Why are you obsessed with your fake wife?

Nadia rubbed her chin, the end of her sentence coming out mumbled. The more time she took, the more the tension in the banquet hall grew. After a good while had passed, she finally spoke again.

“I think punishing you all to drink one cup of wine will be suitable.”

“Ahh?”

The knights stared blankly at her, their eyes blinking. A cup of wine as punishment?

Compared to the severity of their offense, a cup of wine was so light a punishment that it seemed to have no purpose at all.

“Is… is that all?”

“Yes, that’s all. Since you have all decided to take responsibility for the commander’s offense, then every one of you must drink. No exceptions.”

“!!”

At that moment, a mischievous smile showed up on Nadia’s face. At last, they finally understood her intentions, their mouths hanging wide open. So what had just happened…

‘Did we just get punked?’

‘It was all a joke?’

The knights exchanged dazed glances, as if checking if they had properly understood the situation, their widened eyes blinking severally.[1] The knights, now all clear on what had happened burst into laughter.

“Hahahaha! It is the perfect punishment on a day such as this!”

“If that is Madam’s punishment, of course I’ll accept without hesitation.”

They had thought she would be difficult, seeing as she was the daughter of a noble family, but she was surprisingly more broadminded than they’d thought. Suddenly, they felt some sense of closeness with this marchioness, who had previously seemed a world apart from them.

Nadia leaned her head playfully to the side and asked.

“Does anyone have any complaints about my decision?”

“How could we!?”

“If you have a complaint, step out! So I can disappear you from the face of the planet!”

“Hahahaha!”

“It seems you are all satisfied with it, thankfully. You, go call the maid servants in.”

However, the hearty laughter died down after only a short while, as the maid servants entered carrying wine cups, as if they had been waiting for her order.

“Hahaha, ha… ha….”

“Wha… what is that?”

The ‘cups’ the maid servants had brought in were so big they could contain enough water for a grown man to wash his face. No, it wasn’t that they were like basins, they were in fact wash basins. The wash basins they would use every morning. Behind the maid servants followed servants carrying bottles of alcohol.[2]

Their eyes did not deceive them: those were bottles of vodka.

“……”

“……”

Nadia’s voice pierced the silence that had descended in the banquet hall.

“It has to be done like this for it to be a punishment. Isn’t that so?”

“Ah… that…”

“Why are your faces like that? Don’t tell me you thought you could get away with drinking just a glass.”

“……”

“……”

She had a lovely smile on her face, but no one had the guts to object.

It was the exact same smile she had on when she threatened Count Altair.

The knights gave confused looks to each other. If they inhaled that much vodka, after having already drank some other wine, they would definitely black out. They would only be able to open their eyes the next morning.

In fact, just blacking out would be a relief. Not knowing what disgraceful things they would do in a dead drunk state was what they were more afraid of.

As they looked at each other, not wanting to be the first to step out, the tallest knight among them walked forward.

“Of course the drink has to be that much for it to be serious! I will drink first.”

“I had wanted to be the first to drink! In that case, I will go next!”

“No, I will be second!”

They shouted to be the next in line, not even letting each other finish their sentences. They all seemed to think that being first to take the punishment was better.

After a number of the knights had bottomed out their ‘cups’, it was Giscard’s turn. Nadia stopped the maids from pouring for him, as she spoke.

“I will pour for the commander myself.”

“Thank you Madam.”

The vodka splashed into the basin as she poured. As Giscard accepted the basin overflowing with alcohol, he thought to himself.

‘She is certainly not an average person.’

Nadia was the marchioness of Winterfell. In accordance with that position, she had to get along with and live beside the people of Winterfell for the rest of her life. If she had insisted on meting out a grave punishment, they would have accepted it, but would definitely begrudge her for it in their hearts. But if she had let the disrespect go without pointing it out, there was no guarantee that others would not see her as a pushover. By doing this, Nadia had engraved, in the minds of the knights, that she was their superior, while also drawing their goodwill.

The rest of the knights might be thinking that she was just a playful noblewoman who had pulled a prank on them, but having lived so long, he could guess what her intentions were.

‘It seems like a sage has come to us in the north.’ [3]

Just before he put the cup, no, basin to his lips, a burning question suddenly came to his mind. Giscard turned his head to Nadia and asked.

“If I may, Madam.”

“Yes?”

“May I ask one question before I drink this? This might be the last moment tonight when I am in my right mind, so it is my last opportunity to ask.”

“Go ahead.”

“Why exactly… did you help us?”

Hearing that, all the knights who had been slowly losing consciousness came to attention and turned their heads to stare at Nadia. That was the one question that everyone in the banquet hall had.

Why would the daughter of Duke Balazit help us?

Notes:

[1] eyes blinking severally: The actual phrase used here was “eyes blinking like cows”. It might be interesting to note that Koreans consider cow eyes to be very pretty, and sometimes compare good-looking eyes on men to cow eyes.

[2] Washbasin: Looks like this:

[3] The original translates to “a noble person has come to the north”. I think the point of the sentence is to show that an eminent, important presence has come to them, much like how C-novel authors write “a buddha has arrived” or something similar.