The Northern Grand Duke and the Cat Are Not So Different

Chapter 10

Given the Duke’s image, Ruan had expected some ominous rumors to spread about him suddenly giving an ogre carcass to his aide. So he wasn’t surprised when everyone he met looked at him with pitying eyes. However…

Ruan swallowed a sigh as he watched the Daen family members, who were not just excited but almost going berserk.

‘No. Why are you offering your lives? Why would you do that?’

Our cat just gave me a gift… How did the situation become so serious?

Fearing that someone from the overly affectionate Daen family might rush out to confront the Duke, Ruan quickly spoke up.

“Um… I think you’re all misunderstanding something.”

As Ruan spoke, the serious and solemn gazes of the Daen family members instantly focused on him.

Hoping to clear up this ridiculous misunderstanding, Ruan looked into each of their earnest eyes and said,

“I’ve never been intimidated by His Grace the Duke. The rumors have gotten out of hand.”

However… this statement only made their eyes grow even more moist.

“Ruan… Even if he’s your lover… you shouldn’t cover up such things.”

“That’s right. I know you’re excited about your first love, but… that’s the most dangerous thing.”

“But brother, you’ve never been in love either, right? Why are you talking like you’re not the same?”

“Magda, be quiet. That’s not what’s important right now. We should use this as an excuse to break up before it’s too late… No, but if we say to break up, who knows how His Grace might react… Maybe I should go…”

“Ruan. This is indeed an important issue to consider. If you don’t resolve such things quickly when you’re close, they can become serious without realizing the extent.”

Ruan swallowed another sigh.

He understood what these people were worried about. And he was truly grateful to those who cared and worried about him sincerely.

But…

‘It’s really not that kind of situation…’

“I appreciate your concern, but it’s really not like that. He just genuinely gave it as a gift…”

The Daen family members’ expressions became peculiar at Ruan’s words.

“A gift?”

“He gave an ogre carcass as a gift to his lover?”

It’s not a gift for a lover, but a reward for a servant, but…

Inwardly, Ruan was somewhat relieved that giving monster carcasses as gifts didn’t seem to be a common culture in this world.

‘I don’t think I could ever give something like that, even if someone asked…’

Suddenly, Hans, who had been quietly sniffling, spoke up.

“But… His Grace… giving a gift…?”

Is that the shocking part?

‘Well… the Duke before becoming cat-like certainly…’

He didn’t seem like the type to give gifts to anyone.

He might stab you with a sword instead of giving a gift though.

Everyone seemed to have similar thoughts, as they were surprised that ‘that Duke’ had given a gift, but their worry seemed to subside slightly with the thought, ‘If that Duke went that far, then maybe…’

‘Is the fact that it’s an ogre carcass overshadowed by the fact that he gave a gift at all?’

Well, whatever the case, it was a good thing for Ruan.

“Anyway, there’s nothing to worry about, so please have a good business trip.”

At the mention of ‘business trip’, Hans’ face, which had seemed somewhat relieved, was once again flooded with worry.

Recently, Reinke had been promoting exchanges with dwarves for the renovation of the city walls and the introduction of high-quality equipment. This was one of the most important projects currently underway in Reinke.

Reinke, which had been the solid northern barrier for a very long time, had already fallen once. The impregnable shield that was Reinke had now become a ‘place that could fall’.

Therefore, the people of Reinke needed defenses to ensure they would never experience such a thing again, no matter what kind of monster wave came.

In addition, the massive loss of manpower from being trampled by monsters once and then in the process of reclaiming the castle was also a serious problem.

Originally, what sustained Reinke was the experienced elites with solid experience and the systems they had established.

But now, after the disastrous times had swept through, Reinke was clearly lacking in both the number of elite knights and soldiers, and the absolute manpower itself, and they couldn’t even run the existing systems with what they had.

‘But there’s no way to quickly increase experienced elites or manpower…’

The Sirah Empire legally prohibited the migration of Reinke’s residents to prevent population outflow from Reinke. Who would want to move here when even the existing people want to leave and are being stopped and oppressed?

So to solve these problems, what the Duke came up with was exchange with the dwarves.

If they could bring in the dwarves’ excellent defensive technology and overwhelmingly high-quality weapons and armor, they could increase the efficiency of defense, survival rate, and killing power together.

‘And as more people survive encounters with monsters, those people will eventually become elites…’

Both in the short term and long term, this was the most effective method Reinke could attempt.

As a result, all of Reinke had high hopes for this project.

But the problem was, as mentioned earlier, Reinke lacked manpower.

In this situation, when they had to form a delegation to the dwarven cities, every capable person was being drafted… and this naturally included the people of the Daen family, long-time vassals.

Everyone except Ruan, who was left behind as the Duke wasn’t going.

“To think we have to leave Ruan alone at a time like this…”

Hans’ eyes began to fill with tears again at the thought of leaving his youngest child alone, who ‘still hadn’t regained his memories’ and was in a complicated situation.

“Is there really no way to stay…”

Perhaps caught up in the sentiment, Joachim also mumbled with a gloomy face.

“Joachim Daen. Are you suggesting you’ll refuse the assigned duty?”

“No, ma’am! It was a slip of the tongue.”

Although he quickly prostrated himself at Julia’s words.

Julia, who had been stern with Joachim but was equally worried about her youngest, patted Ruan’s shoulder and admonished,

“Ruan, you often fall ill, so take good care of your health.”

Ruan smiled slightly at the Daen family members and said,

“Yes, I will. Don’t worry and have a good trip.”

After the dinner ended relatively peacefully with no one rushing to the Duke…

“Oh, right, Ruan.”

Magda caught Ruan as he was leaving after finishing his meal.

“Hm? What is it?”

Suddenly rummaging through her pocket, Magda pulled out a small bottle and held it out.

Inside the bottle were a few candies of a pretty, highly saturated yellow color.

“These. You’ve always liked them, right?”

‘Always’…

Ruan smiled awkwardly at the sudden gift.

“Thanks, sis. I’ll enjoy them.”

Magda, who had been staring at Ruan, roughly ruffled his hair and said,

“Hang in there.”

At the rough encouragement, Ruan nodded and said,

“Yeah. You too. I think I’ll go for a walk now.”

“Don’t go too close to the city walls.”

“Okay, I won’t.”

As he left, Ruan fiddled with the small glass bottle in his hand.

Sweets were precious. Even more so in Reinke, where food was always scarce.

It wasn’t hard to read the sentiment behind giving these pretty yellow candies, which must have been difficult to obtain, to the ‘youngest sibling’ who had been looking tired lately.

He opened the bottle and put a candy in his mouth.

His tongue stung slightly at the taste of lemon candy, which he had never particularly liked.

* * *

The Duke was pondering.

‘Was it not enough to just bring a big prey?’

Traditionally, a large and strong prey is proof of an excellent hunter.

So he naturally thought that if he brought a large prey, the aide would admire the Duke’s strength and be overjoyed at the abundant hunt he provided.

That’s why he was slightly dissatisfied even as he hunted the nearby ogre for the time being. After all, the Duke was an excellent hunter who could catch prey much larger than mere ogres.

But he couldn’t go too far away, so he had reluctantly brought an ogre…

The aide’s reaction was different from what he had expected. Although he said thank you verbally…

Far from being happy, rather…

‘He seemed scared.’

Even with the prey the Duke had personally caught right in front of him, the aide was pale and restless rather than impressed.

Perhaps it was because, even though it was already dead, it was still a much higher-level predator for that scrawny aide.

If that was the case… if he couldn’t accept even when given something good, the Duke had no choice but to adjust to the weak one’s standards.