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~Chapter 52~
As I lifted the neatly carved meat to my mouth with a fork, I suddenly froze.
I was starving, but the weight of all the eyes on me was even more overwhelming, and I just couldn’t bring myself to eat.
Covering my mouth, I whispered quietly,
“Your Grace, did I do something wrong?”
The Duke, seeing the attention on us, shook his head as if to say, “What are you talking about?”
“No. It’s just that I didn’t train my men well enough. I never taught them to stare at a lady eating, so I guess they need special training to fix their manners—right down to their bones.”
The moment he said “special training” with emphasis, the whole room, which had gone silent, burst back into noisy chatter.
All the knights suddenly buried their heads in their plates and began cutting their food with fierce energy.
Someone was cutting an empty plate, while another’s meat was already chopped so small, you couldn’t tell what it used to be.
It was all a little crazy, but I was too tired to care.
“Oh, this is delicious.”
“I’m glad it suits your taste.”
The rich, tender meat melted in my mouth.
I ate hungrily, and soon my throat felt dry. Knowing I was weak to alcohol but with nothing else to drink, I sipped just a little red wine to wet my throat, being careful not to get tipsy.
When I was full and set down my fork for a break, the Duke started talking.
“About this morning… I’m sorry you had to see me like that. I lost control and nearly hurt you—I have no excuse.”
I blinked in surprise at his apology.
He—the Duke—was apologizing? I was so caught off guard, I didn’t even know what to say.
Whatever he read in my face, his gaze grew darker.
“Are you afraid of me?”
“How could I not be, after seeing that?”
“…”
“Still, I’m not going to shrink away. You’re not a god, Your Grace. No matter how strong you are, in the end, you’re still a human who can’t defeat time.”
It was my way of saying: A hundred years from now, we’ll both be just dust.
Maybe because of my past life, my sense of fear was broken.
‘But that’s honestly how I feel.’
A short silence passed.
The Duke seemed to be thinking, then gave a low laugh.
“Just a regular human… That’s the first time anyone’s said that to me.”
“If it was rude, I apologize.”
“No, it’s fine.”
He raised his wine glass in my direction and took a slow sip, wearing an expression I couldn’t quite read, but that seemed quietly pleased.
‘I don’t get it.’
Why would he be happy to be called an ordinary person, when he was known as the continent’s greatest warrior?
Really, he was impossible to understand.
I gave up thinking about it and popped some honeyed fruit into my mouth.
The sweetness felt endless and deep.
Late at night after dinner.
Some of the knights, unable to sleep, gathered in small groups outside.
Training instead of sleeping wasn’t unusual, but tonight, everyone’s expressions were strange.
“What did I just see today?”
One knight, swinging his sword halfheartedly, finally spoke his mind.
That was the signal. One by one, the others stopped training and began to talk honestly.
“Has His Grace ever carefully carved meat for someone before?”
“I’ve seen him carve up monster meat on the battlefield.”
“Yeah, that I’ve seen often.”
On the battlefield, the Duke was powerful, overwhelming, and worthy of respect.
But what about in daily life?
To be honest, he always felt far away—someone they could never reach. Even as a ruler, it’s impossible to control your emotions perfectly, yet the Duke had never shown any feeling since childhood.
Sometimes it seemed like he had no feelings at all, just watching time go by like water.
“Only a god can be that unaffected by the years.”
This was part of why the knights saw Edwin as an absolute figure—untouchable not just because of his strength, but because of this, too.
“Didn’t His Grace smile at the lady today…?”
“Let’s be careful—maybe we were all just seeing things.”
“Or maybe it was just a smirk.”
“But honestly, none of us have ever seen him even smirk before.”
Whenever someone suggested a theory, someone else argued back.
The more they talked, the more confused the knights became.
“While we’re at it, let me confess something. The Duke got angry at me once, not long ago.”
“Come on, he gets angry sometimes. How is that the same—”
“It was when I said something bad about the lady…”
The knight speaking was the relative of a famous doctor inside the inner walls.
‘The lady made a huge fuss over a tiny problem, fined the doctors a ton of money, it was chaos!’
‘Didn’t she say she’d keep to herself? I didn’t think she was lying…’
‘Did you actually believe that?!’
It was right after Elicia had first come to Lombard.
Back then, their hatred for her was sky-high, especially calls to lock her in the tower.
The knights saw the Empire as their greatest enemy.
“I never thought my words would cause trouble, but His Grace scolded me harshly, told me never to talk about the lady that way.”
“No wonder! When everyone was shouting to lock her up, he was always quiet.”
“Well… that’s part of it, but I also heard things from my relative…”
Lately, stories of what Elicia did inside the castle were spreading, bit by bit.
Most people inside the inner walls never mixed with outsiders, but some who did were beginning to doubt the rumors about the lady.
And today, the knights had seen it with their own eyes:
The lady, calmly eating beside the Duke—
even after witnessing his overwhelming strength—
and the Duke himself, caring for her with quiet attention.
“Is… is it possible that His Grace actually likes the lady…?”
Just thinking it felt blasphemous, so they couldn’t even say it out loud.
Anyway, the knights were deeply confused when someone came running from the castle, shouting with joy.
“It’s done! Finally approved!!”
“Sir Stephan?”
It was Stephan, the staff secretary, whose smile had all but disappeared from fighting with the clerks.
He was born strong, but he hated paperwork. Still, he was the most educated, so he always got stuck with it. He never gave up on a job once it was given to him—so he was always arguing with the stubborn castle clerks.
“You mean the budget? They finally approved it?”
“How did those slow clerks sign so fast? I thought it’d take another year or two!”
“Stephan, are you dreaming? Why would the clerks ever—”
The knights all fell silent at once.
Stephan didn’t answer—he just showed them. He held out a page with the Duke’s seal.
A few knights who could read snatched up the papers.
“It’s real!”
“That’s definitely His Grace’s seal.”
But how? Just this morning, they’d heard Stephan was near tears, rolling around the training ground in frustration.
How had everything been resolved in just half a day?
“Wait…”
As they turned the pages, they stopped.
Except for one blank at the end, all the signatures were the same.
[Elicia Marsen Baldin la Lombard]
The one who had solved a budget crisis that dragged on for over half a year—
the person the knights disliked most—
was none other than the lady, Elicia.
