Young Master, Please Put Some Pants On! - Chapter 81
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 81
However, Kermanomon didn’t ask Mellis anything and suppressed his questions. It was her private life, and he didn’t want to become an uncomfortable employer who pried into personal matters.
“You haven’t forgotten the promise you made with me back then, have you?”
What annoyed him most was Arsian Ferzen’s attitude of showing off his friendship with Mellis right in front of him. Mellis seemed to simply think he was just happy to see her, but Kermanomon, who had observed him for a long time, could guess his true intentions.
Duke Ferzen was definitely conscious of his gaze.
“What kind of scheme is that cunning lion plotting…”
Kermanomon, lost in thought, muttered while stroking his lips with his thumb. He hadn’t been paying attention since there was no particular mention of it afterward, but who would have thought something like this would suddenly happen. It seemed they had been meeting steadily since then.
‘And now it’s Arsian.’
The title that was Duke Ferzen when they met downtown had somehow changed to something more intimate. Moreover, the place where the two were spotted was the Academy, where Mellis had been spending most of her time lately.
Arsian, famous for never wasting a single minute or second, wouldn’t be frequenting the Academy without any reason.
‘Could it be that Duke Ferzen was also the one who introduced Professor Hopnilman?’
Thinking about it that way made him even more uncomfortable.
Judging from Mellis’s reaction earlier, Duke Ferzen was definitely getting close to Mellis under the pretense of friendship. Of course, that naive sheep seemed to genuinely believe they were just friends.
Arsian Ferzen was a suspicious character. That wasn’t just referring to this recent magical beast incident.
His true intentions hidden behind that bright smile were unknowable, and his seething ambition was sometimes blatantly unpleasant. It was exactly the same feeling he had toward Adam Ferzen, his biological mother and former Imperial Consort. And Adam Ferzen was one of the reasons Kermanomon hated humans.
More than ten years ago, there was an incident that put Kermanomon in mortal danger. One of the tea leaves he received as a gift contained mild toxicity. At the time, it was tea leaves that were popular in some regions of the continent for their excellent beauty effects, but they had side effects of weakening stamina and slowing recovery when consumed excessively.
Kermanomon, unaware that the tea he was drinking had such side effects, suffered severe injuries in battle in that condition and found himself in a critical situation where his life was in danger.
If it hadn’t been for the human child who treated him, he would have surely lost his life. The person who gifted him that tea and even taught him how to consume it was none other than Adam Ferzen.
He became suspicious of her for gifting him tea while hiding its side effects, knowing he was facing a major battle, but Adam Ferzen shamelessly denied it.
‘Sometimes even minute poison can become medicine.’
Kermanomon unconsciously hardened his expression as he recalled Adam Ferzen’s fishy smile.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
There was no way he would approach Mellis without reason, being the spitting image of his mother’s desires. Moreover, the fact that such a major newspaper company published a romance story meant there was a high probability that Duke Ferzen had tacitly approved of this fact.
No matter how weak his position was, he was still a member of the Imperial Family. Unless the newspaper company had gone completely mad, they wouldn’t have published such an article independently.
However, what was even more incomprehensible was his own attitude of being so absorbed in Mellis’s affairs.
“Sigh…”
Though he was reluctant to admit it, the first emotion he felt upon seeing the article was tremendous jealousy.
His heart ached with a sharp pain, and an unpleasant sensation he had never experienced before seized his entire body.
He could imagine what kind of smile she would be wearing just by looking at Mellis’s back. But to think that smile was directed at another man, and Duke Ferzen of all people.
“…”
Kermanomon silently lowered his eyes and recalled a recent incident. There was a similar occurrence on the day they watched Rachel’s performance. Back then, hadn’t he dismissed his confused emotions as merely concern for his employee?
Could he really consider that ugly jealousy from earlier as simply concern for Mellis?
“Damn.”
Something was definitely going wrong.
* * *
Meanwhile, Malcolm, who had come out of his office carrying an armful of documents, was equally surprised. Though he had reacted calmly, what was Kermanomon’s reaction from earlier all about?
Of course, he had noticed long ago that Kerman was treating Mellis specially.
As Kermanomon’s closest aide, he knew about the existence of imprinting, and also knew that Kermanomon particularly detested it.
Because of this, his master had never kept women close his entire life, even going so far as to hire actresses for uncomfortable occasions to keep the opposite sex at a distance. He recalled a conversation he had with Kermanomon some time ago.
“It’s not even my fault that all the nannies keep running away, so what am I supposed to do about it.”
He hadn’t bothered to argue at the time, but in fact, nearly half of the dozen or so nannies who had quit caring for Garulus had done so because of Kermanomon.
Strictly speaking, they had originally targeted the nanny position at the ducal house to get close to Duke Severus. However, when Kermanomon coldly rejected them and even refused marriage proposals, they couldn’t bear the humiliation and quit on their own.
“…He certainly is different.”
Seeing how his master treated Mellis was simply amazing. Even to him, who had served by his side for years, such a bright expression on Kermanomon’s face felt unfamiliar. This was a fact acknowledged not only by Malcolm but by all the other servants at the ducal residence as well.
It was just curious that only the two people involved hadn’t noticed this fact.
“Oh no.”
While walking lost in thought, several documents stacked on top suddenly fell to the floor with a thud. As Malcolm bent down to pick them up, a familiar document caught his eye.
“This is from that time…”
It was the magic tool tracking document they had commissioned from the Magic Tower when Garulus had gone missing.
Hadn’t their relationship with the Magic Tower been severely strained for a while because of this incident? The tracking document they had commissioned arrived after the child had already returned, so Kermanomon hadn’t even bothered to look at it. It seemed to have gotten mixed in when he was organizing documents earlier after being thrown in a corner.
Though it was now a meaningless document, Malcolm casually skimmed through its contents as he picked it up. At the end of several pages of complex formulas, the coordinates of where Garulus had moved were written.
“AQ352 and FE1730…”
For someone with his exceptional intellect, estimating a location using continental standard coordinates was as easy as breathing. Malcolm, who had muttered this absentmindedly, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
“…This is the Tarin Kingdom.”
* * *
Nilton Hopnilman’s research lab at Gwen Academy. Mellis, who had come to work here as usual today, had been sitting in front of a magic stone for quite a while, practicing reading its flow.
“Sigh…”
“You seem unable to concentrate today.”
Mellis, who had been letting out a deep sigh, was startled by Hopnilman’s voice from behind and quickly sat up straight.
“Is something wrong?”
At his question, Mellis hesitated for a moment. In truth, she had been quite troubled ever since her conversation with Arsian not long ago.
However, she shook her head with a composed attitude, hiding her inner thoughts.
“No. I’m just a little nervous because the exam is coming up soon.”
What she said about being nervous because of the exam was true. The ability detection exam she had been preparing for quite a long time was already approaching.
Of course, ability detection was just a stage before awakening healing power, but it was still nerve-wracking since it would be the first time she’d face the results of all her hard work.
“You don’t need to worry. Mellis is the most outstanding student I’ve taught in several years. Just being able to take the first-class exam in such a short time is remarkable in itself.”
“Hehe, I’m hearing praise from Professor that I never heard once when I was attending the Academy. I definitely feel like my healing power has become more familiar as I’ve gotten used to mana flow reading. Though I still can’t control it well yet.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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