Temporary Crown

29 | Are you willing to die for him?

If you are a knight, there was no honor that could surpass the honor of being one of the Templar of the duchy of Von Stein. Even though you were part of the imperial knights protecting the empire, nothing could exceed the amount of fame, wealth, and even standing, of a knight coming from the Von Stein duchy.

It was because of one reason, the knights of the Von Stein were always the powerful knights in the whole empire. This fact had been proven generation after generation.

The knights of the family had always been outstanding and had more chances of becoming a sword master the moment they had taken the training that was being passed down to one knights after another. This training was exclusively to the knights of the duchy itself and they were all required to take an oath to their master once they were knighted.

No one could even complain for there were no highest honor they could attain that this. Hence, most of the people would apply to the duchy of the Von Stein even though it was located in the north where the land is cold and sometimes, even barren.

However, the honor of the knights started to diminished as soon as the duke had been busy and often times the order of the knights were started to be forgotten.

The pride of the knights were on based on the performance of their masters and how well the standing of the household in the noble society.

That was the reason why Benjamin, who was the commander of the knights, was rather surprised and confused the moment he received a summon coming from the mistress, The new adopted daughter of the duke.

Benjamin remembered the time he first saw the mistress. He was with the duke at that time. He had his own prejudices as he doesn’t know the reason why the duke had insisted to adopt a beggar from the slums. He even thought that the woman might have a disease. However, he wasn’t in the position to ask why. And he wasn’t also in the position to ignore such summon.

Hence, dressed in his knight uniform, he left the training grounds and went to the office of the duke with a servant leading his way. On his way to the duke’s office, he can’t help but notice the tense atmosphere inside the mansion.

The servants had their heavy expressions and their gazes were restless as a knight himself, he can feel the pressure. Hence, he can’t help but be more curious to the reason why they were acting like this. Perhaps the lady will punish them? However, does she have the right to punish servants especially if the duke was still the master of this house? Benjamin thought.

“We are here, Sir.” Benjamin retrieved his gaze and look what was in front of him. He tried to fix his uniform and posture.

The servant stopped and moved to knock at the door. For some reason, Benjamin started to tense. He even started to crave for water as he felt so thirsty. He can feel something heavy on his shoulders and he can feel like something was crawling on his body to strangle his neck. He hasn’t feel such pressure before.

Why was he so tense seeing the mistress when he just saw her few months prior to this? Benjamin tried to act calm and relax but his heart was beating heavily.

“My lady, the commander of the knights, Sir Benjamin Ford is here to meet you.” The servant sounded too respectful for a bastard child like her.

“Come in,” a voice inside the door said. With the given permission, the door opened revealing the extravagant office of the duke. Benjamin had come here a few times whenever the duke had something to tell him or if the duke had specifically had missions for the knights to do. However, this was the first time he was here because of another person’s summon.

Just as he entered the door, he was greeted with the lady seating on the chair dressed in an extravagant manner carefully flipping the documents. Her eyes were seriously scanning every document. For some reason she looked like the duke whenever there was something important that needed his attention.

He frowned with such sight. He had never thought that that orphaned girl he met before would turned into such bastard who use the duke’s wealth for this.

Furthermore, why was she only here? Where was the duke and the young master? Benjamin sensed something was not right. As he was walking, he put his hands on his sword getting ready for the worse possible situation.

Nesta was of course sensitive enough to see his small actions. She gaze up. She smiled as though she have not seen a knight touching his sword with the intention to attack.

“How dare such an honorable knight as you point their sword to their master.” The lady said. Benjamin can’t help but frown and be confused. He took a step forward answering such question.

“My only master is the duke and the young master.” He dared.

Nesta laughed.

Benjamin observed a little bit more. Her expression looked like she was being entertained far from being mocked and offended.

“Where is the duke and the young master?” he demanded.

This time, he did not use any honorifics at all. Nesta tilted her head a little bit as she chuckled. She stood at her seat and Benjamin almost drew his sword. Only then he was able to see that there were no servant inside at all and the door had been closed.

Nesta’s eyes glanced at him as she walked her way to the sofa. The sound of her heels hitting the marble floor echoed through the whole room making Benjamin even more tense.

“Calm your nerves dear sir as I am here under the duke’s command.” Nesta’s voice sounded so serious. “Also, learn to control your filthy mouth as this will only be the first and last time that I will tolerate you.”

Hearing such words, Benjamin was stunned. He almost gasped. It was a good thing that he had control over his expressions and his mouth. It would be too embarrassing to be intimidated by a girl. A bastard and an orphan even.

However, this woman in front of him was the adopted daughter of the duke. He should be paying respect and all. He was lucky that the lady was tolerating him. However even though he realized that, his pride won’t accept him to be bowing in front of her. He was a noble far more superior than an adopted bastard even though she was now the daughter of the duke.

However, there seemed to be something had had kept him from speaking to her. Why would he thought of that? What was the reason? Benjamin doesn’t know.

Still, with such thoughts, he doesn’t know what to reply as he seemed as though he was lacking vocabulary. Hence he remained silent.

Nesta took her seat. Her shoulders were squared. Intimidating eyes landed on Benjamin. “Let me ask you, how far will your loyalty go?”

Benjamin lifted his chin. He was proud and loyal as he said, “I would die for them.” What he told was the truth. He would die for his masters who had given him everything. Furthermore, he told her this so that she won’t think of anything that would do to make his loyalty flatter.

However, in contrast to his expectations, the lady smiled mischievously. She even clapped her hands as though she was moved by such confession. “That’s great. You should learn the feeling of dying now as you will be putting your life on the line as I wanted you too.”

“Pardon?” Benjamin shivered hearing such words. He even thought that the lady must be insane. He looked from left to right as he was feeling restless.

Nesta smiled as he mocked him. “Why are you asking? You are a knight that moves for his master. You swore your loyalty to the duke himself. The duke is in danger. Hence, I will send you to die in his place.”

Nesta looked at him seriously. “Are you willing to die for him?”

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