“Yuri, paw!”
After receiving the puppy, Rea stopped sleeping in even more than before.
Yuri was a three-month-old puppy, growing bigger with each passing day.
As he did, his activity level increased as well, and he woke at dawn with perfect accuracy to rouse Rea.
Rea got up, washed, groomed herself, and then prepared Yuri’s food.
When Yuri finished eating, the baroness appeared carrying a bucket of water.
Seeing the two of them already perfectly prepared, the baroness lifted one eyebrow slightly and poured the water into Yuri’s bowl.
Yuri lapped it up eagerly.
“Starting today, I will teach you about makeup.”
The baroness taught her everything from basic makeup to foundation, tidying her eyelashes, drawing her brows, and even color cosmetics.
“Lastly, once you finish your lips with lipstick or tint, the makeup is complete.”
“Um…”
Honestly, Rea had no idea what had been done or how.
But after the baroness tapped here and there with a round cotton-like thing called a puff or cushion and applied this and that, Rea’s face, with its smoother skin and subtly emphasized highlights, looked mature while still preserving a certain youthful innocence.
As Rea’s mind went blank at the thought of where she was supposed to begin, even with just evening out the texture of her skin, she silently rolled her eyes—and, without fail, the switch came flying.
Crack!
“Eek!”
“Memorize it and master it. A woman who cannot even do makeup is unthinkable.”
“Yes, understood.”
It took two weeks to learn makeup, and another two weeks to learn how to apply colors and decorate herself according to her skin tone.
Rea was greatly surprised that there existed an endless spectrum of colors and dozens upon dozens of terms when it came to skincare, and she was surprised again to find herself, at some point, understanding and organizing them without hesitation.
“You look beautiful.”
At last, after applying tint to her lips and having her hair pinned up with the baroness’s help, even in her own eyes, she had become a pure and graceful beauty.
So much so that even Baron Bashport, upon seeing Rea, could not endure the itch in his mouth and had to offer a word of praise.
“Do not so much as cast your gaze upon a man who tosses words and compliments at a lady like that.”
For some reason, however, the baroness rebuked her own husband.
“Thank you.”
Rea simply liked being praised.
Though she tried not to grow conceited over a beauty that even she found pretty, she blushed in embarrassment at having such thoughts.
The Baron and Baroness Bashport inwardly admired her appearance, like a single blooming flower.
There were many immature aspects to her, but the gentle and delicate heart she had possessed even when she was a man softened Rea’s atmosphere and impression.
However, the baron and baroness were worried that along with that heart, Rea’s chronic precariousness and pitifulness had been added as well.
If she fell into the hands of someone of poor character, she seemed likely to provoke their sadism and suffer terribly.
A person like the half-year tyrant, Orban Lionera, would surely have done so.
Fortunately, the tyrant had already been executed by the queen and the famed general, but that did not mean such people did not exist at all.
For instance, Gyuren Derbek, the margrave of the northern frontier.
For some reason, Baron Bashport found himself concerned about him.
“A lady must have some corner of herself with which conversation is possible. Only then will her husband speak openly with her, and she will not be ignored even within groups of narrow-minded women.”
Baron Bashport kept Rea by his side and taught her about the history, state of affairs, and economy of the Kingdom of Levantort.
Having only ever held a sword, with little learning beyond that, Rea listened diligently while taking notes.
When there was something she did not understand, she raised her hand and asked questions with a boldness unlike her usual self.
The baron was very pleased by Rea’s passionate attitude.
Having belatedly discovered the pleasure of teaching, he began recounting unofficial histories even past lesson time, only to be stopped by the baroness’s fierce glare.
“From now on, I will teach you how to converse with men at social gatherings.”
With the baron sitting opposite her and the baroness at her side, a tea party was held.
Rea elegantly poured tea into the cup and listened to the baron’s words.
“The common people are like baby birds with their mouths hanging open. All they know how to do is open their mouths. Even if the kingdom opens its granaries and fills those maws, the moment they go the slightest bit hungry, they forget that grace and rush to curse their ruler. Truly ungrateful wretches.”
“That is because ensuring the people do not starve is, by nature, the duty of those in high places…”
Crack!
“Agh!”
“In whose presence do you think you are, to dare refute him head-on?”
The switch flew as the price for failing to hold back.
The baroness coldly pointed out Rea’s problems.
“Even if it was a statement you disliked, reacting immediately on the spot is politically dangerous. Moreover, you are a commoner. How dare a commoner speak so rudely to a noble!”
“I am sorry…”
“Even to protect yourself, it is better to let words flow past you, remember what happened that day, and plan for the future. Nobles are no different from the common people. If you offend them, they will remember it for days on end and seek revenge. Only by being flexible and resilient can you survive in the political arena born of socializing and realize your own justice.”
