Timid and Shy - Chapter 34

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

34.

Sophia made an effort to ease the awkward atmosphere.
“Maeve would know far better than I about the princes’ merits. Then I should be even more cautious. They could choose to eliminate Prince Robert as well. I can’t be too conspicuous, yet I can’t be powerless either. Since the situation is delicate, those who serve him must have the hardest time of all.”
“That’s true. Cresida moves constantly and covertly.”
Maeve, in the process of confiding the Empress’s affairs to Sophia, had become an ardent supporter of Prince Robert almost without realizing it.
When one thought about it, Maeve was merely a hired servant. She’d begun working for Prince Robert because of a fortuneteller’s suggestion. And she’d remained in Umbrial simply because Robert, her superior, had asked her to stay.
Somehow, circumstances had fallen out this way. Yet when Maeve caught the look in Sophia’s eyes, she felt guilty, as though she’d been lying.
Maeve laughed awkwardly and spoke again.
“I shouldn’t have said all that to you. I’m merely one of Prince Robert’s subordinates. All I do is follow orders. We can’t resolve the Cresida problem ourselves anyway.”
“Whatever happens, I hope Prince Robert doesn’t suffer any major setback.”
Maeve agreed. She wanted Prince Robert to become Emperor or not to become Emperor—either way, without serious damage—while keeping her own position secure. She wanted to work at Prince Robert’s side for as long as possible.
To Sophia’s eye, Maeve seemed like a typical administrative bureaucrat. Or rather, it seemed Maeve herself thought of herself that way—like the staff in the administrative wing whom John and Alex complained about every day. People who did as they were told from above but harbored no loyalty.
Even as they conversed, she slipped in roundabout complaints about Prince Robert and some unknown superior, yet she appeared to be someone who would follow Robert to the very end.
Sophia smiled.
‘Even someone like Maeve, who lacks loyalty, is now defending Prince Robert ardently. She’s surely thinking that even though she complains, the Prince won’t hold it against her. Indeed, Prince Robert is generous to those around him. It would be good to strengthen the alliance between Ariel and Umbrial.’
After exchanging pleasantries with Sophia, Maeve concluded a simple administrative accord with Baron Ariel before returning to Umbrial. It was an agreement for emergency contact between the two territories.
From now on, administrative personnel would regularly travel between Umbrial and Ariel. When urgent reports came, they could even route administrative matters through the military emergency network.
After seeing Maeve off, Baron Ariel asked John.
“You spent a long time talking with Sophia?”
“It was about the publication of her novel, I heard. She requested it from Prince Robert and had it published. Today she visited Ariel to deliver the advance payment to Miss Sophia.”
“Have you read it?”
“No. Even when I asked her, she refused. She only told me not to worry about it, that it was just a romance novel.”
“You were refused too, then. It seems everyone except Ellie and Helen hasn’t managed to read it. Alex was turned down as well, I hear.”
“Since she used a pen name, it doesn’t seem like we could find it in circulation either. It’s a shame.”
“Will you just give up then?”
“Well. Since it’s a romance novel, I don’t really care that much about…….”
Seeing the look in Baron Ariel’s eyes, Administrator John quickly changed his tone.
“If we press Jack, he’ll be able to find out.”
Only then did Baron Ariel nod with a satisfied expression. John understood the Baron’s longing to read Sophia’s work. He would want to own it too.
The book on the Titania mythology was already worn thin from handling—he was reluctant to see it deteriorate further, so he now only looked at it with his eyes.
Wasn’t it right that a father should know what his child had accomplished? As a man with a son, John resolved to obtain the novel for Baron Ariel no matter what.

