Princess Shu

“Madam, how was your meal?”

“I enjoyed it. The chef is really good.”

“I am glad you enjoyed it. The chef will be delighted.”

Chefs were employees that worked indoors. In other words, they were closer to the lady of the house than the lord of the house. There was no chef who would not be happy to hear that the new Marchioness enjoyed her meal.

“But, Sarah.”

“Yes, Madam. Go ahead.”

“How does His Excellency eat his meals?”

“On a day like today, he will eat on the training ground.”

“I see.”

How can he eat like that when he’s the Marquess Garth?

Valia thought that his employees would take good care of him, but it still bothered her a little. She looked down at the apple tart that she enjoyed eating today. The apple filling filled the soft and crispy pastry and boasted a very harmonious taste. This was as good as the Imperial Palace’s chef.

‘I guess the chef in this manor is good at desserts.’

Valia vaguely guessed that way. But she wondered a little.

‘I don’t think I have heard in the past that the chefs of the House of Garth were excellent.’

If the chef of a family was excellent, rumors were bound to spread. This was because the quality of food served when hosting tea parties or banquets was very important. The top chef’s salary being of a similar amount to that of the butler was not for no reason. In the past, Valia had heard that other Marquess’ chefs were excellent at seafood dishes. She had never heard about Garth’s though.

“Sarah, when will His Excellency return home?”

“It depends, but most of the time he will come back late in the evening.”

‘He’s training hard.’

Schuden went out early in the morning and came back late in the evening. The distance between the training ground and the manor was not very far. But then again, in order to be called the dream and legend of knights, he would have to train much harsher than ordinary people. 

Valia called for Sarah.

“Sarah.”

“Yes, Madam.”

“Tell the kitchen to bake a new batch of apple tart and bring it to His Excellency.”

“To His Excellency?”

As an escort lady-in-waiting, Valia had to know how to hold and use a sword. Even though not as much as official knights, she still had to train her body until she was sweating. When her body was drained of strength from hard training, eating sweet food boosted her energy.

Even if it was not her, there would be people who would take care of him. But wouldn’t he like it more if he got to eat such delicious apple tarts? Schuden’s attitude the previous day also played a part in Valia’s thoughts, she was strangely convinced that he would not be so offended by her actions.

‘Even if he was offended, he would just not eat it and throw it away.’

Even though you did not like the tea that was served and smashed the teacup, you never released that anger to anyone. This was the standard of peace for Valia, who had always lived quietly in the Imperial Palace. Even though Valia said that out of the blue, Sarah answered politely without questioning her order.

“I will tell the kitchen right away.”

“Thank you.”

Valia smiled brightly, it was a simple tribute. Sarah hurriedly bowed her head. It was the first time in her life that she saw a noble who thanked her subordinates. Moreover, she was the Marchioness Garth!

As their conversations continued, Sarah grew to really like her silvery-gray-eyed madam. She had dignity as a noble but she was not arrogant. On top of that, she did not treat her subordinates recklessly. Nobles with all three attributes were not as common as one would expect. Even Duchess Billiam from the one and only dukedom in the Gel Empire did not seem to be such a perfect noble. It was an affectionate thought.

As expected, Marquess Garth had a good eye.

Valia, who had no idea what Sarah was thinking, only asked for another cup of warm herbal tea and sipped it. She thought that Karl would like the tea.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

The training ground did not count as House of Garth’s private property. Regardless of their merits and achievements, all families were forbidden from setting up their own private training ground. It was a matter enacted by national law. Instead, the Imperial Family provided an official training ground, which was so large that it could accommodate the knights in the capital without any problem.

The Imperial law of limiting the number of knights also played a part here. The families with large-scale knights in the capital could be counted on the fingers on one hand. The most powerful knights among them were the Knights of Garth, led by Marquess Garth.

Although the number of knights the House of Garth had was overwhelmingly large, the official training grounds were large enough to accommodate them all. As a result, the knights of other noble families would also practice swordsmanship together. There had never been a conflict because there was a separate department that managed the schedule so that each Order of Knights could use the training ground. This was because a thorough chivalry spirit worked together.

However, as several noble families used the training ground together, it was inevitable that it played a role similar to that of high society. In particular, Schuden was a noble at the peak of power. There were a lot of nobles itching to have a connection with him. In the early days, there were often nobles who would ask for their knight’s training schedule to be assigned at the same time as the Knights of Garth.

If it went well, they could be business partners. Otherwise, they could arrange a meeting with their daughters or sisters.

