I Will Seduce The Northern Duke

Chapter 42

“Why don’t you try training?”
“What training?”
“Since you’re very athletic and have excellent physical conditions, I think you’ll be able to learn……”
“So, what kind of training do you suggest?”
“Sword art?”
“I’d love to learn it.”

Her reply came out ridiculously easy, with no second thought.

“You’d love it?”
“Yes.
I’d appreciate it if you could teach me.
That way, I’d be able to have another way to protect myself.”

It wasn’t that there were very few women who learned sword skills.
It became a rare article.
Since there were no legal restrictions, anyone was allowed to learn.

But, she herself was willing to work with a sword.
Women rarely came forward like this.
Some even preferred static exercise that could be performed in a dress.

Though according to Kalcion, who was observant, it was natural for women to hate swords.
So it seemed pretty strange for him to see Selena wanting to stretch to warm up in the morning and be happy about learning fencing.

He didn’t mean it was wrong.
Rather, it felt like he had met a rare existence that didn’t exist in his world.
Well, it is true that she is a person from another world.

“Shall we do it right now? I can’t sleep anyway.”

Selena jumped out of her seat.
When the learner stepped out, Kalcion could not say any word.
He just thought of something and threw it at her, but things suddenly got bigger as she was really looking forward to training on this moony night.

“Should we do it here? Or outside? You know, I just escaped an assassin out there.”

Selena was in full swing.
She was motivated to do the training either way.

“The guards must be nervous and sensitive right now, so we should go for simple stances in the room.
We will do that until we get to the capital’s mansion.
If you’re still willing to continue, let’s get started now.”

“All right.
What should I start with?”

Since she stretched in the morning, there was no need for her to warm up.
Kalcion thought for a moment before he took out the sword he had set by the bedside.

For now, I only need to train her so that she would get tired and sleep, so formal training for knightship wasn’t necessary.
Thus, there was no need to organize the skills I’ll teach her according to order.

“Hold onto it.”

Turning the sword in his hand, Kalcion extended the hilt towards Selena.
She could learn with ease as long as she could support the sword without letting it fall on the floor.

“It’s heavier than it looks, isn’t it?”

Her eyes widened as she picked up the sword from the floor.

She thought it’d be a little heavier than a prop she held before, but it was much heavier than that.
Kalcion was holding it as though it was a twig, so she thought it was fairly lightweight.
The weight she felt firsthand was not of a sword.
It was like a lump.

“It’s a little different from a regular sword.
They use special metal with higher density to deal with evil forces.”
“Uh-huh……”
“It’s more than three times the weight of a typical sword.”

Selena looked down at the sword in admiration.
Indeed, it was as dark as its weight.

“Wow…….
It’s really heavy.”

It was quite difficult for her, who practiced weight-bearing at the gym.
She grunted as she lifted it.

She tried to lift it up and down so that she could be comfortable holding it, but the weight made it too difficult to draw a straight line.

“……..”

Then, as Kalcion was about to ask her to listen to him, his mouth parted open.
It wasn’t a sword that ordinary women could lift.
But she was swinging it.
He was astounded to see Selena holding it with her bare hands, like a warrior using mana.

It was the only field in which Kalcion devoted his heart to bring out the talent of martial arts.
His eyes glistened with greed.

“Would you be able to swing it horizontally?”
“Like this?”

She performed it with no difficulty.
His gaze deepened.

“Great.”

“Oh, I-I am?”

So there are actually days when compliments come out of his mouth.
She was surprised, but she stood proud with a big smile on her face.

“I-I must have some talent, huh? I haven’t tried it because it’s dangerous to use weapons.
I should’ve done it earlier.”
“It’s a shame you didn’t try it beforehand.
Can you lift it to the top of your head and swing it to the bottom?”
“Umm, hup! ……Like this?”

Kalcion almost clapped.

The two excited individuals continued to train with no knowledge of the time passing by.
Until Selena’s stamina was depleted to the point of exhaustion.

“……Ah, haah! Wait, stop!”
“Just one more time.”
“I’m really bad at this, huff, I’m going to stop.”
“No, you can do it.
This is the last.”
“Ugh!”

Extreme physical activity had something in common.
That is it made one sweat hard, and let out a painful grunt.
And sometimes such elements were apt to be misleading to others who only hear the sound.

That night, the misunderstanding grew deeper.

The Enemy Territory

Selena, who physically experienced a hot night with Kalcion, lied half dead in the carriage during the sudden resumption of the intense movement.

