A Battlefield Of Flowers

Victor’s sword was as fast as lightning and as heavy as thunder. It was the orthodox form of Imperial knight swordsmanship, which was said to be difficult both to learn and wield. His sword flew only toward exactly where it needed to strike. The destructive force produced by the magnificent physique I had admired from the moment I first saw him was too overwhelming to even consider confronting head-on.

I felt it every night, but it was impossible for me to block his attacks directly with my strength. I dodged the first strike, tilted my blade to deflect the next two, and immediately thrust my sword toward his head. Victor struck my wrist and knocked the blade aside before rushing toward my waist. I stepped back and knocked his sword away.

Clang!

A sharp sound rang out.

It was truly astonishing. To think a swordsman like this existed in the world. Five exchanges had passed in a single breath, yet I had not even grazed him.

I briefly caught my breath and looked at him. Victor was smiling.

“My Marion.”

His blade immediately came at me again. Instead of retreating, I leaped into his embrace. It was a technique I used when fighting long-armed trolls. His arms were longer than mine, so keeping my distance would only place me at a disadvantage.

I advanced two steps and drove my sword upward from below. Victor stepped aside and struck the blade away. Unable to properly absorb the blow, I lost my balance. I instinctively dropped into a crouch, rolled to the side, and swung my sword behind me.

Another clang rang out, and I retreated while clutching my numb hand.

Ah, damn.

The tip of my sword had broken. The blades had collided at the wrong angle, chipping mine.

I raised my hand.

“I have lost.”

Victor stopped where he stood and sheathed his sword.

As I regretfully looked down at the chipped blade, I finally realized that our surroundings had fallen silent. The knights who had been making such a commotion were now staring at us together with their mouths hanging open.

Why were they acting like that?

Victor approached and blocked my puzzled view. Then he gently peeled away, strand by strand, the pale hair stuck to my sweat-dampened forehead, smiling in delight.

“The King did not lie to me after all.”

“What do you mean?”

“That you were the finest knight.”

It was far too much praise. My face naturally flushed. That was something I had only heard in the remote countryside territory of the kingdom. I did not know how the rumor had reached the royal palace…… but in any case, I was not worthy of praise from the continent-famous ‘Walking Death.’ Had I not failed to land even one proper blow on him?

After arranging all my hair, Victor spoke over his shoulder.

“Now, those fellows seem to have many questions, so entertain them for a while. You lot, do not trouble my wife.”

When I turned around, I saw that the knights had already crowded around us. The moment Victor released my hand, they began firing off questions at random.

“When did you begin using a sword?”

“How did you perform that footwork when you rose from the ground earlier?”

“Does His Grace treat you well?”

I stood dumbfounded beneath the flood of questions.

I desperately missed the quiet and peaceful Grand Ducal residence.

Victor Mort stepped away from the middle of the noisy training ground. The vice commander and chief of staff followed their lord.

The chief of staff, Kaltz of Dnion, spoke.

“When I heard that Your Grace had fallen to the sword of an unrelated woman, I wondered whether you had finally lost your mind completely.”​

He let out a hollow laugh.

“My lady is a genius. Even if we searched the entire continent, we would not find another swordsman capable of crossing blades with Your Grace like that.”

“Yes. I think so too.”

“Though strangely, she seems to have very little experience fighting people.”

Victor glanced at her, buried among the crowd. The sight of her struggling to answer every question as sincerely as possible was amusing. Her northern blond hair, so pale that it was nearly white, gleamed beneath the sunlight.

He explained to the loyal knights who had guarded his capital residence while he was away in the kingdom.

“She is from Amari in the northern kingdom.”

“That Amari?”

“Yes. Amari, Mul, and Siland—the Amari from that list.”

The vice commander, Leonard of Odo, nodded solemnly.

“Then her skill makes sense. I heard that place is no different from a battlefield.”

“Yes. Monsters constantly descend from the Black Mountains in the north. Apparently, she took up the sword before she was even ten.”

“Judging by her name…… my lady must have been destined to become the future lord of Amari.”

Victor nodded.

He remembered her as she had appeared when he first saw her during those agonizing days that had felt like death.

She had stood awkwardly, as though she had never worn a dress in her life. The backs of her hands and her cheeks had been cracked open by the cold, looking painfully raw.

Yet her posture had been straight, and even her thin arms had been properly trained. He had thought she was an excellent swordswoman. Though he had not known she would be this good.

He smiled smoothly.

“But she does not know how skilled she is.”

“What? How could she not know?”

