3. I Won’t Marry If I Have to Lower My Standards!

“It seems you enjoy hunting.”

“It’s the season when wild boars appear frequently, so I go often. The villagers suffer from crop damage.”

“It’s not a proper hobby.”

“Is there such a thing as a proper hobby?”

“Young ladies of your age usually have hobbies like handicrafts or gardening, which are demure and elegant…”

He answered as if it were obvious.

“The villagers can’t call a hunter every time to catch wild boars, so I go out myself.”

“I understand that you have to do that now since the ducal family has no sons. But you’ll stop once you become a Countess, right?”

Count Gregory was a suitor who had formally submitted a marriage proposal to the ducal family. He believed this marriage would naturally succeed.

Katya was known for retaliating by hitting both cheeks of her opponent when slapped on one. As a result, there were few men who proposed to her.

Among them, Count Gregory thought he had a good chance due to his title and wealth.

“Isn’t it too early to mention being a Countess? You haven’t even proposed to me directly yet.”

“Do you have a better option than me?”

“Pardon?”

“Three social seasons have passed. Most young ladies get married right after their coming-of-age ceremony at eighteen, but Lady Katya, you’re already twenty-one.”

Gregory said, wiping his glaringly bald head with a handkerchief.

It was as if he were haggling over the price of last season’s goods at a general store.

“I heard you’re older than my father, Count.”

“Well, it’s not that I couldn’t get married, but I didn’t. There were no young ladies who caught my eye.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Of course, Lady Bianca caught my heart with her looks and demeanor, but she has so many competitors, doesn’t she?”

Gregory now openly revealed his true intentions. Of course, Katya was already aware of this.

He was the one who had been particularly clingy to Bianca at the last party.

It seemed Katya no longer needed to keep up pretenses. She put her hands in her pockets and lifted her long legs onto the table.

As she crossed her legs, the mud on her boots fell onto the table.

Gregory’s face twisted in displeasure, but he held back and continued speaking.

“Lady Katya—”

“It’s Katarina.”

Katya pointed out what had been bothering her. How dare he call her Katya when they barely knew each other.

“Excuse me?”

“I said it’s Katarina. It’s uncomfortable to hear you use an informal nickname when we’re not even close.”

As expected, she was just as he had heard. Gregory thought she lacked the docility he expected in a woman.

But thinking of the dowry he would receive if he married Katya, he decided to humor her.

“I apologize for being overly familiar. I’m sorry, Lady Katarina.”

“Please continue with what you were saying.”

“While others might want to marry Lady Bianca, I think living with you would be more interesting, Lady Katarina.”

“Interesting?”

“You mentioned hunting as a hobby, so you must know. There’s a thrill in taming a wild beast.”

Gregory laughed heartily at his own clever analogy.

The buttons on his chemise, struggling against his belly fat, looked like they might pop off like a catapult.

Without a word, Katya bit the top of a cartridge with her mouth, opened the ignition cover, and poured the gunpowder inside.

Gregory stopped laughing at her chilling actions.

She set the musket stock down, poured the remaining gunpowder into the muzzle, and used a ramrod to push the cartridge shell into the chamber.

In no time, she had completed the loading with skillful hands.

“I can’t imagine how the beasts feel, living in an unfamiliar place, having to watch their every move. That’s not taming; it’s holding their lives in your hands.”

“What do you mean—”

Katya nonchalantly lifted the musket, aimed roughly, and fired immediately.

The plate decorating the wall behind the man shattered with a clang.

“Are you clueless, or just stupid?”

“What, what are you doing?”

“I’m talking about you. Try to understand.”

“Hey!”

“If I don’t like something, I don’t think about fixing it. If I don’t want to hear nonsense, I just get rid of it.”

Gregory trembled with anger and fear, unable to respond.

“So, get out before I count to three. Unless you want to leave this world today.”

“……”

“By the way, I didn’t miss earlier. If I aim properly… you know?”

Katya said as she reloaded.

“One—two—”

The man realized that it took time to reload a musket.

“That’s why you can’t get married!”

Gregory yelled and quickly ran into the hallway.

But he overlooked one thing. Katya also carried a crossbow when she went hunting.

Whoosh whoosh—

Arrows flew at Gregory’s feet as he hurried down the stairs.

“Ahhh!”

Gregory screamed as if chased by the Grim Reaper and fled downstairs for dear life.

Clang—

Hearing the screams echoing in the peaceful ducal residence, the Duke dropped the teacup he was holding in the living room.

