Chapter 118 – 11. Frozen Land Can’t Dry (8)
Gallia, Lumiere.
A picnic to celebrate the sabbatical was held in the capital square on a sunny day. This was because, unlike the border area where security was disturbed, the peaceful central strife was not carried out by force. It was a kind of instinctive behavior to try to hide my claws, especially for people in high positions.
The social stage is a system that uses words and actions as both a sword and a shield.
So, on the first road that stretched out in front of the palace, the nobles who attended today’s banquet each hid their daggers in elegant gestures. To trample the innocent cruelly, to lead the arrogant to ruin, to shake the prudent violently.
Home of those who feast on the outside and wage war on the inside.
That’s high society In other words, it is a community where mature evil and vested interests are harmonized. In this group where only those belonging to the property class can survive, the weak are always eliminated. Rather, it becomes a miserable prey to the extent that it would be fortunate if it met such an end.
Of course, exceptions exist everywhere.
So sometimes someone takes a chance in a place like this. He overcomes his inferiority with his innate charm and dominance, and sometimes succeeds in rising to a higher position.
But people will never know. Under someone’s success, how many people’s failure and despair have been piled up as a cornerstone.
‘It’s truly a very few fantasies.’
The Duchess, with a grave face and a slight frown between her brows, left her unwilling feelings behind her and got out of her carriage. Her reddish-purple hair her swayed beautifully like wine brewed under the warm sunlight.
And the driver who drove her carriage, holding the reins, took off her hat and bowed her head. She stood in awe at the off-white woman who took her breath away from her. Even if it wasn’t for expensive jewelery or a different silk dress, she was an ecstatic and enchanting embodiment of beauty.
“Gentlemen, Duchess Henrietta LeBlanc is entering.”
The security of the picnic was in charge of the Royal Guard. Among the uniformed soldiers surrounding the plaza, the man who appeared to be in charge repeated their names out loud one after another whenever a celebrity entered. And yet, under his leather hat, he glanced with narrow eyes at the famous Eastern Springstone.
I was sure that the rumor that once, the talented people who were said to be the best had a fight over the lofty woman’s companionship was indeed not a lie.
I put my eyes on Henrietta LeBlanc, the wife who was the origin of the four seasons.
“Ohhh, it’s Eastern Spring!”
“LeBlanc’s Henrietta is here today?”
“A Duke? Can’t you see the middle-aged man?”
“I don’t think he came. The royal family is still very close to each other, so he must have sent only her wife to her.”
For the most part, a beautiful and attractive woman is a suitable object for envy. Among them, those who come from a family with weak power and try to win favor by shining their faces here and there are truly easy prey. There was a time when Henrietta in the past realized that truth painfully.
Women of Aquitaine!
In the past, she had suffered endlessly because of her label her as the king’s daughter-in-law, but all those memories were now just passing by. This is because she was the one who made so few fantasies come true.
‘… It’s boring.’
Henrietta looked for a table to stand on with a bored expression. After her status her rose like now, no one dared to attack her, so it was not unusual for her to express her boring sentiments her at any event hosted by the king.
“Would you like some wine?”
“Yes, please.”
As usual, avoiding the prying eyes of those around me, I was handed a nice glass of wine by a well-dressed employee. After that, I sipped lightly on it, which seemed to be holding my own hair color, and quietly closed my eyes.
With a feeling of taking a break, I want to listen to the rumors of those who have been talking about this and that.
“Hey, did you hear about the courtier Renoir?”
“Why? Is something going on?”
“I thought I didn’t see him for a while, but he said he was heading to the Marquis of Lemoang. However, it seems that the baron recently appointed to Dongto is quite resourceful. I heard that not only the Royalists, but also His Majesty are very satisfied with the administration he has taken.”
“Hey, it’s Gerard, who said that the predecessor was a margrave even if he rotted. He would never be someone who would catch up so easily.”
Then, a topic of interest was soon discovered. Henrietta opened her eyes hidden under her long eyelashes and moved her steps. Following her movements of her, she made her way through the crowd that naturally split in two, approaching the two men who were busy chatting.
“Well, since the baron is the hero of that Limousin.”
“Romuald Dior? You mean Lumiere’s invincible knight?”
“According to what I’ve heard, he’s already promised to marry the dead margrave’s wife. It must be an intention to re-consolidate its weakened power his. Since the baron’s foundation is still unstable, it must have been a harmless proposal.”
Heck, if I hadn’t recklessly talked about the personal life of my younger sister, whom I’d cherished since childhood, I would have talked to her in a friendly way.
Henrietta’s expression distorted her at the unexpected twist. It was intended to lightly listen to the recent situation there from a man who seemed knowledgeable about the northern frozen land, but rudely discussing the false rumors about Oriane, his anger soared in her.
“Probably the negotiations were done behind the scenes.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“I am familiar with the Count of Poitiers in the north. It seems that the royal court overheard him and talked a lot. It seemed like they wanted the central government to add strength, perhaps because the Margrave Baekryeong was gaining power again.”
The person in question was a young baron and a junior military officer. Even in high heels, the duchess skillfully silenced her footsteps her and approached her.
“Could you join me too, you two?”
“Hmm? Huh… !”
“Le, Duchess LeBlanc!”
