“Episode 12”
Even though it was a secluded corner, the opposite window was large and bathed in sunlight. Yuliana arranged the cushions neatly against her back and opened the book with determination.
“Alright. Shall we begin?”
As soon as she made up her mind, she meticulously began reading to immerse herself in the contents of the book. When she didn’t understand something, she even tried speaking it aloud.
“Originally, the land of the Empire had no owners—”
The Ariakne Empire invaded the land of the Tamien people and established itself as a country. Those people had reached this land by crossing mountains and fields far to the north. The land, with distinct seasons and abundance, was inhabited only by a few tribes living in disorder…
“Living in disorder?”
Yuliana furrowed her brow.
“This is too excessive—”
Self-interest—
Yuliana, who had her feet comfortably stretched out and her nose buried in a book, stood up firmly when she heard the door being opened.
It was mid-afternoon, when the sun was at its peak, so it wasn’t time for her husband to return from the palace knights.
Nevertheless, the person who appeared among the bookshelves was Evan Hillchen. Yuliana closed the book with a thud upon seeing him.
It was an exaggerated gesture, but even so, Evan approached without being intimidated. Leaning against the wall of thick bookshelves, he spoke.
“I heard you were in the library.”
“Is it surprising that I’m here?”
Yuliana replied curtly.
However, on the other hand, her gaze flickered as she glanced around, like a puppy checking for any signs of danger.
Evan, standing where her round bottom was clearly visible, took a small step forward.
Yuliana, suddenly feeling guarded as her husband approached, tucked her legs inward, hiding them under her skirt. It was as if she wanted to reduce her volume by folding her legs.
“Cute.”
Suppressing the recurring thought, Evan smiled slyly.
“Am I disturbing your studies?”
“Of course. Why are you here now? Does the palace knights give vacation this frequently?”
“It hasn’t been several months since my return. The effects of taming the barbarian chief’s head still linger. Our young queen is so aggressive, putting forth all her efforts.”
“Well, then, where shall we go for fun?”
“That’s why I’m here. To have fun with you.”
With a sweet tone like candy rolling around in his mouth, Evan nestled into Yuliana’s jurisdiction.
The distance was too far for conversation, yet too close for eye contact.
Sitting like Yuliana, leaning against the cushions, Evan quietly crossed his legs, pretending not to notice his wife’s stolen glances.
His black hair swayed in the breeze coming through the partly open window. Sitting among the elegant bookshelves, Evan looked truly beautiful, like a painting.
Yuliana forcibly averted her gaze, which she had been sneakily casting.
It was good to intentionally close the book with a thud, but her head was spinning with thoughts on how to escape. Suppressing her trembling breath, Yuliana spoke assertively.
“Well then, I’ll go back to my room now. Actually, I came here to get some books. I have something to investigate.”
“Then you should get permission from the owner of the library.”
“And who might that be?”
“Who else but me?”
Evan gazed softly at Yuliana, who raised her eyebrows in disbelief.
“Of course, it’s me. All the books in the duke’s library were collected by the Hillchen ancestors.”
Yuliana laughed in disbelief and set the book down between the cushions.
“Then, does the library owner permit books to be taken out? My lord of the library?”
“Principally, of course. Everything I have is jointly owned with you. But there’s a little catch.”
“What is it?”
“I wish you would retract your words about divorce or whatever… It would be nice.”
“That’s not possible.”
Yuliana firmly extended her hand and, clutching her skirt, mockingly bid farewell.
“In that case, milord, I shall take my leave. Library owner.”
But just as Yuliana turned away, she heard a voice that stopped her in her tracks.
“I heard you’ve been looking into the jousting tournament all day today.”
Yuliana stiffened her shoulders. Then, sneaking a glance over her shoulder at Evan, she thought, ‘How did he find out?’
Sensing her puzzlement, Evan closed his eyes and whispered with a smile.
“You’ve never been good at being honest. You were always troublesome when it came to dressing things up or hiding them.”
“Do you have to pry into what I’m doing?!”
“Think about this morning.”
“…. This morning?”
Yuliana and Evan sat at the same table again for breakfast, as they did every day. Yuliana couldn’t recall anything significant other than that.
“What did I do?”
No matter how she searched her memory, no one could have noticed any secretive actions.
Praising her quick thinking, Yuliana confidently puffed out her chest and spoke hesitantly.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but today you and I just had breakfast, right? What did I say? Why are you acting like this? What does a jousting tournament have to do with me? Oh. Surely you’re not mistaken, are you? Unfortunately, you’re not. I have no interest in jousting tournaments or anything like that.”
“Then why did you ask those questions to people around? Especially why did you order your youngest maid to gather information from visible people? She seemed pale and troubled. It’s pitiful.”
“Oh….”
Yuliana opened her eyes. But she didn’t seem too frightened after swallowing her gasp. She struggled to catch her thoughts tumbling around in her head and replied forcefully.
