Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The Duke wouldn’t let go of him, and Gamal tried to escape the prison knowing this, only to earn a whipping.

Nothing would change even if he contacted the Central Church, though the Priest was persistent. He seemed to resign after breaking his nose bone after struggling for over a day, while Glanz thought he was like a wriggling bug as he watched him.

“I apologized, Young Lady. He has a low origin, so he unknowingly made a mistake…”

Not paying attention to him, Leticia asked someone.

“Did you say that the escort was also taken to prison? Did you think that he might’ve been involved with the Priest Gamal?”

“…Yes. It seemed to be the judgment of the 3rd Division Knight Commander. He was also absent when you were attacked by the Priest.”

Even though it was her who told her escort to leave, she couldn’t tell the physician that.

So, Leticia just nodded her head and remembered the information about the knights.

There were a total of three different knights under the Maner family: 1st Division Red Knights, 2nd Division Iron Knights, and the 3rd Division Gray Knights. They were classified by the color, cuffs on their uniforms, and the duties they were assigned were different depending on their assignment.

The 1st Division, which was the Enemy Knights, were included in the knights that were directly under the command to protect the Duke Gaian from the front.

Leticia’s escort, Faver, was as good to be at the 2nd Division in terms of his skills, although he was at the bottom 3rd Division because he was a commoner.

‘My escort was in the prison.’

Glanz hinted that Leticia was worried about his life.

“In order to strengthen the security of the Young Lady compared to before, your escorts were now of the 2nd Division. The head of each department was chosen according to the Duke’s will to make you feel at ease.”

“No way…”

She was about to decline it, but Leticia shut her mouth. He didn’t want her to be his successor and yet, he entrusted her to the 2nd Division knights. There were no such decisions made on a whim.

Although Leticia wondered why her father suddenly changed his mind, it seemed like it would be difficult to know the reason unless she asked the Duke herself. After all, he was a person who wouldn’t easily give an answer even if she asked him.

But, she was more concerned about something rather than her father’s sudden change of his heart.

“By any chance, was it the 1st Division Knight Commander who selected my escort?”

“As far as I know, it was the 2nd Division’s commander.”

“…Oh, I see.”

Leticia relaxed, then stiffened her body with a sudden thought.

‘What kind of expression should I have when I meet him?’

Maybe one day, I can meet the commander of the 1st Division Knights.

She bit her lip at that thought. She can’t be nervous, because…

‘…Teacher.’

Count Yuro, commander of the 1st Division, was Leticia’s teacher and Young Lady Fione’s father, whom she was falsely accused of killing in her previous life.

‘I have to get hold of him tight, so Fione won’t die.’

However, it wasn’t her concern now. She solved Priest Gamal now. Even after that, her grandfather was still there, and there were seven years left before Fione could be in danger.

Exhaling slowly, she asked Glanz again.

“My escort has changed, did the Enemy Knight Commander have any opinions?”

“Ah, I remember Count Yuro headed to the Randel Estate at the Command of the Master. There were so many monsters there that Viscount Randel asked for reinforcements. Count Yuro probably didn’t know that you were injured because he was there.”

“That’s right, he was so busy since he’s the Enemy Knight’s commander. Better not to let him know.

Glanz did not feel any discomfort at Leticia’s words.

As she said, Count Euro was busy enough to be picked three fingers from the duke’s house. The reason he sometimes stopped by the Duke’s residence was because his youngest daughter Fione, who was ill, was staying in the mansion close to their villa.

But, he certainly won’t come back for something like this. He wouldn’t know of the news, and he couldn’t even leave his seat even if it was long finished.

The situation at the Randel Estate where high-level monsters show up frequently was dire, and it was the reason that Count Yuro led the Duke’s enlisted men there. However, there was even more surprising news.

[ T/N: Enlisted men/soldiers were soldiers reserved army for emergencies. ]

“Ah, I also heard that the Master was returning now from the Imperial Palace in a hurry. He also asked me if Young Lady was heavily injured. He said he’d like to see you with his own eyes even though I already sent him a letter…”

Leticia’s expression, as she listened to the doctor with a calm face, broke.

“Are you saying my father is coming?”

“Yes. I heard that he was having an audience with the Emperor when he left. His aide had much dissatisfaction as Master already delayed that before.”

’Sigh.’

Hearing his answer, she swallowed her sigh.

Leticia actually already knew about the news the physician told her. Duke Gaian had left for the Imperial Palace a few days before her grandfather’s death. It was to solve the food problem in the Winter Estate. He said they were coming up with a solution, though it was only to have a vain discussion as the Emperor constantly called up Duke Gaian.

