The Unemployed Prince Covets My Nephew - Chapter 7
“Yes. I will keep that in mind. Living has brought a day when I am grateful for my brother’s whims.”
At the mention of Axel, the queen waved her hand, as if another headache was coming on, telling Anais not to bring him up again.
As she put down her teacup, Anais quietly called out, ‘Mother.’ Then she gestured for the maids and attendants to leave the room.
“I received a reply from a friend in Vasa last night. It seems the situation inside Vasa is not good. There are also disturbing rumors circulating.”
“Disturbing rumors?”
“They say the Pope has not been seen for several months. Although the internal situation of the temple is unclear, it seems something has happened to the Pope, and in the meantime, a young cardinal has taken control inside.”
The Kingdom of Vasa, which held a third of Zenovia’s territory, was a neighboring and vassal state of Zenovia. Before Zenovia, led by Axel, invaded, Vasa had requested a vassal treaty and submitted.
Vasa had a king, but he was a puppet with limited roles, and real power lay in the temple.
While Zenovia had a national religion but allowed considerable religious freedom, Vasa treated anything other than the national religion, Mortism, as heresy and strictly rejected it.
Three months ago, a ridiculous rumor spread from Vasa that Queen Madelaine of Zenovia and the King of Vasa had been long-time lovers.
Winchester Island was geographically closer to Vasa, which was the starting point of all the rumors.
The rumor was that while the queen was the Grand Duke’s daughter, they had cultivated love by traveling back and forth to Vasa, and she had disguised the King of Vasa’s child as a child of the Otte royal family of Zenovia, ultimately intending for the Otte royal family to be taken over by Vasa’s bloodline.
Hearing this absurd rumor, Duke Brahe and several other nobles took the lead in escalating the controversy, even demanding an explanation from the royal family.
It was an obvious ploy by Duke Brahe, who wanted to elevate his daughter to the position of princess, to diminish the queen’s power, but the controversy grew so much that the king had to personally step in to explain and forcibly suppress the rumors.
However, the controversy did not die down easily.
“Continue to investigate the source of the rumors but tell them to keep a low profile. Although His Majesty is suppressing and appeasing the nobles, I have a bad feeling. Be cautious.”
“Yes. I will convey that. Do you think my brother went to Winchester on purpose because of this?”
“Well, that boy never talks about his plans. Anais, just as you inherited the blood of Otte, Axel is a born Winchester. Winchesters have very good instincts.”
Madelaine recently often recalled her father, the Grand Duke of Winchester, saying, ‘Nothing in this world happens by chance.’
“I assure you, if he is pushing this hard, he must be certain about something.”
“…….”
“So do your best to become the queen. Show them that you are the true Otte.”
* * *
After the incident in the noble shopping district, Count Roman immediately sent a servant.
Shamelessly, he not only demanded the return of the deposit but also compensation. Yet, the baron couldn’t say a word to the count’s servant and was flustered.
In fact, Count Roman’s servant had often visited the baron’s residence before and was always treated with utmost hospitality.
Hailey thought her father was pathetic, wondering how much money he had borrowed from Count Roman to treat the count’s servant this way.
What was a bit strange was that, despite the recent visits regarding the compensation, the atmosphere seemed surprisingly smooth compared to the first day.
The last time Hailey saw the servant and the baron through a broken window in the reception room, they were shaking hands and discussing a ‘deal.’
‘What kind of proposal did the servant make?’
Anyway, Hailey planned to explain the humiliation she had suffered that day if the baron got angry at her. However, the baron and his wife remained unexpectedly quiet.
They didn’t imprison Hailey and Theo, nor did they say a word about their secret outing.
This oddly made Hailey uneasy, but for now, she couldn’t identify the source of her unease.
* * *
“I will ask you one last time. Are you still determined to leave this house?”
“Yes.”
As if they had expected Hailey’s answer, the baron and baroness exchanged glances and nodded before handing Hailey a golden envelope.
“It’s an invitation from the royal palace. The Queen herself is hosting it. It will be the biggest ball of the year.”
“…So what?”
“Please attend this ball with us one last time. Since the invitation is for unmarried ladies, this old mother can’t go alone.”
Without even looking further, Hailey pushed the invitation back towards the baron and baroness.
“No. If you’re trying to coax me into getting married, don’t even dream about it. I’m leaving this house with Theo.”
It was a gathering exclusively for unmarried ladies from the start. Hailey had no intention of attending the ball, and the baroness was the worst possible chaperone, so there was no reason for her to go.
Hailey looked at the baroness with a slightly disdainful gaze.
“Who said you couldn’t leave? All I’m asking is for you to attend the ball with me, and you can’t even do that? This is my last request as your mother.”
“No. I don’t want to.”
The baroness bit her lip hard, hitting a solid wall in Hailey.
The baron cleared his throat and spoke.
“Just attend the ball for one of the five days it’s held. If you go for even one day, I will give you the child support you requested.”
“No. Do you think I don’t know your real intentions? Even if it’s a duke, I don’t want to get married!”
They weren’t the type to give up on a marriage arrangement so easily. Hailey was resolute.
Then the baron slammed the table with a loud bang and shouted.
“Do you know how much we owe the count because of you? We’re about to be thrown out on the streets. Your mother needs to attend the ball to find another investor somehow. We’re not trying to marry you off, so if you want to get even a penny and leave this house, attend just one day!”
She had rejected the prince’s marriage proposal and fled, and now there was a ball exclusively for unmarried ladies.
Hailey didn’t know for sure, but she suspected this ball had something to do with that crazy prince, and she didn’t want to attend even for a single day.
“I already explained that you owe me that money.”
“If we take this issue to the royal court, do you think it will be resolved quickly? Stop talking and attend just one day. Not even a full day, just half a day.”
The baron had a point. This was something Hailey had also worried about. The baron would drag the issue out and make a fuss no matter what.
“Then promise me right here and now. I’ll document it and keep it as evidence.”
“We are your parents! Don’t you trust us?”
“Of course not.”
Hailey thought she’d rather marry that crazy prince than trust the baron and baroness, and she got the promise in writing herself. She then threatened to take the document to a legal representative in the shopping district to get it notarized the next day.
Thus, Hailey and Theo’s escape plan seemed to be proceeding smoothly.
* * *
Hailey had been very busy lately.
She was dragged around by the baroness to dress shops because of the dress she had to wear to the kingdom’s ball.
All the dress shops in the shopping district were crowded with noble ladies ordering dresses for the royal ball, so they barely managed to get a reservation.
When Hailey said she would just wear the plain dress she had received for meeting suitors, the baroness firmly refused, saying it was a matter of maintaining minimal dignity.
Hailey argued, but the baroness insisted they couldn’t go to the royal ball in that dress, wasting her time dragging her around.
Hailey had a lot of other important things to do besides dealing with such nonsense.
I wish Hailey were really my mom.
Theo was a smart and perceptive child, so he had long known that Hailey wasn’t his biological mother. To avoid causing Hailey any trouble, he had always called her by her name.
But on the day of their first outing, Hailey had held his hand tightly and told the giant man that she was his mother, which made him so happy that he wrote about it in his diary.
That day, Hailey secretly peeked into Theo’s diary for the first time. He had been writing for so long that she wanted to see what he had written, and when she saw that sentence, she cried her heart out without Theo knowing.