Let the Whales Fight, This Shrimp is Leaving! - Chapter 31

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 31
Feeling his gaze sink heavily upon me, I feigned ignorance, prompting Deyan to let out a low sigh.
“You are correct to some extent. However, what I just said was sincere.”
“My, what immense trust.”
“Yes. So, as long as I remain useful, please guarantee his safety.”
Deyan no longer hid his wariness toward me.
Seeing such a massive man fretting over a few words of mine was so utterly pathetic and amusing that I burst into a bright peal of laughter, causing Deyan’s brow to furrow.
With a smile plastered across my face, I reached out toward his wrinkled forehead.
“Smile.”
As I smoothed the crease between his brows with my thumb, his rigid expression softened.
“Good boy.”
If I had agreed to play along with this farce, I might as well do it right.
I praised him as though he were a well-trained dog and began walking again.
“Let us go over there today.”
I turned toward a direction we rarely frequented.
“It isn’t a properly maintained promenade, but it has a charmingly secretive air to it.”
Adding that explanation, I led him toward the outer wall of the castle.
Just in case, I had tried to keep Deyan away from this area as much as possible, but we couldn’t simply go around in circles in the exact same spot every single day, could we?
“And don’t let your eyes wander needlessly.”
I issued a warning to Deyan, just to be safe, before leading the way.
The knight, who had been silent until now, countered as if he found it rather absurd.
“If you are that anxious, shouldn’t you have left me behind?”
“A date needs a bit of variety every now and then.”
“I was unaware that keeping a man confined to a mansion and walking him like a dog qualified as a date.”
“I didn’t put you on a leash, so it’s perfectly fine to call it a date, wouldn’t you say?”
I replied, deliberately scraping against his raw nerves, which silenced Deyan once more.
‘He is terrible at arguing.’
I had to admire his tenacity for constantly picking fights he couldn’t possibly win.
However, Deyan possessed a certain vulnerability that prevented him from ever besting me.
“Are you finished picking fights?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent. Then come this way.”
We walked along a narrow path winding beside the towering castle walls.
It wasn’t a path cleared for leisurely strolls, but rather a shortcut naturally formed by patrolling guards.
Because it was left largely untended, small, nameless wildflowers occasionally bloomed here, and today was no exception.
I crouched down in front of a tiny blossom peeking out from the dirt at the edge of the narrow path.
Deyan naturally knelt beside me and stared at the small flower.
“The Grand Duchess is strange in a new way every single day.”
“Tomorrow, I shall invite you to dinner.”
“You truly only say what you want to say.”
“Do you have a favorite food?”
I asked, snapping the stem of the small flower with a sharp click.
I lightly wiped away the milky white sap with my fingertip and tucked the blossom behind Deyan’s ear, making the man’s brow furrow yet again.
It was an expression that suited the situation quite well, so I didn’t force him to smile.
“I eat anything and everything.”
“Even poisoned food?”
“Yes. Though I cannot be held responsible for the aftermath, of course.”
Deyan plucked the flower from his ear.
I expected him to toss it away, but after staring quietly at the blossom, the man began to fidget with his thick fingers.
I watched his hands play with the stem and asked another question.
“Do you have to vomit blood to go berserk? Or does simply neutralizing the poison you ingested make you want to kill people?”
“The latter.”
“So you have tasted poison before?”
“Do you think I ate it because it was delicious?”
“You might have developed a peculiar palate after forming a Contract with a Demon.”
I shrugged, offering a playful retort.
In the meantime, he had woven the flower stem into a small ring and held it out to me.
“You possess surprisingly deft fingers for someone your size.”
When I extended my hand, Deyan slipped it onto my pinky finger.
I smiled, turning my hand this way and that to admire the dainty flower ring.
Knowing full well that to anyone else, we would look exactly like a young man and woman who had just begun to harbor sweet feelings for each other.
“My mother used to like this sort of thing.”
“Do you remember living with your mother?”
“Before I was captured by my uncle, I lived a normal life with my parents.”
Beneath his carefully feigned composure, the tail end of his voice trembled ever so faintly.
When I offered no reply, Deyan naturally continued his story.
His large hands plucked another flower stem, molding it gently.
“My father took my mother and me and fled, hiding in a small rural village. He disposed of the jewels he brought with him to buy a dilapidated house. It was smaller than my father’s old bedroom.”
