Captain! Where is the Battlefield?

 

Sponsored by skyfrog. Thank you!  (2/3)

 

 

  Toronto suddenly stood up from his seat and looked at Rosalie with a puzzled expression.

 

  “Your Grace, have you caught a cold?”

 

  “No. I don’t even have a fever.”

 

  “Oh, really? Your face is all red.”

 

  As Toronto spoke, the knights gathered around Rosalie and stared at her blushing face as if they were watching the most amazing magic in the world.

 

  In the end, Toronto, overcome with excitement, blurted out what he had been thinking. 

 

  “Wow, even Her Grace can catch a cold. Does that prove that even the devil can catch get sick? Hahaha.”

 

  The surrounding knights poked fun at him, but Toronto continued to chuckle, unfazed.

 

  “Hey, you…”

 

  “Sir Toronto. I don’t know if you know this, but they say that sweating a little can cure a cold.”

 

  The other knights glanced at the chuckling Toronto and discreetly prepared to leave the room.

 

  “What?”

 

  “Our loyal Sir Toronto is worried about me catching a cold, so he’s going to help me sweat it out.” 

 

  At that, the knights except for Toronto hurriedly left the room. They locked the door tightly so that the screams from inside wouldn’t leak out and waited.

 

  However, the screams were not as loud as they had expected, and the knights had a gut feeling that something else was going on inside. No, they sensed that he was being beaten so hard he couldn’t even scream.

 

      ⊱⊱⊱────── {.⋅ ✧✧✧ ⋅.} ──────⊰⊰⊰ 

 

  It was a few nights after that. Rosalie’s table was cluttered with sewing tools.

 

  “Ah.”

 

  “Did you get pricked again?”

 

  Emma, who was next to Rosalie, wrapped a piece of cloth around her finger that had a round drop of blood on it from being pricked by a needle. There were small bloodstains on several spots of the white fabric, indicating that this was not the first or second time this had happened.

 

  “Still, it’s done.”

 

  Rosalie muttered to herself as she delicately examined the end of the blue cord, where she had embroidered a wolf. It might not have been perfect, but she thought it was passable.

 

  Emma smiled as if she thought so, too.

 

  “You did a good job.”

 

  Rosalie carefully inspected the cord for a while and then asked Emma to bring her coat as her mind was getting muddled with complicated thoughts. Emma promptly fetched a thick coat, mentioning the cold weather outside.

 

  With her coat on, Rosalie headed to the small garden in front of her room. It was the dead of winter and the trees had lost their colorful foliage, leaving only their stunted branches.

 

  “Ha….”

 

  As if wanting to blow away her worries with her breath in the cold air, Rosalie exhaled. As her breath dispersed into the air, Nathan’s voice was heard from behind.

 

  “Rosalie, what are you doing up so late?”

 

  “Uh, I’m just feeling a bit frustrated.”

 

  Rosalie mumbled as she watched her breath dissipate into the air. Nathan, who was now beside her, followed suit and exhaled.

 

  “Do you have something on your mind?”

 

  “Well…”

 

  Rosalie trailed off. Even though she wanted to confide in Nathan, she couldn’t quite put a label on her feelings, so she didn’t know how to begin.

 

  It was a good feeling, but there was also a sense of discomfort in one corner of her heart. Besides, she wasn’t the type to seek advice from others.

 

  “Take your time and tell me.”

 

  Nathan replied as if he knew what she was thinking. Rosalie exhaled and took a long time before finally speaking.

 

  “It confuses me when I confront emotions that I don’t know about. I don’t know how to deal with them.”

 

  “Emotions you don’t know about… Is it an emotion you’re feeling for the first time?”

 

  Rosalie nodded at Nathan’s question. Come to think of it, she’d gotten confessions at least once a year. Most of them were from her military subordinates, and she dismissed them as fleeting emotions felt in the bleak military life.

 

  The reason she had always brushed it off was that she had never experienced those fluttering emotions in her entire life.

 

  “It’s my first time feeling this way. It’s so unfamiliar that I don’t even know where to start.”

 

  “That’s not like you, Rosalie.” 

 

  Rosalie smiled at Nathan’s brief comment. It was so unlike her, and it made her reflect a bit on her past. She realized that it took a lot of courage to tell someone how you feel.

 

  “So, Rosalie, what do you want to do about those feelings?”

 

  “Well, I’m not sure…”

 

  Nathan’s question drew Rosalie back into her thoughts until a face popped into her head.

 

  ‘Sonia.’

 

  Rosalie felt a sudden chill run down her spine. Never before had she questioned what she was doing. But this time, strangely enough, a question nagged at the back of her mind.

 

  ‘Sonia is a threat to me. I still want to get rid of her. But…’

 

  As the unfamiliar and intense emotions stirred within her, Rosalie’s thoughts began to grow more complicated. She couldn’t even clear her mind with deep breaths.

 

  ‘It’s ironic that I’m thinking this now, but is it okay for me to like him after changing his predetermined fate and getting rid of Sonia, who was supposed to become his lover?’

 

  An intense, unfamiliar emotion began to shake Rosalie’s thoughts. A cold breeze blew through the garden, and Rosalie closed her eyes.

