“Let me see how much weight you've gained!”
"Ah!
Prince!
Please put me down!"
When Fabrice lifted Julien into the air, Julien began to kick his feet, but a smile appeared on his face.
“You have gained significantly more weight than you did before.”
As Fabrice placed him on the ground, Julian answered with obvious pride:
“Of course!
Prince, I’ve been eating hard these days!
Let’s go ride quickly.”
After Julien climbed onto his horse with the help of the servant, Fabrice jumped lightly onto his horse.
Then they started circling the equestrian track.
Fabrice walked slowly at first, then he quickened his pace and started running.
Julien and Fabrice had gone to the outdoor equestrian track set up behind the royal palace.
Under a huge tree near the track, Elliott was resting in a tent that had been set up for him.
He was sitting comfortably under the tent drinking whisky.
Julian's health condition had recently improved significantly, so the father and his two sons went out together into the fresh air.
Elliot looked at Julian and smiled satisfied.
Wasn't this the kid who was always confined to bed?
It felt good to see him laughing and joking like his peers his age.
As if the butler had noticed Eliot's feeling, he added a word.
The atmosphere was peaceful and rare warm.
“It is so emotional to see Prince Julian in such good health that I almost have tears in my eyes, Your Majesty.”
The butler pretended to wipe away his tears with a handkerchief.
“Well, you really seem to have gotten really old, crying so easily.”
“And to think, it has already been forty years since I entered the palace.”
Elliot looked at the butler, his head bowed.
On the top of his bald head, a few wisps of white hair remain.
Elliot and the butler had been together since the days when they were hairy.
Just like the butler, he himself must have grown old by now as well.
Elliot suddenly felt the weight of time passing.
“So, are you going to resign now and go back to your village?”
Elliot asked, sensing his reaction.
“Don’t say that, Your Majesty, I will serve you until I die, and then enter the coffin.”
The butler declined with a flutter of his hands, and Elliot smiled, satisfied with his answer.
Meanwhile, Julien and Fabrice finished riding, tied up their horses and headed towards him.
"my dad!"
“Our little prince!”
Julian ran towards Elliot.
Even though he was eight years old, Julian without hesitation jumped into his father's arms.
When Elliot hugged him, he smelled like horse manure and sweat.
And Elliot was happy with that smell.
Fabrice sat next to them after wiping his sweat.
Elliot looked at Fabrice.
Fabrice looked like him.
The resemblance was not only in appearance, but also in personality.
“Dad, can I have a crepe?”
"naturally."
Elliot personally gave him a crepe from the picnic box.
It had meat, vegetables and apples, which Julian loves.
Fabrice was stealing Julien's crepe and eating it while he removed three buttons from his shirt.
“This time, complete your royal wedding as quickly as possible and keep the engagement period short.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Even with Elliot's sudden words, Fabrice was not confused and answered.
Because he thought there was a reason he was summoned to meet Julian today.
“Your maternal grandfather was very worried.”
Fabrice took a sip of his juice and looked at Elliot.
The Duke of Primm's greatest fear was that Fabrice would not become king.
80% of that anxiety was caused by Eliot's cold and indifferent attitude.
“I will be very careful.”
“Even if you like to have fun, you can do it when you become king.”
"… Understood."
Fabrice answered obediently.
It was foolish to object and argue before the king.
Fabrice suddenly wondered how much his father knew about his affairs.
“Dad, will my older brother become king?”
said Julian who was listening from the side.
"Perhaps.
Or will you, our little prince, be the king?"
Elliot said with a laugh as he wiped Julian's chin with a tissue.
“If I become king, what will happen to my eldest brother and first prince?”
At the naive kid's question, Elliot extended the tip of his chin.
“That's right, Julian, there are three princes and only one king, so what should we do?”
“Um… can’t the three of us take turns?”
Julian answered with childish naivety.
"Haha, we should definitely do it.
Our little prince is very smart.
Isn't he?"
Elliot laughed broadly.
The palace attendants also smiled contentedly.
Elliot returned from the outdoors with a bright face and hurried to a room tucked away in a corner of the main mansion.
The room Elliot entered looked ordinary from the outside, no different from others.
But the inside was completely different.
In that vast room, consisting of three connected rooms, were stacked strange objects rarely seen in Valois.
Candlesticks made of buffalo horns were lying on the bedside table, and on the ceiling next to them was hanging a large fox.
On the floor, head ornaments made of peacock feathers were scattered.
It was a place that smelled mysteriously, and there were dark corners.
Without hesitation, Elliot stepped inside.
"Where are you?"
Elliot called loudly.
There was no answer.
Instead, something pointy and round lying on the ground collided with his foot and made a clattering sound.
It was a sheep skull.
