Although Yelena didn’t know much about swords, she could tell, at the very least, that her husband was currently displaying overwhelming skills against the knights.
“Ugh, I lost.”
“Next.”
‘Amazing. Isn’t my husband impressive?’
She already knew her husband was an excellent swordsman.
She’d heard a lot of stories about Duke Mayhard.
Still, it felt completely different to see the rumored skill with her own eyes.
‘My husband is doing so well.’
Yelena somehow shrugged it off. There was a stiff tension in her neck.
Just as the fourth knight greeted the Duke, the Duke discovered that Yelena was in the training grounds.
When she saw her husband pause, she realized he had spotted her.
It was very nice to see her, but the Duke couldn’t approach her since he was in a match, so he pretended he didn’t see her.
It was a pity Yelena was waving her hands so vigorously from her spot.
“…”
Her husband’s gaze moved away from her.
Soon the match continued.
However, there was a slight difference from before.
The swords of knights in combat with her husband began to fly in the same direction.
It was in the opposite direction from where Yelena stood.
At first, Yelena didn’t notice it either.
But after continuously turning her head to follow the projectile of the flying swords, one after another, she realized it.
Yelena was in the right corner of the training grounds, and the knight’s swords were piled up neatly on the left side.
“…?”
Yelena was dumbfounded and alternately glanced between her husband and the swords piled on one side of the training grounds.
‘Is that possible?’
Could you decide where to send your opponent’s sword during the match?
Was this feat possible for anyone with remarkable skills, and only she wasn’t unaware of it?
While Yelena thought so, the knights around her chattered.
“Did you see that? He’s showing off some tricks today… hah. At this rate, it’ll take many years before I can catch up to His Excellency.”
“You thought about catching up? That’s a terribly silly dream.”
“No, but I’m still going to stay on my toes.”
“Then you should have told me straight from the beginning. Of course, that’s still a wild dream for you.”
“What do you mean?”
Yelena perked up her ears.
Eavesdropping on the compliments about her husband was more satisfying than she expected.
‘By the way, the knights seem to follow my husband very well.’
An outsider would gossip about him despite never meeting her husband in person.
A maid would make a mistake while serving her husband because she was too afraid to look him in the face.
It was refreshing and new to see how well people followed her husband as their role model after seeing otherwise several times before.
Yelena felt proud and delighted for no reason.
‘Perhaps, it’s because they’re knights, so respect is based on meritocracy?’
Whether it should be called a prejudice or an illusion, Yelena harbored a kind of stereotype about knights.
It was the belief that knights evaluated their opponent based on their skills, regardless of origin, reputation, or any other conditions.
And that fixed perception seemed to be gaining some empirical ground here today.
It was then.
“…Ah, I envy him, I envy him. I can’t live with the unfairness.”
“Thomas?”
A knight called Thomas grumbled, scratching the floor with a sword tip.
“Some people roll on the floor of the training ground every day, but they are still weak, whereas some occasionally show up and knock out people all the time… It must be great to be born with such a gift.”
Yelena knitted her brows.
When she listened carefully, she heard him acknowledge her husband’s skill, but she disliked the way he spoke.
‘If you’re envious, you’ll also become jealous.”
As soon as envy intertwined with jealously and inferiority, it was bound to look ugly.
‘Yes, live with that envy for the rest of your life.’
In the end, this was all because her husband was skilled and he was lacking.
Yelena thought so and tried to pretend she didn’t hear the knight, Thomas.
But then Thomas started talking again.
“If I had known this would be the case, I would have prayed for stains on my face while I was in my mother’s womb.”
“What?”
“What do you mean, Thomas?”
“Didn’t you know? It’s said that the talent was given to him by the devil. If you get something like that, don’t you think the curse is worthwhile? In my next life, I will not be blessed by the temple, but instead, the devil’s…”
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