Chapter 42
“Let’s trim your claws.”
Under normal circumstances, this would have been a suggestion the Northern Grand Duke would have flatly refused without a second thought.
However…
The bandaged hand of his assistant was moving back and forth before the Grand Duke’s eyes. The assistant’s family member had discovered the wound and wrapped it up while exclaiming in shock.
‘Oh no, our youngest… How did our youngest’s hand end up like a rag…’
‘Did you fight with some beast? I told you not to do such things…’
‘If you get seriously hurt again… *sob*…’
The Grand Duke’s whiskers twitched as he recalled the young knight cursing the “beast” that had mangled the “precious youngest’s” hand.
And then, as the assistant noticed the Grand Duke following his hand with his gaze, he whispered:
“If we trim your claws… wouldn’t it hurt less even if you accidentally scratch something?”
After that, the assistant continued talking about how trimming the claws would prevent them from getting caught on things, and how it would prevent the Grand Duke from hurting himself, but the Grand Duke wasn’t really listening anymore.
The Grand Duke looked down at his front paws, where sharp claws were neatly hidden. He had a duty to protect his assistant, who was a member of his group. And it wasn’t just external threats that could harm the assistant. The Grand Duke himself could become a threat to that fragile one. Whether intentional or not, the Grand Duke realized this through this incident.
The assistant was so delicate that even a slight misstep of the Grand Duke’s paw could make him bleed.
So…
‘If I want to keep him by my side…’
As a responsible leader who cared for his group, the Grand Duke made a decision.
With a solemn attitude, the Grand Duke raised his front paw. And then.
Plop.
The Grand Duke’s fluffy front paw was extended onto the blanket where the assistant was sitting.
Seeing this, the assistant’s face was overcome with emotion.
“Your Grace!”
What followed happened in rapid succession.
As soon as the Grand Duke agreed, the assistant appeared with a small pair of scissors—like the brush that always seemed to have a new replacement no matter how many times the Grand Duke broke it—and sat the Grand Duke in his lap, immediately grasping one of the Grand Duke’s front paws.
The Grand Duke braced himself for what was to come, staring at his paw in the assistant’s hand… but contrary to his expectations, the assistant didn’t knead his paw excessively.
Instead, the assistant moved incredibly fast.
Holding the Grand Duke’s paw, the assistant immediately pressed firmly between the toes. This caused the tendon pulling the claw to stretch, and the claw that had been tucked inside came out.
The sensation of having his claws forcibly extended by someone else’s hand was extremely unpleasant.
He wanted nothing more than to shake off the unpleasant feeling and vigorously shake his front paw.
But when he saw the assistant’s hand holding his paw, and thought of the bandage wrapped around that pale hand and the wound underneath it…
The Grand Duke could only let out a deep sigh to dispel his discomfort and relax his body.
Taking advantage of the generous Grand Duke’s patience, the assistant quickly brought the prepared blade to the Grand Duke’s claw.
The Grand Duke watched intently as the blade approached his paw and finally touched his claw.
At the moment when the Grand Duke’s pupils contracted with tension, the assistant began to move his mouth as quickly as his hands.
“You’re so good. There’s no cat in the world as angelic as you.”
And taking advantage of the Grand Duke’s confusion from this stream of nonsense…
Snip. Snip. Snip.
He cut the claws.
“You’re really, really pretty. So let’s trim just one more.”
Snip. Snip.
Skillfully trimming just the pointy parts without touching the blood vessels and nerves.
…But didn’t he just say “just one more” and then cut two?
“This is really the last one. I’ll trim just one more.”
Snip.
…Didn’t he say it was the last one earlier too?
“Wow. Really. This is truly the last one. You’ve done so well.”
Snip.
Wasn’t it supposed to be the last one?
Snip. Snip. Snip.
Wait, this bastard…
Just as the Grand Duke was about to express his anger at the assistant’s brazen attempt to deceive him…
“You’ve done well. Since it’s the first time, we’ll be satisfied with just the front paws today.”
The assistant put the Grand Duke down and calmly left his seat.
And shortly after, he returned and quickly placed a piece of jerky in the mouth of the Grand Duke, who was still burning with unexpressed anger.
“Your Grace, would you like some jerky?”
…And so, a few days ago, the Grand Duke had only chewed on jerky, caught between misdirected anger and a strange sense of loss.
