Chapter 38
Episode 38. Marital Quarrel
2023.10.08.
“Huff, huff…… I can’t anymore…… Please go easy on us……”
“This isn’t human stamina……”
The Delmark knights collapsed onto the training grounds, each groaning in complaint.
But it fell on deaf ears with Kalligo.
“Don’t whine! Anyone collapsing before me, who just arrived at the estate yesterday, won’t lift their head all day.”
“If that’s the case, we went on a demonic beast subjugation yesterday too?”
“Then we’re even. Me, uncomfortable after days on the road sleeping in places that aren’t home, and you lot, comfortably stretching out in your beds before heading out. Right?”
Kalligo kicked at his subordinates to get up. Rather than rising, the knights rolled away to dodge his feet.
Kalligo was among the elite knights in the order. Strong in stamina, skill, and camaraderie, he was a top candidate for next captain.
But the knights hoped that day would never come.
The reason lay in his hellish training intensity.
‘Please, someone stop the training……’
As the knights rolled on the ground in desperate prayer, someone appeared at the training grounds entrance. All eyes turned there instantly.
There stood Blair with servants, baskets in hand.
“You all seemed to be working hard, so I brought some snacks.”
The knights’ dead eyes sparkled to life.
The gods had answered!
Even those who usually regarded Blair unfavorably saw her as an angel in this moment.
“If we’re disturbing you, we can leave them and you can eat later……”
“No! We want to eat now!”
“With your kind gesture, isn’t it proper etiquette to eat before it cools?”
The knights, sprawled like corpses, scrambled up and approached Blair and the servants.
Kalligo kicked the rear of one heading toward Blair, but they ignored him.
Finally, Kalligo threw up his hands.
“Fine, since Madam came personally, sending her off without greetings would be rude. Thirty-minute break.”
Cheers erupted among the knights.
The servants distributed snacks: baguettes stuffed with meat and vegetables, and apple juice.
While watching his subordinates eat, Kalligo received his directly from Blair.
He took it like a delighted child.
“My, bringing it personally…… I’m honored, Madam. A household truly needs its lady.”
“I worried I might disturb your training, so I hadn’t come this way much, but knowing you’d all enjoy it, I should have sooner.”
“These guys love any break from training. Anyway, thanks, I’ll dig in.”
Clearly hungry himself, he bit into the baguette right away.
Blair, watching him from the side, had eyes that had turned icy compared to moments ago.
In truth, Blair hadn’t come to the training grounds purely to care for the knights.
This morning, the moment Herdin left the bedroom, she had sent Mikhail a letter requesting an investigation into Kalligo.
But with her killer right before her eyes, she couldn’t just sit idly. Using the knights as an excuse, she had come to probe somehow.
“Oh, this is delicious. On the way from the estate, I craved fresh-baked warm bread the whole time…… Inn bread tastes like rocks. Madam’s never had it, right?”
“Bread as hard as rocks?”
“Really. You’ll visit the estate someday—try it then. It’ll scrape your throat—”
“……Scrape your throat?”
“Oops, shouldn’t use such crude words before a noble lady…… My apologies, I grew up rough and don’t know better……”
Kalligo belatedly smacked his mouth, then nudged a passing subordinate.
“Go get me another bread.”
“Me?”
“Can’t you see I’m talking to Madam right now?”
The subordinate grumbled off to fetch it. His grumbling proved Kalligo a good superior—meaning they could complain openly.
Blair stared blankly at such a Kalligo. The man who killed her seemed too ordinary for a murderer.
Delighted at care, thrilled by tasty food, got along with people, harbored no prejudice viewing her poorly.
That made him all the more terrifying.
That such a person could kill her.
“You’ve been with Delmark a long time, I see. They all follow you well.”
“Longer than those guys. Since I was thirteen or so. That’s when I came to Delmark.”
“Then where were you stationed before that?”
If not personal motive, then someone’s instigation. If not his lord behind it, high chance from prior connections.
“Before Delmark……”
As Kalligo opened his mouth, footsteps approached from the entrance.
Turning toward the sound, they saw Herdin entering the training grounds.
“Your Excellency? What brings you here at this hour? Aren’t you busy?”
“Work ended early, came for sparring, but guests arrived first.”
His gaze on Blair and Kalligo held a strangely icy edge.
Blair eyed the suddenly appearing him with displeasure.
‘A bit more talk and I might’ve guessed the mastermind……’
But with Herdin here, she couldn’t continue.
And above all, seeing him felt uncomfortable. Their fight had been just this morning.
Especially, the moment she saw him, those words resurfaced, making her want to avoid him more.
‘I really, really hate you……’
Why say that. Not a child anymore.
‘He’s not one to get hurt by mere words anyway.’
Among words she knew, it was the only one baring her feelings, spat out in anger……
Didn’t it sound like a sulky six-year-old’s tantrum?
Of course she hated him. Despised him.
Yet that single phrase felt infinitely lighter than the weight in her heart, and she hated that.
“I meant to just drop off snacks briefly, but it took too long. I’ll be going now.”
Blair fled the training grounds with the maids, as if escaping Herdin. His chilly gaze chased her retreating figure.
Watching that, Kalligo let out a small exclamation as if realizing something.
“Ah, you two fought?”
“……”
“They say marital quarrels cut water with a knife.”
In place of reply, Herdin’s cold glare returned.
Upon returning to the estate right after yesterday’s subjugation, seeing Blair with Kalligo soured his mood.
Her gaze unable to leave Kalligo, asking about him in his arms, the letter to who-knows-who, all of it.
The culmination was this now.
“Perfect timing, perfect.”
Tactless Kalligo patted Herdin’s arm.
But Herdin’s turning expression was icy. The watching knights paled. Kalligo finally sensed something wrong.
And his belated intuition proved spot on.
Herin gestured behind with his chin and commanded.
“Go fetch a sword.”
Hellish sparring began.
* * *
“This little one is really a forest predator?”
Melly gazed wondrously at Ppippi nursing milk. Sprawled on Blair’s lap drinking, it looked just like a lord.
Blair nodded, eagerly sharing ermine knowledge from books.
“Yes. They hunt in packs, even taking down roe deer and stags bigger than themselves.”
“Heavens. So scary despite being this cute?”
“Some nobles who love hunting even raise ermines and take them along.”
“I need to stay on its good side then. To avoid being hunted.”
Blair laughed at Melly’s jest. Since entrusting Ppippi to her, the two had grown close. Rina too, of course.
As Blair chatted with Melly about Ppippi, footsteps approached.
Glancing back casually, Blair brightened seeing Rina approaching.
Perhaps news from the guild.
But Rina’s words were mere daily chatter.
“Melly. The butler says come if you’re not busy with anything urgent.”
“Go on, Melly.”
Disappointment flashed on Blair’s face sending her off, soon hidden behind a wry smile.
‘It’ll take time anyway.’
Two weeks since commissioning Mikhail on Kalligo.
And two weeks since fighting Herdin.
His mood soured from the quarrel, he hadn’t visited her bedroom nightly anymore.
Meals were shared as before, but that was it. No real conversation—just eating together.
That day. Why suddenly, for what reason he revealed his twisted mood, she still didn’t know, but it was for the best.
After suspecting he might have killed her, seeing his face grew hard.
She’d reconcile before conceiving Asiel, but for now, she wanted no more thoughts of it.
As Blair shook off thoughts of Herdin and played hand games with Ppippi, a maid entered through the open door.
“Madam, Lady Lorellaine has arrived.”
