Chapter 9

Children who had been told they had talent in swordsmanship from a young age all came from wealthy families. These children, who received consistent training from good teachers, grew up competing with peers of similar levels and built up their skills.

Those who made swordsmanship their profession undoubtedly followed the elite course of becoming Imperial Knights and secured their positions.

“What could he be thinking?”

“Right. Has he found something to believe in?”

Walter, captain of the Third Division, and Idris, captain of the Fourth Division, sighed while sipping expensive alcohol.

Though they didn’t speak of the subject aloud, there was only one person who could be the topic of their gossip here.

Emperor Nicholas.

His source of confidence.

Jeremy, captain of the Second Division, raised a very small glass while glancing at the seat beside him. The gazes of others in the same space slowly shifted as well.

“What. Why.”

Aaron, who sat at the end of those gazes, glared at Jeremy with a sour look.

The eldest son of House Diaz, the only ducal family in the Lorkan Empire that had historically supported the emperor, roughly pushed back his hair.

“Can’t you see I’m in the same situation?”

“Us maybe, but you?”

While the imperial citizens might secretly criticize their sovereign, they wouldn’t easily speak about the Diaz family. In their eyes, the ducal family might have seemed more imperial than the imperial family itself. Historically, they had been more elegant, dignified, and full of grace.

While Rudbeckia running a shop was unusual and had somewhat changed her image, House Diaz was still House Diaz.

“Still, I feel relieved you’re going. With Aaron there too, nothing will happen if only out of fear of His Grace.”

“Jeremy.”

“Ah…”

Jeremy tried to lighten the heavy atmosphere by raising his voice, but Walter quickly stopped him.

Benedict was quietly emptying his glass with them. Jeremy’s comment had essentially highlighted the ironic positions of Benedict and Aaron.

“Fortunately, they’re people who can take care of their own lives.”

His mockery spread through the air, instantly dampening the mood. Jeremy spoke with an awkward face and a glib voice.

“What nonsense. Are you about to suggest we end this gathering?”

Benedict, who really intended to end the gathering, put down his empty glass and closed the whiskey bottle.

“Make sure to explain well to your parents.”

“They’ll probably have accepted it even before I return home.”

Idris answered confidently as he finished his remaining drink following Benedict. Walter smiled at Idris while closing the remaining whiskey bottle.

“Accept? Marquis Hagen will probably be the most angry.”

“Right. If I may be bold, he acts like he lives only for today even in front of His Majesty.”

Jeremy chuckled and agreed. Idris shook his head as he gathered the glasses, thinking of his father.

Indeed, his hot-tempered father, who was fierce regardless of who he faced, had been half-dazed this morning at the letter inviting Elena. But that was only regarding Elena.

“Rather, I can’t predict at all how His Grace Diaz might have reacted.”

“Right.”

Everyone’s gaze turned to Benedict, who had attended the meeting. Benedict, who had been staring at Idris with an unreadable expression amidst those gazes, slowly opened his lips.

“Lord Hagen.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Why haven’t you married?”

It was an abrupt and uncharacteristically personal question from Benedict.

While everyone’s expressions turned strange, Idris, who received the question, was the most flustered. He blinked several times before curving his eyes.

“Because the wounds of my lost love haven’t healed yet.”

At that moment, a crack appeared in Benedict’s previously calm expression.

* * *

“Where did you say you’re going?”

While Aaron raised his voice to ask again, Friedrich lost the energy to shout and held his forehead.

Aaron was more agitated about his sister closing her business and going on a trip with her friend than about his own departure to Barad.

“Rudy, can’t you just live normally?”

Still hungover from yesterday, he unusually showed his irritation. However, Rudbeckia responded calmly.

“Other friends often travel too. From what Irene said, our route overlaps with brother’s. Of course, we’ll move separately.”

Rudbeckia deliberately pushed forward with what she had discussed with Irene. Friedrich put down his wine glass filled with water with a sound.

Rudy almost made a crying face. It wasn’t easy to be brazen in front of her father. While deliberately blinking innocently, her heart still beat fearfully.

Friedrich picked up his utensils again without a word. Following father’s method of ignoring his daughter’s words and continuing breakfast, Aaron, who had been angry, also closed his mouth.

She met eyes with Sophia who stood behind Aaron. Toward the nanny who shook her head, Rudbeckia smiled as if everything was fine.

“I’ll close the business. Then I’ll go. That’s what everyone wanted, right?”

“Rudbeckia.”

As his daughter’s stubbornness continued, their father sighed while looking at his plate, stopping his cutting.

Friedrich slowly raised his head. His bright golden eyes took in Rudbeckia, who looked just like her mother. Looking at her dazzling silver hair and vivid ruby-colored eyes, he spoke unwanted words with a composed face.

“I must have raised you wrong.”

Not only Rudbeckia but also Aaron flinched in surprise. That single sentence contained Friedrich’s reluctant anger.

He added, seemingly unconcerned even after seeing his daughter’s shocked face.

“If you were going to quit so easily, why did you insist so much on starting? This father finds your whims quite astounding.”

She traced her memories out of habit again today. How had Friedrich reacted when she first said she would open a shop with Irene?

<Rudy, my daughter, do you really have to do this?>

<Well… Then will you give me time to think? It’s too sudden in many ways.>

Unlike the past, Friedrich now had no patience.

Aaron’s situation and the Emperor’s orders were already troubling him, and now his daughter, who, though peculiar in people’s eyes, hadn’t caused major worries, was acting thoughtlessly at such a time, making it utterly baffling.

Moreover, the Emperor seemed to hint at taking interest in Rudbeckia’s marriage. Even using the Marquis’s children whom he considered thorns in his side.

