“Arcadia, make this lady serve as my close attendant. It’s an order.”

“What?”

Arcadia looked at the Grand Duke with a face that seemed to doubt his own ears. With his green eyes wide open.

I also looked at the Northern Grand Duke, Sion Belfast, in surprise.

‘He said he didn’t trust me, so why?’

“Arcadia, I’m scared.”

At the Grand Duke’s playful reply, Arcadia quickly lowered his raised eyes. But soon he raised them again, as if feeling wronged. Then he uttered words that didn’t match his pure and mysterious face.

“Your Highness, don’t you still not know much about this woman? Whether she was mistreated or not, she was a close attendant that Medeia went crazy trying not to give up. What if she tries to poison you, or stab you with a knife while you’re sleeping, or even break your horse’s legs to injure you?”

How vicious.

I frowned without realizing it.

Arcadia, you have a personality that stabs with words, beyond just being honest.

“You’re too vicious, Arcadia. And because you just recited with your own mouth the things this woman could do, even if she could do them, this lady.”

The Grand Duke looked into my eyes.

“Can no longer do so. If she really is trying to kill me as a spy for the Southern Grand Duke, I might end up being assassinated in a cruel way I’ve never heard of before, rather than the methods you mentioned.”

……This is crazy.

Are all Northern men this straightforward to the point of being absurd?

Well, perhaps this aspect is a weapon that bewilders cunning enemies.

“Your Highness!”

At Arcadia’s reproachful call, the Grand Duke looked at me.

“If that’s the plan, I’d rather be grateful if you did it quickly. We don’t have time to spend long distinguishing black from white.”

His pupils had already cooled. Like the surface of a cold winter lake.

The Grand Duke smiled at Arcadia.

“Don’t worry. This body is accustomed to poison and I’m not one to sleep deeply, so the things you’re worried about won’t be easy.”

“Your Highness! Stop putting yourself on the line!”

Arcadia’s eyes reddened.

Ah.

Arcadia knows. Who it was that the Grand Duke tried to save even by poisoning himself.

Belfast suddenly became serious.

“To change the situation, we have no choice but to bet big.”

“Isn’t this woman not even close to being a big bet?”

Arcadia asked back. The Grand Duke said nothing. He just glanced at me again. More precisely, at my sky-blue eyes.

I swallowed unconsciously at that gaze.

What is it?

When I tensed up, the Grand Duke turned his gaze away.

Arcadia, also seemingly flustered by the Grand Duke’s silence, looked at me.

“This lady wanted to run away, but Medeia didn’t want to let her go. She even offered to give her a gold mine. If I say it’s to know the reason for that, would it be considered somewhat worthwhile? Arcadia.”

“Shall we try torture?”

“We’re not the South, Lord Nugent.”

The aura surrounding the Grand Duke cooled down sharply.

“I apologize.”

Arcadia bowed his head.

“It was a shameful thing to say.”

“Even if I say close attendant, it doesn’t mean I’ll keep her right beside me all the time. Anyway, if it’s accommodation work, it’ll be Moby. If it’s combat-related, it’ll be Ergo from the armory. If it’s taking care of patients, she’ll go under the medical camp leader. After entering one of these three places, have her attend to me if there’s anything related to me. There will be many watchful eyes, so that might be safer.”

I was confused whether that safety meant my safety or the Grand Duke’s own safety.

Fortunately, Arcadia seemed to accept those words and bowed his head. Then the Grand Duke looked at me. He was asking for my opinion.

I bowed my head deeply.

“Grand Duke, I will follow as you wish.”

There’s no reason not to follow. Right now, before my eyes are the living Lord Arcadia and the Northern Grand Duke, Sion Belfast.

That fact alone made my heart swell.

[This is the timeline separator]

The swelling heart cooled down unfamiliarly a few hours later.

Around a large white table, with the Grand Duke Belfast at the head, Arcadia and three men are seated on either side.

