Chapter Seventy-Three
Charlotte hadn't changed much. Frankly, it was as if she hadn't changed at all. If it weren't for a small crown on her head, which was apparently so small she could keep it in a pouch of sorts, there were no noticeable difference.
"Please stand," Charlotte said, "There is no need for you to kneel. I am sorry for interrupting your time together, but I do not think we will have much time to talk once dinner starts," she added. "And I felt it important to explain my actions."
"Your...actions?" Louise asked, her brows furrowing together. Her head turned to Saito as she stood quickly up. "You-She-Saito! Seriously!"
"N-Nothing happened!" Saito exclaimed, standing up in turn with both arms raised in surrender for a brief second, "And it's not my fault you didn't believe me!"
Charlotte giggled, a hand to her mouth. "Please, Lady Louise-do not be angry. Lord Saito did nothing wrong," she spoke kindly, stepping closer to them both. "I am the one who has to apologize."
"Apologize?" Louise blinked. "Apologize for what? Your Highness-I'm sure this perverted dog did something that-"
"No, no, it is not that," Charlotte added. "It is something else," she said quietly. "I wished to apologize for having used an assassin to murder Lord Saito," she smiled softly, as if the mention of 'having murdered' someone was something to think back fondly to, "And for having used the forbidden spell Contract on him to have him murder the previous King of Gallia."
"Your Highness doesn't need to apologize for-for-wait," Louise had begun speaking even before her brain, and ears, had connected together the words that the petite blue-haired girl in front of them was saying. "Wait," Louise stammered, "Wait-just a-what."
Charlotte smiled, but the smile wasn't really a 'cute' one. It was sort of icy. It was kind of cold. It made the girl holding on to her staff look slightly less 'cute' and a bit more -a hell of a lot more- 'scary'.
"I should apologize," Charlotte said, "And I will," she added. "It is my understanding that-"
"No! No! Wait just a moment!" Louise's scream made Saito flinch, and Charlotte blink. "You-Your Highness must be suffering from a very high fever-that sort of thing, that sort of-"
"Where would you like me to start explaining, Lady Louise?" Charlotte asked kindly, her staff held in her hands as a cold breeze closed the windows, while thin frost began to form across the doors' edges and hinges.
"From the beginning!" Louise snapped curtly, her breathing uneven. "Like-Like you paid an assassin?! Why!? When!? How!?"
"To ingratiate myself into your eyes of course," Charlotte said. "A savior is usually seen as a good figure, I know that by experience. I was saved by a hunter once, at least-before she died eaten alive by a Chimaera in front of my eyes and I had to kill the beast holding on to that hunter's face," Charlotte shook her head lightly, "the reagents to restart a dead heart are not that typical, and most certainly cannot be bought in a town. One needs to speak with a powerful spirit, like the spirit of water of Ragdorian Lake, to acquire such a thing," Charlotte said. "When I realized how ignorant you both were, or perhaps, how trusting, I decided to give you a list of ingredients to gather for my benefit, in order to toughen your bones."
Charlotte nodded pointedly at that. "I would think that much is obvious now?"
"The Cardinal-" Louise said quietly, "He told you?"
"He was quite happy when you gave him an excuse to stop you from leaving immediately. Had you not angered Count Mott, perhaps I would not have been quick enough to call on to my assassin to do his job, and would have needed to get more inventive," Charlotte added. "I was sure I could come up with something anyway, your horse did have a small spell to track you."
"Just-Just to ask," Saito said nervously, "Why? I mean-why would the Cardinal tell you about it?"
"That...is a misunderstanding," Charlotte said. "The Cardinal is not the one who contacted me first. I am the one who contacted him," she took a small breath. "I needed someone to help me plan my uncle's demise. He-He wasn't really a good King, and there were rumors of treason, but-but before my cousin," Charlotte's face turned slightly green, "Before she died, I wasn't treated much better than the common thug. I knew what he was up to, and I knew he had the traitors all penned down. I couldn't go to them. I-I was glad when he sent me off to Tristain's Magic Academy after the death of my cousin-away from him, free to think."
She took a deep breath. "I-I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wanted to see my Uncle dead with such a fierce passion that when I heard about the Cardinal's movements through the court to isolate the Valliére, I understood he had something I needed, and I had something he needed. So-So I contacted him. And together we came up with a plan to kill the King."
Louise shuddered. "No," she shook her head. "That's-The King is sacred. You can't kill a King, or a Queen-why are you telling us? Queen or not, if this comes out, you'd be sent to the chopping block. And we're not two random adventurers-if the nobles hear of this-"
"Hear of what?" Charlotte asked with a soft chuckle. "There is no proof. Your word might be worth something, but is it truly as powerful as mine, and that of the Cardinal? The same Cardinal who is right now combining a marriage of love between two countries, and whose regents will look up to him like a savior for allowing it?"
