Chapter 46

Chapter 46

The weather was clear outside, perfect for luring my number one guy out for an excursion. Once I arrived at the training grounds, I stood and watched from afar rather than approaching, gently fluttering the fan Emily had given me. The House of Eckhart—as one might expect from those referred to as the “blade of the empire”—regarded the knights’ training as sacred. They could not be interrupted for just any trivial reason.

I don’t want to have my head almost chopped off like last time, either. To my relief, I was correct to wait—training was in full swing. I hid amongst a nearby cluster of trees, peeking through the branches to watch. Some of the knights were sparring in pairs, while others did laps dragging heavy metal balls behind them. There were also those who were attacking training dummies with wooden swords.

I recalled that usually, only the apprentice knights used wooden weapons. Focusing on that general area, I searched for Eckles. When I finally found him, my face immediately fell into a terrible scowl. Why is he training alone and off to the side? He looks so tragic...

Unlike the other apprentice knights—who had formed a neat row—Eckles was standing a distance away all by himself. I’d heard that the others had rejected him but seeing it with my own eyes left a bitter taste in my mouth. As I watched him train, however, that feeling was soon beaten away by the loud cracks reverberating from Eckles’ sword.

The fresh-faced apprentices practiced whacking the dummies and stabbing critical points. Unlike them, Eckles didn’t just stab and strike at the dummy—he was practically destroying his. Each stroke of his blade was audible as it sliced through the air. When he swung his wooden sword, the life-size dummy was cut down as easily as dry grass, hay erupting in all directions. He wasn’t just cutting at it with the blade, but attacking with his pure, brute strength—which the dummy simply wasn’t made to handle.

Whoa. Is that what it takes to become a swordmaster? I wondered though I didn’t know much about swordsmanship at all. I realized that I was greatly mistaken to be so impressed only moments later. The hay had come clean off the wooden rod at the center of the dummy, and Eckles’ wooden sword made a loud cracking sound as it smacked against it. His sword broke clean in two, and Eckles stood stunned, staring at the now separate pieces of his sword.

“Hey!” Someone shouted. “F*ck, how many times must you break your sword? Are you going to pay for a new one, you son of a b*tch?” The person yelling rushed at Eckles and, without warning, kicked him in the belly.

Damn it, don’t you dare! You’re going to shorten my lifespan! I almost rushed out of hiding but caught myself at the last moment. It was probably better to observe a little longer and get a good sense of the situation, rather than reveal myself right away. Eckles didn’t hit the ground, as was to be expected from someone cast as the main character. He simply stumbled a few steps back before righting himself.

However, the man who’d kicked him only seemed more angered by this. “Get on the ground!” he shouted.

“I’m... sorry. I’ll try to be more careful—”

“You’ve already broken more swords than I can count. Do you know how hard it is to look the second-in-command in the eye and tell him we need to order more swords again? Shut up and get on the floor.” When Eckles didn’t respond, the man shouted again, “Get down, you bastard!”

“I... am in the middle of training. I will accept my punishment after training is finished,” Eckles said, bowing his head. From the looks of it, the man who was starting a fight with Eckles was the knight in charge of managing the training equipment.

Eckles was not being unreasonable. It was commonplace for training equipment to break, which was why they were usually purchased cheaply in large quantities. It was incredibly unfair to embarrass him over a cheap wooden sword and threaten to punish him like this. However, Eckles seemed very used to this behavior based on how he responded. Seeing his expressionless face, I realized I was in deep sh*t.

“Well, well, look at you! You’re a f*cking slave. What do you need to train for? Get down right now!”

“...”

“You’re pretty confident, huh?” The man’s anger seemed to grow as Eckles made no move to obey. He stopped shoving at Eckles’ shoulder and moved on to prodding Eckles in the cheek. “You chose the wrong mistress, you idiot. Her time is numbered, you understand? She can’t help you!”

“...”

“Once our Lady Ivonne returns, that fake will be out on the street. Do you think she’ll have time to care for a slave? I’ll bet she has her hands full keeping her own head above water.”

“Do not insult my mistress.” Eckles, who’d been looking at the ground until now, lifted his gaze at the man’s sneered words.

