Eun-woo recalled the conversation she had with him at the ballroom the other day.
He clearly said that the knight battle was meaningful in recharging the morale between the knights, competing with each other, and strengthening their relationship. That's why he seemed to have said that even if he participated as the Commander-in-chief, it's useless.
"I think so."
As Eun-woo muttered, Yuria said.
"As the commander-in-chief, he must have a ton of things to deal with."
Then Hannah pondered something, and she asked a question.
"By the way, who did his grace, the duke, serve at that time when he was still a knight? No matter how amazing and outstanding a knight is, they have those times when they are given that evaluation. Do you know the lady?"
Eun-woo blankly blinked at her sudden question.
He must be a mere knight in his early days; therefore he must have been trained under a certain master as his or her knight. No one wields the sword right after they are born.
However, Eun-woo could feel the atmosphere suddenly getting stronger. Except for Hannah, all the other maids looked at each other and kept their mouths shut.
At that moment, Selena broke the quiet silence and opened her mouth.
"The duke … I don't think he had undergone such."
"What do you mean?"
Eun-woo asked a question while still not understanding Selena.
Wouldn't it be impossible for him to rise to the position he is today if he hadn't received training as a servant knight? Could it be that Selena is saying that he is occupying his place by his status and position?
Tashian was a very outstanding knight who made a heroic contribution to the Great Genova War and was an honorable general who was envied by all others knights.
Eun-woo wondered how he was able to become the commander of the Hellasium Imperial Knights without going through the period of a servant knight.
Suddenly, there was a cold voice from behind them that interrupted their chatter.
"…I will explain that."
It was Johannes. Eun-woo suddenly found the butler standing at the entrance of the terrace where they were gathered.
Johannes bowed slightly towards Eun-woo and Selena. Her cold marble-like voice was heard again.
"Duke Verk that time was 18 years old when he was given the title, and right after, he was sent to the expedition to the northern part of Kartina."
Eun-woo put down the needle she was holding in her hand upon hearing Johannes' words.
She recalled the name of the said place she had vaguely learned in Johannes class.
Kartina was a term used to refer to the northern peoples, often called barbarians, who lived a nomadic lifestyle by raising horses in the middle of a vast grassland.
They had a combative spirit and were the scourge of an empire that went south through the borders of guarded Hellasium and Genova. However, the value of their territory was too small at that time to invade the area.
In the end, the Empire invaded the guarded* border area and was unable to take any measures other than periodically sweeping up Kartina, who was only looking for an opportunity to expand their power.
(TN: The guarded part wasn't the literal translation of that, but because the literal tl of it was the KEEPER OR GUARD OF THE BORDER, I just changed it to GUARDED to therefore fit the context.)
"As soon as he arrived in that barren land, he was referred to as Sir Reinhardt's knighthood and went straight to war. There was no prior notice or training. At that time, the units given to the lord were newly recruited soldiers, they were mostly boys who had just completed training and enlisted. It can be seen as literal bunches of whoever, with a boss, who had never even served as servant, nor had seen much bloodshed and had no experience in combat."
Johannes' expression was almost the same as usual. She continued her speech, keeping her clerical, and firm voice.
"On the other hand, the enemy His Grace and his troops had to deal with was the Plainsman cavalry of Kartina, known for their brutality. Previously, no one had spoken of this battle… but from what I heard it was basically the road to death."
Eun-woo swallowed her dry saliva after listening to Johannes.
Even if she didn't know the whole situation, she could already imagine how ugly the situation was at that time. Tashian, who must have stood to the frontliners, leading the troops who had a hard time defending themselves amidst a desperate situation, where they couldn't see an inch ahead because of the amount of their enemies.
Johannes suddenly approached their table they were sitting at. The butler's straight forehead without a single hair sticking out made her impression to others even sharper these days.
"But His Grace returned from that battle without a single member of the army scathed."
At Johannes' last words, no one at the table was able to speak. Even Selena had stopped moving her hand. The stillness subsided after a long while.
"…With the strong recommendation from the Crown Prince, who highly valued his achievement at that time, he was recommended as an elite knight of the Imperial Knights Templar without a separate examination. After that, he showed steady progress, thus, he was appointed to the position as the commander-in-chief after Sir Miliano, who had just retired before the War of the Great Genova. It was unanimously appointed, with no one against it."
Eun-woo was incapable of saying anything. She recalled the first time she met him.
Facing him inside the rose garden of the Imperial Palace; he looked like an unreachable mountain- huge and unyielding. The feeling of intimidation was being disseminated like grains of sand if she dared to approach him. Because he was accustomed to commanding his subordinates, he has this indescribable power of the kind that was terrifying to look at. It seemed as if he was born that way.
But even for such a person like him, there were hard times when he couldn't see an inch ahead of him.
Hearing his past from someone other than him was a feeling she wasn't quite used to.
Eun-woo touched the cloth in front of her. His boyhood, when he had to climb up a barrier a thousand times higher than the others with his bare hands, seemed to come vividly as if unfolding in front of her.
At the same time, she could feel her feeling from within surfacing and turning deeper and deeper, into another path. She was afraid of her hopeless feelings for him.
Eun-woo tried not to act like a puppy pup that flirts in front of her dizzy thoughts.
"Oh, I brought a cloth."
What awakened her dazed thoughts was the voice from the maid, Anit. She burst into admiration after looking at the white cloth in Johannes' right hand.
"I didn't expect you to get it so quickly! Oh my gosh."
The eyes of the quiet maids immediately turned to the white cloth in Johannes' hands. Eun-woo made a puzzled expression as she looked at the white cloth that Anit was lifting.
