Chapter 18
“What did you say?”
At Roshanne’s abrupt announcement of their dismissal, all the knights jumped to their feet. As the burly men rose simultaneously and surged forward, the startled maids let out a shriek and backed away in fear.
In an instant, the knights swarmed around Roshanne as if encircling her. But she, as if accustomed to this, didn’t cower; instead, she merely shrugged her shoulders.
“Why? Afraid you won’t find another job like this? One where the pay comes steady and you don’t even have to work?”
“Hey, miss.”
“You—go fetch the butler. Tell him I’m firing all the knights right now.”
Ignoring the knight’s growling threat with ease, Roshanne issued the command to one of the maids.
The maid, after a quick glance around, hurried off to obey Roshanne’s order.
“Hey!”
When the maid actually ran off to summon the butler, the knight scowled and stepped in front of Roshanne to block her.
“Don’t call him.”
“What?”
“If I’m fired, you won’t see me again anyway, so don’t bother calling him.”
Roshanne’s attitude remained unchanged.
“Ha! Listen, miss. You must not know, but the only one who can fire us is the duke—”
“If you need the duke, I’ll have him called for you. Go fetch the duke.”
This time, Roshanne ordered another maid to summon the duke.
Roshanne had always feared the duke. In his presence, she was too scared to even meet his eyes, barely able to lift her head. Her trembling shoulders sometimes looked truly pitiable.
So, they naturally assumed that mentioning the duke would frighten her this time as well…
“What are you waiting for? Go call him.”
“Ha, but the duke is busy right now—”
“Tell him to come even if he’s busy. What can I do if he’s the one who hired these useless knights? If you can’t do the job, you’ll have to face the consequences.”
“D-Do I really have to relay that to the duke? Miss…”
“No. I’ll tell him that part myself when he arrives. Didn’t you hear? You said you need the duke to fire you. If we’re being precise, tell him it was these knights who demanded he come, not me.”
The knights’ faces turned ashen in an instant.
“But…”
“If he doesn’t come, tell him I’ll sell off something else. That should bring him running.”
Roshanne was unyielding. Seeing that she showed no sign of backing down, the maid finally dashed off.
As several maids hurried away to fetch the butler and the duke, the knights seemed to realize this was no joke.
“Why are you suddenly doing this?”
One of the knights stepped forward again, apparently thinking things could go badly if they didn’t act.
“There must be some misunderstanding, miss. We were just taking a break during training.”
At least his tone had become noticeably more polite.
But that wasn’t enough to satisfy Roshanne, who furrowed her brow.
“A break during training?”
Roshanne glanced around at the knights.
Hmm. As expected, there was no scent of sweat; they looked fresh and dry. These so-called knights seemed even more pristine than the maids who’d sweated profusely just walking here.
“If our rude attitude offended you, we apologize. …It seems the guys got riled up at the talk of getting paid for nothing.”
“So, the fault lies with me for saying that?”
“You’ve never come here before, and the first thing you say on your sudden visit is that we’re getting paid for nothing—who would like that?”
“Exactly. Do you know how hard we train? If you judge us based on a single moment…”
“Just a little while ago, Sir Mark, the escort of Brina Potlen, challenged me to a duel.”
Roshanne cut off the knight mid-sentence and got to the real reason she’d come to the training grounds.
The knights, who had been protesting to Roshanne, all widened their eyes in shock.
“Sir Mark? You don’t mean that Sir Mark?”
“The one who was a candidate for captain of the Golden Knight Order?”
“The guy who wins the swordsmanship tournament every year.”
Roshanne quietly regarded the knights before speaking.
“Yes, that’s why I need a knight to duel Sir Mark in my place.”
The knights, who had been so bold moments ago, all averted their gazes from Roshanne as if by some unspoken agreement.
“Anyone willing to step up?”
At Roshanne’s question, the knights only exchanged glances. Not a single one raised a hand with bold confidence.
Roshanne wasn’t disappointed.
“What hard training?”
As if she’d expected this all along. As if she hadn’t held even the slightest hope.
“Even so, you’re saying you’re not getting paid for nothing?”
A few knights flushed red. Not out of guilt for lying, but as if the shame lay in being caught in the lie.
“But Sir Mark is an exception!”
One knight bellowed at Roshanne.
“Exception?”
“He was a candidate for captain of the Golden Knight Order! There’s no way we could beat a knight who’s also a winner of the swordsmanship tournament!”
“You’re certainly long-winded about admitting you’re scared.”
At Roshanne’s mockery, the knights’ faces flushed red with anger.
“We’re just avoiding a fight where the outcome is obvious! It’s inefficient, isn’t it?”
“You’re not angry at yourself for backing down because you know you can’t win, but you get mad at someone else for pointing out that you’re scared? Selective outrage, I see.”
