Taming The Lady

I barely escaped the jaws of death.

I was trying so hard pretending not to notice Raon glaring at me that the corners of my mouth were twitching badly. But I went on distributing the bread to everyone. I could literally feel his serious gaze directed at me but I was not going to look back at him!

“My Lady, Sir Lerde, are you two free today? I am planning to go to a certain place with Raon.”

Lucas was talking to me and Sir Lerde with a big smile. That day, they finished with practice earlier than usual.

“I will definitely come! I am so uselessly free today!” I shouted energetically, making Lucas laugh. When I asked the reason for his specific plan, he replied, “I am thinking of going out to eat some meat with Raon after a long time. Oh, but are you still hungry after eating the bread, My Lady?”

“Yes! Yes, of course! I have a bottomless pit for a stomach, so I am never full, no matter how much I eat!” Hearing this, Lucas practically roared with laughter while holding his stomach.

The place Lucas brought us to was near the foot of a mountain that was sparsely populated. It seemed to be the perfect place to avoid the Count’s eyes. Lucas was still having a hard time holding back his laughter even after we arrived there.

After following him a little further, we came to a secluded hut. In my eyes, the place felt like a present given by Father Christmas himself, ready to be opened by me. From the outside, it looked like an old hut with traces of time but except for the smell of old wood, the inside was cleaner than I expected.

Lucas approached the cold fireplace inside the hut and lit a fire.

“We are going to eat here today.”

I nodded vigorously agreeing to everything.

I thought Lucas did the right thing bringing us there. If he did not do that, Raon would never eat any meat at all.

‘Shall I also start adding meat to my menu for the picnic from now on?’

While I was deep in my thoughts, Lucas made eye contact with me and smiled at me cheerfully with a look that seemed to recognize my intentions.

“Sir Lerde, can you help me out here? You two can go together and sit on the carpet over there.”

Lucas said this while beckoning to Sir Lerde.

If I heard him right, I thought he gave a little bit more emphasis on the word “together”. ‘I think I am right. Nice, Master!’ Sir Lerde followed Lucas without hesitation and they were seen leaving the hut right after.

All that was left inside the hut was Raon and me.

“….”

“……”

There was a long silence between us but I was not the one to give in. It was a great opportunity to get closer with Raon, so if I was going to miss that, I would just have to bite my tongue and die!

Wearing the thickest face I could muster up, I sneaked up to Raon and sat down next to him.

“Raon, I am begging you. Please don’t use that moving-away magic trick of yours. Lucas told you to stay here too”.

Contrary to what I was worried about, Raon did not move from the spot. He was really obeying his teacher well.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I took a moment to relax while taking in the surroundings around me. I could hear the sound of firewood burning while the warm air slowly enveloped us.

Just having Raon by my side made the world filled with a happy and bright color.

I sat in the warm silence, not expecting Raon to say anything but suddenly he asked me an unexpected question.

“Lady Estina, what is your reason for learning swordsmanship?”

It was so sudden that I could not help but burst out laughing. As I continued to giggle, Raon was starting to kind of look annoyed.

I could not help but laugh at the situation since the very reason for my endeavor was asking why I was learning to fight.

“I have people whom I want to protect,” I said, expecting a familiar reaction from him. Whenever I said something serious he could not help but look at me with suspicion in his eyes.

If it was Estina, something like “Because I want to torture people” would be more of an appropriate reason.

But this was my truth, not Estina’s.

I wanted to protect Raon even though I could never reach a munchkin’s level, no matter how hard I tried. Most probably, I would aim more towards the transformation of a girl-in-crush. I was more than aware of my limitations.

Back to the point, I wanted to be more of a help to Raon even with my poor skills. Even though I would probably need more help than I was able to give, at least I did not want to be treated as a burden. That was my sincere feeling. I could not forget the fact that in the novel Raon died protecting Liliana. If Raon was going to be in any kind of danger this time too because of Liliana, I might just kill her first.

‘What the heck? Why did my thoughts suddenly go darker out of nowhere?’

‘Nice thoughts. Let’s think nice thoughts.’

‘Even if I don’t kill Liliana myself…I will use all my might to stop her from getting closer to Raon.’

Raon’s rigid posture and cold expression were not going away easily but I still could not give up.

“I think all men and women should learn swordsmanship regardless of gender or class. That way, you can protect yourself and your loved ones.”

Raon looked at me quietly without saying anything more.

For the first time, Raon’s bright ocean blue eyes looked straight at me and he had a confused and complicated look on him.

Ba-dump!

My heart was pounding hard.

Some would say it was boring but I could see why all kinds of novels tried so hard to describe the main character’s eye color. It was so clear and beautiful that it was only natural that the author wanted to show it off to the readers. And among all the characters, Raon’s eyes were by far the best ones……..

Raon was still looking at me for such a long period that I felt like my heart was about to burst. To be accurate, my heart was beating so fast that the blood pumping into my brain was about to drive me crazy. ‘Gosh, how can his eyes be so transparent?’

‘Seriously……..’

“I want you……..”

‘Dang it. Did I just say that out loud again? Oh, God…’

“Ugh…Raon…that was…I didn’t mean anything strange by that!”

I faced him properly to explain but Raon’s face was already hardened by that time.

‘Ughh……….can I just hold my nose and kill myself? Should I?’

