CH 10

“Is this a proposal?”

Katya asked, suddenly cupping his cheeks with both hands.

“What?”

“Do you want to marry me, do you like me that much?”

“Ha…….”

Nikolai smiled wryly.

She really was always being unexpected.

“Don’t like me too much, no matter how attractive I am. You’ll only hurt yourself. I told you, I’m not the kind of girl you can handle–eek!”

Just then, a sudden burst of sneezing caused Katya to quickly move her head to his side, avoiding his face.

The result was that she found herself in the position of hugging him with her arms around his shoulders.

Nikolai, seeing her soaking wet from the rain, picked her up with one arm and carried her upstairs.

“What if someone sees us!”

“They’ll see us as lovers. I’m practising what the master said earlier, being nice to my lover.”

“Who says I’m your lover? Let me down.”

“Then don’t get hurt.”

Nikolai didn’t bother to listen to her protests, just unlocked the room door and stepped inside.

As soon as he had her settled in the chair, he went back down to the ground floor and asked for a bath to be brought up for an extra fee.

Soon a large wooden tub was placed in the middle of the room, and a maid from the inn, who had scooped up hot water and filled the tub, left the room.

“Get in and warm yourself up.”

With that, Nikolai thrust a heavily pressed bathrobe and nightgown into her hands.

They, too, had been paid for.

He knew Katya would freak out if she found out, so he lied and said they were standard at the inn.

With his back turned to her so she could change at her leisure, Nikolai stripped off his damp smock, lost in thought.

It felt strange. It reminded him of the nobles who complained of being nagged by their wives about how they spent their money.

“Why do you keep bringing up that stupid marriage thing?”

“What?”

“It’s not like you have anything to do with me.”

Nikolai hadn’t said that for nothing.

All of Katya’s nagging about saving money had been reserved for married couples.

The kind of nagging that you wouldn’t say to a stranger.

But strangely, it didn’t feel bad.

Nikolai changed out of his trousers, roughly rolled up his wet clothes, and squeezed the rainwater into a bucket.

As he squeezed the water out with all his might, he felt eyes on him.

He turned to find Katya, who had changed into her bathrobe, staring at him without stepping into the tub.

His naked upper body, to be precise.

A beautiful line of stone-hard muscles lay below his broad shoulders.

Katya wondered what he does to make his body look so good.

“What are you looking at?”

“How can a body be so statuesque?”

Nikolai frowned at the innocence of the question, the lack of selfishness.

“Statuesque is offensive.”

“It’s a compliment.”

“Aren’t most statues small there?”

“There?”

Katya asked, her eyes innocent.

Let’s not talk.

“Distribution.”

Nikolai gestured around.

“I am a big man no matter what.”

Still, he didn’t forget to add a coy appeal at the end.

“You’re definitely big.”

She said, not taking her eyes off Nikolai’s body.

It wasn’t a shy glance, but a stare so openly, like looking at a fish on a market stall. Nikolai felt a little queasy.

“If you want to touch it, you can touch it.”

“What?”

“It’s the same whether you grope with your eyes or with your hands.”

The words were normally quite provocative, but as if waiting for him, Katya coldly placed her hand on his body.

“It’s so hard. Like a rock.”

Nikolai felt his body tense up at her hesitant touch, as if she were picking fruit.

What the hell is this woman?

“You’re cold.”

Katya, who had been indulging in his body, suddenly raised her head and said.

“Do you want to wash up with me?”

“No thanks, I’ll be out–”

“Come on. You’ll only tire the maid if you ask them to carry the tub twice, so let’s get in together.”

Moving quickly behind him, Katya placed both hands on his broad back and pushed him toward the tub.

When her warm hands touched his spine, Nikolai didn’t last long before he was swept off his feet and into the tub like a possessed man.

Katya followed suit, and the two of them settled into a sitting position, facing each other, toes touching.

“It feels like I’m finally alive, don’t you?”

Katya snorted, hugging her knees.

Pale, soft flesh peeked out from beneath the thin, water-soaked material of her bathrobe.

Nikolai couldn’t bring himself to look in her direction, so he turned his head this way and that, pretending to look around the room.

At the same time, he unwrapped the soap and splashed the water to cover the body of this unknown woman.

Not realising the reason for his wandering gaze, Katya muttered.

“I envy you.”

“Of what?”

“I wish I was as muscular and strong as you.”

At those words, Nikolai, who was making soapy water, stopped what he was doing and locked eyes with her.

