* * *
“Huff, huff… I can’t do anymore… Please, have mercy…”
“This is beyond human physical capacity…”
The knights of the Del Marc Duchy groaned, collapsing onto the floor of the Knights’ Training Ground.
But their pleas fell on deaf ears.
“Don’t give me that weak talk! Anyone who falls before me, even though I arrived at the residence only yesterday, won’t be able to lift their heads for the rest of the day!”
“If you’re going to be like that, we went out on a magical beast subjugation yesterday, too!”
“Then we’re the same. Compare me, who has been sleeping uncomfortably in a place that isn’t my home for days, with you lot who have been sleeping soundly after hunting beasts. Don’t you think so?”
Caligo kicked at his subordinates, signaling them to get up. Far from standing, the knights rolled on the ground to avoid his boots.
Caligo was considered one of the elite knights within the order. With his endurance, skill, and sociability, he was favored as the next Captain.
However, the knights prayed that the day he became Captain would never come.
The reason lay in his brutal, extreme training intensity.
‘Please, someone, just make him stop the training…’
Just as the knights were rolling on the floor and wishing desperately, someone appeared at the entrance of the training ground. All eyes turned toward the source at once.
There stood Blair and the servants, carrying baskets in their hands.
“I thought you all looked like you were struggling, so I brought some snacks.”
The eyes of the knights, which had been lifeless, sparked with vigor.
Heaven had answered their prayers!
Even those who usually didn’t look favorably upon Blair saw her as an angel in this very moment.
“If I’ve interrupted, I can leave them here, and you can eat a little later—”
“Not at all! We want to eat them now!”
“It would be an insult to your kindness if we didn’t eat them while they were still warm, wouldn’t it?”
The knights, who had been sprawled out like corpses, scrambled to their feet and rushed toward Blair and the servants.
Caligo kicked one of his subordinates in the rear as they approached Blair, but the men ignored him entirely.
In the end, Caligo threw up his hands.
“Fine. Her Grace has come in person, so sending her away without a greeting would be impolite. Thirty minutes of rest.”
Cheers erupted among the knights.
The servants handed out the snacks: baguettes filled with meat and vegetables, accompanied by apple juice.
While Caligo watched his men eat, Blair approached him to deliver a snack herself.
He took the offering and beamed like a child.
“Oh my, to have you bring it yourself… I am humbled, Your Grace. Truly, a house must have a lady.”
“I hadn’t come this way often because I was worried I might disrupt your training, but if I’d known you all would be this happy, I should have brought some sooner.”
“Those guys are just happy to take a break from training. Anyway, thank you for the meal.”
Perhaps he had been hungry, as he immediately started eating the baguette.
Blair, watching him from the side, felt her gaze turn cold.
In truth, Blair hadn’t visited the training ground simply to look after the knights.
This morning, as soon as Headrin had left the bedroom, Blair had sent a letter to Mihail asking him to investigate Caligo.
But with the man who killed her right before her eyes, she couldn’t just sit and wait. Desperate to do something, she had used the knights as an excuse to come here.
“Oh, this is delicious. All the way down from the territory, I kept thinking about fresh, warm bread… The bread they sell at the inns is like eating rocks. You’ve never had to eat that, have you, Your Grace?”
“The bread is as hard as a rock?”
“I’m telling you. You’ll be visiting the territory eventually, so try it then. You’ll feel like you’re going to lose all your teeth—”
“…Teeth?”
“Oops, I shouldn’t use such rough language in front of a noblewoman… My apologies, I grew up poorly, so I’m not well-versed in proper manners…”
Caligo slapped his own mouth for his slip-up, then spotted a subordinate passing by and gave him a nudge.
“Go and get one more bread.”
“Me, sir?”
“Can’t you see I’m talking to Her Grace?”
The subordinate grumbled as he went to fetch the bread. The fact that he complained was proof that Caligo was a good boss; it meant he allowed such familiarity.
Blair watched Caligo, stunned. The man who killed her was far too ordinary to be a murderer.
He liked being cared for, he enjoyed good food, he got along well with people, and he didn’t harbor any prejudices or negative thoughts toward her.
That was what made it even more terrifying.
The fact that such a person could be her killer.
“You must have been with the Del Marc Duchy for a long time. Everyone seems to follow you well.”
“I’ve been here longer than those guys. I think I was thirteen when I came to Del Marc.”
“Then where were you stationed before that?”
