The Story of a Middle-Aged Knight Who Tried to Live a Relaxed Slow Life in the Countryside, Only for a Duke's Daughter Whose Engagement Was Broken Off to Move in With Him

A Discussion

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I showed Patrick into the study.

I had Cistilia wait in the first-floor dining room along with her maid, Maryse.

「So, what do you plan to do about this?」

It would have felt awkward for either of us to sit in the study's chairs, so Patrick and I remained standing, facing each other across the desk.

「I have a plan in mind.」

Patrick said.

「You always have a plan, don't you?」

「I am not naive enough to charge in driven purely by emotion, after all.」

Patrick said, brushing away a strand of hair that had fallen onto his forehead.

「If noble society were to think my fiancée was stolen by my subordinate, I could never survive in that world. Having served in the Knights Order yourself, you surely understand that much, don't you?」

「I understand all too well.」

「Do you love her?」

「...Having taken her under my protection, I've certainly grown fond of her.」

「Unlike her, you see reality for what it is, don't you?」

「That's right. Thinking about it rationally, there's no way something like this would ever be accepted.」

「Can you swear that you haven't laid a finger on her?」

「Would your attitude change depending on my answer?」

「It's not a matter of that. It's a question of whether she barged in here unilaterally, or if her actions were based on a mutual understanding between you two.」

「...Haven't you already corroborated the facts around the village?」

「I also need to hear it directly from the person involved.」

「If I said 'I seduced her and coaxed her into coming to my village'... who in their right mind would believe that? I'm a forty-year-old retired irregular knight, for goodness' sake.」

「That's true. Honestly, even now, I still don't understand her feelings.」

「If you claim you're still Cistilia's fiancé, shouldn't you be the one persuading her? And that includes coming to understand how she feels.」

「I don't think I ever will. I cannot fathom the mind of a woman who falls head over heels for someone she had only brief contact with as a guide at banquets or in the royal court.」

「And yet you still came to take her back?」

「As things stand, it is obvious she will end up miserable. Disowned by her family, spending the rest of her life in a place completely different from the royal capital where she was born and raised. She will regret it before long. Her affection for you, too, will cool with time. When that happens, a life in a village consumed by daily toil will become an unbearable burden for a girl who grew up lacking for nothing in a grand ducal house.」

「...That might not necessarily be true.」

The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them.

(With the way Cistilia is now... maybe...)

Despite all the trouble, Cistilia had slowly been finding her place in the village.

And I, too, had grown accustomed to the presence of another person in the house.

(Still, what this guy says is probably right too.)

At the end of the day, I'm just an old man.

Even if Cistilia is head over heels right now, she'll eventually realize that I'm nothing more than an ordinary middle-aged guy.

How disappointed would she be when that day comes?

Imagining Cistilia glaring at me with a look that was neither pure contempt nor pure resentment, realizing she had misjudged me, I couldn't help but grimace.

「As you know, the noble world has plenty of unpleasant aspects. But there is no denying its wealth. One can live without backbreaking labor. If someone falls ill, a doctor can be summoned. Children can receive a lavish education. None of these things can be hoped for in this village. Considering how much she would be giving up, I simply cannot believe that Cistilia ought to marry you.」

I fell silent.

I myself had thought the exact same thing.

If I truly cared about Cistilia's happiness, I ought to harden my heart and send her back to her family.

Yet, unable to do so, I had let time drag on like this.

「I'm not trying to make light of you. You weren't the flashy type, but you were an excellent irregular knight. And now, you are an excellent magistrate. It's just that you are not suitable to be Cistilia's husband. You live in different worlds.」

「...I suppose so.」

No words of rebuttal came to mind.

Swallowing down a deep, bitter emotion, I barely managed to force out that response.

「So, what is this plan of yours?」

When I asked, Patrick nodded.

