Chapter 5: Expected Heir

In this country, dinner seems to be mainly stewed dishes.

Yesterday it was fish stew, which I don’t understand, and the day before yesterday it was probably pork stew.

And today it was stewed duck.

It was mainly seasoned with salt and pepper, with a combination of some herbs.

For my taste, the herbs were a bit bad. The aroma is too strong. In addition, the salt was too strong and the duck meat was too hard.

Even though the duck was well oiled and looked great!

Citrusy duck confit, and duck nanban would be nice. Better yet, duck and leeks grilled over charcoal and served with salt sauce…

Oh, I’d like to be the one to make it. They’ve ruined my duck.

I’m a lot more skilled than the daytime pastry maker.

No, maybe I’m just picky…

But the amount of aromatic herbs in this…is unacceptable, and the intensity of the aroma almost makes me cry.

Let’s be more careful with the preparation. It would also make the meat more tender and the smell of the duck would disappear without the use of these herbs…

Duck has a unique smell. It can be both delicious and inexplicably bad. People who don’t like duck usually don’t like its smell.

I think people’s palates in this world are not so different from mine.

It’s not just about the food you’re used to eating, or the culture, or the place you eat, or the people you eat with, or the atmosphere you’re in, or the various other factors that affect your taste buds, but it’s also about what’s good for you to eat.

The basic rule for me is to use seasonal ingredients at the best time, and in a simple way that makes the most of the flavor of the ingredients.

What makes a dish “delicious” is not just about the high quality ingredients, nor is it just about the skill of the artisan.

Hunger is the best seasoning!

I said the words like a spell and decided to eat the bread.

Soft white bread. Well, it’s like Heidi’s white bread.

It looks delicious, with a lingering scent of freshly baked bread that’s still warm. I quite liked it because it had a solid wheat-like taste when you bite into it.

I’d really like some butter or jam, but it’s called a luxury. I couldn’t see it, so I settled for just bread.

I ate the bread, butter and salt fried zade, and ended the meal with a cup of herbal water.

Sorry, eating all this is torture for me…

As a young princess, I don’t think I’m allowed to cook my own food in my current state, but I dare say.

Please, let me cook for you! No, I’ll take a hundred steps, just let me tell you what to do!

Then I’m sure I’ll have a bit more of an appetite for it.

After the meal is over, it’s time for a free evening.

What I have in my hand is a book that Lilia brought me. History books of the kingdom…Apparently, Arthirea likes history, and Lilia brings many history books.

I’m grateful for this knowledge because I need it now.

…I think Arthirea is an amazing girl.

It’s about me, but I’m impressed, as if I were someone else.

I have no memory of Arthirea, but I do have her knowledge.

The first thing I unconsciously use is the language.

It’s definitely not Japanese, and it’s not English or French, which I can use in my own right, but I can understand it.

I can understand.

I have no trouble reading and writing at all, and even though some of the history books Lilia brings to me are sold…I didn’t have much trouble understanding them, even though some of them are written in archaic languages.

It’s not that I’m translating them into Japanese in my head. I was just thinking in the common continental language used in Dardinia.

It wasn’t until a while later that I thought about why I could understand the language even though it wasn’t Japanese.

Then, sometimes a little bit of culture comes back to me…For example, when I see a teacup, the technique used to make it or the name of the kiln comes to mind.

Furthermore, when I hear the name of a place, I think of the sights and characteristics of the place…This is definitely Arthirea’s knowledge.

I don’t know exactly what it is because I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I think Arthirea was pretty savvy for a 12 year old girl, don’t you think?

What impressed me more than anything else was that Arthirea knew the names of all of her knights and maidservants in her guard by their full names.

Knowing their full names means that one can properly understand their family lineage and status, which is quite important.

That’s because she knew about each and every one of them.

I don’t think that’s something one can do very easily.

The Crown Princess, or…

Even at such a young age, Arthirea must have been aware of her status as the crown prince’s queen.

There were many things I didn’t understand right away when I woke up, but now that I’ve settled in like this, I’m starting to understand more and more.

And someday…

Maybe I’ll get my memories of Arthirea back.

I’m carefree, but I’m always confused because I don’t really know what’s going on. I feel like I’ve been thrown into a state of disorder where I can’t see anything.

But as I spends more and more time here, Maya and Arthirea overlap each other more and more.

It’s as if the daydreams that had little sense of reality were being carved into my mind, backed up by the time I spent and the knowledge that emerges.

Knowledge must also be part of memory, so that one day I may not doubt that I am Arthirea at all.

“We’ve prepared an after-dinner tea, Robb tea.

Robb tea is a tea that is refreshing to drink.

It tastes like green tea and oolong tea mixed together, and is always served after eating something oily. It’s supposed to wash away the oils. It’s like pu-erh tea without the quirks.

