11. On the Same Bed

He probably doesn’t even know what he’s talking about.

For some reason, those words deeply resonated with Nikolai.

“As you said, I’m indeed a noble. I know because I’m a noble, but there’s really nothing special about nobles. There are so many people who are full of pretensions, rude, and have terrible personalities.”

Katya said, recalling Ivan, Gregory, and all her other suitors.

Of course, she herself had quite a character.

“You’re much better. No, comparing you to them is an insult to you.”

“If I were a noble, would you have married me?”

“Of course. I definitely would have married you.”

Unaware of what would happen in the near future, she made a statement that she would soon regret the most.

Nikolai gave a peculiar smile at her satisfactory answer.

“When you beat up the guys sent by my suitor earlier, you mentioned assassins, so it seems like your life hasn’t been smooth either.”

“Debt collectors.”

He hurriedly made up an excuse to gloss over it.

Since ascending as the Grand Duke of Hersen following his father, Nikolai had faced countless assassination threats.

In a situation where he never knew when someone might take his life, he would wake up at even the slightest rustling sound, which led to a habit of sleeping lightly.

He suffered from insomnia every day, and whenever he managed to fall asleep, he always had nightmares.

Katya believed the excuse about debt collectors.

If he was in debt, it was somewhat understandable why he was doing dangerous work like a mercenary.

She felt sorry for his situation of having to be driven to the battlefield for money.

“Money is good, but you should take care of yourself too. Mercenary work pays a lot because of the risk compensation, isn’t it?”

At those words, Nikolai turned around and met Katya’s gaze.

“Are you worried about me now?”

“Not just me, but if you come back injured from here and there, how sad would your mother be?”

Katya whispered as she knelt with her legs up.

Nikolai thought of his late mother.

As she said, his mother in heaven would surely be heartbroken watching her son who couldn’t even sleep peacefully at night, suspecting everyone.

“My mom passed away when I was ten.”

Katya confessed calmly.

“She was originally so weak that the doctor vehemently opposed her giving birth, and my father even said he would pass the dukedom to a relative and live without children, but my mom insisted until the end and gave birth to me and my younger sister. The time I spent with my mom wasn’t long, but it’s a precious memory.”

“……”

“My mom carried me in her weak body for ten months and gave birth to me with her life, so I don’t tolerate anyone treating me poorly. If my mom knew I was being treated like that anywhere, she’d be upset.”

“……”

“I heard somewhere that all mothers take their own risks to give birth to their children. So regardless of status, we are all precious children.”

Katya slowly brushed back the man’s hair as he quietly looked at her.

In fact, she had been bothered by the many scars on his body since earlier and wanted to say this.

She didn’t know what kind of life he had lived so far, but she hoped his future would be a little smoother than it had been.

“Since you were born so beautifully, you should know the value of your life and not live recklessly, right?”

“Right.”

When the answer she wanted to hear came out smoothly, Katya patted Nikolai’s head as if to say he did well.

It was similar to stroking the head of a well-behaved puppy, but he liked her touch and closed his eyes for a moment.

Not long after, when the two people who had finished bathing came out of the tub,

Katya carelessly jumped out of the tub, causing the water inside to overflow and soak the floor.

It would have been fine if only the floor got wet, but somehow the top of Nikolai’s pajamas, which had been draped over a chair, ended up on the floor.

“No!”

Katya hurriedly picked up the top, but it was already soaked.

“What should I do? I’m sorry. I’ll have to request a new pajama from the inn. Add the cost to the debt you owe me.”

“Well….”

Nikolai scratched his cheek with a troubled expression.

“It probably won’t work.”

“Why?”

“When I calculated the pajama rental cost with the innkeeper earlier, they said it was the last one left because they were fully booked, so I should be careful wearing it.”

“What?”

A towel was placed over Katya’s head as she didn’t know what to do and was just pacing around.

“I’ll just wear the pants and sleep, so don’t worry. You’ll catch a cold, so dry off and change quickly.”

As Nikolai said that and pulled down his wet pants, revealing his hip bone, Katya quickly turned around.

Seeing her suddenly act coy after having already seen almost everything above, he couldn’t help but chuckle.