「Let us do this: you challenge me to a duel. I defeat you. She becomes mine.」

「I challenge *you*?」

「If I were the one to challenge you, bad rumors would certainly spread. Of course, I don't expect you to do it for free. In exchange for swallowing this dishonor, I will officially enfeoff you as the legitimate lord of this land.」

「Does that change anything compared to now?」

「Your children will be able to inherit this land. The right of taxation will be yours as well, so you can set the tax rate yourself.」

「I don't have any kids, though.」

「Ah, that's right... Then let me arrange a marriage partner suited to your title. There is a daughter of a lower noble house who is about to finish her service at my estate. She's getting up there in years, but she's still only twenty-five, and she's not bad-looking either. Out of ten people, a few would certainly call her pretty.」

「If she's not married yet despite those qualifications, I kind of have to wonder.」

「She is excellent as a maid, but she tends to keep men at arm's length. She has a poor reputation among spoiled noble playboys. But you should be able to get along with her while showing her proper respect, shouldn't you? She's a hard worker, so living in this village shouldn't bother her either.」

「Hmm...」

「As for the duel, I swear I won't cause you any serious injury, of course. Though to make it look convincing, I'd like you to come at me with everything you've got. You know my skill well enough.」

He was right—even if I slashed at him with all my strength, he'd handle it with a cool expression.

(Some people say commoners have more grit, but noble-born knights are actually better fighters. Carrying the weight of their family name on their shoulders gives them plenty of grit, too.)

After all, they're forced to train every single day from early childhood just to become knights.

Of course, there are plenty of good-for-nothing noble-borns who became knights through family connections.

However, the Noziek Kingdom has proper mechanisms in place to keep those useless spoiled brats out of key military positions.

Because it's a small kingdom, putting spoiled playboys in high-ranking positions would quickly bring the nation to ruin.

That's why the nobles of this country—especially those famous as martial families—train their sons relentlessly.

Not just swordsmanship and horsemanship. Starting with military strategy, all kinds of refined knowledge are crammed into them from early childhood.

And the result of that rigorous upbringing was the elite knight standing right in front of me: Patrick fin Lorrington.

(A born-and-bred class system, in other words. The house you're born into determines most of your life. Well, the noble world has its own hardships, I guess.)

Serving in the Knights Order forced me to see the ugly side of noble society whether I wanted to or not.

No matter how wealthy it might make me, I could never bring myself to desire rising through the ranks.

「...I have just one condition.」

「What is it?」

「I can't accept being made feudal lord here if I lose. Make it so that I get enfeoffed only if I win.」

At my words, Patrick knitted his brows.

「Then there is no benefit in it for you. Are you honestly intending to win against me?」

「Not at all. I just don't want Cistilia thinking I threw the fight on purpose out of greed for land.」

「The moment you challenge me to a duel and lose, you will be saddled with considerable dishonor. I offered to arrange land and a marriage partner as compensation for that.」

「What does a little extra dishonor matter at this point? Nobles are the only ones who care about stuff like that.」

「And you consider keeping your integrity intact for her sake to be more important than that?」

「Otherwise, Cistilia won't be able to move on with her life either.」

Patrick's eyes widened slightly at my response.

Then, he stared intently at me, as if struggling to believe I was truly serious.

「...Very well. If you are fine with that.」

Patrick nodded, his expression still showing a trace of doubt.

I decided to ask a slightly mischievous question.

「...Aren't you suspicious that... I might have laid hands on Cistilia?」

「I trust in your lack of nerve. ...Just a joke. Speaking seriously, even if you had touched her, I simply couldn't bring it out into the open anyway. Because I am a noble.」

「Sounds rough...」

For the first time, I felt genuine sympathy for my former boss.

「In truth, there are plenty of noble ladies with too much time on their hands who play with fire. While not an everyday occurrence, it is not unheard of for such affairs to result in an unwelcome pregnancy.」

「R-Right...」

「However, a husband tasked with managing a noble house cannot openly condemn his wife's infidelity. Of course, behind closed doors, they certainly manage things—like placing her under house arrest while covering it up publicly, or quietly 'disposing' of the child born from it.」

「That's a story I could have done without hearing. But surely there are married couples with genuine love between them?」

「Of course, it's not as if there are none at all. There are plenty of couples who get along well. Committing infidelity won't get her divorced, but it does mean she forfeits the right to become part of a loving couple like that. Though, I suppose one could argue wives stray precisely because their husbands lack affection in the first place.」

「What about you?」

「I love Cistilia in my own way. But Cistilia didn't feel the same. How I am supposed to come to terms with that... I still don't really know myself.」

Patrick spoke with a rare note of vulnerability.

