Chapter 24
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Ah, Those Carefree Days of Youth
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Ah, those carefree days of youth...
"Let go of his hand right now!"
Slap!
With a sharp sound, the hand that had been gripping mine—Luise the Grand Duchess's—was yanked away like a fish on a hook.
The grip on my wrist was rough and blatant.
The moment I reflexively turned my head, I saw it—though no, what caught my eye first was right above her head.
Jet-black energy condensed like horns, Fafnir's horns clearly sprouting above Lady Elysia's head.
"Grrr...!"
A low rumble, whether a breath or a growl, I couldn't tell.
Lady Elysia had pressed right up against my side, her gaze sharpened like a blade toward Grand Duchess Luise.
"Grand Duchess Luise."
She spat the words through gritted teeth.
"I told you clearly not to approach Jinwoo however you please."
Grand Duchess Luise still wore that leisurely expression.
With an irritating smile tugging at her lips, she looked Lady Elysia up and down, tilting her head slightly.
"Lady Elysia."
Her tone was calm, laced with subtle mockery.
"Charging in like that, unbecoming of your station—it's truly an unsightly sight."
Then her gaze slowly, very deliberately, drifted upward.
"...Oh? What's that on your head? Horns, by any chance?"
"Is that what's important right now?! Get away from Jinwoo this instant!"
Honestly, the horns sprouting from her head seemed pretty important to me...
But in this moment, as if it were the pettiest thing imaginable, Lady Elysia was no longer her usual elegant lady.
Consumed by jealousy and rage, she snarled like a beast driven by pure instinct, marking her territory around me with vicious hisses.
Normally, she'd exchange a few glares, huff, and back off.
But now, was it because Fafnir's influence had sunk in so deeply?
Squeeze!
A crushing pressure that choked the breath from me, and Lady Elysia's arms wrapped around my body.
It was so sudden that even the sly Grand Duchess Luise's eyes widened, freezing in place.
As she pulled my back toward her, Lady Elysia made her declaration of ownership loud and clear.
"He's mine! Touching something someone else has already marked—do you have no manners as a female? How vulgar and rude is that?!"
The air seemed to freeze solid in that instant.
"Ah, 'female,' she says..."
Grand Duchess Luise let out a short breath.
"Haha... After surviving life in a dragon's lair, you've certainly grown bolder, Lady Elysia."
Hearing that made even my face heat up.
Her words were so blunt and direct, it made me avert my eyes awkwardly.
But Lady Elysia didn't care a bit.
In fact, hugging me like a stuffed doll, tightening her arms with glee—it looked just like a child thrilled to claim her favorite toy.
And I was Lady Elysia's loyal retainer.
No matter what she looked like, that fact never changed.
So I just shrugged my shoulders and accepted it.
"Anyway, that's how it is..."
"There's no room for you here!"
And it was truly a first—the sight of Grand Duchess Luise yielding, even if just a tiny step, in their staredown.
We'd always been the ones on the back foot.
Maybe that's why a strange sense of victory welled up in me unbidden.
But our triumphant mood didn't last.
Squeeze.
The pressure on my other left arm signaled a new turn.
"But what can we do?"
I could see Grand Duchess Luise's voice shift back to calm, sly as a fox.
"If I want food, I just cut off the saliva-marked parts and eat it anyway."
"?!"
"Gr-Grand Duchess Luise?"
With those words, my opposite arm was naturally seized.
The Grand Duchess was unflappable.
No, she was enjoying it.
"Hehe."
She turned her gaze to Lady Elysia and said,
"You come back from a dragon's lair, sprouting horns and acting all bold like a real dragon—but"
Her arm linked deeper through mine.
Her ample curves pressed against my arm, skinship with zero regard for distance.
"you didn't think something like that would beat me, did you?"
Lady Elysia's familiar bosom on one side, Grand Duchess Luise's unfamiliar one on the other.
With both arms claimed simultaneously, I suddenly found myself standing precisely between the two of them.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!!"
What followed was pure inferno.
Not a metaphor—literally.
Once Lady Elysia unleashed the holy sword Balmung, the ferocious black dragon from the Song of the Nibelungs.