Louise clutched her shoulders with her hands. "So," Charlotte continued as Louise chose to stay quiet. "I contacted the Cardinal. He needed a strong political ally, and while he had turned to isolating the Valliére out of a desire to appease the Germanian Emperor, it was clear he wouldn't refuse a powerful ally like the heir to the throne of Gallia. Between the two, he'd choose us over Germania every single time," Charlotte smiled softly. "I wanted my uncle dead, and he wanted Tristain's independence safeguarded, and the royal family safe. I could guarantee both if I rose to the throne," Charlotte smiled. "I am sure he used me for yet one more purpose of his, but what that is isn't something I know, nor did I desire to pry. I know he will deny it until the end however. He is a consummated actor."
Louise shook her head. "I-I don't understand," her eyes moved from Charlotte to Saito, "When did you put him under the Contract spell? That's-that's a forbidden spell, it takes a while to chant, and-and I saw him talk with Wardes when the King was assassinated."
"The Contract spell can be cast and activated upon the use of a command sentence, making for the perfect assassin who does not know he is one, and Lord Saito was so naive he believed me when I told him I had to knight him using 'the tongue of Gallia', so he never suspected I was actually chanting the spell upon him," Charlotte said. "As for the reason he appeared to be in the same room, it was because there are spells like Illusion magic, after all. And all eyes were on you, the returned daughter of the Valliére house," Charlotte added with a smile. "Thinking about it, perhaps you are the one I should thank the most. You made everything so smooth, it felt preordained by fate itself. Again, perhaps the Gods were watching, and smiling, over my actions from the very beginning."
Louise stared at Charlotte's simple smile, and her first impulse was to wipe it off her face with an explosion spell. She held her hand, but even then it kept trembling -and not from the cold, but simply from the sheer fury that emanated across her body.
"Why choose Saito?" Louise asked. "Out of everyone-why him? Surely, the same assassin who had killed him would be stronger, no, most definitely it wouldn't make sense to use him. There was no guarantee -no guarantee at all- that he'd end up in the palace on the night the king was there. You could have poisoned the King's food, or stabbed him in his sleep-you didn't need to use Saito. You didn't need to use me. How could we both make things easier? We were two adventurers with barely a few months of experience-there had to be better choices."
"Perhaps," Charlotte said, "but the power Lord Saito has as the Gandalfr is not something that can easily be ignored. The Cardinal was sure that by using you two, I would achieve everything I needed. And he was right."
Louise faltered slightly, "The Gandalfr? That's-That's just a legend. I mean, if Saito's the legendary familiar of Void, then what would that make me? I can't even cast a simple 'clean blood' spell-"
Charlotte interrupted her, grinning brightly as she kept speaking. "The Cardinal told me that we could use my uncle's obsession with the Valliére to our advantage, and by showing you off as the returned heir, he would desire to be present at your return to society with such strength, that he wouldn't care about having to go without a wand for the evening. Do you want to know something fun?" Charlotte said with a smile on her lips. "My uncle wanted you dead. The 'noble retinue' that followed him were in fact members of Gallia's Knights, used to murdering and assassinating targets of interest. He had given me the order to kill you right in front of everyone in the ballroom, and to use the knights as I saw fit." Charlotte giggled. "He was amusing like that, my Uncle. He delighted in it, you see. It made his heart beat, that's what he said," Charlotte nodded.
Charlotte clicked her tongue against her teeth, looking outside the window with a soft and slightly sad look. "To the last, to the very last, I thought he had managed to escape somehow," she took a deep breath, "I thought that he was lying, hiding and waiting for the chance to pop back up and say how he had enjoyed faking his death and how displeased he was in me for trying to assassinate him. He didn't. He was really dead. The Gandalfr had truly killed him for good," Charlotte smiled, and then giggled. "That was why I was so happy," she made a small twirl, holding her staff with both hands. "He was dead. He was really dead for good."
She drew near Saito, grabbing hold of both of his gauntlets. "But there was still the problem of the letters and of Albion. It was also part of our deal -I had to take care of that problem. The Cardinal really does cherish the Queen and the Princess, not just the Crown, but their happiness too." Charlotte's eyes had that kind of 'innocent' glint that Josette's own had, if for a brief moment before she stepped away from Saito. "So we collaborated in order to get people who could do the job together with people who knew where the job had to be done," she added with a light giggle, "I was not going to let you go alone in the middle of a country at war. I'm not my Uncle."
"Josette," Saito said softly. "Josette was you?"
