At the Duke’s unexpected voice, Hugo and the entire knight order’s gazes turned toward where the voice had come from. Without anyone noticing when he’d arrived, the Duke stood below the training grounds with an inscrutable expression. The only one unsurprised by his appearance was Lea. She had noticed the Duke’s arrival at the training grounds not long after she’d begun sparring with Hugo. That’s why she had deliberately ended the match with Hugo more quickly—to show her father her skills.
“I would be honored to spar with you, Father.”
Watching Lea answer with a pleased smile, the Duke climbed up to the training grounds. He had thought she might know how to handle a sword. For a young woman’s hands, her palms had quite a lot of calluses. But he hadn’t expected her skill to be at this level. The Duke took the wooden sword from Hugo. As he gripped the sword, Lea also raised the sword she had been holding loosely. And the two clashed.
“……….!!”
The expressions of Hugo and the other knights watching the two spar hardened stiffly. Because the Kaien knight order’s overall skill level was quite high, they could see the flow of the sword to some extent, but Hugo was the only one who could properly see the entire trajectory of the swords wielded by both the Duke and Lea. To someone unfamiliar with swords, the movements would have been almost invisible. Unlike the Duke who wielded heavy, powerful strikes, Lea demonstrated sharp, swift swordplay. If they had competed purely on strength, Lea naturally would have lost, but her sword was one that received the opponent’s blade while letting its force flow away. Just as a supple tree branch bends without breaking when strong winds blow, her sword moved in the same way. When these completely different combat styles clashed, both the Duke and Lea felt excitement surge for the first time in a long while. Pleasant smiles appeared on both their lips as two pairs of crimson eyes simultaneously blazed like flames. In terms of strength, the Duke had the upper hand, but Lea possessed agility. The match that didn’t end even after some time finally concluded with the Duke’s victory when the powerful force in his downward strike caused Lea to lose her grip on her sword.
“………”
Father and daughter looked at each other. Just from exchanging swords, they felt closer than if they had spoken a hundred words. Both the Duke and Lea had beads of sweat forming on their foreheads. Without either taking the lead, smiles rose to both their lips. And the Duke spoke first.
“…Not bad, Lea.”
“…You’re as formidable as the rumors say, Father.”
Lea smiled brightly, feeling satisfied with the sparring match with her father. As he met her smile, the Duke’s gaze softened warmly.
“You should wash up. Let’s go back.”
At the Duke’s words, Lea nodded. The physical exertion had been tremendous, and she wanted to wash up refreshingly and have some snacks. Leaving behind Hugo and the knights who were still frozen like statues from the shock of the sparring match, the Duke and Lea walked slowly side by side toward the mansion.
“When did you start learning the sword?”
“I think it was from when I was five. At first I started because I was told I needed to protect myself, but I became completely absorbed in the fun of learning the sword.”
At the Duke’s question, Lea smiled, recalling memories of learning the sword from Lark. The time spent learning and sparring with swords had always been enjoyable.
“It seems you’ve inherited the bloodline not only in appearance but also in swordsmanship.”
The Duke spoke quietly and fell into thought. There was no law in the Empire forbidding women from handling swords. However, it wasn’t viewed favorably, and in practice, there were no women who handled swords. Through their sparring, he had confirmed that Lea had a natural talent for swords and enjoyed swordsmanship. With this level of skill, there would be few in the Empire who could defeat her. He wanted to let his beloved daughter do what she loved. And there was only one way to make that happen.
“Lea.”
At the Duke’s call as he stopped abruptly, Lea halted her steps and looked at her father. And at the Duke’s serious gaze, her eyes became serious as well.
“Do you want to continue handling the sword in the future?”
“Yes.”
When Lea answered the Duke’s question without hesitation, the Duke nodded with a look of determination and said:
“Very well. Then I’ll give you this House of Kaien.”
“Pardon?”
At Lea’s expression of incomprehension, the Duke began walking slowly again. As Lea followed, he continued speaking.
“There are conditions that the heir to the House of Kaien must possess… First, they must be able to handle a sword skillfully, and second, they must hold a knight’s title. Normally, when a family has only a daughter, upon marriage the family title passes to the husband, but our House of Kaien, according to our pact with the Imperial family, can pass succession to a daughter as well if she possesses the aforementioned qualifications, even without a son… And you are my one and only legitimate daughter.”
“…Ah…”
Only then did Lea understand the Duke’s meaning. If she became the heir to the House of Kaien, no one would be able to object to her using the sword.
“Will you do it?”
At the Duke’s question, Lea fell into thought for a moment. Given the environment she’d lived in until now, she had neither the desire nor confidence to live like other noble ladies. In that case, it was better to have the power to protect those precious to her.
“…I will become the heir.”
At Lea’s determined answer, the Duke nodded in acknowledgment. Then he raised his hand and gently stroked her head. Feeling the warmth from his large, warm hand, Lea felt her heart become peaceful as she looked at the Duke. And she smiled.
When Lea returned to her room after coming back to the mansion with the Duke, all those numerous invitations had disappeared and only about a dozen invitations were neatly stacked on the table.
“The butler asked me to tell you that he will send polite declination responses to the remaining invitations. He said these ones here are invitations you should look at once each, and even if you decline them, you must respond personally.”
One of the maids Jerome had assigned to her quietly approached and delivered his message.
