Abandoned by the duke's daughter - Chapter 1
The royal castle of the Glendia Kingdom stands on a hill overlooking the royal capital of Verte.
The northern side is a cliff, and due to the considerable difference in altitude, intruders cannot easily ascend.
And at a certain distance from the castle, aristocratic townhouses stand in a fan shape, which the aristocrats visit during the social season. It is a high-class residential area, and the closer you get to the castle, the larger the mansions become. Therefore, there are quite a few aristocrats who live there all year round.
The Raine ducal family also has a mansion in the western part.
The main residence is located in the Raine dukedom, which is next to the western part of the royal capital, and it takes half a day to reach from the townhouse. My grandfather is in charge of the territory, and my father exerts his power by the side of His Majesty the King, but he works for the country “from early morning till late at night” with dark circles under his eyes, but that is a secret from His Majesty.
Now, let me tell you a little about my family.
My Raine family is a historical ducal family. The first duke was the younger brother of the former king, and since then, he has married several princesses and continues to do so today. The bloodline is also certain, so there are many people who have married into the royal family from the ducal family. As I said, I am one of them.
I’ve been thoroughly taught about that by my queen education. That teacher is scary when she gets angry. If you don’t remember, what will be done to you… Even now, I shudder to think about it.
That’s why the Raine Ducal Family is considered the number one noble family in this country. It may also be due to the fact that they have sworn strong loyalty to the king and have a strong trust from the royal family.
The Raine Ducal Residence is the closest to the royal castle and the largest in the area, so that they can quickly go up to the castle in case of anything. The garden is very large, and there is a small forest, a small river, and a large mansion, so there are dozens of servants. Including the knights for security and protection, the number of people increases several times over. Therefore, I know the names of some of the servants, but I’m sorry to say that I don’t remember the names of the servants who have recently entered or who have nothing to do with me.
Students commute to the academy from the dormitory or from their own homes, and since I often have to go to the royal castle, I commute from home. It takes about 10 minutes by carriage from home to the academy, so it’s not inconvenient. In fact, I just got off my mind after leaving the academy a while ago, and I’m already in front of my residence.
The carriage passes through the gate of the ducal residence and stops in front of the residence.
The coachman opened the door of the carriage and offered me his hand, so I took his hand and gracefully got out of the carriage and entered the residence from the open door.
In the entrance hall, the butler Hannes and my personal maid Ilma are bowing their heads respectfully to greet me.
“Welcome back, young lady.”
“I’m back, Hannes. Nothing has changed, has it?”
“Yes, I suppose today, my husband had a guest.”
“Oh, Uncle Johan. Does he still have a dream of making me the future Countess of the Frontier?”
“Yes. His son, Lord Hartwig, was surprised by the story, but Lord Johan doesn’t seem to have given up yet.”
“Oh, my uncle.”
I couldn’t help but smile wryly as I imagined the scene.
Uncle Johan is my mother’s younger brother and the head of the Crulnay Frontier Earl’s family.
Crulnay is located in the northern part of the country and borders the neighboring country of Garuia, and has a military force that can rival that of Garuia, which is called a military state. It is said to be the strongest in this country in terms of military affairs and is feared, but Uncle Johan is a very ordinary person when it comes to military matters. No, rather, sometimes I think he has such a gentle personality that I wonder if he’s really a twin.
I was being trained by my mother since I was a child because such an uncle wanted to be the fiancee of his eldest son, Lord Hartwig, to whom I was engaged before I was engaged to His Highness, and around the time that the story was almost finished, I suddenly became a future queen. Because I was strongly desired by the royal family at the age of 6, it flowed away. Therefore, every time something happens, I am strongly asked to break off the engagement and become a countess on the frontier, but my cousin, Lord Hartwig, who is three years older than me, was still a child at the time, and it seems that he didn’t have much of a sense of reality, so he didn’t have any attachment like his father, Uncle Johan. Rather, he treats me very kindly like a real sister.
But Uncle, it’s very disrespectful to tell me to break off my engagement, so no matter how much it’s just within my family, I don’t want you to say it too much. Life is precious.
