Chapter 58
After the scandal with the Northern Grand Duke, now it was a two-timing scandal.
‘I thought I’d been living an honest and upright life, but somehow I’ve become rumored to be cheating. And why are all my scandal partners furry males…’
Of course, he had thought while watching X-tube videos of cats and large dogs living together that it would be paradise to have a soft cat on one arm and a cuddly large dog on the other… But that wasn’t meant in that way.
‘Even if the Grand Duke and Ralph aren’t entirely cat and dog but therianthropes.’
Ruan shook his head, recalling the stern-looking cat and the smiling Retriever.
‘There’s no way romantic feelings could develop here.’
Nah. No way.
Brushing off the fleeting thought with a laugh, Ruan began to move busily.
He was going to visit a few key gossips to preemptively spread the story of ‘how he was misunderstood to be cheating’ before the rumors spread uncontrollably.
He had to move even faster because a first meeting with the Steiner merchant group was scheduled for the morning.
As he moved frantically, the results were clear. He succeeded in making the story of ‘Ruan being misunderstood as cheating’ interesting enough for his target individuals to want to share with others.
‘Now even if rumors spread, it will be about this funny misunderstanding rather than Ruan actually cheating.’
Of course, there were some hurdles in the process.
‘That’s right! I know how much you adore His Grace, Ruan. Cheating? That’s nonsense! The other day, when you were in the corridor so passionately…’
Embarrassing past incidents being dredged up multiple times.
Barely calming Ralph, who approached with such enthusiasm that he looked like he might spin 20 times on the spot and jump up and down, only for him to blurt out the nonsense of ‘Was it because I kept you up too late last night?’ upon seeing Ruan’s face, haggard from lack of sleep due to worrying about the cat and dealing with tiring matters since morning.
Barely cleaning up this mess to prevent a second wave of rumors, and then having to turn away from Ralph, who looked like a puppy disappointed to see its owner, who seemed to be going out, come back in only to grab a wallet and leave again when Ruan said he had to go for remaining work.
There were various incidents, but… anyway, it seemed he could be somewhat at ease about the rumors.
‘Of course, I’ll have to keep being careful to prevent the rumors from reigniting, since they’ve already started once.’
Ruan headed towards the meeting room, vowing to be more careful with his interactions with therianthropes in the future. It was to prepare for the meeting that would start soon.
He was thinking he should check on the Grand Duke’s condition when he had a break after the meeting, when suddenly his eyes fell on someone who shouldn’t be here right now.
“Your Grace…?”
The Grand Duke, whom he had just been thinking about, was crossing the corridor towards where Ruan was.
‘Why is he here?’
As an assistant and butler, Ruan knew the Grand Duke’s daily schedule. And as far as Ruan knew, this wasn’t the time for the Grand Duke to be wandering the corridors like this.
‘Moreover…’
Ruan’s gaze quickly scanned the Grand Duke’s overall appearance and gait. The Grand Duke, who maintained his strict, solemn, and serious appearance even as a ball of fur, looked just as listless as he had the night before when he was curled up small with his face drooping, or when he left the bedroom trudging in the early morning.
‘I was hoping his condition might have improved. With him moving differently from his routine and all… Is there really a problem?’
Although there were no particular signs of pain in his behavior or face, cats were animals that naturally hid their pain well.
As various things started to come to mind – the fact that the Grand Duke had been going into battle more frequently lately, that he gets stressed when guests enter his territory, the signs of reluctance he showed towards the Steiner merchant group, Ruan’s failure to maintain the Grand Duke’s routine, etc. – worry began to swell in Ruan’s mind.
‘There’s not much time, but… I should at least check briefly…’
Gauging the remaining time, Ruan approached the Grand Duke with long strides and asked,
“Your Grace. What brings you here?”
Instead of answering the worried voice, the Grand Duke stared blankly at Ruan standing before him. Even that gaze seemed less sharp than usual due to his lack of energy, making Ruan feel even more conflicted.
As Ruan was about to ask again after the Grand Duke just stared without answering for a while, suddenly the Grand Duke leaned his upper body sharply towards Ruan. So close that their cheeks would touch if they stayed like that.