I already knew how deeply Fafnir's traces had seeped into her.
Her personality, her presence, and now even these 'side effects.'
The moment her rage boiled over, Lady Elysia's breath hitched for a beat.
Then, in the next instant, black flames erupted from her mouth.
Whoosh!
'Now she's even breathing fire...'
The blaze that poured out with smoke was no longer human.
Lady Elysia opened her maw wide toward Grand Duchess Luise.
The angle of her jaw was dangerous.
There was no way I could just stand by.
Her opponent wasn't some ordinary noble.
A collateral of the imperial family, the Grand Duchess of Libelshtein—the empire's second-most powerful house.
Even as a ducal lady, assassinating her would turn this from a personal spat into high treason.
With the gods' war looming, humans could barely afford infighting among nations—this was absolutely not the time.
So I tried desperately to grab Lady Elysia and hold her back.
But then.
"Lady Elysia."
Grand Duchess Luise called out in a composed voice.
"Before that, you should repay the 'debt' you owe me first."
"...Debt?"
The flames twisted as Lady Elysia's expression hardened.
Grand Duchess Luise watched her reaction with amusement for a moment before slowly slipping a hand between her breasts.
A deliberately slow motion that drew the eye.
She pulled out a folded sheet of parchment and unfurled it before us.
"That's...!"
"Exactly..."
As Lady Elysia faltered, Grand Duchess Luise sighed lightly in her stead.
"Yes, that's right, Lady Elysia."
She shook the paper leisurely once.
"A tale from our academy days."
Her gaze locked onto Lady Elysia.
"Flitting from one man to another, your grades hit rock bottom—the darkest chapter where you nearly ruined your life for the first time in Valenhardt family history, right on the brink of failure."
In her hand was a bundle of papers, yellowed at the edges like they'd been aged for years.
Exam papers.
...No, precisely as the Grand Duchess said, the traces of a near-life-ending scandal.
"I-I distinctly remember burning all of them back then?!"
Lady Elysia's voice rose a notch.
"Hehe. Yes."
Grand Duchess Luise nodded.
"Right before the exam, you burned them yourself because you realized it wasn't right."
She glanced briefly my way.
"Thanks to this butler of yours? He stopped you from 'cheating.'"
My heart plummeted.
She even knew about that—it was far more serious than I'd thought.
"But."
Grand Duchess Luise continued.
"I collected the ashes and pieced it back together with record restoration magic."
"Urk—!"
It was the moment Lady Elysia's mouth snapped shut, mid-rebuttal.
"Hehe. I still remember your panicked face, hiding them in the corridor outside the professor's lab~."
Indeed, back then, Lady Elysia was smack in the middle of that stormy youth phase.
She's a full adult now, respected across the duchy and the world for her grace and skill, but academy days? She was a different person entirely.
What had possessed her?
Skipping classes to chase 'youthful fun,' ignoring homework as a given, grades in freefall.
It got so bad even a Valenhardt couldn't imagine it.
Eventually, she resorted to sneaking into the professor's lab with the mindset of 'just ace the exam.'
If I hadn't caught her, she might've truly crossed the line.
I can still see her teary-eyed, burning those papers.
That was the turning point.
When I realized I couldn't just let it slide.
Scolding her, forcing her to study, day by day whipping her into shape—it took real effort.
So I'd thought that black history was mine alone.
Who would've guessed Grand Duchess Luise of all people knew about those immature days.
"...You're blackmailing me with that?"
It was a long while before she spoke.
"Perish the thought."
Grand Duchess Luise laughed.
"I'd have used it ages ago if so."
She folded the parchment and tucked it away as if nothing happened.
"But that day, thanks to you, I learned something precious about life."
"Something... precious?"
"Yes."
Her gaze fixed on Lady Elysia again.
"That there's someone who can reject my proposals outright, crush my pride, and not give it a second thought."
Her fingertip tapped her chest lightly.
"So, pay that debt today."
"...How?"
As if she'd been waiting for the question, Grand Duchess Luise's eyes slid naturally to me.
"Simple. You have ownership of Jinwoo's slave contract, right? Give me half the shares."