“My fellow knights. I know you all must be tired from the long battles and marches. Are you lacking anything in your life here?”

“No!”

“Great, Your Grace! The food is really delicious!”

“Right! The beds are so comfortable that I fall asleep as soon as I lie down!”

The knights all laughed. The Duke also showed a pleased smile.

“That’s good to hear. Today, I want to share my thoughts with you all and talk about the path we will take going forward.”

The atmosphere suddenly became solemn, and everyone looked at each other, unsure of what was happening.

“Our North has been the shield of the Empire, facing numerous wars and battles. Recently, these have become more frequent. However, what we received in return was an attempt to poison me and an assassination attempt on my aide and Vice-Captain of Knights, Knight Nugent.”

“That’s so unjust and infuriating!”

“Just thinking about it wakes me up from sleep! Those damn Southerners! How dare they!”

Several large and rough-looking knights shouted.

“Yes. But the bad ones aren’t the people of the South. They are also citizens of the Empire that we must protect. Those who have wronged us are a few in power. But I have.”

The Duke paused. Everyone waited for his next words.

“Endured until now. Because I thought it was the way to protect everyone.”

‘Your Grace…’

I understood his feelings. But because he endured, he was defeated in his previous life.

“But now. I have decided not to tolerate this situation any longer when my people are threatened, and my proud and great knights are harmed and torn apart. I, Sion Bellfast, will now cunningly fight against those who threaten and harm the North. I will make them kneel under my sword.”

There was a cold anger in his calm voice.

A long silence filled the hall.

Breaking the silence was a knight who stood up. It was General Emilus of the 3rd unit, whom I had crossed swords with before.

“That’s the words I wanted to hear more than any encouragement or praise! Duke, I, Emilus, will follow you with my life!”

“I too will devote my life!”

“Duke, please use me for the cause!”

Everyone rushed to kneel and pay their respects to the Duke.

“No need for your lives. I need you alive. And what I plan to do is not battle, but politics, from now on.”

The knights’ faces brightened.

‘Not battle, but politics…’

I looked at the Duke.
In the previous life, around this time, Duke Bellfast had not fully overcome the sorrow left by the previous regent of the North, Count Hern Nugent.

Count Hern Nugent, Arcadia Nugent’s father, was the head of the first noble family in the North who guarded the North in place of the young Sion Bellfast, who had to be a hostage in the capital at the age of eight.

Eight years ago, he was assassinated by the Black Beetles, allowing Duke Bellfast to return to the North. It was part of Rahert’s plan to send the Duke back to the North and then continuously drive him into battlefields, intending to kill him.

The young Duke was welcomed back by the people of the North who still harbored longing for Hern Nugent, like a ‘scar’.

But now, Sion Bellfast declared.

He said he wanted to engage in politics, not battle, and make them kneel before the North’s sword.

Arcadia’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

Arcadia, who had to come to the capital at the age of nine to assist the eight-year-old Duke, must have been deeply scarred by his father’s death.

But now, Sion Bellfast was alive and asking them to witness the success of my politics, our politics.

I felt my heart flutter.

‘Your Grace just gave hope to these people, and to me as well. The words you just spoke were what I wanted to hear from you in this life.’

The Duke spoke.

“For that purpose, there is something I want to do for the first time. You all know who the ‘one thing’ I brought from the South is, right?”

Everyone then looked at me.

‘!’

I was taken aback. It was a situation I had not been informed of in advance.

‘What?’

“Esdel is a person who is essential for our politics. She has information about the South that we don’t know. I intend to use her for that purpose. Therefore… I want to appoint her as a ‘knight-trainee’ of the North here and now.”

The knights began to murmur.

“As a knight-trainee?”

“I’ve seen her good sword skills, but to become a knight-trainee immediately without a squire period? Isn’t that unprecedented?”

“She doesn’t seem untrustworthy, but she was a confidante of the Southern Duke’s daughter.”

“Shouldn’t we observe her for a while longer? Just to be safe.”

Their murmuring reached my ears.

Everything they said was correct.

From their point of view, it’s one thing to pity me, but another to trust me as one of them.

Even if the South made my face half what it is, that doesn’t prove my loyalty to the North.

Then, Knight Emilus spoke.