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Adrian Leonberger (1)
The royal palace was peaceful.
The nobles who had gathered to attend the funeral heard that it had been canceled and made a fuss for a while, but such disturbances only occurred outside the palace. Deep within the royal palace, where the royal family lived, it was extremely quiet. The east wing of the palace, now called the Crown Prince’s Palace, was the most silent section of all.
It was by virtue of the king’s command that everyone refrained from doing anything that might hinder the master of this wing from taking a break. Of course, even if there had been no royal decree, no one who was wise would make a fuss so deep inside the palace. If there was someone who would cause chaos, it could only be Adrian Leonberger. However, he was now extremely ill and in the process of recuperation, and was not in the same condition as before the accident.
He seldom left his room, gripping his carving knife all day and trimming wood. Thanks to this, the royal palace was in an unprecedented state of peace.
At least on the outside, it seemed this way.
“She was the first to hear that there is such a woman.”
The only duke in the kingdom sat hunched on his stool within the palace courtyard.
“What kind of woman is she, to be so friendly with the Crown Prince?” The old marquis who sat facing him muttered.
“I don’t know. But what’s certain is that his Highness has a face I’ve never seen before whenever he talks of the woman named Anne,” a light-brown-haired woman, her eyes cast down, explained to the two men.
“What exactly does she look like?” the marshal asked, and the woman became locked within her thoughts for a moment.
Then Bielefeld asked, “Are her eyes misty and her face red-hot, with a smile as sweet as candy that tugs at her mouth? Or has she a stern look and dull eyes, with a smile as bitter as gall? Can you build us a picture?”
They urged her to continue, noticing that she had become submerged in her thoughts for a while.
“I don’t know what kind of face the marquis is talking about.”
Feeling sorry for not being able to answer Bielefeld’s hearty question, the woman further lowered her eyes.
“So, to put it plainly, I’m asking if she has a lovely girlish face, or if her face is that of a broken-hearted hag?”
However, not knowing how the woman looked like, Adelia kept stammering in the face of the old man’s questions.
“I mean, how can you guess a person’s mind by looking at their expressions?” the young duke spoke up. “Oh, marquis, stop fidgeting and stay quiet.”
“No, I don’t know how. But it’s perfectly normal to try,” the marquis complained.
“We can no longer try to see without knowing anything,” the duke responded, and said to the woman, “Have you heard anything else, like Anne’s last name… or anything like that?”
“His highness just calls her Anne,” the woman replied in embarrassment, and the marquis once more interjected himself into the conversation.
“The nobles hate short names. Maybe her name, Anne, isn’t her real name either.”
“You know, think more about that, because no one knows that name,” the duke replied after hearing the marquis suggest that Anne might be someone’s nickname.
“Joanna is Anne, Angela is also Anne. Anna is Anne. Anne should be one of those, at least.”
“After you’re done with that, why don’t you start looking around his Highness the Crown Prince’s palace? I’ll start by seeing if there are any maids or court ladies who had a relationship with his Highness who use the nickname Anne.”
The young duke silently stroked his chin as he fell deep into thought. “Anne… It’s Anne… I’ll have to look into it.”
“I’ll help,” the old marshal said as if having waited for the chance.
“Then, marquis, you will take care of the young lady side of matters. I’ll take care of the investigation in the north. It’s an area without so many women, so if I inquire among some of the unmarried rangers, I might get lucky.”
“Well, young duke, if we search the noble register, the answer will come out soon.”
“Then, on the matter of the maids…”
“For the maids, Prime Minister Kirgayen is also a servant of the court, so he can ask them.”
The duke and the marquis continued to arrange the roles each would play.
“We can’t rule out the possibility of a past relationship. His Highness also attended a social club, so we’ll have to find out about that.”
“My intelligence network does not stretch that far.”
“I know Bernardo Eli had the place running in full swing.”
“If we ask Sir Eli, the information will quickly come out.”
The woman who silently watched them speak turned to leave, and the marquis and duke continued to exchange opinions without noticing that she was going.
“I’ll see you here again in the evening.”
“Okay, see you later.”
Then, with sincere faces, both men wished each other good luck and left the Crown Prince’s Palace. The duke, immediately after standing up, sought out his men.
“If you know someone who uses the nickname Anne, bring them to me.”
Upon the duke’s instructions, the knights gathered rangers, who did not know what was going on, and set about to locate a character named Anne. As a result, by the time the sun had set, some rangers already stood before the duke.
“Do you know the name Anne?”
“There is a village two days from our castle, and there is an Anak who lives there.”
“Details.”
“She’s an amazing baker, but she has a shady and long past.”
“Shady? How old is she?”
“I don’t know the exact age, but I know that her youngest son became a ranger and fell-”
“She’s a married woman. She’s off the list. Next?”
“Ann is the daughter of John the Wagoner who travels to and from the castle.”
“Ho… Does John have a daughter? How old is she?”
“Last year, she turned eleven…”
“All right. Next.”
