Martin, upon hearing Luiche’s words, slumped as if his own first love had ended and muttered.
“How did it come to this? Was it a twist of fate? Falling in love with a princess from a neighboring country who came to be my brother’s woman.”
“My boy, events did not unfold in that order.”
“Yes?”
“A royal marriage had not been planned. The princess did not come here as the First Prince’s betrothed but merely as a hostage. Yet, our Prince Reiner unfortunately became infatuated with her and trembled as he fondled her hand for all to see. And, unfortunately, Prince Niklas happened to witness it.”
Martin let out a small sigh of realization, “Ah.” Luiche nodded at her son.
“Yes, Martin. You know as well as I do. It’s just between us, but tormenting Prince Reiner is Prince Niklas’s favorite pastime. Seeing Prince Reiner so agitated must have given him ideas….”
“He must have wanted to ruin it.”
“Now you understand. The moment Prince Niklas saw that scene, he ran straight to His Majesty the Emperor and asked that the Princess of Winzerton be given to him.”
“His request was probably granted without delay.”
“His Majesty especially doted on Prince Niklas. The Kingdom of Winzerton, too, had no reason to refuse a marriage that could be an opportunity to end the war.”
Martin drooped his shoulders.
“Then our Prince Reiner became the only pitiful one.”
Luiche laughed once more. She found her son’s pure heart, which seemed genuinely concerned for the Prince, adorable. Adorable as it might be, there were things that needed to be taught firmly. Luiche shook her head and clicked her tongue.
“Martin, you know only one thing when there are two to know.”
“Yes?”
“The one who deserves the most pity here is not Prince Reiner.”
“What do you mean? Who else would be pitiful besides our Prince, who lost his first love?”
“The Princess of Winzerton, of course.”
Luiche looked into her naive son’s eyes and smiled brightly. Then she lowered her voice as much as possible, just enough for Martin next to her to hear, and continued.
“It’s Prince Niklas. He’s not one to treat a woman he lives with kindly. You know that too, Martin. Think about how many maids have died in the First Prince’s Palace.”
“But still, she is the Princess of Winzerton. Even though the Empire kept winning battles….”
When Martin hesitated and asked quietly, Luiche shook her head and replied.
“Well, there’s no telling. In any case, I heard a rumor that right afterward, our Prince went to his brother and begged on his knees until they were worn through. I didn’t see it myself, but I heard it from Agnes in the First Prince’s Palace, so it’s not entirely baseless.”
Between Luiche’s chatter, there was an odd mumbling that kept interjecting. It was the noise from behind the closed door, where Reiner was. Like a madman talking to himself, the sound leaked through the door crack.
Suddenly, that noise began to grate on Martin’s nerves. Until just a while ago, he assumed that Reiner was lost in some ancient magic tome again—muttering formulas he couldn’t understand as he calculated aloud. But now…
After hearing what Mother—Lady Luiche—had to say, that incomprehensible mumbling sounded strangely desperate, like a cry for help.
Regardless, Luiche’s chatter went on.
“Agnes said Prince Reiner told Prince Niklas he would give up his own life if he would only withdraw that request. That was how he begged.”
“His life?”
Martin asked in alarm.
“Yes. He supposedly said, if I die, will you withdraw your request? Oh dear, the Prince. The more I think about it, the more childish it seems. You see, Martin, the love you have at your age, it vanishes so quickly. It won’t last long. And yet he said he’d stake his life on this soon-to-be-forgotten love.”
“Was he not beaten again?”
“That’s just it. He knew that saying such things would only earn him a beating, yet he made that pointless plea. Fortunately, that day, Prince Niklas decided to torment Prince Reiner by flatly refusing his desperate plea instead of beating him. As I mentioned, it’s only the Princess of Winzerton who truly ended up in misery.”
“That’s true. Lady Luiche. Our Prince managed to avoid a beating, and that love of his will vanish before long anyway….”
“Yes, Martin. My son. You’re so grown-up.”
Luiche whispered as though she was proud. Each time she said ‘my son,’ Martin usually beamed happily, but this time, his face contorted. Sensing his worry, Lady Luiche asked in a voice full of concern,
“What’s wrong, my boy?”
“Lady Luiche. This whole situation is making me feel really uneasy.”
“What was it?”
