Reason For Marriage

V: Bureau of Investigation

“Now we are a family, Iveca. And with a little luck, soon an even larger family than before.”

For a moment, she stared blankly at his graceful face. The strange atmosphere that she ran into while underneath him, unable to stand how her lust was puppeteering her limbs, had already disappeared. His blonde shone like the sun. She felt fascinated by the splendour of it now, not only because it was completely different from her own dark hair, a curse on her very appearance from those she had called family before.

She became a family with him. One day, out of the blue, she was married and had a new family. Circumstances be damned; she was happy with that outcome. She realized that her heart was fluttering. The last fragments of guilt she had felt, about their validity as a couple and as parents, owing to the fact they were still almost strangers, was slowly fading away.

It would be nice to be in a family with such a wonderful man, who glittered even when he was still.

Iveca’s mind drifted to the promise he had made her utter, about her work and being involved with political affairs. He seemed to guess this too, as his next words answered the question that had suddenly bounced into her head.

“Don’t worry. This is your honeymoon, remember. Work can wait.”

Iveca forced a smile.

“What will I do?”

“You’ll have to learn about the comings and goings of the palace during the day. There are things you have to do here, duties to keep. But by evening, we’ll both be free.” Daniel fondly spoke of the daily routine of marriage life and it soothed the worry on Iveca’s mind.

“I’ll come to see you,” he said. Her heart squeezed strangely at the words of a gentle promise she had heard for the first time, and she knew it was because the sweet words that fulfilled that long-held deficiency had poured out from such a wonderful man. It was the first time in her memory that the night was not so lonely. Instead of being fed up and getting sick, this was a very magical first night.

————————-

Even without her work at the Bureau, Iveca found herself quite busy indeed in the weeks that followed, just as Daniel had said. First, she had to memorize the names of the guard and the handmaids that worked with her, a task she rose to quite quickly thanks to skills gained in her usual job. She had to put the structure of the palace and the ancestor lines of the royal family that the maid spent what felt like countless hours repeating in her head and memorize everything, down to the last name. No matter how smart she was, Iveca knew all of this would take time; there were many things to remember.

One afternoon, a woman called for her from the Bureau of Investigation. The name written on a tag attached to the black bureau uniform was Raina Erbet. Raina, who was tall with short brown hair, smiled and talked in a cool, breezy way.

“I heard that you do not have your memories from the last four years.”

Iveca nodded, wondering what this house call was about.

“I am here to explain what has happened in that time. The Queen should not know less than the civilians, am I right?”

Iveca stared at Raina for a moment. She might have been someone who she worked with, side by side in the same uniform once. As much as the filling in of some gaps seemed like a relief to her, Iveca knew that there might be some that she would be better off not remembering. Iveca poured tea for the pair of them, and they sat at a small table in one of the smaller rooms of the palace. Iveca explained that it was easier to think in the less grand rooms, less to distract her when she was trying to remember things, and Raina smiled in agreement. She pulled out a piece of paper and began to write down the main events of the last four years, in not too much detail, but explaining as she went. She started with the tenets of the Bureau itself, which Iveca could remember anyway, but figured it was all part of the process.

The prosperity and the well-being of the Kingdom of Amethan is our top priority.

Be loyal to the King of Amethan and protect him with all your might.

Do not be blinded by personal safety and trust the judgement of the organization.

Cherish your colleagues, and also protect and trust each other in the face of death.

Always be mindful of yourself for the secrets you must keep.

Most of Iveca’s memories of the Bureau of Investigation had been erased, but there was no way she could forget how studiously she had memorized the Bureau’s code together with her colleagues. There were fifteen codes, but the five codes that took precedence over anything were as good as engraved in her head to this day. Iveca listened and nodded as Raina explained, before asking a question of her own.

“Raina… did you know me when I was in the Bureau of Investigation?”

“Please, my Queen, call me Miss Erbet. I am lower than you, remember?”

Iveca blushed. “Ah, that…” She steadied herself, then continued. “Little by little. I will do it little by little. What I wanted to ask, Miss Erbet, was about when I was in the Bureau of Investigation.”

“It is a period that you should forget.” Raina surprised Iveca with the sternness of her reply. “It was the Queen who chose oblivion over surveillance. There must be a reason for it,” continued Raina.

So that was it, thought Iveca. In the end, it was a story that they would not tell. So much for that. Iveca stared at Raina quietly as she pushed her short hair back behind her ears. When she spoke again, it was in an incredibly determined tone, as if she was not going to have any conversations outside of what she was here to speak about.