After a long time, only one ranger was left in front of the duke.
“You’re a member of Jordan’s company?”
“Yes, I am!”
“So, ranger- What kind of Anne is the Anne you know?”
The ranger shrank bank a bit as he noticed the duke’s glare, then spoke.
“That’s me.”
“What?”
“My name is Anadrian, and everyone abbreviates it to Anne because it’s long and too similar to his Highness’s name.”
At this, the duke simply sighed.
“Let’s go back and rest. Ranger Ann stays behind and does twenty laps around the parade grounds.”
“Yes? Why all of a sudden-” the ranger attempted to complain at the unfairness of it.
“If you don’t know, your body deserves to suffer,” the duke interrupted, gesturing with his hand and driving them all away.
“We sent out a company commander—he didn’t notice anything.”
The duke, still grumbling softly, asked the knights about the northern women. But, as expected, the Anne he was looking for was not found.
“I hope the marquis has had better success.”
Night came, and duke and marquis both headed to the Crown Prince’s Palace.
“No. Maids and court ladies, none match the conditions.”
“On my side too.”
“Did you look into the social club side of things?”
“We have to go through Bernardo Eli, but I haven’t seen him these past few days…”
“No? His Majesty will be disappointed by this.
“Did the story even reach his Majesty?”
“It is just a story, but he is very interested.”
The duke sighed as he learned the marshal had also achieved no gains, when the marquis suddenly exclaimed, “What do we do now!”
“Well… Count Kirgayen once mentioned the name Anne.”
“Perhaps…”
“Yes. The count surely once called his eldest daughter Anne.”
“Certainly, Arwen’s nickname can be Anne.”
In the middle of their conversation, the subject of it appeared at the palace.
“Sir Arwen, why is your nickname Anne?”
The knight’s face grew cold as they asked her such a blunt question.
“I’ve never had such a name.”
“No, Sir Arwen, your father-”
“Doesn’t use things like nicknames,” she bit back at their stubborn persistence.
Then they became like clay in Arwen’s hands, explaining the circumstances to her, and asking for her opinion.
“Why don’t you ask my master directly?”
Hearing her words, the two men looked at each other, thinking the same thing.
“Because it may be rude to ask the person concerned about this problem,” one of them stated an excuse, but this argument did not work for the female knight.
“It is far ruder to investigate the matter behind the back of the concerned party. Please follow me,” Arwen curtly said and turned around. She led them straight to the prince’s residence.
“You’re here?”
The prince, sitting on his bed and stroking the wood carving, greeted them with a welcoming face. Arwen stared at the prince’s hand, and he followed her gaze, lowering his head as he too looked at his hand with an awkward face.
Then he hid his fingers, bandaged after cuts from the carving knife, under a fold in his clothes.
“But why are you here? At this late an hour?”
His expression showed clearly that he had no intention of discussing his hand, and that he was willing to change the topic by force. But instead of focusing on it, Arwen answered with simple sincerity.
“I came to the palace because these men have a personal matter to discuss with your Highness, and I stopped by to greet you on the way to my retreat. I hope I did not interfere with your rest.”
“They want to tell me something?”
“It’s not something your Highness will care about.”
The prince was now curious as to what conspiracy he was being excluded from.
“Then, Vincent, marquis, what do you have to say?” he asked the two men who stood behind Arwen. His piercing gaze flew like arrows to them, and the duke and marquis both could give no answer.
“You have something to ask,” Arwen urged them, taking in their pathetic appearance.
“Are you going to ask me? What?”
“They have something to ask about a person named Anne,” Arwen again answered on behalf of the two men.
“Ah, Ann. But why wonder about Ann? What are you curious about?”
Here, Arwen shrugged her shoulders and stepped back.
The marquis, after hesitating for a long time, stepped forward and asked the Crown Prince, “Where is the woman named Anne?”
“Anne is dead,” the Crown Prince replied with a clear face.
The two men froze as they were.
“Sorry, sorry.”
After standing rigid for a long time, they bowed their heads respectfully as they apologized to the prince. Even Arwen, who tended to remain consistently expressionless, couldn’t hide her embarrassment this time.
“Vincent, marquis, it wasn’t you who killed her, so why are you sorry?”
Regardless of how they felt, the Crown Prince laughed brightly.
In the midst of such an awkward atmosphere, Arwen cleared her throat, then asked the prince about the piece of wood he clutched.
“But what are you making?”
“This?”
The prince quickly lifted his work for display with a proud face.
“It’s finally coming to an end. If you wait a bit, you’ll see it.”
It was unbelievable that a wooden statuette that looked so rough was near completion, yet they could not state so in the face of the prince’s heartiness, for he seemed very anxious to show it off for some reason.
“I was just curious, but I will wait,” Arwen replied.
“Okay, it will be well worth it.”
