Chapter 30

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Chapter 30

“Really, you have married the Duke of Blois? Did you know how surprised I was when I heard the news? Rowaine Larscel, who hates Shapeshifters, was to fiddle with His Majesty again this time. She’s such an incredible woman.”

At that moment, the child’s pupils rapidly enlarged and contracted. In the blink of an eye, Herman’s palm was deeply scratched by the child’s nails.

“Ugh!”

He frowned and pulled away his hand.

“Are you ferocious? Tsk.”

Saying so, he stood up and looked at the wound.

‘She is brave and ferocious, isn’t she? I didn’t even know…’

I called the child and hid her behind me. I then imagined Rowaine’s tone as I opened my mouth coldly to him.

“Don’t touch me. Next time, it might not end with just that wound.”

Perhaps, the wound was painful, though Herman, who turned/lifted his hand a few times in the air, smiled mischievously again.

“His Majesty is impatient, Rowaine.”

The next moment, he pulled out a letter from his arms and handed it to me.

“He let me go, asking me to deliver this to you. He tried to split my legs when he saw you kiss me, though His Majesty let me go again just to please you.”

Shaking his head, he continued to groan.

“I was quite fretful. It’s a great love.”

I opened the letter, listening to his sarcastic remarks through the back of my ear. The letter contained a few lines, perhaps in what appeared to be the Emperor’s handwriting.

「 I apologize for disappointing you with my affairs with the Empress. So, don’t do anything wrong and return to me, Rowaine. If you say you’ll come back, I’ll make sure that your marriage to the Duke of Blois would never happen right away. 」

Only then did I figure out what was going on.

“Did you bring the royal hounds and set them free to convey this?”

“I trembled when I heard that the Duke of Blois was a great cat, but His Majesty gave it to me. Isn’t it cool?”

He stretched out his hand and pointed around—it was a pure white space. Possibly, this place was inside the barrier spread by the dog shapeshifter. I remembered the barrier magic of the dog shapeshifter because it was also the specialty of the male protagonist in the novel.

‘I was surprised.’

I glared at Herman fiercely. For some reason, I had a reasonable doubt that it was a show he prepared to surprise me on purpose.

I returned the letter to him with a cold gesture.

“Tell His Majesty clearly, I have no intention of breaking up this marriage.”

Herman shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

“But, you’ll come to our club again, won’t you?”

Herman and Rowaine belonged to a social gathering of young nobles who wanted to spread all kinds of gloomy desires freely.

Feeling bored with his life, Herman chased after stimulation every minute and every second. And, Rowaine, who felt thrilled by abusing shapeshifters she detested, committing all kinds of evil deeds. It was inevitable that the two met at a social gathering called ‘Libido.’

I shook my head with a look that said no way.

“I’m going to live a new life here, Herman.”

He chuckled.

“I don’t know what it is, but are you really angry with His Majesty?”

Slipping the Emperor’s letter back into his arms, he laughed and spat out a murmur that sounded like a grunt.

“Since I can’t bring you back with me, I’ll need to be very careful again. I’m afraid I might have to seek asylum in another country for the time being.

I did not respond at all. I just waited for him to disappear quickly.

Suddenly, he reached out and grabbed my chin.

“The kiss I got from you in front of His Majesty was the best kiss of my life.”

Then, he leaned over and whispered into my ear and continued his words, “You’d better take care of yourself, Rowaine. His Majesty won’t sit still.”

Gesturing by pointing with his chin, he added his last words.

“He was ready to take you away with him, even if he had to kill Duke Blois.”

As I followed his chin and looked back, I was startled.

All the sounds that had suddenly disappeared returned, and the sharp screams of the dogs pierced my ears. It seemed that there was a big crack in the barrier, and soon, the dome surrounding us was shattered into pieces like glass.

And there stood Dimitri, almost half-naked, with an angry look on his face.

Herman stuck out his tongue.

“To break the barriers of white magic-type dogs with the devil’s black magic. I’ve heard rumors about it, but it’s really surprising.”

However, it was not the time for him to speak so leisurely. It was because the black smoke from Dimitri immediately choked Herman’s throat.

“What have you done to my wife, Count Heres?”

