I Became A Genius Of The French Royal Family [EN]: Chapter 315

“Hoh ho ho, is that really true?”

“It is. Really, men can be so childish.”

The salon hosted by Countess Dammerval had become a playground for noblewomen starved for gossip.

“Well, there are still rumors that His Majesty has many mistresses. In that respect, the Crown Prince is quite clean, isn’t he?”

“Rather, he’s too clean, which is the problem. Actually, there’s even a rumor.”

“Are you referring to the scandalous rumor that there’s something wrong with the Crown Prince’s, ahem, manhood?”

“No, no. It’s more like…”

They talk about it being scandalous, but no one here really cares about that.

Spreading rumors with embellishments about all sorts of things going on in the palace was one of the joys of their lives.

Countess Dammerval lowered her voice and looked around, everyone’s eyes gleaming as they waited for her next words.

“Is there a rumor that there’s something *more* wrong with the Crown Prince?”

“This is just a rumor, so let’s keep it just between us.”

“Oh, what is it? You’re making me even more curious.”

It was a promise that would never be kept, but it provided an excuse to avoid responsibility.

“The palace doctors have already confirmed that there’s nothing wrong with the Crown Prince’s manhood. But why hasn’t there been a proper love affair, let alone a mistress, until now?”

“There’s nothing wrong with his manhood?”

“That’s right~ I heard it from a reliable source.”

There’s nothing wrong with his manhood.

But he doesn’t seem to be meeting any women.

The men of the French royal family have always had a huge penchant for women, to the point where there hasn’t been a single one who hasn’t had a mistress.

When you put it all together, the conclusion is only one thing.

“Is the Crown Prince… gay?”

“Actually, that would explain everything. His younger brothers got married before the Crown Prince.”

“Oh my, oh my, when you think about it, everything fits perfectly.”

“Ah~ so that’s why the Duke of Orléans got married before the Crown Prince. Actually, isn’t that right? It’s a combination of Habsburg and Bourbon [referring to the royal families of Austria and France, respectively], so the Crown Prince should have been the one.”

All sorts of plausible reasoning and ridicule followed.

“I think so too. Frankly, the Duke didn’t even have a proper title back then.”

“But I heard he was the hero who created the smallpox vaccine.”

“Well~ that’s true, but no matter how great an achievement he made, it doesn’t make sense that the Habsburg imperial family would give him the precious archduchess [a title for a daughter of the Habsburg emperors], does it?”

“So originally, marriage talks were going on with the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince didn’t show any interest in women at all?”

Before they knew it, the Crown Prince had become gay, and it was almost an accepted theory that Christian had been stuck with the leftovers.

Rational criticisms, such as whether the Habsburgs would have gone along with such nonsense, did not come out.

Their interest was already developing in a way that satisfied their fantasies.

“Then, then, who is the Crown Prince’s lover?”

“Actually, meeting the same man wouldn’t raise much suspicion, so wouldn’t he be meeting him quite openly?”

“The man the Crown Prince meets most often is…”

“…who is it?”

It seemed like they could narrow down the candidates right away, but even this was surprisingly difficult.

Crown Prince Louis Auguste met almost no one, not even men, let alone women.

“…Is it possible for a physically strong man to do that?”

“Ah, wait a minute! There is someone! A man the Crown Prince meets several times a week!”

“Is there? Who is it?”

“His Royal Highness the Duke of Orléans.”

A strange tension suddenly filled the salon’s atmosphere, which had been quite excited.

But that was only for a moment.

The recklessness of the noblewomen, who were already crazy about gossip, went far beyond the precarious line.

“Still, the two of them are brothers…”

“They’re half-brothers, aren’t they?”

“That’s right. It’s a well-known fact that royal half-brothers are worse than strangers.”

“Oh my, oh my, a forbidden love between half-brothers? But the Duke of Orléans has a perfectly good wife.”

“There are quite a few people who like both men and women.”

“The Crown Prince and the Duke… still, it’s a good picture.”

Same-sex love is considered a sin in Christian society, but women who are immersed in such gossip have existed since ancient times.

Otherwise, there would have been attempts to publish books linking the kings of the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France in the past.

Of course, such activities were carried out thoroughly in the shadows, as they could be punished if they leaked out.

The Countess, who was already not favorable to the Duke of Orléans, secretly considered this a good opportunity.

“Oh my~ then isn’t Duchess Antoinette so pitiful?”

“It’s not certain yet. The two are famous for their good relationship.”

“What you see on the outside isn’t everything. In fact, only the parties involved know the deep circumstances of the couples, right?”

If a few months passed like this, there would be widespread rumors at the bottom of society that the Duke of Orléans might be a homosexual.

Even if you try to trace the origin of the rumor, it’s hard to catch the culprit for sure.

In any case, Countess Dammerval only encouraged it from the side and didn’t exactly say so.

‘So, a *parvenu* [a person of low social status who has recently acquired wealth or power] bastard shouldn’t have been walking around with his nose in the air.’

In fact, what she didn’t like was, to be exact, his wife rather than the Duke of Orléans.

She was in a miserable situation, married to an old count who was almost 50 years old even at this flowery age.

But it’s good to say it’s a marriage alliance, but it’s annoying to see a woman who was sold from Habsburg as a political marriage alliance looking so happy.

It would have been enough to have lived in luxury since she was born with a golden spoon in her mouth, but isn’t it too much to live so well even after a political marriage?

