“Hiyah!”

“Ha!”

“Your left is open! Focus more!”

Black Knights Commander Lucian Temery was the milk brother of his lord Darius. The Temery family was a loyal vassal house to the northern Inkhart Grand Duchy, and Lucian had never forgotten this fact.

His younger sister Rose seemed to have been greatly shocked by the marriage of the lord she had followed since childhood.

It was said that on the day the Grand Duchess arrived, she had clashed with the new Grand Duchess and even received punishment.

It wasn’t that he disliked the Grand Duchess for punishing his beloved younger sister.

However, a woman from the Porche Marquis family. Lucian wasn’t particularly pleased with this decision either.

‘A woman from a mere marquis family, not even royalty.’

It was a marriage that lowered the status of the Inkhart Grand Duchy he served with all his heart. The lowering of the Inkhart Grand Duchy’s status meant that his own status as its vassal would also be lowered.

“Everyone, stop training!”

“Huh?”

The signal flag indicating a halt to training was waved vigorously. Lucian removed his sweat-soaked helmet.

Behind the servant, a young woman who seemed out of place on the training grounds was approaching with dainty steps.

‘Who is that woman?’

“The Lady has arrived.”

“Please be at ease. Today, the Grand Duke gave me permission to look around the castle, so I came here.”

Perhaps because he had a poor impression of the Grand Duchess.

Lucian felt irritated by Anette’s tone, which sounded as if she had just come out for a stroll.

‘Why does she keep glancing around curiously? As if she’s appraising the value of the training grounds.’

Most of the knights maintained awkward expressions and didn’t even speak to Anette, despite the arrival of their lord’s wife.

Thump, a subordinate patted Lucian’s back from behind.

“Commander, what would simple folk like us know? Shouldn’t you, as our representative, at least guide the Lady around?”

“Oh, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I just came because I wanted to see the training grounds. How much does this pillar cost… No, I mean, I was just curious to see how hard you all work.”

“We’re sorry for the poor reception, given your rare visit, my Lady. However, this is a serious place where knights train.”

Lucian spoke coldly.

Lucian’s long golden hair, tied back to avoid interfering with training, swished in sync with its owner’s brusque attitude.

“Your footsteps are disrupting the training grounds, my Lady. You’ve come wearing inappropriate shoes.”

At Lucian’s words, Anette looked down at her feet. The ground she had walked on was slightly indented from her high-heeled shoes.

Just as Lucian was about to reprimand Anette with an expression that clearly showed this was no place for childish games,

“If you understand, then please leave now…”

“You’re right. How rude of me, not knowing proper etiquette.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Anette promptly took off her shoes.

“Oh my, my Lady!”

The white lace socks were stained with mud. The face of the maid accompanying Anette turned pale.

“To think I was ruining the training grounds of the sweating, training knights with my shoe heels.”

Anette was now dangling two pairs of shoes in one hand.

She extended her other hand towards Lucian.

“Now that I’ve belatedly observed proper etiquette, I trust Sir Lucian will also uphold the courtesy a knight shows to a lady?”

She meant for him to bow and kiss the back of her hand.

‘To think a noblewoman who values face above all else would take off her shoes and expose her feet in front of others! Even if they’re not completely bare!’

‘Rumors will spread sourly through the castle. Whether they’ll be favorable to Sir Lucian or to the new Lady, I’m not sure!’

The knights’ tongues are lighter than a sparrow’s.

Anette’s toes, now stained brown with mud, wiggled cheerfully. The sight almost made her seem delighted to be free of the confining shoes.

In front, the bold Grand Duchess; behind, his subordinates waiting like sparrows for his reaction.

“…I apologize. I, Lucian, commander of the Black Knights, welcome the new mistress of Inkhart Castle.”

“Ooooh!”

The knights, forgetting who their commander was, enthusiastically applauded Anette’s preemptive strike.

* * *

After realizing that the castle’s financial situation might be worse than expected, the first place I visited was the knights’ training grounds.

Not just anyone can become a knight. It’s a place where high-class personnel gather – those of noble birth, talented in martial arts, and loyal to their lord. I thought if they had spent money anywhere, it would be there.

But the duchy’s flag hanging in the training grounds was so dirty it was impossible to tell when it was last washed, they were practicing with wooden swords due to a lack of training iron swords, and as for the training ground floor! The knights even grumbled about the ground being damaged just because I walked on it with high heels.

