Selen was sitting on a bed in the castle infirmary. According to the knight who had led her there, she would be taken care of by the duke's sister, the famous Rose. In the meantime, she sat staring into the void.
She was thinking back to the interview she had just had with the duke, wondering how someone could be a duke and be so rude. His father had certainly not been a good person, but he had always displayed the dignified and distinguished behavior that suited his rank. The man she had faced today was in no way like a man who led a founding duchy.
She was lost in her thoughts when a young woman entered the infirmary, closely followed by a robust knight. In her life, Selen had never seen a woman with the stature of this knight.
"I shall introduce myself. I am Rose, and I am here to take care of your wounds."
Selen noticed that she had the same black hair and amber eyes as her brother. It was only in the North that dukes looked like savages and delicate young ladies from good families were doctors, Selen thought.
"I was told that you are a knight? Anna, is that right?" Rose asked.
"Uhm, yes. Thank you for your care, madam," Selen replied.
Rose wrapped a bandage around her arm and smiled at her amicably.
"The knights of the capital are quite frowned upon here in the North, you know?"
Selen had suspected as much. In the capital, Northerners were considered peasants; the opposite reaction was only natural.
"For my part, I don't take that into account," Rose continued. "A doctor must care for all patients regardless of where they come from and whether they are good or bad. And as for you, you do not seem to be a bad person, Anna."
Selen did not know what to say, so she simply lowered her head and accepted Rose's care. She didn't understand how people like Rose could exist. While she herself was killing and destroying, Rose was healing and repairing. Perhaps, on the contrary, it was her own existence that was incomprehensible.
When Rose had finished examining and treating her, Selen stood up and bowed.
"Again, thank you for the care, madam."
"No, it's not worth thanking me. I told you, in this infirmary I am simply a doctor. I would ask that you take a rest day tomorrow. Your wounds are superficial, but you will need some rest."
Selen nodded her head and got dressed before leaving the infirmary. The knight who had accompanied her was waiting at the door. He roughly pointed out the main landmarks of the castle and showed her to her room before leaving.
She sat on the bed in her small room and let out a long sigh before changing and wiping away the blood that clung to her. She then ate her dinner, which consisted of a simple soup and a piece of bread, and lay down immediately, exhausted. Using alchemy for so many days and channeling her magic to eliminate knights had drained her.
The next day, when she woke up, it was already late and the sun stood high in the sky. The days in the North were short, so it must already be late afternoon.
She silently thanked Rose for giving her the day off; otherwise, she would have been in serious trouble. The knights began their training early in the morning, and she would have completely missed the entire session.
Selen put on more comfortable clothes, braided her now-black hair into a long plait, and tied the sword Layla had given her at her waist. Now that she was rested, she decided to go out and familiarize herself with the place.
It was difficult to navigate the maze of corridors and staircases. Selen wandered for nearly two hours before arriving in a garden filled with flowers. It was rare to see flowers in the North given the harsh climate, but this place seemed different.
A spell had probably been cast to keep the garden in eternal summer. It was the same principle as their own winter garden, except this one was open-air rather than enclosed. It must have required a great deal of magic and time, Selen thought.
She was about to leave when she heard a noise at the far end of the garden. Curiosity, which at that moment outweighed her common sense, prevailed, and she decided to investigate.
An exclamation of surprise greeted her when the woman who had been turning the soil with a small shovel saw her approach. She dropped the shovel and stared at Selen intensely.
Selen picked up the shovel and handed it to her, but when the woman made no move to take it, she placed it at her feet and turned to leave.
Then everything happened very quickly. The woman suddenly wrapped her arms around Selen from behind, destabilizing her, and they both fell to the ground. Selen did not understand what was happening. She tried to get up, but the woman began to cry and touched her face.
"My Jackson, you came to help Mama plant the flowers in the garden. You finally returned. I missed you so much…"
Selen did not understand what was happening and wanted to leave as quickly as possible. The woman clung to her, crying and shouting.
"Madam, please, I think you are mistaking me for someone else."
"No, my Jackson, they will take you from me. My baby…"
Selen felt the woman being brutally pulled away from her and understood when she saw two maids restraining her.
