– Kuung!

‘Kuung?’

Not a slash or a chop?

I gingerly felt my neck. The cold neck was still attached intact.

What wasn’t intact was Frost. The ice sword hadn’t reached my neck, and Frost’s large body had crumbled and collapsed on the floor.

He must have fainted due to the side effects of the mana poison that caused frequent seizures.

I uncurled my body and approached Frost lying on the floor, poking him gently with my toes.

A faint groan escaped, as if he wasn’t completely unconscious.

I placed a hand on his forehead – it was burning hot. Earlier it had been ice cold…

Thinking I needed to apply acupuncture before he woke up, I hurriedly sterilized the silver needles in the candlelight and wiped them with a dry cloth. Then I closed my eyes and concentrated as much as possible.

I hoped the treatment would be effective.

This time, the green light gathering on the silver needles flickered more intensely and strongly.

“Your Grace, this will sting a little.”

I began to insert the silver needles infused with green aura into Frost’s abdomen and sides, which had been melted and battered by the demonic sword’s poison. The silver needles I had prepared in my dress pocket were inserted one by one into Frost’s stomach.

“Ugh! Urgh…! Ugh…! Urgh…!”

Harsh groans burst from Frost’s mouth with each needle I inserted.

The pain must be severe, given how deep and wide the wounds were.

“Breathe! Take deep breaths. Breathe with each needle insertion!”

Deep breathing helps reduce the pain somewhat.

Frost seemed unable to breathe as he wanted, gritting his teeth at the unrelenting pain before losing what little consciousness remained and going limp.

That was probably for the best. He wouldn’t feel the pain if he was completely unconscious.

I finished inserting the last silver needle and plopped down next to Frost, my whole body drenched in sweat.

As I wiped the sweat trickling down my eyes with the back of my hand, the door to the bedchamber suddenly burst open.

“Your Grace! I hate you!”

A sharp woman’s voice rang out, followed by a beautiful woman in a cherry blossom-colored dress with brilliant golden hair flowing behind her. She was a stunning beauty who lit up the dim room as if dozens of diamond chandeliers had been turned on.

“Lady Shavell! You mustn’t do this! His Grace is currently- eek!”

The elderly butler Alexis, who was about to say that His Grace was currently doing this and that with Lady Grande so they shouldn’t interfere, let out a scream with his Adam’s apple fully visible.

“Emergency! Emergency! The Duke has collapsed! Emergency!”

“Your Highness! Duke!”

The woman called Shavell ran frantically towards Frost lying on the floor.

“Your Highness! Your Highness!”

The woman grabbed Frost and shook him violently, her hands as frantic as her movements.

“Don’t shake him so roughly. It’ll be troublesome if the needles go deeper into his body.”

“What…!”

Shavell’s gaze finally turned to the silver needles sticking out of Frost’s abdomen and sides like porcupine quills.

“You…! What have you done to our lord!”

“Huh? Well, that’s…”

– Slap!

Without giving me time to answer, the woman’s hand struck my cheek. My body staggered for a moment from the powerful slap that didn’t suit her delicate frame.

Apparently unsatisfied with just one blow, the fierce blonde beauty’s purple eyes blazed as if on fire, and she raised her slender arm to strike me again.

I reflexively grabbed her wrist and twisted it, causing the woman to scream “Kyaa!”

Quickly backing away, I raised both hands and politely apologized while swallowing the blood in my burst mouth.

“Ah. I’m sorry. It’s become a habit, I did it without thinking.”

“You…! You!”

The woman did not accept my apology. After checking her reddened wrist, she lunged at me, grabbed my hair, and shook it roughly. This time I stayed still.

I had felt it when I was slapped too, but the woman was stronger than she looked. It was painful, as if my scalp was being torn off, but I endured it.

Still, I had been a knight in my past life. I deserved to have my hair pulled for hurting a delicate lady, even if I couldn’t protect her.

But Leo Dominici, the captain of the Duke’s knights who had rushed over at the butler’s call, fretted that she might hurt herself while pulling my hair.

“Lady Shavell, you shouldn’t touch just anything. You’ll get hurt.”

‘Just anything’, he says. This guy who trembled and chattered his teeth when I drew my sword.

“Lady Shavell. Please let go now.”

The head butler, who had been looking anxiously at the needles stuck all over the Duke’s abdomen, called out to Shavell.

