5. You’re the First Woman to Hold a Sword to My Neck

Katya, having run until she was out of breath, thought she had shaken them off and turned around.

A man, towering and broad-shouldered like a temple pillar, was charging at her with intimidating speed.

He seemed to be alone.

Katya turned sharply and dashed into an alley.

“Hey—”

When the man followed her around the corner into the alley, a sharp blade was pressed against his neck.

Katya pinned him against the wall with the shamshir at his throat. Their bodies were pressed closely together.

Up close, he had a rare handsome face with turquoise blue eyes.

He looked like a god depicted in a temple mural.

He was much taller than her, so Katya had to crane her neck, which was starting to ache.

“Are you close with that Petrovsky guy?”

Katya glanced behind the wall to see if anyone else was following.

“Who’s that?”

“You risked your life to take sides without even knowing who he is?”

“I just wanted to—”

As Nikolai reached into his pocket, Katya grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t move! I guess you don’t know since we’ve just met, but this is a real sword.”

“I know. It’s a real sword. Isn’t it the shamshir you bought from the shop earlier?”

“Who are you? Were you following me?”

Realizing the misunderstanding could escalate, Nikolai sighed and placed something in her hand.

Katya, still watching Nikolai, raised her hand to see what it was. It was a pocket watch her father had given her as a birthday gift.

“When did you—”

Katya was startled and patted her empty waist. It was indeed her pocket watch.

“I went to the shop to get the shamshir and saw you leaving. It seemed you dropped it, so I followed to return it.”

Only then did Katya lower the shamshir and step away from him.

“Then why did you chase me with such a scary face? I thought you were coming to kill me.”

“This is just my usual expression. I also tend to walk fast.”

“Anyway, thanks for this.”

As she thanked him and was about to leave, Nikolai stopped her.

“What now?”

Katya asked, looking back at the path she had come from with a nervous face, wondering if the ruffians were returning.

“Would you consider selling that shamshir to me? I’ll pay five times the normal price.”

“I bought it for six times the price, and you want me to sell it for five?”

Katya replied as if it were out of the question. Nikolai immediately regretted offering too low.

“Then ten times—”

“Ugh, I’m busy, and you’re annoying me. Get lost, will you?”

Her expression was as if she were swatting away a bothersome fly. It was the first time Nikolai had been treated this way.

“Did you just speak to me?”

“Who else is here besides you?”

“That’s true, but—”

“Look, sir! I’m being chased right now.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. I shook them all off.”

“What do you mean?”

Nikolai decided not to mention that he had knocked out the men blocking his way with his bare hands.

He was concerned that she might refuse to deal with him out of fear.

“They seemed drunk and tripped over their own feet while running.”

“All of them?”

Katya blinked in disbelief.

Nikolai nodded with the calm face of a large dog.

“If they’re going to drink, they should drink properly. It’s fitting they made a scene in broad daylight.”

In truth, the men had been beaten one-sidedly, so Katya had also caused a commotion, but Nikolai decided to let it pass.

“How about twenty times?”

“You’re persistent. Do you even know how much this is worth? I sold my jewelry and scraped together every penny to buy it.”

Both were dressed as commoners, so adding a premium to an already expensive item was absurd.

Revealing his identity before achieving his goal would be disastrous.

Nikolai quickly replied, realizing his mistake.

“I also scraped together quite a bit to buy this.”

“How much?”

“I invested my entire fortune to acquire it.”

Since he intended to spend all the money he had on him, it wasn’t entirely untrue. Katya clicked her tongue at his words.

“It seems you’ve picked up a hobby that’s going to ruin your household.”

Padovangrad was, after all, the Smirnov Duchy, and she couldn’t extort money from impoverished locals.

With a regretful look, Katya sheathed the shamshir and handed it to him.

“I’ll take the regular price, but you should stop collecting things like this.”

Nikolai, who gladly accepted it, looked up, thinking he had misheard.

“What do you mean?”

“You must still be single, but when you have a family, expenses will increase. You need to save in advance.”

“I can afford to pay about twenty times the regular price.”

As he took out money from his wallet, Katya took only the amount she mentioned and put his wallet back into his coat pocket.

“Alright, put it away. It’s illegal to add a premium to a transaction.”

“That’s not what I meant; I really can—”

“And there are lots of pickpockets around here, so don’t carry such large amounts of money.”

