I Reincarnated As the Third Son of a Count’s Family, Only To Find a Series of Funerals

23 – Selenor

For the moment, the teaching of Changseong, following the teachings of Esther, is basically based on a monogamous principle.

However, just like the phrase ‘basically’ includes the meaning of ‘there are exceptions,’ there are countries that believe in the Church of Change while maintaining polygamy.

One of them is Yurmania.

The region of Yurmania has maintained polygamy since ancient times, and it has become a tradition that has continued until now.

In fact, the Church of Change tried to eradicate this ‘heretical’ tradition by all means from the Papal See, but the leaders of Yurmania were not afraid of the consequences and resisted stubbornly, refusing to change this particular tradition.

It feels similar to the medieval ‘trial by combat’ that was a tradition of the Germanic tribes unrelated to Christianity. By the way, even in this world, there is trial by combat, and the Papal See of the Church of Change is struggling because of incidents and accidents related to it.

The Church of Change did not remain idle for hundreds of years, but through Yurmania’s clergy, they criticized polygamy and successfully persuaded some fervent nobles to convert to monogamy.

But in the process, the opposite effect occurred. The common people and lower-ranking nobles of Yurmania saw that only the high-ranking individuals maintained polygamy, and polygamy became a symbol of power.

As the forbidden heretical custom became a symbol of power, people started to develop fantasies and longings for polygamy. That’s why even now, it is commonly said, “If you become a man, you should have at least three women.” The desire for polygamy has grown to the point that it has become a proverbial saying.

In such a situation, kings and high-ranking nobles, including the king, started to take pride in flaunting their power, even to the extent of acquiring more wives. At the most extreme, there was a king who married twenty women. In another sense, it’s truly impressive…

The Pope of the Church of Change probably felt extremely frustrated when he saw this situation.

Well, actually, that story is quite old. Nowadays, things have somewhat calmed down, and the king is marrying a reasonable number of about three wives. Some dukes have even converted to monogamy completely. Our great-grandfather is one such example of converting to monogamy. It’s not that the clergy listen to him for no reason, right?

Thud!

“Viscount!”

“Ugh!”

“I told you not to get lost in your thoughts and pay attention!”

Nirsera aims a sharp glare at me.

The reason that crazy violent girl is nagging at me again is that I was learning and practicing courtly etiquette in the palace.

I was studying how to behave when meeting the king’s children in the palace. Our King Richard has four sons and one daughter among his wives (excluding the exiled Olivia), but the daughter, Selenor, is the only one he had with his second wife. Therefore, King Richard cherishes her greatly, and I must be prepared because if I make a mistake with Selenor, it could be the end of me.

However, instead of being prepared, I was being taught how to seduce women by Nirsera.

“If the princess happens to develop romantic feelings for you, as she is only 14 years old now, she might have fantasies about a gallant knight like you. Viscount, you are quite famous in the kingdom as a ‘true knight’ these days, so there is more than enough possibility. To fit the princess’s likes and dislikes, you should learn things like this as well. By the way, based on my personal experience, bluntly rejecting her is not a good choice.”

…That’s what Nirsera was saying.

Though the words ‘as if that would happen’ almost popped out of my mouth, I remained silent, allowing myself to be educated, thinking ‘just in case.’ But the seduction techniques of this era’s ‘nobility’ are a lot more… well, a lot more…

It was absurd.

‘I am captivated by your deer-like, innocent eyes. My heart feels like it will burst from the passionate kiss on your apple-red cheeks…’

Ugh.

If I had posted that kind of passage on an internet community in my past life, it would have been treated as cringeworthy writing. The comments would be like, ‘What kind of templun is this?’…

But now, I have to speak that kind of romantic ballad-like passage in front of a girl? It would be much better to say boldly, ‘Your milk cartons are lovely to me.’

So, dazed and lost in thought for a moment, it seems that Nirsera caught me in that state.

