Chapter 8
Click.
Karl set down his teacup. The smile on his face disappeared completely.
“You mean divorce? It is a little too early to discuss divorce.”
“The timing? Does timing matter for divorce?”
Looking frustrated, Karl loosened one button on his tightly fastened shirt. I waited for his answer.
He held the handle of his teacup with his long fingers. Then he spoke slowly.
“As I told you, divorce is difficult right now.”
“‘Right now’? Does that mean you plan to do it later?”
“Why are you in such a hurry?”
The moment he finished speaking, he questioned me right back, as if catching me by my words. I could feel a strange irritation from him.
“Didn’t I tell you I would let you do it whenever you wanted?”
“…Did I ask for a divorce?”
Karl’s eyes narrowed.
“I did, yes.”
I quickly admitted it and nodded.
“That is why I am saying it again.”
“Saying what?”
“I am not getting divorced.”
“What?”
Karl’s hand jerked while holding the teacup. Tea spilled over and ran down the back of his hand. He set the cup down and lifted his head. Since his eyes, which always looked down at me, were raised now, there was something strangely seductive in the atmosphere.
I smiled brightly and said firmly,
“The divorce. This was not a marriage made for love, but I have decided to be faithful to it.”
Karl looked as if he were thinking deeply about something. Then he smiled faintly again and straightened his back. He pulled a note out from inside his clothes and held it out to me.
“Then I suppose I will not have to see notes like this again.”
It was the note Klone had left behind when she ran away from home.
The moment I saw it, the events that led to me being trapped in prison came back to me in pieces.
Unable to endure the suffocating life in the ducal house, Klone secretly left the estate. Then she met a swindler who said he would take her to Count Iclonia’s house.
Instead of taking her there, the swindler sold her to slave traders. On the day Klone was put up as an auction item, whether by luck or bad luck, the guards raided the slave auction house.
Though she had committed no crime, Klone was dragged away together with the slave traders.
‘She should have revealed who she was right then and demanded to be sent back to the ducal house!’
I did not know whether she was stupid or whether something else had happened, but Klone never revealed her identity and was sent straight to the Pink Stone Mine.
I was speechless at Klone’s foolishness. It was embarrassing even for me to think of how lightly she treated the position of duchess.
“I must have had a hard time adjusting back then.”
“Myself?”
Damn, I slipped again.
“I mean, I had a hard time adjusting back then.”
I corrected myself and, with an awkward apology, added,
“I’m sorry, Karl. You must have been very worried.”
Karl raised both eyebrows. Now I could read his expression. He was surprised.
Surprised by what?
By the fact that I was being so obedient.
‘If I tell him my full plan, he’ll be even more shocked.’
Since he was already shocked, it was better to surprise him all at once.
I brought up what I had been thinking about during my short walk.
“From now on, I am going to do my best as the duchess. I will clean up the mess I made.”
“What do you mean?”
“Take responsibility for what I started. Would that make more sense?”
His expression showed that it did not make sense at all, so I waved my hand vaguely.
“I mean I am going to take charge of the Blue Lion Knights.”
Karl’s expression froze. A little later, his red lips finally parted.
“…Why?”
There were three knight orders in the Reinhardt Duchy. Calling them knight orders sounded nice, but honestly, half of them were closer to mercenary groups.
The Silver Forest Knights, who had destroyed the prison.
The Blue Lion Knights, which I had just said I would take over.
And lastly, the Teal Knights.
The Silver Forest Knights were the elite force directly led by Karl. The Teal Knights acted like mercenaries and earned money for the ducal house.
And the Blue Lion Knights were in charge of watching monster gates during rest periods and keeping order in the territory.
All three groups were extremely loyal to Karl.
That was natural.
Half had joined because they admired Karl’s martial strength, one third had joined because they had received Reinhardt’s help, and the rest had joined because they were personally devoted to Karl.
In short, they were knight orders that existed for Reinhardt, and for Karl.
“I said I would take responsibility. The one who caused the trouble should fix it. I heard the Blue Lion Knights suffered a lot because of me.”
“Who told you that? Ignore it. It was an accident.”
Karl cut me off sharply.
“What if it was not an accident?”
“What do you mean?”