Thank you.

When I was served the tea, Lilia had something to do with it, and she dropped back, not refraining from being beside me as usual.

I’m used to eating food alone, so it didn’t bother me.

I got up from my seat to go wash my sticky hands.

I should really call the maidservants at a time like this, but I refrained from doing so because I had to clean up after my dinner, and it was time for them to take turns with their dinner.

I put my hand on the door.

“…I heard that Her Royal Highness refused to meet with the Duchess?”

“It seems so, but of course.”

“Well, that’s right. No matter how high the Duke is, you can’t force the princess to do anything.”

I heard a man’s voice and stopped dead in my tracks.

It’s probably someone from the knight’s escort. I can recognize the name as soon as I look at the face, but I still can’t recognize it from the voice alone.

Huh? This is a hallway, not a washroom?

I gingerly walked back to the other side, careful not to open the door.

As soon as I washed my hands in the bathroom and returned to my seat, Ellucia and Julia returned.

I had finished my after-dinner tea, so I folded the napkin around my neck and placed it on the table.

That was my signal that the tea was done, too. As they began to clean up, I think about what I said earlier for a moment.

The knights in my escort knew that I had refused to meet with the Duke and Duchess.

And I took it for granted.

There seemed to be a hint in their voices that they were trying to say it was a good thing.

Well, they’re the Kingsguard, so of course…

The Kingsguard is similar to a royal private army. It’s different in terms of royal law, but in effect, you can think of them as private soldiers.

That’s how close they are to the royal family, and due to the nature of the troops, it’s only natural that they would be more loyal to the royal family.

That’s why there are a lot of people who wearer saddened by Princess Efinia’s death and do not have good feelings for the cause of it, Lady Luciella.

Too bad…

Six months after the death of my mother, the Princess, the Duke took Luciella as his second wife as soon as the mourning period was over.

Originally, formal mourning would have lasted three years. Six months is only a provisional mourning.

When there are auspicious occasions, provisional mourning is allowed, and the end of mourning can be accelerated, but in this case, he was indeed criticized for being too much.

It is true that the marriage of the four dukes who support the kingdom is a celebration, but it would not have been possible without the passing of the princess. It was rumored that it was as if the princess had been waiting for her death.

Some people thought it was an assassination because of her untimely death…

The little theaters and playhouses of the marketplace were quick to put on a play about events that have been talked about in the public eye, but the satirical play about the Duke and Duchess is so popular that in that play, the princess is supposed to have been poisoned by the Duke and Duchess.

Of course, the names have been replaced, and apparently they are now the Count and Countess, but everyone knows who the models are.

In fact, it was because of childbirth, but that’s what it was supposed to be.

The formal marriage of the four dukes requires the king’s permission.

When Luciella and the Duke were to marry, His Majesty the King’s condition for granting permission was that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and I were to be married, and that the Dukes would relinquish all rights over me.

It is important to note here that it is only the Dukes who relinquished, and all my rights in relation to the Duke’s house remain intact.

The Duke swallowed this unconditionally.

The Duke would lose various rights to the daughter born to the princess, but more than that, he had a reason to formally marry Luciella.

Besides, politically speaking, it was for the aristocrats to have a daughter become a princess. Even if it was a daughter with no rights, the duke may have had the idea that a daughter was a daughter, even if she had no rights.

The marriage between me and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had been greatly to his advantage.

He didn’t expect the marriage to be the biggest blunder in his calculations later on, at this time.

I think smart people sometimes do a big chunk.

His Majesty, on the other hand, is said to have been so angry that he did not think about political decisions at all. His Majesty is a person who always lives independently of politics.

The brother’s anger at the untimely death of his half-sister had led him to have his sister, who had already married into another family, laid to rest in a royal mausoleum, and to have the daughter she had given birth to, to be taken perfectly out of her father’s hands.

Then his Majesty officiated at the marriage of His Royal Highness Nigel, the Crown Prince, to me, seven months old, as if in response to the Duke.

Normally in such a case, the couple would be engaged and then married when they were old enough to be married. But His Majesty, drawing on the example of Princess Efinia, said that such a mistake should never happen again, and silenced those who opposed the marriage on the grounds of age.

It was only the formal wedding that was to take place after I had grown up, but everything else was duly performed.

In other words, my marriage was official and recognized by the state and the church.

I think His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, who is partly concerned, is the one most annoyed…He was 15 years old and his partner was 7 months old…

His Majesty the King could not forgive what had happened to his beloved sister. That’s why he left me under his protection and henceforth had very little to do with Elzevert.

His Majesty’s excessive treatment of me is inextricably linked to his vendetta against the Duke.