While the Grand Duke was looking at his hand with mixed feelings, the task of dealing with the orc corpses was completed.
The Grand Duke led the knights and soldiers towards the inner castle.
After dismissing his subordinates, changing clothes, and heading to his office…
“Welcome back, Your Grace.”
The assistant, who had been working, jumped up from his seat to greet him.
The Grand Duke knew that the assistant’s busy gaze was to check if there were any injuries.
Even though he had only gone to hunt a few orcs, the assistant acted this way.
As if the Grand Duke needed to first check if anything had happened to his assistant during his absence whenever he went out, even for a moment.
The Grand Duke approached the assistant abruptly to smell him. The assistant, used to this behavior, silently offered the area around his neck to the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke’s gaze suddenly stopped on the white, thin, and soft neck that was quietly extended.
The assistant had recently bled because of the Grand Duke.
Nevertheless, his attitude of carelessly offering his vital point to a predator who had just injured him and had broken necks six times thicker and a hundred times stronger than this remained unchanged.
The Grand Duke’s yellow irises contracted and then relaxed again at this docile trust.
Yes. For this, perhaps it was worth giving up his claws.
Thinking this, the Grand Duke lowered his large upper body and buried his nose in the assistant’s white neck.
He felt his tense nerves relaxing neatly, like fur that had been groomed along the grain, at the familiar scent.
* * *
‘Really… he’s so good, isn’t he?’
Ruan thought as he glanced at the Grand Duke, who had suddenly started purring after burying his nose near Ruan’s collarbone.
Honestly, he didn’t expect to be able to trim all ten claws on the first attempt.
He thought he’d be grateful if he could trim even one, and had only planned to get the Grand Duke accustomed to the act of claw trimming. But thanks to the Grand Duke submitting more readily than expected, he was able to clear all the claws on the front paws in one go.
He thought he might be able to trim the back paw claws soon if he found the right opportunity.
‘When I first saw him, he used to glare at me all day like he was going to eat me, but to think he’d become this docile…’
Ruan fell into a strange sentiment, feeling as if he had seen a stray cat that used to bristle at the sight of people turn into a house cat sprawled out demanding food.
Of course, this cat had a large territory from the beginning, so he was originally a house cat. And Ruan was in the position of renting a room in that house, but still.
Anyway, while the Grand Duke was sniffing for a long time…
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The sound of someone knocking on the door was heard. Very softly.
‘That barely audible knock, as if the person would quickly turn back saying “Oh, you’re not here!” if the other person didn’t hear it…’
While Ruan was recalling a specific person just from the sound of the knock, a voice as timid as the knock was heard. It was exactly the voice of the person Ruan had thought of.
“Your Grace. It’s farmer Yount Bauer. I’ve come to inquire about the new crops.”
It seemed he had heard that the Grand Duke had returned to his office.
‘Or maybe he came before the Grand Duke returned to the office and went back, trying to delay meeting the Grand Duke even a little…’
The Grand Duke, who had his nose to Ruan’s neck, said:
“Come in.”
At the Grand Duke’s response, the office door opened timidly, and Yount, with his thick shoulders hunched, entered.
‘That man… he’s big, but he always becomes so timid in front of the Grand Duke. Though that’s generally true for people from Reinke.’
After carefully closing the door, Yount shuffled into the office. As he did so, he began to gauge the Grand Duke’s mood.
‘Ah.’
Ruan only then realized that the Grand Duke was still clinging to him.
‘I forgot because it felt so natural.’
After Ruan detached the Grand Duke and sat him in front of the desk, creating the ‘Northern Grand Duke ready to hear a report’, Yount finally opened his mouth.
“Among the crops we’ve introduced this time, there is one that’s growing really well, but…”
What came out of his mouth was good news about progress in crop research, which hadn’t been very successful until now.
However, Yount’s expression was not befitting someone delivering good news; it was gloomy.
Ruan watched with puzzlement as Yount hesitated to continue after starting, mumbling and fumbling for words.
After a long moment of hesitation, Yount closed his eyes tightly and said in a trembling voice:
“Well… there’s… a bit of a problem…”
‘A problem?’
Yount’s voice continued, pitifully trembling but persistent.
“It’s said to be definitely used as a food ingredient in the distant land of Theanus. And because it’s strong against cold and grows well even in the most barren land, we thought it might grow in Reinke too. So we tried growing it, and it really does grow well, but…”