“It’s happening again. I thought he was a decent man…”

“At least my sister doesn’t kill or injure them.”

Bianca, who was quietly sipping tea, smiled brightly at her father’s sigh. It was a relief that it wasn’t a crime.

An elderly Laika lay at their feet, wagging her tail lazily.

Since the coming-of-age ceremony, as suitors began visiting, this had become a rather familiar scene in the ducal household.

Bianca’s suitors also left in the same state if they dared to upset Katya.

Gregory, who hurriedly ran down the stairs, shouted to the Duke with only his mouth still alive.

“Your Grace! Even if the Smirnov family offers half their fortune as a dowry, no fool would marry a girl like that foal!”

He threw that remark before disappearing through the entrance. Katya, who was descending the stairs with a crossbow in hand, shouted.

“I should have shot that damned mouth first!”

An arrow narrowly stuck between the closing doors. Katya, having missed her prey, entered the living room, seething.

“How dare he even dream of approaching me? I’d rather live alone forever than marry someone like him!”

Bianca put a sweet cookie into her very angry sister’s mouth.

Katya, munching on the cookie, gradually calmed down.

“Check if anything’s broken upstairs and make sure it’s cleaned up. Our kids might get hurt stepping on it.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

The Duke sent the butler and then turned to his eldest daughter.

“How many times have you rejected your suitors now? There’s no one left to find a groom for you in the South.”

Count Gregory was essentially Katya’s last suitor.

“I promised to raise you well on my own, but at this rate, I can’t face your mother who went ahead of us.”

The Duke, who was a devoted husband, spoke with a deliberately sad expression. He knew well that mentioning the late Duchess would soften Katya’s heart.

“Do I really have to get married?”

“What do you mean?”

“There are so many men I don’t like, do I really have to marry?”

“I’ll see if there are any suitable grooms in the North, so don’t worry too much.”

The Duke spoke soothingly to Katya, but she knew it was impossible.

The situation was the same in the North. Every family with a son of marriageable age knew Katya’s name.

Especially everyone who had heard about what happened to Ivan Petrovsky during his childhood with her.

Katya suddenly clenched her fist and declared with a determined face.

“I’ve decided. I won’t marry if I have to lower my standards to the underworld!”

It was a statement far ahead of its time. It was an era when a woman’s happiness was believed to be determined by marriage.

The Duke clutched his neck at his eldest daughter’s audacious declaration.

At that moment, the butler returned to the living room with a stack of mail.

“Your Grace, these are marriage proposals for Lady Bianca.”

“Send replies to all of them. Bianca won’t marry until her elder sister Katya does.”

The Duke firmly threatened while keeping his eyes on his eldest daughter.

“Father, what did Bianca do to deserve this?”

“Bianca, do you have any complaints?”

“No, I like it! Living with my sister forever sounds fun.”

Unaware of her father’s intentions, Bianca smiled innocently. The Duke, seeing her bright reaction, rubbed his forehead this time.

Katya, with her hands on her hips, smiled triumphantly.

Unaware of the future that would soon come crashing down on her.

***

The sudden declaration by Duke Smirnov turned the southern region upside down. More precisely, it was centered around Bianca’s suitors.

“Does this even make sense?”

Olen slammed his glass on the table and shouted. As the son of Marquis Menshikov, he was the most formidable competitor among the suitors with his handsome appearance.

“To think that infamous Katarina must marry for Lady Bianca to wed…”

“Indeed. They might as well send Lady Bianca to a convent.”

“My words exactly. It’s like telling Lady Bianca never to marry.”

“What on earth happened at the Duke’s residence last week for His Grace to act like this?”

Gregory, who was clinking glasses with his comrades and agreeing, flinched at those words and changed the subject.

“There’s no need to delve into the cause of a matter that’s already decided, is there? We should focus on dealing with that Katarina.”

Revealing that he was the cause of this situation to these hot-blooded men wouldn’t do him any good.

At his words, everyone nodded in agreement. It was a gathering of suitors to discuss countermeasures.

“Who would want to marry a woman like that rascal?”

“Haha, to catch a rascal, you need a rascal, don’t you?”

Gregory stroked his graying beard and spoke solemnly. The suitors’ attention quickly focused on him.

“Do you have any clever plans?”

“Isn’t there the Count of Petrovsky family in the North?”

“Surely you don’t mean the second son, Ivan?”

Gregory nodded with a meaningful look.

Katya’s nemesis, Ivan, had come to Padovangrad.