Chapter 59

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Chapter 59

“Ah.”

Anriche hastily withdrew her hand. She asked with a slightly embarrassed face.

“I’m sorry, are you surprised?”

“…No.”

The part where her fingers touched felt hot as if on fire. Somehow, feeling like his heart was tickling deep in his chest, he let out a short cough without realizing it.

“That… Are there any difficulties in taking care of the children?”

“No. They’re just a little cute.”

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled bashfully.

“I’ve been thinking, but I think the Duke is a very kind person.”

“…Are you talking about me?”

“If I had been the Duke, I would have collapsed on the bed right away and fell asleep, but I didn’t know you would come to my room to see the children.”

“That—”

With her in front of him, he couldn’t say that he came to spend time with her as well as the children, so Alexei just smiled awkwardly.

At that moment, Anriche opened her eyes wide.

“Oh, my God. You should sleep, Duke, but I keep taking your time.”

“No, even if we talk a little more…”

“No. We all know you have to leave early tomorrow morning.”

When he saw her worried voice, he felt like he could have been more stubborn. Alexei, who held down his sad heart, politely greeted her good night.

“Well then, have a good night.”

“Good night to the Duke, too.”

Anriche, who was slightly silent, went back to the room.

Click.

The door closed.

Her smile, her grin, her face disappears beyond the door, and was no longer visible anymore.

“…”

Again, this emptiness…

Alexei glanced at the door, where the light no longer leaked before turning around.

His steps back to his room were strangely heavy.

Anriche immediately sent a consent form to the Royal Academy for a tour to the swordsmanship department, and the academy returned a reply of permission.

Liliana was overjoyed to hear the news.

“Do you like it that much?”

“Yes. Yes!”

She blushed her cheeks and nodded her head as her neck would fall off. So, the very day after Anriche received the permission, she took the two children to the academy.

However…

“Why can’t we go for the tour?”

…She was blocked from the entrance.

Anriche couldn’t hide her surprised expression and looked at the instructor in front of her.

“We got permission to visit from the academy headquarters.”

Saying so, she then pulled out the consent form from her arms and held it out. Nevertheless, the instructor didn’t even pay attention to the form.

Instead, he shook his head in an expressionless face.

“The reason for allowing outsiders to tour the swordsmanship department is to help train young students who will lead the empire in the future.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m going to give Liliana a tour.”

“But, this Miss is a girl.”

The instructor narrowed his eyes and looked at Liliana.

“Wouldn’t it be better for the Valois Heir Apparent instead of the Miss.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“In the first place, women and men have different odds of becoming a great knight.”

The instructor shook his head and continued, “No matter how much a girl trains, she can’t go beyond the limits.”

“What…!”

“If the Miss is the Valois’ Heir Apparent fiancé, won’t she be the mistress of Valois in the future?”

The instructor was talking to her, pretending to be genuinely concerned for Liliana.

“It’s better for someone like that to do some bride lessons than to waste time needlessly here…”

“Are you finished?”

The instructor, startled by the sharp voice, reflexively shut his mouth.

Every word of the instructor subtly touches her nerves.

Anriche bit her teeth.

‘This is trouble.’

He pretended to respect Liliana outwardly, but underneath was the stereotype that ‘women are worse than men.’ Looking at those stereotypes, Anriche’s own situation comes to mind naturally.

Although she was the eldest daughter of Marquisate Saxony, she was said to have been married off by arrangement instead of becoming the head of the family.

Of course, Anriche was not very dissatisfied with her marriage to Alexei.

Still, whenever she remembered, every now and then, she remembered that her marriage itself was for her younger brother’s stable succession of titles.

…Inevitably, her heart becomes cold.

‘I want to turn everything upside down, including the instructor… I can’t do that.’

She couldn’t make a fuss in front of Liliana and Elliot.

With that thought, Anriche calmed her simmering stomach, and she calmly asked the questions.

