Chapter 9
“So that’s why I call you a little piglet, Pippi. You don’t think sneaking food is a bad thing, do you?”
“Eek! If you keep calling me a little piglet I’ll stop calling you Pippi!”
“You mustn’t trample on free will! That would be a truly awful thing, Pippi.”
“Free, will, what-ever! Eek!”
Even with twenty years’ worth of memories, Penelope didn’t know nearly enough to stand up to the tongue of a sword that had eaten centuries of words.
‘I’ll practice hard and laugh at Demonia!’ she thought.
Just like Duke Calix — annoyingly!
No matter what Penelope thought or said, Demonia chattered on in high spirits. Most of it was nagging.
“Ugh. When you get back to your room, be sure to brush your teeth so they don’t rot. Did you know if your teeth rot and rot, the rot can creep up and eat your brain too?”
It was a little gruesome for mere nagging.
“Eek.”
Penelope shivered at the scary story.
Demonia, delighted, began to unload a bundle of tales — stories that gave no thought at all to the listener’s feelings.
“About twenty years ago, you see, in a corner of the western castle of the duchy a woman hanged herself. On rainy nights her ghost wanders the halls. In white pajamas, her neck twisted, she slinks about…”
“Aaah! I don’t want to know! I’m leaving! If you only tell stories like that I’ll never come here again!”
“Oh! Pippi! Don’t go! I’m bored! Who else would I tell these stories to if not you?”
“I don’t care! I’m not coming to visit you for ten days!”
Thanks to that, Penelope spent the night back in her bed unable to sleep until dawn.
“Um, Anna. What’s the duke’s manor like?”
Anna, who was changing the vase water, turned at Penelope’s question.
“I’ve heard it’s ten times larger and more magnificent than the capital house.”
“You’ve heard? You haven’t been there?”
“No. Since Master succeeded to the dukedom he hasn’t gone down to the duchy even once, so I never had the chance.”
“Really? Is that how it usually is?”
At the innocent question Anna glanced around as if gauging something, then answered.
“Most nobles… only come up to the capital house during the social season.”
“But the duke stayed here the whole time, right?”
“We humble maids can’t possibly presume to understand Master’s deep intentions.”
Anna diverted the conversation with a practiced change of subject.
Penelope let it pass without making a big deal. Her curiosity had only been piqued a little by the ghost story Demonia had told earlier.
“Anna. Can I go have a look at the east wing today? I’ve never been there and I’m curious.”
In the past month Penelope had only explored the main house. Even the main house was so large that it had taken her a month to look through each guest room.
“The east wing is mostly used by the knights. It could be dangerous, so you must take two maids with you.”
“Are the knights scary?”
“The Black Hawk knights of House Calix are famous for their bravery. In truth they’re not all that, but… that’s the rumor.”
Anna sounded oddly nonchalant describing the Calix knights.
Penelope pictured the knights she’d seen in her previous life: riders on huge horses clad in bright silver plate.
They were, like the nobles, an inaccessible, lofty crowd — a group Penelope had never crossed paths with in her life.
At that thought someone came to her mind and Penelope swung her body around in her seat.
“Ah! Deric! Is Deric a knight too? What kind of person is he?”
He seemed a little scatterbrained, but not a bad person. After all, he’d taken her in when she had nowhere to go and hadn’t refused to make her a ward of the duke.
“Yes. Sir Deric Portney is the vice-commander of the order. He’s young but capable.”
Penelope’s eyes widened like a rabbit’s. Vice-commander — that was an impressively high position.
‘He doesn’t look that impressive, though!’ she thought, but kept the remark to herself.
Penelope nodded, saying she’d go see the east wing with the maids after lunch.
Today, the Black Hawk knights were hell.
…or so said the trainee knight Frederick.
Training felt like a thousand years for every minute.
“Damn. I just got my ass kicked again today.”
He cursed and lay flat on his back in the center of the training yard, water dripping down on him.
His limbs felt heavy as lead, so Frederick could only take the spray.
“Heh, hah, you bastard!”
Frederick flapped, grabbed the ankle of the boy who’d splashed him, and toppled him over.