“We don’t need to know what servants do or how they gather information, right? The jousting tournament is very popular even among commoners, so I was just asking around out of curiosity.”
“But I doubt commoners would be curious about how people died in past tournaments, or who the surviving knights were, statistically speaking. Commoners just cheer when nobles kill each other. It’s a tournament for fools.”
“Well, I know enough about such tournaments.”
“Do you perhaps want to know about the history related to the jousting tournament?”
Yuliana glanced at the book she had been looking at, and Evan picked up the book that had been discarded between the cushions.
He turned his head with a frown.
“This is a 1st-year academy textbook.”
“!”
1st-year? Did I really study so poorly?! Yuliana felt unjustly accused and straightened her head in frustration.
“I did study before, but I couldn’t remember. No, I don’t know why I couldn’t remember. I was a very diligent student. It must be the fault of the poor teaching skills of my home tutor.”
Yuliana rambled in embarrassment, relieved that the subject had finally changed. She crossed her arms.
“I… I’m not fond of crowded places. Places with many people usually have a lot of germs, and my health wasn’t good enough to withstand that.”
“I see. Every time the Hilchen Estate comes, you’re always wrapped up tightly. You wore a long shawl every time, whether it was hot or cold.”
Evan Hillchen, the male protagonist reminiscing about the past, wore a faint smile on his face.
A warning light flashed in Yuliana’s mind at the affectionate smile immersed in memories.
It was time for full steam ahead with no reverse! Unfortunately, Yuliana Oben was still immune to his flattery.
“Okay, okay. Honestly, I don’t even remember that. Enough with the suspicious talk. Either lend me a book or decide to play the role of a duke who eavesdrops on what servants say.”
“Hmm. Can’t I choose something else?”
“What?”
Yuliana grumbled inwardly.
‘He’s like a bulldozer…’
Ignoring Yuliana’s crossed arms, Evan suggested,
“You sit here and read a book while I answer your curiosity. I guarantee that I know the most about the Blue Rose Jousting Tournament. After all, it was the Hilchen lineage’s ancestors who conceived that bloody event.”
Curiosity killed the cat. In the end, Yuliana reluctantly sat down.
She heard the news this morning that Evan Hillchen had submitted an application for the jousting tournament happening in two weeks.
There were a few knights who had sent blue roses to Yuliana, but frankly, Yuliana Oben had simply pinned them up in the back room without even looking at them. She had no interest in the jousting tournament where more than ten knights died. Like the numerous love letters sent in adoration, the blue roses were just commonplace.
But why is he so determined to participate in the jousting tournament, offering to accompany you openly, which bothers him so much?
“I don’t know. But we’ll see…”
Yuliana opened the book.
As far as she could remember, the jousting tournament had continued from the inception of the empire. Even in turbulent times, and in the current era of stability after the end of invasions.
Yuliana lifted her head from the unread text.
“Will you really just watch from the sidelines?”
“I don’t know why you’re researching the origins of the jousting tournament. Honestly, I want to go out and find out the chances of dying.”
“….”
Yuliana flipped through the pages quickly, feeling the silence choking her throat, she couldn’t help but speak.
“…Yeah. I’m just worried that if you die, you’ll become a ghost and haunt me.”
“I never thought about that as an option. It’s a good idea.”
“Don’t joke! I don’t believe in nonsense like preparing to die because of me. I don’t like it either. No matter how you think about it, it’s too much for you to go to such a dangerous tournament just to restrain my followers. I asked people today, and I heard that people are dying left and right even in the tournament qualifiers. What if an imperial hero dies there?”
Yuliana snapped at him quite roughly.
‘Of course, maybe things won’t turn out like a novel, and you might not die. But if you become disabled or worse…’
Yuliana emphasized, not avoiding Evan’s gaze as she spoke.
“I don’t want to cause any misunderstandings by encouraging you.”
Instead, I’ll be the one getting hurt. And that’s something I can’t bear.
Feeling a strange sense of guilt at the trembling bronze-colored pupils, Evan, who was used to fulfilling even the slightest interest thrown his way, felt like he was living in a dream lately.
He couldn’t help but be afraid of swallowing even her fears.
“You misunderstand me.”
“Me? I couldn’t possibly misunderstand the intentions of someone as transparent as you.”
Yuliana spoke firmly.
Raising his hand above the book cover and meeting Yuliana’s gaze, Evan said, “I’ve always wanted to legally kill those things that hover around you.”
Yuliana didn’t avert her gaze.
However, her hand trembled slightly as it rested on the book cover. The tremor started from her fingertips and gradually spread to her entire body.
Yuliana felt a chill.
The eyes of Evan Helchen, whom she was seeing for the first time, were blue and cold.
He was already a hero of the empire, a knight who slaughtered barbarians. Underneath the giant black horse, or perhaps with his sword at the necks of the barbarians, how did they feel? Yuliana knew the identity of the emotions she had sporadically felt.
