IDIBC SS 3

Walter Shaw Chaplin’s Circumstances (1)

Mariette rose from her seat, watching the two figures whose gazes remained fixed on the book. Even as she brushed off her skirt and prepared to leave, Lienne and Ricardo failed to react in any way.

“Oh, by the way.”

When she spoke as if something had just occurred to her, the two of them barely managed to tear their eyes away from the book and look at her.

“It seems His Majesty, the King of Resotia, was considerably more difficult and prickly back in those days than he is now.”

“…….”

“And rather childish, as well.”

She left behind a quiet laugh and exited the room. After Mariette departed, a brief silence settled between the two. It was Ricardo who broke the stillness.

“Are you curious?”

Lienne nodded vigorously.

“So am I. And yet, for some reason, I find myself a little afraid to look.”

“Why? Are you quite embarrassed to face your own prickly past self?”

At the playful remark, Ricardo laughed out loud.

“Perhaps so.”

Unlike Ricardo, who could not readily reach out, Lienne boldly opened the book that lay before her. As she always did, she never retreated in the face of fear.

Within its pages, Lienne encountered Ricardo in print — more difficult and prickly than he was now, exactly as Mariette had described. Every last one of the rather childish things he had done, too.

Of course, it was not only the story of the two of them. Even so, Stuart’s tender letters to Mariette never failed to include tales of Ricardo. Their fates were intertwined that deeply.

The feelings Stuart had harbored — how he could only breathe easy after Ricardo’s awakening — came through vividly in the writing.

The Ricardo of the past life that she came to know, and herself, were only as Stuart’s eyes had seen them. And yet, was it strange that the scenery and emotions of those days came rising up inside her?

With scenes unfolding in her mind as though she had witnessed them herself, Lienne spent that night cycling between laughter and tears.

[Ricardo really was reckless.]

Of all things — at a time when the Emperor’s order to kill Lienne had been issued and smuggling her in would have barely sufficed — he had brought her in seated before him on his horse.

And with all the people of the capital having poured into the streets to welcome Ricardo and the Demahen Knights home in victory, no less.

[To think he acted so recklessly, with no thought for what came before or after. Was it because of what happened to him at the Fennel mansion in this life? The Ricardo of that time truly was quite different from the Ricardo of today.]

Imagining him walking with a thoroughly sullen face while she sat before him on his horse made her smile involuntarily.

[People are sensitive about Ricardo’s relationships with women. Seeing that Ricardo, many said he looked just like a mother cat guarding her kitten.]

Just as Stuart had put it, the young Ricardo had been like a black cat with a strong wariness. It seemed that in the previous life, that disposition had carried straight through into his adulthood.

[Even at the time, Judith Fan Monzania seemed somewhat suspect for someone claiming to be a saintess. Of course, I only learned this afterward — but it was also Judith who had spread the rumor that Lienne was an eastern girl who could neither read nor write.]

Only then did Lienne come to understand where the malicious words people had hurled at her as she burned at the stake had come from.

Stuart’s diary contained a detailed account of how Lienne had obtained a pardon from the Emperor. Ricardo and Rochester’s influence had been brought to bear, and the Emperor had accepted their wishes.

It was also written there that Emperor Wesley had thought that, someday, Lienne would make a very useful weakness of Ricardo’s — one they could exploit.

[There was one incident like this. The Emperor summoned Lienne as well and held a grand banquet at the Imperial Palace.]

[To grant a pardon and then immediately call for a banquet — none of us could fully fathom the Emperor’s dark intentions, but it was plain that nothing good would come of it.]

[If I were to write down everything that happened that day, these feeble arms of mine would surely snap off. Come to think of it, there has never been a banquet in my life as entertaining as that one, before or since.]

…..

The Emperor had not only pardoned Lienne, who had suddenly appeared in the Imperial Capital, but had gone so far as to invite her to the Imperial banquet. The nobles, unable to discern the Emperor’s intentions, were at a loss as to what position they ought to take.

Walter Shaw Chaplin was equally uncertain as to what the Emperor intended. Not that it mattered to him, of course. This banquet was nothing more than a tedious extension of his duties.

From the previous year, Walter had been subjected to enormous pressure to marry. It was something every young man of a certain age had to endure, but it weighed more heavily on Walter, who had become the de facto head of the Chaplin family at an early age.

Families of considerable standing competed to send what were nominally invitations but were, in truth, letters of proposal — three or four of which he had reviewed with some care.

The social world of Dermeier was vast, but in practice, once one moved through it, the circles proved narrower than expected. Its hierarchical structure was pyramidal, and it was only natural that few occupied the topmost tier.

The young women of the families who had sent proposals to Chaplin were, for the most part, ladies he had known since childhood.

While the sons of other houses typically spent at least some time away — studying abroad or going off to war — Walter, owing to his father’s early death, had never been able to leave the capital for long.

