HSMLHP 02

Chapter 2

Difficulty Hiding Power

“Young Mistress, you should be grateful to the Duke and Duchess.”

Eshaphe had also been summoned to the evening banquet at the Andover ducal residence. The tip of Maya’s nose, who had roughly dressed me up and dragged me out, was bruised.

“It’s not often you get to eat special meals with such distinguished people, you know? Ordinarily, you’d be stuck gnawing on poorly baked bread every day just like us…!”

Regardless of the maid’s jealousy, I was just glad to be eating a proper banquet on my very first day of transmigration.

According to Eshaphe’s memories, the culinary spreads at the Andover ducal house were magnificent. They were truly fitting for one of the top five most influential families in the Taelion Empire.

However, my only interest lay in the Northern Duke.

‘I’m getting a husband soon.

It was a well-known cliché that the Northern Duke in a romance-fantasy was the undisputed best-looking man in the entire world. Without even seeing him, the male lead’s appearance vividly painted itself before my eyes.

‘The strongest, coldest, most ruthless, and insatiable—those are the natural baseline traits of a Northern Duke, yep. Perfect.’

He might be cold and ruthless to everyone else, but he’d be tender toward his own woman. Isn’t that just how male leads are?

I was definitely going to mold him into exactly that.

Amidst my fluttering excitement, a sudden pang of melancholy struck me.

The three male leads who had died in my past life flashed through my mind. Though I never showed it, every time one of them died, a deep scar was left upon my soul.

‘This time, I’m really going to live a romance-filled life completely different from my past. Wielding a sword, defeating enemies, and saving the world are completely out of the question. To make that happen, I shouldn’t touch a sword anymore, right?’

After all, those who wield the sword are inevitably met with a destiny that demands it.

I finally made up my mind.

‘This time, the only blade I’m touching will be a dinner knife to cut meat. I won’t lay a hand on any other kind of blade!’

With that firm resolution, I walked down the corridor. It was the path leading to the main building where the banquet hall was located.

Swish!

A sharp, hidden blade flew out of nowhere.

I could sense the movement even from a distance of ten meters. Though my body had changed, I could feel that the reflexes and instincts from my past life remained entirely intact.

‘Could this be… did my powers as the strongest being transfer over directly? Wait, why…?!’

While I was torn between whether to be happy or dismayed by this, the blade closed in on me in an instant. Instinctively, I whipped my hand up. Something cold was caught tightly in my palm.

Glancing down, a dagger was indeed clutched in my hand.

“Eek!”

Maya and the other maids shrieked from behind.

Blood dripped down from my soft, tender palm.

‘What kind of absolute moron throws a knife where people are standing?!’

I snapped my head around. A man with wheat-like golden hair tossed about in disarray was approaching with an angry scowl.

He was someone I was seeing for the first time, but I knew instantly who he was.

Kallen Andover.

He was the older brother who had supposedly summoned me earlier that afternoon. Despite his appalling behavior, he possessed exceptional talent with the sword and served as a knight in the Imperial Guard.

‘True to the romance-fantasy cliché, the Andover family is just a collection of pretty trash. Villains in these stories are always attractive, after all.’

Judging by his usual temperament, he must have thrown a tantrum because I hadn’t obeyed his summons.

His sharp gaze shifted back and forth between me and my bloodied hand.

‘Ah, come to think of it, I swore I’d hide the fact that I’m a Swordmaster, yet I went and caught a flying dagger barehanded.’

I had made a mistake in the heat of the moment.

“Aah!”

I let out a somewhat awkward scream.

It was my frantic struggle to pretend that I had merely caught the weapon purely by chance.

“You…!”

“Jeez, you scared me!”

Acting utterly startled, I hurled the dagger right back toward him. His emerald-like green eyes widened dramatically.

The dagger traced a clean arc straight toward the dead center of Kallen’s face. He jerked his head to the side just in time to dodge the blade.

Only after the weapon embedded itself deeply into the floor did Kallen let out a terrifying growl.

