Pfft.

Sierra choked on her tea, and the wet nurse quickly handed her a handkerchief and continued.

“After all, Lord Ahin’s situation was a little…… different from that of other ordinary nobles.”

“……Different how?”

“Well, My Lady is an adult now. I will just speak plainly.”

Sierra wiped her wet cheek and raised one eyebrow. The wet nurse seemed to hesitate for a moment before opening her mouth.

“If the late Duchess were still alive, she would have arranged a chamber maid for Lord Ahin.”

Not a lady’s maid for a young noblewoman, but a chamber maid for Ahin?

As Sierra looked at her with that expression, the wet nurse quickly continued.

“Before his first night with you, My Lady.”

Only then did it make sense.

The chamber maid the wet nurse referred to meant a bedchamber maid.

For sons of high noble families or imperial princes, their marriage partners were naturally of equally high and noble standing.

When the man lacked experience, a bedchamber maid was sometimes arranged out of concern for injuring the wife’s body. So that he might come to know a woman before the wedding night.

But the Ahin of the original story had no such bedchamber maid, and because of that, Claudia had quite a difficult time.

Of course, that was because Ahin was far too capable……

Sierra, who had been nodding with a mouthful of fragrant tea, suddenly stiffened.

“Wet nurse?”

“Yes, My Lady.”

“……What do you mean, first night?”

“It was yesterday, was it not. The day My Lady finally came into her own as a true adult.”

The wet nurse said this with tears welling in her eyes, and Sierra was flustered.

“No, what I mean is…… how did you know about that?”

“Really, My Lady. If something like that was going to happen, you should have given me a word in advance. Jeanne went in to clean your bedchamber and got such a fright that she came running to me.”

Jeanne was the maid in charge of Sierra’s bedchamber and was rather faint of heart.

Sierra could easily picture how startled she must have been, going in to clean Sierra’s bedchamber as she always did.

The thought that Jeanne had seen all those telling traces in plain sight made Sierra’s vision go dim.

Sierra licked her drying lower lip.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Blood on white bedding is far too conspicuous. Jeanne, perhaps because she is not yet married herself, said it looked as though you had been bleeding, My Lady……”

The wet nurse went on saying something after that, but it did not quite reach Sierra’s ears.

Having been talking about the bedchamber and the traces left behind, she could not help but recall the heated night with Ahin.

Heat rushed to her face.

“In any case, this is truly wonderful news, My Lady. I had honestly been worried about the matter of an heir, since the two of you had been getting along so much like friends.”

An heir.

Sierra’s expression hardened at those words, but the wet nurse did not notice and continued.

“I have been talking far too much. After a whole night…… you must be exhausted, so I will take my leave. Please stay in your bedchamber and rest properly today without moving an inch.”

After the wet nurse left, the bedchamber she was alone in became quiet to the point of stillness.

And various words began to float around in Sierra’s mind.

An heir, a child……

‘Wait, how did it go?’

Sierra looked back on her memories of just a few hours ago and the night before.

Her cheeks flushed hot all over again, so she recalled only the most important part. And then.

“Ahin, you madman!”

An unrefined curse immediately flew from Sierra’s lips.

“……What am I going to do.”

But Sierra soon bit her lip anxiously.

She had never even imagined spending a single night with Ahin, let alone given any thought to an heir.

She had only ever thought about the future in which Ahin would fall for the heroine Claudia after returning victorious from the war.

But yesterday, clearly……

“Oh goodness.”

The hand Sierra had pressed to her head moved down to her solar plexus.

Perhaps from the sudden rush of stress, her stomach felt as though it were burning.

After rubbing her solar plexus a few times, Sierra’s hand moved a little lower. It came to rest on her lower abdomen, and her hand slowly rubbed there.

The probability of conceiving from only a handful of times was very low.

In the original story too, Ahin had taken Claudia into his arms practically the moment their eyes met, yet even between them, a child had not come until near the very end.

So why did she feel so uneasy?

“Hmm……”

Enveloped in a strange sense of unease, Sierra let out a faint sound.

—

Sierra hid herself behind a large tree and observed the training grounds.

‘They said he was summoned to the palace by the Emperor.’

Fortunately, Ahin was nowhere to be seen.

Just then, Vice-Captain Glen called out.

