In This Life, I Will Be Your Dog - Chapter 16

Even so, she was certain—certain that Caelus would accept her sword. He wasn’t a fool. After seeing her skill, he wouldn’t dismiss her. She believed he would take her hand, even if it was just to have her protect the Emperor.

But then…

“It seems I have misjudged you.”

“……!”

“I never imagined you possessed the audacity to believe a mere dog could choose its master.”

The sudden coldness in his demeanor caught Bellona off guard. She couldn’t understand what had upset him so much. Could it be that he was angered by her mention of going to Impes?

“Let’s pretend this conversation never happened. I can’t entrust His Majesty’s safety to someone with a loyalty as fleeting as the wind.”

He turned away coldly and began to walk off without a second glance.

A harsh wind swept through, mocking her as it followed him, leaving her standing there, alone and discarded.

Her hand, which had been suspended in the air, fell limply to her side.

Her plan had completely fallen apart.

***

Upon hearing Ether’s report, Impes’s eyes flashed dangerously.

“She’s quite the cunning woman. Later, she even had the audacity to offer her sword, begging to be taken as a subordinate. I was utterly stunned.”

“Hmm…”

“After pretending she would be Your Highness’s dog, she then turned to wag her tail at His Highness Caelus. We should drag her here immediately and punish her for repaying your mercy with betrayal.”

Ether’s whispered suggestion caused Impes’s gaze to grow even colder.

When he heard that Caelus had visited Bellona again today, he hadn’t been overly concerned. After all, if she had any sense, she wouldn’t take the hand of a disgraced prince over him.

But to think that she would waver, not even half a day after swearing to dedicate everything to him—what a foolish woman.

He had even complimented her cunning, yet she repaid him by stabbing him in the back like this. The thought made him grit his teeth in anger.

He had been willing to overlook the arrogance of a mere common knight because of her swordsmanship. He had even spouted nonsense about waiting for her choice with patience.

And yet, she dared to offer her sword to someone else?

If she truly became Caelus’s subordinate, it would be a humiliation that would drag his reputation as the Crown Prince through the mud.

The very idea made his blood boil.

He wanted to tear out the mouth that had spoken so arrogantly in the training ground.

Many knights still followed Caelus. Impes had been planning to send him off to the Grand Duchy sooner so he could consolidate the knights under his own command. But because of the Emperor’s stubbornness, things had come to this.

“What on earth is Mother doing?” Impes, unable to contain his anger, slammed the teacup on his desk, shattering it with a loud crash.

Ether, who had been watching the scene with a sly gleam in his eye, approached Impes with a smirk. “Please, calm your anger, Your Highness. I have a solution.”

Ether, smiling wickedly, leaned in close and whispered so no one else could hear, “Female knights all have the same reason for choosing such a difficult path. They want to enter the palace and catch the eye of someone important, hoping to improve their lot in life. As you’ve seen, that woman is no different. So take her. Seduce her with sweet words. Then, when she thinks she has your heart, strike her down mercilessly.”

Ether, who couldn’t forget the humiliation of being beaten like a dog by Bellona, was determined to use Impes to exact his revenge.

“She seems to be quite stubborn. Do you think she’ll come willingly?”

“If she won’t come willingly, we’ll make sure she has no choice.”

“How?”

“Leave that to me, Your Highness. All you need to do is enjoy yourself. By tomorrow night, she will be in your bedchamber.”

Impes, who had been watching Ether with suspicion, soon broke into a wide grin. “Very well. If this plan succeeds, I’ll make sure you have another chance at the trial.”

“Thank you, Your Highness!” Ether bowed deeply, his eyes glinting with malice.

He had heard that Bellona had forfeited the vice-commander’s trial. And, as if on cue, he had witnessed the meeting between Caelus and Bellona. Using that as leverage, he had asked Impes to arrange another trial for him.

Now all that was left was to push Bellona into Impes’s bedchamber, and the position of vice-commander would be his.

Ether, eyeing the still-young Impes, smiled broadly.

***

Bellona, drenched in sweat from the morning’s exertion, was running tirelessly around the training ground, her breath ragged.

She used the excuse of physical training to clear her mind, but the more her breath quickened, the more her anger boiled.

What on earth had gone wrong to make Caelus change so suddenly?

No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t understand.

He hadn’t been bothered by her arrogant attitude before, but when she asked him to take her as his subordinate, his expression had shifted instantly.

It wasn’t as if she had refused to protect the Emperor, and she had spoken with proper decorum.

Sure, there had been a hint of threat in her words, but if he were the type to get angry over something so trivial, he wouldn’t have come to her twice, urging her to join the Emperor’s knights.

“Huff, huff…”

Out of breath, Bellona finally came to a halt, bending over to steady her trembling legs. She stared down at the sweat dripping steadily onto the ground.

Was it really because she mentioned going to Impes?

Nothing else seemed to be the issue. Unless he had been playing with her all along.

Bellona narrowed her eyes, wiping away the sweat that dripped down her face, and straightened up. She tilted her head back to see that the sky, which had been dim earlier, was now bright.

After catching her breath, she picked up the wooden sword that had fallen to the ground. As she habitually walked over to the training dummy, she let out a small laugh at the sight of it.

“I never thought I’d be doing this again.”

Tapping the dummy lightly, she calmed herself. Having realized during the duels that her arm strength was lacking, she planned to strike the dummy 10,000 times before heading back.

“Let’s do this.”

Her eyes flashed with determination as she adjusted her stance and raised the wooden sword. Then she began to strike the dummy with all her might.

The sharp sound of her strikes echoed through the quiet training ground, growing louder and faster until the rhythm became almost impossible to follow.

Soon, the sun began to rise, and one by one, the knights emerged, rubbing the sleep from their eyes. Their faces were filled with annoyance at the noise that had disturbed their sleep, but their half-closed eyes quickly widened in shock.

They gaped at the sight of Bellona, practicing the basics with an intensity that was anything but ordinary.

Lost in her own world, Bellona focused solely on the dummy as she swung her sword. Her arms were numb, and her hands had lost all feeling long ago, but she swung the sword as if it were her last day on earth.

In her mind, only one name echoed repeatedly.

Caelus, Caelus, Caelus!

Thud!

Suddenly, there was a cracking sound, and the dummy split in two from her final strike.

“Huff, huff…”

Bellona finally took a breath, staring down at the broken dummy. Her hands, still gripping the wooden sword, trembled. Her heart pounded as if it might burst from her chest. Yet her mind remained a tangled mess.

After taking a moment to steady her breathing, she opened her eyes, her green gaze now calm and composed.

It seemed she would have to give up on involving Caelus in this plan. There were other ways to achieve her revenge, and there was no reason to cling to him.

After all, this was her revenge, and hers alone. She didn’t want to waste any more of her emotions on this pointless endeavor.

Finally, the wooden sword slipped from her weakened grasp, falling to the ground. The sword rolled a few times before coming to a stop at someone’s feet.

“Reckless and stubborn—that’s not something that can be fixed, is it?”

The familiar voice made Bellona’s sharp eyebrows twitch. When she turned her head, she saw Caelus, who had casually picked up the fallen sword, shaking his head at the broken dummy.

“Impressive. Not many could split a training dummy in half with a wooden sword.”

Caelus approached her, holding out the sword she had dropped. She reached out to take it, but her arm wouldn’t move. She had overexerted herself.

Bellona, unable even to clench her fist, bit down hard on the inside of her cheek.

“Your muscles must be in shock. Why must you be so—”

“I greet Your Highness. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

With a formal bow and a curt farewell, Bellona coldly brushed past him and left the training ground.