22. Take Me Home and Raise Me Well

Nikolai caught Ivan’s collar again as he was teetering and about to fall from the window.

“If you fall head first from this position, your skull will crack. Blood will spray everywhere and stain the ground red.”

“……”

“If your head doesn’t crack or your neck doesn’t break, unfortunately you won’t die right away. If you’re unlucky, you might hang on for a few more days. People will try to save you against your will, and you’ll slowly die feeling pain that makes you wish you were dead instead. Isn’t that horrible?”

At this graphic description, Ivan felt extreme terror along with an urge to urinate.

Just as Nikolai was about to let go as if he really meant to kill him this time, Katya, who had been standing in the hallway, finally ran over.

“Your Grace, please let him go now!”

At her trembling voice, Nikolai seemed to come to his senses and picked Ivan up only to throw him down on the floor.

Then he approached Ivan, who had fallen flat and was shaking, and spoke quietly through his teeth.

“If you touch Katya one more time, having your stupid head smashed won’t be the end of it.”

“……”

“If you understand, get lost.”

It was a kind of warning.

Nikolai was barely containing his anger right now because of Katya.

Ivan grabbed his throat that Nikolai had been choking and got up coughing.

Seeing him trying to get up pathetically from the floor, Katya reached out her hand to him.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Rejecting her hand out of shame, he got up by himself and as he brushed past Katya, he whispered just loud enough for her to hear.

“I’ll see you later, Katya.”

He was taking out his frustrations on her who had shown kindness she didn’t even have out of pity.

Just as Katya was about to say something about his petty behavior showing his small-mindedness until the end…

“I don’t think I made myself clear,”

Nikolai was faster than her.

“My hearing is better than you think.”

Realizing the words were meant for him, Ivan ran away as fast as he could.

With the nuisance gone, they were finally alone again.

No, there were three with Laika.

Laika rubbed against Nikolai’s leg like a cat, as if thanking him for protecting her master.

Only then did Nikolai feel hurt.

He felt quite unpleasant as he recalled how Katya had just asked Ivan if he was okay.

“Your Grace, are you alright?”

Katya tilted her head and asked, seeing him standing there with a stern face.

When there was no response or movement, she approached Nikolai and took his hand first.

Even when she held it with both hands, it didn’t fit completely due to the size difference.

Katya blew on his palm and rubbed it with both thumbs.

“Ugh, gross!”

“What?”

“It got dirty. Next time, don’t touch that bastard Ivan directly even if he acts up.”

“Why?”

“Why soil your hands killing one measly fly?”

At those words, the hurt feelings in the man’s heart melted away.

Should have said that from the start.

Katya was diligently wiping his hand with her small hands as if she was cleaning a precious porcelain surface.

Though his palm was as big as a pot lid, strangely, his fingers were slender and straight.

Having held a sword since childhood, veins stood out and there were calluses here and there, but aside from that, they were beautiful hands.

‘I thought only his face was pretty, but his hands are pretty too.’

Katya thought to herself.

Then feeling his gaze on her, she looked up and their eyes met.

“Actually, I was scared. That Your Grace might kill someone.”

“Are you afraid of me?”

“No, I was worried it might damage Your Grace’s reputation because of me.”

“It’s not that good of a reputation anyway.”

“I can’t add to that.”

“Honestly, I felt hurt. When you seemed to take that bastard’s–”

It wasn’t appropriate language for a Grand Duke to use about a member of the founding Petrovsky family.

“No, when I thought you were taking that man’s side.”

Nikolai quickly corrected himself.

“How could I? When you two fight, I’m obviously on Your Grace’s side!”

Katya blurted out without thinking.

As soon as those words left her mouth, Nikolai’s cheeks rose sky-high.

Watching his lips curl up in real time, she belatedly realized what she had said.

“T-that doesn’t mean I’ll marry Your Grace!”

“You push me away then pull me in, seem to give hope then show no mercy. You always defy expectations.”

“Doesn’t that irritate you?”

“No. I rather like it.”

“Your Grace seems to keep trying to find reasons to like me. Why don’t you try finding reasons not to like me too?”

Katya attempted a timid rebellion.

But Nikolai wasn’t someone who would fall for such things.

