The Secretary of the Northern Grand Duchess Has Run Away

Ch. 4



Chapter 4: First Trial (3)

Countless bandages were wrapped around Echina’s long fingers.

However, she didn’t care at all.

She paid no mind to the wounds on her fingers.

She merely brushed her damp bangs aside with indifference.

‘To think she shed tears for me with those eyes.’

“……”

The secretary cadets could not easily open their mouths before her.

It was obvious that Echina’s mood was far from pleasant.

From the dress shirt, soaked in sweat and clinging to her figure,

to the black stockings torn and askew.

There was even a trace of blood on her lips, as if she had returned from a fierce sparring match.

“I have come to see His Grace.”

Her voice was calm and subdued.

That voice struck the mansion’s lobby like a blow.

While all the elder sisters and brothers called the Duke *father*,

Echina addressed him with a cold title like any outsider.

“……”

Even Lucun, who had intended to escort the Grand Duke’s heir, bowed his head before Echina.

When no one dared answer her, the Grand Duke’s daughter curved her lips in a faint smirk.

And the moment she passed by us, as though regarding pitiful insects—

“His Grace is upstairs.”

I stepped forward unhurriedly as I spoke,

a clean cloth draped over my right arm.

“If you permit it, I will guide you.”

It was the quietest one among us stepping up to face the most daunting opponent.

My peers were visibly startled.

“What… Is that idiot insane…?”

“They’ve thrown themselves to ruin just to catch the Duke’s eye…”

Everyone muttered under their breath.

But the more they did, the closer I drew to the Grand Duke’s daughter.

A secretary was not someone who picked an easy target to flatter.

A master always took interest in whoever could be of immediate help.

That was the true intent of this trial, and the very reason we secretaries existed.

“You say you will personally guide me?”

The Grand Duke’s daughter, Echina Luton.

She stood alone, arms folded, and slowly looked me up and down.

“It seems to me that you’re the one in need of assistance right now.”

Indeed, she was as famous for her competence as for her exacting nature.

At her quiet remark, my peer Tobang’s friend, Brook, gave a small laugh.

“Though I may look disheveled, this towel at least has been prepared warm.”

I paid no heed to their sneers.

Instead, I lifted my right arm, draped with the clean cloth, in a graceful gesture.

“I am but a mere secretary candidate, but you, my lady, are different.”

With polite care, I extended my hand to indicate the dirty breast pocket of her uniform.

There, pinned in place, was the black lion badge that symbolized the Luton family.

“As a knight of the Empire, your present appearance is only natural.

But His Grace surely wishes to see his precious daughter in good health.”

Smoothly.

With as much reverence as possible, I spoke.

“So it is my small wish that you would spare a thought for the wound on your face.”

“……”

Echina looked up at me, her slender eyes and tear mole fixed upon me as though I were an injured fox.

She clearly hadn’t expected me to speak with such boldness.

“Interesting. But perhaps because you are still a candidate, you are quite mistaken about something.”

The Grand Duke’s daughter soon reined in her cold gaze.

She made a point of calling out that I had dared to mention her relationship with her father.

“His Grace is the sort who would not care in the least what state I am in when I come before him.”

With casual indifference, she brushed the dust from her sensuous curves.

Then, as she lightly adjusted the collar of her uniform, she continued.

“So wiping my face in this condition will change nothing.”

It was a firm reply from Echina, who already had a fearsome reputation.

Thanks to her words, the atmosphere in the mansion’s lobby grew even more frigid.

“……”

My fellow candidates watched me with growing unease, as if I were fanning the flames.

But I maintained my calm expression.

‘Had I not known the future, I might have stepped back obediently at this point.’

“If you permit it, I would dare to answer that you are mistaken.”

But perhaps it was because of the tears I had seen in her eyes just before my death.

Before the day came when I would leave the Duke’s household,

I wished to give Echina a small gift.

“Such a commendable sight, that you should tidy your face after enduring such a harsh bout.”

So once more, I parted my cracked lips to speak.

Looking down at her youthful face, still soft with downy hair beneath the dust.

“There is no father in this world who would dislike seeing such a sight.”

Echina fell silent as she heard my reply.

To think I had dared presume to guess at her father’s heart.

Ordinarily, she would have seized me and subjected me to a harsh inquisition.

Yet perhaps she found it strangely persistent, this way I kept offering her the towel.

“Very well. Since your effort is so extraordinary, I shall comply this once.”

She had decided to test my foresight.

“But if doing as you say yields no worthy result…”

The hour she was to meet her father was noon, precisely twelve.

However, by the time she arrived in the mansion’s lobby, the appointed hour had long since passed.

“You will pay the price for wasting my time.”

“I understand.”

