Chapter 3 - The Work That Never Reached the Throne
[Marquis Rodney of Bly's POV]
"Why have so many documents piled up?"
King Albert swept his hand across the stack of documents on the table. One sheet slid off and landed against the toe of my shoe. When I picked it up, I found it was an invoice for provisions from a border fortress. In one corner, red letters marked it as a third reminder.
It had been more than ten days since Prince Elias had disappeared from the royal palace.
I had come to the capital to discuss repairs to a bridge in my territory. However, when I was shown into the conference room, I found the cabinet ministers already raising their voices at one another, despite it being only morning.
The tea by the window had gone completely cold. No one had touched the baked sweets served alongside it.
"If all that had happened were a backlog of paperwork, we would still be in a tolerable position."
Gaspar, commander-in-chief of the royal army, spoke in a low voice. His thick, sun-darkened finger pointed at the paper I had picked up.
"Our provisions have not arrived. The soldiers at the fortress are getting by on reduced rations."
"Isn't supplying the army your responsibility?"
"The warehouses are stocked with food. The problem is that the wagons to transport it never arrive."
Mathias, the minister of finance, pushed up his glasses.
"The transportation costs have been paid. I was also informed that the wagons had been secured."
"Those wagons have been reassigned to the bridge repairs."
The one who answered was Edgar, the minister of the interior. He pulled a sheet from his leather document case and placed it in the center of the table.
"An order from His Majesty. The bridge damaged by the spring floods is to be repaired as a priority."
Gaspar, too, produced an order from inside his coat.
"This one states that military transportation is to take absolute priority."
Both sheets bore the same seal of the king.
I compared the two documents. Their dates differed by only one day, yet both orders called for the same wagons in the same region to be used during the same period.
"Can't one side simply make allowances for the other?"
"We've been requesting a ruling from the cabinet for five days to resolve precisely that issue."
Gaspar's voice rose slightly.
"We've received no answer. The only thing that has reached the units is the promise that supplies are on their way, and that promise has been delivered three times now. The soldiers are beginning to wonder whether the capital has abandoned them."
The king's fingers rapped against the table.
"If they have time to complain, then put them to work."
"I cannot keep giving hungry soldiers false dates for when their supplies will arrive."
Gaspar did not bow his head.
He was known as a man who never raised his voice on the battlefield. Now, his jaw was clenched tight.
I aligned the edges of the papers. If the bridge was not repaired, wagons carrying provisions would have to take a longer route. But if every wagon was diverted to the construction work, the fortress's reserves would run out in the meantime.
This was not a problem that could be solved simply by discarding one of the orders.
"How were such matters handled before?"
When I asked, the ministers all turned to the chancellor.
Chancellor Oswald reached for the thin ledger resting at the edge of the table. His collar, usually immaculate down to the smallest detail, was slightly askew that day.
"...Please take a look at this."
◇◆◇
The ledger was filled with dates and figures written in meticulous handwriting.
The schedule for bridge repairs. The dates of military transports. The number of days required to return the wagons. Even an alternate route to take if rainfall caused the river to swell had been recorded.
I recognized the handwriting.
The same handwriting had appeared in annotations on the flood-control construction estimate I had submitted the previous year. One note had explained that shifting the construction schedule by half a month would eliminate the need to borrow horses from the farming villages.
"That's Prince Elias's handwriting, isn't it?"
"Yes. It's the Crown Prince's record of his administrative duties."
Mathias leaned forward.
"Wasn't that transportation schedule prepared by the Chancellor's Office?"
"His Highness compared the proposals from each department and made the necessary corrections. The Chancellor's Office then issued the revised schedules."
The sound of pages turning suddenly grew more rapid.
"Was he also the one who stopped these duplicate payments?"
"Yes. It was His Highness."
"And what about the suspension of tax collection in flood-stricken villages until relief funds could be distributed?"
"His Highness was cross-checking the documents from the Interior and Finance ministries."
Edgar straightened up in his chair.
"Then what about this month's tax collection records?"
Mathias did not answer. Instead, he leafed through his own documents. Eventually, his hand came to a stop.
"The uncorrected version was issued."
Tax collectors were going out to collect money that had already been provided as relief.
I returned my gaze to the ledger. A short note had been written in small letters in the margin.
"It's the same village. Even if the departments are different, the people receiving the money are the same."
Beneath it were several marks indicating that the matter had been checked and confirmed.
"I was merely having His Highness learn the duties of government."
The king spoke.
"He must have been meddling in these matters of his own accord. There's no need to make such a fuss over it."
Oswald did not close the ledger.
"His Highness corrected the deficiencies in submissions from each ministry, summoned the necessary officials, and organized everything so that Your Majesty could make informed decisions. Those were the duties we entrusted to him."
"Then have someone else do it."
"No successor was appointed."
Outside the window, I heard the sound of a gardener trimming branches.
