WDWAE 09

 Chapter 09

‘Then why on earth me?’

Perhaps he thought that even putting on a clown show required a certain caliber. Bringing just any daughter of a capital noble would have made it hard to avoid resentment, and he couldn’t bring in a commoner woman either—so perhaps the one he carefully chose was the daughter of a frontier chief.

Lost in these thoughts, Arsak habitually ruffled her hair wildly and received yet another round of nagging from Rosanna.

“I told you, doing that damages your hair.”

“It’s my insides that are getting damaged first, because of you. Not my hair.”

Arsak said as she nimbly leaped to one side of the room to avoid Rosanna, who was advancing with a brush. Rosanna stared at her with a dumbfounded expression, then crossed her arms with a look of determination.

“If you sit quietly and let me brush your hair, I’ll let you see the horses.”

“Horses? There are horses here too?”

“There’s a small stable at the back. But if you don’t let me brush your hair, you absolutely cannot go out…”

“Brush it. Hurry.”

Arsak promptly sat in the chair and neatly folded her hands on her lap. Rosanna shook her head with an expression of disbelief.

Throughout the hair brushing, Arsak did not utter a single complaint. She squirmed as if she couldn’t bear it, but when Rosanna gently held her shoulders, she quickly became docile.

“Let me ride a horse around once. Then I’ll let you brush my hair quietly from now on.”

“You’re going to ride a horse? Those horses belonged to the princesses!”

“Do princesses live here?”

There was nothing to say. Rosanna inwardly beat herself up for carelessly running her mouth.

—

Luise Holdvig took the largest and brightest room among the many rooms in the detached palace.

It wasn’t specifically assigned to her—the rooms opened for the candidate brides to use could be freely chosen—but “freely choosing” was the official line, and considering that in practice it was largely determined by power dynamics, it proved that the power of Baron Holdvig was not limited to what met the eye.

“What is that sound?”

Luise, who had been fixing her hair, said. Only then did the maid, who had been organizing jewelry, hear the hoofbeats echoing from afar.

“It seems someone is riding a horse?”

“Who rides a horse around here?”

Luise’s blue eyes widened as she tilted her head toward the window. The maid who had run up behind her also fixed her gaze outside with an expression of disbelief at what she was seeing.

“Lady Luise, is that possibly…”

The maid stammered. Outside the window, Arsak could be seen galloping along the edge of the garden that stretched out long.

She had fortunately remembered to wear a dress, but beneath the fluttering hem, riding trousers of the sort men wore were plainly visible. Her hair was already blown by the wind into a tangled mess, visible even from afar.

“This is absurd. Would His Majesty just leave something like that be?”

“When the screening period comes, she’ll be thrown out within a day. Just leave her.”

—

Rosanna stood in the garden, unable to even follow, stamping her feet anxiously.

She had no presence of mind to care that several other attendants who had come out after her were staring at Arsak with horrified expressions, forgetting even that it was rude.

Arsak had already galloped far off, reaching almost the very edge of the garden. Pale dust could be seen rising beneath the swiftly pounding hooves.

“Lady Arsak! Stop now and come down!”

As the clattering hoofbeats drew closer, Rosanna forgot even her shame and shrieked.

The horse’s pace seemed to slow slightly, but Arsak, as if to provoke Rosanna, lightly bit the tip of her tongue and swept past right in front of her.

“If you want to chase me, why don’t you get on a horse too?”

Arsak’s shout faded into the distance. Rosanna clenched her fists and stamped her feet as if she would die of frustration.

“Lady Arsak!”

“I’ll do one more lap and come back, so stop nagging!”

Arsak brought the reins in her hand down hard and leaned forward.

Riding at full speed, taking the wind head-on with her whole body, she felt as though she could forget even the existence of the stifling corset. The horse was gentle and docile, but fast on its feet.

“Do you have a name? If not, I’ll have to give you one.”

Arsak said, patting the horse’s head. The horse, seeming pleased, let out a strong breath and galloped even faster. With the roaring wind sweeping past her ears, Arsak felt like shouting for joy.

If she left the detached palace just like this and galloped off somewhere, Rosanna would probably foam at the mouth and faint. She felt like teasing her, but Arsak held the reins and sharply turned direction.

“Ah!”

Arsak, who had been galloping hard, let out a short cry and yanked the reins taut.

The horse, more startled than Arsak, reared up on its forelegs and neighed long. The horse’s back lurched, but Arsak managed not to fall.

