137. Oksana’s Scheme
“I should be the one congratulating you on your marriage. Congratulations.”
Katya spoke while maintaining her dignity as Grand Duchess.
Before, when Mikhail acted like such a rogue, she had been harsh, but now that he seemed to have come to his senses, there seemed no need to treat him coldly like before.
Katya had also heard about Mikhail marrying Irina.
Boris had tipped her off that Irina had followed Mikhail around as if she would die without him.
However, Katya didn’t know the reason why the two ended up getting married.
After that night when a drunk Mikhail mistook her for Katya and spent the night with Irina, she eventually confirmed that she was pregnant.
Everything went according to Oksana’s plan.
Only Irina’s family and Oksana’s closest confidants knew about the pregnancy.
They proceeded swiftly with their plans, calculating when her belly would start showing.
“The Grand Ducal family has many celebrations.”
Mikhail and Irina’s wedding was scheduled for the week right after the royal wedding.
His sister Princess Klavdia would hold Norbert’s knighting ceremony in place of an engagement ceremony before her brother Nikolai’s royal wedding, then cross over to the Empire to marry.
Thus all the siblings would marry in succession.
Now that he would become someone’s husband and head of household, perhaps he would grow up.
Katya smiled a little at that thought.
“You speak formally to me now.”
Mikhail said with a bitter smile.
Before, even when she wasn’t officially recognized as Grand Duchess, she had spoken informally to him despite his status as Prince, but now as the sovereign’s wife, she showed proper respect to her brother-in-law.
So Mikhail felt like she was keeping her distance.
He thought he preferred when she had treated him carelessly.
“Now that we’re family, we shouldn’t have any reason to be uncomfortable with each other.”
“I apologize for my mischievous behavior before.”
“Oh, so you do know?”
“Um…… Is there anything you’d like as a wedding gift?”
“A wedding gift?”
“Yes. As a humble apology for my rudeness until now.”
He planned to put his feelings of farewell to his first love into that final gift.
Everything finally seemed to find its proper place.
It was a love that could never be from the start anyway.
‘This is how it should have been from the beginning……’
Even though he was young, he shouldn’t have coveted what his brother had.
Perhaps this was his punishment for the sin of taking everything from Nikolai—that the first woman he fell in love with would become his brother’s wife.
Instead of answering, Katya asked him a question.
“Have you congratulated His Highness yet?”
“No. Please pass it on to my brother too.”
“Why don’t you tell him yourself?”
At those words, her brother-in-law’s expression subtly hardened.
Katya knew about it too.
That he was obviously avoiding his brother.
“His Highness would like it. If you told him directly. Even if you don’t say it, he must miss his brother.”
“What am I worth? Brother must be having his happiest days ever now, seeing someone like me would only spoil his mood.”
“It seems brothers don’t always know each other well.”
“What?”
“Because you don’t seem to know what kind of person His Highness is.”
“What do you……”
“His Highness loves his brother.”
Mikhail’s gaze began to waver like a candle in the wind.
He was the one who took away his brother’s position as the family’s beloved youngest son.
If it weren’t for him and his mother, Nikolai’s life would have always been smooth without hardship and adversity.
His very existence was a misfortune for his brother.
“You don’t need to say nice things just to be considerate. I know best how my brother thinks of me.”
In his childhood, Nikolai had been like an idol to him.
He had even wished Nikolai was his real brother.
After Nikolai became Grand Duke, he avoided him because he couldn’t bear to face his brother’s eyes filled with resentment and hatred.
Thinking he didn’t belong in Hersen Palace, he kept wandering outside.
So why was his sister-in-law saying such naive things when she didn’t know anything?
“You must know that Her Highness the former Grand Duchess has made many threats against His Highness. There were endless assassination attempts during his incognito trip in the South too.”
It was shocking. He knew his mother wanted to make him Grand Duke, but he didn’t know she planned to kill his brother to give him that position.
“Do you think His Highness couldn’t repay evil with evil just because of reputation?”
“……”
“Because he didn’t want his brother to experience the sorrow of losing a mother too.”
