The Northern Grand Duke and the Cat Are Not So Different

Chapter 8

Several months after the end of the terribly long winter.

Although very different from the peace elsewhere, it should have been a relatively peaceful time for Reinke… Yet Reinke was burning with madness.

“No, His Grace just pulled the aide close and kissed him right there…”

“But how did Ruan end up with that scary Duke…”

“Is Ruan okay?”

“Honestly, how can you kiss someone who might rip your throat out at any moment…”

“I heard this from Karin, apparently when Ruan first became an aide…”

“Come to think of it, Ferdi saw the Duke doing something to his aide…”

The scandal of the terrifying Duke and his new aide Ruan Daen was spreading like wildfire.

‘I thought this might happen, but…’

I didn’t expect it to be this bad.

Ruan Daen quickly hid himself upon seeing people talking about him and let out a deep sigh.

When he was left alone among people pretending to go about their business but actually focused on the brothers’ conversation, he had expected to suffer from rumors.

But the impact of the rumors was beyond what Ruan had vaguely imagined.

Everywhere he went, he heard scandals about himself and the Duke. Moreover, these scandals evolved in strange ways, and everyone he met would give him a knowing look, pat his shoulder, or leave words of encouragement.

This had been going on for three days.

The rumor even reached the Daen family’s dinner table, to the point where Hans was wailing that it was all his fault for sending Ruan to be the aide.

By this time, Ruan felt like gathering everyone in Reinke – as there probably wasn’t anyone who didn’t know about the rumor – and holding a press conference.

But the problem was…

‘I can’t just tell them that because of my nonsense to a spirit cat, the Duke turned into a cat. And that the cat-ified Duke was just head-bunting like a normal cat. I can’t say that…’

To refute the rumors, he needed the truth, but he couldn’t tell that truth.

After the Duke became a cat-human, Ruan had considered telling someone about this serious problem and finding a solution.

But he couldn’t do that.

There was an imperial spy in Reinke trying to use Duke Dietrich Reinke.

In “Tales of the Sirah Empire,” where the main story revolves around the struggle for the imperial throne, Reinke, located at the northernmost part of the empire, was in a position to be pushed around.

In fact, it wasn’t even a significant part of the main story, but whenever it appeared briefly, it seemed to suffer…

Monsters attack from the north, while humans obsessed with political strife harass from the south. They have to deal with both the monsters that frequently invade and the humans who torment them from both sides, complaining that Reinke isn’t taking their side, all while fighting for their lives.

To make matters worse, when an unusually large monster wave hit and they were desperately trying to fend it off, a royal family member who held a grudge for not taking their side stabbed them in the back…

As a result, many people, including the previous Duke and Duchess, died in the chaos, and the people of Reinke were driven to the point of having to flee their homeland, which they had desperately protected, to escape the wave-like onslaught of monsters.

In this situation worse than the worst, it was the young Duke Dietrich, who had just inherited his title, who forcibly united the despairing people of Reinke.

The cold-blooded Duke Dietrich drove the frustrated people of Reinke to successfully reclaim their territory and actively rebuild Reinke, which had been destroyed under the feet of monsters.

In the process, Dietrich Reinke became known as the Empire’s best swordsman and the protector who rebuilt the northern wall… But with such immense symbolism, irreplaceable military power, public support, and elite troops, how could the royals obsessed with political strife leave the Duke alone?

The Duke prioritized the reconstruction of Reinke and refused to get involved in the struggle for the throne, but he gets entangled in royal conspiracies and is once again dragged into the succession dispute.

‘In the war that started that way, all the characters either lost something precious or died.’

Although that would happen only a few years later.

In any case, both the incident of Reinke’s fall, which had already happened but whose details were not well known, and the future incident of getting involved in the succession dispute, involved the royal family, and their method was conspiracy using spies within Reinke.

If he had known who the spy was, it wouldn’t have been a problem… But even though Ruan had read “Tales of the Sirah Empire” to the end, he didn’t know who the spy was.

