Ā Chapter 6
Claude’s brow furrowed deeply as he awaited her answer. There was no way he would kill someone over something like that, but the woman’s face was serious, as if she genuinely suspected it.
Instead of saying no, he decided to test her inner thoughts.
“You don’t look like someone who would die quietly.”
“Yes. I have no intention of dying quietly.”
The woman’s calm eyes sharpened in an instant.
The change was so sudden that even he felt a moment of bewilderment. For a moment, the speechless Duke’s gaze lingered on the woman standing motionless for quite some time.
It must have been uncomfortable standing the whole time, but the woman showed no sign of difficulty, as if she were used to this situation. Seeing this, it seemed there was another reason.
Perhaps it was that look in her eyes, which had caught his attention from the very first moment, that he liked.
Come to think of it, even in a space full of rough-looking men, the woman hadn’t seemed intimidated or uncomfortable at all.
Moreover, even fierce men usually get nervous in front of nobles, but she hadn’t shown the slightest sign of that. He had to admit her boldness and spirit.
“So you’re saying you might bite your master.”
“Even a dog, when the moment comes to be thrown into a boiling pot, will want to live, even if it means biting its master.”
“Hahā¦”
He let out a dry laugh at the woman’s brazen way of speaking, casually saying she might betray her master.
*Had he been briefly captivated by her delicate features?*
He could somewhat understand why the administrator at the garrison had tried to dissuade him. Even just by looking at those unusual eyes, he could more than tell that she could turn into a wolf cub at any moment.
Nevertheless, rather than anger, he strangely felt a subtle sense of amusement.
From the beginning, he hadn’t brought her to tame her as his subordinate, and with that kind of temper, she would at least be able to look after herself in the future.
Smirking, he first asked her intention.
“What kind of work do you want to do?”
“I can silently carry out any task I am given.”
“Is that so?”
At her answer, which came out without a moment’s hesitation, the Duke gave a meaningful, cold sneer.
He opened a mahogany-finished wooden box and picked up a neat new cigar. Then, with a pleased look on his face, he called his adjutant.
“Harriot.”
“Yes, Your Excellency. You called?”
Even though he hadn’t spoken very loudly, Harriot, sharp-eared as he was, quickly entered and bowed his head.
“Inform the Head Maid. A new, usable maid has arrived.”
“Excuse me?”
A flustered answer burst from Harriot.
Flora was also bewildered. *A maid?* It was beyond her expectations to use a soldier who had rolled around on battlefields as a maid.
Harriot, equally doubting his ears, quietly questioned back.
“Your Excellency. Are you truly serious?”
“You’ve lost that confident attitude and now look like you dislike the idea of being a maid.”
The Duke answered Flora, whom he had been fixating on, instead of his adjutant’s question.
“Didn’t you say you could do anything you were told? You’re not going to bite my neck now just because I gave you maid’s work, are you?”
At his tone, which was oddly tinged with sarcasm, Flora could only move her lips.
Even though she knew it wasn’t right to argue or object to her master’s command, this was an absurd order by anyone’s standards.
How could she, who had spent her entire life cutting down enemies on battlefields, be given maid’s work?
“ā¦No.”
A chuckle came back in response to her reluctantly uttered answer.
The Duke placed a new cigar between his teeth and lit it. A sharp smoke blew towards her, lightly scattering her hair.
“Harriot, give her a job. A difficult one.”
The despairing conclusion fell softly upon her head.
And so Flora, who had roamed battlefields and even earned the nickname ‘demon’, became a maid of the Heinster Ducal Residence.
—
The reason the House of Heinster came to be called the Shield of the Empire was because successive generations had faithfully devoted themselves to protecting Regentra.
Claude, who had inherited the headship a few years ago, also displayed his bravery on the battlefield, following the previous Duke at the age of 18 when war broke out, more valiantly than anyone else.
And now, the war that had spread his fame had finally come to an end.
The so-called martial saints, the knights, found the peace that came after the war awkward, but Claude did not. Whether victory or defeat, he was one of those who was simply glad the tiresome war was over.
“They probably won’t be able to return today, right?”
“You know that already. I wonder what excuse they’ll give today to tell me to stay overnight at the Imperial Palace.”
In response to his adjutant’s question, Claude sank deep into the back of his chair and answered indifferently.
The carriage, which exuded the dignity of the ducal house, was quiet without the slightest vibration, making his posture even more comfortable.
He was a young duke praised by the empire’s people as truly the former Duke’s son, but in reality, his natural personality was rather indifferent to most things, as if it didn’t matter.
However, as his external image was firmly established, he had to fulfill his duties. Even if it meant being a companion to the cowardly Emperor.
“Those kinds of trivial conversations are for old men. That brat has grand dreams, though.”
The Emperor, who had maintained his throne even at the cost of his pride, was arrogant but also very cowardly.
