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Chapter 22
Challenging Your Fiance to a Duel
“What’s wrong with the water?”
“Lisa, try it yourself.”
Lisa drank from the glass I had left behind.
“It’s just water? Same as always…”
Lisa handed the remaining water to Casey, who had just walked in. Casey drank it too and said the same thing. How odd.
Anyway, I didn’t even get an upset stomach afterward, so there was clearly nothing wrong with the water.
While I was practicing dagger-throwing again, I suddenly remembered the wooden sword I’d left in the dressing room.
I meant to give it to Jake, but I hadn’t gotten around to it.
I should give it to him quickly.
While Lisa and Casey were briefly out, I dragged the wooden sword—almost as big as me—toward the training grounds. He was in the second training area near the laundry room.
Was it just me?
As soon as I arrived, the knights who had been training began to swarm around me. Endorph and Robin were in front, welcoming me cheerfully.
“My Lady! You’ve come!”
“Young Lady!”
Following them, the other knights gathered around and began saluting. But their salutes were still all over the place—some at their eyebrows, some at their cheeks, and some with their hands bent like a crooked letter.
Were they messing with me? Or joking?
I was too tired to teach them one by one again, so I decided to ignore it.
“Are you here to watch our training again? We’ll show you right away.”
“That’s not it. So move aside, everyone.”
I pushed through the knights and approached Jake, who was swinging a wooden sword in the corner. He stared at me warily until I was right in front of him.
“Here. Take this.”
“…”
“It’s the wooden sword your brother used.”
Jake’s eyes wavered. He looked at me like I had caught him doing something. His round cheeks turned red, someone might think he got caught having a secret crush.
He’s surprisingly innocent.
If I talked too much at this first step of getting closer, it might backfire. Though his expression was full of curiosity, I turned around without another word.
Or, I tried to turn around, but then the knights suddenly crowded in, making me stop.
“Your Highness, you’re not going to stay and watch our training?”
“Nope. I’m busy.”
“We’ve been working hard! Please just watch a little.”
“I said no. I’m a busy person with a lot to do.”
I blurted that out and ran off.
“Hey! The young lady’s leaving! Someone bring her back!”
“Don’t bring her, escort her back properly!”
“Just go already!”
“She runs really well. Doesn’t she look like a squirrel or something?”
Squirrel or not, I didn’t care. I didn’t stop running until I was far enough not to hear their voices.
Why was Jake so obsessed with that plain wooden sword? Aside from his brother’s name carved into it, there was nothing special about it. Truly a mysterious kid.
I didn’t know then.
What kind of tragedy would happen once that wooden sword, which should’ve been burned, ended up in Jake’s hands.
And how it would bring the kind of crisis only a true fantasy novel could deliver…
It was three days after I gave him the sword.
While Lisa was just finishing up my hair, Casey suddenly burst in, panting.
“Young Lady, the eldest young master just scolded the younger one terribly!”
“What? Huh?”
“He saw him training with the wooden sword you gave him. I overheard the maids near the laundry room—apparently, the eldest said it’s unmanly to hide behind a girl to get what you want and called him a brat.”
“What? That’s not being a brat! I just gave it to him…”
Such a trivial matter had gone completely sideways.
Rikael had misunderstood everything, and Jake had been on the receiving end of it.
And the root cause of all this? Me.
“So Jake just stood there? Couldn’t he have just said I gave it to him?”
“He just stood there quietly. One of the knights said he nearly cried.”
“But their training areas are different! How’d he even see him?”
“Jake uses the first training ground when he’s doing special training. I guess that’s when it happened.”
“Ugh! This is insane.”
I shot up from my chair. If Jake had gone through that, I couldn’t just sit around.
“I have to go.”
“Where?”
“To Jake.”
I hurried out of the bedroom and ran toward the first training ground. I kept running uphill, gazing at the tall northern mountains under the blue sky.
Just as I stopped at the entrance to catch my breath, an unbelievable scene unfolded.
The moment I stepped inside, a gust of sand swirled up, and massive, dark figures charged toward me.
It was almost like those horned buffalo stampedes I saw on Animal Kingdom.
Ack! I instinctively took a step back.
The first ‘buffalo’ charging forward was none other than Cherto.
“Your Highness! Did you come to watch our training?”
It was not a buffalo. But a human…
Only after hearing Cherto’s voice did I snap out of it.
“No.”
“Then, did you come to observe our training?”
‘Isn’t that the same thing?’
“I said no.”
“Then please come this way. We’ll show you our hard training efforts.”
The moment he finished speaking, the knights behind him beamed with smiles.
Ugh! These guys were hopeless. Even these supposedly more elite knights at the first training ground were no better.
No discipline at all.
I’ll have to set aside time later to whip them into shape.
But right now, I had something else to do.
“Where’s the young master? Take me to the eldest young master.”
“Then after you meet him, could you please give us a few pointers…?”
“Shut it. I said take me to the eldest young master!”
I put my hands on my waist and scowled hard. Even though I showed my irritation clearly, Cherto just smiled as if I were cute and guided me forward.
“Yes, yes, My lady. This way.”
With a wave of his hand, a path opened straight toward Rikael.
I walked straight toward him. Jake must’ve already left, as I couldn’t see him. Only Rikael remained, swinging his wooden sword.
The thudding sounds of the sword hitting the straw-wrapped pillar echoed. It sounded like a warning: Come any closer and this’ll be you.
With all that racket earlier, he surely knew I had arrived. But he never turned around.
With each swing, his taut muscles shifted beneath the dark training clothes.
Not that it scared me.
At least he wasn’t using a real sword today.
“Did you really have to lash out so harshly at your own brother?”
I shouted toward his back. Only then did he finally turn to face me.
“You need to learn some flexibility.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you’re going to scold someone, pick your moment. I gave Jake that sword. Why are you mad at him?”
He hadn’t used violence, but verbal abuse was just as bad. At least, that’s how it was in 21st-century Seoul.
The wind blowing down from the northern mountains made a haunting sound. So did the purple diamond-like glare in his eyes.
“Brat.”
“What?!”
“Stop yapping and go back home to prepare for your annulment. Want me to send an annulment letter to Count Mares for you?”
The air froze at his curt words. The knights who had followed and surrounded me were covering their mouths, glancing nervously at me.
Why bring up annulment when we were talking about his brother? Every time he opens his mouth—it’s annulment, annulment.
“You’re ridiculous. I’m not doing that annulment.”
“Then just get lost.”
“Get—get lost?”
I was so shocked, I stammered. My vision turned white for a moment.
He really just said that? That rude, awful…
I mean, sure, this kind of attitude does make him a worthy opponent, but still, it was shocking.
How much must I grind him down before I feel better?
Fury began to rise inside my five-year-old little heart.
“Telling you to treat your brother better is ‘yapping’? Just wait. I’ll show you what real yapping looks like. Just you wait!”
“Why wait? Show me now.”
Now? Ha! So that’s how it’s gonna be?
I glanced around. There, leaning against a rock, was Jake’s wooden sword—the one I had given him.
So he didn’t just scold him, he even took it away?
Heartless.
I dashed over, grabbed the wooden sword, and dragged it back in front of him.
“Why don’t we have a duel? For the record, once I see something once, I never forget it. If I lose, I’ll walk away quietly. But if I win, you’re mine for life!”