It had been bothering him that she treated him like a dog, not a man, and bathed with him without a care.

Feeling mischievous, he quickly dried his wet body, changed into pajama pants, and sprawled out on the bed.

Unaware of anything, Katya changed into her pajamas and turned towards the bed.

“Come on.”

Nikolai, lying on his side with one hand propping up his chin, patted the space next to him with the other hand.

Startled by his confident smile, Katya blinked her eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“You said if the rain doesn’t stop, we’ll sleep together for the night. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop easily. If we want to leave early tomorrow, we should sleep early, don’t you think?”

“I-I was planning to sleep on the floor. You should sleep comfortably there.”

Katya said as she slowly backed away.

They had booked one room and even bathed together, but for her, the bed was still a private space.

Even if she didn’t know much, she knew what it meant for a man and woman to share a bed.

Moreover, the bed in the inn was extremely narrow compared to the one in her ducal mansion, and Nikolai had an extraordinary build.

Even if they lay in a straight line to avoid falling off the bed, their shoulders would inevitably touch.

“How is a noble lady going to sleep on the hard floor? There’s only one blanket too.”

“I heard soldiers sometimes sleep on the floor during field operations, so why can’t I?”

“Well, do as you please, then.”

When he backed off without saying much, Katya sighed in relief and roughly placed some clothes on the floor.

She was about to lie down on them when Nikolai, who was on the bed, suddenly spoke.

“There’s one thing I should tell you.”

“What is it?”

“This old building’s wooden floor often has mice running around.”

“Mi-mice?”

At the mention of mice, Katya gulped.

She had never seen a mouse in her life.

She had heard that mice often appeared in the servants’ quarters, but thanks to their diligence in chasing them away, they never appeared in the spaces where Katya’s family stayed.

The ladies’ maid, Alyona, used mice to put the Smirnov sisters to sleep when they had trouble falling asleep.

She would scare them by saying that mice as big as an adult woman’s forearm roamed the corridors at night.

Every time, Bianca would freak out, but Katya, who had gone hunting with her father since she was young, would joke that she wasn’t afraid of mice.

But that was only when it was in the corridor; invading a closed space, especially a bedroom, was a different story.

“Well, it’s okay. The inn must have mousetraps or something.”

“There might be bugs crawling through the floorboards. Is that okay too?”

“……What?”

Katya, who could tolerate mice, looked up at Nikolai with a pale face at the mention of bugs.

“What, what kind of bugs?”

“Well, there might be centipedes and cockroaches….”

Before he could finish speaking, Katya, as if a teleportation spell had been cast, leaped up like a frog and jumped onto the bed.

She hated all bugs, but the ones that started with ‘co’ were the creatures she found most terrifying in the world.

Once, during a vacation at a log cabin, she had encountered ‘that thing’ and had a history of screaming and randomly shooting at the floor.

What was scarier than the shattered floor was the fact that there was no sign of ‘that thing’s’ corpse anywhere.

That night, Katya stayed up with her eyes open.

“You said you’d sleep on the floor.”

Nikolai said, holding back laughter.

“Since it’s come to this, it might not be bad to sleep together, bumping into each other.”

“As you wish.”

Katya eventually lay down next to him.

As their shoulders touched, Nikolai turned his body to the opposite side to create more space and lay facing away from her.

Katya recognized his consideration.

“Sweet dreams, Niki.”

She whispered, looking at his back.

“You too.”

Nikolai briefly sat up, blew out the candle on the nightstand, and rested his head back on the pillow.

Strangely, unlike his usual insomnia, his eyelids closed naturally.

He soon fell into a deep sleep.

The gentle breathing of the two sleeping people filled the room.

How much time had passed? Katya, who was wandering in dreamland, woke up thirsty.

She carefully got off the bed so as not to wake Nikolai, lit a lamp, and quietly left the room.

Despite her caution, the old floor creaked with every step.

Then Katya, who had gone down to the kitchen on the first floor, poured cold tea from the kettle into a cup and drank it.

Thud, thud.

There was a sound of footsteps faintly audible over the heavy rain, but it was definitely there.

Yet, for some reason, it felt out of place.