The Northern Grand Duke and the Cat Are Not So Different

Chapter 30

Normally, this would have been the time to frolic with his assistant in bed. The Grand Duke dragged his feet towards the bed.

However… he didn’t sense the assistant following behind.

Wondering why this guy wasn’t coming, he turned around.

He saw his assistant staring at the water bottle with slumped shoulders and lifeless eyes.

Confused by the assistant’s sudden change from being excited like he’d just succeeded in a hunt, the Grand Duke stopped in his tracks.

Noticing the Grand Duke, the assistant’s eyes began to sparkle again.

“Your Grace! You’re interested after all, aren’t you? It’s different, right?”

The assistant, who shouted hurriedly, started moving busily as if the Grand Duke’s interest might fade if he didn’t hurry.

“Since it’s clean water, a glass cup would be better, right?”

The assistant quickly grabbed a glass from the arranged containers and tilted the water bottle over it.

With a gurgling sound, the clear water flowed into the glass. A glass of rippling water was placed in front of the Grand Duke, whose ears had perked up at the sound of flowing water.

‘He usually stops after a bit… but he’s quite persistent today.’

As the Grand Duke was puzzled by the incomprehensible water boasting, the assistant spoke.

“Your Grace. This is locally sourced water from melted eternal snow. I got it because I wanted to give it to you.”

It seemed this time the water was specially obtained to show the Grand Duke.

‘Even so, it’s still just water.’

Well… the way the shadows created by the rippling water were reflected through the glass onto the floor was quite a sight to see.

Satisfied after seeing what the assistant had prepared for him, the Grand Duke raised his head. And… he met two eyes sparkling with inexplicable expectation head-on.

‘…?’

The assistant, who normally wouldn’t maintain eye contact this long, wasn’t averting his gaze. Finding this strange, the Grand Duke continued to stare at the assistant.

How long had the cat owner with something he wanted from the cat and the cat who didn’t understand what the owner wanted and just felt burdened been maintaining eye contact?

Gradually, the sparkle that had filled the assistant’s eyes began to fade.

With the light in his eyes half gone, the assistant cautiously opened his mouth.

“Doesn’t it look… really clear and clean?”

At the assistant’s words, the Grand Duke lowered his gaze again to check the water in the glass. Indeed, it was clean water without a single impurity. But so what?

As the Grand Duke just stared blankly at the incomprehensible assistant, the assistant looking back at the Grand Duke asked.

“Don’t you feel… like trying a sip?”

Drink it? That?

Why on earth?

The Grand Duke, not feeling any need to drink water, fell into thought, wondering why his assistant was acting like this.

“If you try a sip, you might want to drink more…”

Seeing the assistant becoming visibly dejected in real-time, the Grand Duke stretched out his neck to sniff, thinking there might be something special… but while it was fresh water, it was still just water. The Grand Duke, who didn’t particularly need water, pulled his neck back.

“I guess… this doesn’t work either…”

With the Grand Duke’s neck fully retracted and the light completely gone from his eyes, the assistant heaved a deep sigh, put down the glass, and turned away.

It seemed he had given up on offering water to the Grand Duke. Sensing the end of the assistant’s eccentric behavior, the Grand Duke flopped down to spend time as usual and started licking his furry front paws.

Spreading his toes to groom the fur in between them carefully…

“Sigh… how can I make him drink water…”

Diligently grooming by nibbling on his tightly clenched paw…

“He needs to drink water… to be healthy… I got this water specially… I wish he would drink it…”

Trying to groom his claws that were slightly less exposed due to the string the assistant had wrapped…

“Cats… need to drink water… it’s a big problem if they don’t drink water…”

…when suddenly, the conversation he had overheard earlier came to the Grand Duke’s mind.

‘Moreover, Liza treats him so well. But that guy just gives Liza the cold shoulder whenever she wants to do something.’

‘He’s really unpleasant… If a sweet younger man appeared and tried to seduce her while she’s with such a guy, how could a person resist?’

The assistant who had obtained water to give to the Grand Duke. And the Grand Duke who had never done anything the assistant asked.

The Grand Duke, who had been staring blankly at his front paw that he had been grooming diligently, put it down with a thud.

‘Well, compared to showing my paw pads…’

Drinking some water wasn’t a big deal.

Of course, the Grand Duke still didn’t need water. He couldn’t understand why the assistant was so obsessed with water.

But… what could he do? That guy wanted it so badly.

The Grand Duke let out a small sigh to clear his reluctant mood and got up. While he felt he should drink it since the assistant desired it so desperately… he still didn’t feel like drinking water at all.