“You can’t even use a sword—are you trying to get someone killed?!”

“You’re not dead, though.”

“What?”

Ah, crap!

My persona right now was supposed to be the refined, lovely ducal young lady.

I quickly flashed a bright smile and spoke in a sweet, gentle tone.

“You didn’t kick the bucket, did you? I know my dear brother’s skills very well, after all. Truly impressive. You almost punched a hole through someone else’s face, yet your reflexes to dodge the blade so swiftly just to spare your own pretty skin are quite agile.”

Kallen’s lips twitched violently.

Did he not appreciate my fluent, glowing compliments?

Of course, the blade hadn’t been aimed directly at me. If I had just stood still, it would have grazed the tip of my nose and buried itself into a pillar, but throwing a lethal weapon where people were standing was still throwing it.

“Did you eat something weird today?”

I chuckled at Kallen’s crooked question.

“Not yet. I’m actually on my way to eat right now. Ah, I’m starving.”

“Hah.”

Kallen let out a breathless sigh of sheer disbelief. His expression hardened once more, his gaze turning deep and feral.

“Let me warn you, Eshi. Don’t ever forget that even after you’re married off, you are nothing more than a doll belonging to the Andover family. That means you aren’t to let your eyes wander to the Duke of Bexborn, not even for a second.”

“How can a doll let its eyes wander?”

Eshaphe wrapped her bleeding hand neatly with a handkerchief. Though I had already guessed it, experiencing the abuse and bullying firsthand felt thoroughly repulsive.

Kallen had always subjected her to harsh verbal abuse, and every time he did, Eshaphe would be seized by an overwhelming urge to just die.

Just a short while ago, she had attempted to run away from the Andover household all by herself, only to be dragged back by this monster.

“Why? It shouldn’t matter to you at all if someone like me just disappears!”

“Listen well, Eshi. I despise it when my toys vanish without permission. It means you’ll be locked up in this house at least until I get bored of you.”

In the depths of her memories, Eshaphe cursed Kallen out with the most vicious profanities imaginable.

Her palm stung.

An injury of this caliber was nothing to her, but getting hurt in a ducal young lady’s body she had just acquired left a bitter taste in her mouth.

‘Why does it feel even more painful?’

The original Eshaphe hadn’t been just any ordinary Swordmaster.

‘She was the youngest genius Swordmaster in history, having formed a mana core at the age of seven.’

By fifteen, she overwhelmed most ordinary adults, and by twenty, there was no one left who could defeat her.

When catching something as trivial as a small blade, her body would unconsciously calculate every detail to ensure her hand wouldn’t even get scratched. But because I wasn’t fully accustomed to Eshaphe’s body yet, I ended up drawing blood.

It was because Eshaphe’s skin was far more delicate than she had anticipated.

‘It stings, it hurts. One day, I’ll pay you back for this pain tenfold.’

During the Andover family’s dinner hour, not a single sound of a knife scraping against a plate could be heard. Eshaphe inwardly marveled at the impeccable dining etiquette of the nobility.

Though she had never received formal etiquette training, she had spent a lifetime observing the movements of these pureblood aristocrats through keen observation. After all, she had lived alongside them for twenty-one years from the moment she was born.

Because of that, Eshaphe could effortlessly mimic their graceful habits. It was deeply ingrained in both her mind and body.

“Eshaphe.”

Katrina Andover, the Duchess of Andover, spoke up. Her pink hair, sparkling in the same shade as Eshaphe’s, was swept up high, revealing her slender, coolly exposed neck.

Her eyes were a greenish hue, similar to her biological son, Kallen’s.

Now in her mid-forties, she had been renowned for her lovely and sweet appearance in the high society circles ever since her youth.

That pink hair.

‘Eshaphe was adopted from the orphanage because her hair color was an exact match for Katrina’s.’

The Duchess, desperately yearning for a daughter, couldn’t possibly leave Eshaphe behind the moment she saw her. The child’s hair was the exact, flawless shade as Katrina’s own.