‘Since Reinke’s story wasn’t the main plot, it wasn’t covered in detail… Most of the content about Reinke was summarized in passing conversations. There’s no way such detailed information like who the planted spy was would have been mentioned.’

How could he go around telling people that the Duke had become a cat-human in such circumstances?

If that information reached the ears of the spy, it was obvious that the royal family, who would stop at nothing for their own benefit, would pounce on the opportunity.

Ruan let out a deep sigh as he recalled the things the characters in “Tales of the Sirah Empire” had done for their own interests.

This whole situation started because of Ruan’s careless words, and he couldn’t let the “Duke who became a cat-human because of him” go through such ordeals.

As a result, all Ruan could say in the face of the rumors was that he wasn’t in that kind of relationship with the Duke…

But with many people in Reinke who had known ‘Ruan Daen’ since childhood and treated him like a nephew, and already overly invested in ‘that Duke’s’ first scandal, there was no way they would take Ruan’s attitude at face value.

In a situation where his passive denial was interpreted as the shyness of a young man in his first love or fear of the Duke, Ruan Daen fully understood the feelings of Galileo who shouted that the Earth still moves in front of people who believed that celestial bodies revolve around the Earth.

He was telling the truth, but no one was willing to listen to him seriously. There was truly no solution.

‘This is why I tried to resolve it quietly by just persuading Joachim, who I thought I could somehow convince if I pressed him…’

But regret changes nothing.

The only fortunate thing, if anything, was that people’s attention would shift entirely to new gossip when it emerged, as always.

There was no way for a human to stop a cat intent on skinship, but at least being careful in front of people would prevent adding fuel to this rumor. Ruan’s only consolation was that as the rumor lost its fire, it would gradually be forgotten, pushed aside by new gossip.

The problem was…

Like a certain cat Ruan knew who only knew how to cause trouble but not solve it, the Duke cat also had a talent for escalating situations without even realizing what he was doing.

* * *

After thoroughly marking his aide with his scent,

The Duke was spending satisfying days.

Recently, for some reason, his territory had been noisy… But for the Duke, who had never cared about what humans were chattering about, it was nothing special.

The Duke’s eyes narrowed languidly every time he recalled the scent emanating from his aide’s body whenever he lingered by his side.

‘I always thought it wasn’t a bad smell, but…’

The aide’s scent mixed with his own was even more satisfying than before.

The Duke, who hadn’t understood why cats would do the strange act of mixing their scent with others’, finally felt he could understand cats who create a ‘group scent’ by mixing scents.

Until now, the Duke had only thought of humans as beings that needed to be cared for as part of his territory, nothing more and nothing less. But he felt that it wouldn’t be bad to make such a dedicated aide part of his group.

It was quite satisfying to see his harmless aide walking around emitting a scent that was practically advertising that he belonged to the Duke.

The sense of stability from having something that belonged to his group. For a cat that easily feels anxiety, securing a source of stability was important, and this fact made him feel quite special.

‘Come to think of it, that guy seems to consider me part of his group too.’

At some point, the aide had started preparing pieces of boiled meat for the Duke every time they met during patrols.

For a solitary hunting cat, sharing one’s prey is an expression of affection that considers the other part of their group. Although he thought the weakling should eat it all himself, not rejecting that prey was the Duke’s own way of responding.

‘But I can’t keep taking food from that weak guy…’

The Duke should also share his prey with the aide who belongs to his group.

Unlike the aide who can only prepare small pieces of meat, the Duke is skilled at hunting and can bring much larger prey. Then, the aide, realizing the strength of the Duke who belongs to the same group, would feel more secure and happy.

The Duke unconsciously made a purring sound as he imagined the delighted aide.

‘So what should I catch for him…’

As the Duke was pondering, he suddenly had a good idea.

* * *

Ruan stared blankly at the ogre carcass placed in front of him.