The crown princess had a new palace built when ordinarily she would not have had a palace of her own. And as a wedding present, the city of Al-Baiser, which had been severed from the family name more than 20 years previously by the lord’s family due to a lack of a legitimate son, and which had been entrusted to the royal family for so long, was declared the Crown Princess’ estate.

The cost of building a new palace was traditionally borne by the queen’s birth family as a wedding gift, and in fact, Al-Baiser was a city that the Dukes of Elzevert, who had no large port city, had longed to make their own domain, and His Majesty’s harassment was so intense that he deliberately gave it to me.

Moreover, this is the first time I have visited this castle, which is far from my birthplace, even though it is my birthplace, so I am very thorough.

I think…

The Duke should have at least waited three more years.

Regardless of personal feelings, the people of this country probably don’t blame him for loving his mistress more than his wife in a political marriage. Especially for aristocrats.

However, the Duke’s treatment of the princess was not good enough.

Not many people would condemn the Duke of Elzevert, one of the country’s greatest noblemen, to his face, but the tragedy of the youngest princess, a popular figure among the people, is not only a play, but also a bard’s song, which has spread to other countries.

But at this time, the Duke had a reason why he just couldn’t wait.

Luciella’s pregnancy…

At this time, Luciella was pregnant for the fifth time.

The state law of the Dardinian Kingdom only recognizes inheritance to children born from formal marriage.

Hence, the five sons born to Luciella out of wedlock could only be bastards and could not inherit any title, property or land, no matter how much the duke may recognize them.

It is not entirely impossible to retroactively recognize a bastard son, but in that case, the one who was a bastard son must have been formally married to the woman who gave birth to the bastard son at the time he was born.

The Duke could never do that…

Because the Duke had been the princess’s official betrothed from the time of her birth.

Therefore, I don’t know how many people were aware of it at this time, but the only person who had the right to inherit the Dukes of Elzevert was Arthirea.

Thankfully, it’s a nuisance…

The law of the land allows only legitimate children to inherit. This is absolute and cannot be overruled by His Majesty the King.

For example, even if His Majesty the King has a child, if his mother is just his beloved mistress, that child can’t inherit the throne.

So the Duke couldn’t let the child in Luciella’s belly be a bastard. No matte throw much notoriety he’d get, he had to hurry up the marriage…in order to make the unborn child a legitimate child.

And…

Luciella had a baby boy just before I turned one year old.

…However, it was stillborn.

Since then, Luciella has gone through several pregnancies, but each one after that had been miscarriages.

It’s well known that once a miscarriage occurs, it’s easier to miscarry.

After that, Luciella never had a child.

And as of now, the facts are obvious to everyone.

“Crown Princess Arthirea is the only legitimate heir of Elzevert.”

In marrying Luciella, the Duke renounced all rights to Arthirea, so Arthirea was more like a daughter of the royal family than a daughter of the Elzevert.

But it was also an unchangeable fact that Arthirea was the only legitimate son of the Duke of Elzevert, and that was of great importance.

Luciella is now forty-one years old, they say. It’s not that she’s at an age where she’ll never be able to have children, but it’s probably not going to happen anymore.

I’ve heard about this because I have a friend who was an obstetrics nurse. Miscarriage is a peculiar thing. And forty-one is an older birth. Given the standard of medical care here, it’s probably impossible.

So, unless the Duke divorces Luciella and takes on a new consort or wife, he can no longer have a legitimate child other than Arthirea.

His Majesty’s return of the king’s will had produced an unexpected trump card.

If the Duke does not get a bastard child at this point, all of Elzevert will belong to Arthirea, and thus, the royal family.

The Duke can divide the family and share the property with his bastard children. But the law of the land dictates that this is only possible with the consent of the next Duke.

Arthirea cannot be the official successor to the Duke’s family because she cannot be both the Crown Princess and the Duke of Elzevert.

However, she is the presumptive heir and is currently the representative of the official heir that Arthirea will one day give birth to.

The second child born to Arthirea is unconditionally, from the moment he is born, the next Duke of Elzevert.

Well, the bottom line is that as I’m twelve years old, such a thing is still a dream come true.

“Princess, it’s time for you to take a hot bath. The hot water is ready for you.”

I was surprised by Lilia’s voice. I was thinking a little too much in an unnecessary direction.

I nodded as if I understood, and stood up.

Unlike in the previous world, baths are pretty hard to take here. It’s hard to get someone to prepare it for you, and it’s also hard to get in.

It’s embarrassing, but they won’t let me take a bath alone.

I think it’s the same as going in with other girls, so I put up with it.

…Huh? Come to think of it, I wonder what’s going on with contacting the royal palace and all that?

I wondered about it for a minute, but then I got in the bath and forgot about it all.

…And later, I regretted it terribly.

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