"Why did you accept that duel?"
"I just couldn't stand the way Derrick was talking-"
"He was obviously provoking you. Didn't you see that?"
"Yes, I noticed, but-"
"Now His Excellency the Earl knows about it too. How do you think we're going to resolve this?"
"I'm sorry-"
"Ah, forget it. I failed to keep an eye on you, so I'm partly to blame."
"No, it was just me-wait, weren't you the one who ended up dueling him?"
Halfway through his sentence, Roselle suddenly realized something was wrong. He changed tack and began arguing back, staring intently at Charlotte.
She stopped lecturing him like a parent and guiltily looked away.
Indeed, there had been no need for her to step in and join the duel. All she had needed to do was wait a little. Matilda, who could no longer bear to watch from the sidelines, would have found Earl Foulis and asked the castle's owner to mediate.
Then Derrick, who had deliberately provoked other guests while drunk and even treated the young lady of the Sauron Family as a prize for the duel, would certainly have been reprimanded. The duel Roselle had initiated would have fizzled out, and Charlotte's participation as a woman would never
have happened at all.
Of course, unlike the Loen Kingdom and the Feysac Empire, the Intis Kingdom had no law against women initiating or accepting duels. Supposedly, two noblewomen in Trier had once dueled with flintlock firearms over the same lover. Both had been wounded by the other, leaving scars they could not conceal, and their lover had abandoned them both. For a time, they had become the most popular topic at salons and gatherings.
Even so, women taking up weapons to duel were still exceedingly rare. At least, nothing of the sort had