When she had finally calmed the horse, Arsak could see Theodor standing with his mouth hanging open and Erich wearing a cold expression.

—

**【 A Commotion at the Palace 】**

“A-Arsak, what in the world…”

As Theodor’s lips moved, Erich lightly raised a hand to cut him off.

As if to see just how far she would go, he kept silent and stared intently at Arsak. Arsak, who had been glaring at him without dismounting, spotted Rosanna running up pale as death and lightly leaped down from the horse. The fluttering dress hem swirled and settled like a flower petal.

“I have been rude.”

“You don’t look the least bit sorry.”

Erich, who had shot back immediately at Arsak’s words, had a slightly sharper glint in his eyes. Arsak stood with her hands demurely clasped and her head tilted slightly.

“This is not a place built for galloping around on horseback. Nor are you. Do you think I brought you here to run wild as you please like a mad horse that’s slipped its reins?”

“Since you forced a mad horse that’s slipped its reins into the stable, trouble was bound to break out.”

At Arsak’s retort, the color drained from Theodor’s face—and from Rosanna’s too, who had arrived just in time. She was so startled that she swallowed back the breath that had risen to her throat.

As they waited grimly for Arsak’s head to fall by Erich’s hand, unexpectedly Erich laughed a hollow laugh.

“I asked for a candidate bride and you brought me a madwoman, Theodor. Is this how you do your work?”

“Your Majesty, Lady Arsak is…”

“Why blame a blameless subordinate? He clearly said he came to fetch me on Your Majesty’s orders. Who was it that tried to annihilate the tribe in order to bring me here?”

“You’re fearless. I could have your mouth torn open right here.”

“That too would be something Your Majesty must bear. If word spreads that you tore open the mouth of a candidate bride you practically abducted, I’m curious how future generations will judge Your Majesty.”

She did not yield a single word. While Arsak was making such insolent retorts, Luise Holdvig had come out of the detached palace, seen Erich, and stood frozen as if rooted to the spot, unable to take a single step.

It would not have been strange if she had died on the spot—she could not believe that Erich, who had heard all of those outrageous insults, did not raise his voice even once.

“You seem to get restless if you’re still for even a moment. Fine. Then I’ll assign you to cleaning the detached palace stables.”

“It seems you needed a stable hand, not a candidate bride.”

“If you’re so fond of horses, then go live in the stable and see how you like it.”

Erich turned around. Luise, standing behind, smiled faintly and bowed, but he did not bestow a single glance on her.

Rosanna was relieved for now that Arsak’s life had been spared, but then belatedly recalled Erich’s order to clean the stables and looked as though she were on the verge of collapsing.

“Lady Arsak, I will speak to Sir Theodor again. Cleaning the stables, of all things…”

“What does it matter? I was getting bored just sitting around anyway.”

Arsak said. Luise, standing not far from her, watched Arsak walking away briskly with an expression of disbelief.

“Lady Luise, she really does seem to be a madwoman.”

The maid whispered. Luise agreed with that assessment, but she was more concerned about Erich’s ambiguous attitude, so she had no inclination to nod along with it.

—

It did not take long for rumors to spread throughout the palace that the candidate bride who had ridden into the castle like a bandit in torn clothes had, overnight, been reduced to cleaning the stables.

There were stories that she had been stripped of her qualifications as a candidate bride before the screening even began and made a stable hand, and other bizarre tales of unknown origin drifted about like fog—that she had been brought in believed to be a chief’s daughter, but was in fact a stable hand’s daughter.

It was Rosanna whose stomach churned as she heard every one of these rumors. Arsak, the person in question, was utterly composed, as if rumors were none of her concern and she neither knew nor cared about them.

“Lady Arsak, you mustn’t. Please, don’t do this. I’ll speak to Sir Theodor and have His Majesty’s order withdrawn.”

“Is it me you want to protect? Or is it yourself?”

Arsak, having taken off her dress and put on shabby clothes, looked—by the standards of Rosanna, who had spent her whole life working only in the palace—like something unbearable to look at.

While Rosanna was left speechless by Arsak’s sudden question, Arsak split her long flowing hair into two and then twisted it all up at once.

Biting a leather hair tie and pulling it tight, the coiled hair was firmly secured.

“If you want to protect me, then just watch and let me do as I please, Rosanna.”

“How can this possibly be called protecting Lady Arsak? A candidate bride—someone who might even become empress—cleaning the stables!”