No matter how hard she trained, she would survive in the evening because she slept in the carriage all day long.
And their own training was repeated like this throughout the nights of sleeplessness.

Meanwhile, the carriage passed a long path and finally reached the end of the Renbird estate.
Selena, who had been sleeping in the carriage all day except for meals, kept her eyes open all morning when she was told that they were leaving the territory of Renbird.

“As soon as we leave the territory of Renbird, we wouldn’t see arrows flying from all directions or from raiding groups, would we?”
“That could be possible, but…….”
“Possible?!”

It was enough to spark her anxiety, but she could not lie.
Kalcion said exactly what it was.

“They could pretend to be a bandit, or they could say that they accidentally shot us while on a hunt.
The entire capital belongs to the King, so any aristocrat is free to hunt.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Not quite.”

The words didn’t add up as to what he told earlier.

“One can’t beat the Knights of Renbird by any means.”
“Ahahaha…… I wonder why the assassin forgot about them the last time.”
“……..”

Letting the assassin into the establishment that day became the greatest failure of the Knights of Renbird.
As Kalcion’s pride was hurt, he closed his mouth and shot his eyes outside the window.

That’s why people shouldn’t be overconfident.
If he could read her anxious mind before putting forward this confidence that it wasn’t dangerous, he could achieve victory for sure.
Selena looked out the window, grumbling to herself.

The carriage, which had been heading west, turned south for the first time this morning.

The central city of Renbird, Silenza, was located in the eastern end, and the capital of the Arkline Kingdom, Myong, was situated in the western central part.
Since they moved from east to west within the territory of Renbird, which covered all the land of north, the only way left was to go down from north to south.

While traveling from east to west, the Sigand Mountains on the right and the wilderness on the left remained the same, but as the latitude changed from north to south, the landscape began changing from time to time.

It was the first time that she began to see green grass swaying in the wind instead of strong thorny trees.
As noontime neared, flowers began to appear for the first time.
Then, a stone boundary was seen standing beyond the blooming fields.

“That’s the boundary.”

The boundary was built around where the flowers bloomed.
It was the standard by which the land of Renbird in the north felt like a pawn.

On the contrary, the capital city must be very prosperous and colorful where flowers bloomed.
Each kind boasted colorful petals and incense, and it was impossible to tell which was poisonous.

It was now time to get into the tomb and dance among the painted bodies.
Selena heaved a long sigh.
She could feel the eyes of Kalcion facing her way.

The carriage stopped at the boundary.
The capital and Renbird were not at war, but for security reasons, some soldiers stood guard near the perimeter.

“Your Excellency.”

One of the knights came up to the carriage.
Kalcion nodded.

“Wait here until further layout adjustments.”
“As you command.”

The knights surrounding the carriage divided themselves.
Some went toward the soldiers standing guard, while the others rearranged their position around the carriage.

As the separation ended, the carriage started again right that instant.
There were no sanctions or inspections performed on Kalcion’s carriage, even if the guards were for the control of the general public or not.

“Why did those Knights stay there?”

She asked while looking back at the knights in the distance.

From the moment the carriage crossed the perimeter, it started to run at full speed.
Due to that, the knights and the stone boundary had already become too small to be seen.

“The number of soldiers who can enter the capital is limited.
That’s why it is said, it’d be the most dangerous hour from the moment one crosses the border until he enters the capital’s residential area.”
“Ah……”

The word ‘dangerous’ caused the tension to stab back at her, and she gulped.

“If the carriage runs for half a day from here, we will enter the residential area.
From there, physical attacks are almost impossible, so you can relax.”

Then, wouldn’t this be the tensest hour until she got there? Nervous, she held her hands tight together on her lap.

Every time the speeding carriage rattled, her heart jumped out of fear.
If one of the wheels loosened, or if it got stuck in the mud…….

Now that she had experienced a situation for once where her life was in danger, she became quite sensitive.
She literally ran off a cliff because of her shoot and ended up crossing to another world.
What was left was a shivering coward afraid of dying.

“G-Give me your hand…….”

The tension kept building in her, causing her fingertips to go cold.
The chills, which began at her fingertips, spread straight throughout her body, making her knees tremble.
She asked out to him for help as she thought it would lessen her anxiety if she leaned on the warmth of Kalcion.

Kalcion gave his hand with no difficulty.
Selena grabbed his hand tightly with both hands, while he held one of her hands in response.