“I think the reason you told me just now about why you are learning the sword is a very good one as long as it is the truth.”

Again, an unexpected comment reached my ears as I was wallowing in despair. Those words did not contain much emotion, but they were definitely positive words.

I stared at Raon with a puzzled look but there was still no emotion on his straight face.

After he finished, Raon never opened his mouth again.

The four of us gathered in front of the meal that was cooked to perfection. We kept chatting all the while, talking mostly about little things and sometimes joking around with each other. In fact, Lucas and I were the ones doing most of the talking while Raon and Sir Lerde were mostly listening.

Lucas and Sir Lerde started talking about weapons after we jumped from one topic to another. They were talking about how many types of swords were available there, about the good ones and the bad ones, and whether they could be used alongside axes and spears.

To be honest, I did not understand half of it. But since it was kind of interesting, I was paying attention and I looked at Lucas and he looked back. Then, as if he had an epiphany, he opened his eyes wide and said,

“Oh right. My Lady, have you thanked Raon yet?”

“Huh?”

“Did you know that Raon was the one who carried you when you fainted? Well, Sir Lerde practically begged him to but still……..”

‘What was that again? Raon carried me?’

‘So it wasn’t a dream at all? That warmth I felt back then?’

‘So the thing Sir Lerde was trying to tell me earlier……was about this? No way!’

I slowly looked at Raon with a lovestruck face. I had not drunk anything strange but I was drunk on him to the extent that the surroundings around me seemed to be cloudy and Raon was the only one who had a bright light on him.

Raon was not looking at me even though he could feel me outrightly staring at him. Obviously, he was ignoring me.

‘Raon’s expression still hasn’t changed a bit but who cares! What does that even matter! My heart is already overflowing with love.’

‘I am happy. I’m so happy. Very very happy. So…!’

“Raon!”

I pounded upon Raon who was sitting quite defenselessly and hugged him tightly.

Since I was still bigger than Raon, and it was quite an unexpected move on my part, Raon was caught off guard. He could not bear my weight and fell backward.

“My Lady, what is this audacity?”

“Oh, I don’t know! I can’t hear you! Raon, thank you! I am so happy right now!”

I was on top of Raon and I kept saying thank you with a happy expression that showed my heart. ‘I am never letting you go even if you push me away, Raon. Really. Seriously. I love this whole situation so much!’

“Sigh…”

Raon sighed deeper and deeper while my smile got wider and wider.

‘I will never hurt you and I will never bring you pain. So relax.’

***

“H-hey? Raon?”

“….”

“W-wait for a bit! Why are you ignoring me?”

“……….”

“You can at least say hello back though.”

“And why will I say hello to you, My Lady?”

“A-aren’t we friends already?”

“Are you being serious?”

“Of course!”

Raon let out a deep sigh that seemed to come up from the deepest of his heart. Looking at me with empty eyes, he spat out the following words:

“………I don’t want to see your face.”

“But why?”

“Why don’t you use that head of yours and think about it? Oh wait, I guess it will be difficult for you since you have no common sense. In that case, there is nothing we can do about it. Bye then.”

Raon went back to his training with a crooked smirk.

‘Of course, I do admit that I was wrong to some extent in what I did yesterday.’

I was so happy that I totally lost control of myself and held on to him for my dear life for such an absurdly long period that Sir Lerde and Lucas had to try to tear me apart from Raon and we were all exhausted in the end.

‘Sigh, I loved it too much to let him go yesterday.’

I was still very proud of being persistent till the end but Raon’s reaction for a week after that day was generally like this.

“Don’t mind me.”

“Please don’t talk to me.”

“I am busy right now.”

“The fact that you are still trying to talk to me is astounding. I already told you several times not to talk to me. Or do you lose your memory every three seconds because your head is like a crucian carp?”

“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say, Bye then.”

“I specifically asked you not to talk to me. Have you eaten up your ears now? Sigh……”

I was being ignored every day. I even had to listen to him swearing at me. He was always equipped with a long sigh along with an enormous amount of sarcasm.

Nevertheless, I decided to be thankful that he was at least responding back to me.

He was totally ignoring me at first but then he slowly started interacting with me. ‘That is at least something! I can do it!’

After arriving in the new world and becoming Lady Estina, my daily life had become really busy. I would wake up at dawn, bake bread and cook meat and then practice swordsmanship with Raon in the morning.

When I came back home after practice, I would wear those uncomfortable corsets to make my waist seemingly smaller, but all it actually did was to make it harder for me to breathe and I would attend various lessons that were suitable for a noble lady.

After that, I would show some cute acts to the Duke and the Duchess while updating them on my life. Then I would study the ancient languages as preparation for the academy entrance exam for the rest of the day. Just like that, my day would come to an end slowly…

‘Hmm….It has been my plan from the start to make sure I am very well adjusted in my new world and I have succeeded in doing so, but I think I have also become very close with Raon.’

‘Now that we have come this far, shall we slowly start preparing for the next attack plan?’

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“……….My Lady, just what in the world are you planning to do with that?”

That particular morning, Betty, who had finally sewed the outfit I requested, put a finger on her lips and asked me with an innocent face.

What Betty sewed was a hood made of blue silk that could only be found in the neighboring foreign country. As I took the hood from her hand, I looked at it with a satisfied face and grinned.

“It’s nothing. I just have some little things to take care of.”

To Be Continued