"You're back. I've almost finished preparing the meal, so please wait a moment."
When we returned to the mansion after finishing the morning duel, we found that Marika, who had come to work at some point, was preparing a lunch that made our mouths water just from the smell.
Seeing this, I let out a sigh of relief.
Thinking that we could finally eat a proper meal.
"Good work, Marika. We'll wash up quickly and come back down."
"Don't be too late or it will get cold, Lady Esther."
"We'll be mindful."
Since it wouldn't be right to eat while covered in sweat and dirt, we went upstairs to wash our hair, faces, and hands thoroughly.
We also dusted off the dirt on our clothes while we were at it.
When we came back down, as if we had timed it perfectly, the wooden dining table was full of carefully prepared dishes.
Steaming chicken stew, slightly salty fried eggs, and soft, moist bread with a faint oat flavor.
"Is the meal to your liking?"
"Yes, thank you so much...!"
"It's nothing."
The menu and taste were ordinary without any special characteristics, but that ordinariness was so welcome right now.
Not just me, but Friede too ate mindlessly. To the point of completely emptying the stew bowl.
It was truly fortunate that it was Marika who prepared the meal, not Lady Verloren.
If we had been fed that food not fit even for dog food again after such grueling work, I think even I, who is usually gentle, might have become an unfilial child unable to control my anger.
I didn't expect Lady Verloren, who had lived as a knight all her life, to have proper cooking skills in the first place, but she should at least serve food that humans can eat.
If she fed such food for a whole week, even assassins brainwashed and raised as human weapons from childhood would undoubtedly confess that their base is in the northern mountains and surrender.
* * *
"Now that you've finished eating, rest for about an hour to recover your strength. Then we'll start the afternoon training."
What awaited me and Friede, who had finished our meal satisfactorily, was a woefully short rest period and the announcement of hellish training to follow.
"Um... right away?"
A question implying that since we had suffered to the point of nearly fainting, wouldn't it be okay to rest for today?
However, Lady Verloren seemed to think quite differently from me. Judging by how she tilted her head with a face that said 'What on earth are you talking about?'
"Do you have anything else to do?"
"..."
Her retort naturally left me speechless.
Anything else to do...
Well, there isn't, is there...?
Unless we were planning to leave this village right away today to explore a dungeon, what else could we do in this rural village?
There was a market street, but it was small and didn't have much to see, and the only place to play was just one riverside.
"W-well, like buying clothes we'll need for a while..."
Friede hastily came up with an excuse. Saying that since we'll be staying here for a while, wouldn't we need to prepare some clothes to change into in advance?
"Ah, are you short on clothing? Don't worry. We can just ask Marika."
But she was immediately refuted.
No, is this really a refutation? It feels like illogic has defeated logic.
Lady Verloren shut Friede's mouth with an answer saying there was no need to go all the way to the shopping district just to buy clothes.
She said if it's clothing for duels or everyday wear inside the mansion, we could just order suitable ready-made clothes from Marika. She says that's how she dresses too.
Should I call this simple-minded or indifferent? She seemed to have no interest in anything other than swordsmanship and training.
Was it because of such a personality that she was able to become a high-ranking knight?
Anyway, with even Friede defeated, we had no means of resistance left.
We could only tremble in fear for an hour and prepare for the harsh time to come.
"I-I think we chose the wrong identity..."
"...I didn't choose it. That prince bastard chose it."
I'll definitely repay this grudge someday, Argentir. I vowed as I put on my cloud iron armor over my sweat-soaked padded clothes.
* * *
Five days passed like that.
Wake up, eat, duel, eat, train, eat, bathe, sleep.
It was a regular yet harsh daily routine like a hamster wheel. To the point where I wondered if I had returned to army basic training.
"...You learn fast. It's only been five days, yet your critical flaws have been significantly improved."
On the sixth day at noon. Lady Verloren, who had finished the morning duel, gave such praise with a faint smile as if satisfied.
"Haa, haa... Is that so...? Then now..."
Is this hellish beating over now? I looked up at Verloren with such a gaze as I lay sprawled on the training ground floor.
"Yes. Now let's move on to the next stage."
"The next stage...?"
It's not over at all. How could it be?
It was a vain dream.
"No matter if it's a disguised identity, it's hard to overlook someone using my daughter's name wielding such problematic swordsmanship. I'll teach you my swordsmanship, so make sure to engrave it thoroughly in your body."
"Oh, is that okay...?"
She says she'll teach me her family swordsmanship. It's an appealing offer from my standpoint, but I wondered if it was really alright.
