117. Lovers of Jeu de Paume (2)

“Hit me one more time.”

Mikhail muttered with a dazed expression.

“What?”

A laugh burst from Katya’s startled mouth.

Seeing her laugh, he blushed as if belatedly feeling embarrassed.

Lost in thought, what had been floating in his mind came straight out of his mouth without being filtered by his brain.

“Are you in your right mind?”

“I’m serious.”

“Are you perhaps someone who… gets pleasure from being hit?”

“Ha, how does a noble miss like you even know about such things?”

When Mikhail unconsciously let out a snicker, one of Katya’s eyebrows twitched upward.

“Sister-in-law.”

“What?”

“You should call me sister-in-law.”

“……Sister-in-law. How do you know about such things?”

He asked with his lips twitching in displeasure.

Katya was well-versed in many subjects as she tended to read all kinds of books regardless of field.

Moreover, unlike other noble young ladies, she had often personally observed various disputes in the Smirnov duchy.

When domain residents found it difficult to go to court or had minor disputes, they would often seek mediation from their lord.

She was about to say she had seen all sorts of people in her life but decided against it.

She didn’t want to engage in lengthy conversation with her husband’s half-brother who had spouted nonsense about wanting her as his concubine.

“Never mind that. Just answer the question. Are you into that?”

“That’s not it……”

After hemming and hawing, he finally spoke again.

“There’s something I want to confirm.”

Though he hated pain, getting hit by her wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

But it wasn’t like what Katya suggested about getting pleasure from being hit.

That’s why he needed to confirm.

If he still liked this woman even after getting hit again like that day, then maybe this was real love.

He was still confused.

If this was love, it would be his first love.

He had never felt such emotions for any woman, no, for anyone in his life.

Someone who kept coming to mind and bothering him whether his eyes were closed or open, whether they were present or not.

“So if I hit you, you can confirm whatever that is?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll do it, so come here for a moment.”

For some reason, Katya had slowly moved sideways to distance herself from him and beckoned him to come closer.

Though the strange behavior should have made him suspicious, Mikhail’s judgment was clouded by love’s blinders and he simply followed her words.

As Katya leaned against the wooden wall, he smiled down at her while propping one hand against the wall.

“Will you really do it?”

“Your Highness, could you repeat what you said earlier?”

She suddenly switched to formal speech while looking up at Mikhail intently.

And with slightly raised volume too.

“What?”

“I couldn’t hear well earlier because of the cheering from the court. Could you say it again loudly?”

When someone who had been conversing normally suddenly claims they couldn’t hear due to background noise, most people would find it suspicious.

But Mikhail was dumber than expected.

He just smiled, happy that Katya was showing him a friendly attitude and speaking to him sweetly.

He smiled and said in a booming voice.

“Please hit me one more time! Then I think the confusion tormenting my mind will clear and everything will become obvious!”

“How could you say such things? How dare I lay hands on Your Highness the Prince. I’m afraid I cannot fulfill that request. I apologize.”

“What?”

This was different from what she said earlier.

As Katya bowed politely and tried to withdraw from the dumbfounded Mikhail, he grabbed her wrist, feeling wronged.

“This is different from what you said earlier.”

“I’m not sure what you mean……”

“You said you would hit me!”

“Could it be that Your Highness is angry because I asked you to stop when you kept throwing candy at my back earlier?”

“Well, you put it nicely. Since I did something wrong, shouldn’t you be raging and hitting me? Earlier you asked if I get pleasure from being hit? I think I do! So if you hit me—”

Suddenly he saw stars.

The pain of being struck in the back of his head lasted only briefly before Mikhail smiled with an enraptured expression.

He wasn’t happy about being hit, but rather that Katya had granted his ridiculous request.

But something felt odd.

Katya’s hands were neatly folded on her skirt.

‘Huh?’

Before he could turn around wondering what was happening, his head was forcibly turned backward.

Someone had grabbed and pulled his ear from behind.

“Which bastard—!”

He was about to unleash a torrent of curses at whoever dared make him look like this in front of Katya, but his words died in his throat.

There stood his mother Oksana, looking at him with a terrifying expression that shifted between red and blue.

