Around the time when Tigre’s party infiltrated the capital, Valentina visited Ruslan’s bedroom in the palace after being called over by him.
“Oohh, thanks for coming, Tina!”
As soon as he saw Valentina’s face, Ruslan waved a hand with a smile on his lips. The 38-years-old prince was sitting upright on his luxurious, canopied bed. His golden hair was disheveled and the stubbles on his jaw were rather conspicuous, but his complexion seemed much better than usual.
A boy in silken attire stood next to the prince. His hair color was similar to the prince’s with its pale gold, and his eye color was as blue as the prince’s, too. Nothing that could be described as an emotion was reflected on the boy’s face as he cast no more than a single glance at Valentina.
──I wonder where Sir Miron went.
While puzzled by the grand chamberlain’s absence, Valentina walked up to in front of Ruslan, and bowed respectfully. Next, she performed the same kind of bow for the boy as well.
“How are you doing these fine days, Your Highness Valery?”
The boy called Valery by Valentina looked up to her and nodded lightly, but didn’t utter a single word. Valery was Ruslan’s son. He had turned ten years old this year, but he was small and thin, making him look several years younger than his actual age. Even Valentina felt a certain extent of pity with this boy.
Valery had lost both his parents at an age of two. His mother succumbed to illness, and his father became mentally ill. And on top of that, his grandfather, King Viktor, locked away his grandson in a room. It was said that the late king had feared the possibility of his grandson afflicting the same mental illness as his son.
King Victor likely hadn’t spared on providing Valery with all the food and clothes he might have desired, and he had undoubtedly made sure for Valery to receive a certain level of education, but in the end, Valery had been living by himself ever since he was old enough to understand what was going on around him.
As such, Valery was looking at Ruslan like he was watching some stranger rather than his father. After directing a somewhat sad smile at his son, Ruslan looked up to Valentina with a serious expression.
“I have summoned you because there’s something I’d like to request from you by all means. Could you hear me out?”
“I am Your Highness’s retainer. Please feel free to order anything you wish.”
For Valentina as First Prince Aide no answer other than that could exist.
While pointing a gentle look at his son, Ruslan said, “I’d like to entrust you with taking care of Valery. It might be unfair to put it like this, but there’s no one else I could ask to do this.”
Confusion dyed Valentina’s eyes while she still kept her head lowered. Unintentionally lifting her face, she blinked several times while staring at Ruslan. His father’s words also seemed to come as a surprise for Valery. The boy looked back and forth between Ruslan and Valentina.
“Why──”
She started, but the word ‘me’ didn’t leave her lips because Ruslan was beckoning her over. Bending, Valentina brought her ear close to Ruslan’s mouth.
“Miron hates this child. He’s regarding this boy as the cause for what happened eight years ago.”
Valentina’s eyes widened due to the whisper that caused her eardrum to tremble. At the same time, she comprehended why Miron wasn’t present right now. She suspected that Ruslan had him step out.
The matter of eight years ago concerned Ruslan’s mental illness. Ever since those days, all kinds of speculations about the cause had been swirling around, and even what Valentina could find out by herself only hinted at it having been either an illness triggered by the shock of having lost his wife, someone poisoning Ruslan, or something like him having been possessed by an evil spirit.
Nowadays Valentina knew the truth. Natasha, the younger sister of King Viktor, had told her. After having prevented a rebellion, King Viktor had even gone as far as suspecting the Vanadis and royals close to Ruslan because they hadn’t actively allied themselves with himself. Unable to persuade his father, Ruslan had gulped down a cup of poisoned wine on his own accord. That was the full story behind it.
It wasn’t supposed to ever come to light. If it had been revealed that King Viktor had driven his own son into madness because of his own obstinacy, the king would have suffered an irredeemable blow to his reputation and honor. The royals and Vanadis, whom he had been suspecting, wouldn’t have been able to take it calmly either. In the worst case, it could have sparked a new rebellion.
Once Valentina raised her body, Ruslan coughed a few times. He looked up to her while smiling weakly.
“I’m counting on you.”
“──As you wish, Your Highness. Please leave it to me.”
Valentina had no choice but to bow and confirm.
◆◇◆
Leaving Ruslan’s bedroom, Valentina bowed to Valery once more.
“Your Highness, please leave everything to me, Valentina Glinka Estes, starting today. I shall make sure that you experience no inconvenience whatsoever.”
What a speech for a treacherous retainer, Valentina smiled cynically at herself in her mind, but Valery limited his reply to a frank, “Okay.”
“By the way, how am I to call you? Umm, my father…has been calling you Tina.”
The instant he was about to say father, Valery was clearly confused. It wasn’t as though he wasn’t used to calling Ruslan his father, but rather stemmed from his hesitation to call Ruslan like that.
“Tina is my nickname. As long as you are fine with it, please feel free to call me like that, Your Highness.”
“Very well, then I shall take you up on that offer. It’s a bit sudden, but Tina, what is that thing you’re shouldering?”
Valery’s eyes, full of curiosity, had zoomed in on the long-handled scythe she was shouldering. As might be expected, Valentina had left her draconic tool outside before entering Ruslan’s bedroom.
“Ezendeis. It is the draconic tool that has designated me as Vanadis. It is dangerous, so please do not touch it.”
Just like that the two started to walk through the hallway, heading towards Valentina’s office for the time being. Valentina tried to match the pace of the far too young prince as much as possible, but Valery was quite slow as he kept inspecting the ceiling and walls as if seeing something unusual.
