Chapter 10. The Person Who Killed Me
The next morning.
The knights of Delmark stood in the training grounds pale as death from the early morning.
"Argh!"
Their comrade, who hadn't even managed a single proper counterattack, let go of his sword and tumbled to the ground.
Standing before him was Herdin.
Herdin looked at him with cold eyes and motioned toward one side of the training grounds with his chin.
There, knights were lined up in a row, standing on their heads in a punishment stance.
All of them were men who had failed to land a single proper counterattack during their sparring matches with Herdin.
"Next."
At Herdin's command, the next knight stepped forward with a terrified face.
The eyes of the remaining knights watching their comrade were like those watching a fellow soldier leaping to their doom. At the same time, they looked on with pity, as if gazing at a convict awaiting their execution.
They looked at their pitiful comrade and Herdin standing before him with resigned faces.
War hero.
Blessed by the Divine Beast, the empire's sole Magic Swordsman.
'Is there truly a knight who can defeat that man in this empire... nay, in this entire continent?'
Especially the knights who had fought alongside Herdin on the battlefield for a long time knew his skills well.
They were considered lucky if they could manage even one proper counterattack and avoid the punishment.
Usually, they would curse the Creator's severe favoritism while instinctively staring blankly at that handsome face, but today, it looked like the face of the Reaper.
Praying for the soul of their comrade who was desperately blocking Herdin's one-sided attack, one of the knights waiting for his turn gestured to his comrades beside him.
"Hey, who was it?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm asking who riled up His Excellency."
"Riled him up, my foot. He was busy with wedding preparations for a while, and we haven't even seen him properly since he held the wedding."
"Then why is a newlywed who should be enjoying his honeymoon exhausting himself here since the second morning of his honeymoon?"
"If you were forced to marry the daughter of your enemy, would you feel like enjoying your honeymoon?"
Come to think of it, that made sense.
The bad blood between the Imperial Family and the Delmark Duchy was a fact openly known to any noble in the empire.
Convinced by that reason and mulling it over again, the knight suddenly exploded in anger.
"No, then he should be taking his anger out on them, why is he doing this to us?"
Like I'd know.
The knights who didn't know the answer shrugged. Then, suddenly remembering the presence of someone beside them who might know the answer, they looked at him.
'Do you know, Aide-nim?'
However, Ruth also just shook his head and shrugged.
Thus, while they were getting thoroughly beaten from early morning without knowing why...
"Huh?"
The knights standing near the entrance of the training grounds began to stir.
Just as Herdin, having defeated the knight he was sparring with, noticed the atmosphere, a small cough was heard.
Herdin immediately turned to look in the direction the sound came from. He saw Blair entering the training grounds with the butler.
"Mason, what is the matter here?"
He had asked the butler, but it was essentially a question directed at Blair.
Blair answered on Mason's behalf.
"I exchanged greetings with the servants yesterday, but I haven't been able to greet the knights. I had some free time before heading to the Imperial Palace, so I came to say hello."
However, they were briefly captivated by her beauty, but no one welcomed her.
'Did she come to play the lady of the house even to us?'
Even though they had been making faces like death until moments ago at the thought of getting thoroughly beaten by Herdin, they were comrades who had survived the battlefield together.
The higher their loyalty to Herdin, the greater their hostility toward Blair, a member of the Imperial Family.
She probably knew that fact herself, so was it naive or foolish?
Herdin thought so, but still stepped forward to introduce Blair to the knights.
"You've all seen her face coming and going, but you probably haven't greeted her formally."
"……."
"Greet her. This is the Duchess you will be serving from now on."
Since their lord stepped forward like that, even the knights who disliked Blair maintained proper etiquette on the surface.
"The loyal swords of Delmark offer our formal greetings to the Madam."
"I'm also pleased to meet you. Thank you for welcoming me even though I came suddenly. I look forward to working with you."
Blair smiled softly, but her eyes, carefully examining each of their faces, were deep and tranquil.
In truth, Blair had come to the knight order's training grounds for another purpose.
In her past life, she had tried hard to be acknowledged as the lady of the house, but they were people who hated her.
There was no need to try so hard to win their favor or be acknowledged by such people. They were people she wouldn't see again once this contract marriage concluded anyway.
Her true purpose in coming to the knight order was...
'The person who killed me might be among them.'
The Delmark Duchy was one of the three great ducal families of the empire, and its knight order, having fought in wars directly, possessed skills comparable to the Imperial Knight Order.
