Lost In Character: Transmigration Chronicles Of A Nameless Heroine 33 Unmasked

"For spring," the Queen answered, sounding amused. Her humor must have been in antic.i.p.ation for Hilde's reaction.

She didn't fail to deliver. "For… spring."

Queen Heloise nodded. "It'll soon be the season of harvest, and after that comes winter. The sheer expense of it if we launch a campaign during these times – unless I have no choice, I will not take that loss. Not on top of everything else."

Hilde could not believe her ears.

Money? The problem was money? But the Queendom had a deep pocket. Everyone knew that. Not to mention how most citizens would only need to be asked once before agreeing to a raise in taxes.

Unable to comprehend the line of reasoning she'd been given, Hilde set this matter aside for the moment.

"What if the enemy attacks first?" she asked instead.

"Our defenses are all set, aren't they?" replied the Queen. She still sounded amused, but now there was also a thick layer of impatience in her tone. "If the enemy decides to move first, we're already prepared for it. You might say I'm merely waiting for them as well – for them to show their hand, as it were, except I know they won't. So we will wait." The woman paused, her eyes losing focus as she stared inwardly. When she continued, her voice was harder than before. "I do not want to give them the satisfaction of giving answer to their mad provocation. Can you not see, Hilde?" She turned her focused stare on her younger sister. "That is what they want."

As it happened, Hilde did see, but it didn't make her worry ease. It made it worse.

"Sister, the enemy's opinions are not what you need to worry about. Not when our own people are calling you spineless."

The Queen's eyes flashed. "They are still in shock. They are grieving, they still cannot see past their anger. What does it matter what they think in these turbulent days? They'll soon calm down and see reason."

Hilde hesitated. Her elder sister had a point – a sound one. Unfortunately, it was not the only valid perspective around. What if her dissenters grow to outnumber her supporters before spring arrives? What if they choose not to wait – not for spring, and not for enough numbers?

She moistened her throat and said, "I understand, Queen." The other woman's expression changed into satisfaction. Hilde swallowed again. "But we cannot just stay silent after what they'd done. It'll be like we are admitting the northerners were right: we are weak."

Once more, she watched as Queen Heloise's eyes became glaciers.

"What does it matter?" she repeated. "We are not – didn't you say so yourself?" Hilde blinked at this sudden turn in the conversation, for a moment unable to tell what it was about. The Queen narrowed her flinty eyes in amus.e.m.e.nt. "I heard what happened at the outlying village. This time tomorrow, news will have spread far and wide that 'we fight'." She shook her head. "You should not have been so hasty. And the time you foolishly spent among our western enemies? That should not have happened. I'm afraid news of that will spread too."

A chill crept from Hilde's chest down to her extremities, though she maintained a neutral mask. It was not so much the words, the contents of which were true enough – it was the manner in which they were said.

What was there for her sister to sound so gleeful about? It was so subtle that the old Hilde might have dismissed it, if she doesn't MISS it entirely.

But the veteran actress within the new Hilde noted it loud and clear. This time around, she didn't try to rationalize or explain it away. She catalogued it in her mind, along with earlier incidences, in case she ever needed to examine them all closely in the future.

"We cannot play into the northerners' game, Hilde," the Queen continued, drawing her attention back into the present concern. "As soon as we do, we lose."

Though nearly sapped of strength by her renewed suspicions, the young woman tried again.

"What if THIS is their game, Sister?" she asked pointblank. "What if they are banking on your reputation for carefulness – what if their silence while waiting for you to move is another ploy to destabilize us?"

The smile on Queen Heloise's eyes slowly widened the more she listened. And when she answered, it was to lightly remark, "Something has happened to you."

Hilde's patience nearly snapped again. In a flat tone, she replied, "I lost someone precious."

"You nearly died," the Queen said almost at the same time. When she continued, it was as if Hilde's words didn't register to her. "That should knock some good sense into anyone. But…" Letting out an extended sigh, the older woman rose. From her new vantage, she told Hilde, "There's no need to concern yourself over this. Why don't you focus on improving yourself even more, from here on?"

That jab couldn't be mistaken for anything other than what it was, not even if Hilde put her all into believing otherwise.

Everyone had known Prince Dieter hated his younger sister. He'd made no secret of it. But until this day, Hilde never had even a whiff of suspicion that Queen Heloise held her in contempt as well, perhaps even more than their brother did. Her eldest sibling simply made it a point to hide it.

Lady Saskia was right to wonder – how had Hilde stayed alive all these years? She had been so blind to so much of what's really going on around her, it was downright pitiful.

Upon receiving this latest hit, Hilde grew numb, and it was not through any conscious effort. There was simply no way around it – for any human to get past something of this nature intact, her heart had to retire in order to let her mind take over the reins.

p.r.i.c.k had better not try to tell her this wasn't the right way to handle it.

"You already suspect that this is another trap," said Hilde without any inflection, likewise acting as if she didn't hear her sister speak. "Laid for you this time – or at least, for you 'specifically'."

For several moments, there was a heavy silence. As the sisters looked at each other steadily, it seemed a deep understanding formed between them. The younger had seen through the cracks in the elder's mask, and though the latter might not understand how it happened or admit to herself that it was through her own mistake, she also knew that Hilde was now seeing the world through a new pair of eyes. Ones that were wide open, unclouded, and unflinching.

"As I must," the Queen eventually answered, utterly dismissive. "But where will it end if I followed that road? We will wait, Princess. We will preserve our strength." With that final word from her on the matter, the tall, proud woman stepped away from Hilde and began heading for the door. "We've wasted enough time," she said without stopping or looking back. "Let us go bury our brother."

Cold and composed, the younger woman rose from her seat and trailed after the Queen. Though it was together that the two traversed the corridor, which increasingly became more shadowed the farther they moved away from the single high window at its other end, Hilde put up a wall to match the one her sister had already raised between them.

Insulated and, on the surface, unaffected by the figurative distance, her mind went to work.

She still had no idea whether she was specifically being targeted by Queen Heloise or if she was merely one among many who was being neutralized as a precaution. All the same, the Queen had already made a move against her. Word was already out that Hilde had shown favor towards the Lyseans by opting to escort them. Her own stated motivations wouldn't matter – not even to those who believed them.

Again, a grain of doubt was all that was needed for this kind of smear tactic to work. Many might suspect her of trying to "fraternize with the enemy," and every other mistake she might commit from here on would only serve to add to that stray seed, making it bigger.

To counter this, she'd have to stay away from the Lysean delegates and deprive that particular suspicion of any more traction.

As for the events at the outlying village… the whole country knew Hilde was sword-obsessed. Her call to fight might eventually be painted over as her trying to slake her selfish desire to fight in real battles. On the other hand, if the Queen loses her gamble and the people's "irrational" emotions doesn't eventually give way to reason, a Princess itching to fight might start looking better to them, faults and all.

Certainly, the highest military power in the land was already of that opinion, though it was too soon to tell if it was only due to his grief. If it wasn't… well, there'll be danger from that quarter too. Hilde wouldn't eagerly throw in her lot with the Lord General, not if other choices were to present themselves down the line.

Now – to give the Queen as good as Hilde had been getting all her life. To isolate, to slander, to back into a corner—

[I'll have to stop you there.]