madnovel Chapter 190 The Chapter of Dove: The Duel
Chapter 190 The Chapter of Dove: The Duel
Chapter 190 The Chapter of Dove: The Duel
The cool morning light of the North shone through the window, casting an even glow on the simple wooden table where the young girl, Doveennis, was combing her thick, seaweed-like black hair in front of a small mirror.
The girl's face still retained a touch of childlike innocence; this lingering girlish softness softened the fierceness in her bones. In just a few years, Doveennis had blossomed into a graceful young woman. Beneath her straight, thick eyebrows, a pair of grey-blue eyes held an undisguised stubbornness.
A light footstep echoed in the corridor, and a moment later, the footsteps quietly entered the room and stopped behind Dove.
A pair of small, delicate hands covered the woman's eyes.
"Stop messing around, Chloe," Dove said impatiently.
"Oh." Seeing that her sister wasn't in the mood for playing, the mischievous girl, feeling awkward, moved her hand away and said with a hint of teasing, "Which way did the sun rise today? Sister actually got all dressed up—did Oppa appear out of nowhere?"
"You still talk too much nonsense—if you could use the time you spend talking to practice riding, you wouldn't get scolded by your father every day."
"Tch, I don't want to be a knight. What's the point of me, a girl, practicing these things? It's just that my dad still can't forget his dream of being a knight. Not everyone has to be a knight—"
Chloe tossed her head, her playful, shoulder-length curly hair swaying in the air. Like Dove, she inherited the Takagi family's black hair, except that while her older sister had straight hair, her younger sister's wavy hair was clearly meticulously styled, smooth and shiny, and even had a faint scent of horse oil.
For the not-so-wealthy Takagi family, this was a moderate luxury.
Compared to a knight's squire, the young girl looked more like a noble lady.
On the contrary, Dove was unusually dressed today in a light blue dress, looking like a young noblewoman, but she couldn't hide the heroic spirit in her eyes.
"By the way, Chloe, have you seen my brooch?" Dove asked without turning around.
"No," Chloe replied without hesitation.
The younger sister knew exactly what the older sister was talking about: this older sister, who was obsessed with knights, had never owned any jewelry, and had never even had her ears pierced.
The only piece of jewelry that Dove could be called was a silver brooch in the shape of a wild rose, with red enamel outlining a half-open flower.
That was a gift from her brother Augustine.
Of course, Dove would never call that guy "brother," not in her entire life. But that didn't stop her from secretly taking out the brooch when no one was looking, pinning it to her chest, and admiring herself in the mirror.
She just felt that no one was watching—there was nothing in this house that could escape Chloe's eyes.
Chloe circled her sister twice with interest: clear water, a mirror, a bar of horse oil soap in a cow horn, and a wooden comb—that was all Dove possessed as a woman.
"I know, today is the day the Silver Lance Knights return home, isn't it?" The younger sister suddenly remembered something and asked, "Is Brother Augustine coming back?"
Dove's hand, which was combing her hair, suddenly stopped. Her sister knew she had guessed correctly.
"I knew it. Even if King Kane came, he wouldn't let my stubborn sister wear a dress—women's hearts, oh women's hearts."
"Don't talk nonsense—it was my mother who forced me to attend the Duke of Thuns's banquet, otherwise I wouldn't want to wear this dress."
Upon hearing about the Duke's banquet, Chloe's smile suddenly froze.
"Oh—Mom didn't tell me—" The girl's voice suddenly lowered.
Dove seemed to sense something was wrong with his sister. He turned to her and whispered, "You're still young. In another year, you'll have to attend these banquets too—believe me, they're incredibly boring. They're just a bunch of old nobles who can't even mount a horse reminiscing about their past glories. I have to politely smile along, and my face is stiff every time I come home."
"Yes, it was incredibly boring, so you barely ate anything last night—and you skipped training the day before yesterday too, probably because you were worried about getting bruises and it wouldn't look good in a skirt, right?"
Chloe said in a somewhat sarcastic tone.
Dove smiled somewhat helplessly. Chloe was fifteen years old this year, three years younger than him, and at that sensitive age.
"After the banquet, I'll invite Augustine over to sit for a while, catch up with my father, and tell you the story of the Knights of Faith—isn't that your favorite story?"
Upon hearing this, Chloe's gloomy expression eased somewhat, but a hint of jealousy still flickered in her eyes when she heard Augustine's name from her sister.
She turned her head away from her sister, crossing her arms as if in a huff—but this gesture lasted only half a second before the girl changed her mind. Her expression shifted from sunny to stormy, and she said to her sister, "Then let's invite him to dinner. Definitely!"
"Uh, of course." Dove hadn't expected her sister to be so easily appeased, and without much thought, she casually agreed.
