The Northern Grand Duke and the Cat Are Not So Different

Chapter 2

“I hear the Duke’s assistant has run away again.”

Hans Daen, Ruan’s ‘father’, sighed deeply as he spoke.

“The first person lasted at least ten days, I think… It seems the duration is getting shorter each time. But to run away after just 3 days…”

As Hans spoke in a gloomy voice, Ruan’s ‘mother’, Julia Daen, who was sitting next to him, patted his shoulder and said,

“Well, His Highness has been particularly irritable lately. Even the knights who have served him for a long time are cautious out of fear, so it must be unbearable for someone who’s just started working by his side.”

Ruan nodded halfheartedly while chewing on sour black bread, listening to the affectionate couple’s conversation.

It was understandable… This was the eighth time he had heard the same story, just with different numbers. It was the eighth time that Duke Dietrich Reinke’s assistant had run away.

‘And that’s just within two months since the original assistant retired due to illness.’

It was quite unique and serious, but as Julia said, it wasn’t incomprehensible.

Duke Dietrich Reinke, who ruled ‘Reinke’ located at the northernmost part of the empire, was a figure of fear for everyone.

Even Ruan, who had been possessing ‘Ruan Daen’, the second son of the Daen family, vassals of Reinke, for just over two months, knew several of his ominous rumors.

The young duke with an extremely blunt personality who never spoke unless absolutely necessary…

Rumors said he suddenly killed a vassal who had been by his side since childhood without any warning.

During the recapture of Reinke, he summarily executed anyone who interfered with his plans, leaving no day without bloodshed.

There were even rumors about him tearing orcs apart with his bare hands.

According to the rumors, Northern Duke Dietrich Reinke was an incommunicable and unpredictable autocratic leader, and moreover, a control freak who didn’t hesitate to impose severe punishments if anyone interfered with his plans.

Such a person who didn’t hesitate to carry out sudden executions, and was even strong enough that the victim would only realize they’d been beheaded after the fact if he decided to do so.

‘This is really the worst.’

When he was just a character in a novel, Ruan hadn’t thought much about it, but imagining him as a real person, the Northern Duke was the worst boss possible.

It was natural for everyone to get scared and run away when such a person watched the new assistant all day with eyes that looked ready to devour them. 

Moreover, this had happened several times already, causing disruptions to work because assistants kept running away out of fear…

The already ominous atmosphere around the Duke was bound to be at its worst.

‘But still… I guess they’ll somehow find a new person again this time…’

Just as they had done in the previous eight instances.

He didn’t know how long the next one would last, but… Anyway, it shouldn’t be any of his business.

By the way, why did black bread remain so dry no matter how much you chewed it, he thought, about to drink some stew.

“So, Ruan.”

The couple, who had been discussing the Duke’s assistant among themselves, suddenly called out to their youngest son.

Wondering what was going on, he raised his head to find Hans and Julia looking at him.

“Well… as you know.”

With extremely worried expressions.

That apologetic, helpless look made an ominous feeling creep up the back of his neck.

‘No way…?’

As Ruan cast an anxious glance, Hans continued speaking with a face that seemed unsure of how to put it.

“Since that incident in Reinke… There’s no one left in Reinke with enough education to be an assistant, right?”

It was true.

Not much time had passed since the recapture and reconstruction of Reinke, the empire’s northernmost territory that had fallen to the monster wave.

Many people, including the previous Duke and his wife, had died in the process, and Reinke, which was focusing all its efforts on reconstruction, had little manpower to spare. Among them, those who could read and write, and were skilled in calculations and paperwork were even rarer… and eight of those who met all these criteria had recently run away.

Ruan recalled the faces of the people he had come to know since arriving in Reinke.

So, how many people with the required specs remained? And among them, who could be immediately recruited and put to work?

The answer came quickly.

Ruan stopped chewing the black bread and looked at Hans.

‘No way… really?’

