Chapter 07…
I’m New to Being a Lady, So I’ll Cause a Little Trouble
My fist shot straight forward and landed squarely on the man’s jaw.
Caught off guard with no time to defend himself, he lost his balance and crashed to the ground.
My excitement lasted only a moment. The moment I heard the loud thud, I came to my senses.
Damn it. I’ve caused trouble again!
But just as it had been three days ago, I had a perfectly good reason for what I’d done.
I mean, some strange man had jumped onto the balcony where I was standing, hadn’t he? A lady was in danger! Was I supposed to just stand there and let him do whatever he wanted?
He’s not dead, is he? That would be a problem.
It wasn’t as though falling from the second floor would normally kill someone, but if he’d been unlucky enough to break his neck, that would be another story.
I took off my cumbersome shoes, climbed over the railing, and landed on the ground where the man had fallen.
As I approached him, I saw his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
Thank goodness, he’s still breathing.
I checked his body by pressing various spots, and fortunately, nothing seemed to be broken or ruptured. The grass beneath him must have cushioned his fall.
Though his jaw will probably be bruised from my punch.
“Ugh…”
The man regained consciousness, laboriously lifting his eyelids and turning his head toward me.
“Who—”
“Who are you?”
“What…?”
“Who are you, and why were you trying to get into the palace by climbing over the balcony like a thief?”
I demanded an explanation before he could even make sense of the situation.
“And who are you?”
Now fully conscious, the man questioned me with an incredulous expression.
But I had no intention of telling him anything about myself before hearing his answer.
“I asked you first.”
I pressed my knee firmly against his solar plexus in a threatening manner. If he didn’t give me a proper answer, I intended to put my full weight into it and apply even more pressure.
“I-I live here!”
Realizing what I intended to do, the man panicked and hurriedly tried to explain himself.
“You live here?”
“Y-yes! I’m a count of the palace!”
“If you’re a count of the palace, why were you trying to get in by climbing over the balcony?”
Surely a noble who lived in the Imperial Palace had no reason to sneak inside like this.
Who does he think he’s fooling?
When I pressed down harder with my knee, he squirmed like a slug sprinkled with salt.
“Because I sneaked out without His Majesty’s permission!”
“You sneaked out?”
“His Majesty doesn’t particularly like me leaving the palace grounds. So I slipped out before the ball started, and now I’m coming back in.”
“Why doesn’t His Majesty like you going out?”
“T-that’s a personal matter. Anyway, it has nothing to do with what’s happening right now.”
“Hmm.”
I narrowed my eyes and examined him carefully.
The clothes he wore were made of rather luxurious fabric and followed the latest fashion.
They fit him perfectly, and the design suited him, too. They didn’t look like clothes he’d stolen or borrowed.
A faint scent of perfume mingled with the smell of alcohol coming from him. It seemed he’d already had a drink somewhere.
On top of that, he wasn’t carrying any weapons.
He’s far too careless to be an intruder.
It seemed quite likely that he was telling the truth when he said he’d tried to sneak back in because he didn’t want anyone to discover that he’d left the palace grounds.
“Fine. I’ll believe you.”
“How kind of you. I’d be even more grateful if you’d get off me.”
When I climbed off him, the man coughed and struggled to sit up.
I folded my arms and watched him get to his feet, brushing bits of grass off his clothes, before speaking.
“Are you going to climb back up to the balcony?”
“Unless another lady decides to throw a punch at me, yes.”
Ha! Very funny.
“Then I have one favor to ask. When you climb back up, please toss my shoes down from the balcony.”
“My shoes?”
The man looked at me as though I’d just said something completely absurd. In response, I lifted the hem of my dress.
Only then did he seem to understand, as his gaze fell on my feet, clad in nothing but silk stockings.
“You jumped down? From the second floor?”
He looked between the balcony and me, utterly dumbfounded.
“For a healthy lady, it’s not particularly difficult.”