"When His Highness was moved to the West Tower, Your Majesty ordered that he cease involvement in administrative affairs. However, his actual work had always been treated merely as part of his education. It had never been organized or recognized as an official responsibility that needed to be handed over to a successor."
He was merely learning.
Because everything had been dismissed with those words, had no one ever bothered to count just how much work had been lost when he was taken away?
As long as the schedules and approvals he had already put in order remained in place, each department could continue operating as it always had. It was only when new coordination became necessary that the gap he had left behind finally became visible.
"Prime Minister, you knew about all this, didn't you?"
At my question, Oswald lowered his eyes.
"...I did."
"And yet, you did nothing to stop it."
"No, I did not."
His answer was brief. I did not press him any further. There were other words that needed to be spoken now.
"Make copies of this ledger and distribute them to every department. First, we must identify all the work that has ground to a halt."
"We have records," Edgar said quietly.
"But this ledger tells us neither the river's water level today nor how much stock remains in the warehouses. Someone must gather the information and decide the order in which things should proceed."
Everyone turned their eyes toward the far end of the table.
"If there aren't enough wagons, requisition them from the villages."
"Those horses are needed to plow the fields in spring. We've already borrowed as many as they can spare."
"Then halt the bridge repairs."
"In that case, both transportation times and costs will change. We would need the military orders and the budget revised at the same time."
The king's face flushed red.
"Don't make me decide every little detail one by one!"
Mathias slowly removed his glasses.
"We used to put all those details in order before presenting matters for Your Majesty's decision. If we are expected to issue more orders while the person who performed that role is gone, we cannot be held responsible for the consequences."
Silence fell over the room.
Gaspar pushed the two orders toward the king.
"Which order is the army supposed to follow?"
There was no answer.
Eventually, the king rose from his chair and left the room, telling the prime minister to clean up the mess before he departed.
◇◆◇
The meeting ended without reaching any conclusion.
Gaspar returned to issue instructions for the immediate distribution of provisions to the fortress, while Mathias hurried off to verify the payments. Edgar said he would dispatch a messenger to stop the erroneous tax collection records from being used.
Everyone was trying to contain the damage within their own sphere of responsibility.
And yet, the two contradictory orders still lay on the table.
"Is there no way to contact Prince Elias?"
When I asked, Oswald, who had remained behind, glanced at the door. After confirming it was closed, he lowered his voice.
"His Highness is not at the Northern Villa."
"I was told he was resting there for his health."
"He left the royal palace, defying His Majesty's attempts to stop him."
I looked at the prime minister.
"Then he isn't ill."
"Correct. ...Marquis, I would ask you to assist with a discreet search."
Oswald interlaced his fingers. The skin beside his fingernails had been rubbed raw and reddened.
"There are circumstances that prevent us from searching openly. And if you look only for someone appearing to be a man, you may never find the person you're looking for."
"What do you mean?"
"His Highness is a woman."
For a moment, I couldn't grasp the meaning of his words.
"Her true name is Eliana. Because the royal family had no male heir, she was raised as a prince from the moment she was born."
"Is Queen Marguerite aware of this as well?"
"Yes. Princess Celestia also knows the circumstances of her birth."
Footsteps echoed through the corridor, then faded as whoever was walking passed the door.
I looked at the ledger I had read earlier. Pages filled with meticulous handwriting. Schedules revised over and over. Figures carefully reconciled down to the last detail so that no one's life would be brought to a standstill.
Had she been doing all this while unable even to use her own name freely?
"Was her role considered finished once Prince Leon was born?"
"His Majesty ordered her to live quietly at the Northern Villa."
"But she didn't want that."
"No, she didn't."
I put on my gloves.
While I adjusted each finger of my gloves, Oswald waited silently.
"If Her Highness returns, we can still set things right."
At those words, my hands stopped moving.
I looked at the prime minister. This man had found the ledger and recognized the mountain of work left behind, yet he was still failing to look toward the person who had walked away.
"Keep that ledger safe. It must be carefully preserved."
That was all I said before bowing.
In the corridor, a military messenger and an official from the Interior Ministry were arguing over whose documents should be processed first. Unable to decide which man to stop, a guard stood between them.
I passed them and left the royal palace.
The iron crossbar of the main gate bore a new joint where it had been repaired. I glanced at it once before climbing into the carriage I had left waiting.
Across from me, my subordinate Hugo sat with his knees together.
"Are we returning to your territory, Lord Rodney?"
"Before that, there's someone I want you to find."
When the carriage door closed, the commotion of the royal palace faded into the distance.
"Search for Prince Elias... No, search for Lady Eliana."
"Lady Eliana, sir?"
"Yes. That is her true name."
Hugo nodded once. He was the sort of man who waited until he had heard his full instructions before asking for an explanation.
"Check the roadside inns and ferry crossings for any sign of her. If you find her, tell her that I would like to meet with her."
"Are we to bring her back to the royal palace?"
"First, we'll ask what she wants."
I looked out the window. The royal palace's towering gates slowly receded behind us.
"This time, it's our turn to listen."
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