“When you come out like this, what are you planning to do at the palace after this? There’s less than 5 days left for you to focus on your studies.”

“No, why are you getting upset over a moment of distraction? And I’m listening to everything even while I’m distracted.”

“Huh, then do you remember what I taught you? Then would you like to try it as I taught you?”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean try to seduce me. If you can make me dance with the Viscount, I’ll consider it a success.”

“Excuse me?”

“Just try it.”

Nerseara’s surprising voice startled me. I’m used to it by now, why does it happen every time.

Ugh… what did she say? Praise my unwavering faith? Or the book I read? Stories of famous places? Or praise my outstanding appearance?

Ah, I don’t know.

I approached Nerseara with a determined expression.

Nerseara seemed slightly flustered as I approached her. Wasn’t she going to perform exactly like a performance and sing a ballad from a step away? How do I act that out?

The most important thing in this lesson is ‘successfully conveying my feelings to the other person.’

Whether it’s singing a ballad or dancing, doing a somersault, it doesn’t matter. As long as I can convey my feelings well.

So I’ll do it my way.

“Nerseara.”

“Eh, yes?!”

“Thank you.”

“What?”

I know you’re always working hard for me. And you made all the textbooks yourself, right?”

“Uh, how did you know…”

Yeah, she’s probably upset that I’ve caught on. Well, she’s trying to teach me well.

There were no typewriters or ballpoint pens at that time. All the books of this era were handmade. The textbooks used to teach me were all written by Nerseara. Herself, in solitary confinement, made all of them. How couldn’t I know what was happening in the castle?

It’s not easy to create that many books in neat handwriting with just a quill pen in that era. Have you ever held a quill pen? It hurts your hands after writing 10 characters. And that’s for a book.

On top of that, since she couldn’t make textbooks all day long, most of the textbooks were made after the class was over in the evening, and if something was delayed for one reason or another, she worked until dawn.

Dependent on the faint light of the candle, it’s unimaginably difficult to write something, especially when there were no fluorescent lights, let alone lamps. Your eyes must have gotten really bad.

And it’s not that she only has a passion for teaching me, she also praises me for studying hard. It’s my fault for only talking about how I’ve been beating up all along, but if Nerseara was really a corrupt person, I would have already been beaten up by her. In terms of my level of knowledge, if I were to compare it to the previous life, it would be like studying for 50 days before the SAT with only a month left, and it’s the teacher of mathematics in this position, would they go crazy or not?

Seeing her trying so hard to teach me and only getting so little in return, I’m not sure about the other teachers, but I think she’s probably in the top 0.1% of teachers in this era.

She’s annoying, but I respect that. So I felt no resistance to expressing my gratitude to Nerseara.

So I took Nerseara’s hands with both of mine and said.

“Thank you for trying your best to teach me, even though there may have been frustrating moments.”

“Oh, no… That’s just natural as a teacher…”

“No, it’s not. I know very well that it’s not possible without effort and patience.”

“…”

“Nirsera, I have something to confess.”

“What?!”

“I… I fell in love with you when I saw how hard you always strive for my sake.”

“What?!”

I panicked and looked at the stiff Nirsera, her face turning red.

“I’m done for!”

If we stop here, we’ll both be in an awkward situation. Determined, I decided to take a more proactive approach. With one hand, I gently brushed aside Nirsera’s bangs, and as I moved closer, I looked into her eyes as if I were about to kiss her.

Nirsera let out a gasp and trembled slightly at my actions. Her face, which was already red, seemed like it was about to burst.

Not missing a beat, I delivered my line.

“You’re beautiful. Like a jewel.”

“!!!!”

Nirsera froze in place, as if her brain had overloaded. I extended my right hand towards her and said,

“May I have the honor of dancing with you, miss?”

Upon hearing my words, Nirsera bowed her head deeply and grabbed the hand I offered with both of hers.

“Yehe…”

She whispered.

“That’s it!!!!!!”

As soon as Nirsera declared her surrender, I jumped up and down in joy right there.