 

  “Aren’t you coming in?”

 

  “Just a little bit more.”

 

  It was much later when Rosalie finally returned indoors.

 

      ⊱⊱⊱────── {.⋅ ✧✧✧ ⋅.} ──────⊰⊰⊰ 

 

  In the Amins’s mansion, Sonia absentmindedly played with the large teddy bear she received as a gift when she was young in a room filled with cozy green furniture and lovely decorations.

 

  “Miss… I don’t know what happened, but when you have a fight with a friend, all you have to do is apologize.”

 

  Hilda, who was sitting next to her, mixed in some comforting words and advice. Sonia glared at her angrily.

 

  “When I was young, I used to fight with my friends too…!”

 

  And before Hilda could finish her sentence, Sonia swung her hand without hesitation.

 

  Slap—

 

  “Miss…!”

 

  Hilda, who had never experienced a slap in her life, couldn’t hide her surprised face. Sonia didn’t care about Hilda’s blushing cheek. Her emotions came first.

 

  “Get out! Don’t speak so carelessly without even knowing anything!”

 

  “I just wanted to…”

 

  “GET OUT!”

 

  Hilda left the room with Sonia’s screaming voice. This place had become the worst workplace for Hilda, who had been working at the Count’s mansion for less than two years.

 

  Sonia, who used to seem kind and lovely, had disappeared, and now Hilda had to dispose of the chilling remains of the birds Sonia had killed every morning. Lately, she had also been the target of Sonia’s outbursts.

 

  ‘Would it even make a difference if I told her what I know?’

 

  However, Hilda couldn’t reveal what she knew. She touched her reddened cheek. She had been a servant in various households from a young age.

 

  ‘There were some who saw the dirty side of nobility and wanted to exploit their weaknesses.’

 

  But talking about it wouldn’t do any good. From the nobles’ point of view, it was faster to dispose of anything without telling anyone, rather than responding to excessive demands. 

 

  Hilda knew that she would face a miserable fate if she had no support, so she pretended not to know anything.

 

  “Maybe I should consider changing jobs… if there’s an offer. Preferably one that pays well. Actually, any place other than here would do. Haa…”

 

  If Hilda had the chance, she wanted to switch to a noble family with as little contact as possible with the Amins County.

 

  Sonia, who had been glaring at the closed door that Hilda had left through, suddenly threw a teacup. She then got up unsteadily, making her way to the room where Count Amins was.

 

  “Father.”

 

  “Sonia, are you all right?”

 

  As Sonia opened the door and entered, the Count walked towards her. He frowned slightly at the sight of her in a light nightgown and thin shawl.

 

  “Oh, you should maintain your image as a noble even if you’re unwell.”

 

  “Ugh, it’s too hard for me. What did the Imperial Palace say?”

 

  “…It’s difficult to retract because it came from His Highness the Crown Prince himself.”

 

  Sonia burst into tears once again. The Count was afraid that his precious daughter would collapse. He gritted his teeth, remembering Derivis’s cold demeanor.

 

  “His Highness the Crown Prince said he would follow the decision of Duchess Judeheart.”

 

  “Did Devi say that?”

 

  “Yes, but meetings with Rosalie aren’t happening as planned. It’s strange. Letters have gone missing, and when we send people to the mansion, they’re always saying that she’s busy to avoid meetings.”

 

  Sonia bowed her head and bit her lower lip at those words. It was clear that they were trying to avoid her and get rid of her.

 

  ‘Do they really have to push me to the brink before they’re satisfied?’

 

  The Count gently stroked Sonia’s lowered head as she trembled. She was shaking with rage, but he didn’t realize that and thought that she looked incredibly pitiful.

 

  “Don’t worry, Sonia.”

 

  “Sob… I’m so scared.”

 

  “I can’t allow the Amins County to be charged with assaulting a noble. This is an absurd situation that shouldn’t even exist, jeopardizing the reputation and honor that Amins County has upheld for generations.”

 

  Count Amins said in an indignant tone that made Sonia flinch. When he returned to the mansion after Rosalie and Derivis’s visit, he found Sonia crying and the parlor room in a mess.

 

  Then, Sonia lied to the Count. She concealed the incident with Callie that caused the problem and said that Rosalie seduced Derivis, causing the conflict. 

 

  Trusting Sonia, the Count believed her explanation and comforted her instead.

 

  ‘No one should know about this, not even my father. No one at all.’

 

  Suddenly, Sonia remembered that Callie was still alive. She left the Count’s room without a word.

 

  ‘As long as there are no witnesses!’

 

  She changed her clothes and headed to the training ground, which was rarely used in the corner of the mansion. That was where the County’s knights, who had come up from the territory, were stationed.

 

  ‘The knights you boasted about—we have them too!’

 

  If she pretended that the mission was a secret order from Count Amins and instructed them to handle Callie, the problem would be solved.

 

  Sonia was confident that she would not be caught. Her father was undoubtedly unaware of the number of knights in the order, and the fact that she had never seen him sought for them was proof of that.

 

  Sonia impatiently hurried her steps to meet the knights.

   

  

 

 

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