BTGDF 6

Chapter 6

The cat narrowed its eyes at Kael, who let out a hollow laugh as if the situation were absurd. Then, it sharply turned its head away. It was a completely different attitude from the one it had shown right in front of Evelyn just moments ago.

“Ha.”

Meow-w-w-w!

Annoyed, Kael stepped out of the door and gave it one more slight nudge with his foot, which instantly earned him a fierce hiss.

The cat’s yowls—sounding as though it was protesting what it possibly did wrong—mixed with the low, scolding rumble of the man asking if it thought it did a good job, all blending into the noise of the street.

The dark-red gemstone embedded in the hilt of Kael’s sword glittered brightly, as if it were bursting into laughter.

Claustra, the main castle of the Grand Duchy’s capital, Rauspel. Inside the office of Kael, the Grand Duke of Alphereon.

Aides handed over documents one by one. Seeing his superior busy scanning them, signing immediately, and tossing them to the side, Rousseau cautiously broached a subject.

“The Duke of Gadiot is visiting Claustra—” “Rejected.”

The answer dropped before he had even finished his sentence, but no one in the room pointed that out.

“How should I tell him no?” “Tell him he’s sick and dying.” “Ah, yes.”

Might as well tell him the sun rose in the west.

At the absurd order delivered by his superior, Rousseau let out a low sigh.

The Duke of Gadiot was certainly something for showing up time and time again, but this man rejecting him with such nonsensical excuses that nobody would ever believe was something else entirely.

He’ll probably send him again anyway.

Rousseau slid the documents he was holding toward Kael.

“This is the additional budget request from the Grand Temple and the Magic Association.”

Through his gold-rimmed glasses, Kael’s eyes were filled to the brim with annoyance.

No, it’s not even like I submitted it… Rousseau grumbled frantically in his mind, swallowing the words he couldn’t dare say out of loud.

“Didn’t the Treasury already allocate budgets to both of them?” “They’re asking for more.” “And when they used to tear into each other hand in hand?” “Well, of course they did. From the Grand Temple’s perspective, Your Excellency is a priest of god who fails to fulfill his duties, and from the Magic Association’s perspective, you are the very definition of superstition that needs to be eradicated.” “Anyway, they only hold hands when they want money.”

After checking the additional budget requests from both places, Kael drew a sharp line right through the numbers.

“Tell them to cut it by 30 percent and resubmit. I’m not giving it to them as it is.” “Yes, understood.”

Nodding, Rousseau brought up the final item he needed to report.

“The Empress has sent a gift.”

At Rousseau’s words, Kael’s movements finally stopped. He slowly leaned back against his chair and asked,

“Why?” “She says she wasn’t able to send a New Year’s gift—” “Then why bring it up out of nowhere?” “……” “What did she sneak in with it?” “Portraits of eligible young ladies from prominent noble families.”

A sneer appeared on Kael’s face. “Burn it.” “Pardon?” “Store the gift in the warehouse. Ah, since it’s from my sister-in-law, keep it nicely stored, but burn the rest to ashes.” “As you command.”

As if he had expected this, Rousseau tossed the unopened envelope directly into the fireplace. With such unhesitating actions, it truly was a case of like lord, like aide.

The parchment from the imperial family drifted faint fragrances as it burned away in the fireplace, leaving behind nothing but ash.

“Next is—” “Grand Duke!”

The exact moment Kael was turning his head here and there and letting out a sigh—

“I cannot live like this anymore, even if I die!”

The outer door of the office flew open with a loud bang.

Rousseau, who was about to snap at whoever had the audacity to be so rude, clamped his mouth shut. The other people in the room were no different.

Standing right at the door was a man soaked to the bone from head to toe, having completely singed off the long beard he normally took such pride in.

Black smoke was still wisping from what remained of his beard—an appearance so wretched that no one could ever imagine he was a dignified professor at the Imperial Academy.

“No matter how much salary you pay me, I can’t do this anymore! His Highness Prince Damian is a demon! A total demon!”

At the desperate, scream-filled cry, the aides who had been clustered together all turned their gazes toward one place.

Toward their superior—Grand Duke Kael Grad Alphereon—who was looking at his nephew’s tutor with eyes overflowing with indescribable emotions.

“We’ll need to find another private tutor, it seems.” “Ha……”

At Rousseau’s mutter, Kael pressed his forehead and let out a sigh.

“Prince Damian is a demon! No human wearing human skin could act like this! You cannot just leave His Highness be, Your Excellency! The dignity of the imperial family—”

After venting his pent-up grievances for a long while, the arithmetic tutor ultimately burst into tears and stumbled out of the room.

Judging by the way he latched onto the servant guiding him out, his grievances seemed likely to last quite a while.

“……”

The office fell silent.

Just as the aides, reading the room, quietly began gathering their approved documents, Kael let out a deep sigh and stood up from his seat.

