The Northern Grand Duke and the Cat Are Not So Different

Chapter 11

‘If monsters are scary, I should catch a suitable furry creature and give it to him.’

The Duke thought humans were unnecessarily complicated, but… this overly fragile one was already part of his group. Who else but the Duke would take care of him?

Only the Duke, an excellent hunter and responsible territory owner, could look after him.

After the aide returned home, the Duke headed to the forest to hunt.

With overwhelming responsibility, the Duke carefully selected his prey.

The first thing he found was a wolf. It looked sturdy and meaty, making it quite a suitable prey.

But… compared to the fragile aide, it was still a top predator. If he brought something like that, the timid aide might get scared and hide under a desk or somewhere.

He wanted to see the aide happy, not frightened. So the Duke boldly passed by the wolf and moved on.

After wandering for a while, the Duke found a large reindeer. With its high fat content, it would make excellent food.

But…

The Duke’s gaze turned to the reindeer’s large, pointed antlers.

From his observations so far, the aide was not only weak enough to die from a single swipe of a paw but also had terrible motor skills.

He remembered how the aide fumbled with an axe that any human in Reinke would handle like their own hand. He was someone who should only be given small things like pens and forks, or at most, a poker for stirring the fireplace.

No wonder he got hit by an orc.

Such an aide might get hurt even by the antlers of a dead reindeer. He couldn’t bring something that might be dangerous. The Duke passed by the reindeer as well.

After roaming the forest for a long time, the Duke couldn’t find prey that completely satisfied him. Everything had some disqualifying factor for giving to his aide.

‘Is being weak something that requires so much consideration?’

For the Duke, who had never been weak in his life, it was quite a shocking realization.

Remembering the aide who always seemed to overthink and complicate things, he felt a bit sorry for him. The Duke decided to treat the aide even better, considering his challenging life.

But that was that.

‘Even with circumstances, to wander this long without catching decent prey…’

For the Duke, who had lived as an excellent hunter for as long as he could remember, this was a first. Just as his pride was hurt and he felt like grooming himself intensely…

Rustle.

The Duke sensed a small presence.

With his keen night vision, the Duke immediately spotted the source of the sound. Not far away, a snow-white rabbit was twitching its tiny nose in a pile of fallen leaves.

The moment he saw the small furry creature, the Duke thought,

‘That’s the one.’

A soft body without sharp claws or horns. A small size that even the scrawny aide could probably handle.

This one seemed unlikely to hurt or scare the aide.

Its pale complexion and round, rolling eyes looked similar to the aide, which made the Duke like it even more.

Of course, it was too insignificant to be prey for the Duke to catch… but what could he do? The recipient was that aide, after all.

Having decided on his prey, the Duke approached silently, moving against the wind to prevent his scent from spreading.

The prey, resembling the aide, seemed as dull as him too, unaware that a hunter approaching to end its life was merely rummaging through the fallen leaves.

The experienced hunter reached a distance where he could pounce and bite the nape in one leap, without mistakenly revealing his position. The Duke, eyeing his prey and carefully adjusting his timing, direction, and muscles by moving his lower body – mainly his hindquarters – side to side…

Whoosh-

He lightly leaped and caught the prey’s nape in one swift motion. It was an easy and successful hunt, befitting an excellent hunter.

‘Now that I have prey suitable for him… I should hurry.’

The hunt had taken longer than expected, and it was almost time to meet the aide.

The Duke, nobly carrying the rabbit in his mouth, quickened his pace to avoid wasting time. Thinking of the aide who would be happy to receive prey that suited him so well made his steps feel even lighter.

With the Duke’s thorough knowledge of his territory and his cat-like ability to dash through paths unimaginable to humans, he soon arrived before the aide. As always, the aide only noticed the Duke approaching long after the Duke had spotted him.

“Oh, the cat’s here?”

‘Hm?’

The Duke stopped and closely observed the aide. He always looked frail, but now he seemed even more feeble than usual.

Meanwhile, the aide noticed the prey in the Duke’s mouth and asked with a strange expression.

“Did you catch that?”

Of course.

This wasn’t just any prey, but one carefully chosen with consideration for the weak aide. It was prey selected with care so that he wouldn’t be scared or hurt, but simply happy. Even this feeble creature should feel energized after receiving this.

The Duke placed the caught prey at the aide’s feet and straightened his chest, stretching out his neck. His luxurious tail was already standing straight up.

The aide, alternately looking at the rabbit placed before him and the Duke exuding pride, said,

“Did you bring this for me?”

This too was obvious. If it weren’t for this weak and timid aide, why would the Duke bother catching a mere rabbit?

Seeming to read affirmation in the Duke’s demeanor, the aide began to examine the rabbit placed before him.

“Wow. I’m receiving this twice in one day. Both this cat and that cat.”

After saying this, the aide seemed to think about something and muttered in a small voice.