“So now…”

The phrase ‘no way’ often raised flags as much as ‘looking at a girlfriend’s photo while saying you’ll propose when you return home before a battle’.

And finally, those words came out of Hans’s mouth.

“You need to become His Highness Dietrich’s assistant.”

* * *

Ruan Daen would only learn later, but there were circumstances behind this incredible record of 8 resignations in 2 months and his sudden employment. It was a tragicomic incident created by the combination of a cat-like Duke sensitive to changes and new assistants who were excessively frightened by the Duke’s terrifying image.

When the assistant who had worked with him for a long time expressed his intention to retire due to illness, the Duke was at a loss.

The thought of a familiar person disappearing from his well-organized life and having to bring in someone new was quite a stressful factor for him, being cat-like.

When changes occurred in his territory and daily life, he had to remain vigilant for a long time to verify whether it would become a danger in the future or not.

Why go to such lengths? Because cats are naturally built that way.

Anyway, keeping already sensitive nerves on edge all day long was no small feat, and now having to change the assistant who spent the most time with him in the closest proximity? The Duke was stressed by that fact alone.

But the problem didn’t end there.

The people who came to be assistants kept running away.

The reason was unclear—Ruan Daen, who would later learn about this, thought that not knowing the reason was the problem—but people were afraid of the Duke.

The Duke had never really cared about that before. It wasn’t particularly a risk factor for him.

But when the sixth assistant ran away, the Duke thought for the first time that it might be a risk factor.

People who came saying they would be assistants ran away with pale faces, frightened before he even did anything.

What? The Duke intimidated them with scary eyes and pressured them? How could he take his eyes off a stranger entering his territory, and at such close range? Who knows what danger that could lead to? Isn’t that only natural?

Two months of strangers repeatedly entering and leaving his living space. The Duke’s stress was through the roof.

Moreover, in a situation where 8 people qualified to do the assistant’s job had already run away, Reinke, a territory that had once fallen and was now being rebuilt, had no more literate people skilled in calculations and paperwork left.

They were in a position where they had to employ anyone who could work, regardless of who they were.

So… even if it was the ‘second son of a vassal who had severely injured his head and lost all his memories’.

But Ruan Daen, who was only two months into his possession, naturally didn’t know these circumstances.

He was just a sad person who had been forcibly employed by a black company where eight predecessors had run away in a short period.

‘I thought Hans and Julia were good people… How could they do this to me…’

When he suddenly found himself possessing ‘Ruan Daen’, a resident of the fantasy novel world “Tales of the Sirah Empire”, he was quite bewildered.

“Tales of the Sirah Empire” was, as the title suggests, a fantasy novel mainly about events surrounding the imperial throne of the Sirah Empire. Having been possessed as a resident of Reinke, a barren territory located at the northernmost part of the empire that rarely appeared in the novel, he initially couldn’t even properly grasp that he had become a person in a novel.

In that confusing situation, being able to adapt to the suddenly unfolding medieval fantasy world life was all thanks to the Daen family.

Hans, a somewhat timid but kind administrator, and Julia, a strict but warm-hearted knight, who gently embraced their ‘son who woke up after falling unconscious from an orc attack’ even when he seemed out of his mind.

He thought he could trust this couple at least.

‘I never thought they would push me into such a position…’

Here, ‘such a position’ refers to…

Ruan slightly raised his head, which had been buried in documents.

And then…

Neatly trimmed short black hair. Shoulders like a door. A tall stature that stood a head above even the northerners who were all tall and broad-boned. A face so handsome it was typical to call it typical. A stern expression that suggested a personal space of at least 20 meters.

A man who could only be the Northern Duke in anyone’s eyes…

Was staring at Ruan as if he would devour him.

Really, as if he would eat him alive.

Five days after becoming the Northern Duke’s assistant.

Ruan was under inexplicable surveillance by the Northern Duke, who was said to tear orcs apart with his bare hands, from the moment he arrived at work until he left.