“I understand. I’d like to take a bath.”
“Yes. I’ll prepare it right away, my lady.”
The maids withdrew to prepare the bath. Lea sat on the sofa and savored the lingering sensation from the sparring match just before. The swordsmanship of the House of Kaien was composed, weighty, and without pretense.
‘How long has it been since I fought with my full skill…?’
Even now, when she closed her eyes, the swordsmanship her father had wielded unfolded vividly before her. She did have a natural talent for swords, just as the Duke thought. However, the Duke didn’t know—that her greatest talent was her photographic memory that never forgot what she saw once, and her almost unfair dynamic visual acuity that could capture any moment. That was something even she herself didn’t fully realize.
Lea, who had been sitting with her eyes closed, entered the bathroom when told the bath was ready. After bathing with the maids’ attendance and having them dry her hair, she watched as they brushed it until it gleamed and adorned it with newly purchased accessories. Since she didn’t particularly like spending time on her hair, even the accessories were just accent pins. Lea chose a reddish-purple dress from among those the maids brought. When they dressed her in her chosen dress, admiration flowed in the maids’ eyes. They say a beautiful base never changes—with her outstanding looks and figure, even a simple dress looked magnificent on her.
“Thank you. Could you all give me some space?”
When the maids indicated they were finished, Lea smiled gently and said to them. Then, once she was alone, she used the beautiful silver ring on her right ring finger to open a spatial storage and took out some documents. That ring had been suddenly sent by Abel yesterday, and according to his letter, it had the functions of storing items in a spatial dimension, blocking poison, and teleporting short distances. Thanks to it, she kept all important documents stored in the spatial storage and managed them there. Along with the ring Abel had given her previously that transformed her into Joseph.
“………”
After reading the documents once more, she fell into thought. The document contained information about the people she and her mother had rescued last time. To summarize: Abram had infiltrated the Empire’s noble houses through two methods under the organization’s orders. For ordinary nobles, he threatened to poison their children to make them obey—Count Roman was a prime example. However, there were nobles with strong enough willpower who wouldn’t be moved by such threats, and in those cases, he achieved the desired negotiations through kidnapping. Like her family, the House of Kaien. The four people she had rescued along with her mother Rien were similar cases. She had handed the list of families threatened with poisoning to the Duke, and the Duke had sent the House of Kaien’s shadows to those families that hadn’t yet fallen into their hands, to deal with the hidden shadows. Fortunately, only three places had completely fallen into their hands, and one of them was the House of Roman.
‘The key will be catching evidence of the family head being poisoned…’
Lea thought she should visit Helen. Enough time had passed for her to have organized her feelings. The legitimate daughters and sons of each family who had been rescued along with her mother were taken by their respective families who had been contacted by the Duke. Likewise, the shadows hiding in their families were dealt with by the Duke, and she had heard that all the families who received help this time expressed their gratitude to the House of Kaien and sent word that they would be of assistance whenever needed.
“Besides the House of Roman, I don’t know much about the other two families, so I need information… Father said he’d gather information… let’s do what I can for now.”
Lea put the documents back into the spatial storage and left her room.
****
Ken rubbed his eyes and checked again at the sight of Lea sitting before him. Then he spoke with surprise.
“Dressed up like this, you really look like a noble lady, don’t you? You’re absolutely beautiful.”
Just wearing a simple but proper dress instead of pants and a shirt, and having her hair neatly styled with accessories completely changed the atmosphere. She had been sufficiently beautiful and captivating even without adornment, but with just a tiny bit of attention to her outfit and hair, it was a feast for the eyes. If she added just a touch of makeup… Ken felt admiration flow out naturally just from imagining it. After all, men are creatures weak to beautiful women.
“But unlike usual, you came quite heavily attended?”
At Ken’s words of surprise, Lea realized what he was talking about and sighed. She had tried to just walk over, but Jerome absolutely forbade it and had a family carriage brought, and when she tried to come alone, this time Hugo opposed. Her skill was one thing, but there could be no young lady without escort knights—he wouldn’t yield, so in the end, the two knights with the best skills after Hugo and Ian came along as escort knights. Well, Ian was a shadow so he was somewhere out of sight, but the two knights were standing firmly in front of the mansion door, so they couldn’t be missed.
“Well… shall we say they came as a bonus when I found my name… Don’t ask for details.”
“Well, it would look odd to others if the young lady of the House of Kaien wandered around alone.”
Watching Ken ask and convince himself, the corners of Lea’s eyes rose slightly.
“So you knew and asked anyway?”
“How could I not know when there’s a crest emblazoned on the carriage? When I first saw you, I suspected from your hair and eye color, but you really are Duke Kaien’s lost daughter. And you returned quite spectacularly at that.”
“Hmm~”
As the corners of Lea’s eyes rose a bit more, Ken waved his hands and said hastily:
“You know roughly about me too. So let’s call it even.”
Since Ken’s words weren’t wrong, Lea decided to let it go. As her expression returned to normal, Ken, who had let out an imperceptible sigh of relief, said:
“Should I call Helen?”
“Yes. That’s why I came to see her. But you’re on a first-name basis now? That’s good.”
“Right. At first she was like an injured cat and kept scratching, but she’s a bit better now. Wait here.”
As Ken got up and headed to the second floor, Lea fell into thought again.