“How many is that now?” “Ten? Twelve? I don’t really remember. Oh? Where are you going?”

Rousseau anxiously asked Kael, who was busy strapping on his sword. There were still documents waiting to be signed, you know?

“I’m stepping out for a bit.”

Realizing where his superior intended to go, Rousseau’s brow twitched violently.

“You’re going to that coffee house again, aren’t you? Why on earth do you keep going to drink that poison?” “I need to drink a cup of coffee just to catch my breath.” “Absolutely not!”

He knew that power made the rules, but this was simply too much to bear.

If your boss is taking a break while you’re stuck working overtime, resentment naturally wells up. That held true even if the boss happened to be your superior.

Baron Rousseau Million—backed by the silent cheers of his junior aides—boldly stepped forward to block Kael’s path.

“His Majesty strictly forbade it! Do you not remember how furious he was, asking why you would drink such a thing instead of resting?” “How on earth would the Emperor all the way in the capital know what his younger brother down in the south is drinking? As long as you keep your mouth shut, it’ll be fine. What did coffee ever do to you?” “No! His Majesty made me promise very firmly that I must stop you from drinking that harmful stuff!” “Do as you like. I’m stepping out.” “Your Excellency!”

Having completely lost the will to work, Kael pulled off his glasses and tossed them aside carelessly.

“That stuff is poison!” “To me, you guys are the poison.”

With that, he walked out without even looking back, muttering under his breath, “Where on earth did Cat go? Haven’t seen hide nor hair of it since earlier.”

“……”

How much time passed like that?

“He called us poison,” Jenita, the sole female aide, finally broke the silence. Her voice wasn’t particularly wounded.

“Nothing new.”

Anton standing beside her looked completely unfazed, and Benjamin nodding along from the front was no different.

“Alright, alright, let’s get back to work. Once he comes back, he’s going to rush through everything in a flash anyway.”

At Rousseau’s urging, the aides went back to work.

It was an ordinary, uneventful day.

However, Kael’s day was slightly different.

“Did you put milk in it?” “Yes, I asked them to add plenty.”

Seeming to prefer it with the milk mixed in, the woman was sipping her coffee with a much calmer expression than the day before.

Kael leaned back in his chair and carefully observed Evelyn as she drank her coffee.

Her reddish-brown hair was tied up into a slightly high bundle, and her green eyes seemed to hold the fresh vigor of a newborn forest.

And…

Why on earth is that bastard here?

Surprisingly, that cursed cat—which had been nowhere to be found back at the castle—was sitting right in her lap.

The woman was one thing, but seeing the pitch-black beast purring as if it had been sitting in its rightful place all along left him utterly speechless.

“I wondered where that troublemaker ran off to since this morning—”

The cat, which had been rolling on its back playing cute, accidentally locked eyes with Kael. Without a single moment of hesitation, the man and the cat shot each other identical looks of extreme displeasure.

“Must it have been bothering you, Milady?” “Ahaha, I only just met it not too long ago, actually.”

Oblivious to their bizarre psychological warfare, Evelyn offered a troubled smile and scratched the cat under its chin.

“It was just sitting right outside the coffee house entrance.”

He really didn’t like the look of that.

“Aren’t you heavy?” “Not at all. It’s cute.” “Seeing you out here today, I take it you haven’t forgotten what happened yesterday……”

At his words, Evelyn couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Considering it swallowed my jewels whole, it can be quite a handful. Still……”

Fixing her gaze on her own reflection shimmering in the cat’s eyes, she replied in a soft voice.

“Thanks to this little one, I was able to get through safely. Maybe because of that, I don’t dislike it.”

The cat—‘Cat’—let out a satisfied, rumbling purr in response to her touch. At that thoroughly brazen act, Kael’s brow twisted into a fierce frown.

That hypocritical bastard.

Watching it pretend to be an innocent, well-behaved kitty while sitting meekly on her lap was entirely baffling.

Wasn’t this the exact same creature that looked down on humans and refused to let anyone come near it? In that regard, it was even more prickly and high-maintenance than his own sister, Sel.

And yet, here it was, acting all tamed.

What on earth is it plotting?

Or wait—was this woman just strange?

Kael clicked his tongue inwardly.

Come to think of it, he was acting strange himself. Allowing a woman—and a woman who was undoubtedly a noble, no less—to sit this close to him while sharing his personal space?

…I’m losing my mind.

Hearing the words slip out under his breath, the woman’s gaze shifted toward him.

Seeing her face full of curiosity, Kael quickly smoothed things over and steered the conversation elsewhere.

“What do you think of this amount for compensation?”

Evelyn checked the numbers written on the piece of paper Kael handed her.

It was a substantial amount—no, an exceptionally massive sum. It was more than she could ever hope to get, even if she took the jewels to a jewelry shop that paid above market rates.