“It seems only Lady Grande can remove the needles stuck in His Highness’s body now.”

Shavell reluctantly let go of my hair. She glared at me as I removed the needles, then cried out sharply with tears welling up in her milk-white face.

“If anything happens to His Highness, kill that wench too! No, behead her right now!”

Only after the dazzling beauty who shone even without light had completely disappeared from view, supported by a maid, did I remember who that woman was.

‘Shavell Allery. Grand Duke Frost Ielheim’s mistress.’

The nobles of the capital had gossiped for a long time about how the young Duke had brought a mistress into his bedroom and lived a dissolute life without even getting married.

I hadn’t believed it at the time.

The man I had seen fighting monsters alongside Frost on the Emperor’s orders in my past life, or subduing barbarian tribes on the southern border, was not the type to keep a mistress and enjoy a debauched nightlife.

On the contrary, he was quite an ascetic man, to the point of being called obsessive-compulsive.

After the subjugations ended, local lords would send women to our bedrooms to repay the favor more than once, but they were all chased away without even crossing the threshold.

For me, it was because I was afraid of being exposed as a woman. The Imperial Knights strictly prohibited women and commoners from joining, and being the owner of the holy sword was no exception.

The women who came to our bedrooms were the most beautiful in the region, to the point where I wondered if I could have refused if I were really a man.

So when I heard rumors about Frost’s mistress, I dismissed it as ridiculous gossip made up by those jealous of him.

But seeing Shavell in person, I couldn’t help but nod.

Until now, I had thought the Emperor was the most beautiful person in the Empire, male or female, but Frost’s mistress, glittering all over in gold, was the most beautiful person on earth, unprecedented in history, male or female.

So no matter how great a beauty was presented to him, they must have all looked like small fry to that Frost.

‘Wait. Then am I small fry too?’

Frost’s earlier question pricked my conscience.

My face grew hot as I recalled the Duke’s face sneering at me.

Damn that Duke Grande! I thought he just had a rotten personality, but it turns out his eyesight is terrible too.

Telling a small fry to become the Duke’s wife, surpassing the Empire’s greatest – no, the world’s greatest beauty?

“Is he crazy?”

I was snorting with laughter, arms crossed at the absurdity, when Captain Leo poked my back with the tip of his scabbard.

Leo seemed to have finally remembered his original duty after the Duke’s personal physician rushed over, checked all the areas where the Duke had been needled, and assured there was nothing unusual.

“Lady Grande. Would you come with me for a moment?”

His tone was polite, but his eyes were as fierce as if dealing with an assassin who had flown into the Duke’s bedchamber in the middle of the night.

“Sir. Please call Duke Grande. I will not answer anything until the family lawyer arrives.”

I raised my chin as high as I could, recalling the noble ladies I had seen at the Imperial Palace, and asserted my rights.

“Well, there’s no need to answer. When the Duke wakes up, we can just execute you on the spot.”

“E-execute?”

“Yes. We’ll need to confirm if there are any accomplices, so we can’t give you a merciful beheading right away, but…”

Captain Leo drawled ominously, slowly stroking his scabbard.

“I pride myself on our Duke’s underground dungeon torture devices being the best in the Empire, but people rarely acknowledge that. They go on about how the Imperial torture is the most vicious, hurting my pride. Why is there such a difference? What makes us different?”

His arrogant attitude, tilting his head askew as he questioned, was truly insolent.

“Hmm. Maybe because there are those who have seen it, but no one has come out to talk about it…?”

I clasped my hands together and answered politely.

Right now, I’m just Yuriella Grande. Moreover, I’m small fry the Duke won’t even glance at. And I’m a suspect who recklessly stuck suspicious needles into His Grace the Duke’s sacred body.

“You’re more clever than you look. That’s correct.”

If it’s correct, will you let me go?

“Then shall we go check for ourselves?”

The knight captain mercilessly dragged me down to the Duke’s underground dungeon where not a speck of light entered.

In the middle of the interrogation room lined with terrifying torture devices.

Leo sat across from me with a long table between us, and laid out needles on a red velvet cloth, ranging from thin needles as fine as hair to thick needles that left clear puncture marks when pricked.

“You say you tried to heal the Duke with these needles? But I’ve never heard of such a treatment method, Lady Grande.”

