~Chapter 10~
I Only Need the Duke’s Child Episode 10. The One Who Killed Me
The next morning.
The knights of Delmark stood in the training grounds from early morning, their faces pale.
“Argh!”
One of their comrades, unable to even mount a proper counterattack, dropped his sword and tumbled to the ground.
Standing before him was Heredin.
Heredin looked at him with cold eyes and gestured toward one side of the training ground.
There, a line of knights were waiting with their heads down in a punishment stance.
All of them had failed to make even a proper counterattack during their sparring with Heredin.
“Next.”
At Heredin’s command, the next knight stepped forward with a frightened face.
The other knights watching their comrade looked as though they were seeing a fellow soldier charge into certain death.
At the same time, they gazed at him with pity, like criminals awaiting the day of their execution.
With resigned expressions, they watched their unfortunate comrade and Heredin standing before him.
A war hero.
The empire’s only magic swordsman, blessed with the power of a divine beast.
‘Is there even a knight in this empire—no, on this entire continent—who could defeat that man…?’
Especially the knights who had fought alongside Heredin on battlefields for many years knew his abilities well.
If they could manage even one proper counterattack and avoid being sent to punishment, that was already fortunate.
Usually, they would instinctively stare in awe at that handsome face while cursing the creator’s blatant favoritism, but today it looked like the face of a grim reaper.
One knight waiting his turn, praying for the soul of his comrade who was desperately trying to block Heredin’s one-sided attacks, gestured to the others beside him.
“Hey, who was it?”
“What?”
“Who pissed off His Grace?”
“What do you mean pissed him off?
He’s been busy preparing for the wedding and holding the ceremony, so we haven’t even properly seen him for a while.”
“Then why is the groom, who should be enjoying his newlywed life, here wearing himself out on the second morning of marriage?”
“If it were you, would you feel like enjoying newlywed life after being forced to marry the daughter of your enemy?”
Come to think of it, that was true.
The ill-fated relationship between the imperial family and the House of Delmark was common knowledge among the empire’s nobles.
The knight, who had just accepted that reasoning and reconsidered it, suddenly burst out in frustration.
“Then he should vent his anger over there—why take it out on us?”
How would I know.
The knights who had no answer simply shrugged.
Then they suddenly remembered someone beside them who might know and looked over.
‘Do you know, Sir Aide?’
But Rus merely shook his head and shrugged as well.
And so, while they were getting thoroughly beaten without knowing the reason early in the morning—
“Huh?”
The knights standing near the entrance of the training ground began to murmur.
Just as Heredin knocked down the knight he had been sparring with and noticed the disturbance, a small cough was heard.
Heredin immediately turned toward the direction of the sound.
He saw Blair entering the training ground together with the butler.
“Mason, what is the matter here?”
He asked the butler, though the question was practically directed at Blair.
Blair answered in Mason’s stead.
“I greeted the servants yesterday, but I haven’t had the chance to greet the knights.
I had a little time before going to the imperial palace, so I thought I would come and greet you.”
Though the knights’ eyes were briefly captured by her beauty, no one truly welcomed her.
‘Did she come here to play the lady of the house to us as well?’
Just moments ago they had looked miserable at the thought of being beaten by Heredin, but they were comrades who had survived the battlefield together.
The stronger their loyalty to Heredin, the stronger their resentment toward Blair, a member of the imperial family.
She must have known that fact as well, so whether to call her naive or foolish was uncertain.
Even while thinking that, Heredin stepped forward to introduce Blair to the knights.
“You’ve probably seen her in passing, but you haven’t formally greeted her.”
“…”
“Greet her.
She is the Duchess you will serve from now on.”
Since their lord stepped forward like that, even the knights who disliked Blair showed proper courtesy outwardly.
“The loyal swords of Delmark formally greet the Duchess.”
“I’m pleased to meet you as well.
I came unexpectedly, but thank you for welcoming me.
I look forward to working with you.”
Blair smiled softly, but her gaze quietly sank as she carefully examined each of their faces.
In truth, Blair had another purpose for coming to the knights’ training ground.
In her previous life, she had tried to gain recognition as the lady of the house, but these were people who hated her.
There was no need to try to look good or earn recognition from such people.
Once this contract marriage ended, she would never see them again anyway.
The real reason she came to the knights was…
‘The person who killed me might be among them.’