Really, how did the North survive until the female protagonist arrived?

‘Of course, it’s because the female lead discovered a legendary treasure in this impoverished North, giving out gold nuggets and curing diseases, that the people of the North couldn’t help but love her!’

Even if it’s just a setting to highlight the female protagonist, the current North is too poor.

Will the North really be able to become strong enough to defeat the Demon King by the time the female protagonist arrives?

‘Ah, really… It takes money to establish cotton fields, money for the blacksmith, money to reorganize the knights! Isn’t there anywhere money could fall from?’

Hmm, at times like this in romance fantasy novels, the reincarnators would use hints from the original work to make money…

* * *

“What did Anette do today?”

Darius put down his pen. He had just finished today’s work.

‘I thought she might come by herself if she felt lonely, but she didn’t.’

It’s not that he particularly missed her. He hadn’t asked about Anette all day, not wanting to reveal that he was secretly concerned about her. No, he just thought of it now.

While maintaining an outwardly indifferent expression, a small curiosity about Anette was sprouting in Darius’s eyes.

However, Daniel, who had heard from Anette’s maid about what she had been up to today, didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“She visited the training grounds, but Sir Lucian stopped Lady Anette.”

“What?”

“Though it doesn’t seem so, Sir Lucian has a hot temper. He probably had some complaints about the newly arrived Lady Anette. But Lady Anette put him in his place, and that stiff Sir Lucian couldn’t even move.”

Daniel added.

“In a way, it’s a good thing. She’s shown her strength, so no one will dare disrespect Lady Anette now.”

“Is it a good thing that my wife’s authority was questioned by a subordinate? Since when did the position of the North’s mistress need to be validated by subordinates?”

Darius shouted sharply.

The sickly previous Grand Duke was never fully accepted as the true master of the North until the end. The memory of his disrespected father overlapped with Anette.

‘No, it’s not the knights’ fault. This situation is my responsibility. I didn’t give Anette authority first.’

He had brought her as the wife of the Northern Grand Duke, but there wasn’t even a grand wedding ceremony. Without visible authority, the resistance from subordinates was natural.

If there’s no authority, then it should be given.

‘I should hold a ceremony right away where the knights swear allegiance to Anette.’

I’ll show them who your mistress is.

Gritting his teeth, Darius rose from his seat.

* * *

Anette was in her room. Perhaps because he had heard the story earlier, Darius thought Anette’s back looked even smaller today.

‘Anette…’

How should he comfort her? Holding a ceremony and establishing her authority were small matters. The important thing was that the wound in her heart wouldn’t heal easily.

‘Is this a book?’

The desk where Anette was sitting was piled with books. ‘History of the North’, ‘History of Inkhart Castle’, ‘The First Inkhart Grand Duke and the Subsequent Genealogy’. All were books about the folklore and history of the northern region.

‘Lucian, that guy, what on earth did he say to insult Anette.’

It was obvious. Anette must have turned to books about the North because she was rejected for being from the South.

Darius found it admirable that Anette was trying to adapt to the North, not giving up despite being ostracized for her place of origin.

“Anette, I…”

“Darius!”

Just as a corner of his heart was aching and he was about to comfort Anette’s trembling back,

Anette’s blue eyes curved like thin crescent moons as she looked at Darius.

Without warning, Anette stood up abruptly and hugged Darius tightly.

Far from being gloomy, Anette’s face was full of bright joy.

“Darius, I’ve discovered a treasure that was buried in this castle! We won’t have to worry about money for a while now!”

* * *

Bang, bang, bang. Whoosh.

As a corner of the old wall crumbled, an empty space appeared. Even then, people’s faces were still half in doubt, but now there was an expectant look of ‘Could it really be?’

“Let’s wait for the dust to settle first.”

As the hazy dust settled and the broken wall pieces were cleared away, there were two jars. Filled with gold coins.

Though time had passed and everything had become old and faded, only the gold coins in the jars were shining brightly. As if they had been waiting for this moment. It was the treasure Anette had spoken of.

A worker bit a gold coin that had been washed in water. The round tooth mark remained on the gold coin.

“This, this is really a gold coin! And it’s pure gold!”

“My goodness, the Lady’s words were true!”

Inkhart Castle was enveloped in a festive atmosphere.