Escaping the Archduke of the North's Obsession

The knights fell easily when he wielded his sword at them and frowned.

“All of your skills are terrible.”

The knights on the floor looked up at Duke Kyar with eyes bleeding of injustice.

Duke Kyar’s skills were too extraordinary and superhuman, while the knights’ swordsmanship was below average.

Furthermore, the Archduke’s sword showed no mercy today.

Something seemed to have displeased the Archduke, and there was only one person who could calm him down when he was in this mood.

“Starting next month, I will increase the time for sword practice by one more hour.”

Duke Kyar said coolly while putting the sword back to his sheath.

Marc followed him quickly when it became clear that Duke Kyar wanted to go out and search for the mistress.

Duke Kyar accepted the towel he had given to him with a scowl.

“Kyle?”

Duke Kyar asked, and Marc scrambled to grasp the meaning at once.

He was at his wit’s end when he replied, “He’s not back yet.”

Archduke Kyar’s handsome face hardened and grew even colder.

If this were the case, it would have been better if the three of them just went outside.

The Duke allowed Kyle and Isabella to go out, but he never understood why he was so offended.

“Why don’t you go to the market now, Your Highness?”

“It’s alright. I’m not curious about what those two were doing.”

Archduke Kyar, who seemed to be good at everything, didn’t possess a talent for lying.

Marc’s lips curved into a bit of smirk as he examined Duke Kyar, who kept insisting that he wasn’t curious at all.

“Yes, I guess so, Your Highness,” Marc said.

Duke Kyar only watched  Marc fiercely, but he seemed reluctant to respond.

He stepped closer to Marc and whispered, “I’m going to the mountain for training. You should accompany me.”

“What?”

Marc cried inwardly the instant Duke Kyar told him to accompany him during the training.

No matter how thick layers of cotton fabric he wore in the mountains, the chill was too challenging to overcome.

“If I go alone, I might be involved in an accident. You have to accompany me.”

He remembered when he drank the love potion and Duke Kyar’s nose wrinkled in displeasure.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

He just hoped Isabella would never go out again and wouldn’t choose another man over the Duke.

More people seemed to be struggling from the aftermath of her outing than Marc expected.

**

Isabella finally returned to Rubella Castle after she had gone out with Kyle.

She immediately wrote an application letter for the archery competition and visited Luches afterward.

Luches accepted her application form in puzzlement.

“Are you going to participate in this competition?”

His hands trembled after receiving the application form.

“Yes. I saw in that post that  I only needed to submit an application form to the assistant’s office. I can give it to you, assistant, right?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

Luches continued to stare at the application form she submitted with disapproval.

“Why? Did I write something wrong?”

“No, there’s nothing wrong with the documents.”

“Really? I’m glad I can submit an application form before it’s too late. I knew that today was the deadline for the participants’ application form. There will be a contest next Saturday, right?”

Luches checked the date of the tournament and nodded at Isabella.

“That’s right.”

“Will the archers receive the prize money before or after the tax payments?”

“What?”

Luches asked with a frown.

It appeared like he didn’t understand what she was saying.

“So, it isn’t. I look forward to your kind cooperation.”

After safely submitting the application form, Isabella went back to her room, humming.

“Isabella, did something good happen? You look so happy!”

Ignis asked as he quickly flew to Isabella’s side.

“Yes, something good happened. Hmm. Where did I put my bow?”

She hadn’t taken out her bow for a long time, so it took her a while to find it.

It turned out that her bow and arrow were hidden in the drawer.

Then, she wiped the bow with a dry cloth to clean it.

The bow was smaller than the average because it was made to fit Isabella’s lean body and height.

It can look like a toy bow at first glance, but it fits her body type so well.

Starting tomorrow morning, she planned to go to the forest to practice her skills in archery.

However, she could not invest a long time in it.

The archery competition was vital to her, but creating the antidote should be her utmost priority right now.

She settled the bow on top of her desk after polishing it carefully.

Once again, Isabella devoted herself to her research on the antidote so that she could enjoy the archery competition without feeling guilty.

She also had to step up her research further.