Chapter 4: CH 4

When I finally left the Marquis’ manor, the sky was already dyed red with the tip of the sunset hanging in it. The sun was high in the sky when I entered earlier. I looked up and sighed a little.

‘There’s a lot of work to be done.’ I was wasting my time needlessly. The meeting itself was brief, but the time spent waiting for Leonif and the others was long. I waited too long to only hear something useless and my time was wasted. I wanted to go to Yorkben Village as soon as possible, but I felt like I was shackled.

“I have to go back to the Duke’s mansion and finish my work.’ 

I moved slowly under the ruddy sky. As the sunset passed behind the huge fortress wall, the flags of Aktail and the warriors began to light up one by one. People walking around quickened their steps. It was the last day of the Aktail Festival so the shopping district was bustling, but the square I walked across was a little empty. Only traces of the festival remained spread about, including the empty stage, and the flowers and flags adorning the streets. 

I hurried my pace without paying attention to those things because they had nothing to do with me anyway. In my head, I was already organizing what I had to do and what I needed to finish.

‘But I’ve finished everything I have to do outside the mansion, so I’ll be home by the day after tomorrow.’

How was Auntie Percy doing, and what about Aunt Marge? She always brought me food. I wanted to see Uncle Bill too. How big was the little boy, Isaac? I was sure that he would grow over my height when we met again. What about Adele? She wanted to come to the capital, but I never brought her. With each step I recalled the villagers who loved me and my grandmother. How they were genuinely happy when I left for the capital.

“Good for you, you’re a warrior.”

Since the warriors stayed in the village for a long time, the truth could not be hidden from the villagers. That’s why, on the day I left for the capital with my grandmother, everyone saw us off. Everyone called me a hero and congratulated me sincerely. Adele, who always followed me, held out flowers and a flower crown with a teary face. She picked some flowers in the field and handed them to me the same way I did the first day the warriors came to the village. Looking at the fingertips tinged with grass, I could tell that Adele had woven the corolla with great care.

“Sister Cornelia, I’m going to miss you so much…”

I couldn’t tell Adele the truth even until the end in front of the villagers who smiled while saying it was a good thing.

“Ngh, I’ll be back!”

Instead, I smiled brightly. Because that was all I could do.

“Ooh?” A drunkard brought me back into reality as I was immersed in memories of the villagers. The man who spotted me pointed rudely at me and approached me with a staggering gait. It wasn’t until the man came close enough that I could recognize who he was. He was one of the men who had laughed at me at the temple earlier. His name… was Simon. I narrowed my eyes as I recalled the unpleasant memories from earlier. 

How much had he drunk since then? The smell of strong alcohol invaded my nose as the man approached me. It was not an exaggeration to say that instead of drinking alcohol, it was more like he fell into a barrel of liquor.

“You- ya’re– th- dat commoner aren’t ya?”

As I frowned at the rudeness and took a step back, the man reached out and grabbed my wrist.

“Don’t go~ talk to me, mh? How did you get in so good with the Duke of Astorf? Secret– I want you to tell me about it.” 

The man looked at me with a grin. It was an obvious mockery.

“Hiccup! Du– Astorf is famous for his arrogance. I too~ failed…”

‘Oh, so you were the one who tried to approach the Duke of Astorf and failed.’

Duke Astorf had so few interactions with other families that even other nobles spoke about it. I, who popped out of nowhere, was the weakness of such a flawless Duke. A stain on the man they envied, the weakness of the man they wanted to drag down somehow.

‘That’s why they pointed at me even more.’ I could feel my eyelids trembling. I bit my lip.

“Uh-huh, are you crying? Huh? Shall we watch a noble commoner cry?”

When I didn’t respond, the man chuckled and leaned toward me. Then he reached out his thick hand and tried to remove my veil.

“Let’s take a look at the face that seduced the Duk– ahk!”

Slap! The moment the man’s hand touched the veil, I slapped him on the cheek with all my might. A sharp sound was heard and the man staggered back violently. I wiped away the tears around my eyes and kicked the man’s shin. The cry of the man echoed as he fell and rolled on the ground reminding me of the same sound made by the slaughtered pigs at the Yorkben festival. 