The prince, with a rather excited face, immediately grabbed his carving knife and began to cut into the piece of wood. The duke and marquis also sat down and began watching the prince carve away. The expressions of the onlookers heavily sank as they heard the prince grunt as he clumsily shaved off slivers of wood. His power of crushing an enemy within his armor, his finesses of aiming a blade through the right gap, was nowhere to be seen. To those who remembered the best knight in the north, it was hard to bear through his fumbling and strained hand movements, for he worked like a child who struggled to grab something big with his hands.
But they didn’t turn away from the sight; they just watched.
“All done!”
And finally, the prince completed the sculpture.
The result was of a messy shape with a rough surface, and the proportions were unbalanced and crude. Still, the Crown Prince showed it to them with a proud face as if he liked the crude statuette very much.
“This is the sword, this is the armor. This is the hair.”
If it were not for his subsequent explanation, they would never have recognized the carving to be that of a person. And they certainly could not give voice to critical comments while the prince proudly showed off his work.
“It is a statue that exudes a manly spirit,” the duke said with excitement.
“This is a woman.”
Vincent shut his mouth.
“She has a truly brave appearance, what with her holding her enemy’s head in hand,” Bielefeld attempted a compliment.
“This is not an enemy’s head, it’s a helmet. Look here: It has a crest and eye slits.”
The marquis now also turned his head away with an embarrassed expression.
“It’s full of vitality,” Arwen, watching, offered her dubious review.
“I also gave her your eyes, Arwen. This was made with people I know in mind.”
The prince’s face, which looked somewhat pensive, opened up again. Seeing his wide smile, the duke and marquis, still embarrassed by their recent errors, also grinned and happily looked at the statuette. But this newfound warmth did not last long.
“This is Anne.”
The air in the room froze again.
**
Those who had visited the prince’s palace left, and the crude carving of a woman as she guarded the sleeping prince. As the night went on, Adelia, sitting with her back upright, stood. She then quietly headed to the door.
‘Shh.’
As she silently opened the door, she saw a man with a backpack carried over his cloak, as if he was about to undertake a journey of some distance.
“Bernardo Eli.”
Adelia had been aware of Eli’s presence from the moment he entered the palace, and she looked at him with a sad expression.
“Don’t look at me with such a face. I know what you’re thinking: if this man was honest, he would come when the prince was awake and not like a thief while he slept. I know I’m a bastard.”
Eli spoke in a lowered voice so as to not wake up the Crown Prince and Adelia, instead of answering him, silently gave way. Still, Bernardo Eli could not readily enter the room. This remained unchanged no matter how many times Adelia meaningfully glanced at him. He simply stood outside the door and stared at the sleeping prince. Then, after a while, he sighed and started complaining.
“Now I can’t even bear to see his Highness’s face. In fact, it’s his Highness who has greater heartache than anyone—I shouldn’t be so emotional.”
Adelia opened her mouth, but then snapped it shut because she thought Eli would not be comforted by her words. So, instead, she asked him, “Are you going anywhere far away?”
“I’m thinking of going to the southern front.”
“What happened on the southern front?”
“The commander of the Southern Army has requested the deployment of a champion in preparation for border defense.”
“Okay, Sir Eli. When his Highness asks for you, I will tell him that.”
“Thank you.”
Bernardo Eli bowed his head in quite a modest manner.
“Please protect him.”
Then he turned around and departed.
“Sah,” with a small sigh, Adelia quietly shut the door and turned around. She suddenly noticed that the Crown Prince had shifted to her side of the bed. His breath, which had been quite regular until a while ago, was somewhat disturbed. He did not seem to be in a natural sleeping state, what with his eyelids flickering fractionally open from time to time.
grinned.
“Eli?” the prince grumbled and opened his eyes.
“Can he leave like that?”
“Ah, I don’t know. If he goes, should I press the matter?” the prince muttered in dissatisfaction, and his gaze suddenly turned to the door where Eli had stood moments before.
“It looks like your Highness is worried. If you’re so worried, just call him back.”
“No. If I keep him close… I shouldn’t because he always tries to follow after me. If he stays beneath the branches of a great tree because it offers shelter from the rain and wind, he will never receive proper sunlight, even if he is satisfied with his refuge.”
Adelia knew how badly Sir Eli wanted to reclaim his old legacy, and the prince’s voice was quite severe as he touched upon this. However, the lingering emotion around his eyes was more a sign of anxiety than harshness, and Adelia laughed. As she did, the Crown Prince closed his eyes and buried himself beneath the blanket.
“Tell Count Brandenburg my message…”
After a while, his dazed voice sounded through the blanket.
“What should I say?”
“I heard that among the mercenaries gathered at the extermination headquarters, there were about three hundred with steel bones who didn’t flee even during the rampage. Tell the count to send them to the southern front… Under the command of6 that guy Eli.”
These were the mercenaries who had persevered through the uproar and remained at the fort, and if they were taught well, they could become very good knights.
“If a man has three hundred knights, even his ruined family can rise again…”
Adelia laughed again she heard the voice murmuring from under the blanket.