“From what I heard, she spent her entire life without leaving her homeland and fought only hordes of monsters. She associated only with low-ranking mercenaries and village knights. So perhaps she assumed that even if she was the strongest among them, that was all her strength amounted to.”

She probably had never imagined that she ranked among the finest knights on the entire continent.

Leonard looked at his lord. His lord’s eyes had settled into a peculiar stillness. Leonard had served him for half his life, but whenever he looked like this, Leonard could not help feeling slightly afraid.

Before he realized it, he asked,

“You will send her back, won’t you?”

The Grand Duke turned toward him, the smile not yet gone from his face.

Leonard appealed to him.

“You told the vassals that you would keep her only until your illness was cured. You said that afterward, you would marry one of the young ladies from an allied house.”

“Furthermore, if she is the heir of Amari, that is all the more reason she must be sent back. What will become of that place if she never returns?”

Kaltz added.

This was both a matter of practical interest and a matter of chivalry. Amarion Amari had been born with the destiny of becoming a lord and defending her land. She was not someone who should be kept in an Imperial Grand Duke’s residence.

But their lord’s gaze remained fixed on the Grand Duchess’s straight back. It was no longer the wavering gaze clouded by endless exhaustion, but an amber stare like an arrow.

The Grand Duke expressed his confusion.

“Why should I care about that?”

“Your Grace!”

Kaltz cried out in horror. Victor merely smiled gently.

“I already paid a sufficient dowry. If she wishes, I can pay more. No, I could simply send one every year.”

“…….”

“But she is mine.”

The Grand Duke lightly tapped the hilt of the sword with which he had crossed blades with his wife.

Though dressed like a gentleman, he had always been a greedy knight. And his wife was a jewel he had discovered. He had no intention of letting this opportunity slip away.

“I will not send her back.”

She would surely be happier that way as well.

Death opened its jaws and smiled. It was such a beautiful smile that anyone could easily be deceived by it.

For some time afterward, I tried to fulfill my duties as the lady of the house. I attempted to live like a noblewoman by wearing petticoats and skirts, and I read as many of the estate ledgers as I could.

But fundamentally, there was far too much I did not know. After tearing at my hair in front of the thick ledgers, I eventually pushed them all back into Dideric’s hands. It seemed I needed to study more first.

After my spar with Victor, I was told that I could occasionally visit the training ground, but I did not enjoy fighting all that much. More importantly, I wanted to be of some help to him.

Ironically, I had newly realized that he was the most renowned knight on the continent. His swordsmanship was magnificent enough to make my heart flutter merely from watching it, so it was only natural that I was drawn to him as a fellow knight.

Besides, was Victor not exceptionally kind? Our beginning had not been good, but his kindness melted my heart like sunlight. Even if only to repay that kindness, I wanted to possess enough refinement that I would not embarrass him wherever we went.

At first, I read about history, then looked through books on Imperial culture and etiquette. Once I had roughly finished those, books on medicine and pharmacology caught my attention.

Most of the women of Amari were well versed in medicine, but I was not. My role had mainly been to carry people injured on the hunting grounds back to the castle and bring them to those women.

Still, I had overheard a few things, so perhaps I would understand something if I read them.

I gathered several medical books and sat down in the lady of the house’s room.

However, my expectations were utterly shattered. Medical texts were truly, gravely difficult. They were boring and filled with terminology that could not be understood through things I had merely overheard. I frowned as I turned the pages.

Suddenly, one passage caught my eye. It described a treatment for those unable to sleep properly.

After a simple explanation, two entire pages were densely filled with medicinal ingredients said to be effective, but I had heard that none of these had helped Victor.

The following page contained an explanation of a desirable sleeping environment.

[……One must create an atmosphere that is as comfortable and familiar as possible. Blocking outside noises and drinking warm wine or tea may also be helpful…….]

Annoyed, I flipped the book over to check the author’s name. Even I could write something like this. I let out a deep sigh and closed the book. I remembered him rising like a ghost in the middle of the night and wandering around.

Would he live like that for the rest of his life?

That was too pitiful. When he awoke and wandered in the night, he must surely have been trapped in a terrible dream. With his face frozen cold, he would be swinging his sword through the hell inside his dreams.

Even if I struck him and put him back to sleep every night, it was not a fundamental solution. I did not possess some magical healing power capable of erasing his nightmares.

‘Even though he is such a gentle person.’

Just as I thought that, a maid called to me from outside.

“My lady, His Grace the Grand Duke will be arriving soon.”