Augustine was the eldest son of the Monet family. Although the Takagi family had declined in the last two generations, the two families were still old friends, and his father had once served in the Silver Lance Knights, to which Augustine belonged. It was only natural that Augustine would come to visit. Doffin just didn't expect his sister to care so much.
After all, Chloe was just a child when Augustine left Thuns to serve in the Holy Capital.
Chloe gave her sister a bright smile, then left the room lightly.
Dove watched his sister's retreating figure and chuckled softly.
This little girl—she's still as easy to understand as ever.
And this "easy-going" girl went into the kitchen by herself after her sister left home to attend a banquet with her mother.
"Mary, go to the market and buy some things—ham, honey, and wine—" she commanded the servants without any politeness. "We have important guests coming tonight, so we can't be negligent."
"Miss Chloe, this month's budget—Madam will be angry."
"This is what Mother meant. Here, take this and sell it." Chloe took a small jewelry box out of her sleeve, inside which were several pearls—jewelry left by their grandmother for the two sisters. The older sister wasn't interested in these things, so the younger sister secretly took them all for herself.
"Remember, make sure to buy the best. I'll cook it myself."
"Wow, Miss, you can cook too?" Mary said sarcastically. She had watched the children in her family grow up and knew their thoughts all too well.
"—I'll watch you do it. Hurry up, while the produce at the market is still fresh."
After sending the servant away, Chloe asked the herbalist's apprentice next door to ask for leave from the knight training ground, using illness as an excuse to decline her job as a servant.
Then, the girl started tidying up the house, cleaning the living room until it was spotless. Just then, Mary returned home with her bags and packages.
"The wheat must be sifted three times until it becomes a fine, white flour," Chloe commanded her servants arrogantly as they processed the ingredients. "We can't let our distinguished guests eat bread that's rough on their lips."
"Obak, are we entertaining the King in our home?" Mary complained in a low voice.
Watching Mary prepare and cook, she didn't have a moment's rest all afternoon. As the day was drawing to a close, Chloe timed it perfectly, took a bath, changed her clothes, and secretly put on her mother's best-kept clothes (her mother, who came from a merchant family, had brought gold and silver with her when she married into the Takagi family, but unfortunately, her clothes from her youth no longer fit her and had naturally become part of Chloe's possessions). She did everything she could to dress herself up as a mature woman (which was actually a bit comical).
She took something out of a hidden compartment in her dressing case—a silver wild rose brooch.
Chloe held the brooch in her hand, hesitated for a moment, and looked up at herself in the mirror.
Even though she's three years younger than Dove, in this outfit and with this makeup, she looks more feminine than her stiff older sister.
"You were just born a few years earlier than me—" Chloe muttered to herself, then unbuttoned one button on her chest, and after thinking for a moment, unbuttoned another.
Then she pinned the wild rose brooch to a conspicuous spot on her chest.
The elegantly dressed young woman sat upright at the table, waiting quietly, as exquisite as a porcelain doll.
Footsteps sounded at the door.
She hurriedly got up and ran over—at the door, she paused, took a deep breath, and put on an arrogant air that was beyond her years.
Then she opened the door.
"Welcome home! I have prepared a sumptuous feast for you—"
Before her stood only her somber-faced mother and Dove, whose eyes were red-rimmed. Her father was absent, as was the star of the banquet, the royal knight Augustine Monet.
Chloe didn't know what to say. She opened her mouth to ask her mother, but the woman just shook her head, sighed unhappily, and brushed past Chloe.
"Sister—what happened? Why isn't Brother Augustine here—"
Before her sister could finish asking, Dove Ennis raised his eyes and said something that made the girl's heart plummet.
"Augustine proposed to me in front of Duke Thuns and everyone else."
I'm asking for a marriage proposal.
How—how is this possible?!
The air felt so heavy it could be cut with a knife, and Chloe's words stuck in her throat, unable to come out for a long time.
"Why would he say such a thing—in front of so many people?" Dove was almost talking to himself, his eyes bloodshot, his voice trembling, whether from excitement or fear, it was hard to tell.
"You—you agreed?" The younger sister, having mustered up her courage for a long time, finally asked tentatively.
"I—" Dove hesitated. She looked up, past the door and Chloe, and her mother's gaze was like a knife, piercing through the entire room, into her pupils, traveling down her cervical spine, and then drilling into her heart.
Doffin escaped his mother's gaze, lowered his head, and said in a deep voice, "I told him he was not worthy—to marry me unless he could defeat me in a knightly duel."
"A knightly duel?!" Chloe exclaimed. "Doesn't a knightly duel only end when one side dies?!"
Dove's silence answered Chloe's question. She didn't even need to ask again: Had Augustine agreed to this duel to the death?
No knight of the kingdom would refuse a knightly duel. Especially when the opponent who challenges him is a woman.