“I tried that too, but I couldn’t find a single reason not to like you.”

“No way. I have so many flaws. Didn’t you look hard enough?”

“No matter what I think of, it all ends up becoming reasons why I like you.”

His gaze, sweeter than sugar-coated candy, moved from her eyes to their joined hands.

Nikolai stared down at the hand she was holding.

Katya cleared her throat and let go of his hand, only just realizing she was still holding it.

“I get scared when Your Grace looks at me like that.”

“Of what?”

“Right now you’re always nice no matter how I act, but I don’t know how you’ll change when those rose-colored glasses come off.”

Like Nikolai, this was Katya’s first love too.

Receiving such passionate love confessions from someone, receiving gazes full of affection…

But who doesn’t like being loved?

While feeling all of this was unfamiliar to her, she was also excited.

That’s why she was afraid.

Katya had never liked anyone before.

So she had no idea how long the emotion of love lasted.

Seeming to understand her feelings, Nikolai spoke.

“If you agree to marry me, and I change before the promised year is up, you can send me poisoned tea.”

“That’s ridiculous. It’s sad enough that Your Grace is in unrequited love, but feelings can change. If by some chance I end up in this contract marriage with Your Grace, you can have affairs all you want.”

“I will never do what my father did.”

If there was something he would never do even with a knife to his throat, it was having affairs while married.

His mother and he were the ones most hurt by his father’s infidelity.

Nikolai had always feared that he might someday resemble the father he so despised.

“So if I ever do such a thing, I deserve to die by your hand.”

“Death as punishment for infidelity? I guess I’d be dead too if I ever strayed.”

“How could I kill you whom I love?”

Nikolai’s serious gaze suddenly turned playful.

“I’d have to kill the man who dared turn your eyes away from me.”

“Your Grace, saying things with a pretty smile doesn’t make them pretty.”

“Isn’t it enough as long as I’m pretty in your eyes?”

“You once asked me to tame or domesticate you, but being near me seems to make you even less tame.”

Suddenly Nikolai drooped his eyebrows and made an expression like an obedient puppy.

“No, I’m quite well-behaved. Didn’t I avoid bloodshed earlier because you stopped me?”

“You’re really impossible.”

“So hurry and take me home and raise me well.”

Nikolai smiled brightly like a puppy waiting for a new owner.

Laika the senior dog barked happily beside them.

“Good environment with no senior hazing.”

Only then did Katya realize.

That she had been chosen as the owner by this beast-like man.

It felt like taking on another large dog.

As she broke out in a cold sweat, he reached out his hand again.

“Can’t I hold your hand just a little longer?”

“Holding it earlier was enough, what more do you want!”

“I think there’s still some dirt left. Want to wipe more?”

“No thanks!”

Katya backed away in disgust and ended up making eye contact with some ducal maids coming from the opposite direction.

When Nikolai followed her gaze and turned around, Katya quickly ran and blocked his front.

More precisely, she threw herself to cover the exposed abs under his torn clothes.

“Greetings to Your Grace and to you, my lady.”

The maids who spotted them gave slight curtsies.

“Yes, haha… Good work!”

Katya waved with an awkward smile.

Only after the maids had passed did Nikolai burst out laughing.

“Already trying to hide your man’s body from other women?”

“That’s not it! What sin have these innocent girls committed to see a strange man’s exposed body? I was just trying to protect the servants’ eyes by letting them see only good things–”

Katya turned around to protest indignantly.

“Either way, I’ll think what I want. I just love possessive women so much?”

“Really, I am too, but you know You’re Grace is completely strange too, right?”

“Then shouldn’t strange people of the world marry each other?”

“How can you come on so strong at any time? I’ll have to limit you to one confession per day.”

She glared and said, blowing angry breaths through her nose.

Seeing him constantly flirting, it seemed strong measures were needed.

“That’s too harsh? How about three confessions a day? No, five?”

“Excuse me, Your Grace. When making a deal, both sides are supposed to gradually make concessions, so you should be reducing your demands now?”

“I’m paying in advance because it seems impossible. Even doing it five times is extremely difficult for me.”

Katya decided she needed to retract her description of him as a puppy.

He wasn’t a puppy — he was a cunning snake.