Ch.282Chapter 282 – Princess Gabriella (1)

I quietly asked while looking at Gabriella’s fierce smile.

“When you say princess…”

“Let me clarify before any misunderstandings arise.”

Gabriella spoke quietly.

“I am not the daughter of the current king, Gio di Firenchena.”

“Then…”

“I am the seventh princess of the former king, Padre di Firenchena.”

Actually, I had already suspected this.

According to Domestica, Beatrice was apparently a guard knight for the seven princesses, daughters of the former king of Firenchena.

Given her resemblance to Beatrice, I had guessed that she was more likely to be the former king’s daughter.

‘Come to think of it, didn’t they say the youngest princess survived?’

According to what Domestica told us, all the princesses and the queen were killed except for the youngest princess.

So it wouldn’t be strange that the youngest princess was still alive.

Even so, she shouldn’t be someone who would come to a place like this.

“Why would a princess be in a place like this?”

I asked with a hint of curiosity.

Gabriella took a sip of Domestica’s tea, then looked at me with a dark expression full of anger and said:

“I was going to be made a concubine if I had stayed.”

“What?”

Beatrice interjected in surprise.

However, Gabriella merely glanced at her before turning back to me and continuing:

“This might be an unpleasant story. Would that be alright?”

“…Keep it brief if possible.”

“That might be difficult.”

Still, she said she would try, smiling weakly as she spoke.

“You know one of this country’s nicknames, don’t you? The Second Holy Kingdom.”

“I’ve heard of it.”

“I should start with how that unpleasant nickname came to be.”

Gabriella took a moment to gather herself before speaking.

“The story begins from the day a great famine struck this country long ago. Many people were dying of hunger.”

Gabriella began to briefly recount the history.

“During a time when people were dying from famine and plague was spreading, the Emiris Order dispatched a large number of holy knights and priests free of charge to treat people, protect them, and distribute food. People who were dying began to recover, and thanks to their help, the country in crisis was able to safely endure that period.”

Surprisingly, what she described was a heartwarming tale.

Perhaps the Emiris Order was once a normal religious order.

Or if not, they might have had ulterior motives for such actions from the beginning, but unfortunately, I couldn’t verify the truth now.

“Thanks to their contribution in overcoming the famine, the previous king actively supported their missionary work as a reward. Afterward, the Order continued to dispatch holy knights to actively eliminate monsters and send priests to treat people, gaining public trust.”

That’s how they grew their influence in the Kingdom of Firenchena, Gabriella briefly added.

“And as time passed, a situation arose where the roles became reversed.”

“Reversed roles?”

“Yes. Reversed roles.”

Gabriella said with a dark smile.

“When the Order’s holy knights regularly eliminated monsters and their priests treated illnesses, at some point the nobles of Firenchena began to take it for granted.”

“Take it for granted?”

“Yes. They mistook what should have been seen as free service as the Order’s ‘duty.'”

Gabriella sighed as she spoke.

“Of course, this was convenient for them. They saved money that should have been spent on monster elimination. They could invest that budget elsewhere.”

She seemed to gloss over the latter part.

She was probably avoiding direct mention out of national shame, but in reality, many people likely pocketed the money.

“As they became insensitive to the Order’s service, by the time they realized it, the Emiris Order had become indispensable to the country. Pathetically, the Order had taken over duties that should have been handled by the state or nobles.”

Gabriella sadly said it was the price of accepting excessive kindness without caution.

“If they tried to exclude the Order carelessly, there would be immediate gaps in governance. Especially for local lords, if the Order stopped eliminating monsters or providing medical support, the resulting chaos would be very difficult to manage. By the time the nobles finally became cautious, much was already too late.”

Gabriella continued in a slightly subdued voice.

“And when things reached this point, people with different ideas emerged.”

“What kind of different ideas?”

“It’s simple… they clung to the Order.”

I heard a sigh from behind.

Glancing back, I saw Domestica wearing a dark expression.

“If relations with the Order soured, their domains would be in danger. Lords who thought this way began to cling to the Order. And from this point, the problem grew even larger.”

The lords began to align with the Order.

In response, the Order began to openly concentrate their support only on lords who cooperated with them.

“…As things reached this point, the situation changed so that lords would suffer great damage if they didn’t cling to the Order. A situation arose where domains were safer if they paid attention to the Order rather than the royal family.”

When things reached this point, the royal family could no longer properly control the lords.

Naturally, the royal authority began to be challenged by the Order.

“Of course, the royal family tried, albeit belatedly, to break the Order’s power, but… each time, the Order interfered by mobilizing the lords and nobles who had become their allies. That’s how the country fell halfway into the Order’s hands.”

Gabriella lamented that they had been pathetically invaded by what should have been an easily preventable infiltration.

“…So that’s why this country is called the Second Holy Kingdom.”

“Yes. It’s shameful.”

After saying this, Gabriella took another sip of tea.

Then she looked at me and said:

“To overturn this situation, my father, the former King Padre, decided to somehow drive out the Order.”

It seemed the former king of Firenchena began to take action, believing they needed to move before it was too late, while the royal family could still function properly.

