Chapter 31

Thanks to the common knight’s explanation, a good plan came to me.

Overwhelmed with gratitude, I quickly grabbed his hand and shook it up and down.

“Thank you! I’ve found a way!”

“Excuse me?”

The common knight, whose hand was suddenly seized, looked flustered.

As I continued to excitedly shake his hand, I suddenly felt a gaze boring into my back.

Puzzled, I looked around, but I didn’t see any noticeable faces other than the knights who were watching the duel.

‘Was it just my imagination?’

However, all the surrounding knights were deathly pale and looking up at one spot. Following their gaze with a sense of bewilderment, I realized it was in the direction of the castle.

‘The windows are all closed, though?’

Still, no human silhouette was visible. But the knights’ ashen faces worried me, so I tried to recall which rooms those windows belonged to.

‘First floor is the reception room, second floor is the guest rooms, third floor is…’

Nine’s office.

But even if Nine had looked out, there was no reason for the knights to wear such expressions.

‘It can’t be.’

“Um, um, madam.”

Lost in thought, the common knight, whose hand was still being held, called me with a trembling voice.

It was only then that I realized I was still holding his hand. Startled, I quickly let go.

“Ah, haha. Good luck with your training!”

I gave an awkward smile, offered my encouragement, and hurried back to the castle.

To execute the plan that had sprung to mind, I needed to prepare an item.

***

After that, I waited every day for Roana to cause trouble.

She was quiet for a while, but based on experience, the days when Roana didn’t cause trouble never lasted long.

She was the type of person who would get drunk and cause a scene if there was alcohol, and cause trouble demanding alcohol if there wasn’t any.

Indeed, my prediction was correct.

“Lady Chacha, you need to come out to the main hall for a moment…!”

A servant urgently came to my office.

The rest was obvious without hearing it, so I headed out to meet Roana with an exceptionally cheerful step.

‘I’ve been waiting for this moment!’

When I went down to the hall, Roana was already utterly drunk and shouting at the top of her lungs.

“Come out! I said, come out!”

It seemed several servants had tried to stop her, but they had failed, as broken liquor bottles were scattered across the hall floor.

Roana stepped into a pool of spilled liquor among them and yelled.

“Tell that fox of a bitch to come here!”

‘She’s completely plastered.’

Since alcohol was no longer served in the castle by my order, she must have gone outside and drunk heavily.

Perhaps she drank even more because of the time she couldn’t drink?

Roana was more intoxicated than I had ever seen her, and she looked quite dangerous.

Servants stood around her, looking helpless. A few of them even had scratches, apparently having been injured trying to stop Roana.

She had caused trouble when drunk before, but never to the extent that servants were injured; she seemed completely out of control now.

‘If I mess with her, she might blurt out everything, even the love potion incident.’

Her condition was worse than expected. Would someone so reckless truly distinguish between what to say and what not to say?

I quickly abandoned the plan of approaching her calmly and walked up to her with a confident stride.

Why not simply ensure the conversation doesn’t head that way from the start?

I smoothly removed the glove I was wearing.

It was the thread glove I had worn uncomfortably for days just for this moment.

Roana, who had been shouting, must have sensed the presence approaching her back, as she turned towards me.

“You!”

Having finally spotted me, Roana’s bloodshot eyes glared at me, full of murderous intent.

“Get out of the North right now!”

Her sharp voice echoed through the hall. As I tried to move closer to her, servants one by one came up to stop me.

“Lady Chacha. You should avoid her now…”

“It’s fine. You’ve worked hard trying to stop her.”

When I spoke so firmly, they no longer tried to hold me back.

However, with every step I took closer, I felt the tension of the surrounding servants.

Even the knight who usually accompanied me whenever I met Roana looked at me with an anxious expression, wanting to stop me, but I ignored him.

I actually liked this atmosphere. It was the right amount of tension for starting an important task.

Amidst all those gazes, I stood proudly in front of Roana.