“I don’t think physical health is the issue here…”
“So, are you going to give them to me or not? It’s impossible to climb walls like you do while wearing a dress.”
“I can give them to you, but… what do I get in return for all that effort?”
At his shameless question, I scoffed.
“I won’t tell anyone I met you, Count.”
“…And how exactly does that benefit me?”
“Of course it does. That way, rumors won’t spread that you sneaked out of the palace and got punched in the jaw by a woman on your way back in. I’m protecting your dignity.”
“Hmm…”
He rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. After considering my argument, he nodded as though he had to admit I had a point.
Then, moving as swiftly as a flying squirrel, he scrambled up the wall and climbed back onto the balcony. Judging by how effortlessly he moved, this probably wasn’t the first or second time he’d pulled such a stunt.
Once over the railing, the man picked up my shoes.
All he had to do now was toss them down. Instead, he stared at them for a while, deliberately dragging things out.
“What are you doing?”
Growing impatient, I urged him on. The man glanced at me, then placed my shoes back on the balcony.
“Now that I think about it, the benefits I’d receive are far too small compared to all the trouble I’ve gone through. You’ve practically broken my jaw, too, so let’s call it even.”
With that, he hurried away and disappeared into the building.
“Hey! Stop messing around! Hey!”
But there was no answer.
“What the heck? Did he really leave?”
You little punk!
As Jereon walked lightly down the corridors of the Grand Palace, he suddenly realized that he was in a rather good mood.
Just a few hours earlier, his day had been as dull and uneventful as any other.
But an unexpected encounter followed by a little commotion had completely turned his expectations upside down.
The moment he’d come face-to-face with the young woman on the balcony, Jereon had expected her to scream or become frightened.
If she had to react at all, it would have been better for him if she’d simply frozen in fear. That way, he could have entered the palace without having to offer any explanations.
But the woman had been different. Instead of being frightened, she’d shouted at him, demanding to know who the hell he was, and attacked him without the slightest hesitation.
Not even a slap. She went straight for a punch…
And it had been a proper punch, too.
If her fist had landed just a little higher, he wouldn’t have had the luxury of leisurely reflecting on the encounter now.
What was more, even after her attack sent a man crashing to the ground, she hadn’t been the least bit shaken. She hadn’t run away or shown any concern for him.
Instead, she’d boldly subdued him the moment he regained consciousness and demanded to know his identity, all while glaring at him with golden eyes that seemed capable of seeing right through anything.
If anyone looks suspicious here, it’s her.
Noble young ladies learned swordsmanship as part of their education.
However, most of them merely practiced simple movements while wielding slender rapiers. Few ever actually used a sword in a real fight, and hand-to-hand combat was even rarer.
But that woman had been a skilled fighter. The way she’d expertly driven her knee into his solar plexus was proof enough.
For a moment, he’d wondered whether she was a mercenary pretending to be a noblewoman. But her skin was flawless, without a single scar, and the jewelry she wore appeared to be of excellent quality.
Even the jeweled pin adorning her elegantly arranged black hair made it clear that she wasn’t some young lady from an insignificant family.
And yet, she’d had the audacity to jump from the second floor.
She was an interesting woman.
Although the jaw she’d punched was still aching.
It suddenly occurred to him that, since he hadn’t thrown her shoes down, she would have to enter the palace wearing nothing but silk stockings.
He wondered whether she’d simply walked through the door or found some other way inside.
Considering she was capable of jumping down from the second floor, perhaps she’d climbed over a balcony just as he had.
Should I have asked her name?
Lost in such pointless thoughts, he rounded a corner when someone suddenly darted out in front of him.
Fortunately, he quickly stepped backward and avoided a collision.
“You know it’s dangerous to run like that in the corridors.”
But instead of apologizing, the man who had rushed toward him shouted at him.
“What are you doing here right now, Your Imperial Highness the Crown Prince?!”