And the stranger who killed Blair had infiltrated the villa through that strict security.
That was precisely one of the reasons Blair suspected Herdin as the mastermind behind her murder.
Either they were highly skilled enough to infiltrate the villa through the strict security, or someone who could easily come and go.
If so, perhaps the stranger could be an insider of the ducal family.
Since the servants moved around inside the mansion and crossed paths often, most of them were people whose faces Blair knew.
On the other hand, the knight order's living quarters rarely overlapped with hers, so there were fewer people whose faces she remembered. Even if the stranger was among the knights, it was highly likely she wouldn't have recognized them.
That was why she came to check in person. Praying that the stranger wasn't in the knight order, and that Herdin was unrelated to her death.
Of course, just imagining that she might face the person who killed her again, just the thought that the husband she loved might have been involved in her death, made her breath catch and her blood run cold. Her hands trembled. She wanted to run away like this.
'No. If I run away, nothing will change.'
Blair clasped her trembling hands together as if to stop herself from running away. Delving into her terrible memories, she recalled the stranger's face.
'There was a hideous sword scar on the bridge of that man's nose.'
Since there were many knights, she couldn't examine each and every one in detail, but it wouldn't be difficult to find someone with a large sword scar on their face.
Blair quickly scanned the faces of the knights.
'...He's not here.'
Fortunately, it seemed the stranger wasn't among them.
The possibility of Herdin being involved in her death had decreased a little.
A sigh of relief escaped the lips of Blair, who had been anxiously biting her lip.
Just then, Ruth approached Herdin.
"Your Excellency. It seems about time to prepare to attend lunch."
The butler, Mason, returned first to prepare, and Herdin, Blair, and Ruth left the training grounds after concluding their meeting with the knights.
Blair, walking beside Herdin, saw the beads of sweat forming on his forehead and offered her handkerchief.
"You'll catch a cold."
However, Herdin rejected her offer.
"I am fine."
His tone was polite, but his attitude was utterly indifferent.
Ruth, watching the two from behind, broke out in a cold sweat for no reason. Blair herself, however, seemed completely unfazed by his rejection, calmly putting the handkerchief away.
'Who would think they're newlyweds looking at that sight?'
It wasn't that he particularly wanted Blair to be loved and live well with his lord, but seeing her being rejected right in front of him didn't make him feel very good.
Silence flowed once again between the three walking towards the main building of the ducal mansion.
'...Was the mansion always this far?'
Just when someone desperately wished for this cold silence to be broken.
Suddenly, a small shadow darted out from the nearby bushes, running fast and bumping into Blair.
"Tada! Huh?"
It was a young child who looked about three years old. It seemed they had come out from the annex where the servants stayed.
Ruth was horrified when he saw the child.
He was lucky to have met a lenient lord, but the majority of nobles would fly into a rage if even the slightest thing offended them.
Let alone a member of the Imperial Family. Especially the daughter of that notorious Katrina.
Ruth urgently picked up the child sprawled in front of Blair and bowed his head in apology instead.
"I apologize, Madam. This is a child staying at the annex; it seems they slipped out while their mother was working. I will take them back and give a warning to the child's mother..."
"I am fine."
Blair crouched down to match the child's eye level. Then, she brushed the dirt off the child's bottom with her own hands and asked.
"Are you okay, baby?"
"Yeah."
"What's your name?"
"Jeremy."
"I see, Jeremy. You fell but didn't even cry; you're a very brave boy."
"Hehe."
The child giggled at Blair's praise. It was a pure smile containing neither prejudice nor intent.
Unlike the other people of the ducal family who feared and disliked Blair.
Blair also smiled softly as she looked at the child smiling brightly at her. It was her first heartfelt smile since returning to the past.
Ruth, who was watching that sight from beside the child, stood up first with an awkward face. He felt ashamed of himself for assuming Blair would naturally push the child away.
Next to such a Ruth, Herdin was also staring blankly at the two of them.
'Since she rarely ever showed emotion, I thought she was a doll, but...'
Was she a woman who knew how to smile like that?
The woman smiling brightly under the sunlight shone dazzlingly. It seemed to be because of the snow piled up here and there in the backyard, or perhaps because of her pale face.
At the same time, Ruth's wristwatch gleaming in the light caught his eye, but Herdin ignored it and took in Blair's figure a little more.