Thwack!

With the sound that echoed through the hall, a chilling atmosphere instantly pressed down on the entire area.

Everyone froze as if time had stopped.

The murmuring ceased abruptly, and all the knights and servants gathered in the hall stared blankly at the same spot.

It was the glove I had thrown.

Although its material prevented it from flying far, the glove, which accurately struck Roana’s chest and fell, clung to the cold marble floor and especially held people’s gaze.

As no one dared to speak first, I felt inwardly pleased.

‘It would have been a disaster if I hadn’t asked beforehand.’

Before executing this plan, I had asked Van about the dueling customs of the North. Thanks to that, I avoided a huge mistake.

‘The glove I threw just now, that’s the left-hand glove, right?’

I double-checked that the thrown glove was indeed the left one.

In the North, throwing a stripped left-hand glove signifies a challenge for a duel to mediate an opinion, but throwing the right-hand glove had a completely different meaning.

‘It means challenging to a duel to the death because we cannot exist under the same sky… that’s what he said.’

How careful I’d been to ensure I didn’t accidentally throw the right glove after hearing that for the first time.

My left hand, revealed after a long time, felt refreshingly cool.

The hall remained immersed in silence. It wasn’t easy to make the first move in this place where even breathing was inaudible.

Especially since even Roana was frozen stiff.

‘Then I should go first.’

Waiting for her reaction, I took one step after another on the smooth hall floor.

Click-clack. Click-clack.

My shoe sounds alone loudly echoed in the stillness.

When my footsteps finally stopped, Roana, facing me, looked at the glove on the floor once, then at me once, and let out a hollow laugh.

The fact that she even rubbed her eyes suggested she thought she was hallucinating due to being too drunk.

I kindly brought her back to reality.

“Roana Eclipse. I challenge you to a duel in the Northern style.”

“Ha!”

Roana burst into a scornful laugh, clearly finding it absurd. Around us, sounds of people gasping in surprise could be heard.

I didn’t need to turn around to know. Everyone must be quite flustered and looking this way.

Roana seemed to realize I was serious when I didn’t change my expression.

She cocked her chin as if urging me to say more.

“If I win, Lady Roana must stop drinking and adopt a regular lifestyle. Naturally, you must also request permission for any outings until I acknowledge your reform.”

At my words, the eyes of the servants standing nearby began to glimmer slightly. It was the look of expectation I had often received since the matter with Adel.

They, too, wished for Roana to change.

“And if I win?”

Roana glared at me with eyes full of terrifying murderous intent.

My answer to that question was already decided.

“I will do whatever Lady Roana wishes.”

“I only want one thing. For you to leave this place and never set foot in the North again.”

She simply said “leave,” but I knew exactly what she meant.

‘She means divorce, right?’

Though I doubted she had thought that far, it was definitely not something an aristocrat should blurt out publicly, considering her dignity.

I nodded towards her.

“Yes. Agreed.”

Roana curled one side of her mouth and grinned. Her face was incredibly confident.

No, she even looked like someone who had already won.

Roana mocked me in a cheerful voice.

“But will you be able to find a proxy?”

At her words, the surroundings began to buzz again.

Some were words of concern for me, and some were frowns at Roana’s rude language.

But the most clearly heard words among them were:

‘Will she find a proxy?’

Those gathered here also knew.

Although my authority had been established more firmly than when I first entered the castle, it wasn’t absolute.

Even those who looked at me with expectation might not fully acknowledge or trust me, so would the honor-respecting knights step forward for me?

‘There won’t be a single one.’

In a duel between a Duchess who is an outsider in the family and the family’s direct descendant, who would want to side with the former?

But the knights’ choice was not a problem for me.

After remaining silent for a moment to let their imagination run wild, I finally said with confidence.

“There will be no proxy.”

“What?”

“Your opponent, Lady Roana, is me.”

This was a plan no one could have anticipated.