As soon as they turned around, the two started men broke into cold sweats. Still unable to forgive her, Henrietta put on a bright smile on her face and glared at them with her narrowed eyes.
Taking possession of the space within a few steps radius at once, I asked the two who had become well-preserved prey.
“Looks like you’re having a conversation about my precious little sister, Oriane.”
“Ah, that…”
Those who had laughed and chatted a little while ago stuttered. The complexion became contemplative again, and Henrietta’s eyes her were ferociously colored. She was disgusted that she insulted her younger brother her, who was struggling in the cold, rough terrain, on the subject of a small person who could not properly utter one of her excuses her in front of her.
“You dared to disparage this Henrietta’s family with absurd rumors.”
“Huh, that’s nonsense! You misunderstood!”
“You’re right! This fellow is not the kind of person who would make up nonsensical words, even though she is a bit soft-spoken!”
Fisik, Henrietta held a slight sneer. The sight of the one of the most beautiful women in the kingdom losing her sense of humor and laughing was so enticing that even the minds of the two people who were cornered could be taken out of it. It didn’t help at all in such a serious atmosphere, though.
“Okay? But why didn’t a wedding invitation like this arrive for me, the child’s only blood relative?”
“Well, how can people from the upper end like us know such a thing behind the scenes…”
“A story brought up to disparage is truly absurd. Isn’t Madame Lemoang reputed to be a benevolent leader in the North? I heard that she gave birth to a young lady called the Winter Stone of the North.”
“Moreover, the man known as the opponent is Sir Romuald Dior, whom His Majesty personally permitted to branch off from.”
“The invincible knight of Lumiere, who earned the title of baron for saving Limousin and other parts of the kingdom, wouldn’t be a pair suitable for the Duchess’ younger brother.”
It was a sign of relief. Henrietta thought silently. She was the kind of girl who wanted to fiercely punish the small talkers who only opened her mouth, but unfortunately, in such a social world, even a duchess like me had a line to keep.
Again, it was annoying, but still.
In the eastern part of the kingdom, a woman who is no different from an absolute person is only a local powerful family when compared to the center of this place. It is said that a person in power who truly deserves reverence does not reveal his fangs and claws, and acting as his emotions lead him just because he is in a high position is not correct.
So Henrietta slowly began to control her emotions. After she nodded her head as if holding herself together, she turned her back on the two of them and left.
“Tsk tsk, those are the unlucky ones.”
“I know. She is no one else, but touching Madame LeBlanc’s evil.”
“They say the sisters are very close?”
“Yeah, considering the past, there must have been a special consensus.”
Those who have deep knowledge of her know how much the woman who was the originator of the title, Spring of the East, and the Stone of the Four Seasons cherishes her younger sister. That’s why those who were astute did not dare to speak out even when they heard similar rumors.
If it wasn’t really hosted by the royal family, she would have had nothing to say even if she was kicked out right away.
It’s not wrong, they actually sensed her displeasure and subtly chewed on the two polite men. Even so, it was a shallow maneuver to make eye contact, and it was a resentment for no reason.
Perhaps it would have continued to be so if it had not been for the carriage procession that appeared again from somewhere and the two beauties who emerged from it.
“Gentlemen, Countess Melanie Dior is entering.”
“Abbess Marguerite Dior also enters.”
Again and again, two women from the central prestigious family that supports the Gallic royal family walked in aloof. To put it on one side, she was the daughter of a high-ranking daughter cherished by Duke Alexandre, who had achieved the recent strengthening of royal authority.
The goddaughter of the bishop, the abbess who oversees all the nuns in Gaul, the relatively simple and frugal outfit befitting a person with religious authority, but a beauty that cannot be hidden, Marguerite, Dior’s practical hostess.
Also next to him was Melanie, the wife of Charles Dior, the Countess, who was fighting fiercely in the race for succession as the daughter of the Grand Duke of Tarn and the second son of the duchy, the summer seat of the south.
‘Didn’t I say that the man rumored to be about to marry Oriane was Romuald of Dior?’
Henrietta wandered around the two of them in her cautious manner. Even though she represents the same family, she noticed the awkward relationship between them somewhere.
‘It’s not easy to have a good relationship with your sister-in-law and sister-in-law, but it feels a bit excessive.’
She wasn’t particularly strange. In a prestigious family like the Duke of Dior, who possesses great wealth and honor, it is common for bone-chilling battles over interests. The only thing that differentiates it from other families is that it is done secretly, while the scale is excessively large.
‘Marguerite and Melanie…’
Even she, the most powerful person in the East, was not a person to be taken lightly. One is that she is the goddaughter of an old master who holds a tight grip on the religious world of this country, and the other is that she is the blood relative of a powerful person who rules a region like me.
‘Ha, it doesn’t matter.’
But Henrietta LeBlanc didn’t care. The most important thing for Spring of the East was her sister her Orianne, whom she trusted on from the day she had to fight countless battles to get rid of her label of Aquitaine, in the past, where she was persecuted only for her birth her.
“Countess Dior? Long time no see.”
The beautiful east wind moved forward like a strong wind.
“And Abbey Marguerite Dior, too.”
With the daughter of a famous family who showed a relaxed and benevolent smile.
“You’ve been uptight all this time, Mrs. LeBlanc.”
Towards the old grand duke’s daughter, who was calmly polite with an expressionless face.
