The empress appeared from nowhere, hiking up her dress as she bore down on them with fierce purpose. She pulled Albert, who was now taller than her, into her arms and fixed Cyril with a sharp glare.

“Crown Prince! Striking a prince, have you lost your mind?”

“Mother, it wasn’t like that…”

“You stay quiet! You’re too soft-hearted, always trying to shield everyone else!”

Cyril stared blankly at the empress and the brother she was shielding.

A wave of deep despair swept through him. Cyril took a defensive half-step back.

Once he had grown to a certain age, the empress no longer struck him, but the memories of his childhood, when he had been helpless and had no means to protect himself, always made him feel powerless.

“It was a joke, Your Majesty.”

“A joke! The crown prince plays jokes by striking people in the palace corridors where attendants pass by!”

“Your Majesty. It was hardly done with any force…”

“Does a strike stop being a strike if it lacks force? It seems the crown prince finds the prince disagreeable. This child will be leaving the palace after his birthday. Does he not move you to pity?”

The empress, who had once whipped Cyril in a room full of ladies-in-waiting, pushed all her own wrongs aside and attacked him.

Perhaps it was that history that made her read even his smallest gestures as acts of revenge.

“Mother, Brother was just…”

“I will apologize, Your Majesty. Albert, I’m sorry.”

Albert reached out to stop Cyril as he walked quickly past. The empress blocked him.

“Mother!”

Albert couldn’t hold back and cried out. The empress walked ahead in silence toward the empress’s palace, and Albert followed after her.

Only after the heavy doors of the empress’s palace closed did the empress open her mouth.

“Albert. Do not get close to the crown prince.”

“He is my brother! He is your son! I cannot understand for the life of me why you are so eager to treat him and me so differently.”

The empress wanted to reveal the truth then and there, but she judged the time was not yet right.

Albert alone was her precious child. The empress had never forgotten the day the emperor foisted Cyril upon her.

“Mother. Can you not find it in yourself to be even a little kinder to Brother? He is a generous person. So when he takes the throne, he won’t turn his back on you, but he is human, and if resentment builds up over time, it will eventually create a rift between mother and son that can never be mended.”

“Then you become emperor.”

Albert was horrified. He looked around and stepped back. The empress had not dismissed the attendants. Albert was shaken to see that the ladies-in-waiting of the empress’s palace showed no surprise either.

“I would never harm Brother.”

“You don’t need to harm Cyril.”

“Mother. I am warning you: leave Brother alone. He will make a far greater emperor than the likes of me. I have looked up to him my whole life, and I have no doubt he will be a wise and benevolent ruler. You should feel the same.”

“Albert, you foolish child.”

The empress clicked her tongue and reproached Albert. The child she had borne was warm-hearted but weak.

Separating him from Cyril from an early age, out of fear that bad influences would rub off on him, seemed to have produced the opposite effect.

“If Cyril does not covet a position beyond his station, the change in crown prince will proceed without incident.”

“Mother, please! I have no desire to become emperor.”

“Why not!”

Albert looked up at the empress in surprise. She grabbed both his arms with a look he had never seen on her face before.

“You are my son! What does Cyril have that you don’t! If Cyril can do it, so can you, no, you can do it better! Cyril is stubborn and wicked by nature. You, my son, are the one who deserves to sit on the throne!”

Albert stumbled backward. Before he knew it, the empress had composed herself and released him as though nothing had happened.

“I don’t see it that way. You are mistaken, Mother. And in case you have forgotten, I am not your only son. You seem unwell, so I will take my leave.”

“Albert.”

The empress sent one final blow after Albert, who had already turned to go without hesitation.

“When you meet Lady Berthier at the birthday banquet, be kind to her.”

“Of course. I will treat everyone who comes to celebrate my birthday with courtesy.”

“Mere courtesy is not enough. You will be getting engaged to Lady Berthier, so you must make a consistent effort to show her your favor.”

“Mother, I will pretend I did not hear that.”

Albert returned to his small prince’s palace. His mind was in turmoil.

Untangling the knotted thread between his mother and his brother felt like an impossible task. If no method could untangle it, the only option left in the end would be to cut it.

