Chapter 36 - The Life of Marchioness Ariarein
The first report reached the royal capital, which had been waiting for news from Redan, after snow had fallen at Alas Pass.
After hearing the report, everyone in the office, including Crown Prince Eirik Nadar, was silent.
The Crown Prince, who had sunk into the chair behind the office desk, silently gestured to the lords that they could withdraw.
In the office, only two people remained: the Crown Prince and Count Nord Ludovico Foscar, who had become unable to stand up from the sofa.
"—Why?"
A groaning voice echoed.
It was the Crown Prince's voice.
Ludovico, who had been holding his head on the sofa, turned his gaze to the ceiling and let out a long sigh.
—We had misjudged that young lady. Her ability, her temperament, her spirit, everything.
Only that sense of regret and defeat was in Ludovico's heart.
"Everything," Ludovico answered, as if squeezing out the voice.
"Everything was in the palm of that exile's hand."
It was a voice like spitting blood.
"What will happen now?"
"It is due to the fact that snow has fallen at Alas Pass. And Redan is already in enemy hands. Punishment is no longer possible until spring. Besides—"
Ludovico cast his gaze at the letter that had been left thrown on the desk.
About 3,000 officers and soldiers of the advance party, and a total of 300 knights and cavalry of the Royal Guard.
In addition, non-combat personnel such as logistics.
Most of them had been captured in Redan.
'We have the intention and readiness to release the prisoners. Accordingly, we wish to negotiate the conditions regarding the release of the prisoners.'
The text of the letter said so.
However, it was obvious that it would be a one-sided affair that could hardly be called a negotiation.
This side had not a single prisoner, and even if they tried to make a ceasefire a condition, they had been brought to a state where they couldn't attack in the first place.
On the other hand, the Mares side was in a situation where they could do whatever they wanted with the prisoners.
"If we consider the release of the prisoners—"
With a somber expression, Ludovico shook his head.
At least one year, or more if things went poorly.
They would surely demand a compensation that would make the Kingdom side unable to move.
During that time, the Mares side could strengthen the defenses of Redan and Alas Pass as much as they wanted.
Practically speaking, it was a situation where it could be said that the chance of subjugating Mares had vanished.
"—Why?"
The Crown Prince groaned once more.
"We..."
Dropping his shoulders in discouragement, the dejected Ludovico spat out in a powerless voice.
"...had misjudged them."
Crown Prince Eirik Nadar, who failed in the subjugation of Marquess Mares, ascended the throne shortly after following the passing of his father the King.
However, the royal prestige lost due to the failure of the subjugation and the huge reparations imposed would greatly restrict his reign.
While he virtually abandoned the recovery of the Marquess of Mares's territory and strove to restore national power, he was only able to live for about five years after that.
Perhaps due to overwork and mental strain, he developed an illness, and on his deathbed, he left words to his ministers to please look after the Crown Prince, and then he died. The King's younger brother and the Crown Prince were left behind, and after the young Crown Prince ascended the throne, it was decided that for the time being, the King's younger brother would govern as Regent.
However, there was only one person who truly kept the late King's last will.
It did not take long for the high-ranking officials supporting the young King and the King's younger brother as Regent respectively to begin internal strife, and the internal strife continued for a long time.
Although the internal strife somehow ended by the young King relying on one of the influential nobles, Marquess Brosner, the power to unite the kingdom was no longer left in the royal family.
With the King's coming of age, the Nadar Dynasty San-Saar Kingdom perished by yielding the throne to Marquess Brosner, who had been a subject.
It was only about twenty years since the secession of Marquess Mares.
Claudia Foscar-Nadar became, as a result, the final Queen of the Nadar Dynasty.
Claudia, who married King Eirik after a short engagement period, supported the King's private side as his only consort.
King Eirik, who is said to have held many worries and could not prevent the decline of the dynasty on the public side, can be said to have enjoyed a certain amount of happiness as a family man.
It is thought that it was the same for Claudia, who deeply loved the King and was also loved by him.
After her married life ended shortly due to the King's death, she devoted herself to the upbringing of the young King as the Queen Mother.
As a result, the King would yield the throne to a subject upon reaching adulthood, but even so, it can be said that it was the greatest fortune for her that she herself, her father, and her son who had been King were able to complete their lives.
Whether it was intentional or not, Claudia did not leave behind any diaries or letters that revealed her inner thoughts, either publicly or privately.
The inner thoughts of the final Queen of the Nadar Dynasty, therefore, remain shrouded in mystery.
A worldly man of small caliber.
Count Nord Ludovico Foscar, who was evaluated as such in the first half of his life, rose to Marquess with the accession of Eirik Nadar.
Having wielded great power as the Minister of Internal Affairs, he carved his name in history as the last loyal subject of the Nadar Dynasty through his work in the latter half of his life—or rather, the last twenty-some years of his life.
Ludovico resigned as Minister of Internal Affairs upon the passing of King Eirik, and thereafter devoted his efforts solely to protecting his grandson the young King, his daughter the King's mother, and his own wife.
It is passed down that the abdication to Marquess Brosner was his idea, but no certain historical materials remain.
However, House Foscar continues to this day as a Viscount family ruling Manor, a small port town in the Nord region of the San-Saar Kingdom.
The survival of House Foscar is said to be due to the political wizardry of Ludovico, who entered the political world as a Count, rose to Marquess, and ended his life as a Viscount, or due to the influence of the House of the Marquess of Mares, with whom he was once in a hostile relationship.
However, other than the royal family and the Viscount family, no one knows the actual truth.
