#035. And So, In This Moment, I Was Captivated by Her
I must’ve truly caught her off guard—Empress Dowager’s calm golden eyes wavered slightly.
“Sword training?”
“Yes. I heard Her Majesty the Empress is said to be the greatest swordsman in the world, yet I’ve never had the chance to witness her skill myself.”
With an expression I couldn’t tell was a smile or a frown, the Empress Dowager spoke slowly.
“You always have such unusual word choices, Princess.”
Oops. Did I make it too obvious? I suddenly reflected on the words I’d used.
Now that I thought about it, the common language of the continent of Fallos, where the Rétaille Empire and the Kingdom of Lamore were located, was Yumean. Meanwhile, the common language of the continent of Athan, where the Jin Empire was, was Jang. Naturally, I had to learn Yumean from scratch in this life.
Even so, for someone of my age to use such refined and archaic vocabulary could only be due to habit. I had selected only the most elegant expressions, ones that matched my former life, even while learning a new language.
To make this way of speaking suit me, I should at least be thirty. Should I quickly try to learn a more childlike way of speaking? Lady Martina, right beside me, would be a good role model, so it shouldn’t be too hard…
As I was thinking that, the Empress Dowager spoke again, her tone a little softer.
“I’m used to it, thanks to Melchizedek.”
She must have thought I was intimidated by her words. But that wasn’t the case—I was simply reflecting on how un-childlike I sounded. No need to correct her, so I kept my mouth shut.
“I don’t know why you want to see Riana’s skills, but I’ll give you a proper excuse.”
The Empress Dowager reached out and picked up the container of tea leaves. It was the one I’d used to brew tea just earlier.
“Give this to Riana. Tell her I found it quite delightful, and ask her to prepare it for me again—this time brewed by you.”
“Today?”
It was already tea time. If I moved now and brewed it again, wouldn’t it be a bit late to drink tea? And besides, we’d only just poured the tea here—it felt abrupt to stand up now. But the Empress Dowager chuckled lightly.
“Why drag it out? I’ll enjoy the fragrance of the tea by myself. Go ahead and leave.”
I had no reason to stay. With her permission, I rather rudely left my tea unfinished and got up from my seat.
Over the past three years, I had learned quite a bit about the royal family. The current status of the Grand Duke, the relationships between the maternal clans, the households close to the royals, and so on.
But simply knowing something doesn’t mean you can make use of it. For me, evaluating the Empress was one such challenge.
In these three years, I’d often heard people ask how a child could face the Empress without crying. They’d always pair that with praise of her legendary swordsmanship.
Yet perhaps due to my lack of survival instinct, I felt nothing at all when facing her. I couldn’t tell how much of those stories were truth and how much were empty flattery.
If she had a scar on her face, maybe it would’ve made more sense.
So I needed to see her wield a sword myself. I needed to decide—should I try to overshadow her with my presence, or would it be more strategic to use her presence to boost my own?
“Isn’t this Princess Blanche? Tea leaves, is it? In that case, if you’ll kindly wait a moment, I’ll inform Her Majesty the Empress.”
As I arrived at the training grounds with the container of tea leaves clutched tightly in my hands, a knight greeted me politely. Though his words were formal, his tone was the kind you’d use with an ordinary child—casual and soft.
In other words, he naturally treated me as someone beneath him.
In my previous life, I might’ve thrown a fit on the spot. But now, I welcomed such underestimation. In these three years, I’d learned just how easy it was to deal with someone who let their guard down.
“I wanna give it to her myself!”
I lisped even more than usual. Sure enough, the knight’s demeanor softened.
“Even so, Her Majesty is currently in the middle of a sparring match—”
“A sparring match!”
I blinked dramatically, my lashes fluttering enough to obstruct my vision.
“I really wanna see! Can’t I?”
One thing I’d discovered over the past three years: people had a strange tendency to drop their guard when a child pleaded innocently. Watching a sparring session was dangerous—being childlike didn’t make that danger go away, and yet…
“Oh, what the heck. Let’s take her.”
Another knight chimed in from the side. I didn’t like his choice of words, but I smiled quietly.
“She’s the kid who didn’t cry even after meeting the captain, right? Aren’t you curious how she’ll react?”
He thought he was whispering, but I had sharp ears.
And it wasn’t just my hearing—it was my ability to piece together a full sentence from a few scattered words and a hint of tone. So even the parts I didn’t catch directly, I understood.
But I simply blinked like I’d heard nothing. After a few more whispers, the knight turned to me.
“Very well, please follow me this way.”
I carefully carried the tea container with both hands and followed the knight. After walking through a thicket—perhaps meant to block noise or line of sight—the training ground suddenly came into view.
“Your stance is weak! Aren’t you bracing your legs? That lunge was too soft!”
And then I saw her for the first time—Riana Enzen Pendleton, not as Empress, but as a knight.
“…Wow.”
I couldn’t even think about keeping a straight face. It was just… just…
“Beautiful…”
“Excuse me?”
The knight beside me spoke in a stunned voice. Of course—to a young man like him, the Empress dressed in lavish gowns, adorned with jewels and smiling gently behind a silk fan would seem more beautiful.
But I had always believed: people are most beautiful when they are doing what they do best. Scholars reading lines of text, officials managing civil affairs, warriors holding swords, farmers plowing their fields, and kings governing their realms.
That is when the world turns as it should, when everything flows in its rightful course.
By that standard, Riana Enzen Pendleton should have been a warrior, not an empress. A knight, perhaps a general—someone who wielded a sword. Someone who belonged on a battlefield, not in a palace.
“Oh my, it’s Blanche, isn’t it?”
How long had I been dazed? Moving like a dance, like scattering flower petals, Riana had now stopped and was standing before me. Despite just finishing a sparring session, her face didn’t have a drop of sweat on it.
“Sorry, did I startle you? My voice was loud. Come, let’s go somewhere else and have some tea instead of standing around in this dusty place.”
With a kind expression, Riana gently comforted me. Then, she turned a sharp gaze toward the knight standing beside me.
“Who brought a child to such a dangerous place?”
The knight, who’d been so playful when bringing me here, was now panicking pitifully.
“I-I stayed right beside Her Highness, so she wouldn’t have been in danger. And with the captain here, there’s no chance of any stray weapons flying—”
“So you broke protocol because you trusted me?”
Riana’s voice was cool, and her eyes were as sharp as a blade. Any ordinary person would’ve trembled like the knight in front of her. Yet I couldn’t help but be enthralled.
Though I earned the rank of Chancellor late in life, people misunderstood me in the history books—I was involved in governance and law, yes, but fundamentally, I was a warrior.
So I’d never been as captivated by geniuses of other fields as I was by those with talent in martial arts. People who could change the flow of a battlefield by their mere presence. Who could be a focal point, a national hero.
Some I had only heard of in rumors. Others I had faced and struck down myself. Even so, I had come to admire each of those geniuses.
And Riana Enzen Pendleton resembled them—those very geniuses I had adored and cherished.
And so, in this moment, I was utterly captivated by her.
What Riana had failed to notice was not the presence of a visitor. She was highly sensitive to presences—she already knew two people were approaching the training grounds, and had even discerned that they were a knight and an untrained civilian.
What she hadn’t known was that the visitor was Blanche. This wasn’t just a sparring match—it was part of regular knightly training. So Riana didn’t stop midway and simply struck down each trainee with precision.
Only after finishing all the rounds did she confirm with her own eyes who the visitor was. And her surprise—well, the knights probably didn’t notice. Because, unlike her usual self, Riana the captain could control even her facial muscles with complete ease.
“Who brought a child to such a dangerous place?”