“Take a short rest!”

The knights who had been focused on their training soon scattered in all directions. They quenched their dry throats and exchanged idle chatter.

Among the dozens of knights, Sierra spotted Claudia immediately.

It was because of her height, which was a full head shorter than the other knights.

Since she was not wearing armor, Claudia’s slender frame was fully visible. Not something easily concealed just by tying her hair up high and wearing trousers.

‘Is Ahin an idiot?’

Her thoughts naturally drifted in that direction. One glance was enough to tell that Claudia was a woman.

‘The other knights too.’

Sierra swept her gaze over the other knights as though looking at insignificant creatures. Then she spotted a young man with red hair among them.

‘That one is not a fool.’

He was the character in the original story who had been the first to suspect that Claudia might not be a man. Which was why he kept pestering her.

‘Was his name Fief?’

“Hey, shorty.”

Sure enough, Fief picked a fight with Claudia, who was resting in the shade of a tree a little apart from the other knights.

“I believe I told you not to call me shorty.”

But our heroine Claudia pushed back without yielding. The heavy, low voice rising from her core sounded quite convincing.

“What else would you call a shorty but a shorty?”

Fief snickered along with the comrades beside him.

“Good grief……”

Claudia turned her head sharply away as if to say it was not worth engaging. But that action seemed to rub Fief the wrong way.

“Bet you weren’t fed properly as a baby.”

Whether he was intent on picking a proper fight, Fief swaggered toward Claudia and provoked her.

Sierra shook her head and clicked her tongue.

‘Tsk, that greenhorn.’

He had feelings for Claudia, and yet.

‘Is that really the only way he knows how to express it?’

To Sierra, who knew the contents of the original story, Fief was simply pathetic.

If his goal was to pick a fight with Claudia?

What Fief had just said was precisely the right thing to say.

Because Claudia truly had not been fed properly as a baby. The wet nurse’s milk had gone to Sierra, who had become the duke’s daughter, and Claudia’s share had not been sufficient.

“Do not bring up my parents.”

Claudia raised her voice and leapt to her feet. Glaring at Fief as though she might charge at him at any moment.

It was quite a fierce look. Fierce enough to make Fief flinch.

‘Come to think of it, she did play a decent enough role on the battlefield.’

Sierra reconsidered the thought she had held until moments ago, dismissing Ahin and the knights as idiots.

It was thanks to Claudia’s male disguise being convincingly done.

‘Now the two of them are going to fight, aren’t they?’

In the original story, this was the point where Claudia and Fief got tangled up in a physical brawl.

‘Because of that, Fief became certain that Claudia was a woman.’

And most importantly, this was where the male lead Ahin was supposed to appear with a flourish and heroically rescue Claudia.

Since there was also the uncomfortable matter from the morning, Sierra had no desire to run into Ahin, and so she had been about to leave.

‘……It will be fine, won’t it?’

It was the moment Sierra glanced back one last time to check on the situation.

Thwack!

Claudia threw a punch at Fief. The flying fist struck Fief squarely across the cheek in a most satisfying way.

‘Oh…… that was actually a little impressive.’

Struck by Claudia’s forcefulness, Sierra paused her steps for a moment and watched.

Fief was not about to lose either, and threw a punch right back at Claudia.

It escalated into a brawl in an instant. Fief’s comrades had joined in as well.

‘At this rate, is someone going to get seriously hurt?’

Sierra could only stamp her feet where she stood.

‘Ahin, you idiot. You are supposed to come running like lightning and rescue Claudia!’

But one minute passed, and then another, and Ahin did not appear.

The surrounding knights only watched their fight without anyone stepping in.

It was because Fief was a noble.

‘Should I go and fetch Glen?’

Vice-Captain Glen was also a noble, but he was the type to treat knights equally regardless of whether they were noble or common-born.

So Glen would be able to sort out that chaos.

‘Where has Glen gone?’

Sierra quickly looked around. But Glen was nowhere to be seen, perhaps having gone far off.

Just then, shouts from the knights rang out from the direction of the training grounds.

It seemed Claudia was being pushed into a corner.

She appeared to be no match for handling multiple knights on her own.

‘Those, those wild colts!’

Sierra gave up looking for Glen and rushed toward the training grounds at nearly a run.