Chapter 15

Chapter 15

For some reason, I felt uncomfortable when this man called me Madam, so I told him not to call me that.

“Madam is the Duchess, and the Duchess is Madam.”

But he replied like this and smiled at me again.

‘What’s wrong with this man?’

It’s been a short while since I’ve known him, but McCain Holster was smiling all the time, to the point that it’s hard to imagine him not smiling.

“What is the importance of a title?”

“It’s important.”

“All right. If the Madam desires so, I will call you Duchess Einer.”

I nodded slightly, entered the room, and went straight to the point.

“I heard that you signed the contract to be employed as the Knight Commander yesterday.”

“Yes. I signed it in a hurry in case you would say anything else later.”

I flinched slightly at his words.

“Apologies, but I want to terminate the contract.”

“I don’t want to.”

As if he had expected the reason why I came here, he firmly refused without even changing his expression.

“You, Sir, are someone who can demonstrate your abilities in a better place than this place. I don’t understand why you keep insisting on staying here.”

“I want to show off my skills here. If I do my job well as a Knight Commander, wouldn’t it be good to the Duke and the entire household? I don’t understand why you continue to reject me.”

He was a man who really wouldn’t let me have the last word. Literally everything he said was rebuttal to what I was saying.

“I heard the two of you talking yesterday. I’m sorry I overheard you.”

“…You heard?”

In response, he was agitated.

“Yes. You threatened the duke.”

I deliberately emphasized the word threatened.

“It was not a threat. It doesn’t even make sense. I was just making an offer.”

“How strange. To my ears, or for that matter, to anyone who could have heard it—it sounded like a threat.”

“It was never a threat.”

“All right. In any case, the Duke is not reluctant to let the Sir lead the Knights. So I have decided to respect his opinion.”

“I really want to be the leader of the Duchy’s knights.”

“No, why…”

I paused for a moment and pondered whether to bring this up or not. It may have been just a joke, but I felt embarrassed to say it out loud. However, I opened my mouth again, judging that it would be better to take out all the cards and use them.

“It’s a little embarrassing to say with my own lips, but I heard you say that yesterday, so I’ll say it as it is.”

I first laid the ground and emphasized that it was never something I wanted to do.

“I heard you said you would choose to give up the Commander position rather than be hated by me. If you give up the position now, I will not have any feelings for you.”

“…None at all?”

“Yes.”

“Then I can’t. I would rather you hate me.”

“Pardon?”

Yesterday, the person who proudly said he didn’t want to be hated changed his mind.

“Why are you doing this and that?”

“You said you wouldn’t have any feelings for me. I hate that even more.”

This man kept saying strange things. Was he really interested in me, just as Bleon said?

No, why?

No matter how much I thought about it, Astell and McCain never met before. They didn’t interact in the novel, and after I wracked my head to scour Astell’s memories, I couldn’t recall him at all.

“Have we met before?”

Even yesterday, he clearly mentioned a period of ten years. Ten years was exactly the time Astell married Bleon and lived in the Duke’s house.

“No, no. Don’t answer.”

But I immediately opened my mouth and stopped what he was about to say. After all, whether he knew me in the past or not, it doesn’t matter to me now.

“I am Duchess Einer.”

Instead, I made sure he knew who I was.

“I know.”

McCain sighed briefly.

“I know it so well, you don’t have to keep telling me.”

“You know it so I won’t talk about this anymore.”

And after that, silence stretched between us. We both stared at each other without saying anything. Then, as if he had made up his mind to do something, with a grim expression rather than a polite expression, McCain spoke.

“Still, I want to become the Knight Commander. From now on, I will do my job without mixing any personal emotions, so please leave it to me.”

“…Sir.”

I think I already explained enough to make him understand, but his stubbornness was clearly no joke.

“I will definitely teach the Duke’s swordsmanship. Yesterday, during our match, I observed that the Duke already has the basics down pat. In addition, if I teach a little more, he will become fairly competent, and no doubt a great swordsman.”

Having said this, it was difficult to refuse any longer.

“And under the Imperial law, once a contract is signed, it is difficult to break. Don’t you know?”

What he said was correct. The significance of a contract in this place was powerful. Once a contract was signed, it’s almost impossible to overturn, so any contract should be negotiated with caution.

“The Duke asked me to sign the contract yesterday, and I did it right away.”

Saying this, McCain smiled with a victorious expression on his face.

“It’s because the Duke doesn’t know much about contracts yet.”

Had he known, it was clear that he would never have written it.

‘At the end of the day, that’s what catches my ankle.’

“Are you sure you don’t want to leave?”

“Yes. I don’t want to.”

He refused without hesitation.

“…All right. Anyway, you’re working for the Duchy, so I’m asking you to be clear about this.”

“Of course.”

“Then, I’ll be on my way.”

With those words, I left his room and went back into the mansion.

“Duke.”

And I went straight to the office where Bleon was.

“Wife…”

Bleon greeted me with a smile.

“Did things go well?”

“That is…”

Seeing that I couldn’t speak easily, Bleon’s face darkened.

“As expected, it’s because of the contract…”

“Yes. Because he can’t just be let go…”

“I was stupid. I shouldn’t have used it like that… Now that Wife has mentioned it, I lost my temper…”

“No. Don’t blame yourself for something that’s already been done.”

I comforted Bleon as I watched his expression painted with self-blame.

“As you said, Duke, he is very talented, so it’ll be okay if he’s rather helpful to the Duchy.”

“However…”

“And don’t worry too much, I’ll try to avoid meeting Sir McCain as much as possible.”

Knowing what Bleon was worried about, I made it clear to him.

“He promised to do the same, so it’ll be fine. okay?”

Bleon nodded his head reluctantly. And he had a look on his face that knew he couldn’t do anything about it anyway, because it was his fault.

“You should get ready to receive treatment. Philia will be here soon.”

“Haa…”

Hearing the word treatment, Bleon let out a long sigh.

“Yes… I understand.”

Bleon’s voice was weak. But I would never yield on this matter, so I pretended not to notice this and took him to the bedroom.

For the past week, I’ve been inside the same room Bleon and Philia whenever the treatment was being administered. Every time before Philia came, I asked Bleon if I could go out, but Bleon was adamant about me staying with them, just as I was adamant about him receiving the treatment. So I was forced to watch Bleon and Philia throughout the treatment.

The treatment process was the same throughout the week with no errors. Philia summoned her magic with her fingertips and scanned Bleon’s body as he lay on the bed, his torso exposed. Then, Bleon received the treatment without any emotion on his face, or by hiding his rather unpleasant expression as much as possible.

I was also preoccupied with trying to find out if something had changed between them, observing their behavior and alternately scrutinizing the faces of those two people. However, to this day, I couldn’t feel anything between the two of them.

‘Do you still need more time?’

It seemed like I had to wait a little longer for something to happen between the two of them. There was still plenty of time left, so there’s no need for me to watch so impatiently.

‘I shouldn’t be there.’

That was the most lamentable thing. Because of Bleon’s stubbornness, we continue to be together, but it will only happen when there are only the two of them.

‘I’ll have to convince Bleon again.’

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