(Come to think of it, my uncle won’t give up at all…)
In fact, Crulnay was also a candidate for a place to escape, but I can easily imagine that “Then, to my son’s wife!”, so I decided to leave it out of the candidate as soon as possible.
“By the way, where is my mother?”
“My wife just returned from Countess Duner’s tea party and is now relaxing in her room.”
“I see. Then, could you ask her if I could ask for her guidance later?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
With Irma behind Hannes, I head from the entrance hall to my room on the second floor. My mother’s room is also on the second floor, so Hannes will bring me the answer soon.
I changed to a comfortable shirt and slacks, tied my hair back into a ponytail, and fastted my trusty sword on my sword. ther, so i head to the training room.
In the training room, our dukedom’s knights who were guarding the royal capital’s mansion were each practicing. Upon my entrance, some of the knights’ eyes widened in surprise. Their reaction was inevitable. Even though I was taught by Mother, I didn’t swing a sword before the other knights. Only the knights who knew me since I was small might not even know that I could hold a sword.
In the meantime, I looked around the training room and bowed to the person that I came here to see.
“I apologize for being late.”
“No, it’s alright. Welcome back.”
In contrast to me, my mother was wearing her straight, glossy black hair in a ponytail and a similar training outfit as the knights. Her back was kept straight, and her posture was collected as she looked at me.
Her green eyes were similar to a vast grassland, shining against a lily white face. Those eyes were beautiful and captivated anyone who looked at them. Mother understood this well. She had made a great name for herself in the social circles by utilizing this trait and was called the ‘Rose of Ebony.’ Of course, she didn’t earn this title by just relying on good looks. She spared no effort in her daily activities, and thoroughly studied what it meant to be a good listener and speaker. By communicating properly and improving her fashion sense, she was well respected by other noblewomen. Her Majesty the Queen recognized Mother’s abilities and said that no one surpassed her. I was proud of this, and she was my aspiration.
Mother picked up a practice sword that was set up against the wall and lightly swung it a few times.
She slowly turned around, glanced at me, and then walked to the center of the room. I then followed her.
“Tina, please use your own sword. I will use this practice sword.”
“But……yes.”
Even though Mother’s sword was rounded at the tip, making it harmless, the sword that I was told to use was a real sword.
I hesitated for a moment. However, Mother’s swordsmanship was proven and I was no match for her.
I thought that I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it and nodded.
““May I have this dance?””
Mother and I bowed to each other, and I got in my stance. Among the various forms, I quickly ended up in the tachi form that I was most comfortable with.
Meanwhile, Mother merely faced me with her blade pointed down. She wasn’t looking down on me. This was her stance because she was truly strong. As expected from someone that came from the Frontier Earl household that used swords.
I steeled my resolve, kicked off the ground, and aimed at Mother’s chest. However, she dodged just before the last moment, and in turn, swung her sword from the opposite side. I jumped back to avoid it. Mother immediately attacked from the other side, and as I was barely able to dodge it, she continued and swung horizontally at me. I dodged by jumping back just as predicted, but she continued and swung her sword from above. I barely managed to block her and looked for an opening. However, she continued to attack me in various forms such as upwards, horizontal, diagonal, and thrusts, and I couldn’t find an opening.
Even though she was using a practice sword, I couldn’t close the gap due to her overwhelming level. In addition, she would give me pointers during her attacks, so I could only smile wryly. All I could do was to challenge Mother and be taught, so I swung my sword for as long as I could.
Maybe I might see a chance to win. It was unlikely, but it was possible. No, it was impossible.
About 10 minutes later, the outcome of the match was decided.
“……I lost.”
At the end, my stamina ran out and my movements became sluggish. When that happened, Mother landed a critical blow on me and I couldn’t dodge it. My sword flew out of my hand and rolled behind me.
I looked up at Mother while breathing heavily, and Mother was only breathing slightly faster. She looked at me with a calm expression on her face.
“Tina, you have a lot of unnecessary movements. Be careful of that. You also need to work on your stamina a bit more. Otherwise, you won’t be able to handle even political affairs.”