The world is so unfair, so someone like her has to cheer up and balance it.

While she was happily thinking about how much more she would inflate the rumors, the outside became a little noisy, and she heard the voice of a flustered servant.

“Wait a minute! The ladies are having a conversation right now…”

Bang!

Before she could ask what was going on, the door burst open with a loud noise.

The woman she had been chewing on inside was looking at her with a smile blooming like a lily.

“You’re having a very interesting conversation, can I join you?”

※※※

Marie moved as leisurely as if she were in her own home.

The chairs were already full, but when she stared at them, someone vacated a seat.

“Here, sit here!”

“Oh, thank you. And I’d appreciate it if you could tell me what topic you were having such a pleasant conversation about.”

“No, wait a minute! That’s…”

Countess Dammerval tried to say something urgently, but Marie raised her hand to stop her.

“I need to know the topic now to join the conversation. I can’t suddenly change the topic without noticing, can I?”

“No, no… you don’t have to…”

Even though she was caught on the spot, the Princess could not have heard what she had said until just now.

She thought she could get through the crisis smoothly just by continuing to deny it here, but the Countess overlooked one fact.

There’s no way it’s a coincidence that the Princess showed up at this timing.

“…Countess Dammerval said there was a scandalous rumor about the Crown Prince and the Duke…”

“Mrs. Bertier!”

The wife of a lieutenant colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers.

She was just a middle-aged woman with a mediocre background, so she didn’t pay much attention to her, but was she the Princess’s person from the beginning?

Mrs. Bertier didn’t care about the Countess, who was at a loss for words, and calmly told Marie everything that had been said in this room.

Marie, who had been smiling brightly, became more and more hardened as Mrs. Bertier’s words continued, and finally let out a deep sigh.

“Hoo… this is a little dizzying.”

Before being the Crown Prince and Duke of this country, they are her brother-in-law and husband to Marie.

How could she be calm when they were writing delusional novels by linking the two of them?

Other noblewomen who sensed that the atmosphere was unusual also joined in and said that everything was the Countess’s responsibility.

She could clearly see that they were trying to get out of it, but Marie didn’t bother to find fault with it.

Anyway, the important thing was to show an example through a hundred warnings.

“I understand the whole story, so wait until Count Dammerval comes. Please tell all of this again in front of the Count as it is now. I will decide how to finish this after seeing the Count’s reaction.”

“Wow, Princess… please have mercy…”

“Don’t worry. I won’t send you to the guillotine [a device used for beheading during the French Revolution] for doing something like this. I don’t have the authority to do that either.”

It’s a matter of course, but what will happen if this news reaches her husband’s ears?

Not only the Countess but also the Count’s family may be swept away at once.

Doesn’t she know that dealing with it on her own is the best mercy she can give?

Well, if she had the intelligence to know that, she wouldn’t have tried to spread such ridiculous rumors.

“Countess Dammerval. Are you feeling wronged?”

“Yes? Ah, no… well, that is…”

“You can guess what will happen if I bring the Count to this place and interrogate him, right?”

“Oh, no! Please have mercy…”

Even if she’s not very smart, she’ll probably be able to guess what will happen if this gets bigger.

The Count will surely deny that he knew anything about it and kick out his wife.

In fact, it wasn’t wrong, so the church would easily recognize the divorce.

He will be criticized for being an incompetent head of the family who couldn’t even control his family, but it’s dozens of times better than his family being destroyed.

And the Countess and the Countess’s family will never be able to hold their heads up again in Paris.

“I’ll tell you one way. If the Countess is sincerely repenting, please find people who have made the same mistakes as the Countess in the future and let me know. If you find helpful information, I will turn a blind eye to this matter.”

“Re, really?”

“I have never lied about such things in my life.”

“Okay! I know at least two people. I’ll tell you right now, so please forgive me just once!”

Marie replied with a benevolent smile and extracted all the information the Countess knew.

As she left the Count’s mansion so satisfied, Mrs. Bertier, who followed her, asked as if she was puzzled.

“Are you really going to end it with this?”

“Do you think I was too soft?”

“Yes. The Countess had obvious malice towards the Princess. She will never be grateful for being so kind. I’m afraid she’ll try to stab you in the back in a way that won’t get caught next time…”

“As expected, you’re the wife of a soldier, so you’re objective.”

The Bertier family is a soldier that her husband especially cherishes.

Thanks to the fact that it hasn’t been widely known around yet, she was able to get help in this way.

In fact, the person her husband cherishes is not Lieutenant Colonel Bertier, but his son, but the couple seemed to be even more grateful to her husband for that reason.

“Anyway, Countess Dammerval will be accused of bribery in about two months. Marian is collecting evidence.”

“…Ah…”

“I’ll forgive you for trying to spread false rumors, but bribery is another matter.”

She never lied.

If she repents and lives a life of repentance from now on, she can forgive her, but now she knows very well that people don’t change that way.

“Oh, come to think of it, I heard that my husband is going to sponsor the students of the military academy this time. If you have time next time, bring your son to the palace. It will be helpful to get to know each other, so I will introduce you to other people.”

“I can’t thank you enough. Thank you so much.”

Now that she lives as a vassal of the Duke of Orléans, the relationship between the vassals is very important.

Marie went up to the carriage, mentally sorting out the people to invite to the meeting.

So, the name was clearly… Bertier, Bernadotte, and Napoleon.