In fact, considering their usual skinship, this wasn’t an unusual distance between Ruan and the Grand Duke.
But… due to the commotion that morning, Ruan’s mind was programmed to appropriately avoid skinship in front of others, the Grand Duke’s closing of distance was too sudden, and Ruan was allocating a significant portion of his mind to worrying about the Grand Duke, making him unable to come up with an appropriate reaction immediately.
Reflexively… Ruan avoided the approaching Grand Duke as if jumping back.
‘Ah.’
It was an extreme output value a million years away from the ‘natural avoidance that shouldn’t be noticeable’ he had originally intended. Enough to surprise even Ruan himself.
‘I didn’t mean to avoid it so noticeably.’
Ruan, frozen in shock at his own action, glanced at the Grand Duke with rolling eyes. The Grand Duke had pulled back his body, seemingly surprised by the unexpected reaction.
Clear bewilderment could be read in his highly constricted pupils.
Ruan immediately opened his mouth to make up for this.
“Your Grace, this is…”
“Ruan! What are you doing there? We need to prepare for the meeting quickly!”
If only Hans, who was going to attend the meeting together, hadn’t called him at this timing.
Hans, who approached with hurried steps, only then noticed the Grand Duke standing opposite Ruan and flinched.
But only for a moment. It seemed they really were short on time, as Hans continued speaking with a trembling voice.
“Your Grace… I’m terribly sorry to interrupt your conversation, but… with little time left before the meeting with the Steiner merchant group, Ruan, who’s in charge…”
Seeing Hans unable to finish his sentence while reading the atmosphere, the Grand Duke, whose face had cleared of bewilderment by then, opened his mouth.
“Go ahead.”
At the Grand Duke’s calm words, Hans hurriedly bowed and began to move quickly, grabbing Ruan’s arm.
Ruan, being led away in a daze by Hans’ hand, met the Grand Duke’s gaze, who was still staring at him, with trembling eyes.
He still… hadn’t explained himself.
It felt like… he shouldn’t leave like this…
* * *
The Grand Duke remembered that he had hurt his assistant before.
He couldn’t help but remember. Even after new flesh had filled in on the back of his assistant’s white hand, a faint scar remained.
Every time the Grand Duke saw that scar, he realized that he himself could be a threat to his assistant.
Of course, the Grand Duke cared deeply for his assistant, had not the slightest intention of harming him, and the assistant being hurt was a serious threat to the Grand Duke as well. But even so, the fact that the Grand Duke could harm his assistant without realizing it didn’t change.
The Grand Duke seriously pondered this issue. And as a result, he realized that to live together with his assistant, he needed to make efforts not to hurt him. Giving up his claws was part of that effort.
But…
‘I didn’t know it wasn’t just the body that could be hurt.’
The Grand Duke had never worried before about his actions hurting someone’s feelings. It was because he had never deeply thought about the feelings of other creatures in the first place.
But now that he realized that his assistant’s distress was as big a threat to himself as physical injury, the possibility of hurting his assistant’s feelings was paralyzing the Grand Duke.
The danger of losing his assistant definitely existed. Normally, the Grand Duke would have immediately thought of and implemented a rational countermeasure upon recognizing it, erasing even the smallest risk.
But in this situation, doing so might hurt his assistant’s feelings. This fact prevented the Grand Duke from moving easily even with danger right in front of him.
Unable to do this or that, the Grand Duke felt powerless.
It was the first time he had felt this powerless since the time when he helplessly lost his territory because his not fully grown, weak body couldn’t do much.
At least back then, the solution was clear.
Gain strength and reclaim the territory. He just had to move towards that simple goal.
But this situation where he didn’t know what to do was truly a first in the Grand Duke’s life.
To be unable to do anything despite recognizing the danger. It was exactly like being thrown into a strange and dangerous place while completely tied up.
For the Grand Duke, who had always lived as a capable and powerful cat since becoming an adult, this was extremely shocking.
Even as he trudged along to carry out his daily routine, the Grand Duke kept pondering.
How on earth should he deal with this unfamiliar crisis situation?
