Little Golden Duke? - 4
Lately I feel like a popular star. Wherever I go, glittering gazes wrap around me.
Until recently I never drew this kind of heated attention. I did my best to avoid people, and even when I did cross paths with someone, they usually turned around of their own accord. Running into the Audit Department Chief on a walk was no different from running into a kangaroo on a stroll.
A creature that made you feel both Shit, why is that thing here and Touch it and you’re dead at the same time. That was me until not long ago.
"The Demon Duke chose that man?"
"Father said so quite clearly."
And now I have gone from “kangaroo you should avoid on sight” to “safari predator worth risking danger to gawk at.”
Damn it.
It’s mortifying. They think they’re whispering from a safe distance, but I can hear every word. Gazes and murmurs aimed at you somehow always manage to cut through the noise with uncanny clarity.
Still, if I so much as showed irritation, I would be gifting those students a lifelong trauma. I had to endure it.
So I carefully smoothed my expression and kept walking.
This is driving me crazy.
It was hard work. They kept a “safe” distance yet still stole glances; instead of avoiding me they seemed to seek me out on purpose.
If I had been a spectacle from the day I first set foot in the Academy, maybe I could have handled it. But this sudden flood of interest was enough to make my head spin. I wish people understood that too much attention stresses an animal out.
Only when I finally neared the clubroom could I shake off the relentless stares.
Royalty really is terrifying.
The moment I stepped inside, a hollow laugh slipped out. All those people who had been clinging to me like burrs didn’t dare approach the princes’ den.
I understood, of course. If this weren’t my workplace I wouldn’t have come near it either.
And I understood the unbearably obvious sidelong glances as well.
The Demon Duke’s prospective consort.
Just hearing the phrase was enough to make curiosity well up like magic. A duke with elven blood who had lived alone for over a century had finally taken a man into her heart.
Nobles hypersensitive to high society could never stay quiet after hearing a cheat-code sentence like that. Hell, if I heard the Demon Duke had found a consort I’d be racing over like a dog to gawk myself.
With that thought I turned my eyes to the mirror.
There he is.
The me reflected in the glass wore a wry smile. Why bother racing over like a dog when the spectacle was this easy to see?
Wow. I was almost too happy about it.
Club time had never felt this comfortable.
Compared to the Academy, where Imperial citizens made up the overwhelming majority, half the club members were foreigners. Of course the Demon Duke’s marriage news was fascinating even to them, but it didn’t hit with the same force it did for Imperials.
Thanks to that I could spend club hours in relative peace. After a year together, they still managed to serve as my sanctuary—
"Hyung, can you tell us what happened at the banquet?"
Or not?
Erich’s sudden ambush froze my hand just as it reached for a cookie.
This little shit.
The least expected person had struck at the least expected moment. I never thought my own younger brother would be the one to plant the knife.
I may not have been the world’s best older brother… but even so, dropping that line at this exact second was a bit much. Even the nearby club members stared at Erich in open surprise.
When I looked at him with a touch of resentment, Erich awkwardly averted his gaze.
"Mother’s been hounding me for answers…"
Ah.
At those words the resentment drained away. I’d been so frazzled I hadn’t even thought about the family.
Clearly, after me and Margeta, the next biggest victim of this whole mess was House Crassius. They had gone to bed one night and woken up to find themselves about to take the Demon Duke as a daughter-in-law.
What a deranged phrase.
Just thinking it made me dizzy. Being in-laws with the Demon Duke would already be extraordinary; having her as a daughter-in-law? Not a mother-in-law—a daughter-in-law?
Mother was probably trembling from head to toe with tears in her eyes. A mother-in-law not yet forty, and a daughter-in-law well over a hundred.
Amazing. The Empire’s laws of etiquette truly were both intricate and grotesque.
"I’ll speak to Mother myself."
"Okay."
Erich nodded so quickly it was as if he’d been waiting for those exact words. Then he took a perfectly calm sip of tea.
Sorry.
The thought of the pressure Erich must have endured these past few days left a sour taste in my mouth.
The family grilling him for answers, the nobles who found him a safer target than me, and Erich himself howling the pure truth that he knew nothing—what a hellish trifecta.
Now that I looked, the dark circles under his eyes seemed deeper. This was a kid who had never known the meaning of fatigue.
"…Need any pocket money?"
"Huh?"
Erich just blinked at the sudden offer.
I knew how random it sounded. I was never the type to give money—or even small gifts—on ordinary days. What kind of sentimental nonsense was that between proper men?
But this time I wanted to do something for him.
A faint brotherly affection had been resurrected thanks to the Demon Duke…
I didn’t bother refusing the sudden offer of pocket money. Considering everything I’d been put through, it felt like money I had earned.
A new week after the weekend is always exhausting. People even call the first day of the week Enen’s Trial, meant to warn creatures against sloth.
But this particular trial was a little—no, far too—harsh.
"Erich. There’s something I want to ask."
"Hm?"
The question hit the moment I stepped into the classroom. It came from a classmate I only exchanged casual greetings with, yet he had gone out of his way to speak first. That alone meant it was important.
So I told him to go ahead. If I knew the answer I’d give it; if I didn’t, I’d say so.
"I heard Her Grace the Demon Duke proposed to the Audit Department Chief."