Elliot carelessly pushed the object with his foot and advanced deeper.
When he reached the farthest inside, he saw a platform consisting of three steps surrounded by red curtains on all sides.
It looked like a place designated for a religious ritual.
In front of him, a woman, who seemed to have just finished her ritual, was taking off the robe she had been wearing to receive him.
The woman had strange features rarely seen in Valois.
Most Valois were white and tall, but she was the opposite.
She was small and strong-looking, with brown skin, a low nose, small black eyes, and coarse hair.
“Did you have a good time?”
So saying, she took Elliot's coat and removed a beaded wand and a small piece of paper written in mysterious letters.
“Of course you wished you could come with us.”
The sight of Elliot taking off his coat and the woman serving him was very natural.
“You know I perform my rituals at this time every day.”
With a smile, she scolded him lightly.
“That's right.
I hope you will come with us next time.
There are many good horses in the palace.
I would like us to ride together.”
"Good."
“That's a promise.”
Elliot said, feigning seriousness.
The woman laughed sarcastically and said she understood.
Elliot lay looking at the woman's face as if he found her adorable.
“So what would you like to see today?”
“You always know what's on my mind.”
The woman naturally touched Elliot's shoulder and waited for his words.
“Don't you?
You know my desires better than I do.”
The woman pressed Elliot's neck and head as if massaging them.
“Mmm.”
Elliot made a sound in his throat as if responding to her hand.
“To remain on the throne until death.”
The woman answered instead of Elliot.
Elliot smiled, satisfied with her answer.
“I don’t want to give him up to anyone.
Help me.”
The woman replied smiling.
“I will certainly grant you that wish, sir.”
At that moment
Dennis was on his way to Central Church in Leyburn.
Even if he was a prince of a country, there was someone he couldn't meet.
Even if he met them, there were those who could not sit in the same place with them and have a conversation.
That person was Pope Felixclair, Pope of the Knight Church.
The Valois adopted the Knight religion as the state religion.
Although it was a state religion, religious authority was not yet strong.
But with the current Pope, the atmosphere has been reversed.
There has never been a time in Valois history when Dean Knight was so revered.
He was a more austere, honest, and respectable person than anyone else.
He was probably someone with even higher power than the king.
This was the current pope.
“His Holiness the Pope is currently in the prayer room.
Can you wait a moment?”
If Dennis had not sent a prior letter to the Pope, this interview would not have taken place today.
Dennis sat in the chapel and put his hands together as if praying.
No matter how infidel he was, he was not ignorant of what was appropriate to do in a holy place.
Dennis closed his eyes and composed his thoughts.
He had something to say and something to hear when he met the Pope today.
When he closed his eyes, he felt the drowsiness attached to the edge of his eyebrow descend.
He hasn't slept well in weeks.
It had been weeks since he had last seen Thérèse after they had parted at the house of the Marquis of Pinchetet.
She wouldn't come to him unless he went to her first.
This meant that he had not been to Thérèse's room in weeks.
This feeling came to him again.
'Go away.' I'll take care of it from now on.'
What was her facial expression after he said those words?
He felt a tingling sensation from the words he said to hurt her.
The more aware he became of her, the more he struggled to escape her shadow.
It wasn't just a day or two that he doubled the amount of cigarettes he smoked to sleep like a coma.
Some days, he would exhaust his body with strenuous exercises and fall asleep like a faint.
On other days, he would skip sleep and work through the night until dawn.
They were meaningless actions.
Finally, Silbang shouted angrily:
“If you continue like this, you will die, Prince!
Just go and ask her to put you to sleep!”
"So?
Then maybe death would be better."
Dennis answered with a weak laugh as he sat up in bed early in the morning with a foggy mind.
Even though he didn't drink a drop of alcohol, he felt like he was drunk.
"Oh!
Really!
I don't know."
In the end, Silbang closed the door and went out.
Dennis raised an arm, placed it over his eyes, and closed his eyes.
After losing his mother, the only meaning in the world, nothing was meaningful for him.
Lost between nihilism and helplessness.
He decided to take revenge, but he knew that it would not bring back the dead.
Those were the days he lived.
Between revenge and helplessness, or nihilism.
But she kept trying to become something meaningful to him...
“His Holiness the Pope has finished praying.
Follow me, please.”
Dennis woke up from his thoughts.
When he closed his eyes for a moment, he felt as if his mind had awakened a little.
As he advanced into the church under the priest's guidance, the priest opened a door, revealing an empty room with a table and two small chairs.
“I'm tired from the long journey.”
The Pope had come and sat down first.
The Pope was an old man with white hair.
That person who ruled as pope for thirty years.
Dennis controlled his facial expression.
“Not at all, Your Holiness.”