“Finally, the genealogy of the royal family is spread out on this sheet here.” Raina unfurled a parchment that looked cracked and old, covered with long-dead royalty and endless lines. “It is good to point things out while explaining them, I’ve found. If you want to take notes, you can write them out.”

“Thank you,” said Iveca, “but truthfully, I haven’t even memorized half of them yet.”

“I have no intention of explaining every little thing, don’t worry!” Raina smiled. “Though I do have this stuff memorized, so if you need help I’m more than happy to try.”

Iveca smiled. She liked Raina. She wondered if she had liked Raina before her memory was erased.

“Shall we begin?” Raina looked a little excited to be in the position she was in. “Can you tell me what you know about His Majesty Zepeltan, Crown Prince William, Prince Ruben, Prince Daniel and Zepeltan’s only daughter, Princess Ashe?”

Iveca felt warm at the mention of Daniel’s name.

“Not much, but more each day.”

She knew, of course, about the incident that Raina was building up to; the events that had led Daniel to take the throne. About William’s poisoning and the evil deeds of Queen Testy, Ruben’s biological mother. Daniel, who was the third prince, ascended to the throne based purely on awful things that he had no hand in. As she thought about it once again, she wondered how much blood had truly been spilt, throughout history, for that throne. Daniel might have been the first to do it without killing anyone.

“Do you remember the events of the Amenity Palace?” asked Raina.

“I know that one day, the spell that held together the continent’s magic suddenly disappeared, then gradually started to return.”

“That was what most people think they know. But Your Highness sent me here because he wants the Queen to know the truth more accurately.”

Raina took a pen from a chest pocket in her uniform and placed it in Iveca’s left hand.

There was the root of it. Raina was here on Daniel’s orders; presumably to explain to her more precisely why she shouldn’t be meddling in political matters. But why did the Amenity matter? The disappearance of the continent’s magic was something that Iveca had known about from an incredibly young age anyway. When she suddenly lost those four years, the first difference she felt with her own skin was the change in her magic mana. She was surprised that the magic did not work well still. She was so good at magic that she felt a little deprived, like a child who has its favourite toy taken away because she didn’t know that the decline would be so steep.

“Do you remember anything about the Empire’s civil war?” Raina inquired.

“I heard that Prince Ethan II is leading the rebels as a temporary government. It was said that they cut off the power of the spells that run in the family and attempted to build a republic?”

“Do you know where the basis of these Republican ideas came from?”

“I don’t know that much, I’m afraid,” said Iveca, almost guiltily.

“The book ‘My Republicanism’,” Raina said, almost with a sneer, “was written by an artist named ‘Rihan Kadmin’ from Staram Island. We believe, or at least we have found no evidence to the contrary, that it is the basis of all republican ideas. It’s banned in Amethan now.”

In Iveca’s mind, that made sense. Amethan was a monarchy. Of course, they would go out of their way to stamp out any dangerous ideas such as republicanism. Iveca changed her pen to her right hand and wrote the name ‘Rihan Kadmin’ in the corner of the royal family tree, as it seemed that there would be a reason to remember that name.

“When Kadmin was exiled to the Kingdom of Amethan, the borders became… complicated. At that time, Prince Ethan II made the journey to Amethan and secretly made a request to the Amethan Palace for protection. His Majesty Daniel graciously accepted both Rihan Kadmin and Prince Ethan.”

“I see,” came Iveca’s reply.

“This is where the public knowledge diverts from the truth. Prince Ethan stayed at Amenity Palace for one month, and in his time there he used blood magic, his own royal blood, to sever the Amenity’s spell for a week. He was also the one who got Princess Ashe pregnant, despite her being in protective custody. That’s why Princess Ashe left Amethan, Your Majesty, even the Esselburn family don’t have this information.”

Iveca looked at Raina, her purple eyes confused.

“What happened to Rihan Kadmin?”

“The Emperor called for him, and he was sent out to the Empire. From there, he escaped any eye of the monarchy, then he joined the rebels.”

“Oh.”

Iveca’s expression was distorted by what she was hearing. Two men asked for asylum and protection and Daniel graciously accepted it, but they both repaid him with a knife in the back? Raina continued slowly, noticing Iveca’s anger.

“The Bureau of Investigation decided that all of this was too strange to be allowed to continue, and under its own decision, when Rihan Kadmin was dispatched to the empire, he was made the target of an assassin…. but it failed.”

“Why? Did you send someone who wasn’t good enough?”

Raina grinned at the question. Iveca looked stung before Raina hurriedly explained.