He had gotten up, but as he was wondering what to do next, something suddenly caught the Grand Duke’s eye.

The water glass on the bedside table… that the assistant often sipped from.

‘If it’s that…’

It might be worth trying.

* * *

“The accommodations for the delegation should be arranged with the dwarves’ physical characteristics in mind as much as possible…”

Hans, continuing his report, glanced up slightly to look at the Grand Duke who was silently listening to the report.

The Grand Duke, who had never shown a different expression since he first revealed himself to his vassals at the age of four, was wearing his usual ice-cold face that seemed to exude chilliness even today.

The Grand Dukes of Reinke have been absolute rulers who have not hidden their cruel and self-righteous nature for generations. And the young Grand Duke before him had been praised as the most Reinke-like heir since childhood.

Overwhelmingly powerful even among the direct line of Reinke, all known for their exceptional martial prowess. Add to that a wildness and cruelty incomprehensible to ordinary people.

In the North, which had long been under the rule of the ducal family, Dietrich Reinke, the Grand Duke who was more like the direct line of Reinke than anyone else, had always been a fearsome and overwhelming presence. No one could think of anything else in his presence.

Even when he suddenly inherited the title at a young age due to the calamity that engulfed the North, no sane person dared to dispute his decisions.

‘Well… it’s also because all the insane people died and aren’t around anymore.’

Anyway, the Grand Duke being a fearsome and distant figure was the same for Hans, who had lived his whole life as a vassal of Reinke.

That is… until the Grand Duke suddenly became the lover of Hans’s sore spot, his youngest son.

Since rumors about his youngest son and the Grand Duke started circulating, Hans’s eyes had never been dry of tears. Hans had originally made Julia carry handkerchiefs around due to his tendency to cry at the drop of a hat, turning her into a typical Northern knight after their romance, but recently Julia had started carrying two handkerchiefs.

Although he cried less after learning that his son also loved the Grand Duke and had entered into a relationship willingly… now the concerns he had put off came flooding back, complicating Hans’s feelings.

‘How did our delicately raised youngest end up with such… but our youngest says he likes it too… but our youngest is still so young… that thief… no, what blasphemous thoughts are these about His Grace. But still, our youngest…’

Hans looked at the man who was both his fearsome superior and his son’s lover with troubled feelings.

If their relationship continued like this, would this terrifying Grand Duke become his daughter-in-law? With that thought, the Grand Duke’s fierce face and intimidating shoulders came into view.

Daughter-in-law… or not? Then son-in-law? But Ruan was his son?

As Hans was pondering about the future daughter-in-law or son-in-law who might rip out his throat at any moment,

The Grand Duke, who had been quietly listening to the report while sunk into his seat, suddenly raised his hand.

‘Eek!’

Forgetting even his pondering about what to call his son’s male lover, Hans instinctively cowered first, then realized that the Grand Duke was extending his hand to the side, not towards Hans’s neck.

Carefully lowering the documents he had raised reflexively as if to protect his neck, Hans followed the Grand Duke’s hand with his gaze…

He saw his son drinking water enthusiastically. Now that he looked, there was a large pitcher on his son’s desk. And seeing that it was half empty, it seemed he had drunk more than just a glass or two.

It wasn’t even tea… why was he drinking plain water like that?

While Hans’s tear glands forgot to shed tears at his son’s sudden eccentric behavior, Ruan, who had been passionately drinking water, placed the water glass he had been using into the Grand Duke’s hand.

‘Why that?’

No, even if they were lovers, to give a used water glass to that Grand Duke. If this offends the Grand Duke…

Overwhelmed with worry, Hans looked at the Grand Duke with trembling eyes.

The Grand Duke, still wearing his cold expression, was staring blankly at the water glass Ruan had given him.

What if the displeased Grand Duke throws the water glass? It wouldn’t be surprising if that Grand Duke did such a thing. Then what about our fragile youngest… As Hans’s eyes began to moisten with fear and he was about to subtly pull his son behind his back,

The Grand Duke brought Ruan’s used water glass to his mouth. And. The water glass tilted, and the Grand Duke’s prominent Adam’s apple moved up and down.

‘What’s this? He’s drinking?’

While Hans was relieved to see the Grand Duke using the water glass for its intended purpose instead of as a weapon, even though he didn’t understand what was going on…

Clap clap clap clap.

His son started clapping with a face full of joy as if he had just witnessed a touching scene.

And the Grand Duke, who was watching his son with narrowed eyes…

Raised the cup again and took another sip of water.

Then.

Clap clap clap clap clap!

His son’s face became overflowing with emotion and he started clapping even more vigorously.

…What on earth is going on?