Episode 75: How a Mercenary Joins a Court Banquet (5)
Normally, you get a formal introduction through a chaperone, or else you should approach very carefully.
But they looked down on Regina because she used to be a mercenary. They had long since thrown manners away.
“Why are you here? Everyone’s gathered in the center of the waiting area.”
“Madam, she must be used to places like this. She would always stand at the back and wipe our spilled champagne with her sleeve.”
Was this that moment? Regina glanced at the ladies in colorful hunting clothes.
Their long dresses did not hide their legs completely, and it would not be hard to trip one of them. They wouldn’t even notice—one mistake and they’d fall to the ground.
“Oh… so she was a mercenary, right?”
“Then this must be the happiest moment of her life. She has all the things she couldn’t enjoy before.”
They judged Regina as if they knew everything and scorned her. They seemed to enjoy thinking they could put a royal woman beneath their feet.
“Of course, birth doesn’t change. And that hunting outfit is rather…”
Beautiful, very.
One lady was about to make a compliment while looking Regina up and down, but caught herself and covered her mouth. Luckily she had a handkerchief to hide the small sound.
After years as a mercenary, Regina’s body was the perfect frame for the hunting outfit. She wore it very differently from the women who had skimmed butter and sugar to fit into that season’s style.
Like a fine shop mannequin, she drew the ladies’ gaze. Their coughs didn’t stop.
“Are you all right?”
Their coughing reddened their faces as if about to burst. Regina felt sorry and forgot about tripping them. She reached out a hand instead.
“…I’m fine.”
The lady who faced Regina closely had flushed ears. Why did Regina’s heart beat like it had never done even for her husband?
“Don’t touch me—filthy hands!”
Another lady tried to lash Regina’s hand away. Regina withdrew instantly and the woman who swung her arm staggered instead.
“Hah…!”
“Are you okay!? How rude—!”
“What if she’s badly hurt!”
Regina watched them tighten and spread their thorns. If a small stagger caused such drama, why bother wearing hunting clothes at all?
“I won’t leave this alone. I’ll tell everyone—”
Maybe nobles mixed pride with shamelessness. Regina considered how to handle them and how best to shut them up.
“Regina!”
She hadn’t planned to call noble friends, but—
“Ree-gina—!”
Someone shouted loudly. Everyone turned to the sound and froze.
The marquis of Pelgberg and his younger sibling had come running over and were hugging Regina. That was not in the ladies’ script.
At best, they’d expected to shame and punish a low-born who dared enter the noble circle.
“Why is the marquis—”
Shock shook them to the tongue.
The Pelgberg family had, in the empire’s thirty-year history, the unusual case of a woman becoming the family head. People had predicted the house would fall, but under the new marquis, the family became richer than ever.
Polime, who hugged Regina, was the marquis’s only younger sibling.
“Regina, since you’re here you should have come to our tent.”
Polime and Promes were the two who had run into Regina years before while fleeing their father who wanted to sell them. That secret stayed with them.
They both revered Regina because meeting her changed their lives and gave them the power to change their fate.
Regina’s brief advice to fight back and her calm offer to take their case if they still wanted to run had saved them from despair.
It had been a small thing, so Regina felt undeserving of being called a savior.
“What were you doing here?”
Promes asked. Polime smoothed her messy, sea-colored hair and snorted.
“What else? Gathering and slandering people to fill their empty pride again.”
“We weren’t—!”
If they weren’t, Polime raised her eyes sharply.
They swallowed their complaints and shut up. True enough, some nobles spent their time belittling others to fill holes in their self-worth caused by their husbands’ coldness.
Ten years ago, at debutante events, Polime had been treated badly. Back then she had no father to protect her.
“Why do you know the Duchess Julius?”
“Even if you ladies know, it won’t fix things with your husbands.”
“Eek—!”
Polime hated those women. She was blunt and often the center of scandals in high society.
When the offended ladies wanted to shout, Promes stepped forward. Her light brown eyes held a sharp warning.
“Ladies, the count who lent me money under the name of investment is approaching the repayment date. Please check if the count hasn’t forgotten. And Lady Baroness, you were with him too.”
“Hoho…! Don’t worry about that.”
Money separates the weak and the strong. No house had not borrowed from the Pelgberg house. That made the marquis powerful and leading.
Promes and Polime used that power well.
“Don’t be so sure—the last repayment was late too.”
“Poline, don’t act like that. The ladies would be put in a bad spot. I can delay a repayment depending on how the ladies behave.”
“We’re not green girls. We know what our sister wants.”
The crude theater couldn’t be more plain. The sisters stood next to Regina like guards: don’t touch her.
The ladies, shamed, could not respond.
“…Soon the hunt will really start. We should tend to our husbands.”
“Oh dear, my head.”
The bells to begin the hunt were still an hour away. The women came up with weak excuses and fled to prepare.
“Did we stop Regina from acting?”
“No! That petty person is not even worth Regina’s time.”
“Polime, you overdo it.”
“Keeping things inside just makes me angry.”
The sisters were always like that. Regina, who had spent a month with them after they escaped to a neighboring kingdom, knew them well.
They had become friends, reading each other’s lies, so Regina kept quiet.
“All right. I won’t ask more.”
They accepted that.
“Thank you. I’m doing quite well.”
“Good.”
