Tempering the External Arts
Duke Briton had six wives in all.
He had never meant to keep concubines, but his first wife, Lady Anti, was tragically incapable of bearing a child. Left with no other recourse, he took Lady Hoian as his second wife—and from there, the number of women in his household only grew.
The moment Lady Hoian gave birth, she seized the greatest power in the ducal house. She had borne the son who would succeed Duke Briton.
That son was away at the Academy now. She had a daughter as well, and the girl had taken after her mother, waking early to the taste of power.
Ah. One word from me, and every last one of them crawls.
It held true not only within the house, but beyond it. Noble gatherings, festivals—wherever she went, she was the center of the room, reigning over everyone present.
Everyone, that is, but royalty.
And now, for the first time, that Serna had been insulted. By none other than Lilith, the weakest and most pathetic creature under this roof.
"Wh-what? What did you just say? You don't even poke a dog while it's eating? Are you calling me a dog? Huh?"
She was so dumbfounded she nearly spat the wine in her mouth straight back out.
"If you didn't catch it, I'll say it again. You are a barking son of a bitch."
"Ha... hah?"
The hand clenched around her wineglass trembled. Fury choked her, and yet she was so stunned the words wouldn't leave her mouth.
Lilith didn't spare Serna so much as a glance. Her eyes stayed fixed on the steak upon her plate.
How can she spit out curses like that without a single flicker of expression?
That uncultured tone, those vulgar oaths—could such a thing truly be called a duke's daughter?
Clack! She set her knife down on the plate, and the ring of porcelain carried across the table.
"A fine meal. A morning like this, I'd welcome any time. May I be excused?"
The Heavenly Demon's gaze turned to Duke Briton. Until now, deference had been offered to no one. Every last soul in this place had looked like nothing more than a frail little creature. With the Duke, however, a higher register was used—not flawless court courtesy, but an easy, measured formality, the sort of respect one showed an elder, or a stranger met for the first time.
He served this seat a delicious meal. This much is only proper.
And he alone had looked at her without prejudice coloring his eyes. Whatever her build, whatever her manner of speech, he had praised the confidence in her bearing and said it was a fine thing to see.
The corner of Duke Briton's mouth lifted, pleased, and he gave a nod.
"Very well. Off you go."
Lilith rose and withdrew from the table without so much as pushing in the chair she had left askew.
"Darling! Did you see that? That—that! Wasn't it far too vulgar?"
"That's right! They said her personality changed overnight, but this is bizarre!"
"Throw her out of Karmaga this instant!"
Sensing their opening, the wives and his daughter poured out their grievances against Lilith as one. They disliked her speech and her conduct both, but what they hated most was her presence. A proper Lilith was supposed to keep her eyes on the floor, her shoulders hunched, her words stammering. Had they seen it? Not a single word yielded, those shoulders squared and proud. She had looked like a great mountain—something that would never break, no matter what came. If anything, it felt as though the wives and daughters were the ones being crushed beneath that presence.
Duke Briton, about to fork a piece of meat into his mouth, paused.
"She has... certainly changed."
Lady Hoian clasped her hands and blinked.
"Hasn't she? Even you can see she's gone mad, can't you?"
"Mm. She looks thoroughly mad."
"Exactly! Throw her out at once! I can't live with a girl like that!"
Pfft! His shoulders jumped—and all at once Duke Briton broke into a stifled laugh, shaking with it.
"What was it she said again? You don't even poke a dog while it's eating? Kahahaha! Funny no matter how many times I think about it."
To dare mention a dog at the very table where he sat. Look at them even now—every woman seated here watching his mood, wagging their tails at him. But that girl? That backbone in her actions, in her words.
"She's become rather entertaining."
"Whaaat?"
Lady Hoian's face twisted.
Is it because she's his child, no matter how worthless?
Men, honestly. So dreadfully sincere about their own blood. That was why he kept so many concubines in the first place.
If it's come to this, there's no helping it. I'll have to deal with her myself.
Twitch! The Heavenly Demon's brow drew tight.
Dawn—the hour when qi hung thickest in the air. Every morning at this hour, the Heavenly Demon sat in lotus position and breathed it in. Before long a firm dantian had formed, and within it, faint but real, a thread of inner energy had begun to gather.
"Kh—!"