──Up until now, the things he was able to see were so limited that he could actually count them… The hand extending out of the silken sleeves are small and his skin is white, too. I should have considered it as odd. I should have realized that Miron, who has been displaying such strong loyalty towards Ruslan and King Viktor, hasn’t mentioned Valery with a single word up until now.
No, she had noticed it. But, Valentina didn’t harbor any interest or concern for Valery, and thus she didn’t pay it any heed. She was convinced that Miron was likely taking proper care of Valery’s necessities as grand chamberlain.
──What should I do about this?
She racked her brain while walking. Valery’s existence didn’t matter to Valentina. Once Ruslan would pass away sooner or later, she planned to make him abdicate his right to the throne before putting him into some temple. Valentina didn’t see any value in a ten-years-old boy. But, now that she had been asked to look after him by Ruslan, she couldn’t simply ignore him either. Even Valentina herself felt hesitant to neglect the care-taking of a child despite having been ordered to deal with it. That feeling was also influenced by Valery being Ruslan’s son, she suspected.
She couldn’t entrust the prince to the maids and court ladies serving in the palace. After all, Miron stood above all of them. For this very reason Ruslan had expressly called for her. She considered the option to borrow some maids from a noble lord, but if the lord learned about the charge being the prince’s legitimate son, it was easy to imagine that he’d try to butter up Valery without even trying to hide any ulterior motives.
I guess I need to call over the elderly couple of servants working at my mansion in the capital.
At that moment, a certain idea struck Valentina. Making her dress’ hem wave by stopping all of a sudden, she smiled at Valery.
“Your Highness, there is a place I would like you to accompany me to, but could I have you come with me?”
After looking up to Valentina with a curious expression, Valery shortly bobbed his head, and Valentina felt like she had heard a faint approving grunt.
Valentina changed her direction. Passing through a very long corridor, she descended a stairway, just to walk across another hallway, before taking a corner. Eventually she stopped in front of a certain room.
“Where are we?” Valery asked with a puzzled look.
In response, Valentina smiled sweetly at him and asked, “It is the archive, Your Highness. With all due respect, do you feel any discomfort about reading or writing?”
“I’m fine with it, I think.”
It was a vague answer, but still more than enough for Valentina. Pushing the door open, she stepped inside. Faint traces of tension could be seen on Valery’s face.
As soon as Valentina lit a lamp, the darkness in a section of the room was expelled. Looking at the huge bookshelves and the books lined up within, Valery swallowed his breath. Him grabbing the hem of Valentina’s dress likely stemmed from him feeling slightly scared.
“Please do not worry, Your Highness. You will not find anything scary in here. Only books are inhabiting this room.”
“Books…,” muttered Valery in blank amazement, and then frowned as if having realized something. “I don’t like studying all that much.”
“We have not come here to study. Did you ever happen to read 『Ephram and Ivan』?”
Valery tilted his head in confusion at her question, “Ephram? Ivan? Who are they?”
Valentina was lured into smiling against her will. A long time ago she had made the same mistake. If someone were to ask why she still remembered such a triviality from a distant past, the answer would lie in her having been frequently teased with this by Natasha and Petrov ── Ruslan.
She answered with a question of her own, “Your Highness, do you like tales?”
After blinking several times while looking like he was pondering, Valery asked as if to make certain, “Do you mean something like the story of a bear and a wolf traveling alongside a river? My nursing mother told me that story in the past.”
That tale was very famous as a story for children in Zhcted. A bear and a wolf, both close friends, casually looked at the upper stream as they stood at a riverside. The wolf wondered where the river was originating from and proposed to the bear that they should go and take a look. The two went on a journey while sharing the salmons and deer they hunted down, and being chased around by bee swarms after trying to steal honey. Of course, Valentina knew this story as well.
“Yes, I mean that kind of story,” confirmed Valentina.
Hearing that, Valery put on a sad expression, seemingly troubled.
“I loved listening to the stories of my nursing mother. She also told me a story about everyone trying to pull out a huge, huge turnip. However, she stopped visiting when I became five years old…” 1
I see, Valentina agreed in her mind. She felt like she was able to take a small peek at a fraction of Valery’s life up until now. ‘I’d like to keep learning more about him in preparation for the things to come, but asking him too insistently is probably going to produce unwanted results instead.
Responding with, “Please wait a moment,” Valentina walked up to a bookshelf, and pondered for a bit which of the books didn’t use too difficult a language while gazing at the many spines.
──This scent…is something I’ve forgotten for a long time, isn’t it?
She thought in a corner of her mind. Valentina had indulged in reading during her house arrest, but after having started to act, she didn’t even have time to touch a book.
──It might be interesting to use this chance for testing His Highness.
There were many versions of 『Ephram and Ivan』. Choosing two other books in addition to 『Ephram and Ivan』, Valentina headed back to Valery.
“I know it sounds rude, but I do not know anything about you, Your Highness.”
She passed the books she was holding to the young prince. The boy held the three books with both arms.
“Therefore, could I have you read these? I do not mind you skipping over anything that is too difficult for you to understand. Once you have finished reading, I would love to hear you impressions by all means.”
“Am I going to read them here?”
“Do you wish to do so in your own room?”
Valery shook his head at her question.
“I don’t really like that room much.”
“How about my office then? I have some things I need to do, so I cannot spend too much time with you, but…”
“That is fine,” confirmed Valery.
The two left the archive, and started to walk towards Valentina’s office.
◆◇◆
————- End of Part 2 ————-
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login