Ch.208Royal Family (4)

“Her Highness Liliane has been accompanying the Crown Prince of Aquitaine, showing him around the palace. The two are currently staying in the royal dining hall.”

“…Liliane?”

Meanwhile, Ines, who had been receiving reports on Liliane’s every move in 30-minute intervals, was startled.

Of course she would be. No parent wouldn’t be surprised if told that their beloved daughter had brought a strange man home, shown him around every corner of the house, and even invited him to the family’s private dining room.

‘…Ugh.’

All sorts of emotions and memories flashed through Ines’s mind.

Though Ines was born with a cruel disposition, even someone like her couldn’t possibly have no feelings for her daughter.

While she might have initially viewed Liliane as merely living proof of her relationship and love with her husband, now she recognized her more strongly as her daughter who needed protection rather than just evidence.

“…I suppose she’s reaching that age.”

But emotions are merely emotions.

For Ines, who had been a nobleman’s daughter since birth, Liliane was not only her daughter but also an heir to the blood of both House Lorel and House Bourgogne, and a legitimate princess of the Lotharing-Caroling Kingdom.

In other words, no matter how much Ines adored Liliane, she still distinguished between public and private matters.

From a public perspective, it was about time for Liliane to be used as a political tool.

Liliane was already 11 years old.

‘Eleven years old… a bit young, but not impossible.’

While pregnancy or first consummation might be out of the question, noble marriages typically occur between the minimum age of 10 and the maximum of 18. This custom arose to prevent the risk of engagement breaking due to a sudden change of heart, and to establish marriage alliances several years earlier.

Averaging the two ages of 10 and 18 gives 14, meaning in about three more years, Liliane could be used as a chess piece to cement alliances.

Hmm… perhaps there’s no need to wait three years. Even an engagement rather than marriage could sufficiently demonstrate the power of an alliance.

“Investigate the heir of Aquitaine. Everything—his character, abilities, all of it.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

…And since he’s already in the palace, I should see and assess him myself.

After ordering her attendant to investigate Ethan, Ines headed to the dining hall to see the man who was making advances on her daughter under the cover of the important Senate event.

“…Claudia?”

“Yes, Lady Chloe.”

Meanwhile, Chloe, upon hearing from her attendant that her precious daughter was associating with a strange man, made the same judgment as Ines.

Unlike Liliane, Claudia was there for a different purpose, but to Chloe, that didn’t matter at all. All that mattered was that they were together.

……….

“This… is delicious, very much so.”

“To melt butter into bread like this… the skill is truly remarkable.”

“Ha, haha… thank you for the compliment…”

The atmosphere of what should have been an enjoyable meal was completely frozen.

Liliane and Ethan, now self-conscious after Jeanne’s comment, were awkwardly eating while being acutely aware of each other, and those around them didn’t know what to say or do.

“Lady Liliane… are… are you alright?”

“Pardon?”

Ethan was desperately trying to break the silence.

After all, if he were to falter at such awkwardness, he wouldn’t have made it this far.

“Ahaha… well, you ate quite a lot outside earlier, didn’t you? And now you’re eating a lot here too…”

But his method of breaking the silence was terribly misguided.

Thinking anything was better than silence, Ethan attempted conversation with what he thought was a plausible topic, but it was worse than having no topic at all.

If Ethan were a bit older, if he had a bit more life experience, he would never have said such a thing. But the current Ethan was just a 14-year-old boy who wanted to impress someone of the opposite sex.

“…It’s, fine.”

Hearing Ethan’s words, Liliane’s face instantly turned red, thinking her appetite had been criticized.

Though awkward, she had been gradually feeling better as she savored the new flavor of the buttered bread, but that improving mood was instantly crushed, leaving her feeling terribly embarrassed.

If the buttered bread hadn’t been delicious, her mood wouldn’t have improved and the emotional drop wouldn’t have been so severe, but unfortunately, the bread was delicious, which created this problem.

Creeeeak—

“Meal’s not over yet—… Huh?!”

Just then, Chloe and Ines entered the dining hall and witnessed the scene. Claudia, who had assumed it was a servant coming to collect dishes since it wasn’t mealtime, froze at the sight of her mother and the Queen.

From past experience, she knew all too well what happened when those two were together—honestly, she felt like asking if they weren’t ashamed to behave like this in front of their children.

Above all, since such childish quarrels couldn’t be shown to outsiders, Claudia was determined to intervene, desperately rushing toward Chloe and Ines.

“…Hmph.”

