Chapter 14

“……”

His true intention could not be read. Earl Nett, struggling to push away the face of his daughter’s friend flickering through his mind, carefully began.

“There is the way of comforting them by bestowing a noble title.”

“A Baronet any dog or cow can get?”

Just as Joseph III pointed out, it was a world where any dog or cow strutted about claiming to be a Baronet. In truth, Earl Nett sometimes doubted whether those going about claiming to be Baronets had actually received the title themselves at all.

Joseph III, staring hard at the Earl’s speechless face, asked,

“Who among the high nobility has no children?”

The King’s intentions were becoming more and more impossible to fathom. Earl Nett answered while revealing as little emotion as possible.

“The Marquis and Marchioness Fitzroy have no heir. Their daughter and son-in-law both passed away unexpectedly……”

“So my memory was right.”

Joseph III crossed his legs and sprawled out carelessly. It was a posture lacking dignity for the King of a nation, but because he was the King, no one pointed out his shameless lack of decorum.

“What if the young man’s sister were made the Marquis’s adopted daughter?”

A silence born of shock settled over the room.

Someone thought the King had finally gone mad. It was that grave a matter.

Who was Joseph III? The man who had completely turned commoners, including the bourgeoisie, into his enemies, ignoring his predecessor’s teachings that he must recognize that the majority of the people were commoners.

He had entirely forgotten that one reason his predecessor had been able to seize so many colonies was because of the financial support of the bourgeoisie, and far from acknowledging their contributions to the war, he had persisted in pretending not to know them.

And now that very man was saying, by royal command, that he would place a commoner into a noble house?

The one who finally found the courage to speak was Earl Nett.

“Your Majesty, what do you mean by……”

“As you know, the nobles’ loyalty is not what it once was. During all those wars, my predecessor bowed his head and borrowed money here and there so much that the royal family’s honor fell to the ground.”

“……”

“It is an age where they climb upward thinking they are kings themselves. Regrettably, this position must embrace even lowly beggars. Pressure keeps coming from inside and outside alike. At this rate, I’ll become a king in name only.”

The divine right of kings, that a king’s power is granted by God. This absolute doctrine, unshaken for nearly a thousand years, had begun to waver over the last few decades.

All change began when the context of the obvious phrase that power meant money was reversed. In the past, power brought money, but now an age had come in which money bestowed power.

Up to that point, it was reasonable. The problem came after that.

The idea that money bestowed power expanded into the belief that status could no longer be the basis of strength. In the newspapers published every other day, columns calling for the abolition of class were printed. The neighboring country of Criscent had long since become a republic.

To live as a king amid such tides of the age, one had to know how to bend one’s pride, at least in part.

“A commoner girl whose status rose under the protection of the royal family would make a fine shield. As it happens, the Prince also lacks a suitable match, so I think it would not be bad if the two were joined. Everyone’s blood may be red, but the weight of a name is different, is it not? Fitzroy would be perfect.”

People would admire the royal family’s generosity in accepting a Princess Consort of common birth. Even though it would be a royal marriage that never could have happened had she not been a Fitzroy.

But Joseph III was forgetting the other party to the matter. The Marquis and Marchioness Fitzroy?

Charles Fitzroy, and Rosa Fitzroy. The reason those two had taken in neither an adopted son nor an adopted daughter was because they had loved their daughter and son-in-law too dearly. The sad resolve that they would rather pass the inheritance to a younger sibling than bring another family into their house had isolated the old couple from the world.

And now he meant to force such a couple to take in a common-born adopted daughter……

Leaving behind his guests, who had fallen into confusion, Joseph III rose from the throne as if everything were settled and idly picked at his ear. A servant straightened his cloak. Adjusting the crooked crown was Joseph III’s own task.

Straightening the crown that no one could touch, Joseph III added, as if doing them a favor,

“I shall summon Captain Bennett’s father before long. It may be good for fathers to see each other’s faces once.”

* * *

Kyle Strauss’s day began at five in the morning.