“Yes, Mother. I thought that I had become quite strong, but I still have a long way to go to reach Mother’s level.”
“You can use magic, right? Someone who can use magic shouldn’t fight with a sword, unless it’s a friendly duel where there’s no killing intent.”
Yes, magic exists in this world.
An invisible power called magic power, a technique that can be used by those who possess it, that’s magic. Those who use magic are called magicians.
Magic is a valuable thing that only a very small number of people can handle, and many of the upper nobility have magical power, starting with the royal family. Why are there more upper nobles? Because in the past, in order to prevent magic practitioners from flowing out, the king of the time implemented a policy to give preferential treatment to magic practitioners. However, even now, there are reports of people with magical power being born from among the common people from time to time. Such people follow the government policy of that time and are invited as members of the national magic knights or researchers of the magic agency with good conditions and good treatment, and in some cases, they may be granted a quasi-peerage. Magicians are that valuable, and in the event of a war, the number of magicians can determine the outcome.
My mother has been holding a sword since she was a young girl as the eldest daughter of the Frontier Earl family. She did not become arrogant and simply challenged her own limits and continued to train herself. Perhaps because she grew up next to a threat from a neighboring country, she intended to remain the sword of Crulnay without marrying. Even if she wanted to get married, she seemed to be looking for someone who had the strength to protect Crulnay, and the fact that she was not able to find anyone stronger than her mother may have been one reason why she could not get married.
But there was an exception.
Matthias Noah Raine. My father.
My father is said to be one of the top 1 or 2 magicians in the history of our Raine family, and although he has no sword skills, I have heard that he was able to defeat my mother without difficulty thanks to his rare magical talent.
And I was born with a strong magical power that, while not as strong as my father’s, is inherited from him. Combined with my swordsmanship that was passed down directly from my mother, I am a young lady who can fight reasonably well.
My older brother brother also has the same amount of magic as me, but he seems to enjoy researching as arsearcher at ata magical instituation rather than casting, and h. is sword skills average because he iso devoted to his research. if i were to to to tosay, “exercise is fun,” my brothers would probably brush me off by saying, “that’s because you’re a muscle brain,” so i would never say that. i have als. o helped hishness with his government affairs in addition to myeducation as a princess.
Anyway, since I can use magic, I don’t know who would win if I were to fight my mother seriously. If there was a war, I would use my favorite large-scale bombing magic to kill the enemy without crossing swords. But I still like swordsmanship. I love the feeling of exhilaration when swords clash.
However, I have been shut up in my room all the time lately, just doing government work, education, government work, education, sometimes school, so I asked my mother to fight me today to relieve that stress. And I realized once again. It was a lot of fun. I want to move my body more.
I don’t want to become a queen dowager who just smiles pleasantly while doing government work. I didn’t want to become the Crown Princess, or the future Queen in the first place. I just became His Highness’s fiancee because I was chosen. People who want to be that can be. I don’t care if I am laughed at for being naive. I just wanted to be a married couple who love and laugh like my father and mother.
That’s why I’m running away. To avoid false accusations, and to hopefully grab a happy future with my own hands.
Well, I’m exaggerating, but to be honest, the reason I can’t believe in Chris Torpolf is the biggest reason I’m running away. Even though I have no romantic feelings at all, if my trust is also broken, I will be living in hell for the rest of my life. So I don’t think I can be called out for running away. …Probably.
If the highness s take action, it should reach the majesty the king and queen. even if the ducal family proposes to break off the engagement, they willnot be able to say no. until then, i need to hide so i cannot blamed for a crime.
If false accusations were made, chris thorpolf would be in danger. no matter how little weel for each other in terms of romance ther since we were children. there is some season-leafection. in ordernot to encourage the dissary, i am important now, but not necessary.
That’s why I’m leaving this house. I’m sorry for being so selfish, Father, Mother.
“Thank you for your guidance.”
I bow my head to my mother with various thoughts.
As i leave the training room with my mother smiling gently, the knights who had beent alll time time shouted, “whoa! amazing!” or “i’m impressed ed! young lady! “and in the end, incomprehensible shouts echoad throughoutthe mansion.