The entire northwest corner of the continent was controlled by the Kingdom of Seritos.

Moreover, the tide of wars turned depending on which countries Seritos sold its weapons.

Stephen’s home, Amanun, was in the cold northeast corner of the continent. Just like Seritos, it couldn’t grow enough crops, and it wasn’t like Amanun had anything else to sell.

As Amanun wasn’t in a position that could gain from the mana stone trade, it had always been one of the poorest countries.

Therefore, Stephen was going to change that by stealing Stella’s blueprint which the duke was working on.

‘I now know what he is thinking and how he works. He estimates that he will finish the blueprint in about three years.’

Then, he spotted Dashner looking at the direction of the duchess with his mouth gaped open like a fool. He was one of the most hard-working knights and rarely failed to focus on his training.

“Dashner! What do you think you are doing? Concentrate!”

“Huh? Oh, yes, sir!”

Dashner straightened his back and turned, almost striking his training partner with his sword.

“Ahh! Hey, be careful!”

“Sorry, sorry!”

Stephen didn’t hold back his sigh.

‘Nothing has been going right ever since she came here.’

He didn’t just mean his knights. The duke had also gone through a strange change since Rubica’s arrival. Even though the duke was arrogant and had his own unique way of behaving, when looking closely, Stephen could see he was surprisingly hard-working and kept to the rules.

He had always been like that, but he had been derailing out of Stephen’s plan after he met the duchess. He even spent his whole day writing her name on white paper and didn’t add a line to his blueprint sometimes.

‘Really, she’s troublesome.’

The duchess was disturbing both the duke and the knights under training now. How could she even think to come where a group of vigorous men trained?

Even though she was trying to not disturb and watching from the outside of the training ground, the knights were all stretching out their necks to look at her, completely forgetting about their training.

In addition to that, the duchess’ lady-in-waiting was way too pretty. Dashner, who couldn’t take his eyes off her, was doing pretty much nothing. Some even rudely stared at the duchess and drooled.

‘I cannot tolerate this anymore!’

Stephen gave up training his knights and angrily walked to the duchess.

“What is it, Sir Stephen?”

However, when he actually stood in front of her, he had nothing to say. She was the duchess. She could go anywhere she wanted to go and see anything she wanted to see in the mansion. It was the knights’ who were in the wrong, not her.

“Madam, I’m sorry, but could you let us focus on the training?”

“Oh, but I meant to watch you all from a distance so that I wouldn’t disturb your training…”

Stephen was one of the prime men Rubica had to invite since he was good-looking as long as Edgar wasn’t with him.

Rubica didn’t want him to avoid her tea meeting since he was clearly showing that he was there only because he had no choice. She had already finished making the list of handsome knights to invite to her tea meeting, so she smiled at the knight.

“Then I will go inside now.”

But then, they heard something being smashed in the mansion.

Ordinary people like Rubica didn’t know, but Stephen could immediately tell that the sound was from Edgar’s office.

“Huh? But what was that sound?”

“I don’t know. It sounded like something was broken. Maybe some servants are moving a piece of furniture or something.”

Then, a servant ran toward them while yelling.

“Sir Stephen! Sir Stephen!”

Stephen sighed deeply. He could guess what this was about. The duke was mad for seeing his wife smile at him, so he broke a plate or something similar to quell his anger, then called him.

“Well, what is it?”

And Rubica, the reason for all this, widened her eyes.

“The duke wants to see Sir Stephen.”

“Edgar called him? Has something happened?”

“No, Your Grace. The duke just wants to see Sir Stephen.”

“But I think I heard something a while ago…”

“Haha, it was nothing. Sir Stephen, His Grace will be mad if you don’t go quickly.”

The servant tried to avoid Rubica’s suspicions and gave Stephen a pleading gaze.

‘Ha, the duke’s condition is getting worse and worse.’

Now he couldn’t even tolerate his wife showing a smile to one of his own knights.

Stephen couldn’t waste time, or he could be accused. Therefore, he decided to go to the duke immediately.

