Chapter 59
If it were a problem that could be easily solved by pondering, it wouldn’t have dragged on like this in the first place.
The more he contemplated, the further he seemed from an answer, and the more unsettled he became.
The Grand Duke’s brain, with its structure sensitive to danger, presented him with increasingly specific and threatening scenarios the more he turned thoughts over in his mind.
For instance…
An aide who carries the scent of that son of a bitch instead of the pack scent created by mixing with the Grand Duke’s smell.
An aide who puts homemade jerky into that son of a bitch’s mouth.
An aide who falls asleep with his body pressed against that son of a bitch.
And eventually, an aide who decides to live as part of that son of a bitch’s pack and follows him…
‘This won’t do.’
The Grand Duke, who was about to take his usual short morning nap, had no choice but to abruptly get up due to his anxiety.
Although he still didn’t know what exactly to do about that guy, he felt he needed to at least have him in sight. The Grand Duke left his office and began searching for his aide.
After narrowing down the places where the aide was likely to be, he wandered around focusing on his sense of smell and hearing.
Before long, the Grand Duke spotted his aide walking down a corridor.
Unlike the scenes that had been cluttering his mind all day, the aide was alone. Unusually, he was walking quickly, contrary to his usual leisurely pace, but that was all.
With eyes strangely unfocused as if deep in thought, he was the Grand Duke’s aide, no different from usual.
Even after confirming this, the Grand Duke still couldn’t feel at ease and was persistently looking for signs of crisis when.
The aide, who always noticed others’ approach much later than the Grand Duke due to his dull senses, realized that the Grand Duke was approaching.
“Your Grace?”
Because the piercing gaze had been continuously focused on the aide.
The moment the aide recognized him, warmth and light settled in his eyes that had been deeply submerged like a lake that was merely green without any observers.
All his senses, which had been vaguely relaxed, became sharply focused on the Grand Duke like a cat’s whiskers.
And even his toes turned towards the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke couldn’t help but capture all of this.
Discovering someone, gazing at them, approaching them.
These were really very ordinary, everyday actions.
Yet, why did the anxiety that had been scratching at the back of his throat ease somewhat just from watching these unremarkable actions?
“Your Grace. What brings you here?”
Instead of answering, the Grand Duke looked into the blue eyes gazing up at him.
Despite scrutinizing carefully to detect danger, all the Grand Duke could understand was that his heart melted gently just from seeing his aide coming towards him.
Obtaining peace of mind always required effort. To be able to relax, one had to move around and confirm with one’s own eyes, nose, and ears, and exclude dangers to a satisfactory degree. Only after expending such effort could one achieve tranquility.
But the aide was different. The aide always gave him peace so easily like this.
As if the aide himself was his peace.
The Grand Duke suddenly realized that there would never be another being like this in his life, and therefore, if the aide disappeared, his life would become absolutely incomplete.
Indeed.
‘I can’t lose this guy, nor can I let him get hurt.’
The Grand Duke leaned towards the aide. He intended to rub his cheek against the aide’s to mark him with his scent.
And…
That’s when something the Grand Duke hadn’t expected happened.
The aide fled from the Grand Duke.
With a violent movement, like a herbivore that had spotted a predator targeting it.
At that moment, the Grand Duke.
Realized that he had almost snatched at the aide who was avoiding him.
Not moderating his strength as he usually did when dealing with the aide, but with all his might, as if taking the life of prey.
Yes, in the manner of dealing with prey.
Shocked, the Grand Duke unconsciously stepped back.
If he hadn’t belatedly realized his action and stopped, the aide would have…
Startled by the terrible hypothesis, the Grand Duke examined the aide’s body, even though he knew he couldn’t have been hurt as he had stopped before making contact.
The aide also seemed equally surprised, looking at the Grand Duke without knowing what to do.
“Your Grace, this is…”
The aide seemed about to say something, but the Grand Duke couldn’t pay attention to it. He just stared at the aide in front of him, his whole body stiff.
Until the aide’s family member appeared and took him away.
* * *
‘What should I do…’
Even as he hurriedly finished preparations and during the meeting, Ruan felt like he could see the weakened cat flickering before his eyes.