However, their rose-tinted dreams did not last long. Schuden was someone who did not even like meeting at a banquet where social activities were a virtue. How could people try to line up to meet him like that, and at the training ground of all places? He could bear to shake them off for just a day or two. Using words pestering like a leech was just useless by Schuden’s standards, so it was only natural for his mood to descend vertically as the days went by. 

After Schuden’s patience had reached its limits several times, he eventually designated all the nobles who approached him as ‘the opponent to check each other’s sword skills.’ At first glance, it sounded like they should compete like nobles to see how good each other was at swordsmanship, but all the nobles who faced him were carried away with swollen wrists.

Schuden really did not let them off the hook. However, he did not do anything barbaric like putting a sword on his opponent’s neck. He just ended it with an overwhelming force that gave a strong impact on the wrist. He thought that would be appropriate because he was not on the battlefield. But then again, an exquisite attack that made the muscles swell up and make sure the wrist bone did not break was impossible without the support of a high level of swordsmanship.

Anyway, as the confrontation was repeated several times, the men approaching Schuden quietly disappeared. 

“Your Excellency, all weapon replenishment has been completed. However, I found a part that moved unnaturally on the left arm of the newly created armor and requested a reproduction. The new armor is expected to arrive tomorrow at the earliest or within two days at the latest.”

It was a report from Shaun, the knight commander. Following right next to him was Robin, who primarily helped him with administrative work. Robin was the youngest to join the Order of Knights because his administrative ability was exceptionally superior to that of his swordsmanship. Additionally, due to his youth, they could not take him to the battlefield. As a result, he and Shaun had become quite close after protecting Valia together for the past few days.

“Hmm.”

Schuden slowly nodded after scanning through the documents that Robin had handed out to him. There were a lot of documents to review because the Knights of Garth were undergoing large-scale maintenance to produce new armor.

“Once we get a perfect sample, it won’t take much time to produce as many as the number of knights. Since the existing armors can be recovered and melted, it will greatly reduce the time for supplying raw materials.”

“Yes, I will convey that to the supplier.”

Robin accepted the documents. With an expressionless face, Schuden looked at the knights who were devoted to one on one battles. Despite them holding blunt training swords, their faces were serious. Schuden led their training and returned to the front of the tent. Next to him was the armor of the Knights of Garth. Black armor and a red cloak. At first glance, it looked terrifying. It was as if it was covered in blood from head to toe.

“Shaun.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

“The armor is being reproduced. But what about the cloak?”

“You did not say anything regarding the cloak so I plan to use the existing one as it is.”

Not only the Knights of Garth, most of the knights of the Gel Empire usually chose red cloaks. Even if it was stained with blood on the battlefield, it was not noticeable. Schuden sneered inside when he heard that.

‘If you’re covered with other people’s blood, you have to make it obvious, not hide it.’

Neat attire was the basis of knights. In a broad sense, it was a problem that could be seen as part of chivalry. However, there was no such thing on the battlefield. Schuden thought so. Chivalry was for the women, children, and the weak. A battlefield was a space made up of people who were desperate to kill and behead each other.

Duty for the weak needed not to apply to predators. They just had to kill. The battlefield was an indiscriminate place where people were praised the more they killed, the more they murdered.

But, as he was in the middle of carrying out a large-scale reorganization, Schuden thought it would be too cumbersome a thing to change the color of the cloak. And so it was left as it was.

Yes, that was his original plan.

“Shaun, did I tell you to keep the color of the armor?”

“Yes, you did.”

Schuden hummed and shifted his gaze to the cloak. His deep red eyes looked at the cloak of the same color for a while.

“…We should change it to blue.”

“Do you mean the color of the cloak?”

“Yeah. It is said that a red cloak is good because it will hide the bloodstains. However, it is better to do the opposite on the  battlefield.”

It was difficult to approach an enemy who was covered with blood all over his body. A soldier on the battlefield with red pupils and bulging veins whose expression was like that of a demon’s. Even a good person would have that kind of expression engraved on his face once he had started killing someone. The purpose was secondary. The extremity of an act. Just by looking at the enemy soldier who was covered in blood with a terrifying expression had the effect of lowering one’s morale.

“Of course, a light color would be difficult but a moderately dark blue would be fine.”

Shaun nodded his head.

“Certainly, it would be good to show off the bloodstains while adequately covering other impurities. As you said, it seems that we can expect the effect of lowering the enemy’s morale.”

War was a battle of mental strength, after all. If there was a way to lower the enemy’s morale even before fighting, it was right to take action right away. It was an idea that could be made because Schuden had been on the actual battlefield for several years.