The Northern Grand Duke and the Cat Are Not So Different

Chapter 16

When the Duke woke up next to his aide, he was honestly a bit surprised. He had slept much longer than he expected.

‘I thought I couldn’t sleep with another creature around, but…’

To think he could achieve such deep sleep instead.

Was it because the aide wasn’t a threat but a member of his group, making his presence actually comforting? In the Duke’s world, composed of things that were threats and things that weren’t, stability was usually achieved by being wary of and eliminating threat factors. But to think that someone’s presence, rather than the elimination of something, could bring peace.

This was something the Duke, who had never formed a group with anyone before, had never imagined.

As he was thinking this, the aide began to stir, seemingly waking up. The Duke watched with narrowed eyes full of satisfaction.

It seemed the Duke wasn’t the only one feeling comfortable with a group member; the aide also looked very at ease in this situation.

‘To think we can be a source of comfort for each other.’

Since meeting the aide, the number of things the Duke was experiencing and learning for the first time kept increasing. For the Duke, who was usually wary of new things, this should have been stressful. But it was fascinating how the things he came to know and experience through the aide made him feel ‘why didn’t I know this before?’ rather than discomfort.

As the aide showed signs of satisfaction upon touching the Duke’s body, the Duke also felt satisfied and let out a purr.

When he had to return to the Duke’s castle to perform his morning routine, leaving behind the awakened aide, he even felt a bit regretful. His tail dragged on the ground the entire way to the castle.

But then the aide, who came to the castle to start his duties, requested to stay by the Duke’s side from now on.

‘I guess he was satisfied with my care.’

After being cared for like that once, he wanted to stay under the Duke’s protection continuously. Certainly, that fragile guy might die somewhere if left alone… It did seem better to keep him close and take care of him.

As the Duke mentally raised his tail straight up, a good idea occurred to him.

‘Since we’re doing this, I should mark him as someone under my care.’

Throughout the morning, the Duke carefully imprinted his scent on the aide every time he passed by. And when the aide was almost pickled in his scent,

Judging it better to quickly let in the trembling guy, the Duke called for the head butler.

The Duke gave the aide a space located very close to his sleeping area. It was a space he had originally kept empty because his sensitive senses were disturbed by someone being there, but…

It seemed okay to have the aide there.

After sending the aide in early, who had once again pleased the Duke by not hiding his reliant and following attitude even in front of the head butler,

The Duke became extremely distracted.

It was the first time he had been so unable to focus on work since the aide had completely banned the use of quill pens in the office, saying the Duke’s concentration was too poor.

But…

Thinking of the aide resting comfortably in his space, how could he help the sudden feeling that he needed to run wildly from one end of his territory to the other?

His bottom fidgeted, wanting to go out right away, but there was still a lot of work left to take care of his territory, so the Duke grudgingly worked according to his routine.

Time passed, and soon it was time for his patrol.

Although it was quite disappointing not to meet the aide during patrol for two days in a row, the Duke was still okay.

‘Because that aide is resting in my space.’

Pleased just by that fact, the Duke strode vigorously through his territory. In the middle, he even did a little running that he couldn’t do during the day because he was in a good mood.

After a fulfilling and rewarding patrol,

The Duke returned to his castle with confident steps and suddenly remembered something he had forgotten.

‘Come to think of it, the aide really liked this cat form.’

The aide, who usually spoke in a low and gentle voice, saying only what was necessary, would chatter non-stop in a voice at least an octave higher when meeting the cat form. The guy who never initiated contact when the Duke was in human form would readily touch various parts of the Duke’s body when he was in cat form.

‘He likes it so much, but he hasn’t seen it for two days… He must be quite upset.’

He might even get sick again from being too upset. That shouldn’t happen, so the Duke decided to responsibly go find the aide.

The Duke headed towards the room he had given to the aide.

Standing on two feet, he opened the door with his front paws and entered. Quiet breathing could be heard.

The room was warm, perhaps because the head butler had carefully carried out the Duke’s orders, and the aide was deeply buried in a thick blanket. Unlike what he had seen the day before, the Duke puffed out his fluffy chest proudly at the cozy environment.

‘Indeed, it’s much better to keep him under my protection than to leave him alone.’

The Duke jumped onto the bed where the aide was sleeping.

The aide was sleeping with a peaceful and defenseless appearance. Seeing this, the Duke couldn’t help but lick the aide’s clear forehead and thought,

‘I came to show him this form, but it would be a shame to just leave because he’s sleeping.’

There was no choice but for the Duke to stay here until the aide woke up.

The Duke curled up and lay down on the bed. But after settling in, he felt a bit far from the aide.

‘Hmm…’

The Duke rolled over onto his side, pressing his back against the aide’s leg. The slightly lower body temperature felt good through his back.

Good enough to drift off to sleep…

* * *

When Ruan woke up, it was already dark all around.

‘I started sleeping not long after having lunch and getting my room assigned… How much time has passed?’

His physical condition must have still been poor, as he had slept deeply despite the change in sleeping place.

‘I was planning to go meet the cat today…’

Since their first encounter, the cat had started appearing at the same time and place every day. It seemed to be the cat’s routine, and it had long become a habit for Ruan to go to that place at that time to see the cat.

‘Sometimes I wonder if I’ve been tamed by the cat…’

But what does it matter if he can greet the cute furry creature?

Anyway, he had been going to meet the cat regularly as if they had an appointment, but suddenly he had missed seeing the cat for two consecutive days.

‘What if the cat waited for me?’

Considering its size and muscles, it was probably eating better than him, but still, he should have prepared some snacks…

As he was thinking this, Ruan suddenly realized that his calf area was particularly warm.

Raising his body in puzzlement… he saw a large, dark mass near his calf.

“Hm?”

As Ruan unconsciously made a sound, eyes appeared on the mass. Only when he saw those eyes, glinting as if shooting lasers even in the darkness, did Ruan realize.

“Oh. Cat.”

That huge black mass was the cat he had been thinking about just moments ago.

‘Black cats really are hard to see in the dark…’

Ruan placed his finger near what he guessed was the cat’s nose based on the position of its eyes, though he couldn’t actually see the nose, and spoke to it.

“Kitty. Did you come looking for me because I didn’t go out?”

The cat put its nose to the tip of Ruan’s finger, sniffed for a moment, and then started rubbing its forehead and cheeks against it. Smiling softly at that warm and soft affection, Ruan said,

“I’m sorry. I made you come all the way here because I couldn’t go out.”

As if accepting Ruan’s apology, the cat bumped its forehead against the back of Ruan’s hand. As he gently scratched the cat’s cheeks, forehead, and between its eyes in gratitude,

Ruan suddenly remembered another giant cat that had been busily leaving its scent on him this morning.

‘I must smell like the Duke right now…’

Is it okay for this cat if I smell like another cat?

Ruan, who had experience of being playful with a street cat before coming to this world and then getting swatted with cat punches by his hissing house cat when he went home, fell into worry.

But come to think of it…

‘If this cat leaves its scent on me, will the Duke smell that too?’

Getting cat punches from the Duke would probably be fatal.

For a moment, the rumor of the Duke tearing apart orcs with his bare hands flashed through his mind, but… a lowly human had no ability to refuse a cat bestowing affection through head-butting.

However, what worried him was…

“Kitty. This is actually the territory of a super big and super strong cat… I’m not sure if it’s okay for you to be here…”

This Duke’s castle was probably the territory of the strongest cat in this world.

“What if he gets angry at you for entering his territory? He’s the strongest cat in the world. Should we leave now?”

Ruan cautiously suggested, but the cat, far from wanting to leave, instead thumped its tail on the bed with an displeased look.