Chapter 99
Originally, Ruan quite often thought about wanting to see the Grand Duke.
Typically, it’s the caretaker rather than the cat who experiences separation anxiety. People with cats at home mutter “I miss my cat” with similar frequency to others sighing “I want to go home.”
Therefore, when separated from the Grand Duke, Ruan also quite often thought, “Ah, I miss the Grand Duke.” He would sometimes inadvertently say it out loud, earning looks from those around him as if they were watching a sickeningly sweet couple. Ruan felt quite wronged each time, as that wasn’t the meaning at all.
However, now that he had finally admitted to himself that he liked the Grand Duke and no longer had an excuse to feel wronged, Ruan missed the Grand Duke to an unbearable degree. Even though they had parted ways just this morning with a simple “I’ll be back soon” rather than days ago, he felt an urgent need to see that strict, solemn, and serious face right away.
It felt as if all the feelings that had unknowingly accumulated while he took too long to realize his own heart were now rushing in at once.
He had so much to say and so much to do. But even if he didn’t do all that, he first wanted to see and touch that face.
After parting with Ralph, Ruan strode forward. He wanted to meet the Grand Duke as soon as possible.
As he hurried along, what stopped Ruan in his tracks was a restaurant wafting delicious food smells as evening approached.
‘Come to think of it… I’m basically on my way to woo a cat, aren’t I?’
As he had realized again earlier, the Grand Duke, the object of Ruan’s one-sided love, wasn’t just a human. He was a cat beastkin. Moreover, a cat beastkin with quite prominent cat-like characteristics.
But…
‘Is it okay to go empty-handed like this?’
Of course, this was Ruan’s first time trying to woo a cat in that sense.
But based on his life experience as a cat caretaker so far, if one intended to attempt something with a cat, especially something unfamiliar, facing the cat empty-handed wasn’t exactly the best choice.
Isn’t it common sense in the industry that anyone planning to do something with a cat should at least have some treats on hand? When you put something delicious in their mouth, cats become happy, and their high guard tends to lower a bit.
This wasn’t a simple situation like using treats to coax a cat into teeth brushing… But still, the fact that tasty snacks make things go more smoothly was an absolute truth.
Ruan stopped there for a moment, lost in thought.
Honestly, if not for his poor stamina, Ruan felt like running, he was in such a hurry. Moreover, he had already passed the rough return time he had indicated to the Grand Duke, having spent more time than expected on various things.
As a result, even in this moment of briefly pausing his steps, impatience was scratching at the back of his neck…
But since he was late, didn’t he need more of a bribe? Couldn’t he at least get something tasty to offer before starting, even if he couldn’t find cat treats that didn’t exist in this world?
As Ruan was pondering this, the smell of well-roasted duck meat wafted past his nose.
‘The Grand Duke likes duck meat…’
Recalling how the Grand Duke would diligently use his utensils with a strict, solemn, and serious face when duck meat, hard to obtain in Reinke, appeared on the table, Ruan finally decided.
‘Right. Let’s buy some food. It won’t take that long to buy it anyway.’
Ruan turned his steps from the mansion towards the restaurant.
Until then, Ruan hadn’t anticipated:
That he, having just realized his feelings for the Grand Duke and in an excited state, would end up buying every food he thought the Grand Duke might like, carried away by thoughts of the Grand Duke enjoying delicious food. That the already bustling downtown of the capital would be especially crowded due to the Emperor’s birthday. That because of this, he would have to endure much longer waiting times than usual to buy food.
When Ruan, realizing much more time had passed than he thought, was about to hurriedly head to the mansion with both hands full of food…
“Excuse me, are you Ruan Daen?”
“Yes, that’s me. What’s the matter?”
“You’ll need to come with us.”
He certainly hadn’t anticipated being kidnapped by strange men who suddenly approached him.
* * *
The Grand Duke was anxious.
His assistant, who had said he was going out for a bit… wasn’t returning no matter how long he waited.
This morning, the assistant had left the mansion saying he would find talented individuals to fill Reinke’s staff shortage. He had left saying he would return before dinnertime.
But now, even after dinner preparations were long finished and all the food had gone cold, there was still no sign of the assistant returning.
The fact that the assistant’s whereabouts were unknown in a strange place that wasn’t even the Grand Duke’s territory was enough to put him in a bad mood.
But the reason the Grand Duke was now beyond that level and so anxious was…
“Why isn’t Ruan coming back?”
“Hasn’t it been way past the time he said he’d return?”
“This isn’t good…”
The Grand Duke’s gaze turned to the knights whispering among themselves.
“If Ruan doesn’t come back like this… what about the proposal…?”
That’s right. Today was… the day the Grand Duke was finally going to court Ruan after the long, long proposal preparations had ended.
In fact, the Grand Duke hadn’t intended to prepare for so long. He had said he would court only after preparations were completely ready, like pouncing on prey only when fully prepared to capture it perfectly… But if you prepare for too long, the prey might run away before you can pounce.
Since he could get the necessary things once they arrived in the capital, he had planned to quickly finish preparations without delay upon arrival and court quickly.
The problem was the overly excited knights.
The tender love that made even the great Grand Duke show clumsy behavior struck a chord with the sensitive and meddlesome Northern knights. The knights became incredibly invested in the once-in-a-lifetime event of ‘assisting the Grand Duke’s proposal.’
The knights began to pour their passion into preparing for the Grand Duke’s proposal. Although they had come under the pretext of being guards, since their charge was Dietrich Reinke himself, they found themselves with nothing to do after arriving in the capital. The knights poured all their excess time and passion into the Grand Duke’s proposal.
Moreover, they were not in Reinke where everything was scarce, but in the capital where everything was abundant and nothing was impossible to obtain if desired. There was nothing to restrain them.
Rather, everything around them was like adding firewood and bellows to their already blazing passion.
This was none other than our Grand Duke’s proposal—no one questioned when it had become ‘our Grand Duke’—how could it be the same as some ordinary knight’s proposal? Of course, we should do this much. And since it’s for Ruan, who’s like our nephew, we should do this too… Oh, we can even hire a band here? Wow, that’s nice! It’ll be amazing! Let’s add that too!
With each passing day, the list of preparations grew, and the scale of the Grand Duke’s proposal event expanded endlessly.
Of course, if the Grand Duke had shown any sign of dislike even once, the knights would have immediately stopped, hastily creating non-existent brakes after reattaching their lost fear…
Unfortunately, the Grand Duke knew nothing about human proposals and had built up a certain trust in the knights through their previous love counseling.
When the knights said this was necessary and that was needed and they should do that too, the Grand Duke only thought, “Human courtship really is an incredibly complicated and strange process. Is this why I failed before because I didn’t do these things?” He never thought to stop their runaway preparations.
As days passed, even as he felt his patience reaching its limit with his body growing hotter, the Grand Duke waited for the knights’ grand preparations to finish.
Finally, today was the day when the preparations were complete enough to satisfy the knights’ planned once-in-a-lifetime event.
Conveniently, the surprise event’s main character had also gone out. They planned to hold the event timed with his return…
The problem was, even after finishing preparations and waiting and waiting, the main character who had gone out wasn’t returning.
Anxiety began to spread across the faces of everyone in the mansion. Finally, unable to wait any longer, Benno sent out a knight to find Ruan.
But what returned with the knight who had rushed out with an important mission was not the Grand Duke’s lover who was supposed to receive the proposal.
“Your Grace! Something terrible has happened!”
What the knight brought back with an urgent face was…
“Someone has witnessed Ruan being kidnapped!”
It was news that misfortune had befallen Ruan.
