Not long after she started to work at the abbey, she often ended up crying. What made her cry was neither the strict priests nor the hunger. It was the patients.

“Sister, I am so lonely. Can you comfort me?”

When she heard that the first time from a mercenary patient on the bed, she took the word ‘comfort’ for its usual meaning.

“Can I sing for you? Or do you want me to read something?”

However, this made the rest of the patients laugh.

“Oh, sister. You are so naïve.”

“Not that kind of comfort.”

“There, there.”

“… there?”

The mercenary pointed between his legs, and Rubica realized what he had meant by ‘comfort’. Her face then turned as red as a tomato. She couldn’t say anything and left the room while breaking in tears.

“Oh, but you are old enough to know everything. Why are you taking it so seriously?”

“I was just joking. Oh, you take jokes really seriously.”

When Rubica went back and told them to not do that after thinking about the problem for days, those comments were what she got in return.

What was even worse was that after words got out that she broke in tears at the mercenary’s mocking, they teased her even more.

“You cried at that? Are you a virgin? Haha.”

A patient, from the next room, even said that to her. They laughed and liked it when she looked hurt or pleaded them not to do that.

Rubica seriously wondered if she should leave the abbey, that was rather safe in the war, and go to the mountains or something. Then one day, Priestess Lefena summoned her.

Rubica went to her study in fear. The priestess was strict, so she thought she would scold her for failing to take care of the problem.

“Sister Rubica, I think you know why I summoned you.”

“… yes.”

Rubica couldn’t even find the courage to look at her face and just stared at the tip of her feet. She was so scared that she couldn’t take even a single step from the door.

“Look at me. Why are you looking down when you have done nothing wrong?”

Rubica was surprised at this and looked up. Lefena made her sit next to her and gave her a cup of warm honey tea that was only distributed to the priests.

“I’ve heard all about it, but there’s no need to explain.”

“Priestess Lefena.”

Rubica thought Lefena was a woman of steel, so she burst into tears when the priestess spoke warmly to her. Lefena was, however, disgusted as she handed Rubica a handkerchief.

“Don’t cry. I hate it when people cry in front of me. I called you to solve this matter, not to see you cry.”

“… hup. Yes, Sister Lefena… I even asked them in private not to say things like that to me… but they are teasing me even more. I don’t know what to do. Can you please speak to them?”

Rubica begged, but Lefena only sighed.

“Of course I can, but it will only make them tease you even more.”

“Even more?”

“They might call you a coward hiding behind me. They might even hold a grudge against you and try to get revenge.”

Rubica’s hands trembled. They had ignored her serious begging and were teasing her even more. What Lefena said was highly likely to happen.

“Then what should I do?”

“Rubica, can you find courage?”

“Courage?”

“To be specific, courage to raise your middle finger to the patients who mock you.”

Rubica forgot her shaky hands while blankly staring at Lefena. However, the priestess’s eyes were serious.

“They were mercenaries. They find their place in relation to strength. How strong I am, how many people I give order to, who obeys me. And they have fallen to the bottom of the mercenaries’ world, losing a hand or a leg. They are finding their lost self-esteem when teasing you. ‘I can still mock and humiliate someone, so I am not at the bottom.'”

“… so you’re telling me to understand that and just suffer?”

“No.”

Lefena shook her head and held Rubica’s hands.

“That self-esteem is all false. Fake self-esteem. It will eventually blacken their real self-esteem and make it ill. You cannot understand that. It will only worsen the disease.”

“Then what should I do…”

“Beat and break the nose that has gone up to the sky with that fake self-esteem.”

“What?”

“I know, you would wonder why you should do such a thing. It will not be easy as you have a kind nature, but this is part of the procedure to heal the patients. Next time they tease you, lift up your middle finger and say you won’t take such old and ugly men.”

Rubica was surprised to hear such a thing come out from a priestess’ mouth.

“Will I be able to do it?”

“It is a necessary step in their treatment.”

Rubica was puzzled, but Lefena took her hands and spoke firmly.

… necessary step for the treatment.

Rubica nodded at that, and she found courage. When one of the patients said the word ‘comfort’ again, she raised her middle finger just as Lefena told her.

“I will never take an ugly and old man like you!”

Silence filled the room for a short second.

The patient who had kept teasing her looked awfully surprised. For a moment, Rubica feared that she might get accused for saying such a thing.

“Hahahahaha!”

“Ha! She got you, she got you!”

“Why did you say such a thing to her? You did go too far this time.”

“Well, you are very ugly and old indeed.”

To her surprise, the others spoke for Rubica and started to tease the patient who had been mocking her.

His face turned tomato red and grumbled, “Can’t I even tell a joke?”. From that day onward, he never teased Rubica ever again. When his wounds were all healed and was ready to leave the abbey, he called her in secret and even apologized to her.

That day, she learned a valuable lesson.

When she learned about the manners of a lady as a little girl, her books would teach her not to speak indecent things as it would only dishonor oneself. But in this case, saying curse words wasn’t dishonoring oneself. It was only speaking in a way the listener can easily understand.

There is no need to be sorry about speaking harshly and hurting his or her pride, or he will continue to live with a distorted pride and do the wrong things…

***

And now, Rubica decided to hit Edgar’s nose, the arrogant man who only knew himself and kept speaking without respecting her.

She opened her eyes.

They were about to arrive at the mansion soon. There was a need to make sure of everything before it was too late. She looked straight at him and spoke boldly.

“Then why do you keep talking down to me?”

Edgar’s long eyelashes flinched at this.

“What?”

“To have respect between a husband and a wife they must speak respectfully to each other. If you really care about my situation, I think it would be better to do that, Your Grace, instead of showing ourselves kissing in front of the others.”

Edgar couldn’t decide how to define the surprise he was feeling. Whether he would get to kiss her from time to time didn’t matter now.

However, he couldn’t think of anything to counter that accusation. Still, there was something he couldn’t let go without pointing it out.

“Can’t you please stop calling me Your Grace? I have my own name, Edgar.”

They were now married, after all. He didn’t like Rubica continuing to call him Your Grace.

“But Your Grace is not respecting me and is speaking to me as if I were your inferior. How could I dare to call you Edgar?”

This woman was really tough. Edgar pressed his temple at the sudden headache. Nevertheless, he couldn’t bring himself to speak ‘politely’ to Rubica. Just thinking about it gave him the goosebumps.

“I speak freely even to the crown prince.”

“What about the king?”

“…”

“Husband and wife must know how to respect each other.”

Rubica didn’t like this arrogant man treating her as his inferior. Even though it was only as a disguise, they were a married couple.

She had always disliked men who mistreated their wives. Even her uncle had been kind at least to his wife.

“… is talking in a certain way necessary to respect each other?”

Edgar wasn’t going to be convinced. Rubica looked at him and decided to punch this arrogant duke’s nose.

“Fine, Edgar. Then I will talk freely to you from now, too.”

“… what?”

Edgar couldn’t have been more surprised as only royals could talk freely to him.

Even the crown prince couldn’t speak freely to him. The king did bother Edgar, nagging him to make inventions that would make his kingdom even wealthier. But at the same time, he worried that he might offend Edgar and get an empty report in return.

He had always been superior to everyone for all his life. No one was equal to him. No, there had been a few, but they were long gone now.

“Husband and wife are equals. And you just said it yourself, a certain way of talking isn’t important to respect each other!”

Edgar could feel pain in the back of his head. It felt like needles were stabbing his head. He had never encountered any difficult problem. However, this time he had no choice but to admit he was facing the most difficult problem he would ever face.

No matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t think of anything to say to refute.

Shit, she was using what he had just said.