***

A month later, there was another person whose workload increased because of Sophia’s novel. Philip held a book in one hand and sighed. The title was stamped in gold foil: “The Thorn of White Rose.”
“We’ve been struck the same way. Everyone who would know that ‘The Language of White Rose’ was ours already does. House Gerrish has been unusually cautious since their betrothal to Prince Frederick. So they might be using a method we’ve never seen before.”
Philip glanced at the title “The Thorn of White Rose” and gave a wry smile. It was clear they had deliberately chosen a title similar to “The Language of White Rose.”
“I know Prince Robert, and he absolutely will not use methods to suppress the press. He chafes at how the Emperor constantly emphasizes Freedom of Publication and leaves things as they are, yet he obeys the Emperor’s orders. There’s no way Cresida would have leaked contents linking Robert to House Gerrish. It must be House Gerrish.”
Duchess Wescom spoke with a cold expression.
“I also suspect House Gerrish. This novel came out not long after that vulgar article appeared. The article portrayed me and Isabella as the most dissolute women under heaven, and the novel’s content matches that description—that’s no coincidence. If the novel was written in response to the article, the timing is far too quick. You’d need to know in advance that such an article would appear in order to publish them simultaneously.”
“Similar novels are already pouring out, so even if we leave it alone, this one will be buried among the others, and most people won’t pay attention to it.”
“People who’ve seen the article will be curious enough to seek out the novel. Wouldn’t you? Hmph! To put old scandal articles and novel contents side by side like that. It was all planned. I said House Gerrish had been too quiet.”
“Mother. When you were trying to create gossip with cheap newspaper serials, you already calculated the aftershock then too. Why are you so angry about it now?”
The Duchess sighed before speaking.
“Your grandmother. My history has hurt Isabella, and she won’t even speak to me now. I have no face to show her either. Isabella and Frederick don’t seem fully committed yet. Things aren’t progressing as I’d hoped, and the slowness of it all frustrates me.”
“From what I can see, it does seem Frederick has fallen for Isabella. He’s simply watching for the right opportunity. I suspect Parma Gerrish’s failure to act as expected is what’s slowing things down. If Parma had grown angry at or pressured Prince Frederick as planned, he would have come running to Isabella by now.”
Duchess Wescom let out a short laugh and spoke.
“The Gerrish Duke must not want to lose Prince Frederick. But he won’t be able to hold out forever. Don’t you know how much Parma flaunted Prince Frederick? She has every reason to be furious with the current situation. Yet she doesn’t come out at all. Has something happened to Parma? Have you learned anything? The Gerrish Duke hasn’t confined her, has he?”
Philip spoke slowly, gathering his thoughts.
“What I’ve learned is that Prince Robert and the Gerrish Duke have met before. And that was before all of this trouble broke out. If this article and novel are a joint effort between the Gerrish Duke and Prince Robert, things will be difficult. House Gerrish could pivot to Robert if they lost Frederick, but we’re not even certain we can secure Frederick, and with Robert we’ve already…….”
“That’s done. If Isabella can secure Frederick in her grasp, everything will be solved. Even in the worst case, if she doesn’t marry a prince, House Wescom will endure.”
There would be a widening gap with House Gerrish, but House Wescom would not disappear, contrary to the threat she’d once made to Isabella.
Duchess Wescom suppressed her anger to avoid acting rashly. Her past surfacing again was purely a matter of her own disposition.
‘It’s not serious. Mother never acknowledged me anyway, so this is nothing new.’
Philip spoke gently to the Duchess.
“If you slandered someone, then naturally you should accept counterattack. What comes next is what matters. You are a Duchess, mother. No matter what anyone says. Don’t waver. Being criticized isn’t new to you, is it? You’ve endured this long—you’ll be fine going forward.”
The Duchess smiled at Philip’s consolation. She considered how she ought to respond to this affair.
‘Would it be better not to respond at all?’

***

Prince Frederick had been going mad these days. He too had read the novel called The Language of White Rose. The story seemed written by someone who knew him well—someone who understood even the depths of his heart that Frederick himself had never fully grasped.
His betrothal to Parma had been a choice for his future and the empire. Yet his true love was Isabella. The moment Prince Frederick met Isabella’s luminous gaze again, he was certain of it.
‘Both Isabella and I have been denying our true love, suffering in our hearts all this time.’
Prince Frederick did not voice such thoughts aloud. There would be no point—his uncle, his mother, everyone would say it was merely a scheme Isabella had concocted to seduce him.
But Frederick knew exactly who had truly orchestrated the scheme. It was his mother. After his betrothal to Parma, she had sent him away from the Capital.
If he were to encounter Isabella again by chance in the Capital, he would come to know what he did not wish to know—the truth that his real love was Isabella.
Frederick could not understand. Both House Gerrish and House Wescom were steadfast ducal houses of the empire. It mattered not which one. So why, then, was it forbidden for him to meet Isabella, whom he desired?
Frederick believed this was his mother’s scheme. She had disliked the thought of him falling for Isabella. She had not wanted him to follow Isabella, to serve her, to live in her shadow—and so she had concocted this stratagem.
‘She separated Isabella and me because she feared I would no longer obey her and Cresida.’
Only then did Frederick realize he had lived his entire life in the palms of Cresida and his mother’s hands.
In truth, all that Frederick had come to understand came from the novel itself. The moment he read of Lord F’s circumstances, Frederick too had awakened to the truth.
‘It’s my story.’
After reading the novel, Prince Frederick had lied to his mother, claiming it was beneath his level and that he had not finished it. Yet every night since, he had been reading through the novel page by page.
Frederick believed himself and the male protagonist of the novel were identical. Like the novel’s hero, he too was caught in the web of power, moving only according to another’s will.
Each night, Frederick compared the circumstances of The Language of White Rose’s characters with events from his own childhood. There was much he had not understood then but now began to see clearly.
He realized that most of what his mother had said was meant to instill guilt in him, to make him easy to manipulate. Yet this part had not appeared in the book—Frederick himself had come to understand it.
Prince Frederick believed that Parma too was aware of his feelings.
‘Perhaps the reason Parma does not ask to meet is because she knows the one I love is Isabella, and she has gracefully stepped back.’
Yet Prince Frederick did not approach Isabella recklessly. He watched her from afar, observing whether her heart might mirror his own.
Isabella smiled as she conversed with others, but in those moments Frederick glimpsed a sorrow in her eyes that she could not quite hide.
Each time he saw this, Frederick longed to rush to her side, but he restrained himself. He had to be careful. A hasty approach could ruin everything.
‘Like the protagonist of the novel, to be with Isabella to the end, I must first overcome the countless obstacles placed around me.’
While Frederick was savoring the feeling of being a tragic hero, Philip observed him. And so did others. All of them watched as Frederick gazed at Isabella with a wistful, yearning expression.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————