“Then I must go now.”

“So must I. I am sorry that I disturbed your training.”

Rubica smiled again. There came another sound of something being smashed. But this time, the sound was small and only Stephen could hear it.

‘Ha, it’s not like I can tell her to not smile.’

He had a senior knight oversee the training instead of him and left in a hurry.

“Well, Elise, shall we go in too?”

“Yes, madam.”

Rubica was worried that lingering there more wouldn’t be of any help to the knights, especially so as Stephen was now gone.

As soon as she said that, Elise started to fold the parasol with the maids. However, although unfolding it was easy, folding it was relatively difficult.

“May, may I help you?”

Dashner, who had been glancing at Elise for some time, ventured out and asked. If Stephen had been watching, talking to the duchess would have been impossible. However, the captain had gone to the duke and Dashner didn’t miss the chance, although his face was red and he was sweating a lot.

‘Oh, yes. The boar.’

He was the reckless man Rubica had been hoping for. Although he wasn’t that handsome, he was in good shape, so Rubica decided to reward him for his courage.

“Yes, I would appreciate your help.”

Dashner was more than happy to hear that. He folded the parasol with his big hands in no time. Then, he tied it with a string so that it wouldn’t unfold itself again.

“Thank you.”

Elise thanked him and took the parasol, but then…

“Ms. Solana!”

Mr. Boar finally used his courage. Rubica and her maids excitedly waited for his next words.

“You are so beautiful.”

Ah, the maids moaned at hearing that. He could have asked her to dance with him at a ball someday, but instead, he went with the worst wooing line. That was what the girls thought, but his fellow knights were thinking highly of him. Some even whistled at him.

‘What would Elise say? She will be shy, probably.’

Although Elise was pretty, she still had a problem when it came to embracing her changes. She was still afraid she might not be asked to dance during balls.

Rubica wanted her to get at least a little bit of confidence and courage through this.

“I am serving the duchess. Please do not talk to me for private reasons while I am working.”

However, Elise cleanly cut Dashner’s courage with a proud attitude that she normally used only when Rubica eagerly asked for it. She looked so cold that they could almost feel frost form around them.

“Wow…”

The knights all exclaimed. Dashner then turned into a burning boar, who for a moment didn’t know what to do. Then, he deeply bowed.

“My apologies!”

Next, he ran and hid among his friends. Elise didn’t care about the knights murmuring about her and continued to speak to Rubica.

“Madam, you must be tired after staying so long under the sunlight. We should go inside.”

“Oh, okay.”

Rubica said okay, but she still couldn’t believe what just happened. Elise had always been so embarrassed when Rubica and her knights called her pretty, but she wasn’t embarrassed at all about the knight’s compliment. She rather looked irritated.

***

Rubica glanced at Elise as she wrote another invitation with ink that matched the receiver. Elise, in the meantime, put one of the finished invitations in an envelope and sealed it with wax. She seemed to be concentrating, but she didn’t look that happy.

“Um, Elise.”

“Yes, madam?”

“Were you offended earlier at the training ground?”

Elise quietly nodded.

“But the knight was complimenting you… what was wrong about it?”

Rubica muttered to herself. Even though no one talked about it, everyone was concerned about the girl’s lack of confidence.

Rubica believed being complimented from the others would help her regain her confidence, and it had actually worked at first. However, it could only make Elise accept the fact that she was not displeasing to look at.

“I was offended because…”

“Because?”

“That knight once called me ugly before.”

Elise pressed the stamp with the Claymore emblem on the hot red wax she dropped on the envelope. She used a lot more strength than before.

“What?”

That stupid boar couldn’t even recognize a pearl in the mud and babbled such stupid nonsense? Rubica was now mad.

“I was mad because he dared to woo me right in front of you when he couldn’t even remember me. He couldn’t even say a word when his captain was around, and you are much, much higher in rank than Sir Stephen.”

“I will call him right now and have him apologize to you!”

However, Elise just shook her head.