I am standing opposite the Grand Duke.

Quickly and decisively, the Grand Duke had called the heads of three departments – accommodation, weapons, and medical – to Deputy Commander Arcadia’s tent.

Moby – whose title was said to be field kitchen chef – responsible for the accommodation and meals of knights and soldiers accompanying the battlefield, Ergo, the head of the blacksmith department that manufactures and manages the knights’ weapons, and the doctor – head of the medical tent – whom I had briefly seen when asking about the yellow caterpillar.

“In this situation, one of you three will have to take charge of that woman.”

As soon as Arcadia’s words fell, the man called Ergo opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but I don’t want to.”

Ergo, tall and seemingly sturdy, had sharp eyes befitting someone who works with iron. Without even giving a glance to me standing in the corner, he stood up and deeply bowed his waist to the Grand Duke.

“I cannot bring someone with unclear identity into the armory of the Northern Knights. Weapons are the life of a knight.”

It’s a stubborn but correct statement.

“I also feel a bit uneasy about bringing that woman near our injured soldiers for the same reason……”

The thin doctor with a straight posture pushed his round glasses up his nose and bowed his head. The Northern Grand Duke asked the last remaining person, the field kitchen chef Moby.

“What about you?”

“I……”

He scrutinizes me carefully.

“I don’t know anything about that young lady, but I think there must be a reason why the Grand Duke brought her. I, Moby, will take her. Will a month or so until we reach the North be enough?”

“Yes. If by any chance there’s an accident with the food the soldiers eat, I’ll take responsibility then.”

“Why should Your Highness take responsibility! Of course, that woman should be responsible then.”

Arcadia raised his voice at Belfast’s words.

“Lord Nugent is right.”

Ergo chimed in.

The Grand Duke said,

“If she causes an accident, she won’t survive at that moment, so what responsibility could she take?”

The Grand Duke looked at me with cold eyes.

My heart was confused by that gaze that went back and forth between cold and warm.

I see, if an accident occurs, you won’t let me live safely.

The Grand Duke’s gaze was sincere. So I steeled my heart as well.

I must prove myself. Even if it’s the Grand Duke, I don’t want to live reluctantly relying on someone else’s protection.

“If any problems arise because of me, I will accept whatever punishment gladly. But I swear I will never do anything harmful to the North.”

I bowed my head before them.

I am the one who brought down the North in my previous life. Thinking of that sin, I can endure this kind of cold treatment a thousand or ten thousand times.

At that moment, the Grand Duke asked.

“Do you know how to handle a sword?”

What?

Clearly, when I went to find the Grand Duke to warn about the threat of poisoning, I said I had received assassin training.

Yet he asks me as if I know nothing at all.

What could be the reason?

[Ha, quite provocative. Well, the most useful thing is one. Fighting well, that’s the best.] [Then, yes. I can fight well. That’s what I’m good at.]

Could he have heard the conversation I had with Arcadia just before?

How much did he hear?

“Did you do sword-related work in the South?”

Arcadia asked me. I hesitated, not knowing how to answer.

The one who broke the short silence was the Grand Duke.

“It seems the South intends to turn all employees into soldiers. Did they teach you swordsmanship too?”

The Grand Duke’s tone was calm. That tone, calm as if familiar, made my tense heart settle a little.

I answered calmly. Though it wasn’t true.

“I learned a little by watching over their shoulders.”

Then the man called Ergo burst out angrily.

“How dare you look down on the sword. Is swordsmanship something you can learn by watching over shoulders!”

“Ergo, where do you think you are to lose your temper?”

At Moby’s rebuke, Ergo took out a handkerchief and wiped his sweat.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I just……”

But the Grand Duke himself looked unbothered.

I answered.

“I don’t mean to look down on it.”

“Then what did you do besides learning the sword over shoulders?”

Arcadia’s question was sharp.

As expected, the puppy-like appearance only shows when he’s with the Grand Duke. This person is the cold right-hand man of the Grand Duke.