…?
That was when I finally understood what it meant for one’s brain to freeze solid.
After that everything turned into pure chaos. Starting with that guy—no, that friend—every noble within reach swarmed me.
My class, the next class over, second-years, third-years, even the occasional faculty member.
"No idea, honestly."
I really didn’t know. My brother got a proposal from the Demon Duke? I was hearing it from them for the first time.
I dodged as best I could. I said I didn’t know the details either, that nothing was confirmed, so they shouldn’t think too hard about it.
Right. There had to be some misunderstanding. If something that huge had happened, there was no way a family member like me would be left in the dark.
— Erich. Did Carl tell you anything?
"……."
And when Mother contacted me at lunch, I realized it wasn’t a baseless rumor at all. It was real.
The unexpected shock left me speechless. It was true? My brother had actually received a proposal from the Demon Duke?
What about the Duchess?
That thought rose on pure instinct.
If the Demon Duke was after my brother, what happened to the Duchess? I couldn’t picture the Demon Duke settling for second wife, but the idea of her pushing the Duchess aside to take first place was even more unthinkable.
And Luise?
If the Demon Duke became first wife, Luise would be left floating. Luckily Luise was close with the Duchess, but she had never even met the Demon Duke.
At least the Duchess might still remain a wife on the strength of equal ducal prestige even if she lost the top seat. But Luise? Would the Demon Duke tolerate a baron’s daughter she had never laid eyes on?
My head felt ready to split. Mother’s desperate plea for information, the nobles demanding I spit out whatever I knew, and Luise’s future all crashed together.
…Honestly, fretting over the marriage prospects of the person who dumped me felt pretty pathetic, but she was still a friend. “If I can’t have her, I’ll destroy her!” was the sort of cliché villainy that only appeared in old novels.
Still, this is frustrating.
I pocketed the money my brother had given me and glanced at Luise, and a sigh nearly escaped. She had clearly heard the news; she was fidgeting restlessly.
No—she was trying her best to look calm, but anyone could see she was rattled.
At least that’s something.
Her eyes were still burning fiercely, and that brought a measure of relief.
Until now Luise’s hesitation had always left onlookers exasperated, but with the fire under her feet she finally seemed ready to move.
That was good. No matter how little she knew the Demon Duke, in the end the marriage decision rested with my brother.
And everyone gathered here shared that same thought.
Now?
Now.
My eyes met Ryutis’s. A rapid exchange of glances.
"Ah, I left something in the classroom. I’ll be right back."
After that quick visual conference, I fired the signal flare.
Are these kids suffering from early-onset dementia?
"Ah, I left something in the classroom. I’ll be right back."
When Erich first spoke up I let it pass.
"You too? Let’s go together."
When Ryutis stood I figured, well, okay.
But when Ainter, Later, and Tanian filed out one after another, I didn’t even try to stop them.
What kind of future does this continent even have?
Bright young men already forgetting things left and right.
Luise looked briefly stunned by the mass exodus, then quickly broke into a soft laugh.
"Everyone must have been in such a hurry."
"Yeah. They must have been."
I forced myself to nod at her words. For the sake of the princes’ dignity, let’s call it haste instead of early dementia.
Then silence again. Being alone with her wasn’t awkward, but five people vanishing all at once left a sudden hole in the conversation.
"Um, Oppa."
"Mm. Go ahead."
Luise, always the heart of any discussion, refused to tolerate even that brief gap.
"What do you… think of Her Grace the Demon Duke?"
Though she didn’t need to fill the silence quite like that.
The dagger I had barely dodged came flying back, and I could only manage a bitter smile. Even bright, sunny Luise was still a noble at heart, judging by her interest in this sort of affair.
"Well… she’s someone who shows me more kindness than I deserve."
After careful thought, that was the cautious answer I gave.
I didn’t dislike the Demon Duke. How could I dislike someone who treated me with such overwhelming generosity? It was simply that the nature of her kindness was so unexpected that it left me reeling.
"Is that so?"
Luise lowered her gaze for a moment before continuing.
"I still think she’s amazing. She let everyone know exactly how she feels."
"She is amazing, yeah…"
I agreed without thinking. Amazing was the right word. The sheer scale of it made her amazing.
"I was scared just to show my heart to one person…"
Luise murmured that and began fussing with her own hands. Scared to show her heart…
Is she talking about her sister?
True, the old Luise had kept her trauma locked away tight. But she had already confided in others now. Holding onto self-reproach over the past wasn’t right.
"You can be proud of yourself now."
"I suppose so?"
"Yeah."
At my reassurance Luise smiled again, as if she had heard exactly what she wanted to hear.
"Then… is it all right if I say that I like you too, Oppa?"
"Tha—"
…t?
I started to answer on autopilot and stopped dead. What did she just say?
She means she likes me as a club advisor, right?
My stalled brain lurched back into motion. I was still reeling from the Demon Duke shock; I must have been overreacting.
…Right?
But looking at Luise’s face, I couldn’t open my mouth.
Flushed cheeks, trembling eyes fixed only on me, restless hands.
I’m dense, not brainless.
Still, for today at least, the urge to just play dumb rose up strong.
…Should I pretend I didn’t hear?
Of course that excuse wouldn’t work for a second.