The House of Delmark was one of the three great ducal houses of the empire, and its knights possessed abilities comparable to the Imperial Knights, having fought in actual wars.
Yet the intruder who killed Blair had infiltrated the villa despite its strict security.
That was one of the reasons Blair suspected Heredin as the mastermind behind her death.
Either someone skilled enough to break through such security, or someone who could enter easily.
If so, perhaps the intruder had been someone from within the ducal house.
The servants often crossed paths with Blair inside the estate, so she recognized most of their faces.
In contrast, the knights rarely overlapped with her daily life, so there were far fewer she could recognize.
Even if the intruder had been among the knights, there was a high chance she would not recognize him.
That was why she had come to confirm it herself.
Praying that the intruder was not among the knights, that Heredin had nothing to do with her death.
Of course, just imagining that she might meet the one who killed her again, or that the husband she had loved might have been involved in her death, made her breath catch and her blood run cold.
Her hands trembled.
She wanted to run away.
‘No.
If I run away, nothing will change.’
As if restraining herself from fleeing, Blair clasped her trembling hands together.
She traced the horrific memory and recalled the intruder’s face.
‘There was a hideous scar across the bridge of his nose.’
There were too many knights to examine them one by one carefully, but it would not be difficult to find someone with a large scar on his face.
Blair quickly scanned the knights’ faces.
‘…He’s not here.’
Fortunately, it seemed the intruder was not among them.
The possibility that Heredin had been involved in her death decreased slightly.
A sigh of relief escaped Blair’s lips as she nervously bit them.
At that moment, Rus approached Heredin.
“Your Grace.
It seems you should begin preparing to attend the luncheon.”
The butler Mason returned first to make preparations, and Heredin, Blair, and Rus finished their meeting with the knights before leaving the training ground.
Walking beside Heredin, Blair noticed the beads of sweat on his forehead and offered him a handkerchief.
“You’ll catch a cold.”
But Heredin refused the gesture.
“I’m fine.”
Only his words were polite; his attitude was indifferent.
Watching the two from behind, Rus began sweating nervously for no reason.
Blair herself calmly put away the handkerchief as though his refusal meant nothing.
‘Who would think those two are newlyweds.’
Rus had not particularly hoped Blair would be loved and treated well by his lord, but seeing her rejected so plainly still left a sour feeling in his chest.
Silence once again fell among the three as they walked toward the main building of the ducal residence.
‘…Was the estate always this far away?’
Just as he was desperately wishing someone would break the chilly silence—
Suddenly, a small shadow burst out from the nearby bushes and ran straight into Blair.
“Tattata!
Huh?”
It was a child who looked about three years old.
He seemed to have come from the annex where the servants stayed.
Seeing the child, Rus was horrified.
He had been fortunate to serve a lord who was generous toward his subordinates, but most nobles flew into a rage if anything displeased them even slightly.
And what about royalty?
Especially the daughter of the infamous Katrina.
Rus hurriedly lifted the child who had fallen before Blair and bowed his head deeply.
“My apologies, my lady.
He is a child staying in the servants’ annex. It seems he slipped out while his mother was working.
I will return him and warn his mother…”
“I’m fine.”
Blair crouched down to meet the child at eye level.
Then she brushed the dirt off the child’s backside with her own hands and asked,
“Are you alright, little one?”
“Mm.”
“What’s your name?”
“Jeremy.”
“Alright, Jeremy.
Jeremy fell down but didn’t cry. You’re a very brave child.”
“Hehe.”
The child smiled brightly at Blair’s praise.
It was a pure smile with no prejudice or intention behind it.
Unlike the people of the ducal house who feared and disliked Blair.
Blair also smiled gently as she looked at the child smiling brightly at her.
It was the first smile she had made since returning to the past that truly came from her heart.
Watching her beside the child, Rus awkwardly stood up first.
He felt embarrassed for having assumed she would naturally drive the child away.
Beside Rus, Heredin was also quietly watching the two of them.
‘I thought she was a doll since she hardly ever showed emotion.’
So she could smile like that as well.
The woman smiling brightly under the sunlight seemed to sparkle dazzlingly.
Perhaps it was because of the snow piled around the backyard, or perhaps because of her pale face.
At the same time, the wristwatch on Rus’s wrist glinted in the light, but Heredin ignored it and kept his eyes on Blair a moment longer.
