Chapter 41
As Ruan approached, the Grand Duke shrank back slightly, still looking dejected.
It seemed the shock of unintentionally hurting Ruan had affected him deeply.
‘I can’t just leave him like this…’
Ruan’s eyes gleamed meaningfully as he looked at the gloomy Grand Duke.
* * *
Like the forepaw of a beast, the Grand Duke’s sword plunged down.
Kwagagak!
With a sound more akin to crushing than slicing, chunks of the orc’s rock-like muscles were torn away along the sword’s path.
It was a fatal wound that should have instantly ended its life. But the Grand Duke’s sword didn’t stop there.
After cleaving the orc’s flesh, the sword fluidly rotated and swung towards the back of the shoulder.
Peogek!
The thrust sword pierced straight into the neck of an orc attacking from behind. While the orc that had its neck penetrated froze, unable to even scream.
Using the sword embedded in the massive lump as an axis, the Grand Duke’s body rotated smoothly.
Following the elastic movement that utilized the force of the sword-wielding arm, the sword lodged between the neck vertebrae twisted.
Kkadeuk-
The sensation of the orc’s solid neck bones being crushed transmitted through the sword. Meanwhile, as the Grand Duke faced the orc, he added more strength to his sword-gripping hand.
Keogek! Once again, the orc’s bones screamed.
The moment the neck bones gave way to the monstrous grip strength, the Grand Duke’s foot flew towards the orc’s solid chest.
Bang!
With a thunderous sound, the orc’s body, skewered on the Grand Duke’s sword with its neck torn off to the bone, flew in different directions.
Even before blood could spurt from the torn surface, the Grand Duke aimed his freed sword at the next prey. A monster targeting the back of soldiers already engaged with another orc.
The large thigh muscles tensed tightly, and the Grand Duke leaped silently, pouncing on the monster’s back.
Pagak!
With one strike, the monster’s nape was torn off.
And a beat later, as black blood gushed from between the torn flesh, the monster’s body tilted.
The Grand Duke nimbly moved his body to avoid getting the monster’s blood on himself. The Grand Duke extremely disliked getting dirty things on his body.
…Even more so after being caught and thoroughly washed by his aide after a hunt.
Meanwhile, the soldiers grouped in squads of ten also succeeded in dispatching the orc before them.
Only then, leaving behind the soldiers who were catching their breath, the Grand Duke who had dispatched his prey in a way that would have made his aide tilt his head and wonder, “Is that a powerful kitty punch… and back leg stomping?” surveyed the surroundings.
Summer and autumn are seasons with relatively fewer monster attacks.
Unlike winter, when the entire domain is mobilized solely to repel hordes of incoming monsters, there’s more leeway during this time. Reinke usually used this spare capacity to clear out monster settlements that had approached near the city walls.
This was to prevent large-scale attacks, reduce the monster population in advance, and train new recruits unfamiliar with combat.
Today too, they had led out knights and soldiers to clear an orc settlement discovered by the rangers’ reconnaissance.
Out of twenty-five orcs, only two or three remained now. The subjugation of the largest settlement they had encountered recently was being wrapped up with little damage.
This was possible because it was summer, before the monsters began to multiply in earnest.
But as the wind grows colder, monsters become more ferocious. Their numbers also increase day by day.
And when winter finally comes.
The Grand Duke gazed at the vast plain stretching out opposite the Reinke city walls.
In the midst of winter, this plain would be covered with an endless horde of monsters.
A wave of monsters that kept coming no matter how many were cut down. The Monster Wave.
Thinking about the coming winter, the Grand Duke moved towards the largest tree nearby.
As if measuring something while looking at the tree, the Grand Duke raised his sword. And then brought it down.
Seogek-
The blade left a long scar on the body of the old tree.
The Grand Duke swung his sword again, leaving another sword mark below.
This was a mark of the Grand Duke’s territory. A sign of his will to end the life of anyone who dared to set foot here despite seeing this mark.
Meanwhile, as the remaining orcs seemed to have been finished off, the sound of knights gathering the corpses could be heard from behind.
The Grand Duke looked down at his sword. The sword that had consecutively cut down orcs was sticky with grease and black blood.
Slightly displeased by this, the Grand Duke swung the sword widely to shake off the blood on the blade. Black blood spattered in dots on the ground.