Uttering words like having received assassin training in front of this person would be nothing short of suicide. Especially in this situation where many people already suspect me of being a spy from the South.

I have to lie. Although I don’t like lying in front of the Grand Duke.

“I cleaned.”

“What kind of cleaning?”

“While living in the basement of the main castle, I cleaned the rooms of the maids there… and such.”

That’s all I did a few times when I was very young, due to the maids’ bullying.

“You cleaned the maids’ rooms?”

Arcadia asked with a surprised face.

“Yes, my position in the main castle was below the maids.”

“Weren’t you the confidant of the Grand Duchess?”

“I might be called a lowly confidant if that counts as a confidant, but given my appearance, the Young Lady occasionally gave me secret errands that she didn’t assign to others.”

“What kind of errands do you mean?”

The Grand Duke asked.

“She has her own poisonous herb garden. When the person managing the poisonous herb garden secretly visited the main castle, ominous things would happen.”

At those words, everyone’s gaze at the gathering was fixed on me. Those except Arcadia and the Grand Duke even changed their expressions.

The Grand Duke asked.

“Was it your job to bring that person?”

“It wasn’t me who made direct contact, but Lady Medeia’s confidant, Baroness Berk. When that person arrived, I secretly guided them to where the Young Lady was.”

Of course, this is a lie.

In my previous life, Medeia hid the existence of the poisonous herb garden manager from me. I only learned of the manager’s existence a few years ago.

“I’m the only one who properly knows that person’s face and identity. Even Lady Berk doesn’t know their face.”

This was true. Lady Berk’s job was only up to making contact. That person always changed their name and identity when revealing themselves.

Because of that, only I, who was the white butterfly, know that the person with that face is the poisonous herb garden manager.

The Grand Duke said.

“So that’s why you told me to be careful of poison.”

“……Yes.”

The Grand Duke is helping me.

Something warm rose inside my heart.

“And I heard from Lord Nugent. That if I can handle a sword, I’d be more useful. I can handle a sword, so I want to be of help with it someday.”

After finishing those words, I raised my head that had been bowed for a long time.

“You want to be of help with a sword?”

The Grand Duke’s voice lowered.

“Yes. I want to learn properly, not just over shoulders.”

Then Ergo laughed quietly.

“You really do look down on the sword. If you’re so good, why don’t you prove it?”

The Grand Duke said.

“Northerners take responsibility for their words. You should do the same.”

“Your Highness, that woman is from the South.”

Arcadia added as soon as the Grand Duke’s words fell.

You really do hate the South. But so do I.

“The place where I was born is not the South.”

This is true.

In the past shown by my mother’s dagger, everywhere was full of coniferous forests. Such trees grow in the North, not the South.

“I just…… want to be a citizen of this Delfast Empire and a subject of the North.”

The Grand Duke was silent. Arcadia said.

“Is it your wish to get thoroughly beaten with a sword? This is the Northern Knights, where only the empire’s elite gather.”

I waited for the Grand Duke’s answer. After a long while, his tightly closed mouth finally opened.

“Let’s do that.”

Our gazes met in the air.

“Your Highness.”

“Opportunities should be fair.”

The Grand Duke stopped Ergo’s words.

“Let Lord Nugent decide the method, time, and place to prove the sword skills.”

“Understood.”

Arcadia glanced at me.

I avoided his gaze. And gathered courage to speak.

“Thank you. And Grand Duke. If I take responsibility for my words and prove myself, may I make one request?”

“What is it?”

I took a deep breath. And quietly opened my mouth.

“Could you make me a new half-mask? I want to live showing the undistorted side of my face.”

I carefully looked at the Grand Duke.

The left corner of the Grand Duke’s mouth rose gently. A warm light flickered in his eyes that had looked cold.

“Are you asking to change the direction of the half-mask?”

“Yes, I’m being shameless, but I ask this of you.”