Something heavy seemed to hit him in the gut, making his heart sink.
Before he could even identify what emotion he was feeling, his eyes reacted first.
Hot tears began to wet both cheeks.
When Nikolai ascended as Grand Duke, the boyars thought he would eliminate Oksana and Mikhail first.
But he didn’t.
He had always wondered why his brother let him live.
Because denouncing Oksana, who had a reputation as a benevolent Grand Duchess among the boyars, and killing his blood brother would incur people’s resentment.
Because building a foundation took priority since he had just taken the throne through a palace revolution.
He thought of various reasons, but never considered that his brother might not hate him.
“If Her Highness the former Grand Duchess abandons her ambitions and stops now, if she cooperates in building a new country even now, His Highness would stop too.”
“Huu……”
“We must end this war that requires someone’s sacrifice.”
“……”
“You asked what I want as a wedding gift?”
Katya spoke to the sobbing Prince.
“Please persuade Her Highness Oksana. If you love your brother too. I don’t want to lose my husband, and you don’t want to lose both your mother and brother.”
“……I understand what you mean.”
“I thought you would understand.”
“I’ll do everything I can. So……”
Mikhail stopped mid-sentence and roughly wiped the tears from his eyes.
He didn’t want to deliver these words with such a tearful face.
He raised his head to meet Katya’s gaze and opened his mouth, swallowing his sobs.
“Please be happy with my brother.”
Before she could answer, Mikhail hurriedly jumped up and ran out.
He didn’t want to show her his crying face anymore.
Only then did Katya realize.
That he had truly loved her.
***
Katya went straight to meet Pavel who was waiting for her in the reception room.
If Nikolai knew she met other men first thing in the morning, he would be beside himself with jealousy.
At that thought, she felt a little sorry toward her husband.
While thinking she should thoroughly silence the palace staff to prevent today’s events from reaching his ears, unexpected words flowed from Pavel’s mouth.
“I witnessed one of the Grand Ducal knights in charge of preparing the communion chalice secretly going out late at night to contact Her Highness the former Grand Duchess’s subordinate.”
It was the ceremony to appoint Norbert, who would become the Princess’s husband, as a knight of Hersen.
The knighting ceremony had traditionally been handled by the Grand Ducal knights, and there was a ritual where the Grand Duke and newly appointed knight shared wine after the appointment.
Since it also had the meaning of approving the Princess’s marriage by accepting her husband as a knight, it was customary for the Princess to also drink the wine the Grand Duke offered.
Originally, at Grand Ducal family weddings, the Grand Duke and Duchess each had time to bless the couple, but since this event substituted for Klavdia’s engagement ceremony, Katya would also participate in the ritual.
And the knighting ceremony had traditionally been handled entirely by the Grand Ducal knights.
They divided up the tasks, and the knight in charge of pouring wine into the cups and carrying them to the stage was acting suspiciously, which meant—
“They could tamper with the wine cups.”
“That’s what I suspect.”
“But it could also be a double trap.”
Pavel nodded at Katya’s words.
This was also why he couldn’t report directly to the Grand Duke.
If Nikolai made this public and it turned out there was no poison in the wine, the situation would turn unfavorable for the Grand Duke.
They would accuse him of being ungrateful, trying to frame innocent Oksana to drive out the stepmother who raised him.
The possibility was even greater since Oksana had always pretended to protect Nikolai in front of former Grand Duke Yuri and others.
They might have bribed the knight, or the knight could be innocent and they deliberately created the situation for Pavel to witness by calling him out.
Nothing was certain.
“Yes. Thank you for telling me. Don’t mention this to His Highness. I’ll handle it.”
“Your Highness. If you have a plan, please tell me.”
“Yes. I’ll let you know once I decide. I need to think about it more.”
After sending Pavel away with a triumphant expression, Katya’s face hardened as soon as the door closed.
She fell into deep thought.
‘How should I handle this?’
Who was Oksana targeting?
Not Duke Norbert. That would mean picking a fight with the Empire.
Then what remained were Nikolai and Klavdia.
Probably Klavdia.