If Caligo hadn’t killed her for personal reasons, he must have been acting on someone else’s orders.
If his lord wasn’t the mastermind, the probability was high that it was someone he had a connection with in the past.
“Before coming to Del Marc…”
Just as Caligo began to speak, a presence was felt at the entrance of the training ground.
Turning toward the movement, Blair saw Headrin just stepping into the area.
“Your Grace? What brings you here at this hour? Aren’t you busy?”
“My work finished early, so I came to spar, but it seems there was a guest already here.”
His gaze, fixed on Blair and Caligo, was strangely cold.
Blair looked at him, displeased by his sudden appearance.
‘I could have guessed the mastermind if we had talked a bit more…’
But now that Headrin was here, she couldn’t continue the conversation.
And above all, seeing him was uncomfortable. Because their argument had happened just this morning.
Especially since the moment she saw him, her own words came back to haunt her, making her want to avoid him even more.
‘I really… hate you…’
Why did she say that? She wasn’t a child.
‘And he’s not the type of person to be hurt by such trivial words.’
She’d just lashed out with whatever came to mind because it was the only phrase she knew that expressed her emotions, but…
It sounded like a six-year-old child throwing a tantrum.
Of course, she disliked him. She hated him.
But she hated that her feelings, expressed by that single sentence, felt infinitely lighter than the heavy truth inside her heart.
“I only meant to drop off snacks for a moment, but I’ve taken up too much of your time. I’ll be going now.”
Blair left the training ground with her maids, as if fleeing from Headrin. Headrin’s cold gaze pursued her retreating figure.
Watching them, Caligo gave a small exclamation, as if he had realized something.
“Ah, so you two had a fight, huh?”
“…”
“They say marital quarrels are like cutting water with a knife.”
Instead of a reply, Headrin’s icy eyes turned toward him.
When he had returned to the residence yesterday as soon as the magical beast subjugation ended, seeing Blair with Caligo had twisted his mood.
The gaze she wouldn’t take off Caligo, the way she had asked about Caligo while held in his arms, the letter she had sent to someone unknown—all of it.
The result of those things combined was what stood before them now.
“Good times, those are the good times.”
Oblivious, Caligo tapped Headrin’s arm.
But when Headrin turned back, his expression was frigid. The knights watching Caligo turned pale. Caligo finally sensed that something had gone wrong.
His belated intuition was perfectly correct.
Headrin pointed behind him with a flick of his chin and commanded.
“Go and get your sword.”
The hellish sparring had begun.
* * *
“Is this little thing really a predator of the forest?”
Mely stared at Pippi, who was drinking milk, as if it were a miracle. The way it lay on Blair’s lap, lapping up the milk, looked just like a master.
Blair nodded and diligently explained the knowledge she had read about weasels.
“Yes. They travel in packs and hunt down roe deer and stags that are even larger than they are.”
“Oh my. It looks so cute, but it’s scarier than it looks?”
“That’s why some nobles who love hunting sometimes raise weasels to take along on their hunts.”
“I’ll have to stay on its good side, then. So I don’t get hunted.”
Blair laughed at Mely’s banter. Since Blair had entrusted Pippi to her, the two had grown much closer. Lina as well.
Just as Blair was talking about Pippi with Mely, footsteps were heard.
Blair turned around, hoping for news from the guild.
But the words that flowed from Lina’s mouth were merely everyday chatter.
“Mely. The butler says if you aren’t busy, he needs to see you for a moment.”
“Go on then, Mely.”
The disappointment was evident on Blair’s face as she sent Mely away, though it soon vanished into a bitter smile.
‘I suppose it’s a matter that will take time.’
It had been fifteen days since she requested the investigation into Caligo from Mihail.
And it had also been fifteen days since her fight with Headrin.
Perhaps his interest had waned after their quarrel, as he had stopped visiting the bedroom he used to seek out every night.
They still shared meals as they had before, but that was it. There was almost no conversation; they were just meals where they happened to sit together.
That day. Why, suddenly, and for what reason he had shown his twisted mood, she still didn’t know, but it was perhaps for the best.
Ever since she realized the possibility that he might have killed her, she had found it difficult to look at his face.
She would have to reconcile before she could conceive Aziel, but for now, she didn’t want to think about it anymore.
Just as Blair was shaking off her thoughts about Headrin and playing with Pippi, a maid entered through the open door.
“Your Grace, Baroness Sionel has arrived.”