It was a curious sight, who was worrying about whom.

“Live well!”

Feeling uplifted by her rare good deed, Katya waved grandly and left.

At the junction where she disappeared, Boris appeared, panting heavily.

“Your Highness, are you really going to do this?”

“Why? I didn’t get hurt.”

“But those men did!”

Boris exclaimed, looking as if he might faint at any moment.

The reason why the Grand Duke is accompanied with knights wasn’t because someone might harm him.

It was to prevent the Grand Duke from harming others.

Boris, an academic who had only studied, was unable to stop the immensely strong Grand Duke alone.

“At least I didn’t use a weapon this time.”

“There are people who have almost died just from sparring with you barehanded.”

“They didn’t die.”

Boris swallowed his words at the nonchalant response.

While he hadn’t directly killed anyone, many had died by his orders.

Since ascending to the throne, Nikolai had swept through the North with a wave of blood, earning the nickname ‘Bloody Grand Duke.’

With his reputation already tarnished by fear, causing more incidents would only fuel the rumors.

“Did you deliver the item to Miss Katarina?”

“Katarina?”

“On the way, I saw a man with a lute around his neck shouting ‘Katarina.'”

When he first witnessed the fight, he was too far to hear the conversation.

Nikolai realized that the feisty woman with strawberry blonde hair was the one the men at the tavern had been cursing.

“I’ve never seen a woman like her before. I thought she was a fighting cock.”

“Well, she’s the first woman to hold a sword to my neck.”

“What? She held a sword to your neck?”

Is she still alive then?

Boris was so shocked that he couldn’t bring himself to say the last part.

Nikolai laughed as if he found it amusing, unaware of Boris’s anxiety over how to handle the situation.

“Are all women from the South as fiery as that?”

“I doubt it. That can’t be the case.”

“Really? That’s a pity. She was quite charming.”

“Excuse me?”

Boris asked again, thinking he might have misheard.

Nikolai, who had been leading the way, stopped walking.

He felt it was a shame to part ways like this.

“Since it’s fate, find out which family that Katarina belongs to.”

Though she was dressed as a commoner, the fact that she could afford to pay extra for such an expensive shamshir suggested she was likely a noble.

“What do you intend to do once you find out?”

Surely you wouldn’t kill her, would you?

Boris once again kept his thoughts to himself.

“Who knows.”

Nikolai said only that and then resumed walking.

***

The next day, a marriage proposal from the Petrovsky family arrived at the Smirnov residence.

It was addressed to Katya, and the suitor was the eldest son of the Count’s family, Pavel.

“Should it be Ivan?”

Katya mumbled in disbelief.

“Is the eldest son’s name really written there?”

“The handwriting matches Lord Pavel’s. We’ve exchanged letters before. Why do you ask?”

“I heard Ivan came to the South.”

Katya used another excuse to hide her outing the previous day.

“If it’s Ivan, I would oppose it as well, but Lord Pavel is a diligent man who doesn’t fit in with that family.”

“How do you know that, Father?”

“Do you remember the winner of the last jousting tournament?”

The jousting tournament was a prestigious event held every four years in the capital of the Grand Duchy of Hersen, with knights and soldiers from various countries participating.

It was known for being free from influence, as it was traditionally hosted by the rulers of Hersen under the name of the Grand Duke Vasily.

“Of course, I remember. It was unusual for a commoner to win.”

Even though she had never seen him, Katya admired the commoner who won.

Recalling the finals of the last jousting tournament, which was hailed as a legendary match, Katya sighed.

Due to Bianca’s severe cold, Katya had to stay home, and only her father, the sponsor of the event, could attend.

“Lord Pavel is that very winner.”

“What?”

“He entered the tournament under a pseudonym and became a high-ranking officer after winning.”

Pavel was well-regarded among the northern nobility, and southern nobles with daughters were eager to propose marriage after hearing the rumors.

He was polite even when they met in person, making him an attractive son-in-law candidate for the Duke.

“He came to the South for work, but he’s so busy that he wants to invite you to the villa.”

“Even if that’s the case, since he’s Ivan’s brother, it’s unsettling.”

No matter how much she admired Pavel as the winner of the tournament, she couldn’t bear the thought of having Ivan as a brother-in-law.