‘I guess he didn’t expect I would rebel. No, rather, he knew he would win regardless.’ But it wasn’t difficult to overpower a drunk man who was off guard with the few martial arts and self-defense skills I had mastered during my long adventure.

“You– this–If I tell people, no! If I go to the Duke’s mansion and talk about this…!”

He couldn’t keep talking. This time, it was because I grabbed his arm and twisted it. Again, pig-like screams echoed in the square. I raised my foot and stepped on the man’s body as he struggled to get up. I got goosebumps from the sense of plump flesh squeezed.

“Aargghh!! You, commoner!”

“Go ahead and tell him.”

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I stared at the fallen man through the veil and pointed to the downtown area that was still lit up.

“Run over there and shout, ‘I was beaten by a commoner, the Duke’s woman.’”

A commoner, a woman. Even if people came to see, all they would find was me wearing mourning clothes.

“Then, what kind of picture will be drawn in people’s heads?”

A drunkard fell and screamed alone after flirting with a woman that passed by, then ran to make a scene. That was the kind of picture they would get. As the festival continued day after day, the security guards would be troubled by the drunk man, so it was clear that they would be on my side. Of course, before that, I’ll smack him a little. Only then did the man open his eyes wide as he had figured out the situation, and his face, which had been red due to alcohol, quickly became pale. Filled with pain and embarrassment, his pronunciation became clear.

“Oh… I… I just– I was just curious.”

The man under my feet twisted his body to run away, but to no avail. Because before that I had stomped hard with my weight on my feet.

“Kugh-! I’ll- I’ll pretend I don’t know. I won’t tell Duke Astorf that you hit me. To the others, too. So let me go now.”

“How many times do I have to tell you?”

Looking at the man, I smiled bitterly.

“I no longer care about the Duke of Astorf.”

*      *      *

“What are you gonna do?”

Cornelia left the mansion, and Lucen looked at the others with a contorted expression.

“Are you all going to let Cornelia leave the capital?”

No one answered his question. Lucen couldn’t resist and kicked the drawer next to him. The vase decorating the drawer crashed on the floor with a loud sound. Lucen ruffled his hair and shouted even louder.

“Why are you all so calm!! We’ve been holding Grandma Hibi as hostage so far, so she would shut her mouth, do you think she’ll be quiet now? Damn it, if we say we’ll enshrine her Grandma then she should just follow along. I can’t believe she just rejected us using being a commoner as an excuse!”

“Saying Grandmother Hibi was a hostage, that’s too much!”

At Feriel’s rebuttal, Lucen raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“Isn’t it true that we took her hostage to silence Cornelia? And, frankly, Feriel, shouldn’t you be the most impatient? If Cornelia is discovered to be our real guide, you’re the one at stake. Do you want to lose your family’s recognition?”

“…Th-that’s.”

Feriel’s head fell. Tears welled up in her pink eyes again. Lucen stared at her and breathed heavily.

“And I, too, am in danger! Damn, I managed to beat my older sister!! I joined the warriors…! Me!” 

As he shouted, Lucen gasped heavily. His normally well-groomed blue hair was disheveled. His black eyes glistened with anger.

“Cornelia might not say anything. You, why do you hate Cornelia so much? No matter what we do, she–”

“Ha, do you really think Cornelia won’t say anything? How stupid.”

Roughly cutting off Feriel’s crying protest, Lucen glared at her. A smirk hung around his lips as if to question Feriel’s intelligence.

“She lost her position as a hero and lived like a beggar for two years. How many times have we rejected Cornelia’s requests and ignored her letters?”

When Cornelia first came to the capital, she continued to write letters to Feriel, Lucen, and Leonif. It wasn’t about being spiteful or anything. On the contrary, it was very harmless.

[Grandma misses you guys. Being busy… I know you guys are all busy, but if you have some time, please come and see Grandmother. I miss you guys, too.] 

At first, Cornelia, who had lost her position as a warrior, cried with rage. But little by little she adjusted to the situation in which she had to focus on the illness of her grandmother, who was gradually losing her health, and by the time she sent the letters, she seemed to have put everything behind her. 

It was hard to believe that anyone could overlook and forgive, let alone her.

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