“I’m sorry. He was a close colleague of mine, so I suddenly thought of something amusing… Rihan Kadmin was excellent enough to be dispatched by the Bureau’s Director, Mr. Lucas himself. What we have investigated is the fact that there was not enough magical power on the site of the Empire during the war. Rihan Kadmin was a better soldier than we had anticipated, even with Mr. Lucas on his tail.”

Iveca calmly looked at Raina.

“Then what happened to the employee? The Empire is at war, and Rihan Kadmin is alive. He failed the assassination, so he couldn’t come back?”

“That… we aren’t certain of.” Raina’s eyes lowered and she quickly changed the subject. “The situation is overly complicated now compared to four years ago. As the spell disappeared and Staram’s illegal goods flooded in, including more copies of that republican book, King Daniel saw an opportunity to establish the Bureau of Technology. We started to pick up things that could be useful.”

“From the smugglers?”

“It was an urgent matter,” Raina replied coolly.

“Then the people who have been doing business properly…”

“Yes?”

Iveca was somewhat taken back by Raina’s interruption, but she didn’t stop talking.

“The lawbreakers, smugglers… they were rewarded for their crimes… It seems unreasonable.”

“My Queen.”

“Yes?” Iveca wondered whether she had been too critical in speaking her mind.

“You are a full-time employee of the Judicial Affair Bureau. I heard it’s been a month since you moved. I do hope you understand the King’s decision. Maybe that’s the reason he sent me.”

Raina, for all appearances, didn’t seem that formal. It was strangely inconsistent with the stern image of the Bureau of Investigation that Iveca knew and it put her at ease. However, the tone of the conversation was more serious now than before.

“As King Daniel became the King unexpectedly, he had no supporting parties. In the early days of the reign, too many decisions were made in a short time, and there were both formidable gains and losses as a result. Even our Bureau of Investigation, which initially decided to assassinate Rihan Kadmin on its own judgement because they did not believe in His Majesty in the beginning, now distances itself from that decision.”

Raina glanced at Iveca’s purple eyes.

“When it comes to the direction of the country, I believe in Your Majesty’s wisdom and prudence. I trust in the agreements, the decisions he made and recognize the sacrifice.” She said it in a way that Iveca took to mean she was trying to be reassuring about her new husband. Iveca thought again how little she knew of Amethan now. Amethan did not change much from her birth until eighteen, but she felt that it seemed there was a wave of change from day to day over the past four years. Crucially, the four years she was missing.

And how lonely was Daniel holding the arrow keys alone in this wave of change?

Raina busied herself with the papers in front of her for a few moments before speaking again.

“We – the Bureau, that is – sincerely believe that it is a good thing that King Daniel has ascended to the throne. He is the right person for this troubling era and you’d be hard-pressed to find any one of us who disagreed with that. So, my Queen,” Raina grinned at Iveca, “Although it may have been sudden and unexpected; I want to offer my sincere congratulations on your wedding. Please be happy.”

It was a light greeting with a strangely familiar tone, as though it were given to an old friend.

“Raina,” Iveca lowered her eyes for a moment, then said in a calm tone, “You knew me, didn’t you?”

“Pardon?”

“You knew me at the Bureau of Investigation, right?” Iveca clarified. Raina took her turn to shift her eyes to the floor.

“My Queen, I have already told you that you chose to forget for a reason. I am not in a position to be talking about the things you have forgotten.”

“When I lived in the Count’s estate, I didn’t want to get caught being left-handed, so I tried to write with my right hand, but in reality, it was more comfortable to write with my left hand.”

Raina looked confused for a moment. Iveca blinked, returning her pen to her. Raina took it, and that small act dawned the realisation of what Iveca was talking about.

“In the Bureau of Investigation, I guess I comfortably wrote with my left, right? Or else you wouldn’t have placed the pen in my left hand.”

There was a moment of silence before Iveca continued.

“Please… Can you explain a little about me during my time in the Bureau of Investigation? In those missing four years.”

Raina sighed. She could see the desperation for some sort of answer in Iveca’s eyes, as purple and intense as ever.

“I understand your… desire for more information, my Queen. But I didn’t expect to be caught off guard like this.”

“I…”

“Those days are gone, my Queen. Please understand this,” Raina interrupted.

Iveca bit her lip but said nothing more. Raina looked at her for a moment, then asked in a low voice, “Why are you so obsessed with those days of your life?”

“I’ve never really felt like I belong anywhere. But there… there I felt…” Her voice cracked and trailed off, but Iveca did not cry. It didn’t take anything special for her memories of the Bureau to be fond ones. Where people didn’t avoid eye contact with her, or whisper behind her back just loud enough for her to hear. That was enough for Iveca.