But Claudia’s concerns didn’t materialize.

Chloe and Ines were too impressed by the scene before them to let their bad feelings surface.

The sight of Liliane, her face as red as an apple, hanging her head low toward the heir of Aquitaine, prevented Chloe and Ines from making any hasty remarks or actions.

“Kuk, kuk—!”

Only Ethan, suddenly confronted with such powerful figures as the Queen and the King’s concubine, was endlessly coughing after choking in the silent dining hall.

……….

“Sigh…”

The first day of the Senate session yielded very little.

Thanks to dropping the tax increase bombshell from the first agenda, the senators ended up fighting among themselves, making it easy to seize the initiative. However, the side effect was that the processing speed of all agendas, including the tax increase, became extremely slow.

The senators didn’t harbor hostility toward me, but they did toward senators of other classes, which led them to automatically approve any agenda that harmed other classes and oppose any that benefited them.

And with all senators behaving this way, agenda processing simply couldn’t proceed properly.

…It was what I intended, but, well, it’s working so well that I’m slightly disgusted. It feels like watching crabs in a basket.

[Five consecutive rejections. If unifying your opinions is this difficult, I propose we proceed according to my intentions. What say you?]

[Let it be so.]

[…Such a prompt answer.]

The senators, apparently quite tired of this atmosphere, welcomed my intervention.

Generally, when a monarch intervenes in parliamentary matters, it severely diminishes the power of the parliament, so senators should try to prevent it. They surely understand this, yet they allowed my intervention, suggesting they too found the current situation quite hopeless.

Well, that suits me fine.

I can now enact agendas using the parliament’s authority without needing to persuade the senators.

While my authority as an absolute monarch is higher than the parliament’s, the authority of a parliament where all classes agree to pass an agenda is also quite significant. Even in an absolute monarchy, the unified opinion of multiple high-ranking classes carries considerable weight.

Later, I can discipline those who don’t follow the policies without any burden.

“How many prepared agendas remain?”

“Eighty percent, Your Majesty.”

“…Only twenty percent on the first day? This is bleak.”

But even so, this seems a bit extreme.

I don’t recall there being that many agendas, yet we’ve only processed 20%. The atmosphere of mutual disparagement and obstruction has clearly had a severe negative impact.

Hmm… well, time will solve it. They know better than anyone that dragging things out is to their detriment.

Probably some ambitious senators will gather like-minded colleagues to form parties, then engage in political deals with hostile senators, yielding on some agendas to gain support on others.

No, not “probably”—it’s almost a certainty.

Since it’s easier to sow discord among a few groups than among hundreds of individual senators, there’s no need to prevent it…

“When senators attempt to unify opinions by contacting others, dig up anything that could be their weakness.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Then I should uncover the weaknesses of the senators who will become the centers of these groups.

They could be very useful in case of emergency.

Attacking the messenger is more convenient than attacking the message—taste the toxicity of 21st-century politics.

“As expected, Your Majesty has a clear vision for the future.”

“Don’t flatter me. This is hardly a vision.”

“Were you not planning to control the Senate by leveraging the weaknesses of the senators who will become group leaders? That would effectively turn the Senate into a rubber stamp for your will.”

“…That’s correct, but it’s a bit much to say it so openly.”

“I apologize, Your Majesty.”

At that moment, the Duke of Aquitaine, walking beside me, broke the atmosphere with his comment.

Look, you’re entirely correct, but you shouldn’t say it so openly. At least use a euphemism.

“By the way, why are you following me? I recall your quarters are in the opposite direction.”

“Ah, my son is waiting in the palace garden. I wanted to show him the advanced culture of Dijon Palace, so I let him rest in the garden for a while.”

“Haha, we did work hard on it.”

Even knowing it’s flattery, it feels quite good to receive praise for the garden that Chloe and Ines decorated as a hobby.

Is this why people don’t reject obvious flattery from their subordinates?

“Um… Lord Ethan went for a walk with Princess Liliane and Princess Claudia.”

“…”

But there was no one in the garden, and when we asked a passing servant, we received an extraordinary answer.

What is this now?

A walk?

Those two, who take more after their mothers than me and have quite distinctive personalities, are taking a walk with an outside man?

“…”

I glanced sideways at the Duke of Aquitaine beside me, who was managing his expression to suppress his emotions. He seemed to think he was hiding his feelings well, but having sat in this position for over a decade and seen many people, I could see through most expression management.

This gentleman… despite his image of blindly praising me, his ambition is quite high.