He woke in a dim room, then shook off sleep with a jog even in midwinter weather. After washing up and settling breakfast with a single cup of coffee, he would switch on the gramophone and read.

And when it became half past six, he would meet the driver waiting downstairs and head to the company. Seeing him, the secretary followed him into the office.

“Sir, Miss Margaret has sent a letter.”

“Leave it on the desk. I’ll read it later.”

“I’m sorry, Sir, but you did the same with the last letter and never replied. I thought perhaps you had forgotten……”

“Did I.”

Sighing, Kyle held out a hand to the secretary. A fine envelope passed from the secretary to him.

Taking off his jacket, Kyle skimmed the contents and then handed the letter back to the secretary.

“It seems Miss Margaret wants to have a meal. Check the schedule for me.”

“Yes, Sir. Where shall I arrange the meal?”

“Somewhere young ladies like.”

The secretary answered that he understood and went out. Kyle lowered his head over the desk and turned his gaze to another stack of papers the secretary had brought.

Seven in the morning, time to check the newspaper. The headline on the front page immediately caught his eye.

[The Young Lady Chosen by Marquis Fitzroy]

Did that stuffy old gentleman finally have an affair while keeping his lawful wife? Reading down the article with interested eyes, Kyle let out a breathy exclamation.

“Well.”

[According to a court official, Hazel Fitzroy (20) formally entered the Fitzroy family on the 1st.

People are focusing on the fact that Hazel Fitzroy is the only younger sister of the late Sir Colin Bennett (25). Since the Marquis had usually shown conduct that respected soldiers, the dominant opinion is that he extended favor to the sister of Sir Bennett, who suffered a tragic accident.

On the other hand, there is also the view that this is a staged act by the royal family to calm the public anger caused by Sir Bennett’s accident. The fact that Marquis Fitzroy had consistently rejected proposals to adopt an heir lends weight to that view.

However, one fact is certain: Hazel Fitzroy has become the rightful heir of the Railway King.]

“……”

Kyle’s eyes sank heavily.

People always want what they themselves do not have. Kyle knew that the admiring look Hazel had once directed at him included the fine fabric of the expensive clothes he wore.

That did not mean she was some vulgar creature who liked him because of money. Just as Kyle had wanted a stable family environment, Hazel had only longed for the life of the rich.

His wandering thoughts stopped at the seven letters, ‘Fitzroy.’

“……”

Holdland’s railways were broadly divided into national railways and private railways. The national railways connecting the great cities were managed directly by the royal family, while the smaller railways spreading out thinly like tree roots were left to private hands.

And more than eighty percent of Holdland’s private railways were built under the Fitzroy name.

Kyle’s lips parted. The murmur scented with coffee sounded troubled, and a little amused as well.

“I’ll have to make peace.”

Fate really was cruel.

As cruel to you as it was kind to me.

* * *

It was June. She had thought there could not possibly be a single person in Bukata, where summer had begun to linger in the air, wearing long sleeves.

But Bukata shattered Hazel’s expectation from the very beginning, as if to prove her wrong.

The old woman who introduced herself as Agatha spoke to the tightly nervous Hazel. She was a sharp-faced woman with every button fastened tight, from the blouse cuffs at her wrists to the button at her throat.

“The Marquis has stepped out for a while.”

“Yes.”

Agatha lowered her neatly arranged head, not so much as a single strand of hair out of place. The noon sunlight reflected off the lenses perched at the end of her nose.

It had been one week since Hazel had been informed that she would enter the Fitzroy family.

At that time, Hazel had been writing a column to submit to the newspaper about the Prince’s outrage.

Depending on what conclusion her father, who had gone to Bukata after receiving Joseph III’s summons, returned with, this column might be sent to the newspaper—or it might not.

At the moment she set down the final period with a stiff face, she heard the rattling sound of a carriage drawing near.

It was her father. Hazel threw the column aside as if casting it away and ran down the stairs.

What had happened after that was vague. She only dimly remembered shouting that she had never wanted such a result, and crying out that they should leave for a foreign country.