Don't Tame the Tomboy - 31. You Always Make Me Afraid
31. You Always Make Me Afraid
“Are you looking at other men while having a fiancé?”
“No, not at all.”
Nikolai, suppressing his rising jealousy, handed a teacup to her as she was choking from eating too many sweets.
“Drink some tea too.”
“Ah, okay, okay. I was wrong. But you’re not going to kill me for that, right?”
“I can’t say anything in front of you. I told you it’s not a threat, didn’t I?”
“Ah, I got scared for nothing. When Your Grace mentions tea, I can’t help but get nervous.”
Katya laughed and took the teacup, moistening her throat with the cooled tea.
As Nikolai watched her gulp down the tea, he suddenly rested one arm on the back of her chair.
Then he slightly tilted his chin to the side while brushing back his bangs that had fallen over his forehead with his other hand.
It was quite a confident pose.
He had heard women praise that while the Grand Duke was handsome overall, his right side particularly shone.
When he struck this pose, people of all ages and genders would be enchanted by his beauty.
“I guarantee I’ll be the most handsome one today.”
He boasted.
“Ah, is that so?”
Her soulless agreement irritated Nikolai.
“I’m also a properly appointed knight. When I wear full plate armor properly, you’ll probably fall completely for my charm.”
“Since you’re handsome, of course you’ll be the most handsome.”
Katya gave a clichéd compliment while holding up both thumbs.
Nikolai was very displeased with her automatic attitude that seemed to just humor him.
Even the compliments about his looks that usually thrilled him when coming from her didn’t register today.
“Not just my face, but in martial arts too, I have no equal.”
“I know. Who could beat Your Grace? Your Grace is the best!”
“You’re completely insincere. No talent for flattery either.”
“Your Grace, what’s the point of competing with knights? You’re the most powerful person in Hersen.”
“That means I’m literally physically the strongest too.”
Nikolai suddenly felt ridiculous having to explain this.
Katya still didn’t seem to believe it at all.
It seemed she couldn’t imagine there could be a man as perfect as him in every way.
According to an old Eastern proverb, seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times.
It was faster to show directly than speak a hundred words.
“I’ll show you properly today, so judge with your own eyes.”
***
Despite his confident words, Nikolai couldn’t show Katya his ‘impressive appearance’ dominating the sparring matches.
No, he couldn’t even get to spar in the first place.
It was because all the knights of the Grand Duke’s household exercised their right of refusal.
“Why should we spar with Your Highness and get our arms broken again? We refuse.”
“You were lucky it was just your arm. I had my leg broken and couldn’t walk until the bone healed, stuck in bed. Absolutely not.”
“If it had happened while throwing myself to protect Your Highness, I wouldn’t say anything. But this is just embarrassing, I couldn’t even talk about it anywhere.”
“There’s no court physician with the knight order now, do you really want to see us get injured in sparring?”
Moreover, the knight order members who came south were in even numbers, so if one person sparred with the Grand Duke, the remaining person wouldn’t be able to train.
Nikolai turned his head toward where Boris was.
“I refuse!”
“I haven’t even said anything yet?”
“I’m an academic through and through, so it won’t work!”
“How do you know what I was going to say?”
“It won’t work.”
Boris flatly refused before Nikolai could even ask about sparring.
Frustrated by the situation not going his way, Nikolai ruffled his own hair.
He wanted to show Katya today the appearance of Hersen’s most brave and strong knight.
It felt like even the heavens weren’t helping.
As he stood thinking with one hand on his waist, someone poked his back.
“Your Grace.”
“Alright, just spar among yourselves.”
Lost in thought, Nikolai waved his hand dismissively without turning around.
“Your Grace.”
“I said it’s fine–”
He stopped in surprise as he turned around with a frown.
Katya was standing there, though he had left her sitting in the shade to protect her face from the strong sun. He didn’t know how long she had been watching.
He had been so lost in thought that he hadn’t recognized her voice.
“Why are you here? I told you to watch from the cool shade.”
“You don’t have a sparring partner?”
“Yeah. It seems difficult today. I’ll show you next time.”
“Then shall I do it?”
“Do what?”
“Be Your Grace’s sparring partner.”
At those words, the eyes of all the Grand Duke’s knights who were warming up simultaneously fixed on this fearless woman.
For a moment, Nikolai thought he had misheard, and his brain and body moved separately like a cursed wooden puppet, laughing a beat late after his brain gave the command.
“…What?”
“Spar with me.”
He hadn’t misheard.
His ears, insulted at having their ability doubted, seemed ready to burst with indignation.
See, I heard correctly!
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“Why?”
“This…”
The ‘Bloody Grand Duke,’ who always drew blood whether in sparring or real fights, unconsciously sighed as he grabbed both of Katya’s arms.