She wondered what items the smart maid, who always writes down in the ledger and submits if there is anything else she needs for her, asked the butler of the duke department to provide directly.
"Anit, what is that?"
"Oh, I'll show you later. It's the fabric for the new lady's clothes."
Anit said with an awkward smile in a slightly different voice than usual.
"If it's only a cloth, why did you add a few more layers than the previous one…"
"Ah… it's because this isn't an easily available fabric in the market. Come on, what are you doing? Hurry up and finish it before the sun goes down! Move quickly."
Eun-woo felt a strange sense of alienation from Anit's attitude, which was different from usual. But her loyal maid looked like she would do no harm to her.
At Anit's instructions, the maids hurriedly grabbed the needles and fabrics they had been letting go of and started to focus on their labor again.
"…Anyway, lady, when you go out to the square, you must watch the parade procession of the Imperial Palace soldiers! It would be so cool!"
"The clock tower in the square is also worth seeing."
"Tell him that you would like to see the exterior of the black church. It will be crowded with people around, but it is a building worth seeing at least once in your life."
"Ey, the Flora festival is street food after all. Lady, you must try the honey apple!"
It was after each of the maids mentioned essential tourist attractions of the Flora Festival and started chatting with each other while laughing enthusiastically.
Eun-woo also felt her heart pounding like cotton candy with anticipation for the ever-inflating festival.
She had never thought that she would want to go first to such a crowded place. But she seemed to be fine if she's with Tashian.
She, above all else, goes her way with him, who will dare harm her?
At that time, she noticed that the maids, who had been giggling amongst themselves, and who had never stopped talking, suddenly shut their mouths like a hawk.
When she lifted her head, feeling something strange about her, she had already discovered that a large figure was standing at the entrance to the terrace where Johannes had disappeared a while ago.
Eun-woo recognized Tashian's tousled black hair and felt her heart start thumping out of control.
He wasn't fully dressed to go out somewhere in relation to the work of the Knights Templar, but he was wearing light armor which somehow looked quite heavy.
As soon as he appeared, an illusion arose as if the air inside the terrace had subsided heavily.
She found him at the entrance, and he approached her directly with his heavy and long footsteps. The silver-gray armor that was draped over his black attire gave off a harsh iron sound whenever he moved.
Even though he had an expressionless expression on his face that seemed to be the same as usual, he seemed infinitely cool and capable, perhaps because she had heard his past earlier from Johannes.
Eun-woo was a little embarrassed by the sudden sense of distance from him in her mind. But at the same time, she couldn't take her eyes off the man who was approaching her without uttering anything.
"What were you doing?"
In front of her maids and Selena, he asked her gently, who didn't give her any second to cope in the situation as he stretched his hand towards the chair she was sitting on. At the sudden action, Eun-woo's body stiffened without realizing it herself.
She couldn't remember from what moment he started coming so close to her, not paying attention to the maids and Selena's eyes.
"Didn't you hear from Johannes? I'm going to change the interior of the Duke's Castle a bit. I was embroidering on the curtains."
"Embroidery? You yourself?"
He raised his eyebrows together, flicking one. She saw his eyes peeking through the needles in her hands and secretly and slowly covered the embroidered cloth under her palms.
Tashian once again asked her, subtly frowning.
"It's obvious. Johannes ordered you to do it, right? I'm telling you; you don't have to do that."
He leaned his head towards her. Eun-woo was startled by this and grabbed the embroidery that had been covered with the palms of her hands. She didn't want to show him her messed up embroidery.
But Tashian's attention was not on the embroidery in her hands, but on her fingers.
"Look… you've got your fingertips red."
He grabbed her hand tightly, and kicked his tongue.
Eun-woo felt goosebumps on her back at the touch of his blunt and hard hand touching her soft palm. His rough, callused hand with no soft part at all was rubbing her fingertips very softly.
Eun-woo looked at Selena and her maids in embarrassment, but she couldn't get her hand out of his grasp.
"It's, it's okay. It doesn't hurt at all. I haven't done much."
Selena and the maids were the ones who worked hard to sew from early morning. Eun-woo stamped her feet in his heart hoping that he would not see her ugly embroidery, which was only an acorn that she had made hard for half a day.
"Omg, look at my mind. I forgot to prepare the bath water. Guys, why aren't you standing up?"
At that moment, Anit jumped up, screaming as if she had suddenly remembered something important. Following her, the rest of her maids stood up in a row and began to tidy up her seat, taking her bustle of her sewing supplies out of her reach.
Eun-woo was embarrassed by the sudden closing of the sewing meeting and gave an unspoken gaze not to go to Anit, but the experienced nanny did not blink an eye.
Eventually, the maids bowed to the duke and disappeared in a dash. Of course, Selena gracefully left the place with a plastered kind smile on her face.
"Eleanor, I'm a little tired too, so I guess I'll have to go to rest for a bit. See you later in the class. Then, Your Grace, the Duke, I shall take my leave…"
Instantly, there were only two of them left on the terrace. It happened without any fuss, and she couldn't contain her composed self.
Eun-woo froze on her spot, dyeing her ears red. On the other hand, Tashian had a wide smile on his face with his pleasant expression, watching how Selena and the maids fled away.
"I, I usually get bath water only after dinner, so why today..."
Eun-woo stumbled in embarrassment, unable to make eye contact with him. Then he grabbed her hand, which he was still holding on to, and grabbed her with the other.
"I guess I lifted your hand too early."
He looked down on her with a casual look, but it seemed like he was a bit mad.
Even though she knew everything, Eun-woo was speechless and stared at him.
But soon after, she turned her blushing face to one side, and he bowed his head toward her and made eye contact with her.
"Why are you like that? Are you mad?"