Chapter 94
The Grand Duke leaned against the headboard of the bed with his legs stretched out, observing his aide.
Sitting at a table a short distance from the bed, the aide was shuffling through documents. Though not yet in bed, he had changed into loose-fitting sleepwear. The relaxed collar revealed his long, pale neck.
His neck was bent as he looked at the documents. The Grand Duke’s eyes rolled along that line.
Until reaching the white collar that barely covered the most protruding point of the neck bone.
Just hooking a finger on the thin cotton fabric behind that defenseless back would reveal the entire line from the flat back down to the concave waist.
However, the Grand Duke didn’t move to directly confirm the hidden parts. Instead, he remained relaxed on the bed, staring at the end of the neck where the collar cast a shadow. And he imagined sinking his teeth into that spot.
If he tilted his head over that exposed nape, he could smell the pack scent mixed with his aide’s body odor and his own scent.
The scent proving they were of the same pack. If he lightly rubbed his nose against the thin skin where that familiar scent arose, he would feel the lukewarm body temperature. Then, tracing that straight neckline with the bridge of his nose, feeling the neck bones, he would sink his teeth into the white neck before his mouth.
Because the aide’s pale skin was so thin that even a slight brush of fangs could cause a scratch, very slowly. With just enough force to immobilize but not injure.
The moment he imagined the sensation of soft flesh yielding, transmitted through his sensitive canines.
The Grand Duke exhaled the breath he’d been holding and crossed his long legs.
‘Not yet.’
It wasn’t time for that yet. The perfect timing for courtship hadn’t come yet.
Hadn’t the knights repeatedly said that timing was the most important thing in courtship?
So he had to wait longer before biting that nape and overlapping their bodies.
As the Grand Duke licked his lips to compose his emotions that nearly overflowed, the aide seemed to sense his movement and turned to look at him. Since the Grand Duke had been watching the aide all along, their eyes met immediately as the aide turned.
“Your Grace?”
Thinking the Grand Duke might have something to say due to the unexpected eye contact, the aide’s lips moved.
“Do you need anything?”
The Grand Duke took in the sight of those slightly thin lips moving.
He knew what those lips felt like. He knew that if he lightly pressed his lips against them, he would feel a surprisingly rough surface, and if he tilted his head a bit more to make their lips interlock, he knew how the soft flesh underneath felt when pressed.
He knew what sound the aide made when he rubbed and kneaded his lips against that soft flesh cooler than his own body temperature, and crushed the most tender skin with the tip of his fang.
And how the aide’s body temperature rose when he did that, and how his eyes darkened…
‘Enough.’
As he felt the desire he had just suppressed crawling up his spine again, the Grand Duke had no choice but to lick his lips once more. The aide’s eyes caught the glimpse of his tongue that appeared and disappeared.
The Grand Duke keenly sensed that gaze.
Despite licking his lips to compose himself, his burning desire grew rather than subsiding.
‘This won’t do.’
If he stayed like this, he felt he would just pounce regardless of timing, just like before.
But the Grand Duke had decided to carry out this courtship with thorough preparation at the optimal timing, and the knights had also said that was right.
He couldn’t ruin everything by losing control and pouncing now.
The Grand Duke sat up from his relaxed position and stretched long. He firmly stretched his muscles that had unknowingly tensed, suppressing his yearning heart and impatiently raging desire along with it. He tried to suppress it.
The moment he met the aide’s blue eyes looking at him, he realized it was a futile attempt as the yearning raised its head again.
‘This is maddening.’
At this rate, he was sure to throw away all thoughts of proposal and pounce on the aide.
After agonizing, the Grand Duke finally…
“I’m going out for a bit.”
Chose to leave the space he shared with the aide. He thought it would be better to meet the knights and inquire more about human courtship rather than stay here and cause trouble.
The Grand Duke left the room with hurried steps to get away from the aide quickly.
Not knowing what expression the aide wore as he watched his retreating figure.
* * *
Ruan thought.
‘The Grand Duke is… not a house cat, but a cat ‘beastman’.’
That meant the Grand Duke had not only a life as a cat but also a life as a human. Moreover, a life as the Northern Grand Duke.
House cats live in simple, exclusive relationships with their caretakers. But the human Northern Grand Duke ‘Dietrich Reinke’ inevitably meets many people and forms relationships of various levels and aspects. It was natural for priorities among these relationships to change in the process.
Therefore, Ruan being the closest and most trustworthy existence to the Grand Duke could become a ‘thing of the past’ at any time.
Until now, he hadn’t realized this because there had been no one around the Grand Duke due to misunderstandings… But now Ruan knew this fact too.
Yes, he knew… He just never imagined the situation would turn out like this as soon as he realized it.
Ruan recalled the Grand Duke who suddenly left the room the night before while they were together.
It was true that the Grand Duke had been spending more time with others recently. But this was the first time he had left saying he was going to someone else while in the middle of being with Ruan.
Until the Grand Duke returned to the bedroom very late after leaving like that, Ruan had to lie awake pondering.
‘Does he now prefer being with other people over spending time with me?’
He had thought something like this might happen… But so suddenly?
Unable to fall asleep even after the Grand Duke returned to the bedroom, Ruan covered his eyes, heavy with fatigue, with his hand and thought.
He hadn’t even properly thought about what he wanted to do with the Grand Duke yet, and before he could mentally prepare, the situation changed so quickly.
‘If it’s like this now…’
If the Grand Duke were to get married.
As Ruan sighed deeply, feeling a strange ache in his chest for some reason.
“Aide!”
At the familiar voice, he removed the hand covering his eyes to see Ralph running towards him with a bright face.
Seeing the dog beastman running towards him, expressing joy with all his might and radiating happiness with his whole body, Ruan forgot his gloom and broke into a slight smile.
“Good morning, Guild Master.”
“Yes! Good morning!”
Ralph’s joy visibly brightened another level at Ruan’s greeting. Following him, Ruan smiled again too.
The reason for meeting Ralph in this situation, where he hadn’t slept at all the night before and had many thoughts, was simple.
‘It’s because of recruiting talent.’
Before departing for the capital. Ruan decided to take care of everything he could while in the capital, thinking he might never go again since he didn’t want to go and it was difficult.
One of those things was recruiting clerks.
Reinke was generally short on manpower, but the number of people who could handle administrative work compared to the population was ridiculously low. It was a place where every day was a battle, so if someone had even a little combat ability, honing that and sending them to the walls was prioritized.
This was especially true in the past few years when too many soldiers and knights had died.
The seriousness of the situation was evident just from the fact that ‘Ruan Daen’, who had no memories and had just gotten up after being bedridden for a long time, was appointed to the important position of the Grand Duke’s aide.
As a result, there were critically few people handling administrative work compared to the amount that needed to be done. Inevitably, all clerks were chronically overworked.
Although it pained him to see Hans, Stefan, and others with never-ending dark circles under their eyes and daily overtime, he couldn’t create people out of thin air. Ruan could only move busily to lighten their workload a little…
But the situation changed with this trip to the capital. The capital was a place overflowing with manpower.
Ruan resolved to use the information he had read in “Tales of the Sirah Empire” to gather workers while in the capital.
‘If there are more people who can work, it will help not only others but also the Grand Duke.’
Anyway. So he was narrowing down a list of people who met the conditions and thinking about how to approach them…
When he revealed the plan to Ralph, who was asking about his schedule in the capital, unexpectedly, the reply came that he was acquainted with them.