“I will keep it in mind.”
Perhaps immersed in his acting, the baron was looking at Rea with great displeasure.
Rea, who even sensed a faint killing intent in that gaze, finally realized that she had done something no different from presenting her neck to a blade of her own accord.
That killing intent was exactly the same as what nobles had directed at her when she had been a general.
“Do you know what the current state of affairs is like? Her Majesty the Queen is focused solely on making an heir, so how can state affairs proceed? The common people may starve as they always do, but even we cannot collect taxes properly, and commerce is difficult. The only difference from Orban’s half-year is that, at least, our heads are not being cut off by the sword.”
The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
What the baron had said was akin to touching Seorin’s reverse scale.
One who had risen in rebellion for the sake of the people and become king was neglecting state affairs and devoting herself to making children.
Moreover, Rea herself was a direct victim of that.
She was terribly shocked, but recalling the advice from moments ago, Rea forced herself to try to smile.
However, the smile she barely managed to make was only crooked.
The baron’s sharp tongue continued.
“Furthermore! Just where is the famed general Earei? Has the queen’s first husband and the kingdom’s greatest sword died or something? As expected, once the hunt is over, she boiled and ate the dog, and decided that the lower half of some noble pretty boy was more suited to her station—”
“Stop.”
Rea could not bear it any longer.
“Please stop.”
In truth, Rea’s lower abdomen had been hurting since the previous night.
The stabbing pain made it difficult for her to keep her senses.
So during every break, she had been hugging Yuri and steadying her breathing.
Even earlier, when Baron Bashport had dragged the common people into it, she had known she should not interfere, but more than usual, she had failed to control her emotions and flared up.
And it was the same now.
With an expression that said the inevitable had come, Baron Bashport sneered at Rea.
“Stop? Stop what?”
“Are you not slandering Her Majesty the Queen?”
“Slandering? Am I spreading false rumors? Are you saying I made up something that does not exist? However ignorant a lady may be of outside affairs, how can you interrupt and reproach the words of a young noble who bears part of the kingdom’s governance?”
“Even a woman ignorant of outside affairs knows loyalty to the king. She knows the obvious principle that one must preserve that loyalty and support the sovereign, striving so that wise rule may be carried out.”
“What use is it if I strive? The queen herself is only striving to spread her legs.”
“You wretch! How dare you!”
Bang—!
When Rea slammed the table, the teacups and their contents leapt into the air.
As the baron moved to avoid the spilling tea, Rea had already lowered her stance, approached him, drawn the sword at his waist, and aimed it at him.
“Take back those filthy words!”
Rea’s voice rang out resoundingly.
It was the moment the baron and baroness had been waiting for, and feared at the same time.
Earei, who was normally so kind, yet was said to change completely when she held a sword, becoming so ferocious and merciless that people said she became another person.
That aspect of her remained even after her soul had been torn apart and she had become a woman.
No, because her soul had been torn apart, only by provoking her like this and making her fury burst forth could that side of her emerge.
“And if I cannot take them back?”
“Then pay the price for insulting the king.”
In addition, her momentum and the precision of her sword had fallen by a great deal.
Even so, her skill was enough to defeat most knights, but the Bashport family were not people who fought in the orthodox way.
Rather, they were assassins who used the prejudices of orthodoxy itself.
Clang!
But when he received Rea’s attack and felt the heavy impact, the baron was inwardly shocked.
“I said take it back!”
“I will not. It is not as though I spoke a lie, so why should I?”
“You…!”
Having heard the woman he loved insulted, Rea lost even more of her reason.
“Take it back!”
Clang!
“I told you to take it back!”
Clang—crack!
Baron Bashport’s sword broke in two.
He had never imagined that one whose soul had been torn could produce such monstrous strength.
Though driven into a corner, the baron smiled thinly.
“What do you have to smile about!”
Further provoked, Rea raised the sword over her head.
“Your movement is too large.”
The baroness approached Rea’s side, holding a short, thick suppression rod used in place of a switch.
Then she spun around and drove the suppression rod into Rea’s wide-open lower abdomen.
“Agh!”
Rea dropped the sword and collapsed sideways.
It was the worst pain she had felt since her soul had been torn apart.
She felt something wet and chillingly unpleasant flowing between her legs.
“Haa… haa…”
As Rea could do no more than calm herself while breathing through her mouth, the baroness stepped on her neck and subdued her.
“A lady who throws a tantrum as she pleases just because she is on her monthly courses will only be gossiped about behind her back. Keep that in mind, my foolish disciple.”
Monthly courses…?
Ah, I see.
I’ve become completely a woman…
“Since it is your first time, as a fellow woman, I will show sympathy and forgive you this once with a short, sharp punishment.”
The baroness’s suppression rod struck Rea across the temple.