Chapter 33
The Grand Duke looked down at his aide, who was standing beside him with a dumb expression.
Feeling the gaze, the aide turned to look up at the Grand Duke with bright blue eyes.
The Grand Duke knew this color. The large lake to the southwest of the Grand Duke’s territory was exactly that color.
Clear and transparent, reflecting all the way to depths unreachable by air-breathing animals, that lake would shine in the sunlight with a color just like those eyes.
A color the Grand Duke could see distinctly, even among the few colors humans spoke of that he couldn’t perceive.
In contrast…
The Grand Duke’s gaze moved from the blue eyes to the aide’s neatly tied long hair. The hair he had groomed meticulously many times appeared only gray to the Grand Duke’s eyes. That’s why the Grand Duke had always thought his hair was that color.
‘But… they say it’s red.’
This was something the Grand Duke had been completely unaware of.
It was only natural. The Grand Duke, whose eyes couldn’t perceive the color red, didn’t know what red looked like.
So this was entirely natural, and yet… the Grand Duke was feeling newly perplexed.
“Your Grace?”
Noticing the Grand Duke’s state, the aide called out in a small voice. It was the same gentle and calm voice he had always heard.
The Grand Duke looked at his aide, who spoke with a familiar voice, exuded a familiar scent, and had a familiar body temperature.
The one with whom the Grand Duke spent the longest time each day. The existence that made the Grand Duke’s life complete. A member of his group whom he thoroughly trusted and felt familiar enough to do so.
That’s who the aide was to the Grand Duke.
‘Yet there were things about him that I didn’t know.’
The aide’s relatives standing over there, the young administrator who often associated with the aide, even those dwarves he was seeing for the first time – they all knew an aspect of the aide that the Grand Duke had not known until now.
Moreover…
This aspect would remain unknown to the Grand Duke in the future as well.
Forever. No matter what the Grand Duke did.
The bewilderment this fact brought was unfamiliar and intense to the Grand Duke. The discomfort of being on edge continued until late, after all schedules had ended.
Having finished the schedule, the Grand Duke arrived at the aide’s bedroom, lost in lingering thoughts. He had even forgotten to change into his cat form as usual.
“Oh? Your Grace?”
The aide seemed momentarily puzzled by the Grand Duke’s appearance, but…
“You’ve worked really hard today. Weren’t the clothes very uncomfortable? I’ll start by removing the accessories first.”
Instead of questioning it, he began to remove the annoying accessories attached to the Grand Duke’s body. They had been irritating the Grand Duke all day.
The Grand Duke stared intently at the top of the aide’s head as he carefully removed the accessories with slightly clumsy hands, as if unaccustomed to it.
The aide, busily working with his hands, spoke up.
“The territory has been unsettled all day, unfamiliar dwarves coming and going, it’s been noisy. And these clothes are so cumbersome. You must be very tired, you’ve really worked hard.”
At the soothing, gentle voice, the Grand Duke narrowed his eyes.
Although he had called the dwarves out of necessity, it was still unpleasant to have unfamiliar creatures roaming his territory, and the Grand Duke had been on edge all day. On top of that, the noise everywhere and the more formal clothes than usual were cumbersome and uncomfortable, doubling his fatigue.
Today had been quite a tiring day for the Grand Duke.
Just as the aide had said.
The aide always seemed to uncannily perceive the Grand Duke’s state like this.
Keeping his focus on the accessories, the aide continued speaking.
“Looking at documents, receiving guests like this. It must all be uncomfortable for you. Your Grace, you are truly a good lord.”
This time, it was an unexpected statement.
The Grand Duke, who was quietly offering his chest to the aide carefully removing the accessories, spoke.
“Isn’t that unavoidable to protect one’s territory?”
The Grand Duke vividly remembered the time when he had lost his territory.
Cats evolved to easily feel anxiety about everything for survival. Always keeping their senses sharply alert, judging what is dangerous and what is not, eliminating threats. Putting all their effort into securing a space where they can feel stable without needing to be on guard. That’s a cat’s life.