「In this case, once the wedding night comes, whether what you say is true will become clear. Even if you two were lying, I won't openly condemn her. I will simply quietly remove her as an object of my affection. She will be required to fulfill her duties as a noble wife, but I will expect nothing beyond that. Not that I actively wish to do such a thing, mind you.」

「As long as what I said is true, will you be able to love Cistilia?」

「...I will make the effort. What happened this time was unfortunate, but I consider this to be only the beginning.」

「Being a noble sounds tough, too.」

「You look as though you want to say 'I'm glad I'm not a noble,' but I don't see it that way. I consider myself blessed to have been born a noble. You were an irregular knight. Fortunately, no major wars broke out during your term of service. But if a war had occurred, you were in a position where a single order from a superior officer would send you straight to your death.」

「If a war breaks out, dying is the same for noble-born knights too, isn't it?」

「However, if you are a noble, there is a much higher chance you can choose where you die. If you are desperate to survive, you could even use your subordinates as decoys to escape. If you are a high-ranking noble, even if captured, there is a chance you can return alive through ransom negotiations. Well, personally, I would rather die in battle than lose my honor.」

「It's true that for irregular knights like us, having an incompetent superior officer could easily mean dying just to clean up their mess. In a way, though, maybe that's actually easier on the mind.」

「As you say, perhaps in a sense it allows one to resign oneself to fate. But think about it. You are single, but what if you had a wife? What if you had young children? Could you really give up and accept dying here as your destiny even then?」

I couldn't find any words to reply to Patrick's question.

Suppose that in the future, I married Cistilia and started a family.

While by no means wealthy by noble standards, it would be a modest, comfortable life.

We would probably have a few children.

Then, without any warning, a war breaks out.

I would be called to serve as a noble duty.

By bad luck, I get assigned to a unit commanded by a genuinely rotten, incompetent noble who doesn't see people as human beings.

Naturally, even if I were technically a baronet, a commoner-born guy like me wouldn't have any authority to object to military tactics.

To make matters worse, that rotten noble had fallen for Cistilia years ago in the capital and harbored an unrequited obsession with her.

Overcome with intense jealousy toward me as her husband, that noble assigns my unit one dangerous mission after another.

Dying in a situation like that, could I truly write it off as my destiny?

Could I refrain from wishing to hold Cistilia in my arms just one last time?

Could I rest in peace in the next world without watching my left-behind children grow up?

「You see, don't you? Certainly, there might be a sense of ease in living the way you do. However, that only works because we live in favored times. No—even in peaceful times, feuds are constantly brewing among the nobility. There's no telling when the collateral damage might fall upon you. I, for one, refuse to entrust my fate to someone else. That is why I am glad to have been born a noble. If there are duties that come with it, I will gladly fulfill them.」

Patrick paused and looked at me.

「Even if Cistilia were to marry you, the fact that her family is a ducal house does not disappear. Of course, a woman is considered a member of the house she marries into, but factually, she remains a duke's daughter. Can you properly manage all the complications that will arise from that and protect her to the end?」

As I offered no response, Patrick averted his gaze.

「I will make her happy. I will exert my utmost effort to do so. You can rest assured. Naturally, given what has happened, things might be awkward at first. But time should heal that.」

「...Is that so.」

「This mansion has no guest rooms. Besides, staying under the same roof would be uncomfortable for both of us. I will go to the neighboring village and take a room at an inn. How about we hold the duel tomorrow morning, before noon?」

「Understood.」

With our discussion concluded, Patrick left the mansion without seeing Cistilia, mounted the horse he had arrived on, and rode away.

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