Confused by the sudden turn of events, he looked as though he had no idea what was going on. Then his face twisted in anger.
“Lady Ulpina, what kind of rude behavior is this?”
“What do you think? I’m challenging you to a duel. Don’t tell me you don’t know this kind of etiquette?”
Good grief, you should’ve said so if you didn’t know.
I took off my other glove and threw it at the marquis’s cheek.
Smack!
“You understand this time, right?”
The air around us froze in an instant.
I thought I heard someone groan from somewhere in the distance, but that wasn’t important right now.
My gaze was fixed on the man standing right in front of me, that Fenley—or was it Panty?—fellow.
“Aren’t you going to pick it up?”
When I pointed at the glove lying at his feet, his face turned as red as a perfectly roasted giant prawn.
Then Rosemay, standing beside Marquis Fenley, shrieked sharply.
“Ulpina! Do you even know what you’re doing right now?”
“Of course. I challenged him to a duel.”
“A-a duel…!”
My nonchalant response made her face flush. The two of them were like a matching pair of perfectly cooked shrimp.
“Do you hear yourself? There’s a limit to how rude someone like you, the daughter of a mere viscount, can be to a marquis! And you’re a woman challenging a man to a duel?”
Although all she was doing was barking like a dog, she was quick to fight back. It seemed her mental fortitude was stronger than her fiancé’s, at least.
Mr. Fen-whatever was still too stunned to speak after I smacked him in the face with my glove.
“So?”
“W-what…?”
“Regardless of your titles, wasn’t the marquis the one who was rude first?”
Normally, I wasn’t the kind of person who hit fools.
But this was an exception. If I brushed it off by pretending it had all been a joke, I’d be the fool instead.
The Gordon family, to which Rosemay belonged, and Marquis Fenley would become even more arrogant and openly disparage the Nezer family. And in high society, where people loved gossiping behind one another’s backs, the viscount’s reputation would undoubtedly suffer.
That was aside from the fact that the viscount and viscountess’s family actually possessed tremendous honor and power.
‘If that happens, it’ll affect me, too, since I’ll have to live as Ulpina Nezer until the young lady returns.’
That absolutely could not happen.
“How can you even say that! What rudeness did the marquis commit—”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to claim you didn’t hear him insult my family.”
You joined in, too.
Rosemay flinched, her shoulders stiffening.
Curious and mocking gazes shot toward her and the marquis.
Marquis Fenley, who had been trembling with rage and clenching his fists helplessly, seemed to have finally regained his senses. He slowly bent down and picked up the glove.
“The weapons…”
“Let’s each use whatever we’re most confident with. I’d be at a disadvantage if I used the same weapon as you, Marquis, who’s skilled with a sword, wouldn’t I?”
I’m the one who was insulted, so surely you can at least show me that much consideration.
“Fine. Three days from now.”
With that, the man stormed out of the banquet hall, making no effort to hide his displeasure.
‘No, I’m the one who did something wrong, so why is he the one getting angry?’
And even though I was the one who had challenged him to a duel, he’d arbitrarily chosen the date himself. What an ill-mannered man he was…
“Ulpina!”
The viscount’s furious roar seized me by the back of the head.
…Ah, right. I’d been told not to cause trouble.
***
“Was it really that difficult to understand the words ‘don’t cause trouble’?”
“Just because you’ve become a noblewoman, does that mean you can treat other nobles however you please?”
“I told you to study and make Mirinda eat her words, not to crush her with brute force!”
The viscount and viscountess, who had fled the banquet hall and returned to their estate, were blazing with anger as they berated me.
Of course they were. They’d have been furious even if their own daughter had caused trouble, and the person inside her body was a commoner maid who wasn’t related to them by a single drop of blood.
Even so, I had something to say for myself.
“But, but, sometimes in a woman’s life, there are times when she has to speak with her fists—”
“There aren’t! There are no such times!”
The viscount shrieked in a piercing voice.
But I felt wronged, too.
“No, but… Please hear me out. That… that person insulted you, Viscount!”
The viscount and viscountess abruptly fell silent.
“Insulted me? Tell us exactly what happened.”
“Well, you see…”
I explained the whole story from beginning to end. A heavy silence settled over the room.