‘He really seemed shocked…’
Having avoided the already weakened cat so harshly and then leaving him like that. He felt more than uncomfortable; he was distressed.
Ruan, who had been fidgeting throughout, finally headed towards the Grand Duke’s office as soon as he had a break after the meeting ended.
When he finally opened the office door after moving his feet while thinking a myriad of thoughts.
“Your Grace! I’m here!”
The Grand Duke that entered Ruan’s sight was quietly sitting in front of his desk.
‘Oh my.’
At that sight, Ruan realized.
‘This… is really serious.’
It was now the time when sunlight entered the Grand Duke’s office very well.
With the sun shining well, even the decorations placed inside the office were touched by sunlight. Then, the sunlight reflected off the metal decorations created pieces of light on the floor and walls. These light fragments rippled together whenever the decorations swayed.
In other words, it was the perfect time for a cat to get distracted.
As a result, the Grand Duke usually poured tremendous concentration on the flickering light fragments around this time…
But now, the Grand Duke was ignoring even the light fragments he loved so much.
Moreover, even though Ruan had arrived, he was just sitting weakly without even approaching to smell him.
Ruan felt the seriousness of the situation seeing the Grand Duke not doing any of the behaviors he usually obsessed over.
It wasn’t just that something had happened; something really serious must have occurred.
Shocked, Ruan strode over, grasped the Grand Duke’s broad shoulders, and began to examine him carefully. Checking if there were any places he might have hurt without realizing, or if there were any areas that seemed problematic.
As he was feeling around, turning him this way and that, the Grand Duke, who had been swaying as Ruan grabbed and shook him, opened his mouth.
“What’s the matter?”
At the Grand Duke’s question, Ruan, who hadn’t found anything wrong with him until then, asked bluntly.
“Your Grace. Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
Then the Grand Duke, who had been looking at Ruan as if wondering why this guy was acting like this, answered.
“There’s nothing particularly wrong.”
Ruan’s shoulders relaxed slightly at the answer that nothing hurt. While it was a relief that he wasn’t in pain…
‘That doesn’t mean there’s no problem. Even his voice sounds different from usual.’
Ruan, with his hands still on the Grand Duke’s shoulders as he sat in the chair, asked in a serious voice.
“Then why do you seem so low on energy?”
“That’s…”
The Grand Duke, who was about to answer the solemn question, stared at Ruan for a moment.
Then, instead of giving a reason, he turned his gaze to the documents in front of him.
“It’s nothing.”
The Grand Duke seemed to want to end the conversation, but Ruan couldn’t leave this serious situation as it was. Ruan lowered his body to enter the Grand Duke’s field of vision and said,
“Your Grace. Is there something bothering you? If you tell me, I’ll take care of it.”
But despite Ruan’s active appeal, the Grand Duke just turned his head again.
“Didn’t I say it’s nothing?”
Becoming more worried at this continued expression of refusal, Ruan opened his mouth again.
“Your Grace, perhaps…”
And before he could finish speaking, the Grand Duke, who had been staring at his own hand where he had shifted his gaze, brought up an unexpected topic.
“My claws have grown long. Will you trim them?”
It was such an unexpected statement that it took Ruan a moment to understand what he had heard. After pondering for a moment about what the Grand Duke had said, Ruan.
“Pardon?”
Asked back without realizing it.
But the answer that came back, making his question seem pointless, remained the same.
“Claws. I’m asking if you’ll trim them. I shouldn’t hurt you, should I?”
Trim… his claws?
Did a cat just ask a human if they would trim its claws?
Even though he had come to a fantasy world, could such an absurd thing really happen?
Faced with a situation as bizarre as his workplace superior suddenly turning into a cat, Ruan was convinced.
‘Something really big must have happened.’
Of course, it was true that it was time to trim the claws, but Ruan had no intention of doing something stressful to a cat in such poor condition.
Ruan carefully expressed his opinion.
“The claws could be cut a bit later…”
To this, the Grand Duke, looking less solemn than usual due to his lack of energy, said firmly.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
‘A cat voluntarily wanting to trim its claws because it doesn’t want to hurt me.’
While it was very touching… given that it was an unexpected action from a cat that had been acting strangely since the night before, Ruan couldn’t help but feel conflicted as a human.
