Chapter 18
A week had passed since Daniela was attacked.
During that time, letters of sympathy and gifts from the nobles wishing for Daniela’s recovery arrived at the palace. As Jed sorted through the items, he clicked his tongue in irritation. Every single one of them carried a strangely veiled malice.
“They know perfectly well that she can’t use one arm, and yet they send bows and swords.”
Jed set aside the gifts that Daniela could never be shown.
On the first day the presents arrived, he had thought—carelessly—that even if they were weapons she could no longer use, they were free gifts, so they might as well be given to her. He had immediately regretted it.
Daniela’s complexion had darkened the moment she saw them.
‘She watched that farce of a play without batting an eye, so I thought she wouldn’t care about this level of malice either.’
Jed’s hands came to a stop as he sorted the gifts. Once again, his thoughts drifted back to the day of that performance.
Though another week had passed, the events of that day still lingered vividly in his mind.
Daniela had nearly died protecting him.
The cold, reproachful voice of Grand Duke Darenn echoed in his ears.
In your country, does an aide receive protection from their lord?
Jed had always been able to talk back smoothly to anyone, no matter how high their station or how dire the situation. But that day, he truly had nothing to say, and could only bow his head.
If it hadn’t been for that man, the person Jed served would not have survived.
His thoughts growing tangled once more, Jed put off the task of sorting through the gifts—blessings or curses, he could no longer tell—and headed for the training grounds.
When his head was this noisy, it was better to move his body until his thoughts went blank.
But the moment he arrived, he spotted someone he didn’t want to see.
That icy question—Does an aide receive protection from their lord?—stabbed into his chest again.
Grand Duke Darenn was sparring with the knights. He was overwhelmingly dominant, subduing his opponents with ease.
Jed knew he should be grateful; the man had helped them immensely. But watching him only irritated him further.
A twisted bitterness welled up inside. No matter how hard he tried, Jed had failed to protect his lord—yet for that man, it had been effortless.
Jed grumbled inwardly.
It’s not like I could help it. I’m not some monster like Lady Daniela or that bastard. I was drafted into the army for tactics and paperwork in the first place!
He hoped, pointlessly, that the duke would lose badly.
Of course, his wish was futile. Having claimed an easy victory, the duke extended a hand to the knight he had knocked down and pulled him to his feet.
“Not bad.”
The knight flushed at the praise, looking embarrassed, while the other knights gazed at the duke with admiration.
A brute who fights well is always popular with other simple-minded brutes who only care about fighting.
Jed found the scene annoyingly unpleasant and turned to leave.
Unfortunately, the duke noticed him before he could.
Jed was still floundering in the humiliation of being criticized days earlier, but the blunt duke had already forgotten the incident entirely and greeted him without hesitation.
“Jed!”
“……”
Lamenting the difference in their ranks that made it impossible to ignore him outright, Jed slowly turned around.
“How’s Daniela?”
And why are you asking me?
As Daniela’s close aide, Jed was the natural person to ask—but because of his sour mood, his reply came out sharp.
“Why are you asking me? Why don’t you go see for yourself?”
“Oh, right. Then I suppose I should.”
“…!”
Jed instantly regretted what he’d said.
He had never liked this grand duke, who had been circling around Daniela for ages, acting like an annoying boy pestering the girl he liked. He’d done his best to keep the man at arm’s length—yet he’d just handed him the perfect excuse.
The duke strode off immediately, heading toward Daniela’s chambers.
Jed hurried after him, asking urgently,
“Aren’t you busy? When are you planning to return?”
“Do you remember why I came here? I’m a messenger sent to congratulate the king on his return. I at least need to see Benjamin before I leave.”
“Yes, but you arrived far too early. Aren’t you bored? I’ll inform His Highness Benjamin that you came once he returns.”
Damian ignored him completely. By the time Jed finished speaking, the duke was already standing before Daniela’s door.