"Your Highness, please calm down. We are taking you back to your room. You need to rest, alright?"
Selen watched as the two maids led the woman away while another collected the gardening tools. She approached the latter.
"Excuse me, but what just happened?"
The servant sighed and turned to her.
"I assume you are new. This woman is our duchess. She has been like this since the death of the late duke and his son. You may not know it, but this garden is forbidden to visitors and knights," she added after noticing her sword.
The maid then turned her back and disappeared deeper into the garden.
Selen felt the wind lift strands of hair that had escaped from her braid and brush them across her face. She remained standing there, observing the spot where the duchess had been gardening, before finally leaving. She had her own demons to fight. She had neither the time nor the energy to offer compassion to others.
The next day, Selen woke early to attend training. From the moment she arrived on the field, she felt certain looks—curiosity from some, hatred from others. Knights from the capital were truly despised in the North.
She picked up a wooden sword and took her place among the others.
The training was difficult. Even though she had spent a week reading books on swordsmanship, practice proved far more challenging than theory. The knight instructing them corrected her posture at least ten times that day, and she endured every possible mockery and joke from the other knights.
Selen knew she would struggle at first, but after a week she began to see progress, and their instructor shouted at her less. The only problem remained certain knights who had not given up on insulting and humiliating her. Two in particular irritated her greatly. She had nicknamed them Ass Face One and Ass Face Two because she found them so ugly.
"My beauty, you'd be better off in a warm bed upstairs with me, don't you think?"
It was Ass Face One, casting her a lecherous look. She ignored him and focused on her posture and sword movements.
"Didn't you hear him?" replied Ass Face Two. "Drop that sword and come take care of mine instead."
Ass Face Two snatched the wooden sword from her hands when he saw she was ignoring him.
"You don't listen to your elders anymore, little one? Just because you're pretty doesn't mean we'll let everything slide."
He tried to touch her face, but Selen recoiled in disgust. He raised his hand as if to slap her when the instructor intervened.
"Stop it. You know very well what will happen if this goes too far."
Selen glanced around and noticed that some had stopped training to watch. Ass Face Two understood that the situation was turning against him and shot her a hateful look before leaving with Ass Face One.
Selen, who hated being the center of attention, dropped her sword and slipped into the small clearing beside the field. She knew a lake flowed nearby; she could hear the current. Since training was over and she had a little time before nightfall, she decided to walk by the lake and think about her next move.
After five minutes of walking, she reached the lake and spotted a tree nearby where she could sit and enjoy the silence. She had barely taken two steps when she felt someone roughly grab her arm and spin her around.
It was Ass Face One and Ass Face Two.
One stood behind her while the other held her arm tightly. Selen would have liked to blame herself for letting her guard down, but deep down she knew she had wanted to kill those two from the very first day.
"So, my pretty, are you taking a walk without us?"
"Let me go first. I'll teach her what happens when she tries to humiliate me," sneered Ass Face Two.
Selen burst out laughing, and it unsettled both men.
"Fortunately for me, the lake's current is very strong. No one will ever find your corpses once I'm finished with you," she said calmly.
Ass Face One's features twisted with rage. He tried to speak, but a moment later his head was no longer attached to his body.
Blood splattered across Selen's face. Her heart pounded violently when her gaze met that of the duke standing before her.
"Didn't they tell you that this lake is forbidden?"
Selen turned and saw that Ass Face Two was already rolling toward the water, lifeless.
"When I speak, I expect to be answered."
She turned back to the duke and only then realized that he was naked and wet, as if he had been bathing in the lake.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know the lake was forbidden. I won't come back."
Selen made a move to leave, but the duke seized her arm and pressed his sword against her neck, bringing his face close to hers.
"You seemed quite confident when you were threatening those two idiots. Yet now you tremble like a fledgling."
Selen wondered how she would get out of this situation. The duke was extremely distrustful, and she had sworn not to attract his attention. Yet here she was.
"I was only threatening them, Your Grace. I am not strong enough to harm seasoned knights of the North."
The duke gave a sarcastic smile. He did not believe her; she could tell.
"You know what? I think you were quite determined, and you certainly did not look like a woman about to be assaulted by two dogs. So answer me—what are you hiding?"