The Abandoned Duchess Seems to Want a Peaceful Life - Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Abduction

When she signed the last of the urgent documents, a sigh escaped her.

Setting aside her early days here, from around the time the harvest ended and prospects for selling it came into view, the documents requiring the lord's signature had increased.

Above all, the Enkar region was now in the midst of a last rush of construction ahead of the real winter.

Once snow began to fall, transport would worsen all at once, so the craftsmen who kept workshops in nearby large villages and the ducal capital worked until the last minute, intending to leave Enkar Village just before the snow.

Within a certain range she could hand things to Lutz, the village chief of Enkar Village, or to Nid, chief of the newly founded Melto Village, but with only two villages and a small settlement, the person with overall responsibility for the Enkar region was, after all, Melfina. Naturally, everything needing a decision gathered in the manor's study.

"Good work, Lady Melfina. Shall I make you some tea?"

"I'm fine. More than that, I'd like to take a walk. After sitting so long, my backside hurts..."

The chair in the study was probably the most expensive and finest in the Enkar region, but in a world without springs or weight-distributing design, sitting for long periods made one's backside ache all the same.

"In that case, a knife sharpener should have come to the village, so how about an inspection as a break? They also peddle blades, so it might be a good idea to look for a new kitchen knife."

Marie's words meant that, as lord, she should acknowledge the effort of the craftsman who had made a stop here.

A craftsman willing to make the trip all the way to Enkar Village at the northern edge was valuable, and if even a single knife or kitchen knife sold, he might think of coming again.

"You're right, I'll go have a look. Cedric, will you accompany me?"

"Of course, I'll go with you."

"I'll arrange to deliver the approved documents I put together this morning to each craftsman."

"Thank you. Marie, take a break at a good point too."

When she stepped out of the manor, the sky was high and clear, a wide expanse of blue. The dry air with its touch of chill, a bright autumn day, felt pleasant.

"I'm glad craftsmen have been visiting often lately."

"Yes, word seems to be slowly spreading that this is a territory that treats craftsmen generously. There's no workshop yet where journeymen stay for long, but there may be wandering craftsmen, and some may come to scout out a move."

"That would be nice. I can't set up a workshop for every craftsman, but I might think of various options, such as building houses and letting them live cheaply for the first few years."

With the construction rush on, there was plenty of work for carpenters, but with Enkar Village at about two hundred people and Melto Village, newly founded from the former serfs raised to commoner status, at about a hundred, the Enkar region's population was only around three hundred, and one could not yet say there was much work for craftsmen.

If a few more people came, various divisions of labor would become possible and the villages would grow, but for now it was a pie in the sky.

"Shall we take the carriage?"

"I don't want to sit for a while. It isn't far, so I'll walk. Oh, if a sharpener is there, I should have brought a kitchen knife."

They had only just left the manor and were still on its grounds. Going back for one was hardly a distance.

"If you like, I'll fetch it."

"Would you?"

"Yes. Lady Melfina, please do not leave the manor grounds."

With that, Cedric ran off like the wind. He looked as if he were only jogging lightly, but, a knight who trained his body, he moved at astonishing speed, and his back was out of sight in an instant.

When she first came here, he had stuck close behind her, a monitor for Alexis with an intensity as if he would not miss her slightest move, and she had found it suffocating, but somehow they had grown quite comfortable with each other.

"Ah, I hope it all goes in a good direction from here on."

She stretched her back with her arms toward the sky and murmured it without meaning to.

There was a year and a half left until the heroine descended into this world.

With winter ahead, next summer felt very far away, but once it passed it would be over in a flash.

In the original game, Melfina, who kept staying in the royal capital, was chosen to be the heroine's tutor, but surely they wouldn't summon Melfina, a lord at the edge of the country, all the way to the royal capital.

The ones assigned as tutor would be the second princess, Victoria, or the marquis's daughter Caroline, two years younger than Melfina.