"No," Charlotte said with a chuckle. "I'm not capable of being in two places at once, but you are right that Josette was involved. You see, the Cardinal honestly had no idea who would have switched the letter meant for the Duchess, and never did I. If he had told you where to go, chances were that whoever had done so would set an ambush up for you. But I did know where the letters were. My Uncle's familiar, you see, was in charge of holding on to them."
Charlotte stopped smiling. "I did not honestly think she'd go mad like that. I thought she might try coming back to Gallia, or perhaps she would go into hiding in Albion. It would have honestly been possible for her to reveal the letters, but since my Uncle had told her not to, and she obeyed him faithfully, I was pretty sure she would uphold her master's wishes until the end." Here the girl sighed, shaking her head. "She was aiding Cromwell as his secretary, and the adventurers that followed you, they were in fact-"
"I knew she was too innocent to be real," Louise said bitterly, "I told you she was too innocent to be real!" she yelled at Saito, who flinched back.
"My knights," Charlotte said. "They knew where to go, and would have directed you there subtly. Even if you had refused their help, Saito would have known where to go subconsciously. And the rest played out pretty much as I had expected, if...without the addition of the Undead."
Saito clutched his chest. "The-That thing-"
"What thing?" Louise asked, her eyes moving from Charlotte to Saito. "What. Thing!?"
"Well, you see," Charlotte said softly. "My Uncle got a ring for his familiar, the Ring of Andvari, by stealing it from the Water Spirit of Ragdorian Lake. When the Spirit took offense, and began to raise the water level, he decided something needed to be done. What he didn't expect was for my familiar to be a Rhyme dragon, capable of talking with Spirits, nor that we would both come to an agreement." Charlotte's eyes hardened. "That was why I carried a piece of her around. I admit-I might have lied to her about not knowing where the ring actually was, but I needed to wait for the right moment. If I killed my Uncle's familiar without killing him, he would just summon another," Charlotte shook her head. "And I would waste my one chance."
"So...you saved Saito's life...by putting a piece of a Water Spirit inside him," Louise said in a quiet voice, the fury already gone past the boiling point, having reached a shimmering level that could only be defined as 'over nine thousand', "So that you could have...your assassin ready...to do the job for you."
Charlotte smiled awkwardly, but nodded. "If it was the Gandalfr, I knew he would do it."
"A lot of things could have gone wrong," Louise said curtly. "A lot of things nearly went wrong. We could have died facing a gryphon! We could have died eaten alive by a monster-"
"If that had happened," Charlotte said with a sigh, "It would have been a mercy, and we would have moved to another plan."
"A mercy?" Louise said, choking on her spit. "A. MERCY!?"
"The Elves have not the tendency of being merciful," Charlotte answered kindly. "As a user of the Void-your duty is to begin preparations for a Crusade against the Elves to reclaim the Holy Land. When you see it this way, you understand I did you a kindness."
Louise stepped forward, and then narrowed her eyes.
The thundering slap that slammed through the air was strong enough to make it ripple as it struck Charlotte's cheek with enough strength to shatter her glasses off the Queen's face, and send the girl to twist in mid-air, tumbling down and emitting a small scream of pain.
Louise held her hand up in the air, the palm an angry red, nothing like the fury that ran across the girl's entire body.
"I hope you weren't expecting anything else from me," Louise hissed coldly. "Not after coming here to gloat in our face how you used us, you bitch. You are the type of person I hate the most in the world. You smile even when you betray others! You laugh even when you ruined someone's else life! You think I'd accept your apologies? You think Saito would? What were you expecting from us? To forgive you and offer you tea and crumpets!?"
Charlotte clutched her reddening and swelling up cheek with one of her hands, and smiled softly. "I wasn't. I was just making sure you would not ask questions to the wrong parties during the feast. I did use you, but you did gain benefits from it. I will safeguard the Crown of Tristain and its family, but you just hit a royal, Lady Louise, and your partner killed one too. If that came out, it would be extremely unfortunate," Charlotte stood up, dusting her cloak a bit. "For what it matters," she added, "I am really sorry I had to use you like this," she shook her head as she headed towards the window, which opened up at her touch. "I hope you will not make this any more difficult and cooperate in the future."
Louise's fists remained clenched even as the Queen of Gallia gave them both a light bow of her head, and then stepped out, leaving behind only a half-frozen room with the doors encased in ice, and a fuming Louise whose sheer anger melted the snow around her.
Saito had remained quiet.
"Say something," Louise said suddenly. "Saito, you would do better to say something."
"Louise," Saito muttered. "Did...Did I really kill someone?" he looked down at his hands.
To that, all of Louise's anger drained away, replaced with a firm determination to see the Queen of Gallia bite the dust.
No one was allowed to make her partner cry.
No. One.