After remaining silent for a long while, the viscount asked in a feeble voice, “So, do you have any weapons you know how to use?”
“Don’t worry about that. I may not have seen it, but back in my hometown, they called me the Lightning Hand of the Gale.”
“…”
“…”
The viscount and viscountess slowly buried their faces in their hands.
“Oh, God…”
Hmm, did they not like my nickname? If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve told them about the Bloody Hurricane instead.
***
‘She dared to challenge me to a duel! A mere viscount’s daughter!’
Marquis Fenley was in a foul mood. No, calling it a foul mood wasn’t enough. He was absolutely livid.
“Those insolent fools!”
He was the son born to the emperor and his mistress.
Although he was illegitimate, he’d grown up receiving both the emperor’s affection and his mother’s high expectations from an early age.
Many people had tried to curry favor with him, and throughout his life, no one had ever dared to criticize him.
Anyone who belonged to high society could easily learn that he was the emperor’s son.
And yet that girl had acted so arrogantly despite knowing who he was.
“Then I won’t go easy on her, either.”
The duel was to take place beside a lake in the west.
It was a secluded spot on the outskirts, with an open view in every direction and nothing to obstruct one’s vision or movements.
Or so it should have been.
“W-what is this? Who are all these people?”
When Marquis Fenley arrived at the dueling ground, he was taken aback.
Despite it still being early in the morning, many people were spending time by the lakeside.
“Are all these people here just to enjoy themselves?”
“Um… It seems word has spread that this is where you and Lady Nezer will be dueling.”
His attendant, who had accompanied him, whispered cautiously at his side, watching his reaction.
“What the fucking…!”
At first glance, everyone appeared to be leisurely enjoying their time, but he could feel their gazes fixed entirely on him.
His teeth ground together. He couldn’t stand the thought of himself, a noble marquis and the emperor’s illustrious son, being reduced to a mere spectacle for people to gawk at.
Walking farther in, he spotted Ulpina wearing a silk robe and Count Rosetti, who had come as the official witness.
Beyond them, the viscount and viscountess Nezer were watching him with anxious expressions.
“Right on time, I see. Shall we begin?”
When the count asked for their consent, the two nodded.
They moved to their respective positions and faced each other.
Marquis Fenley drew his sword from its ornate scabbard. Its blade was so keen and gleaming blue that even the slightest brush against it looked as though it would cause a serious wound.
Ulpina, on the other hand, simply stood still. With one hand on her waist, she stared at him blankly.
No matter how he looked at her, she didn’t appear to be holding a weapon. If she’d been carrying a sword, its outline would’ve been visible beneath her thin robe.
‘Does she intend to face me with her bare hands?’
What a naive, if not downright stupid, woman—to think of a duel as little more than a childish scuffle.
‘That’s why she dared to challenge me.’
Perhaps she was clinging to the foolish hope that he’d go easy on her because she was a woman.
Even so, he had no intention of sparing her. She had humiliated him, and he intended to make her pay dearly for it.
His sword had been coated with a special substance. It was a horrific poison that rotted flesh to the point where bone would be exposed within days of contact with the skin. He’d paid a fortune for it on the black market.
If her appearance were ruined, she’d not only be unable to show her face in public but would also be shunned and abandoned by her own family.
The thought of a pampered girl like her falling into ruin excited him.
Marquis Fenley smirked as he began planning how to embellish and spread the tale of his duel into a heroic legend.
His victory was all but guaranteed. He was skilled with a sword, after all.
“The duel will continue until one side falls.”
As soon as Count Rosetti gave the signal, Fenley gripped his sword, kicked off the ground, and charged forward.
“Die!”
Bang!
A short, dry crack split the air.
At the same moment, Marquis Fenley staggered as though an invisible force had shoved him. Then his body crumpled to the ground.
Only when his cheek touched the cold dirt did he feel the searing pain spreading through his thigh.
As he belatedly screamed and clutched his bleeding leg, a shadow fell over him.
It was Ulpina.
She twirled a revolver that was trailing thin wisps of smoke like strands of thread, looking down at the marquis.
“Oh, heavens! Ulpina, are you all right?”
The viscount and viscountess came running toward her, their faces as white as sheets.
She answered them calmly.
“See? I told you I’d win.”
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