I answered her cynical gaze with a faint smile curling my lips.

She looked at that subtle smile for a moment, then let out a short sigh.

“Give me the towel.”

Echina received the clean, steaming towel that still gave off wisps of warmth.

Then she closed her eyes slowly and welcomed the comforting heat against her face.

“Hoo…”

The sticky beads of sweat that had gathered beneath her dress shirt during her sparring.

Once they cooled, they would only grow colder.

In such a state, the heat of the warm towel pressed against her face…

Even her sharp, sensitive gaze softened noticeably.

“……”

The young lioness soon wore a languid expression, like a drowsy cat.

But the moment she realized I was observing her so closely, she quickly composed her features again.

“Hm. What was your name?”

Somewhat embarrassed, she asked my name in an offhand tone.

I responded with a bright smile under my slender eyes, answering respectfully.

“My name is Julius Roger.”

Echina slowly nodded upon hearing it.

Then she returned the towel, now smudged with dust.

“I made good use of the towel, Roger.”

With her gaze gentler than before, she passed by me.

And while ascending the stairs—

“What are you doing.”

She paused midway and spoke to me.

“Standing there without following.”

My fellow candidates lifted their heads at her words.

When they saw the Grand Duke’s daughter calling me to accompany her, their lips parted in shock.

“Shouldn’t we confirm for ourselves whether my father’s reaction changes as you said?”

Hearing her, I briskly brushed off the frayed collar of my dress shirt.

Then I followed her up the grand staircase at the mansion’s center.

“Understood.”

From below, the other candidates watched.

Until noon, none of them had been assigned to any duty, and they simply stared up at me.

“……”

These stairs, which originally only members of the exalted Grand Duke’s family and the chief secretary were allowed to ascend…

I stepped on them with practiced ease, as though I belonged there.

And the moment I reached the second-floor corridor—

“……!”

Tobang and Windsor came into view, standing ahead with Freya.

They were waiting alone in front of the Duke’s office.

Apparently, neither had imagined I would be the third person to arrive here, and their brows twitched.

But when they saw that I was accompanied by none other than Echina, their lips fell open.

Yet the shock awaiting them had only just begun.

“This way.”

Ignoring Tobang, Echina walked straight to the office door.

Then she gestured for me to follow her there.

――――!!

At her elegant signal, a clear knocking sound rang out.

Tobang simply stared blankly as the heavy door to the Duke’s office slowly opened.

Even he, born into a prosperous knightly house, had never dared to cross that threshold.

And now, I—whom he had scorned—would be the first to step inside that sacred domain.

But I didn’t spare him so much as a glance.

“Enter.”

From the crack in the door came a voice more solemn than any in the Empire.

I knew whose voice it was.

The man who ruled a part of this vast continent.

Baylis Luton.

Even from afar, the force of his presence was unmistakable.

Tobang, who had been glaring at me as though he meant to kill me, swallowed hard.

He hurriedly straightened himself into a rigid, formal posture once more.

Echina cast me a brief glance over her shoulder.

Then, with an even more solemn look than before, she spoke.

“You will come along as well.”

At last, the great door opened.

A thick scent of paper and leather rushed into my nose.

“I will let you see for yourself just how indifferent my father truly is.”

The elegant knight with the jet-black hair stepped inside first.

Silently, I followed after her.

As I passed, Tobang rose on tiptoe, trying to peer into the office.

But even that was not permitted to him so easily.

The moment I set foot inside, the Grand Duke’s office closed firmly behind me once again.

――――――

A study larger than most mansions’ salons.

Bookshelves lined with countless volumes and trophy displays stretched along both walls.

“Echina, you have come.”

At the far end of the room by the window stood a single, luxurious desk.

Seated there was an old man with a dignified air.

His hair was white, sternly swept back from his brow, and deep furrows marked his forehead like the mane of a lion.

And those golden eyes glinting in the shadows of his gaze—

They testified to the trials and hardships he had overcome to ascend to this seat.

“You are late.”

It was just a brief remark.

Yet even so, the other children who had arrived before us, and Debier, the chief secretary, all tensed at once.

“My apologies.”

Echina answered in a cold voice.

Then she stepped forward and stood in line beside her two siblings.

I remained quietly by the door so as not to be in their way.

When my eyes met Debier’s across the room, I inclined my gaze in greeting with practiced subtlety.

Unlike Tobang, he seemed wholly unsurprised that I had made it this far.

As befitted a chief secretary of thirty years, he simply kept his solemn eyes fixed upon his lord.

“See that it does not happen again.”

Indeed, just as Echina had said, the Duke of Luton did not even spare her a glance.

Even though she was undoubtedly his precious youngest daughter.