He doesn’t forgive those who betray him. Even though she knew this story because she had seen it, Yuliana was sometimes surprised and saddened by this fact.
Her husband, who eagerly eyed the opportunity to kill her followers. But her husband, weak and foolish, couldn’t commit such easy murder without her permission.
That was you.
“Why are you trembling?”
Evan reached out and gently brushed away the hair sticking to Yuliana’s stiff cheek.
Yuliana’s face, slightly sweaty, looked pale and smooth. Looking at his beautiful wife, who even seemed moist, Evan murmured.
“I enjoy imagining how I can kill the fools who rush at you like moths. But I also like your way of worrying about me unexpectedly.”
Yuliana moved her stiff fingers slightly. Then, as if following the engraved title on the cover, she traced the letters with her fingers.
[History and Adventures of the Empire]
She understood why she couldn’t remember the lines written from the first page.
“The book was a lie all along,” Evan said brightly as Yuliana’s moving fingers lowered her head.
“You know? The contents of this book are all lies. It’s a fairy tale meant to instill pride in the empire in children.”
“It certainly seems like a boring fairy tale.”
Watching her fingers move along the title of the book, Evan spoke kindly, like a caring teacher.
“The ones who occupied the empire’s land were the barbarians of today. Well, they weren’t even disorderly barbarians to begin with; they were people who lived with their own systems and cultures. But our ancestors, who were plunderers, took their land.”
“They must have desired the land.”
“That’s right. They coveted the land.”
“And we won.”
“Yeah. The ones who spearheaded that shameful war were my ancestors.”
Yuliana suddenly felt the book on her lap become heavy.
She pushed the book she had placed on her knees to Evan’s side. Evan, who had been watching her every move, looked up. Seeing Yuliana waiting for him to speak, Evan continued.
“When our ancestors finally expelled the original inhabitants, they found it difficult to control the violence that arose within. We wore borrowed clothes, ate borrowed food, and lived borrowed lives, but we were nothing more than bandits who had been plundering all along, long before nobles and commoners existed.”
“So, this tournament is like a romanticized version of banditry?”
“That’s right.”
“You’re willing to commit banditry for my sake. How romantic.”
Yuliana sneered.
Yet, despite her mockery, the verdant eyes looking at her shone tenderly with affection. Meeting those eyes, Yuliana felt embarrassed.
If she were to sculpt him at this moment, it would become a masterpiece. At that thought, Yuliana’s smile faded away.
With a shimmering grace, Evan still whispered without losing his smile.
“If you understand, allow me. I’ll take care of the things that bother you and bring peace. Even if it’s banditry, you need someone who’s good at it to cover your back.”
Yuliana shook her head.
Then, with a surge of defiance, she spoke. However, the words that escaped her lips lacked half of her innermost feelings and were devoid of strength.
“…Stop talking nonsense.”
Looking at his wife who turned her head away without meeting his gaze, Evan calmly spoke.
“There will be many who will offer you roses at this tournament too. What’s certain is that you no longer want those attentions.”
Evan noticed Yuliana’s fleeting realistic concerns on her face.
Seizing the moment, Evan leaned in and kissed the back of her hand, like a victorious knight in the tournament.
“Let me help you. It’s a request.”
His plea felt bitter. She couldn’t grasp his love, which had promised to endure insults and death, might vanish like a fleeting dream.
“I don’t know, Evan, I—”
Yuliana stood up without affirming or denying anything, backing away from her kneeling husband, her form as beautiful as a masterpiece left behind.
* * *
On the day of the tournament of the fencing competition.
The weather was bleak, with mud-splattered scenery all around.
Even though it was only the preliminaries, the nobles seated at the highest podiums were gathered in large numbers, gossiping and whispering to each other as they occasionally glanced disapprovingly at the commoners who shouted now and then.
Among them, a gentleman wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a sharp tip, brought from a distant land, approached a lady and struck up a conversation.
“Look there. It’s the Duchess of Hillsguard.”
A lady, yawning while waiting for the preliminaries to start, glanced at Yuliana with a disdainful smirk.
“She’s indeed beautiful. With such arrogance, no wonder she attracts so many men.”
Despite his wife’s mocking tone, the gentleman seemed oblivious and retorted.
“There will surely be knights lining up to offer roses to the Duchess again today.”
Glancing at her clueless husband, the lady replied.
“Risking their lives just to offer roses they’ll soon take back. It’s foolish.”
Taking off his hat due to the foul weather, the gentleman muttered.
“Didn’t the Duke himself participate in such foolishness?”
Smirking under her shawl-clad shoulders, the lady retorted.
“My goodness. Is the Duke finally joining the fray? A Duke risking himself in battle to protect my wife. The ancestors of the Hillsguard Duchy would be howling.”
“Though it’s an old saying, isn’t the current Duke’s birth no different from that of a bastard?”
The gentleman smirked and nodded friendly at Yuliana as she approached, while the couple exchanged whispers.