“At least the cats… are giving things to ‘me’.”

No matter how quietly he spoke, it was impossible for the Duke, with hearing incomparably better than humans, not to hear. But not understanding what he meant, the Duke perked up his ears, and the aide’s gaze shifted to him.

The aide looked at the Duke, who still had his neck stretched out, and said with a broad smile,

“Thank you for thinking of me, kitty.”

It was a much better reaction than with the ogre.

As expected.

‘So the answer was a trivial rabbit instead of a huge ogre.’

The formula that an aide resembling a rabbit likes being given rabbits was etched into the Duke’s mind. The Duke resolved to catch rabbits for the aide whenever he looked crumpled.

Unaware of this resolution, the aide seemed quite pleased and reached out to gently stroke the Duke’s forehead.

Even the strongest cat can’t lick its own forehead. Maintaining the cleanliness of facial areas unreachable by one’s own tongue was a privilege of cats with a group to groom them.

Having a group didn’t seem so bad after all. The Duke closed his eyes languidly and enjoyed the touch.

But he had been noticing something…

The aide had an unfamiliar lemon scent and sweetness that wasn’t usually there.

The source of the smell was…

His mouth?

Cats generally dislike sour smells. But for a strange smell, and even a sour one, to come from a member of his group…

The Duke had a duty to properly check this unpleasant situation.

The Duke, who had been stretching his neck upwards, now extended it forward, bringing his nose to the aide’s lips. Twitching his nose to discern the smell more delicately, he confirmed that the aide seemed to have eaten a lemon candy.

Why would he eat something unpleasant like lemon candy? As the Duke was thinking that the aide’s tastes were as peculiar as he was weak…

“Huh?”

It seemed the Duke wasn’t the only one who smelled something strange as their faces got closer.

“I smell… blood?”

The aide, looking at the Duke with narrowed eyes, glanced at the bleeding rabbit and then back at the Duke. Then he reached out and touched the Duke’s chin, which was wet with the rabbit’s blood.

“At least it’s fortunate it doesn’t seem to be blood from an injury… My goodness. I didn’t notice because your fur is so dark, but what is all this?”

Some blood from the prey had gotten on him while carrying it to the aide. That was something even the Duke couldn’t help.

But for the aide, who was now feeling the Duke’s chest, it seemed to be quite a shocking situation.

“No, your whole chest is covered in blood… It seems to have seeped into the undercoat…”

Even so, such things could be quickly removed with a bit of careful grooming…

“This won’t do. You need a bath.”

Ba… th?

While the Duke was momentarily frozen by this unexpected statement,

The aide securely tied the rabbit he received from the Duke to his waist and reached out to grab the Duke.

Then he picked him up.

Though ‘picked up’ might not be the right word… He actually made strange sounds like “Hnnngghh…” while exerting a lot of effort.

“Oh my… You’re really heavy… You must weigh over 20 kilos…”

Surprised by the aide’s bold action, the Duke immediately tried to jump down.

But.

“Ouch! Claws. Your claws are digging in.”

The aide suddenly cried out.

It seemed the Duke’s claws had come out as he put force into his front paws.

‘Oh no.’

The other party was the weak aide. If the Duke moved carelessly, he could really get hurt.

Being held by such a fragile creature who could get hurt at any moment was even more challenging than holding them.

As the Duke was pondering how best to escape, this time he completely relaxed his entire body. The Duke’s body, which had been held by the aide, began to slowly slip down.

He thought he could escape from the aide’s arms this way, but… the aide neatly gathered up the Duke, who was oozing down like liquid, and said,

“Hey now. How are you going to clean all that yourself? Isn’t it better to let human hands wash you clean?”

There was no need for that; grooming would take care of all this. When the Duke showed a displeased expression, the aide clicked his tongue and said,

“If you don’t clean your chin properly, you’ll get cat acne. And for other things… longhaired cats have chest fur longer than their neck. If you lick your chest, the more you raise your head, the more chest fur will come up… And since your neck is shorter, no matter how much you stretch and shake your neck, the fur stuck to the tip of your tongue won’t fall off. Then you’ll have to walk around all day with a mouthful of fur until it falls off? You’ll become a sad beast with a short neck? Wouldn’t it be better for you to be washed than to do that?”

He didn’t know how this creature without chest fur knew this, but it was certainly not easy to groom luxurious chest fur.

Still, it was much better than getting wet as a cat.

When he was human, he could wash with water, but it was different as a cat. The Duke didn’t like getting wet in his cat state. When his fur got wet, it felt like his combat ability and sensitivity decreased, which was unpleasant.

But…

“I should have… exercised my arms a bit more…”

He couldn’t push away this guy who was struggling just to hold one cat, to the point of hurting him.

The Duke quietly relaxed his body to ease the strain on the aide’s inadequate arms. Thinking that there would be plenty of opportunities to shake off this weak guy anyway.