The Northern Grand Duke and the Cat Are Not So Different

Chapter 18

Someone might say, “After all, isn’t the cat side and the human side both the Duke? Then isn’t there no problem?”

But that was really said out of ignorance. The real problem lay in the fact that both sides were entirely the Duke.

If they were different beings treated differently, he wouldn’t say anything. But he was clearly the same cat, yet the other party treated him with a completely different face and manner when they met during the day versus at night.

He knew exactly how far that guy could go.

At night, he was so eager to please, acting all sweet like he was melting. But after just a few hours, during the day, he treated him with a stiff attitude as if he were a different person…

It really made him feel genuinely wronged.

For the Duke, who had never felt wronged in his life, this was an extremely shocking experience. It was shocking in a completely different way from the other things he had learned because of the aide.

So recently, the Duke was a bit annoyed with the aide.

But in the midst of this…

“Kitty, really, can’t we brush you? Really?”

To even bring out a brush.

Isn’t brushing about grooming the fur? Then ultimately, it was grooming.

As a member of the same group, he could understand grooming parts of the face that one couldn’t lick themselves. That was an expression of loyalty and a kind of mutual aid concept.

But to groom the entire body, not just the face level?

Isn’t that something a mother cat does for a kitten that can’t manage its own body well? For an adult cat capable of neatly grooming its own fur, being subjected to such a thing was nothing short of an insult.

What the Duke had done for the sick aide recently… well… the aide was practically an existence that the Duke had to take care of. So that could be overlooked.

Anyway, the Duke was already in a very bad mood, and the oblivious aide was now offering to groom his entire body in this situation.

Feeling upset, the Duke raised his front paw and swatted away the brush the aide was holding.

“Ah!”

Losing the brush to the sudden attack, the aide looked dejectedly at the brush that had rolled far away.

“Here… there’s no lint roller or hairball management food… If we can’t even brush…”

The Duke turned away from the aide, who was again spouting nonsense he couldn’t understand. It was obvious that continuing to watch would only worsen his mood.

How long had it been like this?

The aide, who was always busy babbling nonsense non-stop, was unusually quiet.

Was he deeply hurt by having his brushing attempt rejected? Or did that weak guy’s hand hurt because the Duke had hit too hard? Thinking this, even the rustling behind him started to feel subdued.

The Duke’s pointed ears, which had been facing forward, slowly turned towards where the aide was. Once again, a rustling sound that seemed gloomy came from behind.

The Duke’s tail began to move back and forth on the bed, his feelings unnecessarily complicated.

A moment later.

“Um… are you very angry? I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

Finally, the Duke couldn’t help but wiggle his bottom at the truly dejected voice from behind. Although he was still displeased… that guy was being too gloomy. The Duke moved until his bottom was just barely touching the aide and settled in place.

And then…

“Will you forgive me? Thank you so much. Our kitty is so generous… I’ll do better. Okay? I won’t make you angry anymore. Wow, our kitty is really awesome. The best. Much better than humans!”

Thanks to the aide who was overreacting to just that small gesture, the Duke became annoyed again.

* * *

‘The cat must have been really upset…’

Ruan recalled the cat throwing cat punches the day before.

Of course, it hadn’t extended its claws and the punches weren’t that forceful, but… it was a really solid, tightly clenched fist. It seemed like there was some real feeling behind it.

‘Was brushing that unpleasant?’

But setting aside Ruan’s bedding that had become covered in black fur, for the cat’s health, they couldn’t not brush it. Moreover, this giant cat was a long-haired breed that endlessly produced fur too long for it to manage on its own.

As Ruan was pondering how to brush the cat without offending it, his gaze fell on the calendar.

Among the dates filled with all sorts of schedules, one date stood out, clearly marked. It was the day when the delegation sent for exchanges with the dwarves was expected to return.

‘Exchange with the dwarves…’

The exchange between Reinke and the dwarves was currently the most important project for the people of Reinke. However, it was also a story that had never appeared in the novel “Tales of the Sirah Empire” that Ruan had read.

Living as a transmigrator in Reinke always felt like this. He clearly knew important stories about this world, but he didn’t know any of the important stories in his own life. He didn’t even know common sense that even a three-year-old in Reinke would know.

‘There’s really no advantage to being a transmigrator.’

Aren’t transmigrators supposed to monopolize benefits by using information as a weapon… But why had he become a bumbling fool who didn’t even know common sense—in fact, what Ruan believed to be common sense wasn’t applicable in this world, but Ruan didn’t know that yet—and ended up turning a perfectly normal Northern Duke into a cat?

If he knew a bit more, he could have been helpful to the Duke as a transmigrator.

As Ruan was thinking about the cat he was serving, he suddenly recalled the last image of the Duke described in “Tales of the Sirah Empire”.

That is… the description of a lonely and empty profile standing alone before a pale winter.

‘Hmm…’

That was a story for later, so he’d set it aside for now.

‘Still, it seems like this delegation will return with good results.’

In “Tales of the Sirah Empire,” Reinke appears directly only once. That’s when Luise, the protagonist, personally visits to seek cooperation from the Duke.

And at that time, Reinke was described as being in a much more recovered state compared to the Reinke Ruan was living in now. By Ruan’s estimation, as someone who had come to understand much of Reinke’s actual situation and inner workings as the Duke’s aide, quite dramatic changes would be necessary for that level of recovery to occur before Luise’s visit.

As far as Ruan knew, in the current situation, the only thing that could bring about such a level of change was the exchange with the dwarves.

So things should work out well, but…

Regardless of that, Ruan had one problem.

The return of the delegation meant the return of the Daen family members who had left as part of it.

‘How should I explain this situation to them, where their youngest suddenly packed up and moved into the Duke’s castle…’

Ruan recalled the rumors currently circulating in Reinke.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a story about a naked Duke wandering the streets, but… for the Daen family members who were particularly overprotective of their youngest, who they had almost lost and who was “not in good condition,” it was a story shocking enough in its own right.

After all, Ruan was now living in the room next to the Duke’s inside the Duke’s castle.

According to the circulating rumors, Ruan Daen was almost the Duke’s official lover and… in a position like a princess almost imprisoned in the castle by the terrifying Duke.

‘It’s really not like that.’

Unlike before, the current Duke was really just a big cat. And Ruan was simply staying by the Duke’s side as a servant chosen by the cat Duke.

But perhaps because of the Duke’s accumulated image until now, the rumors were spreading in an excessively ominous direction. Even Ruan, observing the situation, felt wronged.

‘No. What did our cat do?’

Anyway.

The situation was that the Daen family members, who had left Reinke worrying about leaving their youngest behind, would return only to hear not a heartwarming story about their youngest being chosen by a giant cat, but an untraceable tragic princess story.

Moreover, the Daen family members weren’t the type of moderate people who would wait like Rapunzel’s prince for the imprisoned princess to let down her hair. They had both the resolve to confront the terrifying Duke at the risk of their lives and the physical abilities honed from fighting monsters regularly.

So he needed to think of a way to explain well and prevent an uproar before the delegation returned, but…

‘Well, there are still a few days left, so I can think about it until then.’

Ruan decided to focus on the documents in front of him rather than on matters that weren’t imminent.

And soon… he would come to regret the choice made at this point.

* * *

As a transmigrator who knew fragments of Reinke’s future, Ruan had expected that this delegation’s mission would go well.

But he never imagined that it would go so well that… the delegation would successfully complete their work much earlier than the scheduled date, and part of the delegation would return even earlier for reporting.

And… that Julia Daen and Joachim Daen would be included in that ‘part’ coming for the report.