Archbishop Valeria, who was the highest-ranking person in the San-Saar Diocese of the Old God Orthodox Church, left numerous church documents during her life.
The last document she issued as Archbishop was to make the Mares Diocese independent from the San-Saar Diocese, and at the same time, to establish an Archbishop's see in Mares and appoint an Archbishop.
By this document, it is considered that the Church recognized the establishment of the Marquessate of Mares.
Valeria, who abdicated after the establishment of the Mares Diocese, spent her remaining years in a monastery in the royal capital and passed away about ten years later.
Her tomb is placed inside the monastery where she spent her remaining years—the Ariarein Memorial Royal Monastery.
Stuart Stevens subsequently became the first Registrar of the Ariarein Memorial Royal Monastery.
The mansion became a monastery, and the master changed from the Marquess's family to the Church, but that did not bring about a major change in his work.
Managing several real estates including the monastery itself donated by the Marquess's family and the church lands in the suburbs of the royal capital, organizing those who worked there, and generating steady profits.
His career, having gained the trust of the Church in that way, continued until a few years before his death.
It is passed down that after raising successors and yielding the way, in his later years, he liked nothing more than spending time gazing at the garden that the gardener, who was the age of a son to him, had created with great care.
Radmir Hasheck spent the latter half of his long bureaucratic life as the second Director of the Agricultural Bureau of the Marquessate of Mares.
His skill in supporting the newly established Marquessate Administration from the ground up by promoting agricultural policies such as the introduction of new farming methods, increasing production of high-value-added cash crops, and tax incentives for reclaimed land, is highly evaluated even in later generations.
The retirement of Radmir, who served two Marquesses, the first Marquess and the second Marchioness, was around the time when the reign of the second Marchioness had passed twenty years.
The tomb of House Hasheck is not in the capital of the Marquessate, but in a small port town in its suburbs.
The young son who frequently chatted with his mother at a table set out in the small garden on sunny afternoons eventually began to visit with his family, let his mother hold her grandchildren, mourned his mother who died ten-some years later, and after spending his own remaining years in the same small port town, was buried in a tomb adjacent to his mother's.
The diary [Record of Fallen Gleanings], which Radmir continued to write as a memorandum of his duties as the Director of the Agricultural Bureau, is known as a valuable primary historical source recording the early state of the Marquessate Administration.
Kurtfried Hazen married into House Strauken three years after the establishment of the Marquessate of Mares, becoming Kurtfried Hazen-Strauken.
Thereafter, he spent his life gently supporting his wife, the young lady of House Strauken, and House Strauken itself.
His relationship with his sister, the second Marchioness of Mares, Ariarein, was always good, and he often served as a bridge between the Strauken and Hazen families.
However, many letters written by Kurtfried recording harsh demands to the House of the Marquess of Mares have also been left behind.
At one time, regarding a demand that seemed too excessive, his father-in-law Rulant pressed him, asking if that was truly alright.
"My sister owes me a debt. Oh, no, I don't think of it as a debt, but my sister seems to have a sense that she owes me one," Kurtfried reportedly answered with a laugh.
"It shouldn't be a problem if it's this much, and if it's bad, she'll say so. My sister is my sister, and my brother-in-law is by her side, after all."
"You say that, but... Is she not your sister by blood?"
"That is certainly as you say, but that is exactly why.
Besides, father-in-law," Kurtfried declared with a gentle expression to Rulant, who was still looking suspicious.
"I am already a person of this house."
Rulant, who laughed loudly half a beat later, thereafter trusted Kurtfried completely and came to incorporate his opinions along with the retainers.
House Strauken, which Kurtfried supported, continues to maintain a good relationship with the Marquess's family as the largest noble house of the Marquessate of Mares—the only Count family.
Ariarein Hazen reached adulthood at eighteen and took Arveil Meiros, who was once her loyal retainer, as her husband.
Having inherited the title of Marquess in her mid-twenties from her father who retired early, Ariarein led the Marquessate of Mares for about forty years thereafter.
Invasion from neighboring countries, tense relations with the former suzerain San-Saar Kingdom, and numerous natural disasters.
Her reign could not be called smooth by any means, but with the support of the Countess of Redan, her husband Kurtfried who was also her blood brother, and her own husband Arveil Meiros-Hazen, she protected the Marquessate and its people to the end.
As a private person, she was blessed with three children, and it is said she built a peaceful home with her husband who stayed by her side without distinction between public and private.
The married life that lasted nearly sixty years ended with the death of her husband, whom she loved and supported throughout their lives.
Even after parting with her husband by death, her later years surrounded by her grown children and grandchildren were by no means lonely.
However, it is passed down that on her deathbed, the last name Ariarein called was not those of the children and grandchildren surrounding her, but that of her husband who had died a few years earlier.
After a funeral held by the entire Marquessate, Ariarein was buried next to her husband Arveil, with whom she had spent many years.
*
On the wall of the Marquess's office in the Hazen Marquessate Residence in Mares, a single painting is hung.
That painting, which contained the three Marquesses of the early period of the Marquessate in one frame, is said to have depicted the second Marchioness Ariarein and her family.
The second Marchioness Ariarein and her husband Arveil, the first Marquess Randolph and his wife, and the three children born between Ariarein and Arveil.
Ariarein, smiling in the center of the seven, was a heroine who created the opportunity for the establishment of the Marquessate, and at the same time, was a wise monarch who made the Marquessate leap forward greatly.
The Marquessate of Mares, which Randolph made independent and Ariarein raised, flourished far longer than its former suzerain, the Nadar Dynasty San-Saar Kingdom, and still maintains its lifeblood even now.