Every time she tried to circulate that energy, the poison in her body answered with it and attacked her from within.
Still this far off, am I.
She expelled the turbid qi, and with it let the poisonous qi drain away. But she had been taking the poison for so long that it had settled into the deepest roots of her body. She looked well enough on the outside. Within, Lilith was badly worn down.
"No choice, then."
The flesh was heavy and fat, and that had its own share of blame—the acupoints were clogged. On top of that, she simply lacked the stamina to purify any great quantity of poison.
Beyond the window lay the training ground, where Karmaga's knights drilled. She had watched them a few times: clad in armor that looked immensely heavy, bringing enormous swords down on the practice dummies.
They called that sword a greatsword, didn't they.
It felt rather like the saber of the martial world. Among the Five Great Clans there was a house called the Hebei Peng Clan, a family that wielded massive, broad-bladed sabers.
Set beside the Peng Clan, this is utterly pathetic.
It was early to judge by the knights here alone, but compared with the martial world, their swordsmanship looked markedly lacking.
"Shall I go."
The Heavenly Demon heaved that ponderous body upright and made straight for the training ground.
Quiet. As expected of dawn.
The hour when everyone was still asleep—not even the knights' time to train. Fists clenched, the Heavenly Demon fixed the path ahead with eyes already resolved.
Then let's go.
Thud! A light step forward. With a single push off, her thighs climbed higher than her belly. Left foot down, right foot up. Over and over, and by that the Heavenly Demon advanced.
Jiggle, jiggle! There was fat enough on her chest as well, and with every stride her breasts bounced up and down. The flesh of her jaw and cheeks shook wildly, and her belly danced outright.
Miserable!
The rest she could have endured, but her chest was unbearably uncomfortable. Smack! Her breasts struck her body here and there. Even so, the Heavenly Demon bore the pain and kept running the grounds.
Huff! Huff!
And I've only done two laps...
Breathing was hard—like trying to draw air through the tiniest straw. Sweat soaked her through, and the white nightclothes clung wet to her skin. In the dawn light, the whole of Lilith's chest stood revealed. The Heavenly Demon had no idea, but her nipples were pink. A thoroughly bewitching shade.
"As if I'd lose to a misery this petty."
She drove her body to its limit, running and running right up to the edge of collapse. The first day ended like that. From the second day, the third—had the effort begun to bear fruit? Lap by lap, the circuits of the training ground increased.
And on the seventh day—
"...Huh? Lady Lilith?"
An apprentice knight spotted Lilith running the grounds. The Heavenly Demon paid a mere knight no mind and kept circling.
Has it gotten this late already?
Running was no longer a struggle. She could have gone faster, but what mattered was how long she could hold the same pace.
I can run further.
And if one more thing had changed, it was this: she now wore an undergarment that held her chest in place.
They call this a sports bra, don't they.
Wearing it was certainly far better than before.
"What do you think you're doing? The swords—why aren't they ready!"
A bellow loud enough to shake the training ground came cracking down, and the apprentice knight flinched and ducked his head.
Apprentice knights took the field a little earlier than the rest. Before training began they cleaned the grounds, and for the knights' convenience they set a sword before each practice dummy. He wasn't doing the work he'd been given—just standing there in a daze—so of course there was anger.
"Th-that's...."
The apprentice knight pointed out across the training ground.
"Hm?"
Knight Commander Getz stepped forward.
"Mmm...."
Getz frowned and looked again, half convinced he was seeing a ghost. Eyes open, eyes narrowed—no matter how he looked, the one running the grounds with everything she had was Lady Lilith.
"Is what I'm looking at really Lady Lilith?"
At Getz's question, the apprentice knight nodded.
"Yes... You have no idea how startled I was at first."
Rumors about Lilith had spread through all of Karmaga—how she was treated, what sort of life she lived. As the child of Lady Narien, Duke Briton's sixth wife, she was said to be a young lady hated by everyone. If her personality had at least been decent, perhaps it might have been otherwise. They said she was terribly lazy, with an enormous appetite, and had grown that fat from binge after binge.
"Quite different from what I heard."
They had even said her nature was extremely timid. But look at that face—teeth clenched, running the grounds.
"Whoever said such things about Lady Lilith clearly doesn't know how to read a person."
That was not the face of a weakling. It was the face of someone with a will of iron, someone who could accomplish anything.
But—