“Good afternoon, Duchess.”

“Good afternoon, Sir Cohen.”

“Are you out for a walk?”

Sierra nodded at Cohen’s question.

“And you, Sir Cohen?”

“I had just finished my morning training and was on my way back to my quarters, but if you don’t mind, would it be all right if I accompanied you on your walk?”

Knights generally took pleasure in being of service to noblewomen.

Of course, not all of them were that way, but Cohen appeared to be the former.

The Valdevern ducal estate was as safe as the imperial palace, but Sierra decided to accommodate Cohen’s sense of chivalry.

“Then please, I would appreciate that.”

Sure enough.

A satisfied smile spread across Cohen’s face.

“Shall we go, Duchess.”

Sierra and Cohen walked through the garden, talking about the weather and such.

“Um, Sir Cohen. There is something I would like to ask you.”

“Please go ahead, Duchess.”

“What was the Duke of Valdevern like on the battlefield?”

At Sierra’s question, Cohen’s eyes lit up like a fish that had found water.

“What an excellent question! As for what he was like, well……”

And with that, he launched into a stream of stories from the battlefield.

Because he had been the commander, Ahin had not stood at the vanguard, and there had been no way for him to prove his abilities.

So at first, it seemed there were knights who were reluctant to follow the orders of a young duke with little experience.

“It turned out that the enemy’s assassination unit had infiltrated the barracks.”

“Oh my goodness.”

Sierra drew in a sharp breath.

She was doing her best to keep Cohen’s enthusiasm going, throwing in appropriately surprised reactions along the way.

In truth, Sierra had little interest in Cohen’s stories.

She already had a general understanding of how the major events unfolded, having read the original work.

She was only interested in things like whether Ahin had been cursed during the war to die if he wasn’t kind to his wife, or whether a blow to the head from a mace had caused some abnormality in his brain that made him treat his wife with proper courtesy.

Things of that nature.

—

Ahin returned from the imperial palace, handed the reins to the butler, and said,

“Where is Sierra?”

“I was told she went toward the training grounds.”

At the butler’s reply as he took the reins from Ahin, one of Ahin’s eyebrows shot up.

‘To the training grounds? Again?’

It was strange.

Around the time Ahin had first begun his swordsmanship training, Sierra would often come to watch at the training grounds, but at some point she had stopped coming altogether.

And yet here she was, going to the training grounds two days in a row.

As he made his way into the estate, turning over in his mind why Sierra had brought up the subject of divorce, Ahin came to an abrupt stop.

“……!”

The butler, who had been walking behind Ahin, startled and asked,

“Wh-what is the matter?”

Ahin paid no attention to the butler’s question and clenched his back teeth hard. Then he quickened his pace toward the training grounds.

“……Your Grace? Where are you going?”

“To the training grounds.”

The thought had struck him that while he had been grinding through the battlefield, Sierra might have turned her eyes toward another man.

A torrent of negative emotions, including betrayal, fury, and humiliation, came crashing over him all at once.

“D*mn it!”

A wave of nausea surged up within him. Without holding back, Ahin cursed under his breath and hurried toward the training grounds.

“……”

The training grounds, long past the knights’ training hours, were completely empty, and there was no sign of Sierra either. There was only a single person in the corner, swinging a wooden sword alone.

Ahin approached.

He recalled that the knights had called this one a pretty boy, owing to his slender build and delicate, almost feminine features.

‘His name was Claudin, if I remember correctly.’

He had been a commoner soldier who had distinguished himself with considerable merit in this war. As a result, he had been recruited into the Valdevern Knights on the recommendation of Vice-Captain Glen.

“Claudin.”

The wooden sword that had been cutting through the air came to an abrupt stop. Claudin turned his head toward Ahin.

“Good day, Your Grace!”

His voice was surprisingly loud and clear, at odds with his delicate appearance. Claudin bowed with a composed and measured motion.

Ahin was about to ask whether he had seen Sierra, but promptly pressed his lips shut.

It was because the conversation he had shared with Sierra that morning came back to him.

—

“Your Grace, have you given it any thought?”

“What are you referring to?”

Ahin scooped up a full spoonful of the thick, creamy soup and looked at Sierra.

“The thing I mentioned yesterday.”

As he replayed the conversation with Sierra in his mind, Ahin set his spoon down on the table with a sharp clatter.

“Divorce?”

Bringing the word he had no desire to utter out of his mouth caused his brow to furrow on its own.

“Yes.”

Sierra’s expression, on the other hand, was remarkably calm.

Her composed, matter-of-fact attitude, as though they were simply discussing what to have for dinner that evening, sent Ahin’s mood plummeting to the very bottom.

“I made my position perfectly clear that day, did I not?”