“M-Mother, how are you here……”

“Quietly follow me. Don’t make a scene.”

Actually, Katya had turned her head to the side and let out a laugh of disbelief at Mikhail’s strange request earlier when she spotted Oksana through a crack in the wooden wall.

Come to think of it, Oksana had been watching the game with a bored expression from the highest seats, slightly to the right of where Katya had been sitting.

That’s why she had deliberately walked to the area behind where the former Grand Duchess was and asked Mikhail to repeat what he had said earlier.

Yawning behind her fan, she had heard the familiar voice and listened through the wall, then came down alone after hearing her son’s outrageous words.

She already knew from Katya that her son had previously proposed she become his concubine.

She had let it slide, thinking he had impulsively done so because he had no woman in his life.

But she hadn’t expected this brat to still be pestering her.

And even making the outrageous request to be hit while claiming he enjoyed it.

‘Are there no other women that he has to chase after this wench!’

She could not tolerate her son being completely smitten with the woman who had dared to insult her.

What on earth had that wench done to make both brothers lose their minds over her?

No, Nikolai didn’t matter.

If his partner hadn’t been the daughter of Duke Smirnov, she wouldn’t have cared who he was with.

But she could not stand her precious son, whom she had raised so carefully intending to push aside her stepson and make him the next Grand Duke, being thoroughly bewitched by that vixen.

Biting her lower lip in humiliation and anger, just as she was about to drag her son away by the ear, her eyes met Katya’s.

At that moment, she recalled the warning Katya had given before.

“As you said earlier, you worry a lot about your son. But it seems you should take better care of your other son first.”

A small smile bloomed on her face as she gave a slight bow to her future mother-in-law before rising.

See, I told you to take good care of your son.

Though Katya said nothing, her expression seemed to say exactly that.

Oksana returned a small smile in response before dragging her son away with a frightening intensity.

Having achieved her goal without lifting a finger, Katya smirked before turning to leave.

As she returned to the court and headed for her seat, suddenly sighs of distress erupted from the crowd.

“Your Highness the Grand Duke……”

“Oh my, what should we do?”

When the audience stood up in concern, she finally turned her head toward the court.

Nikolai was sitting on the ground as if he had fallen during the game.

When Luka and those nearby approached with worry trying to help him up, he held out his hand as if to say he was fine.

The game ended with the current score.

There were only a few minutes left until the end anyway, and there was already a considerable point gap between Nikolai and Luka’s team and their opponents.

‘Grand Duke!’

Katya ran down the stairs with a pale face toward the waiting room on the opposite side where he had disappeared.

Her anxiety intensified as she couldn’t tell how badly he was hurt from seeing him from afar.

“I’m fine, so don’t worry and go.”

Nikolai waved his hand, sending away all the court physicians, palace staff, and knights who had rushed into the waiting room where he sat in a chair.

“I was planning to get substituted out by pretending to be injured, but how could Your Highness fall like this?”

Luka asked gruffly as if reproachful.

Though he spoke that way, his actions completely contradicted his words as he took out ointment from the box the medical staff had left with an extremely worried expression.

“Stop nagging and get out. I can treat myself.”

“No, stop trying to do everything alone and let someone help with at least this much!”

“Are you scolding your sovereign now?”

“That’s not what I—”

“I’m really fine. I’ll take care of things here, so hurry and go before my sister-in-law finds out.”

“But still……”

“Tia probably saw me get hurt too. What will you do if everyone comes here?”

Finally Luka was pushed out.

It was his fault.

Somehow he had gotten caught up in the competition and forgotten about the plan to fall and withdraw midway, getting so absorbed in the game.

With 5 minutes left until the end, the opposing team had also gotten fired up at the end and the ball kept going back and forth without stopping, getting faster and faster until this accident happened.

If Nikolai hadn’t fallen, the other side would have gotten hurt.

Between his useless disguise and trying to mind Bianca while focusing on the game, he had lost track of what was most important.

His job was to support the Grand Duke in any situation.

He had thought that now as an adult he could finally control his life smoothly without variables.

His daily life that had always run perfectly was now falling apart with both work and love.

Everything was a mess.

As he headed out behind the court berating himself, someone called out to him from behind.

“Sir Luka?”