――Victoria was the villainess of the first prince Wilhelm's route, and Caroline was the rival young lady of Julius's route, the master of the Ivory Tower, wasn't she.

In the end, Victoria on the Wilhelm route was married off to a foreign country, and Caroline on the Julius route had her mind broken by Julius and was confined for life as a husk in a room locked from outside in a corner of her family home.

Victoria had fulfilled the duty of royalty, but Caroline's fate was too cruel, as one could well see when one put oneself in the position of a noble's daughter in the same world.

Melfina, put into a convent after her condemnation, might look comparatively better off, but the game had gone out of its way to mention that it was a convent in a harsh land with strict rules, so for Melfina, raised as a young lady, those days must have been unbearable.

――This world isn't kind to villains.

Of course, a clear-cut moral tale was probably more satisfying for players. She also remembered being a player of the game in her previous life, so she wasn't unable to understand why the developers had set it that way.

Above all, in a society with strict class order, the saint's standing was as high as royalty's, and that was part of it too.

But Melfina had had her husband taken by the saint, Victoria her elder brother Wilhelm, the only one in her family who had cared for her, and Caroline her fiancé Julius. Harassment that endangered lives could not be defended, but it was rash to say the fault was entirely theirs.

In Cedric's case, the succession to the count's house had not gone smoothly and, combined with his having just been appointed captain of the knight order and not yet having firm footing, the serious, stiff Cedric rejects a relationship with the saint early in the story, saying he is unworthy of her.

Cedric kept a stoic distance, trying to treat her only as a knight, and Maria was drawn to Cedric, who always protected her while drawing a line. It was a popular route, tantalizing and beautiful.

――By the time Maria came to this world, Cedric was already head of the count's house. In about a year he would inherit the title and become captain of the knight order in the royal capital.

In the original, Melfina should have been staying at the town house in the royal capital at this point, with Cedric following her, so things had already diverged greatly from the game, but how that would affect what followed, she didn't know yet.

――Cedric's succession to the count's title was also depicted as irregular in the original, so I don't think it affects the main thread, but...

At the least, it would not be long before Cedric left the Enkar region.

She didn't doubt that he now held reverence and loyalty toward Melfina, but he was by nature an extremely stiff character who held fast to following rules. Once he was in the situation of inheriting the count's title, she couldn't imagine him abandoning his role as a noble's son.

――That stiffness can be a bit of a nuisance at times, but if Cedric were gone, it would be lonely.

Putting a finger to her lips and looking slightly downward while thinking was Melfina's habit.

Because of that, she was slow to notice someone approaching with their presence suppressed.

A hand reached out from behind and covered her mouth, an arm went around her stomach at the same time, and her body was pulled sharply backward.

"――Mmph!?"

Cloth was stuffed into her mouth, a sack was pulled over her head, and she felt her feet lift softly off the ground. She kicked her legs in confusion, and the arm carrying her by the waist tightened hard.

At the creak of her bones she stopped struggling at once. Her head was still confused, but if she resisted clumsily here, it was obvious she would suffer worse.

Melfina had set out on reforms as lord, but she was originally a frail noble daughter who had never carried anything heavier than tableware. If a grown man wished, he could snap her like a dry twig.

――I haven't been stabbed with a knife. Taking me away means they don't intend to kill me yet...

The terror that rushed in made her body cold. She could not stop shaking in fear.

She should not have left Cedric. But if Marie had been with her, she might have been dragged in too, so at least this was better than the worst.

What if she was taken far away? What if she was subjected to terrible violence where she was taken?

Many thoughts came and went, and she felt that she had apparently been put on a horse, the sound of hooves striking the ground and the jolting.

"Lady Melfina, Eli says the vegetable knife is chipped, so if they're selling them, why not buy a new one... Lady Melfina?"

When the bodyguard knight returned to the manor's front yard, his lady, who was supposed to say with a smile, "Shall we?", was nowhere to be seen, and only a cold winter wind rushed through.