The knight laughed sarcastically. “Why? I could insult the king if I wanted to. There’s no one around to hear me. What’s to stop me from bad-mouthing that mistress of yours who’s obviously forgotten about you? Hmm?”

“A knight should not insult a lady.”

“Yeah, yeah. Touching words, slave. Now shut up and get down already.”

“...”

“Goddamn it, stubborn until the end, are you? Hey! Grab him!” he shouted to the other knights who had gathered around. They all seemed to be of one mind and had been watching with amusement. They rushed to grab Eckles, who did not resist. He simply stared into the distance with dead eyes.

I understood why Eckles was behaving this way. I told him to make everyone at the duke’s house accept him. He probably feared that if he fought back, news of him causing trouble might reach me, which then could cause me to send him back to the slave market.

The knights shoved Eckles to the floor. They brought out a straw mat, which they threw over him. “Hey! Step on him! Kick—” shouted the main instigator with glee, but I’d seen enough.

Approaching him silently from behind, I took the closed fan and slapped him over the back of the head with the only weapon available to me, my fan.

“The hell! Who the hell—”

“Hello there.” Despite not raising my voice, it carried across the noisy training grounds.

“Th-the duke’s daughter!” The man gasped, his nasty snickering cut short as his eyes widened to the size of saucers. All the knights who’d been holding Eckles down froze at his stuttered exclamation. Only just now noticing me, some of them stared, slack-jawed.

Amused by how ridiculous they looked, I surveyed them slowly until I locked eyes with Eckles, who was face down in the dirt. His dead, ash-colored eyes widened slowly, obviously surprised to see me.

[Affection Score 27%]

I was relieved to see his affection score had risen. Apparently, I’d chosen the correct moment to appear. I slowly, deliberately, met the eye of every knight present, adopting a nonchalant tone, “Looks like you’re having a good time with my personal guard. Would anyone care to explain?”

No one volunteered, of course. The usually clamorous training grounds had fallen deadly silent, and even those not involved in the confrontation had paused, gazing in our direction.

I pointed my fan at the man I’d smacked. “What is your name?”

“M-me, my lady?”

“Yes. What is your regiment? The First Division?” I asked impatiently.

“I-I’m Mark Albert from the Second Platoon, Third Division.”

I burst out laughing. And here I was thinking he must be in the upper ranks, based on the way he was bullying Eckles. In the capital, where there was no risk of war, the Third and Fourth Divisions were little more than security guards—meaning this man was a nobody.

“You. Explain what’s happening here,” I demanded.

“I b-beg your pardon?”

“I’ve been watching, and it seems to me that you were the one who started all this.”

“I-I...” he stammered, going white as a sheet hearing that I’d witnessed at least part of the confrontation. The confident man who’d been mocking me and throwing around the word “fake” was nowhere to be seen.

Seeing the knights’ frozen in dread, I realized that everyone in the manor had likely heard about what had happened to Lady Dona yesterday. “What’s the problem? Are you going to continue making me wait?”

“No-no! Th-that slave... I mean, Eckles... made trouble during training,” the man said, launching into an explanation at my prompting.

“What trouble?”

“Well... He broke his wooden sword, my lady... The prices have gone up quite a lot lately, and he’s broken so many, you see...”

“And?”

“S-so I was scolding him, but he was disrespectful to me, his superior...”

“Is that so?” I asked gently.

“Y-yes!” He seemed hopeful that I believed his explanation, grinning and nodding rapidly.

“But what if I’d heard the whole thing?”

“I’m... sorry?”

“You said that there was no one around to hear you. But what if I happened to hear what you were saying?” His expression went blank, so I gave him a pleasant smile. “I think I’d be well within my rights to have you killed for insulting a noble, don’t you think?” A chilling silence fell over us.

“Uh... I...” he stammered, his mouth wide open.

“M-my lady,” intervened a different knight, stepping forward. He wasn’t as dirty as the others, making me think he had to be a rank or two above the rest. “P-please calm down. I’ll go get our captain, and we can discuss punishment—”

“Eckles,” I called, ignoring the man. He was still sitting on the ground, gazing up at me. The look in his eyes flickered and changed at the sound of my voice calling his name. I pointed my fan at the man who’d introduced himself as Mark and said, “Kill this asshole.”

Eckles shot to his feet.