Chapter 38: A Spousal Spat
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 38: A Spousal Spat
“Pant, pant… I can’t do this anymore… Go easy on us…”
“His stamina isn’t human…”
The Knights of Delmark collapsed onto the training ground, groaning as one.
But their complaints fell on Caligo’s deaf ears.
“Stop whining! I just got back to the mansion yesterday myself. Anyone who collapses before I do won’t be able to hold their head up for the rest of the day.”
“If we’re counting that, we also just got back from a magical beast subjugation yesterday!”
“Then we’re even. I spent days sleeping in some unfamiliar hovel, while you all got to stretch out in your own comfortable beds before the subjugation. Right?”
Caligo nudged his subordinates with his foot, urging them to get up. Instead of standing, the knights simply rolled around on the ground to dodge his kicks.
Caligo was considered one of the elite knights within the order. With his exceptional stamina, skill, and charisma, he was a prime candidate for the next commander.
However, the knights prayed that the day he became commander would never come.
The reason was his brutal training regimen.
Please, someone stop this training…
Just as the knights were rolling on the ground, desperately wishing for a miracle, a figure appeared at the entrance of the training ground. Every eye snapped in their direction.
There stood Blair and her servants, holding baskets in their hands.
“I brought some snacks since everyone seemed to be working so hard.”
The knights’ half-dead eyes instantly lit up.
God had answered their prayers!
Even those who weren’t particularly fond of Blair saw her as an angel in that very moment.
“If I’m interrupting, I can leave them here so you can eat them later…”
“No, ma’am! We want to eat them right now!”
“You went to all this trouble for us. It would be rude not to eat them while they’re still warm!”
The knights, who had been sprawled out like corpses, scrambled to their feet and rushed toward Blair and the servants.
Caligo kicked one of his men in the rear as he headed toward Blair, but the knight completely ignored him.
In the end, Caligo threw his hands up in defeat.
“Fine. It would be rude to let Madam leave without a proper greeting when she came all this way herself. Thirty-minute break!”
Cheers erupted among the knights.
The servants distributed the snacks to them. It was baguettes stuffed with meat and vegetables, accompanied by apple juice.
As Caligo watched his subordinates eat, Blair approached him to hand him his snack personally.
He accepted it, beaming like a child.
“Oh, my. To think you’d hand it to me yourself… I am deeply honored, Madam. This is exactly why a household needs a lady of the house.”
“I’ve stayed away because I was worried I might disrupt your training, but seeing how much everyone enjoys this, I should have brought something sooner.”
“Those rascals love any excuse to get out of training. Anyway, thank you for the food.”
He must have been hungry too, as he immediately began devouring the baguette.
Watching him from the side, Blair’s gaze turned cold, a stark contrast to her warm demeanor moments ago.
In truth, Blair hadn’t visited the training ground out of pure concern for the knights.
This morning, as soon as Herdin left her bedroom, Blair had sent a letter to Mikhail asking him to investigate Caligo.
But with the man who had killed her standing right before her, she couldn’t just sit and wait. Driven by the urge to do something, she had used the knights as an excuse to come here.
“Oh, this is delicious. The entire trip from the territory, I couldn’t stop thinking about freshly baked, warm bread… The bread they sell at inns is like a rock. You’ve probably never had to eat anything like that, have you, Madam?”
“Bread as hard as a rock?”
“I’m serious. You’ll visit the territory eventually, so you can try it then. Feels like your choppers are going to get knocked out—”
“…Choppers?”
“Tsk, I shouldn’t use such language in front of a noble lady… My apologies. I grew up rough, so I don’t know any better…”
Caligo belatedly slapped his own mouth for his crude language, then nudged a passing subordinate.
“Go grab me another piece of bread.”
“Me?”
“Can’t you see I’m talking to the Madam right now?”
The subordinate grumbled but went to fetch the bread. His grumbling was proof that Caligo was a good leader, one who tolerated such casual behavior.
Blair stared blankly at Caligo. The man who had killed her was far too ordinary to be a murderer.
He was someone who was pleased by a small kindness, happy to eat delicious food, got along well with others, and didn’t view her with prejudice.
That was what made it even more terrifying.
The fact that someone like him could kill her.
“You seem to have been with Delmark for a long time, Sir Caligo. Everyone seems to respect you.”
“I’ve certainly been here longer than those rascals. I was about thirteen, I think, when I first came to Delmark.”
“Where did you serve before then?”