Damn, I thought I was going to be rejected. I felt so relieved that I thought I was going to throw up. It’s better to quickly erase this memory. Otherwise, I’ll think about it every time I sleep, and it will be annoying as hell.

With a triumphant air, I proudly said to the bewildered Nirsera,

“How about that, Teacher? Isn’t this enough to pass? I think I did even better than what you taught me…”

“…”

“…Teacher?”

Nirsera bowed her head deeply and didn’t give me any response. Why? Wasn’t this all just acting? Please, don’t believe only the staff members…!

I trembled in fear, shivering like a scared squid. But a moment later, Nirsera raised her head and glared at me.

However, contrary to my expectations of her exploding in anger or hitting me with staff, Nirsera just had tears pooling in her eyes as she frowned and

I became even more uneasy at such a reaction and absentmindedly scratched the back of my head before apologizing to Nirsela.

“I’m not sure what it is, but I’m sorry for now…”

“…”

After hearing my apology, Nirsela sighed briefly and gathered her thoughts before speaking.

“Don’t do that to other girls.”

“What?”

“Ah, just don’t do it! And it’s completely different from the way I taught you! So, you weren’t paying attention during the lesson!”

Enveloped in anger, Nirsela swung her staff at me and rushed towards me!

“Ah! Put the staff away! Teacher, please!”

Whack!

Today, as usual, it was a peaceful(?) class.

**

In a lavishly decorated room within the Yurmania Royal Palace.

A girl played with small wooden figurine dolls of a knight and a princess on horseback.

“Heung, heuheung~♪”

Selénor, who had just turned fourteen, was exactly as Nirsela predicted—a girl deeply immersed in stories about brave and righteous knights from fairy tales.

But now, a young and handsome knight named Edrik, perfectly fitting the “knight fantasy” of the princess, was visiting the palace. Selénor couldn’t contain her excitement and wanted to see him as soon as possible.

“He’s only one year older than me, yet he protects his family and people from savages… How amazing he must be…”

While giggling with joy and playing with the two dolls, an older woman entered the girl’s room.

Upon seeing the woman, Selénor was taken aback and shrank back.

The woman chuckled at Selénor and threw the two dolls from the desk.

Thud! They rolled and hit the wall, falling helplessly.

“Oh…”

“Princess, are you done playing after completing the tasks I assigned?”

The woman, irritably grabbing a stack of papers from the desk, looked at the blank sheets and shouted angrily at Selénor.

“Didn’t I tell you to finish this before lunch?”

“I’m sorry…”

“If you continue like this, you’ll tarnish His Majesty’s name. How many times do I have to tell you to come to your senses?!”

Snap!

The woman vigorously struck Celenor’s head with tightly rolled parchment. If anyone from the rural area had witnessed it, they would have been astonished, exclaiming, “How dare you treat the king’s daughter like that?!” However, no one showed concern for Celenor or reprimanded the woman.

Celenor herself only casually brushed off her bruised head with both hands.

“As I mentioned before, Princess, you must be punished for breaking your promise.”

“Just this once, please…”

“No, lift your calf!”

In response to the enraged words of the woman, Celenor reluctantly lifted her skirt and exposed her calf.

Then, the woman took a small whip and mercilessly lashed Celenor’s calf.

Crack! Smack! Crack!

“Ouch! Ahh! Ugh!”

After dozens of lashes, the woman seemed satisfied as she gasped in exhilaration and spoke to the fallen Celenor.

“Remember, if you continue to disregard what I say, you will suffer even more than now!”

“Uh, okay…”

Overhearing the woman’s displeased cry, Celenor rose and took her seat again, surprised to feel something moist in her eyes.

“I thought tears had already dried up…”

As the woman opened her eyes and observed, Celenor, who was sitting, pulled out parchment to write as she pondered, intending to catch up on her delayed assignments.

“When will my knight arrive?”

To put an end to this hellish life.

The girl fervently prayed.