“What?”

“If I’m strong, no one will look down on me.”

“I will make sure no one ignores you.”

“What are you.”

A smile tugged at the corners of Katya’s mouth as she said it.

“Okay, I feel good!”

Nikolai quickly turned his head to the side as she suddenly jumped to her feet.

Katya walked right up to him, flipped him over so that his body was facing the window, and scooped up water with a stick and dumped it over his head.

Nikolai’s head hung low as the water cascaded down.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m going to wash your hair.”

“What?”

“Hold still!”

A chuckle escaped his lips as he jerked backwards, only to receive a light slap on the backside from her.

It was the first time in his life that he was exposed and vulnerable, receiving a blow to his bare flesh from someone.

Especially if it was from a woman who was small and delicate like a chick.

Never before had a woman treated him so badly.

No, one moment she was slapping him mercilessly on the back, the next she was touching his hair with the most tender of hands.

Every time her fingers touched his scalp, it tickled him strangely.

Whether she knew his thoughts or not, Katya began to lather and soap his hair fervently.

She was now washing his hair as a service to her precious lord.

“You look like Laika.”

Katya giggled as she watched him squirm ever so slightly under her hand, unable to fully escape.

“Who is that……?”

Nikolai asked, his voice dripping with anticipation at the sound of her giggle.

He wondered who it was that could make her laugh like that.

And that it looked like him.

“My dog. She’s just like you in the way she gets distracted and is afraid of baths.”

Nikolai suddenly realised why she was so willing to bathe with him.

Katya was now washing him as if he were a large dog.

Somehow, he was offended.

“Are you saying I’m like a dog? That’s rude.”

“It’s a compliment. You’re so cute and sweet.”

“And I’m not the kind of guy who’s afraid to take a bath.”

What I’m afraid of is…….

“Then what are you afraid of?”

She asked.

‘Not war, not famine, not the plague, not the beasts of the Red Forest, but this little maiden.’

If the members of the Grand Duke’s House Knights had known, they would have laughed, but Nikolai was serious.

This fear was not fear in the usual sense of the word.

He was paying attention to everything Katya said and did.

He was so intensely averse to anyone touching him that he refused to let anyone help him bathe or change his clothes.

He was used to nervously shooing away hands or jumping up and down at the slightest touch, but with Katya, he gave his whole body to her.

As if he were the most obedient puppy she’d ever seen.

“Nothing like that.”

“It’s not like you don’t like baths, so why are you squirming like a freshly caught fish?”

Fish this time?

Nikolai smiled sheepishly and shook his head.

“I’d like to be treated like a human being, so why not?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. Pfft…….”

“Are you laughing now?”

“Sorry, sorry, I’m not laughing now. But I was wondering about something from earlier.”

“What is it?”

“Are you a mercenary or something? You’re really good at fighting.”

The Grand Duchy of Hersen was a top exporter of mercenaries.

The proportion of mercenaries travelling abroad to fight for pay was overwhelmingly higher than the proportion of knights and soldiers officially attached to the state, and it was becoming a social and security issue.

“Something like that.”

“Mercenaries or knights, they’re are quite impressive.”

“How so?”

“Huh?”

“Enough to want to marry?”

“Yeah. I like men who are good at martial arts.”

At this point, Katya had no idea that she would regret saying this in the very near future.

“Well, it’s not like I’m going to marry you.”

“Because you think I have a low status?”

“What?”

“You’re probably a noble.”

Katya’s hand, rinsing his hair with water, stopped.

He was right.

Despite their mutual attraction, they could not marry because of their difference in status.

Though he spoke with an aristocratic accent that she’d picked up somewhere, he was a man whose exact job and status were unclear.

It was a dangerous job, as mercenaries always risked their lives in war. Unlike knights and soldiers who were protected by the state, it was difficult to retrieve their bodies.

If she were to take a mercenary with her on a whim, her father would probably fall down on the back of his neck.

But he didn’t want to hurt this man.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, you’re still the precious child your mother laboured to give birth to.”

Suddenly, an old memory flashed through Nikolai’s mind.

“You lowly useless bastard. You should have died, not your brother.”

His father used to say that every time he saw him.

He thought it was undeniably true.

If he had lived to see the end of his life and inherited the title of Grand Duke, perhaps everyone would have been happy.

But what was this woman saying to him?

“Nikki, you deserve to be loved.”

The words made his heart leap into his throat.