Ignoring Jed’s chatter, he knocked.
After permission was granted, they entered Daniela’s room.
Daniela, who had been reading something, set it aside and welcomed them.
“Are your injuries any better?”
“Thanks to you, I’m fine. Thank you.”
Damian’s eyes skimmed over what she had been reading—pages filled with tedious royal laws and customs.
Things she would never have needed to know if she weren’t the queen.
Seeing them made it sink in all over again that Daniela was already married to Benjamin, and that she now stood somewhere Damian had no right to reach.
When he stared at the documents with a dark expression, Daniela explained,
“It’s one of the things the princess left for me. There’s so much I have to learn. She said ruling a country isn’t all that different from commanding an army, so it should come easily to me—but I’m still not sure. The military focuses on efficiency, so it’s easier to understand.”
She sighed and continued,
“The royal family and nobles don’t care about efficiency. They care about what looks more impressive. And their standards for what’s ‘impressive’ are completely arbitrary. It’s hard to understand.”
Damian nodded in agreement.
“Still, try to understand it. There’s a difference between understanding customs and choosing to ignore them, and failing to follow them because you don’t understand.”
Coming from someone who routinely ignored customs he fully understood, it was very much Damian’s style of advice. Then he asked,
“I heard you were extremely lenient with those who tried to harm you. The nobles of Krovich will take you even less seriously. The ones who sent you swords and blades while you’re injured. Did you fully understand the situation when you made that decision? That people who already look down on you will look down on you even more?”
Damian had been in a foul mood ever since he heard that those responsible for the assassination attempt had been caught—and about the punishments they received.
He had learned that the head chamberlain was involved without much difficulty.
When the man was captured and interrogated, the name of a certain duke’s daughter came up.
She had been considered a candidate for queen before Daniela appeared, and had harbored resentment because of it.
Just before the chamberlain could fully confess, a report was submitted to the castle. The accuser was Jane Green.
A member of the royal knights and the only daughter of Count Green, she claimed she had discovered everything by chance while visiting her close friend, Sophia, and submitted letters as evidence.
The letters had been written by the young lady to her father, Duke Valencia—confessions of her crimes and pleas for assistance.
It was also revealed that several private soldiers of House Valencia had disappeared on the day of the attack on the queen.
All the evidence pointed to Sophia as the culprit.
At the trial, Sophia cried out that she had been wronged and instead accused Jane Green of being the mastermind.
Her claims were rejected.
Even so, she screamed hysterically, insisting that all blame lay with Jane. At that point, Jane—who had been called as a witness—spoke.
I believe she is saying this out of resentment toward me for reporting her, despite our friendship. …Our friendship was precious to me, but not more precious than my loyalty to the royal family.
When her testimony ended, the duke’s daughter burst into incomprehensible wailing and sobbing.
Jane’s words sounded reasonable, and Sophia’s guilt was clear.
It was treason—enough to justify the extermination of her entire family. Yet the verdict was unexpectedly lenient.
The duke’s daughter was sentenced to death, but her father claimed he had been unaware of her actions, and the court was about to sentence him to exile instead.
Then the duke made a desperate plea.
He begged that he be executed for failing to raise his child properly, and that Sophia be exiled instead.
Given the gravity of attempting to assassinate the queen, such a plea should never have been accepted.
But the victim herself accepted it.
Daniela invoked her royal immunity, sparing Sophia and reducing her punishment to exile.
A queen who used her immunity to save someone who had tried to kill her.
It was a bizarre sight—but it was undeniably her right, and so it was accepted.
The next trial was that of the head chamberlain. Once again, Daniela used her remaining immunity.
The chamberlain escaped execution and was exiled.
Hearing the full story, Damian was both worried for Daniela—and furious.
He had heard rumors about the kinds of “gifts” she had received. And he remembered the play he had seen that day.
Daniela was being mocked.
And so, she needed to show authority.
Not kindness.