“It strangely did not seem like something as simple as a first love ending. The Princess of Winzerton was far too pitiful, and our Prince was truly unfortunate. Also… haven’t you felt dizzy for a while?”
Luiche was a bit surprised but agreed with her son.
“Martin, my boy. You felt that way too? I had been feeling it as well. It was as if everything was spinning round and round, and while I was talking to you, suddenly memories from ten or twenty years ago kept popping into my head.”
“Mother, you felt the same way?”
“Yes, I did. By the way, Prince Reiner had been muttering something like that for quite some time now, right? Could it be that the noise was bothering us? He still had not given up that blasted magic to turn back time? Martin, I felt more and more nauseous. I usually have a good sense about these things. I was getting a strange feeling…”
03. Take My Hand Again
“His Highness truly had a knack for making things difficult for people.”
“Hm, he was somewhat like that.”
“In any case, thanks to His Highness, we ended up leaving the perfectly fine Prince’s Palace to come to this cold northern tower.”
“Exactly.”
Two young maids from the Second Prince’s Palace were complaining out of habit. Like most girls their age, they were so immersed in the conversation that they failed to notice someone entering the room.
Lady Luiche, the first nanny and skillful nursemaid of Prince Reiner, paused when she sensed their presence. She intended to listen a bit longer to what they were chattering about.
Their chat continued.
“Still, our Prince was indeed a good person. He always took care to get blankets and warm clothes for us.”
“Well, that was certainly something to be grateful for. In fact, being here meant we were far from the First Prince’s Palace, so we didn’t have to watch out for Prince Niklas. You’re safe from getting beaten for no reason.”
Their conversation was steering away from complaints toward praise. Just as Lady Luiche considered clearing her throat, one of the maids spoke up again.
“Initially, there was a grand reason His Highness Reiner moved his quarters to the northern tower. A truly good reason.”
“You’re talking about that again, aren’t you? That Prince Reiner knew from the start how the Winzerton hostages would suffer and wanted to help them?”
Huh? That was something Lady Luiche had never heard before.
“Yes. I’m telling you, I was right.”
“Hmm, could His Highness really have thought that far ahead?”
“If not, why else would he insist on moving to this frigid northern tower corner? To make us suffer?”
“He wouldn’t do that. Well, it might have been because he hated being close to the First Prince.”
“No, think about it. Right after we arrived, he told us to clean that closed secret passage connecting the northern tower to the annex. The day we cleared out that dusty place and opened the passage was exactly the same day the Winzerton hostages arrived.”
“That timing was oddly perfect.”
“See, I was right! Our Prince Reiner knew everything from the beginning—about how the Winzerton hostages would arrive, and how they would be neglected, barely surviving!”
Lady Luiche knew a part of that story, but she had never considered the possibility that Prince Reiner had planned it all.
Though there was something extraordinary about him, wasn’t he the so-called foolish prince who could not read or write by the age of ten? Reiner, who was so ignorant of Imperial affairs because he had been cast aside, could not possibly have known beforehand that the Princess of Winzerton would arrive as a hostage.
Without realizing that Lady Luiche was deep in thought, the maids continued their prattle.
“I was thinking that Prince Reiner might have been interested in Winzerton from the start. Our Prince was rather impressive, right? Destined for greatness. So he must have wanted to learn about foreign cultures ever since he was little.”
“That makes sense. We should have guessed when he pestered everyone to find him a nanny who spoke Winzerton. You’ve no idea how hard that was.”
“Speaking of which, wasn’t he adorable when he tried to learn Winzerton?”
“Well, even as a child, he caused trouble all the time, but he always had the face of an angel.”
“Yes, and how cute was it when he mimicked Granny Hilda’s strange pronunciations with that pretty face?”
At that point, Lady Luiche could not help bursting into a giggle. Startled, the two maids whipped their heads around. But there was no hint of fear on their faces.
“Have you finished your work before chatting away?”
Even as Lady Luiche said this, she had no intention of giving them a stern scolding. It was because their talk was not a careless bad-mouthing of the person they served.
Whenever the maids of the Second Prince’s Palace aired their complaints about Prince Reiner Celine von Reuitlingen, it always ended in this manner—an odd mix of dissatisfaction and fondness, difficult to tell which it was.
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