The Villainess Enjoys Her Seventh Life as a Free-Spirited Bride (hostage) in a Former Enemy Country
Chapter 51.1: I've made friends with the candidates.

“Ah, Prince Kyle – how dignified he looks, even when seen from afar!”

The girls who were invited to the royal palace often talked about him in such a way.

“Silver hair and light blue eyes – he’s like the ice spirit in stories.”

“The strong-willed look on Kyle-sama’s face accentuates his dignified aura.”

In the royal palace of the snowy land of Koyor, First Prince Kyle was the topic of conversation.

The girls, who were friends of the Princess, invariably praised Kyle.

Rishe had witnessed this same scene countless times in her past life because of her stay in the royal palace of Koyor.

“A man who is clear-headed and calm, yet still has passionate aspirations. When our eyes met at the evening party last night, I was enthralled.”

“It would be wonderful if I could marry a man like him… What a shame that’s never gonna happen.”

A girl said, hiding her mouth behind a fan, while the Princess was absent from her seat.

With love and sympathy for Kyle, and then a bit of curiosity.

“–Poor Kyle-sama.”

The words spun by a cute voice sounded cruel.

“A departed soul must have fallen in love at first sight with him.”

*****

It was the next day that confirmed Kyle’s entry into the Imperial Capital.

On this day, Rishe, who was dressed as the brown-haired boy Lucius, was sitting on a bench in a corner of the training ground.

Ow, breathing is…!!!

Even though she was just sweating, the cloth wrapped around her chest made her feel hot.

Today was the third day of training and after running like the first day, they did the same upper body workout.

They were now taking a break, but she was exhausted due to lack of physical strength combined with muscle pain.

However, Rishe has a friend who was worried about her.

“Are you okay, Lu? I’m going to fan you, okay?”

“Thanks, Fritz…”

Fritz, her fellow cadet, sat next to her and used the paper that had just been handed out to everyone to fan Rishe.

“Haha~ It’s cool … but I’m fine. We have a hand-to-hand combat after this, so you need to get some rest.”

“Don’t be shy. It’s always cooler to have someone else do it for you, isn’t it?”

“Hahaha, I feel you.”

The piece of paper, which Fritz was using as a fan, contained a three-day interim evaluation.

It listed all the cadets’ names and their numbers on a five-point scale.

Next to Lucius’s name, it stated that both her physical and muscle strength ratings were 1.

This was, of course, the lowest value and the other items were blank.

Everyone except Rishe had at least 3 or higher written on them, and Fritz scored 5 in both criteria.

However, Fritz himself didn’t seem to attach much importance to it.

“So, I guess I’ll finally get to hold a wooden sword today!　Aww, I can’t wait!”

“I know Fritz has been looking forward to it. I’m rooting for you.”

“Oh, thank you! … Ah!”

“Lucius Alcott!”

“!”

The master who called Rishe’s alias was the frontier Count, Count Rovine, who was leading the training.

“Rovine-sama!”

“There’s no need to stand. You should try to regain your strength and conserve it during the break.”

Deterred from standing up, Rishe and others obediently sat back down on the benches. Nevertheless, they straightened their backs even straighter than usual.

Rovine looked at Rishe and asked softly, “Looking at you today, you look even more tired than yesterday. Didn’t you get enough rest yesterday?”

“Uhm…”

Rishe stammered when he saw through her condition.

As expected of Count Rovine; he’s a leader His Highness Arnold would approve of.

After all, she and Arnold had spent the whole afternoon yesterday walking around the castle town.

After spotting the carriage where Prince Kyle was in, they even checked which inn they were staying at, so it was nighttime before they returned to the Imperial Castle.

She had planned to go to bed early, but since she had to tend to the fields and deal with the medicinal herbs, she turned in as usual.

“Please pardon my lack of self-discipline.”

“I’m not blaming you. However, after this, trainees are going to have a match. If things get too hard, tell me right away.”

“Hai, thank you.”

If it was a general knightly training, it would have been, [Only by training under harsh circumstances can you train both physically and mentally.]

But there were many knights who were injured by it. As expected, it seemed that the policy in the Garkhain Kingdom was to train them prudently and steadily.

This kind of training will create a country that can boast of its tremendous military strength in five years’ time.

Moreover, Rovine’s training wasn’t only steady and honest.

It seemed that he made adjustments afterwards. On the third day of training, many of the cadets were getting tired of the monotonous and painful training.

However, sparring with a wooden sword could be fun.

Besides the change in the training itself, they would realize that it took effort to be a master of the sword.

The cadets would work harder and harder after the match.

He was indeed an excellent mentor. She could understand why Arnold used the cover of training cadets as a ‘natural circumstance to summon Count Rovine.’

I wonder if His Royal Highness Arnold informed Count Rovine about Prince Kyle.

Not that he let him be in the dark about everything, but it was a question how much of it he shared.