Furthermore, as he was involved in nearly every matter concerning the Imperial court, he was thoroughly acquainted with the circumstances of each noble family.

In other words, no woman was new to him.

Everyone hailed him as a gentleman heaven had sent and offered empty words about how whichever woman he chose would be the luckiest in the land — but none of it stirred anything within him.

Even so, Walter presented himself to others in impeccable dress and with irreproachable manners. It came as naturally to him as breathing, and there was nothing that could throw him off.

He simply felt nothing, and no situation inspired any enthusiasm in him. The world was too easy for him — tediously so, enough to make him break out in hives.

“You’re here?”

Walter gazed vacantly at Julian, who seemed to live in that same world with more delight than anyone.

Watching Julian stare at something in the distance, his honey-colored pupils dilating and then settling, it was evident he had already spotted a woman who would make him happy today.

“Isn’t today simply magnificent?”

“In what way?”

“The weather is lovely, and the women are beautiful.”

It didn’t resonate with him at all, but it wasn’t wrong either, so Walter answered with an appropriately light laugh.

“By the way — have you heard the news?”

Julian leaned toward him conspiratorially, and Walter subtly stepped aside. It would no doubt be some lurid scandal he had picked up somewhere, or an account of some outwardly respectable person’s beyond-imagination eccentricities.

“Ricardo, you see—”

But when a name he had not expected at all came up, Walter found himself leaning toward Julian without realizing it. He sensed Julian’s quick-witted smile at his reaction, but Walter paid it little mind.

Ricardo had appeared in Dermeier society one day without warning.

Officially known to have been away recuperating, he had returned to the Empire and shut himself away at his family estate. Not long after, he enrolled at the same academy Walter attended.

From that day on, Ricardo had been the one and only person who grated on Walter’s nerves.

Walter had found Ricardo — who stimulated every one of his senses — refreshing, and had welcomed his presence.

He had been bested by Ricardo at every turn, yet it hadn’t left a foul taste. He felt as though he alone was measuring himself against Ricardo and growing alongside him, but that, too, was fine with him.

That Ricardo had finished a single year of study and then spent his time drifting between battlefields. And not long ago, he had returned with a great victory — with a silver-haired, blue-eyed woman seated before him on his horse, no less.

“He’s bringing that woman. Not Judith.”

“That woman?”

“Lienne Rowe Fennel. Isn’t she the most talked-about name in society these days?”

Of course, Walter had known she was coming. Nothing that happened at the Imperial court passed through without going through his hands.

“Is that so?”

“Yes — ah, there’s today’s guest of honor now.”

True to the description of guest of honor, when Ricardo appeared, the commotion around them grew. Walter, too, followed the crowd’s gaze with his eyes, and he saw her.

Wasn’t she said to be an eastern girl who could neither read nor write? He had been confident he, at least, would not be swept up in the malicious rumor someone had spread — but that, it turned out, was not quite the case.

The woman who had been nothing but rumor was beautiful and looked sharp-minded.

Walter gave a quiet, rueful laugh. He was laughing at himself for how utterly different she was from what he had unconsciously imagined.

Lienne was not only beautiful — even in a gathering of the Empire’s social elite, she showed not a trace of being intimidated. If anything, it was Ricardo who stood beside her, visibly irritated and acting with nervous urgency.

He carried himself as though he intended to shield her from every single thing in the world.

“How amusing.”

He had said it without thinking, and Julian stared at him.

“I’ve never heard you say something was amusing before.”

Walter simply laughed as though it were a meaningless remark, but in truth, he was surprised at himself as well. Amusing — it was a feeling he had scarcely experienced since he was thirteen, when he had first studied accounting.

“Walter, what exactly is so amusing?”

When Julian approached with a meaningful smile and asked, Walter visibly leaned away from him.

“It’s just… I mean to say that this situation is amusing.”

Julian nodded without pressing further.

“Well, yes — the older nobles may grumble that the world is going to ruin, but I still find all of this rather enjoyable.”

After Julian — who had made such a fuss as though he knew some great secret — disappeared, Walter, feeling fatigued, slipped away from the crowd for a moment.

Viewed from a distance, the whole scene became clearer.

The high-ranking noblewomen, led by Judith Fan Monzania, were glaring at Lienne as if they could devour her. It was obvious that the moment Ricardo left Lienne’s side, they would pounce on her with fire in their eyes.

Whether he knew it or not, Ricardo did not stray from Lienne’s side for even a moment.

He can’t keep that up indefinitely……

Almost as soon as Walter inwardly worried about it, Judith, who had been casting glances toward Lienne, had someone deliver a note to a certain party — none other than the Grand Priest.

What would happen next was predictable. The Grand Priest would approach the Emperor, and soon Ricardo would be summoned away by him.

Walter found the whole situation fascinating.

Against a saintess who could bend even the Emperor to her will — how would Lienne handle this?