Of course, considering status and age, both families recognized that matching one child from each side would be most ideal, but it was something that had already failed once.

“Father.”

However, Rudbeckia couldn’t back down either.

Though she knew what situations would unfold, she, who had thought she could just provide necessary medicine from afar and watch, ultimately only needing to avoid marriage, was shocked by Irene’s response.

The way Irene handled the same experience they returned from was markedly different from hers. With the shock of hearing things she hadn’t known, Rudy’s resolve hardened, feeling she couldn’t let them go alone.

“I know. You must be shocked. I’m sorry.”

Rudbeckia drank water and pressed her lips with the white cloth on her lap.

Friedrich examined her troubled face as she had already finished her untouched breakfast. He hoped she wouldn’t make any more unreasonable declarations about traveling with the Imperial Princess.

“I’m really sorry, Father. I’ll go to work now, sort out the shop, and come back.”

“Rudy!”

Aaron’s voice rose again, but Rudbeckia stood up first.

“See you this evening.”

Ignoring the angry Friedrich and Aaron, she left the dining room.

Sophia, who followed Rudbeckia out, wanted to stop her miss but couldn’t bring herself to do so, and Hugo surprisingly treated her as usual without nagging.

After leaving the house, Rudbeckia felt she could breathe a little better.

.

.

.

After that, everything happened quickly. From early morning, they left complicated procedures to the proxy Irene brought and began their preparations.

They summoned laborers as needed and moved all the shelves, tables, chairs, blankets, lights, and teacups to the plaza management office. It was customary for those seeking such items while running shops to come and take them.

They anonymously donated unnecessary medicines to the infirmary and sent medicinal ingredients to May. After shopping at the grocery store across the street and returning, the cleaning was perfectly finished.

While many things happened in a short time, Rudbeckia and Irene continued talking, but it was all idle chat.

“Rudy.”

“Yes?”

Rudbeckia, who was putting everything they  bought from the grocery store into a lightweight bag, looked up.

Irene laughed, watching her friend compulsively trying to pack more.

“You’re thoroughly prepared for subjugation.”

“Now that you mention it. I wondered why I was instinctively looking for dried food.”

Rudbeckia laughed along with Irene while putting the beef jerky she held into the bag.

The guard knights watching outside the shop, which looked like it had been ransacked in a day, shook their heads hearing their laughter.

“Is House Diaz in chaos?”

“The Imperial Palace doesn’t seem to be in chaos?”

“Well, given Her Highness’s position, His Highness isn’t pleased but what can he do about a trip? Especially since it’s the Imperial Consort’s hometown.”

“I see. His Grace and young master treat Miss like quite the troublemaker.”

Hugo, who had until now considered her the biggest troublemaker, let out a hearty laugh while looking at Rudbeckia.

“But don’t worry. Our Grace would die for Miss. And Miss knows that too.”

She was exactly like the late Duchess who had overcome even the most stubborn resistance. So everyone in House Diaz implicitly knew that Friedrich wouldn’t hold out long this time either.

“The trip is practically confirmed then. You’ll be going too, right?”

“Of course.”

.

.

.

Three days had passed since Hugo answered confidently. Friedrich called Rudbeckia to his study.

Sophia was already helping Rudy prepare for her departure, and Hugo had finished preparing to accompany Rudbeckia.

She too dared to anticipate Friedrich’s permission as she knocked on the study door.

“Must you worry me like this?”

Friedrich had just returned from seeing their now-cleared shop. At his troubled voice, Rudbeckia quietly clasped her hands together.

“Sigh. I wonder who she takes after to be this bold.”

He made a criticism that wasn’t really criticism while thinking of his wife who had departed this world first. Soon, another sigh escaped between his lips.

As father’s sighs grew longer, Rudbeckia rolled her eyes while watching his reaction.

After standing quietly for a while, Friedrich spoke like a sigh.

“I’ll let you go. But you must accept all of your father’s conditions. There will be absolutely no more compromises.”

“Really? Yes. Yes, I will.”

Rudbeckia nodded vigorously without even hearing the conditions, her jewel-like eyes sparkling. Watching her, Friedrich raised his index finger.

“First, you must absolutely move together within Aaron’s group.”

Even as Friedrich stated the conditions, uneasiness crept up. While wondering if it was right to place his daughter among knights, it was funny that having knights around was what gave him peace of mind.

Friedrich wearily rubbed his face and stated the second condition.

“Rudy. You and Her Highness are going to our territory, Lingrad. Only those in that group should know you’re going to Hovent Village.”

His daughter already had no interest in marriage. If people learned that Rudbeckia, who didn’t even glance at incoming marriage proposals, had traveled on the same dates along the same route as those dark-clothed knights, the marriage proposals would stop coming, and his daughter would become even more distant from marriage.

That thought made Friedrich’s neck stiffen.

“Since we’re on the subject, couldn’t you just go to Lingrad? Does it have to be Hovent?”

“I’m sorry. Father, you already know my answer and have finished discussing it with Aaron, right?”

Instead of answering, Friedrich pressed his forehead with a groan. He felt frustrated not knowing what scheme she was plotting with the Imperial Princess.

He felt like if his wife were still alive, he would want to stay up all night discussing whose temperament their child had inherited.

“And…”

Friedrich tried to hastily add something but let out a groan after seeing his daughter’s clear face. He wanted to warn her to be careful of His Highness and Idris, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud, worried she might pay more attention if he did.

She was immediately dismissed.

“Alright. You may go now.”

“Father.”

“From now on, just state your business directly. I get anxious now when you call me ‘Father.'”

“Thank you. I’ll be careful and return safely.”

Rudbeckia rose from her chair and bowed while watching his reaction. Friedrich helplessly dropped his shoulders.

Impudently, it was the result everyone had expected.