He explained that the house was so cramped that one couldn’t even distinguish the living room, kitchen, and bedroom.
“When it rained, the ceiling leaked, so we had to place buckets underneath, and we huddled together as the three of us slept on a single mat.”
“……That must have been nice.”
“Yes.”
In the blink of an eye, Deyan fashioned a tiny bouquet.
When I held out my hand, he placed it gently upon my palm.
“It is the only good memory I possess.”
His slightly muffled voice seemed to bleed with an enduring longing.
Feeling an unbidden surge of camaraderie, I fixed my gaze firmly onto the bouquet he had handed me.
“Do we not need to pluck this one?”
“Let us leave it be.”
“Why?”
“It is pitiful yet admirable that it bloomed so diligently in the shade.”
Suddenly, I felt the illusion of hearing my own mother’s voice.
I had thought I was the only one who harbored tender memories that had ultimately transformed into a living Hell.
I turned the bouquet—barely the size of my palm—this way and that before casting a sidelong glance at Deyan.
I didn’t know when it had started, but he too was staring intently at me.
“Is this a precious place to the Grand Duchess?”
“Who knows? What do you think?”
“The gardeners are busy every day, yet this area alone is overgrown with weeds, so I asked because I doubted that was an oversight.”
“Are you saying that since you shared your story, I ought to tell you mine?”
“If you do not wish to, you do not have to. I had no intention of prying.”
“It certainly sounded like you did.”
“I merely asked because I thought the Grand Duchess might want to speak of it.”
“Ah. Out of politeness?”
“Yes. Out of politeness.”
Giving a curt nod, Deyan slyly curled one corner of his lips upward.
‘He actually knows how to make an expression like that?’
Seeing a flicker of emotion on a face that was always as rigid as wood made me feel strangely irritated for no reason.
I scooped up a handful of loose leaves from the ground and hurled them at him.
“Why are you being spiteful?”
“Because you are annoying.”
“Your moods are truly impossible to grasp, Grand Duchess.”
“That is only because you have never courted anyone, Sir Knight.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“I can tell just by looking at you.”
“Then have you ever done so, Grand Duchess?”
“I have no intention of telling you.”
Stung by the truth, I snapped back deliberately with a sharp glare.
He silently brushed off the leaves clinging to his clothes.
“Is the walk over now?”
“Yes.”
I tossed the small bouquet aside as if to make a point and pushed myself up.
Deyan picked it back up and followed closely behind me like a shadow.
“Has there been any word from Joaquin Perez since then?”
“The moment he crosses the Border, a report will be submitted automatically. When he arrives, you need only hide quietly in the Main Building.”
“Are you angry?”
His question made me halt in my tracks.
Twisting my upper body to look back, I saw Deyan standing blankly, holding a bouquet far too small for his massive hands.
That sight alone somehow stoked the embers of my irritation.
“No?”
“I did not intend to mock you. If I offended you, I apologize.”
“I told you, I am not angry.”
I snapped, turning to walk away again, but Deyan took a large stride and blocked my path.
“Does it displease you that much that I realized this is a precious place to you?”
“Do not say another word.”
He was an infuriating man, possessing a sharp perception that carelessly pierced right to the core of things.
I thought I hadn’t let anything show, yet it felt as though a secret I desperately wished to conceal had been laid bare.
As I glared death at Deyan, he proffered the bouquet once more.
“The guards are watching from over there.”
“I know.”
Reluctantly, I accepted the bouquet he held out.
The guards walking toward us saluted the moment they spotted me and veered off in another direction.
“By the way, is there any food you dislike or cannot eat?”
“Let us not act childishly.”
“I feel as though I have somehow lost, so if I do not get my revenge, it will leave a bitter taste in my mouth for a long time. Well?”
“There is none. On the battlefield, one must chew on grass roots to survive.”
“Even that answer is annoying.”
“Should I apologize for that as well?”
“Yes.”
“I am sorry.”
“Even that apology is annoying.”
“Then should I simply hold my tongue?”
“Yes. That would be much better.”
I retorted coldly and turned around, but Deyan stubbornly pushed one last comment right past my ear.
“You possess quite a childish streak, I see.”
To think he would go out of his way to provoke my anger like this.
If that wasn’t a talent, I didn’t know what was.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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