Ahin pressed down hard on the fury rising to the top of his head and growled through his teeth.

“You mean when you said divorce was absolutely out of the question?”

“That’s right.”

“Then please tell me why it is out of the question.”

Sierra asked back with the same composure as someone who had left a reason in someone else’s keeping and was simply asking for it back.

“Is that even a question worth asking?”

At Ahin’s irritable reply, Sierra lowered her gaze and let out a faint sigh.

Her full golden lashes drooped listlessly.

The habitual urge to make her cry surged up unexpectedly, but he pushed it firmly back down.

He should have spoken to her more gently.

In the very moment Ahin, uncharacteristically, was reflecting on and regretting his own behavior, Sierra spoke in a calm voice.

“Your Grace. There is always a clear reason when something cannot be done. Please give me a reason I can fully accept for why a divorce is not possible.”

Watching Sierra reason through things point by point in a way that was difficult to argue against, and doing so with composure at that, just as she had on a certain day when they were seven, Ahin furrowed his brow.

It had always been this way.

Despite being the same age, Sierra treated Ahin as though she were an adult dealing with a small child.

There had been times when he had felt admiration for Sierra, who was more mature than those her age.

But at other times, it had irritated him, as though she were looking down on him.

“Sierra. Then you tell me, what is your reason for wanting a divorce?”

A thoroughly sarcastic tone slipped out. His voice was not pleasant either.

‘Ah……’

Ahin was not the type to be attentive enough to reflect on his own behavior in the ordinary course of things, but now a wave of belated regret washed over him.

He wished he had spoken more gently. But with his mood thoroughly twisted, keeping his emotions in check was no easy task.

Just as Ahin was about to apologize, Sierra spoke first.

“Your Grace. Let’s just talk about it again another time.”

Ahin, having missed the moment to apologize, fidgeted and moved his lips uncertainly, when Sierra added,

“……There was a fight at the training grounds yesterday, wasn’t there.”

‘Why is she suddenly bringing that up?’

It struck him as a little odd, but it seemed better than continuing a conversation about divorce.

“It looked as though several people were attacking one person. Is that right?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I heard there were casualties.”

Was she, as the mistress of Valdevern, concerned about the lax discipline among the knights?

“It seems the newly inducted knight was slightly injured.”

“Is that so? Are they all right? It wasn’t a serious injury, was it?”

Watching Sierra ask questions one after another in apparent surprise, Ahin furrowed his brow.

He found himself wondering why Sierra was getting so worked up over the wellbeing of a low-ranking knight.

“It wasn’t a serious injury.”

Ahin quickly scooped up a full spoonful of soup and held it out in front of Sierra’s mouth.

“Go ahead and eat. The soup is going to get cold at this rate.”

—

‘Come to think of it, this must be the knight Sierra mentioned at breakfast.’

Recalling the memory of eating breakfast with Sierra, Ahin looked the man over from head to toe with open hostility.

His golden hair, slightly longer than the other knights’, had a rather silky, flowing quality to it.

‘What a pathetic fellow, spending his time tending to his hair.’

Ahin made that assessment and shifted his gaze.

The lines of his face were soft with no sharp edges, and rather than being masculine, he was overall quite delicate in appearance. Enough to make one wonder whether he might actually be a woman.

In that moment, he recalled having heard that among noblewomen lately, pretty-faced men of delicate looks were all the rage.

‘Could it be that Sierra’s taste runs toward this sort of pretty boy.’

As Ahin stood there staring, lost in various thoughts, Claudin cautiously opened his mouth.

“Your Grace?”

“Hmm……”

Ahin drew in a quiet breath.

Come to think of it, his voice was also slightly thin and high.

‘Is he actually a woman?’

Ahin furrowed his brow with reasonable suspicion.

Claudin, staring back at him in the same manner, said,

“Did you not have something you wished to say to me?”

When Ahin wore a displeased expression, even seasoned knights would lose their nerve and step back.

‘Quite bold for someone with such a delicate face.’

Just then, the sound of voices drifted over from a distance.

“It turned out that the enemy’s assassination unit had infiltrated the barracks.”

“Oh my goodness.”

Ahin naturally turned his head in the direction the voices were coming from.

He could see Sierra, stepping lightly and gracefully like an elegant peacock.

“So that’s where she had gone.”

Ahin, who had been about to approach Sierra, stiffened abruptly. It was because something out of place was beside her.

‘……Cohen?’

Unlike the pale and delicate Claudin, Cohen had a well-tanned, bronzed complexion and a sturdy build befitting a knight.

‘I thought her taste was in the pretty-faced type, but perhaps that wasn’t it either.’

It was just as Ahin was thinking such thoughts, glancing back and forth between Claudin and Cohen.