If Caligo hadn’t killed her for personal reasons, he must have been acting on someone else’s orders.
And if his current lord wasn’t the mastermind, there was a high probability it was someone from his past.
“Before coming to Delmark…”
Just as Caligo opened his mouth, she sensed a presence at the entrance of the training ground.
Turning, she saw Herdin stepping into view.
“Your Grace? What brings you here at this hour? Shouldn’t you be busy?”
“My work finished early, so I came for a sparring session, but it seems I’m not the only one here.”
His gaze, shifting between Blair and Caligo, was strangely cold.
Blair glared at his sudden appearance with displeasure.
If we had talked just a bit longer, I might have been able to figure out who was behind it…
But now that Herdin was here, she couldn’t continue that conversation.
Above all, it was uncomfortable just looking at him. Their argument had happened only this morning.
The moment she saw him, the words she’d hurled at him flashed through her mind, intensifying her urge to flee.
I really, truly hate you…
Why did she say that? She wasn’t a child.
It’s not like he’s the type to be hurt by words like that anyway.
It was just that those were the only words she knew to convey the sheer depth of her feelings, so she had blurted them out in the heat of the moment…
But didn’t it sound exactly like a sulking six-year-old?
Of course, she resented him. She disliked him.
Yet, she hated how her feelings, when reduced to that single phrase, seemed infinitely lighter than the actual weight in her heart.
“I only meant to drop off some snacks, but I’ve taken up too much of your time. I’ll be on my way now.”
Blair practically fled, leaving the training ground with her maids. Herdin’s chilly gaze trailed after her retreating figure.
Watching this unfold, Caligo let out a quiet “ah” of realization.
“Ah, did you two have a fight?”
“…”
“They say a fight between a husband and wife is like cutting water with a sword.”
Instead of an answer, Herdin shot him a freezing glare.
Yesterday, the moment he returned to the mansion after the magical beast subjugation, his mood had soured upon seeing Blair with Caligo.
He remembered how she couldn’t take her eyes off the knight, how she’d asked about him even while in his arms, and that damnable letter she sent to who-knows-who.
All of it had culminated in this moment.
“Ah, youth. Must be nice.”
The clueless Caligo nudged Herdin’s arm.
But when Herdin turned to look at him, his expression was ice-cold. The faces of the knights watching Caligo turned pale. Only then did Caligo sense that something was terribly wrong.
And his belated intuition was spot on.
Herdin gestured toward the weapon rack with a tilt of his chin and ordered, “Go get your sword.”
The sparring session from hell had begun.
* * *
“Is this tiny little thing really a predator of the forest?”
Meli looked at Pippi, who was lapping up milk, with wonder. Lying on Blair’s lap, the creature looked like a pampered little lord.
Blair nodded, eagerly explaining the facts about sables she had read in books.
“Yes. They travel in packs and hunt deer and stags much larger than themselves.”
“Oh my. It looks so cute, but it’s much scarier than it seems!”
“That’s why some nobles who love hunting occasionally raise sables and take them along.”
“I’d better stay on its good side from now on. You know, so I don’t get hunted.”
Blair laughed at Meli’s banter. Since Blair had entrusted Pippi’s care to her, she and her maids, Meli and Lina, had grown much closer.
As Blair was chatting with Meli about Pippi, footsteps approached.
Glancing back, Blair brightened when she saw Lina walking toward them.
Could it be news from the guild?
But the words that came out of Lina’s mouth were just ordinary, everyday matters.
“Meli, the butler wants to see you for a moment if you’re not busy.”
“Go ahead, Meli.”
Disappointment flickered across Blair’s face as she sent Meli off, but it was quickly masked by a bitter smile.
Of course, a task like that takes time.
It had been a fortnight since she requested information on Caligo from Mikhail.
And it had also been a fortnight since her fight with Herdin.
Perhaps his interest had cooled after their argument, as he no longer visited her bedroom at night.
They still shared meals as before, but that was all. Barely any words were exchanged; they simply ate in a tense silence.
She still didn’t know why, or over what, his mood had suddenly soured that day, but perhaps it was for the best.
Ever since the possibility that he might have been the one to kill her crossed her mind, it had been difficult to look him in the face.
She would have to make up with him eventually to conceive Asiel, but she didn’t want to think about it right now.
As Blair shook off her thoughts of Herdin and played with Pippi, a maid entered through the open door.
“Madam, Lady Lorellain has arrived.”