"There's no problem. It's not really something you'd call a secret technique anyway."
She says it's fine.
"If that's the case... I'll gratefully learn."
Then there was no reason to decline. Whatever she teaches me will be more systematic and useful than the swordsmanship I'm using now.
Moreover, unlike the current dueling method where I'm forcibly corrected for my flaws while getting beaten to a pulp, sword education seems like it might involve less suffering.
They say pain that doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but this looked like pain that would kill me no matter how you look at it.
What madman would live by fainting from morning duels every day, then waking up to sprint around the training ground for 5 hours a day with weights attached to their armor?
Moreover, Lady Verloren was running alongside, so I couldn't even slack off or whine that I couldn't do it.
Maybe her real daughter ran away not because of rebelliousness towards her strict mother, but because that was the only way to survive.
Well, compared to that hell, sword education seemed relatively close to heaven.
While simple physical training might be one thing, systematic swordsmanship isn't a skill that can be taught with such a reckless education method.
"Um, should I call you Master from now on?"
Therefore, I quickly accepted Lady Verloren's proposal, stood up abruptly and paid my respects. With a resolute attitude as if there was no turning back once I had spoken.
"Hmm... it's not such a grand swordsmanship to be called that... but if you want, I won't stop you."
Lady Verloren turned her head slightly and gave a faint smile, then shrugged her shoulders and answered. She said it was fine to call her that if I wanted.
...This is her saying she wants to be called Master, right?
It seemed she quite liked the title of Master. Though she didn't show it openly, perhaps because she couldn't outwardly express her pleasure due to face.
Anyway, from that day on, I started learning Lady Verloren's... no, Master's swordsmanship.
Using up all of the roughly two hours of free time that was originally given after finishing afternoon training.
...In other words, the hellish daily routine remained the same, and even the personal maintenance time was changed to training time.
I must be crazy.
Why didn't I think this would happen? It was enough to bring tears to my eyes.
Thanks to that, my skills were rapidly improving though.
* * *
Another week passed like that.
They say humans are creatures of adaptation. Even the training that was like hell - no, was hell itself - at first, started to become somewhat familiar as it approached two weeks.
It was still an overwhelmingly difficult and burdensome daily routine, but I could somehow endure it now?
Originally, when I lay down on the bed after finishing training, I would fall asleep as if fainting the moment I lay down, but recently I could stay awake for a while.
Sometimes, very occasionally, I would even wake up in the middle of the night instead of lying stretched out until morning.
Tonight was like that too.
"Ah."
I, who suddenly opened my eyes in the middle of the night, raised my body drowsily while letting out a sound like a short groan.
"Mmmm..."
Friede, lying next to me, mumbled softly and tossed and turned. Unlike me, she seemed unable to escape from dreamland.
'What time is it now...?'
I turned my head to look at the window.
It was dark outside, and a faint half-moon was floating in the sky. It was still far from dawn.
Should I sleep more...?
No, before that, let's drink some water first.
Maybe because I had sweated a lot from training, my throat was very dry and it felt like I could only go back to sleep after drinking at least a sip of something.
I carefully got up so as not to wake Friede and walked out into the corridor. Minimizing my footsteps for the sake of those who were sleeping.
But as it turned out, there was no need to do so.
As I passed through the corridor and glanced at Lady Verloren's bedroom, a faint light was seeping through the slightly open door.
Is she not asleep yet?
That's unexpected. Since she's someone who likes such a regular lifestyle, I thought she would naturally be sound asleep at this hour.
A little curious about what she was doing up at this hour, I quietly walked up to her door and peeked inside.
"Hah..."
A faint sigh. Lady Verloren was leaning diagonally on the sofa with a small candle lit on the table.
Wearing a translucent negligee that revealed the lines of her body.
In her fingertips raised in front of her face was a transparent glass filled with a pale golden liquid.
It's alcohol.
Was she unable to sleep? Lady Verloren was lying on the sofa drinking alcohol, wearing only her nightgown.
Judging by the three empty bottles on the table, she either had a high alcohol tolerance or had drunk quite excessively.
I quietly looked at that sight, then turned my head and walked back down the corridor.
I didn't feel like talking to her. Talking to someone drinking alcohol in such attire in the middle of the night would only make both of us embarrassed.
Moreover, her expression was gloomy enough to make me hesitant to carelessly speak to her.
"Fernhilde..."
A self-muttered word like a lament quietly echoed through the corridor I had passed, then softly faded as if seeping into the darkness.
My chest ached for no reason.