But that alone wasn’t enough to clean the sword dirtied by traces of battle.
The Grand Duke resolved to tend to his sword as soon as he returned.
After all, the sword was an extension of his claws.
‘…’
Claws.
Speaking of claws.
The Grand Duke’s gaze, following the flow of thought, settled on his hand.
On his front paw, whose claws had been trimmed by his aide a few days ago.
In fact, it had been a while since the aide had been whining at the Grand Duke to let him trim his claws.
Of course, when the Grand Duke fought, he mostly used a sword in human form as knights usually accompanied him. This meant that trimming his claws wouldn’t lead to a critical decrease in combat ability.
The aide knew this too, which is why he kept asking.
But the Grand Duke never agreed to it.
To be held down by someone else’s hands, forced to extend his claws, and have them trimmed by a blade he held? How could there be such a humiliating thing? It was horrifying just to think about it.
Moreover, allowing his claws to be trimmed meant offering up his sensitive paws to be handled freely, while simultaneously having his movement restricted by having his paws held.
No matter how much the Grand Duke trusted his aide, it wasn’t a particularly pleasant thought.
To be honest… regardless of trust, it was more problematic because it was him.
The aide was already someone who coveted the Grand Duke’s paws at every opportunity. To hand over his paws to such a person to do as he pleased? It was nonsense.
The Grand Duke, still remembering being caught and having his body washed by his aide, had no intention whatsoever of enduring such humiliation again.
That’s why the Grand Duke had decided he would never allow his claws to be trimmed.
That’s how it was.
It certainly was.
That is… until he wounded his aide with his claws.
The Grand Duke’s inner tail dropped to the floor as he recalled the image of his frail aide dripping blood.
The Grand Duke swore he never meant to hurt his aide.
The Grand Duke knew that his aide was an exceptionally weak specimen even among the easily dying humans. Weak enough to lose his memory from being hit by an orc, and to suddenly fall ill even when nothing had happened.
The Grand Duke remembered his aide who couldn’t regain consciousness despite being given medicine, the wheezing breath sounds, and the warm temperature of his limp body.
Although he was now confident in his ability to perfectly nurse a sick human, unlike that clumsy day… regardless of that, the Grand Duke didn’t want to see such a sight again.
The aide being sick was now a much greater threat to the Grand Duke than it was back then.
So why would the Grand Duke try to harm his aide?
At that time, the Grand Duke… was just thinking of removing that unpleasant object. Just as he had been breaking and removing every comb the aide had been bringing to his sight.
Because of the aide who would surreptitiously bring a comb whenever the mood seemed right, the Grand Duke had broken countless combs.
During all those times of breaking combs, the aide with his terrible dynamic vision and reflexes had never reacted to the Grand Duke’s speed. So he thought it would be the same this time too… That was the problem.
At an unexpected moment, the aide moved his hand.
So suddenly that even the Grand Duke, with his excellent dynamic vision and reflexes in contrast to the aide, couldn’t react.
Wounding the aide came as a great shock to the Grand Duke.
He had known early on that the aide was frail, but… to bleed so much from a momentary mistake.
That night, shocked, the Grand Duke couldn’t even sleep close to the aide as usual, afraid he might hurt him again if he got too close.
The next day was the same. Whenever he saw the claw-spaced wounds remaining on the back of the aide’s hand, the Grand Duke’s heart was in turmoil and he couldn’t bring himself to go near the aide.
Then night came, and as the Grand Duke visited the aide’s bedroom as usual, wondering what to do today…
The aide suddenly approached and spoke.
“Your Grace. I’m really fine. We stick together all day, and even share the same bed. I think it’s something that can easily happen. Sometimes I… accidentally step on Your Grace’s tail when the room is dark.”
Well, true. The aide with his terribly poor night vision often stepped on the tip of the Grand Duke’s tail. The generous Grand Duke, knowing this was due to the aide’s shortcomings, forgave him magnanimously.
“But we can’t keep maintaining this distance, can we? It’s not what I want either. So…”
The Grand Duke didn’t like this situation either. He wanted to touch the aide, share body heat, exchange scents, and feel at ease.
As the Grand Duke’s ears perked up towards the aide,
The aide, with a somewhat strange expression, opened his mouth.
“If Your Grace finds this incident shocking, how about slightly trimming your claws?”