I shrugged. I was hinting at the claim that I had opened the monster gate, but since nothing was certain, I left room for doubt.
Haah.
Karl let out a long sigh, then smiled calmly.
He had put on a mask.
“It is good to hear that you want to fulfill your duties as duchess. But Klone, asking for a knight order is unexpected.”
The muscles on Karl’s face twitched slightly. It looked as if he had many thoughts in his head and was having a hard time choosing which words he could actually say out loud.
“There are many other duties for a duchess. In fact, the butler said the servants need training. Why not start with that?”
So he did not want to leave the knight order to me.
Honestly, I understood his position. Running a knight order was not something you did with your head alone. To lead one, you needed the knights’ respect.
And how do you gain that respect?
Creatures with twitching muscles usually had to be subdued with strength. It would have been nice if I could show noble character and self-sacrificing leadership like Karl, but I did not have time to prove my character, and I had no desire to sacrifice myself.
‘My strength has not fully returned yet, but if I spar with knights, my skills should come back faster.’
One of the reasons I wanted the knight order was because I needed a public, legal place and proper opponents to practice swordsmanship.
“As duchess, the most urgent matter in the Reinhardt territory is the training of the servants, Klone.”
When I said nothing, Karl added more, trying to persuade me. Since there were already duties for the duchess, it would be unreasonable for me to insist on doing only the knight order.
Besides, I wanted to get along well with Karl.
“Fine. I’ll handle servant training too.”
“Too?”
“I’ll do the training too, and I’ll take charge of the knight order.”
Karl’s lips parted, and he looked deeply troubled. He clearly had a lot he wanted to say but was holding it back, so I decided to help him.
“They’re on strike, right?”
Karl’s eyes widened.
The Blue Lion Knights, despite being known as very diligent, were currently on strike. And not just any strike. A sit-in strike.
“Did you hear about it? Whatever you heard, it’s a misunderstanding.”
Karl looked uncomfortable.
“So all those rumors are lies? Is everyone in the ducal house a liar?”
“This is my failure. I will make sure you do not hear such strange things again.”
I understood what Karl was trying to do.
He wanted to seal things up without solving the actual problem.
I could not allow that.
The Blue Lion Knights’ strike was clearly related to Klone. Their slogan was: ‘Divorce him, Duke.’
On the surface, they used a nicer-sounding one, something like ‘Normalize the knight order,’ but the real purpose was unclear.
‘It sounds like the title of some romance fantasy. And idiots. If I divorce him, their salaries will disappear too.’
If Karl divorced me by his own choice, the ducal house would have to return the dowry I brought.
And the duchy was not in a position to afford that. After paying debts and spending heavily on relief for the people, there was no cash left.
So if they had to return my dowry, Karl would have no choice but to touch the money set aside for wages.
“I keep my word once I give it. I will fulfill my duties as duchess, so answer just one thing for me. I was the one who woke the monster during its resting period, right?”
“It was a coincidence.”
Karl answered the moment I finished speaking. Then he added that in all of history, no person had ever awakened a monster during its resting period.
“And I heard I opened the gate.”
The monster gate had opened during the resting period. That too had never happened before in history.
“That has nothing to do with you.”
Karl drew the line coldly.
I would investigate that myself later. The important question came next.
“Anyway, the Blue Lion Knights suffered badly while trying to protect me. And instead of compensation, they are demanding our divorce.”
“Klone.”
“Just tell me whether it is true or not.”
Karl pressed his lips together, then released them. That reaction alone told me that everything I had said so far was true.
“It was my mistake. I’ll fix it myself.”
Karl raised a hand as if to stop me. He looked like he needed time to sort out his thoughts.
So I picked up a cookie sitting in front of me. Only when I had finished eating a cookie as large as my palm did Karl finally speak.
“Klone. I understand that you are angry, but they are people with families to support. Even if you do not care about the human side of it, there is still a problem. If you dismantle the Blue Lion Knights, what will happen to public order?”
Hmm. He was making me sound like complete trash.
“When did I say I would dismantle them? I said I would take charge of them. Don’t you know what ‘take charge’ means, Karl?”
“I know, I do, but… Ha. Do you really mean to lead the knight order?”
“Yes. I mean exactly that.”
I repeated it firmly once more.
