Chapter 10
The following morning, I approached the training grounds with a spring in my step.
“At last, I’ll get to see the Grand Duke.”
The previous day, when Norton had come back to the garden:
“Sir Norton, I have excellent news. I’ve pinpointed the Grand Duke’s quarters—third floor, west wing, all the way at the end. Am I correct?”
“…No.”
“You’re lying. You paused.”
Norton rejected the claim at once, but that brief hesitation betrayed him. In the end, after I threatened to burst into the Grand Duke’s room or “accidentally” collide with him, he admitted that the Grand Duke would join a training session come morning.
Trailing the clamor, I reached the vast training grounds, where knights dueled in pairs. I’d encountered some of these men before, yet the sheer number assembled here charged the air with a singular fervor.
“Northerners truly are cut from sterner cloth,” I thought.
In this assembly of the finest, one figure dominated—his authoritative aura, piercing gaze, and the graceful precision of his sword strokes.
“That has to be the Grand Duke!”
I stared, mesmerized, my anxiety softening a touch. Then a voice I recognized rang out:
“Your Grace!”
“Sir Leon?”
Leon, lingering close by, dashed toward me, his face alight with joy.
“An acquaintance!”
His enthusiasm practically thumped like a tail in full wag. Nearby, several other familiar faces emerged, Johas among them. Though deep in their drills, they spotted me too, their looks conveying a friendly regard.
“What brings you here, Your Grace?” Leon inquired, beaming.
“I came to meet the Grand Duke.”
Swiveling back to the field, I noticed—he’d vanished. The Grand Duke was nowhere in sight.
“Where’d he disappear to?”
I scanned the area, fruitless. Leon appeared equally baffled.
“The commander was right there moments ago…”
A wry laugh escaped me.
“Did he really just flee?”
Ha. Had he bolted upon catching sight of me?
He knew I sought him out, yet he’d escaped?
A blend of weariness and mortification washed over me. I rose, shaking my head.
“No, it’s fine. I was only passing through. I must have interrupted your training. I’ll go now.”
The knights’ gazes bored into me openly, but oddly, they lacked the venom I’d faced at the chapel.
Some even appeared receptive.
It might be pleasant to exchange greetings while the mood stayed cordial.
Yet without the Duke’s official presentation, I couldn’t approach them uninvited.
I offered an uneasy smile and pivoted to depart.
Perched on the mansion’s steps, dignity forgotten, I grumbled inwardly at the Duke.
“What a heartless man!”
Regardless of my ties to the enemy, wasn’t he the least bit eager to glimpse his wife? How could he dodge me entirely?
“Just one year—that’s all I need to endure.”
One year.
After that, I’d depart Blenheim.
Which meant enduring this place until then, come what may.
In the original tale, the Marquis launches a revolt.
He schemes to purge the Crown Princess in favor of his backed empress and the third prince. The uprising crumbles, obliterating the Frais line.
By then, Annette remarries Count Raymond’s second son, surviving under a new identity. Curiously, she resurfaces at the heroine’s wedding, sealing her own doom.
“They say the count’s household drove her to near madness.”
Thus, I couldn’t divorce the Duke before the Frais downfall. I needed to cling to the Blenheim estate for safety.
“I’ll lie low here quietly for a year, divorce the Duke post-heroine’s wedding, and slip away.”
Such was my strategy.
Now, I simply had to convey to the Duke my lack of designs on Blenheim long-term; a smooth discussion would resolve it all.
“Why refuse to see me? Why?!”
If he’d fled at my approach, he’d likely repeat the evasion in his chambers.
I yearned to venture out, behold the northern villages, greet the locals, sample street fare.
Irritated, I stamped the ground, then surged to my feet.
“No matter. I’ll head out anyway. Who’s to stop me?”
I’d stashed roughly 100 coins for emergencies.
“Spending a bit won’t hurt.”
That sum would cover a village shopping spree with ease.
I summoned Whitley at once and ordered a carriage.
This marked my debut excursion since reaching Blenheim.
As late winter yielded to early spring, monster activity waned.
The Blenheim knights enjoyed a brief respite, yet those at today’s routine briefing buzzed with uncommon zeal.
Loic shifted in his seat, irked by the subordinates’ sparkling stares.
Abruptly, Dmitri, head of the first knight division, broached the subject.
“Commander, when do we get a formal audience with the Grand Duchess?” Dmitri, captain of the First Division, pressed.
“What?” Loic’s eyebrow flicked.
“A splendid woman like her deserves a fitting introduction by now.”
“Well, do you suppose rough sorts like us merit Her Highness’s notice?” Dmitri added, smirking.
A fellow captain joined in. “Even the new recruits have dined with Her Highness. We captains warrant at least as much, no?”
“You’re off base,” scoffed Vermus, leader of the third knight squad.
“You don’t get it. Johas wouldn’t stop crowing about how ‘Her Highness knows my name.’”
Dmitri propped his chin thoughtfully, face grave.
“The youngsters were crowing about meals with Her Highness too. Surely we squad leaders merit a real welcome?”
These battle-hardened squad leaders shared a casual rapport with Loic, but today they’d clearly conspired to prod him.
Loic’s mouth set in a firm line.
Annette’s arrival had injected the once-still castle with unexpected vitality. Whispers of her trailed him everywhere.
Today, word of her training-grounds visit had ignited curiosity and thrill among the knights.
“Sir, those at the grounds dubbed Her Highness a goddess incarnate. Is it so?”
Loic’s silence prompted a squad leader to query Hedrick.
Ultimately, even his stern second-in-command waded in:
“She’s undeniably striking,” Hedrick noted offhandedly.
“See? The lieutenant agrees!”
Loic’s restraint frayed as the captains hashed out timelines for an official meet.
‘They despised her once,’ he reflected grimly. ‘Now they revere her as divine.’
It traced back to Leon’s tales of Annette’s warmth and humility; sentiment had flipped. Now Loic played defense.
He couldn’t shake the question—what charm did she wield to ensnare them so swiftly?
‘Perhaps when Hedrick endorsed the knights’ view of her as enchanting and endearing, worlds apart from rumor.
After all, the impassive deputy commander—detached as I am—showing partiality was astonishing.
‘Radiant, endearing, sunlit warmth.’
Loic recollected the knights’ gushy praises.
For her to sway even Hedrick…
Truth be told, Loic now harbored his own intrigue about her character. Evidently, she excelled at endearing herself.
Why pursue a meeting so relentlessly?
She had to sense his aversion.
Loath to confess before these fervent knights that he’d yet to truly behold the duchess’s face, Loic held his tongue.