“……”

Like a stone statue from a temple, he stared impassively down at the papers on his desk.

And so, in that vast study, the only sound was the rustling of pages turning.

Presently, the Grand Duke picked up one of the documents.

Upon it were Echina’s name and the seal of Nord Academy, where she studied.

“I have heard about the academy. During a sparring match, the other student was injured rather seriously.”

“I merely did my utmost in the contest.”

Those golden eyes, so like her father’s, answered without emotion.

Indeed, she was every inch his daughter—so unflinching, even before one of the Empire’s greatest powers.

“Yes. As a knight, it is only natural that someone might be hurt during a sparring match.”

The Duke of Luton did not seem displeased by his second daughter’s demeanor.

He nodded calmly.

But soon, his gaze sharpened like that of a lion chieftain, fixing on Echina with cold severity.

“However, before you are a soldier, you are a member of the Luton family.”

No matter that she was his own child—

he could not tolerate anything that disturbed his order.

“You, bearing such a grave responsibility, allow something like this to end up on my desk?”

The Grand Duke lifted the interview summons resting on his black desk and shook it.

Indeed, for the academy to summon the head of house was no trivial matter.

But compared to the other documents spread across his desk, it looked insignificant.

Negotiations with the neighboring kingdom.

An Imperial council convened personally by the Emperor himself.

Amid such weighty affairs, this summons appeared almost laughably light.

“And what’s more, the opponent is the Academy Director’s eldest daughter.”

Of course, theirs was a family of lesser standing compared to the ducal house.

Yet when high-ranking families came into conflict,

it only ever brought mutual loss.

“Most likely, Director Liam plans to wring every advantage he can from this incident.”

Thus, the Duke had personally invited the concerned parties into his reception hall.

Those dignitaries my fellow candidates had been hoping to attend to were none other than the director and his daughter.

“So you will go and resolve the mess you have caused yourself.”

Although the summons specified that the head of house was to accompany her,

the Grand Duke plainly had no intention of involving himself in such trivial business.

“You are to settle it perfectly, using only your own strength.”

“I understand. My apologies for troubling you.”

Echina bowed her head, as if she had long grown used to such treatment.

Then she swept her fallen bangs aside with her usual grace and turned to retrace her steps alone.

When she reached the doorway, her face fell into shadow.

From within that darkness, her golden eyes fixed on me.

Did you see, Roger? What kind of man my father is?

As if she were sending me a silent message.

He doesn’t even care to ask the circumstances of what I’ve endured.

Yet even so, I did not let my smile fade as I looked at her.

Rather, I shifted my gaze, gently indicating she should look back at him.

“……?”

Echina’s brows drew together faintly at my expression.

And just as she paused—

“Stop a moment, Echina.”

The Grand Duke’s voice rang out again, when it had seemed I would never hear it a second time.

At this, Freya and Edward, who had been standing silently, also reacted.

“Turn around.”

Echina kept her face expressionless as she heard her father’s words.

Then, with practiced discipline, she pivoted on her boot heel to face him again.

“Did you call for me?”

At his youngest daughter’s question, the Duke of Luton finally lifted his gaze from his desk.

With a frown as fierce as any predator, he studied her closely.

From her boots, thick with dust, to the torn black stockings—

even her knees were streaked with fresh red blood.

“Come closer.”

The Duke pressed his fingers firmly against the bridge of his nose.

He released a weary breath from his eyes as he waited for her to approach.

At this, the Grand Duke’s daughter exhaled deeply in secret.

She was certain he would reprimand her harshly for her appearance.

However, the moment she stopped before his desk…

“Amid that chaos, it seems you still found time to wash your face.”

The reply that came from the cold, austere Grand Duke was one she could never have expected.

“…What?”

Echina’s lips parted without her realizing it, startled by the faint softness in her father’s expression.

The eldest daughter and the second son watching from a distance reacted the same way.

They could not hide their surprise at seeing the Grand Duke quietly offer such praise in his subdued voice.

“A knight who would rise to a key post must maintain the minimum standard of self-discipline, no matter how urgent the situation.”

The Grand Duke’s golden eyes rested on the black lion badge pinned at her chest.

Then he lowered his gaze once more to the documents and spoke in a low voice.

“You did well.”

From the doorway, I watched the two of them with quiet satisfaction.

Then my gaze happened to meet that of the chief secretary, Debier, who stood waiting in the opposite corner.

“……”

The chief secretary of thirty years soon turned his eyes to the white towel I was holding.

He looked at the dust and specks of blood staining the fabric and gave a solemn nod.

After that, Debier drew a small notebook from his inner pocket.

And without a word, he began to move his quill pen across the page.

As though he were recording points on a ledger.


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