“What exactly do you think you can do with these delicate arms and small frame…”
“I think I mentioned before, but I’m taller than average in the South? I also weigh more than you think.”
“Tia, you are too precious to me. I cannot bear to see you get hurt in front of my eyes again.”
Nikolai explained as carefully as possible, worried about hurting her feelings.
At those words, complaints burst from the knights’ mouths.
“Wow, so we’re not precious, is that what you’re saying?”
“So you’ve been beating us freely all this time because we’re not precious?”
“We’re hurt, Your Highness!”
“We’re precious children at home too!”
“Shhh!”
Nikolai turned around and gave a warning with just his eyes before turning back to Katya with gentle eyes.
“It’s just that Northern people are all big and Your Grace is like a giant. I’m quite strong and muscular too. Here, look.”
Katya rolled up her dress sleeve and showed her white, smooth forearm.
She took his hand and made him feel her arm.
“It’s firm, right?”
Though she was flexing as much as she could, to Nikolai it felt as soft as dough.
Moreover, there was so little flesh that he could feel bone with just a little pressure.
Compared to the bulging muscles of the knights Nikolai had knocked down in sparring, her limbs were like dried twigs.
Even when she’s wearing heels under her skirt, she didn’t reach his shoulder, so he had to look down quite far at her.
How could he spar with a woman as delicate as a glass sculpture?
“Is it because I’m not a knight that you’re dismissing me as not worthy to be Your Grace’s sparring partner?”
“I’m not dismissing you–!”
I’m worried.
Nikolai felt hurt that his concern was being misunderstood.
While he was worried sick about her, Katya was just smiling brightly.
“If that’s not it, then let’s do it.”
“Ha… Fine, let’s do it.”
Feeling defiant, Nikolai placed his sword in her hands.
Katya’s body naturally tensed at the weight.
Nikolai stopped her hand as she tried to draw the sword from its scabbard.
“Leave it sheathed so you don’t get hurt.”
Katya nodded in understanding.
While she was confident in shooting, she wasn’t good with swords.
The only time she had actually wielded a real sword was when she had swung the shamshir at Nikolai, mistaking him for someone sent by Ivan.
The Grand Duke had brought a wooden sword from the pile of equipment.
Though it was meant for training, none of the knights used it, saying it didn’t feel right.
“He swings real swords at us though.”
“Shh.”
Someone silenced the grumbling knight.
Everyone watched the two with bated breath.
A sparring match between the Grand Duke and his future Grand Duchess — it was unprecedented.
The match began.
The fight was more evenly matched than expected.
Partly because Nikolai was holding back as much as possible, but considering the overwhelming difference in size, Katya showed surprisingly decent skill.
Noticing Katya’s breathing becoming rough from facing a man as big as a mountain in the blazing sun, Nikolai attempted to end the match with a decisive strike.
As Katya stepped back, her necklace caught on his swiftly swung sword and snapped.
It was the pocket watch Nikolai had picked up for her during their first meeting.
It was a birthday gift from her father, and since dropping it that day, Katya had worn it as a necklace whenever she went out, afraid of losing it again.
Feeling the emptiness at her neck, Katya instinctively looked down at the ground while stepping backward.
This caused her to step on a protruding tree root, making her body sway backward.
Thinking she would fall, Katya squeezed her eyes shut.
“Tia!”
Nikolai immediately threw away his sword and ran to her.
He grabbed and pulled her into his arms just as he slipped on the muddy ground wet from recent rain.
The two fell entangled onto the ground.
When Katya opened her eyes and pushed herself up with her hands on the ground, Nikolai was right in front of her face.
He was trapped beneath her arms.
Their eyes met.
Sensing the charged atmosphere, Boris took Laika, whom Katya had brought, and the knights away from the scene.
“Are you hurt?”
Nikolai asked tenderly.
“What about Your Grace?”
“I’m fine. But you really need to gain some weight. I’ve felt this before, but you’re too light.”
“Are you really not hurt anywhere?”
Katya replied off-topic while helping Nikolai sit up.
She examined his body thoroughly for injuries before glaring at him angrily.
“Why did you do that? What if you had hit your head!”
“……”
“Don’t do that again! It’s really dangerous!”
Nikolai firmly held her agitated hands and softly called their pet name.
“Tia.”
“What?”
“You always make me afraid.”
Before meeting Katya, he feared nothing.
But at some point, everything surrounding her began to frighten him.
Now he felt fear every moment he saw her.
“Now I even worry that the wind and rain might hurt you.”
You probably won’t ever understand these feelings of mine.
Usurpadora
Ele é tão querido com ela🥺❤️