Chapter 56

Chapter 56

I was mortified.

What is he doing here? In the game, it was very rare that two love interests appeared at the same time, with the exception of maybe Reynold and Derrick.

Despite that I was still occupied with being completely flustered by this development, Derrick continued in a low growl, “Penelope Eckhart.”

This is very bad, I thought, as a chill ran down my spine. I had to put an end to this unfortunate situation somehow and quickly at that. I tried to extract myself from Eckles’ arms, but his large hands just clung more fiercely to my own.

“Eckles?” I called him in a questioning tone, trying to twist my hands free. However, the more I struggled the stronger his grip seemed to grow. Tilting my head back to look up at him, I finally said, Eckles, let go of my hands. It hurts.”

His gray gaze slid down to my face. Our eyes met for a moment before he finally, reluctantly, released me—I immediately felt cold when he withdrew his hands. I hurriedly pulled away from Eckles and bowed to Derrick.

“I asked you what you were doing.” His piercing gaze was still ice cold.

Why is he so upset? My recent quarrel with the knights had been neatly resolved with the duke, and Derrick hadn’t made a peep about it in the last few days anyway. I hadn’t done anything to make him angry during that time, either.

Puzzled by his bad mood, I tilted my head and replied as gently as possible, “My knight and I were practicing shooting with my crossbow.”

“The Eckhart house employs archers, as I’m sure you know?” His frigid gaze shifted to Eckles, who was still beside me.

“I can’t bother them when they’re training,” I said, stepping in front of Eckles protectively. “And my knight is skilled with the crossbow, so he’s more than fit to teach me.”

“Teach you?” Derrick’s eyes flashed furious blue, his expression deeply offended, but by what I didn’t know. The score above his head began to flicker dangerously. However, it was his vicious expression that scared me more than the affection score meter. He alternated glances between me and Eckles as he spat in a derisive tone, “You are stupid enough to aim your weapon at ladies your own age. What is it that you want to learn, exactly?”

“It’s because I lack common sense that I’m trying to learn before the tournament, Lord Derrick.” Though the words didn’t bother me much—it hadn’t actually been me who’d threatened the ladies, after all—I couldn’t stop an angry sigh from escaping my lips. “If you’re displeased that I’m making use of the training grounds, I can go elsewhere. Let’s go, Eckles.”

I tried to escape with my knight in tow as quickly as possible. As I was about to pass Derrick he grabbed me.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He prevented me from retreating any further, holding onto my arm firmly. I turned to regard him with surprise, and he glared at me savagely. “If you need to learn that badly, I’ll teach you myself.”

“I’m... sorry?”

“You,” he said suddenly, turning to Eckles. “If you have no further training to attend to, return to your quarters.”

His imperious order, given with an arrogant jerk of his chin, left me speechless. Even though it had been me who’d wanted Eckles as my personal knight, it was because Derrick—the captain of the knights—allowed it that he was allowed to take part in training. As was the case in any army, the Eckhart knights had a strict hierarchy. All this to say, I thought Eckles wouldn’t hesitate to obey.

Instead of leaving, however, he gently wrapped his hand around my other wrist—the one Derrick wasn’t holding which still clutched the crossbow. “My mistress... She wants me to teach her,” he said, tilting his head defiantly.

What has gotten into them? With both of my arms held captive, I stared at them in confused fear.

Derrick’s expression twisted into something ferocious when he saw Eckles defying his order. “You are nothing but a slave. Who are you to teach anyone?”

“Even the imperial army was soundly defeated by the archers of Delman at the Battle of Livius,” Eckles responded.

My jaw dropped. He was clearly picking a fight, and in response to his defiance, the air became thick with a cloying hostility. There was no way of knowing which of them the oppressive feeling was coming off more strongly.

It would be nice if you let me go while resolving whatever this is... I struggled to free both of my wrists, but neither man seemed willing to let go.

“Delman?” Derrick said with a mocking smile after a prolonged moment of just silently glaring. “Ah… Do you mean the country of barbarians that looted and erased many smaller nations from the map altogether? Only to be betrayed by those same nations?”

Eckles’ grip on my wrist tightened. Damn it, they’ll fight for real at this rate! Scared and unable to make a sound, my eyes darted between them fearfully. Frankly, I wished the knight would just shut up.

In this empire at least, he was of a far lower station than Derrick, after all. Contrary to my desperate wish, however, Eckles glared back at the young lord.

“Why don’t I show you?”

“What?” Derrick responded.

“I’ll show you what a lowly barbarian can teach a lady of this empire about archery.”

“Why, you impertinent little...” Derrick’s expression grew somehow fiercer at Eckles’ taunting tone.

I noticed that both of their affection scores were blinking ominously, and felt anxiety creeping up inside me. If a fight between them was a predetermined event in the game, I felt certain that I would be the unlucky one who got caught in the middle and wound up dead. I’d remained silent, afraid a single wrong move would lead to my death, but I couldn’t take this any longer.

“Enough! Enough already!” I shouted as loudly as I could, pushing both of them away. They’d been glaring as if they were going to throw hands at any second, and it was only because I’d taken them by surprise, that I was able to free myself. I drew both arms to my chest just in case they tried to snatch them back, then quickly said, “I’m leaving. I suddenly don’t want to practice anymore.”

I need to get away right now! I made to leave the shooting range, leaving them behind. Perhaps surprised by my reaction, they both rushed to stop me.

“Penelope.”

“Mistress.”

Even Eckles, whom I had expected to behave better than this, rushed forward. Brow furrowing deeply, I coolly pushed him away. “Don’t follow me. I’m going back to my room. Alone.”

Though it sounded like I was speaking to Eckles, this was mostly directed at Derrick. He could attempt to follow me into the manor, saying he was my brother and it was his right.

If you’re going to fight, just do it after I leave, please!

“Goodbye.” I fled from the training grounds, afraid they might come after me and felt eyes glaring at me as I passed. My hurried stride picked up the pace until I was practically running as I got farther away from them.

“Huff, huff...” Entering one of the property’s forest paths, I breathed hard as I glanced behind me. No one was following, much to my relief. I finally felt safe enough to slow down a little. “Phew... I nearly died back there, caught between those two.”

You should always trust your gut feelings. Remembering the foreboding chill that had run down my spine earlier, I shivered. Amused that I’d managed to take my crossbow with me despite my chaotic escape, I muttered hollowly, “What a relief I was able to get away safely...”

I had no way of knowing if they’d started throwing punches at each other after I’d left. It didn’t matter much to me since I’d already made my escape. There was no reason for their affection scores to be affected based on a fight that happened strictly between the two of them.

I’ll have to ask the duke to get me an archery tutor, and just practice alone behind the manor. Repeating to myself like I mantra that I should stay away from the training grounds for the foreseeable future, I resumed my walk.