‘It must not come to that.’

He loved his mother and his brother equally.

The emperor felt less like a father and more like a lofty, distant presence, but his mother had shown him love up close, and though he didn’t see Cyril often, Cyril had always helped him with small hints when he was downcast over tasks he couldn’t complete.

‘Once I leave the palace, I won’t be able to see Mother as often as I do now. I have to resolve this before then. At the very least, if I can’t make her give up these delusions…’

The empire would fall into chaos. After much deliberation, Albert took out a sheet of letter paper.

[To Lady Berthier.]

Whether the unruly young lady would take this letter seriously was anyone’s guess, but this was the best Albert could do.

Cyril returned to the crown prince’s palace and found a letter on his desk. He tore open the envelope. It was filled with a detailed account of Sub-baron Tena’s recent movements.

“Frequent meetings with Marquis Ferithid lately.”

Dager quietly closed the door behind him as he entered.

“Your Highness, I intercepted a letter that His Highness Albert was sending in secret.”

“Albert?”

Cyril took the letter Dager held out. His chest felt tight. Whatever was inside, he told himself that Albert was not at fault.

The crown prince’s position was not secure. It was no exaggeration to say enemies surrounded him on all sides. A crown prince without the emperor’s protection had to devise means to protect himself.

Cyril had spent a long time building his own private intelligence unit.

The unit’s primary task was to keep watch on those who looked unfavorably on the crown prince, but from time to time, an unexpectedly significant catch turned up.

“Your Highness. His Highness Albert is not the kind of person to devise schemes to harm you.”

“I know.”

Dager’s reassurance did little to help.

Albert was kind by nature, and while he pitied Cyril for being unloved by the empress, he also felt sorry for the empress, who was equally at odds with the emperor. Albert could not bring himself to defy the empress.

Cyril understood that better than anything. That was why he dreaded opening the letter.

“But I also know that the empress is perfectly capable of devising schemes to harm me.”

“Your Highness…”

Dager’s voice trailed off with quiet sorrow. Cyril took a deep breath and tore open the envelope.

“Lady Berthier?”

An unexpected addressee. Cyril’s eyes moved quickly over the contents.

“Ha.”

Albert had devised a plan that neither defied the empress nor harmed Cyril. The problem was that trying to catch two rabbits at once usually meant catching neither properly.

Albert’s letter tried to explain the current situation in vague, roundabout terms without making anything clearly known.

“Albert is begging Lady Berthier to reject me, Dager.”

Cyril had no trouble imagining Adelaide, who preferred things direct, losing her temper over this letter.

“It is His Highness Albert’s best effort, I’m sure.”

“His best effort comes down to not wanting to hurt either side. When fighting over the throne, warmth is the first virtue you have to discard.”

Cyril added two or three sentences at the end of the letter and sealed it again.

“Send it as it is.”

How Adelaide received it was her affair. Unfortunately, whether she accepted it or not, she had already become one of the pieces in the struggle for the throne.

Cyril sent a wordless comfort to Adelaide, who lingered in his mind in more ways than one, knowing it would never reach her.

***

Adelaide had grown thoroughly sick of the endless morning yoga. So sick of it, in fact, that she had invited Vivian to stay at the house outright. Remarkably, Vivian loved morning yoga.

“Adelaide, you’ll regret it. Since I started doing this, every day feels more refreshing than the last.”

“You enjoy all the refreshing days you like, Vivian. I’ll enjoy my unpleasant ones.”

“Adel, why do you think Romer hasn’t come?”

“Violet, I’ve said it more than once: that worthless postman got scared and gave up on you. Accept reality.”

“Adel, Vivi is doubting Romer and my love!”

“Vivian, you’re doing well. Keep it up.”

“My darling Adel. You’re so fond of me that you’re jealous of Romer!”

Adelaide was on the verge of losing her mind. Violet was enjoying her pre-breakfast exercises in light clothing, while Adelaide, still in her nightgown and refusing to leave her bed, was interrupted by a small knock.

“I’m sorry to disturb you so early in the morning.”