“Since when did the empire become a place in which the future and occupations are determined by gender?”

“…That.”

“To summarize the current situation, after all, the instructor’s arbitrary judgment is blocking the student’s tour, isn’t it?”

Since that was true, the instructor looked at Anriche with displeased eyes, but made no further objection.

Anriche drove her momentum and asked the instructor.

“It’s not legally decided that Liliana shouldn’t do the tour.”

Violet-colored, sharp-edged eyes, stared directly into the instructor’s eyes.

“It is very unpleasant. I will formally protest this matter to the Academy.”

“Come on, wait! What do you mean protest?!”

The bewildered instructor raised his voice without realizing it. It would have been easier to react a little more if she had yelled and got angry.

The rumor that the Duchess of Valois was essentially a ‘wicked woman’ was floating around. Yet when she came in after following the rules and laws, it was the instructor who became more difficult.

“Hey, you can’t just act recklessly like this!”

“It’s not me who is acting recklessly, it’s the instructor.”

Contrary to the instructor, whose veins were standing up in the neck without realizing it, Anriche was consistently calm.

“It’s the instructor’s choice.”

“Duchess of Valois…!”

“I will personally protest the discrimination I was facing at the academy, and make public debate about the instructor’s disrespectful attitude.”

Anriche tilted her head sternly, and a cold smirk hung on her lips.

“…Or, let us in.”

“That…!”

“Which one would you choose?”

At that single question, the instructor’s face turned red.

However, right then.

“What is going on?”

A cold voice interrupted the conversation.

“Du, Duke of Valois?!”

It was Alexei.

“Dad?”

“Duke!”

Elliot and Liliana, as well as Anriche, widened their eyes.

‘Come to think of it, he said he would stop by the academy when he had time, but…’

Alexei was such a busy man, so she didn’t really think he would come to the academy.

Immediately, the instructor began to complain to Alexei with an unjust expression on his face.

“That’s because the Duchess kept trying to force me.”

“Are you kidding me?”

Alexei’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Yes. The Duchess said she would like to take a tour of the swordsmanship students’ training…”

“So?”

“Honestly, isn’t that absurd?”

Saying that, the instructor glanced at Alexei’s eyes. Well, after a long feud between the Duke and Duchess of Valois, there were rumors circulating that they were living like strangers.

So, of course, he would be on the instructor’s side, right?

“If I showed her the training scene, it wouldn’t be good for the girl’s emotions either.”

The instructor, who glared at Anriche with a terrifying glance, sighed deeply and continued speaking.

“Usually, ladies try to show their daughters only pretty and beautiful things, but the Duchess wants to know…”

It was as if he was saying Anriche was raising Liliana in a very bad way.

“Isn’t it the most comfortable and good life for a woman to just meet a man and marry?”

“Why do you judge that?”

“…Yes?”

In response to the staggering question, the instructor shrugged his shoulders involuntarily. The deep blue eyes were glaring at the instructor with a light as cold as ice.

“I’m asking why the instructor judges that.”

“Yes, that…!”

“Liliana, whom the instructor said to ‘take bride lessons,’ is my disciple whom I personally taught.”

…What now?

The instructor doubted his ears.

But, Alexei’s words were not yet finished.

“If you doubt Liliana’s qualities as a knight, aren’t you doubting my eyes that have accepted Liliana as my apprentice?”

“Oh, no. That’s…”

“If you don’t mean that, I don’t think there’s any reason to stop her from visiting?”

The instructor’s face turned red.

Nonetheless, he did not dare to refute Alexei’s words.

Alexei was the best knight in the Empire, and to rebel against him…

‘It means that you are questioning the skills of the Duke.’

Damn it.

The instructor clenched his teeth. The notorious Duchess couldn’t have gotten along with the Duke.

“…Come in.”

Eventually, the instructor bowed his head.

Although right then, a shrill voice fell over the instructor’s head.

“Come in?”

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