“What are you saying! If it weren’t Sir Mark, we’d gladly fight and claim victory!”
“Really? From what I see, you’d lose even to some street thug.”
“What did you say?”
The atmosphere among the knights chilled instantly under Roshanne’s unrelenting taunts.
“What did you just say?”
“I said you don’t look like you’d win even against a street thug.”
“Watch your words, miss.”
The knights, suddenly demoted from knights to thugs in status, muttered threats at Roshanne.
“There’s a limit to how much we’ll overlook because you’re a lady.”
“Oh?”
Roshanne nodded.
“Then don’t overlook it.”
As if they had any idea who was really overlooking whom.
The tension became precarious, like walking on thin ice. The one remaining maid, left alone, jumped in surprise and tried to intervene between Roshanne and the knights to calm things down, but it had no effect.
‘Full of openings.’
Meanwhile, Roshanne scanned the knights. Judging by the killing intent she sensed, they were probably all thinking of drawing their swords if push came to shove.
It’s easiest to gauge someone’s full strength when they’re poised to attack with the intent to kill their opponent for real.
The killing intent and intimidation emanating from the knights in front of her didn’t even make a single hair on her head stand on end.
This was their full power.
‘…This is too disappointing.’
She hadn’t expected anyone on Cheyton’s level, but she’d hoped for at least someone who could mimic it somewhat—yet they fell short of even that.
Roshanne furrowed her brow. If they faced Sir Mark at this level, they’d likely just get beaten down and it would end there.
The emperor does tend to keep noble families’ private armies in check, but that doesn’t mean the knights have to be this incompetent.
‘Even if they pooled all their strength, they could barely protect one or two people.’
They weren’t a knight order meant to protect the family; more like people prepared to shield the duke’s body if something happened.
After all, nobles do keep people ready to die in their place in case of personal threats.
‘Do I have to step in myself after all?’
It was while Roshanne was lost in thought that it happened.
“Miss.”
The knight who’d been babbling in front of her ground his teeth and called out to Roshanne.
His killing intent was pitiful, but among them, he seemed the strongest.
“If you’re bored, find another pastime. What’s the point of stirring us up for no reason?”
The knight glared, gripping the hilt of the sword at his waist—as if he might draw his real blade at any moment.
“If you want to see our true strength, I can show you right now.”
At the motion that suggested he was about to draw his sword, the maid let out a startled ‘Eek!’ and pressed close to Roshanne’s side.
“Go ahead and draw it?”
Roshanne stepped forward. Then, before the knight could react, she swiftly extended her hand.
Whoosh!
Roshanne’s palm pressed firmly down near the hilt of the sword he seemed about to draw.
“Do you think I can’t draw it?”
The knight, intending to intimidate her, pulled hard on the sword.
“Do you really think I can’t draw… Huh?”
No. He tried to draw it. He definitely meant to pull it out with all his might and scare the small miss in front of him.
‘Why won’t it budge?’
The sword didn’t move an inch.
It felt like an immense boulder, heavy as Mount Tai, was pressing down near the hilt.
“Huh?”
The flustered knight tried again to draw the sword.
“You think I can’t…! Hngh?”
But the result was the same. The sword wouldn’t budge. What was pressing on the hilt was just a small hand, barely a handspan wide…
‘Huh?’
Following the small hand upward with his gaze, the knight met Roshanne’s eyes and flinched.
Without realizing it, his legs nearly gave out, and he almost collapsed to the ground.
What is this? Why?
In that moment of facing her face, the knight felt an indescribable terror, coupled with reverence for something utterly unapproachable.
The palm gripping the sword’s hilt had somehow become slick with sweat.
Ah.
It’s this woman.
The knight realized instinctively.
The one preventing him from drawing his sword was this woman, with her small hand barely a handspan wide.
“Why?”
Roshanne asked lazily, as if she saw right through it all.
“Can’t draw your sword?”
A bead of cold sweat trickled down the knight’s back.
“…What? What’s wrong?”
“Are you scared of getting fired? Show us your true strength!”
“The captain’s the strongest among us!”
The oblivious surrounding knights cheered him on, urging him.
‘Shut up!’
The knight wanted to cry. Every time the other knights encouraged him, the force pressing down on the sword grew stronger.
Now, it wasn’t about drawing the sword; he had to focus on maintaining his balance so that the crushing force didn’t bring him down too.
The knight’s arms, bearing the full brunt of Roshanne’s strength, trembled uncontrollably.
What on earth.
How is this miss doing this.
Since when.
Why.
Unrefined questions swirled repeatedly in the knight’s mind.
“Got something you want to say?”
That’s when Roshanne looked at him and asked.
Still utterly composed.
As always, completely nonchalant.