Winter Estate had half the year winter and the other half summer, so they couldn’t grow plants in winter. Therefore, it was impossible to grow wheat with a long cultivation period in the barren land of the north, so they were always starving with the lack of stock.

The only thing they could grow were emergency crops, such as sweet potatoes and potatoes, which had a relatively shorter time of cultivation period. This wasn’t enough, so the north grew special and herbal plants together, then bought food with the funds they managed to raise by selling them.

However, it became especially difficult to cultivate special crops after the winter continued from fifty years ago in the Winter Estate.

Naturally, it made the Winter Estate poor, and it was also hard to buy food from groups of merchants, so it was a situation that needed help from the outside. There weren’t many families that could provide food.

The Royal Family, and the three central families excluding Winter—the Golden Family of the East, Asteban, the Demon Worshipper of the West, Nervad, and the Sacred Family of the South, Maner.

These three families and the Imperial Family had provided food for the north from fifty years ago, and the Emperor and the head of these families discussed how long they would provide food.

Nevertheless, ten years ago, the Eastern Asteban’s Head disappeared without leaving a successor behind, while the Nervad’s Head became half-psychotic and was uncooperative.

The Emperor at that time also tried to persuade the Nervad’s head to kill his own son, although he gave up when the half-crazed man didn’t give an answer. The Nervad’s Head had said that he had his own fish to fry and said he wouldn’t do anything until he could kill his son, who made a contract with the Great Evil.

[ T/N: ‘Have his/one’s own fish to try’ is an idiom that means someone has something more important, interesting, and profitable things to do. ]

Even under these circumstances, Emperor Franz was busy keeping an eye on the lord of the North — Count Winter because, under the Count Winter’s leadership, the northerners risked their lives to take charge of the invasion of demons and foreign powers.

The northern white wolf clan — Winter.

The Winter family had been protecting the North even before the Empire was established.

The Imperial Family could not turn away from Winter, which protected the Empire from demons and foreign powers. So, ways to provide food were decided through discussions between the emperor and the Duke of Gaian.

The Duke was now returning to the mansion even before they met into a consensus. He delayed his audience with the Emperor to see Leticia, whom he neglected all these times.

“…When did father say he would come?”

Her voice was trembling, but the physician didn’t notice. Then, the letter of the Duke delivered by the Duke’s aide came to the physician’s mind.

“He said that he would be riding his horse and not a carriage, so Master will arrive in two days.”

“So fast…”

Glanz smiled brightly at the Princess’s scared expression.

“It would be faster if he came back on a horse since he said that he was going to have a backache if he rides the luxury carriage, so it was better to ride a horse right away.”

Leticia shook her head, saying it was nonsense. It meant that the Duke of Gaian couldn’t come to see her, though Glanz thought differently and rolled his eyes.

Is it because the Duke, who only looked at the paperwork every day, is likely to fall off his horse?

“Young Lady might not know it, but the Duke is good at riding a horse. He served as an Imperial Knight for a while when he was young. Now that he spends all his time at his office, where would his skills go? So, don’t worry, Young Lady.”

At that, she turned her gaze from the physician to the window. Her cynical gaze turned to the flower blooming in the flower pot.

Glanz, who thought she was being shy, made a look as if he knew what her expression means, saying, ‘Young Lady also has a cute side.’

A young daughter waiting for her father.

It might be a pretty moving reunion, Glanz thought. He was more curious about the end of Priest Gamal rather than the possible emotional reunion of the two.

The physician then raised his wrist to check his watch before glancing at Leticia with anxious eyes.

“Then, can I go to study now? It’s a very important study for me.”

He seemed to be waiting for something. Leticia narrowed her eyes at the cautious attitude of asking.

It was natural for a competent doctor to continue his studies, but thinking about Glanz’s past made her tremble. He wanted to see and study the human body, and Gamal was in prison at the time. If there was a prisoner in the Duke’s mansion, he would go to deal with it himself.

“I think that kind of thing about Sir Glanz is great.”

The passion to learn even while dissecting the body.

‘If it’s passion, it must be passion.’

Glanz’s eyes widened at Leticia’s soulless praise. It didn’t matter to him even if the Princess was giving him a compliment with a cynical expression on her face.

Leticia was the only one who called Glanz ‘Sir’ when he came to the Duke’s residence, while others call him you b*stard, and commoner. She was also from the Master’s Family of the Maner.

“…I will study hard even for the Princess. The Duke has given me a lot of research support.”

Glanz gently hardened his mouth, which was about to laugh, and said to Leticia with sincerity.

“Yes, you should.”

She glanced at Glanz with an expressionless face.

Her gaze was as cold as the Duke, so Glanz didn’t smile and bowed his head hastily.

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────