Chapter 89
Of course, the knights didn’t volunteer to be the Grand Duke’s love advisors from the start.
After all…
The client was none other than the Grand Duke himself.
Setting aside the issue of it being a perilous consultation where the consultant might have their neck snapped at any moment. To begin with, the Grand Duke and love advice – were these even words that could be placed side by side?
All the people of Reinke revered Grand Duke Dietrich Reinke. The knights, in particular, having directly experienced the Grand Duke’s overwhelming, almost inhuman strength, tended to be more extreme in this regard.
So for that terrifying and magnificent Your Grace to seek advice from someone. And for it to be love advice of all things.
From the knights’ perspective, it would have sounded more plausible if a dragon had asked for tips because it was practicing backflips and having trouble.
So when Joachim brought up that he had been called upon because the Grand Duke had requested love advice, and that he was having problems due to his lack of knowledge and asked if they could help a little.
The knights’ first reaction was to doubt their hearing. The next was to doubt Joachim’s mental state, thinking he might be stressed from being repeatedly summoned by the Grand Duke.
But…
‘If the proposal fails because of me… I won’t be able to face Ruan for the rest of my life…’
Seeing Joachim on the verge of tears with a serious face was pitiful, and since they all shared the concern for Ruan who was head over heels for the Grand Duke, they had followed along, but…
“So, you’re saying you’re proficient in human courtship.”
The knights watched with trembling eyes as the Grand Duke spoke with the same face he had when ripping off an ogre’s head with his bare hands.
“Then tell me. At what point exactly should one give a ring?”
Why is this real?
Faced with the Grand Duke asking about the timing of giving jewelry, rather than the scale of southward-moving monsters or the status of monster village management, the knights were confused.
They were so confused that they wondered if there was some meaning to giving a ring that they didn’t know about.
However, they didn’t have the luxury of remaining confused for long. They couldn’t keep the Grand Duke waiting as he stared at them with eyes as sharp as before tearing apart a troll.
The Grand Duke disliked many things, and one of them was wasting time. If they didn’t want to end up like a troll, they had to immediately provide the answer the Grand Duke wanted.
So even though he still didn’t fully understand the situation, Benno’s mouth reflexively produced an answer.
“Actually, there… isn’t a set time. It’s more about the atmosphere…”
Even as he habitually answered, Benno’s eyes were wavering, unable to find their bearings.
Is this right? Is it really okay to say this? What if the Grand Duke was actually talking about some ring-shaped new weapon made by dwarves, and he was just spouting nonsense?
Having all sorts of thoughts as he finished speaking, Benno unconsciously swallowed dry saliva. The other knights, whose eyes had been trembling beside him as Benno answered, did the same.
The Grand Duke looked at Benno with piercing eyes after hearing the answer.
As the silence continued, just as Benno was thinking that maybe it really was about a new weapon and he had just spouted nonsense in front of the Grand Duke…
“The atmosphere.”
The Grand Duke, sitting in his chair, leaned his upper body slightly towards the knights.
“Explain in detail.”
Was the answer not… wrong? Still uncertain, but following the Grand Duke’s order, Benno continued his answer.
“Well… Ah, when there’s an atmosphere where you’re sure they’ll definitely accept…”
His voice was still uncertain, but it was a slightly longer answer than before.
The Grand Duke, listening to this with a strict, solemn, and serious face, asked again as soon as Benno finished speaking.
“How do you know that?”
After a few such exchanges, a thought began to creep into the knights’ minds.
‘This is kind of…’
Really like love advice?
Come to think of it, the Grand Duke did mention ‘courtship’ earlier…
To think that the Grand Duke would seek love advice. Honestly, it still didn’t feel real at all.
But the Grand Duke was listening attentively to all the answers they were giving, unsure if they were correct. And when he had doubts, he diligently asked for clarification.
Unlike their usual conversations where the Grand Duke would give orders and the knights would obey, or the knights would report and the Grand Duke would make judgments. There was definitely a dialogue happening between the Grand Duke and the knights under the topic of love.
Mostly, the Grand Duke would ask questions that a young man inexperienced in love and just starting his first relationship might ask, and Benno would answer. It really could be called love advice, couldn’t it?
To use expressions like ‘a young man just starting his first relationship’ for the Grand Duke. It seems like an ill-fitting, extremely disrespectful, and outlandish comparison, but…?
‘Wait a minute?’
At this point, the knights realized something they had never acknowledged before.
The Grand Duke is… indeed a young man in his first relationship… right?
They had never realized it because the Grand Duke had always been ‘His Grace the Grand Duke’ and nothing else…
The Grand Duke before them was truly a young man in his first relationship.
Once they recognized this fact, the Grand Duke’s questions, which they had been too busy answering quickly to properly interpret, flashed through the knights’ minds again.
‘Is that how he would understand it as courtship?’
‘Is there no room for misunderstanding?’
‘Will he really understand?’
Come to think of it, weren’t those questions, uttered with a strict, solemn, and serious face, all likely to stem from concerns about whether his affection would properly reach his lover?
They seemed to be questions born from anxiety about making mistakes and misaligning with his lover, didn’t they?
Which means…
‘Did Your Grace also truly love Ruan seriously?’
The knights knew that Ruan loved the Grand Duke very much. There was that grand public confession incident, but honestly, just looking at how Ruan treated the Grand Duke, it was impossible not to know.
Ruan looked at the Grand Duke with eyes that gazed upon someone truly lovable, truly precious. With eyes so soft and warm that it was hard to believe they were directed at His Grace the Grand Duke.
Ruan could easily find the Grand Duke anywhere, anytime. Just as a path naturally forms when you keep going back and forth to the same place, Ruan’s gaze always naturally turned to the Grand Duke.
Ruan always slipped into the Grand Duke’s personal space without hesitation. He would suddenly close the distance to a level that made others think, “Huh? Aren’t they too close?” but he didn’t seem to be properly aware of it himself.
Ruan worried about the Grand Duke, whom no one else dared to worry about, and wanted to be helpful to him.
Seeing this, it wasn’t easy to miss Ruan’s feelings.
In contrast, the Grand Duke remained his usual strict, solemn, and serious self even in front of Ruan. That’s why the knights had never felt that the Grand Duke loved Ruan tremendously. They knew he liked Ruan because he often showed physical affection, but that was it.
But in fact, even the Grand Duke… Did this incredible person love Ruan so much that he worried about not properly conveying his feelings, became anxious to the point of having to ask the knights?
The strong Dietrich Reinke, showing such an awkward side, so sincerely.
At that moment, the hearts of these sensitive and meddlesome Northern men were touched.
The knights’ gazes all turned to the Grand Duke at once.
The Grand Duke was still scary. His eyes were still sharp, his aura was cold, and his expression was still intimidating. The knights still knew how violent and how strong the Grand Duke was. If the capricious Grand Duke were to draw his sword and swing it right now, all the knights present would perish without even being able to block a single strike.
Dietrich Reinke was still the great and terrifying lord that the knights could not approach.
But somehow, right now, the knights felt that the Grand Duke was a little… less distant.
The question-and-answer session continued in this strange mood they had never expected to feel.
As the conversation continued, knights other than Benno also started to offer answers. The answers gradually became longer and more passionate.
In this way, the knights had the longest and most personal conversation they had ever had since they began serving the Grand Duke. It could truly be called a ‘conversation’ without seeming strange.
Finally, as the conversation was nearing its end, the knights had become… quite invested in the Grand Duke’s proposal.
* * *
Ruan was lost in thought.
What on earth… had happened?