“It’s a medical technique I learned from the medicine peddler troupe I was with before joining the Grande family. A wandering doctor from across the sea in the Eastern Continent taught me.”

“Is that true?”

Half right and half wrong.

It was the real Yuriella who learned acupuncture, and I was able to perform that strange medical technique relying on Yuriella’s memories after entering this body.

“It’s absolutely true! If it’s a lie, you can cut off all ten of my fingers.”

I spoke confidently and reliably. But the response was cold.

“We don’t need your fingers. The price for lies is still the neck.”

“The Duke’s collapse wasn’t because of my needles, but because of his condition. His Grace collapsed first, and I applied the needles afterwards.”

I retorted decisively, but passing through Yuriella’s sweet voice, the credibility plummeted.

“This or that. If anything happens to the Duke, your neck will be cut, my lady.”

Leo said, rolling the thick needle he was holding into a small ball with his thumb and forefinger and flicking it into the air with a ping.

“Damn it! This guy or that guy, neck! neck! Is there some ghost obsessed with cutting off other people’s necks at the end of every sentence!”

I shouted, unable to hold back anymore. The neck the Emperor cut still felt cold, and I couldn’t stand them constantly mentioning my neck.

Leo clicked his tongue as he caught me trying to stand up abruptly and falling backwards.

“My lady. I’m so stunned I want to praise you. Not only did you daringly poke needle holes in His precious body. You even dare to utter profanities in front of me, the captain of the Ielheim Knights. Your guts must be quite swollen.”

Well. The Ielheim Knights. Also known as the Angelus Knights. What kind of men were they?

They were fierce and rough men who would beat polar bears with broken branches and throw themselves at magical beasts with bare hands while cracking jokes. No wonder the previous Duke Ielheim gave them the nickname ‘Angelus’, meaning angel, to tell them to curb their temper a bit.

“Usually, there are two reactions when arrested by our knights. Either fainting on the spot from fear, or begging for their lives. But you, my lady, even kicked and attempted a roundhouse kick earlier.”

“My feet didn’t even come close to the knights though.”

I had unconsciously tried to escape. I only ended up adding more bruises and injuries to my body.

“You were a dancing girl in a medicine peddler troupe before coming to the Duke’s household, right? But how were you able to immediately identify each of our knights’ specialties and weaknesses? If you had more strength, you could have inflicted fatal wounds.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You, my lady.”

“You must have seen wrong. As you said, I was just a dancing girl from a medicine peddler troupe.”

I shrugged my shoulders with an innocent face, but the knight captain’s eyes narrowed. His expression showed he didn’t trust my feigned ignorance at all.

“You dared to poke needle holes in His Grace the Duke’s sacred body. And it’s not just any poison, but mana poison scattered by Flamma transformed into a demonic sword. If you couldn’t cure it but still damaged his body, you deserve to die. And if you have the ability to cure it, isn’t it even more imperative that we don’t let you live? Knowing a lot about mana poison means you must be someone who can be close to that poison.”

This Leo fellow, I thought he was only skilled with the sword, but he conducts quite a logical interrogation. If the old chief investigator at the Imperial Palace saw him, he’d want to take him as a disciple.

I raised my head stiffly, not wanting to be pushed back by Leo. At times like this, you have to push back to win.

“Please believe me. I’m sure my acupuncture will help the Duke! If you entrust him to me, I’ll completely cure the mana poison that has taken root in the Duke’s body!”

“Really?”

“Really!”

I wish it were true.

The holy sword Flamma turning into a demonic sword is unprecedented in the history of holy swords. The mana poison flowing from that demonic sword is also a deadly poison that has never existed in the world before.

Duke Grande’s mention of the holy sword Aerie was just a guess, since Aerie is known to have healing powers.

We need to find a way to detoxify from now on. And that’s only possible if I can persuade Aerie, who is quite upset with me.

‘But I can’t make a contract…’

I can’t rashly make a contract with Aerie when I don’t know why Flamma became a demonic sword, or if Flamma has become a demonic sword permanently. I don’t have the qualifications either…

But I will find a way to cure the mana poison somehow. I must.

For my sake, and for Frost’s sake.

That night, as I clenched my fists and made my resolution, Grand Duke Frost Ielheim was fighting for his life.

The personal physician and priests were summoned in the middle of the night, and when the words “You should prepare yourselves” finally fell from their lips, the Duke’s residence sank into deep silence.