“Aaah!”
The voice belonged to his peer Ben.
“You, you bastard!”
They grappled and rolled across the ground while the other knights snickered.
“Let go!”
“You let go!”
“You’re the one—!”
“No way, you jerk!”
They tumbled like straw in a gale until they didn’t even notice the soft footsteps drawing near.
A small shriek rang out, then a frantic voice.
“Miss! No… these little—!”
At the same time, Frederick felt a sharp pain along his side: someone had kicked him hard.
Maybe the kicker wore studded boots — the pain was lethal.
“Ugh!”
Ben, who’d been scuffling with him, also gasped as if kicked.
Once the immediate pain passed, Frederick and Ben sprang to their feet as one, eager to see the face of the person who had kicked them.
And what they saw was—
“Miss. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Something just popped out and surprised me, I fell on my butt.”
“Goodness! You’re bleeding from the palm! Bring clean water and a handkerchief! A healing potion too!”
“Hailey, I’m really fine. Stuff like this heals with spit…”
“Spit won’t do!”
“Kill them—”
“Anna? What are you saying?”
“I said nothing, Miss.”
“That doesn’t seem right!”
The crimson-haired little girl and the two maids in black uniforms were unmistakable.
Frederick and Ben were no fools; they quickly put two and two together.
The little red-haired girl, well-dressed and being accompanied by maids — there was only one such person in the house.
‘She must be the duke’s adopted daughter who just arrived,’ they thought.
Frederick and Ben exchanged glances.
‘This is trouble.’
‘This is big trouble.’
Their misfortune didn’t end there.
“What’s all this ruckus?”
Duke Calix had come up to the back gate of the training yard and witnessed the scene.
“Ah! My lord!” Penelope sprang up. She dusted the dirt from her skirt.
“Good day!” she greeted with sparkling eyes, but Duke Calix didn’t even acknowledge her salutation. He was in a distinctly sour mood.
‘The duke really is different!’ Penelope added to her mental list of misdeeds: ‘ignoring someone right in front of you.’
The duke gave Anna a nod.
“Explain.”
“Miss Penelope was so startled by the two knights that she fell.”
The duke’s eyebrows twitched.
“The knights startled my daughter? By the way, you fainted alone in the garden not long ago, didn’t you?”
His expression seemed to say, ‘I cannot accept such a fragile coward as my daughter.’
‘No! I don’t want to be disowned!’ Penelope panicked and flailed her hands.
“No! I’m not that kind of coward! I’m very sturdy! That day was just odd!”
“Then, problem solved?”
“Yes! Today… well, something leaped out and surprised me and I fell trying to dodge it!”
“For example?”
“Like, a stray dog from an alley behind the house, maybe!”
She hadn’t technically lied. Something had indeed popped out and startled her; stray hunting dogs did sometimes appear in alleys.
“I see. So my knights acted like dogs and scared my daughter.”
Penelope gasped at how neatly the duke had reframed the situation.
Knights being called dogs — the logic was quite a leap.
Duke Calix continued to stare down at Penelope.
Every time she waved her hands, a handkerchief damp with red showed the motion — Hailey had tied it for her.
“They even wounded my daughter, those dog-like things.”
At the duke’s words, the two knights Frederick and Ben dropped to their knees.
“We have committed a grave offense!”
“Punish us as you wish!”
Duke Calix looked down at their bowed heads and asked.
“Penelope.”
“Yes!”
“What do you think should be done with these men?”
“Uh, well—”
Penelope quickly glanced between the duke and the knights. She’d have preferred to say it was all right and let it pass, but—
‘That won’t do! If I act like a pushover I’ll be laughed at and might faint right in front of the duke!’
Demonia had said to her:
“You’re too timid. If you slip up you’ll be made a laughingstock, so push forward boldly in everything!”
Boldly, boldly, boldly!
Duke, boldly; knights, boldly; dogs, boldly!
Penelope silently repeated ‘bold’ and gathered her courage.
Her prepared line was excellent. She squared her shoulders and said with as much pluck as she could muster,
“I’ll take responsibility and deal with the knights like dogs!”