Naturally, the Order had no reason to openly allow this.

“A power struggle began between the Emiris Order and the royal family. The conflict intensified and became vicious. Soon, my father decided to act assuming the worst.”

Gabriella quietly drank her tea before continuing.

“He decided to send the princesses, the royal heirs, into exile abroad.”

“It seems this was no ordinary power struggle.”

“No joke—it reached the point where every morning, the body of a maid, guard, or noble who was helping my father resolve this situation would be found somewhere in the palace.”

Of course, she added, people from the Order’s side often met the same fate.

In any case, the situation had become so dire that the king decided to send the princesses into exile.

And then…

“Betrayal occurred.”

Gabriella said in a cold voice.

“Betrayal…”

“Uncle Gio, who had been helping my father, leaked the princesses’ exile plan to the Order.”

Perhaps by coincidence, clouds passed overhead, blocking the sun.

As a result, Gabriella’s face appeared even darker.

“Because of my uncle’s betrayal, I was captured by him as I was secretly trying to leave the palace. And…”

“If it’s difficult, you don’t need to continue.”

I already knew what had happened.

But Gabriella quietly shook her head and said:

“It’s alright. You should hear how things turned out.”

“……”

“…I was captured like that and held hostage in some mansion, seized by my uncle’s subordinates and the Order’s holy knights.”

“Did they target you from the beginning?”

“I don’t think so. I believe they wanted to keep at least one person alive as a hostage, regardless of who it was.”

In fact, the reason she couldn’t escape from the palace that day was because she was briefly delayed by a very small issue, Gabriella quietly explained.

“…After I was captured by them, my sisters who were fleeing separately with my mother were… literally hunted down.”

From here on, she was relaying what she had been told, Gabriella said quietly.

“The Order thoroughly killed the princesses, I heard. They mobilized high-ranking members to personally pursue and kill them. Few survived…”

The clouds continued to linger.

The shadow on Gabriella’s face did not disappear.

“…Thus, except for me, everyone died… The heads of my mother and sisters were displayed at the Emiris Order’s church in the capital.”

“At the church?”

Chris asked, genuinely shocked.

Gabriella quietly nodded and continued.

“A sign was attached below their necks, saying: ‘God’s judgment has fallen upon these people.’ Holy knights constantly guarded them so the royal family couldn’t take them away, and they had the believers desecrate them… or so I heard.”

Gabriella’s gaze changed slightly.

Anger and sorrow were etched in her eyes.

“…And a few days later, when the heads had decayed to the point where the faces were barely recognizable… they were put in bags and dumped in the palace courtyard. The servants recovered them and somehow delivered them to my father.”

Gabriella spoke calmly, but she couldn’t hide the trembling in her voice.

“…At that sight, my father collapsed, broke down. Despite facing much political pressure before, my father, who had been determined to fight until the end… finally gave up the fight after losing his family.”

The king, having lost what was precious to him, crumbled.

Gabriella took a deep breath and then quietly continued.

“And the crown went to the betrayer.”

That’s how the current king of Firenchena ascended to the throne, Gabriella said quietly.

“After abdicating the throne, my father… begged his brother for mercy. He asked for his daughter, just me, to be returned.”

The former king begged his brother to return Princess Gabriella, the only survivor.

He promised to live quietly if only his daughter was returned.

“Of course, the promise wasn’t kept. My father and those who had followed him at the time, as well as royal family members with considerable influence, either met mysterious deaths or were sent to distant borderlands.”

“Mysterious deaths?”

“There were many cases of poison suicide that year.”

Gabriella didn’t explain everything, but it was easy to guess what fate the former king had met.

“…My family was shattered because of that insane Order.”

Gabriella lowered her head.

After calming herself for a moment, she soon raised her head again and said:

“And I remained captive in my uncle’s custody. As a kind of hostage and trophy.”

“Trophy…?”

“…Yes, trophy.”

Gabriella spoke quietly.

“I was their trophy, taken from the former king.”

“Um, Princess, that’s…”

Chris looked at Gabriella with a worried expression.

Seeing Chris’s expression, Gabriella smiled and said:

“Don’t worry. I wasn’t mistreated in that way. Nothing like that happened to me.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. So you don’t need to worry about that at all.”

Gabriella was actually reassuring us who were worried.

Glancing at Domestica’s expression, it seemed to be true.

But judging from her dark expression and obvious reluctance to talk more about what happened then, I thought those times must have left deep wounds on her.

“Then one day, while living as a trophy, my uncle made a marriage proposal… or rather, an ultimatum.”

“Why?”

Chris asked, trembling slightly.

Gabriella quietly smiled and said:

“It happens occasionally for reasons such as maintaining pure bloodlines without mixing with outside blood, and to secure power or legitimacy.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, Sister.”

At Gabriella’s words, Chris’s expression darkened.

Soon Chris quietly asked:

“So you almost had to marry your uncle…”

“As you suspect, it was for securing legitimacy, I’d like to think… sincerely.”

Gabriella spoke with a trembling voice.

Whether that trembling was from fear or anger, I unfortunately couldn’t tell.