Especially after the mysterious death of Marquess Sternbough, who had been called the Sword of the Empire eight years ago, he became even more so. So he constantly summoned nobles, chattering away about useless things.
Expecting to have to endure another tedious schedule today, Claude leisurely shifted his gaze out the window.
The carriage, which had just departed, was rolling along a road lined with slender trees on both sides.
His indifferent eyes passed over the knights patrolling the residence grounds and reached a distant clearing. Suddenly, he shouted.
“Stop!”
The startled coachman hurriedly stopped the carriage, causing Harriot, who had been sitting unsuspectingly, to be thrown forward and hit his forehead.
Swallowing a groan, Harriot looked up with reproachful eyes, asking why he did that, but Claude didn’t even glance at him, only looking out the window.
Among the gathered servants, there was one person who stood out with an utterly different aura. Her long, flowing platinum-blonde hair sparkled dazzlingly under the lush trees.
It was the woman he had lost interest in about two weeks ago, after telling her to be given maid’s work.
“What is that woman doing over there?”
“Excuse me? She’s chopping wood.”
Harriot asked if Claude didn’t know the report, but the Duke still had his brow furrowed, looking displeased.
“I told you to give her maid’s work. Did I tell you to give her servant’s labor?”
*Ahā¦.* Finally understanding the intent of the question, Harriot flinched, but soon put on an indignant face.
“Your Excellency said to give her a difficult job. She’s strong, and she doesn’t particularly complainā¦”
*Thump!*
He couldn’t continue his next words as he clutched his head from the sudden pain. As Harriot groaned, having been hit on the crown of his head with the scabbard, the Duke clicked his tongue.
“A man who even received a knighthood gives that kind of work to a woman? And here I’ve kept someone like you as my adjutant all this time.”
No matter that her background was as a soldier, by gender, she was clearly a woman.
The code that any knight should naturally possess was chivalry, and he too was basically a knight deeply ingrained with that spirit. It was natural that the sight of a woman swinging a rough axe bothered him.
Moreover, the fact that the person who had given that order was his own adjutant, who was the third son of an Earl and even held the title of ‘Sir’, was even more baffling.
But Harriot was utterly dumbfounded. He had assigned it after much deliberation, yet he had been hit for it. What on earth had he done wrong?
Looking at the Duke as if he were a capricious master, Harriot grumbled with a resentful expression.
“Where is there a woman? Does that womanāno, that demonālook like a woman to you?”
“Then did she look like a man to your eyes?”
When he put it that way, Harriot had no reply. *A woman is still a woman,* he muttered to himself. The Duke, still seated, used only his long, outstretched leg to kick the door open.
And then he said very concisely.
“Get out.”
—
“What, you’re going to kick me out just because I had her chop some firewood? How cold.”
Harriot had been thrown out of the carriage following the Duke’s final words to go to Flora immediately, saying there was no need for him to come along.
Pushed out in surprise, Harriot thought it couldn’t be, but only after seeing the carriage drive away did he realize it was no joke.
Thus, Harriot trudged along, endlessly grumbling about his unpredictable master.
Although the Duke used the excuse of chivalry and ‘ladies first’, the master he knew was never the type to go easy on someone just because they were a woman.
Thanks to his handsome appearance, the Duke’s external image was good, but in reality, his words and actions were as rough as the years he had spent rolling around battlefields.
“In the end, he took out his frustration on me for being summoned to the palace.”
Well, his master’s capriciousness was so inconsistent that even Harriot, who had stayed by his side for over ten years, could hardly predict it, so it was nothing new.
As he dragged his feet, the sound of axe blows echoing in his ears grew louder. Soon, the woman who was uselessly enthusiastic about chopping wood came into view.
Flora was sweating profusely in the rear garden of the ducal residence. Wiping the sweat dripping from her forehead with the back of her hand, she raised the axe in her hand and put all her strength into it.
*Chop!*
With a refreshing sound, the thick stump of wood split cleanly in two under the sharp axe blow.
The servants standing nearby exclaimed in admiration.
“Wow. Where did the master find a woman like that? She’ll probably finish almost all of it by today.”
“ā¦Is it that impressive?”
*Good woman, my foot.* Offended by the thoughtless words of the dim-witted servants, Harriot interrupted abruptly. The unexpected appearance of the Duke’s closest aide made the servants bow their heads, and Flora also gave a slight bow of respect.
*’Just because her face is pretty, does that make her a womanā¦?’*
Certainly, she had improved compared to when he first saw her in Ploheim, but for him, it was an undeniable fact and nothing more.
Having no intention of ever admitting that this was prejudice, he lashed out without preamble.
“Hey, you. Go back to the main building right now.”
Without even acknowledging Flora’s greeting, Harriot shouted abruptly.
At his words, the servants looked disappointed, as if a hardworking colleague was being taken away, but Harriot, ignoring them, added to the bewildered Flora.
“Your assignment has changed.”
