his master, and even now he is waiting outside to protect her.
Eris is here with confidence.
-You can’t get this far and then abandon me later, fraudster sponsor.
-I have hidden the truth, but I have never lied. Aren’t you a conscientious supporter to be called a fraud, Her Royal Highness?
Eris laughed as she recalled the conversation they had during the ceremony to make her a saint.
“majesty.”
However, there would have been no such person for Cecilia, who was sold to an enemy country as a single woman and created a lonely place for herself, suspicious of everyone.
To my half-sister, who looks so similar to me but seems to be looking at herself in a mirror that has been irreversibly reversed.
Eris said with regret.
“I just hope, if possible, that neither of us lose anything more.”
Cecilia, who was silent for a moment, answered.
“It’s a pity. My rights have already been stolen by you, so I have no choice but to get them back.”