Therefore, to a cat, territory is not just a simple space. A cat’s territory is a place that is patrolled daily, thoroughly understood, with danger elements eliminated so that one can finally feel at ease. It’s a carefully built, anxiety-free daily life, and a joy that can be fully enjoyed without being on edge.
And losing such a territory meant the loss of all of that.
When the peace built up over a lifetime collapsed, and all the familiarity that made up life was stripped away. When he was thrown into a place where everything around him was a threat, unable to let down his guard for even a moment.
Going through that terrible time, the Grand Duke came to realize.
That the Grand Duke’s territory, in other words, the Grand Duke’s sense of stability and peace, was a very precarious thing.
It wasn’t just the monsters beyond the castle walls that could bring down his territory. Dealing with monsters trying to cross the walls with overwhelming force wasn’t enough to fully protect the territory.
To avoid losing the territory, the lives of the humans belonging to the territory also had to be secured. Only when they lived stable lives like the Grand Duke could the territory be maintained in the state the Grand Duke desired. They too were components that made up the territory.
But this was not an easy task.
After great efforts, he had succeeded in reclaiming the territory, but both the reclaimed territory and the lives of the humans who were to live there were in a terribly collapsed state. If left as it was, the humans he had managed to save would die off, and the territory would collapse again.
The Grand Duke rebuilt the fallen castle walls and restored the houses trampled by monsters.
He brought in food to feed the starving humans and searched for crops that could take root and bear fruit even in this barren and cold land.
He trained the humans so they wouldn’t die easily and devised ways to help more of them survive.
While a suitable blade or his own fangs and claws were enough to cut off a monster’s breath, taking care of human lives was different. It involved mountains of paperwork and all sorts of annoying tasks. Mostly things that were not suitable for the Grand Duke.
This was certainly not an easy task, but…
“The humans within the territory are also part of my territory. If they collapse, inevitably my territory will collapse as well. Just as if my territory collapses, their lives will also collapse. So how could I not put effort into feeding them, ensuring their survival, and helping them live stable lives? That is what it means to protect my territory.”
Cats never forget a danger they’ve experienced once. The Grand Duke, who had already experienced losing his territory once, had no intention of going through the same danger twice.
The Grand Duke looked down at the blue eyes gazing up at him and said,
“I have no intention of ever losing my territory again.”
At these words that sounded like a declaration, a faint ripple appeared in the eyes that seemed as deep as a lake. As the Grand Duke followed this indescribable ripple with his eyes…
“Protecting the territory is that important to Your Grace.”
The white eye-lines surrounding them curved slightly. At a relaxed angle, like a cat’s whiskers while napping in a sunny window.
The Grand Duke’s gaze rolled along those eye-lines like sunlight rolling over a cat’s whiskers, then returned to the blue eyes, which were still directed at the Grand Duke.
With curved eye-lines, the aide said,
“Then I too will do my best to protect Your Grace’s territory.”
“You will?”
When the Grand Duke asked again, the aide opened his curved lips and spoke. In a voice as resolute as the Grand Duke’s.
“Yes. Because it’s important to Your Grace.”
Because it was important to the Grand Duke.
Come to think of it, the aide had always been like this.
Despite never having been a cat himself. Despite being a human who couldn’t fully understand how a cat feels and perceives things.
He always tried to know what the cat Grand Duke wanted and desired to want the same things. He pondered ways to live better with the Grand Duke by his side.
The Grand Duke always found such an aide fascinating, and also…
Truly delightful.
That must be why. Even without particularly trying to eliminate dangers, just being with you makes the sharply raised emotions lie down gently like well-groomed fur. It makes me feel like it’s okay to be completely defenseless.
The Grand Duke’s gaze fell on the aide’s hair.
‘They said that was red, didn’t they?’
The Grand Duke would never be able to know what color that was.
But what did that matter?
The Grand Duke knew how blue the aide’s eyes sparkled, and not knowing the color of his hair was no reason for the Grand Duke to be unable to cherish his aide.
Feeling a bit pleased, the Grand Duke lowered his head and licked the corner of the aide’s eye.
“Ugh.”
It was a night when even the sight of the aide shrinking his neck at the sudden touch of the rough tongue on his face felt delightful.