Herman, who was struggling in the air while being caught by the black smoke — the demon who had signed with Dimitri — struggled and said.

“Keuk… Just meeting a friend… that I miss…”

I felt a little grieved. Still, there was no choice but to stop Dimitri.

Because Herman willingly gave up his head not because he was weak, but because he did not want to fight Dimitri. In fact, he was so adept at magic that he was even called an Archmage. Although he was wasting his great talent by being lazy and only chasing his desire to be a pleasure seeker.

“I’m fine, Dimitri.”

Still upset, Dimitri moved his head closer towards Herman, pulling his chin and raising his eyes, like a big cat threatening another cat.

“Did you bring the hounds to just visit a friend…?”

The Emperor’s hounds were well-trained dogs. Even though they were slaves, they were highly trained soldiers that surpassed the knights except for the difference in status. The Emperor’s fearsome battle weapon.

Dimitri deserved to be enraged.

Meanwhile, even though he was being strangled by his throat, Herman pulled the corner of his mouth and laughed.

“As rumored, your personality is quite… ill-tempered, Duke.”

Then, he glanced at Dimitri up and down, mocking him.

“You also seem to have a unique sense of fashion.”

At the end of those words, Herman could not stand it any longer, so he used magic to stir the black smoke that followed Dimitri and split it apart.

“Cough, cough!”

Falling to the floor and struggling to breathe, he noticed Dimitri, who was still gazing at me, and gestured to the dogs. In an instant, the hounds that were waiting for orders all rushed to Dimitri. By the time he blew all the dogs away with the power of the devil, Herman had already disappeared with magic.

I quickly stopped Dimitri from chasing him.

“He’s not worth chasing, Dimitri. Calm down.”

Dimitri let out a slight grumble at his displeasure. It was a whining sound I would hear when cats were forced to endure things they did not like.

“I’m sorry. I know such a person.”

…Actually, it was not me. It was someone the original Rowaine knew.

Regardless, as if accepting my apology, he sighed heavily and looked at me blankly.

“How do you know him?”

“He’s like a tag from the shameful part of this body…”

After muttering the answer back, I then pointed to his attire to distract his attention, who had calmed down a little.

“But, who was in charge of your clothes today? I’d like to meet up and talk to them.”

Dimitri was wearing burgundy trousers and a scarlet shirt, even with all the buttons unbuttoned.

‘It is said that the completion of fashion is the face…’

It was surprising that even though he was wearing a bright red top and bottom, his handsomeness was not covered. It just hurt my eyes.

I forgot to ask why he suddenly appeared here, as I was instinctively turning away from the strong abs that could be seen through the loose top.

Dimitri could not understand what was going on with Rowaine’s unfavorable reaction, so he glanced down at his outfit for a moment before buttoning up the shirt with a look of enlightenment.

‘…When I saw the hounds running at them, I could not fasten the buttons in a hurry, so they must be nagging me for being untidy.’

Rowaine’s strange gaze stung him, so he buttoned them up more meticulously than usual.

He did not glance up at her right away. As if he was a turtle, Dimitri kept glancing at her without looking directly at her as though he was embarrassed.

However, even though he had all the buttons up to the end of his neck more neatly than ever, her expression did not improve.

Dimitri asked Coco with his eyes.

‘What’s wrong with my outfit?’

Coco, who had the same eyes as him, tilted his head and answered with his eyes as well.

‘It’s just plain. But, is that the same color as the angel? …I am jealous.’

Dimitri grinned.

Just as cats are born red-blind by nature, to those born with red-blindness, Dimitri’s burgundy pants looked more like gray by human standards, and a scarlet shirt seemed more like faded light green.

Dimitri, who usually wore achromatic clothes, put aside the clothes he would normally wear and specially packed the pants and shirt he was wearing.

The same colors as Rowaine…

She was beautiful, so the clothes she wore must have been beautiful as well. Even though He did not know what these colors would look like by human standards, still, Dimitri was satisfied.

As he reached out to Rowaine, shrugging his shoulders and ruffling his shirt with a proud hand to smooth out the wrinkles on the clothes.

“It’s late, though you better go home, Madam.”

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