Chapter 54

It bothered Lino that Grondil and Yuneria shared knowledge of something he didn’t know. He wondered if they were gearing up to stick together again while treating him like a ghost. He had expected this when he heard Yuneria was returning to the estate—the Duke discarding him and keeping Yuneria glued to his side as before.

Still, it stings a little.

Unable to keep watching Grondil’s face as the Duke focused on Yuneria’s story, Lino felt a wave of discomfort. He lowered his gaze to the floor, staring at nothing as if something were there.

It hurts. Lino bit his lip and muttered to himself.

He felt stifled and nauseous. The sensation of a tiny hedgehog rolling around under his chest with all its quills raised was more than just ‘feeling slighted,’ but among all the emotions Lino had experienced, ‘hurt’ felt the most similar.

But why do I feel hurt?

His jaw, which had been moving slightly as he chewed his lip, went still. Grondil and Yuneria were still talking, but their words no longer reached Lino’s ears. The fact that ancient theology was a theme of the gathering was concerning, but since he wasn’t the one going, that unpleasantness faded quickly.

The possibility occurred to him that Grondil might accept the invitation and, either by mistake or design, leak news of the Haklan Baronage’s second son. Yet even this thought couldn’t override the primary sting of being sidelined.

‘Keeping one person perfectly safe is hardly a challenge.’

Grondil’s promise of protection was still vivid in his mind. He could still see the face of the beast smiling as he offered safety in Isberg, the most secure place on the Terne Continent. The way his lips had curled up, revealing those long, sharp fangs.

Even with Grondil standing right in front of him, Lino pictured the beast from his memories. If the Grand King of the Isberg Grand Principality—not just some mere noble—promised to protect him, what was there to fear?

Thus, for Lino, finding the reason why he felt so slighted by Grondil became a much more urgent matter.

While Yuneria was away, Grondil had been relentless—fucking him nearly every single day, often to the point of fainting, under the pretense of punishment or mating. If his anus was too swollen for penetration, he would do it between Lino’s thighs; when Lino lacked even the strength to keep his legs together, Grondil would simply hold him in his arms and spend the day in bed.

And they always shared the same bed. Grondil used the excuse that since Lino knew his true form, he could sleep comfortably, claiming that Lino was the perfect size to cuddle.

Yet, since Yuneria’s return, the frequency with which Grondil sought Lino out had dwindled. While they didn’t go out on morning excursions as they used to, Grondil had introduced Yuneria to Erin, and the three of them were often locked in deep discussion. It even seemed he was taking Yuneria to Erin’s restaurant occasionally.

Ah…

The reason for his hurt was beginning to take shape, despite his earlier predictions that Grondil might return to Yuneria.

‘My great secret… was discovered by Sir Disson. It was so difficult being stuck all day with someone who blackmailed me for over a month.’

The Duke had confessed that he had been dragged around by Yuneria because the man held a weakness over him. Perhaps the returned Yuneria was once again using that secret to threaten him, forcing Grondil to keep him close.

The hedgehog quills poking at Lino’s chest began to soften. 

If that’s the case, I should take action so Yuneria can no longer threaten him—

But then, another thought surfaced without warning.

‘May I tell you my secret?’

The secret Yuneria held over Grondil. The secret Grondil had voluntarily confessed to Lino.

What if the two secrets are the same?

If so, why would he voluntarily tell Lino his own weakness? Was it because he was curious to see how another escort knight would react, knowing Yuneria had used it for blackmail? But it made no sense to reveal a secret that could be used against him just to see a reaction. Even if he could erase memories, Lino could have leaked it to others or made various records to prepare for the memory loss.

Or perhaps the secrets were different.

He didn’t know what secret Yuneria held, but aside from the accidental discovery that the Emperor of the Cartia Empire was impotent and searching for the legendary ‘Letia’ to sire an heir, several other things came to mind. Among them, the most shocking secret was that Grondil was the Grand King of Isberg and his true form was that of a beast.

Suddenly, Lino wondered if Yuneria knew Grondil’s true identity as well. The thought occurred to him that Grondil might be doing the same things with Yuneria that he had done with him. Spending more time together, going to Erin’s restaurant.

“Sir Disson, are you feeling alright?”

Even showing such concern.

“I am in excellent health thanks to the precious medicinal herbs Your Highness sent.”

He gave him some incredible medicine, too, I see.

“That is a relief. Erin will examine you today. She is a more skilled physician than those at the temple, so you can look forward to it.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much…!”

Seeing that he was even having Yuneria’s misaligned jaw fixed… it was clear. Grondil’s heart had surely turned back toward Yuneria.

“……”

Lino chewed over this thought and then immediately reproached himself.

How pathetic. To feel slighted as if that man’s heart ever belonged to me. It was nothing more than a passing curiosity.

Lino, who had been staring at the floor with his head bowed, turned his body away entirely. He didn’t want the Duke to see that his feelings had shifted from being slighted to outright gloom. He wanted to hide his face lest his expression betray him.

When is this conversation going to end? I want to go back to my room. While kicking the tip of his shoe against the clean floor, Lino heard Yuneria’s voice.

“Then… shall I prepare things for tonight as well…?”

Lino’s heart lurched. He had been listening to their conversation with one ear, grumbling to himself, and letting it out the other, but this stopped him cold. Tonight? Prepare? What could two men possibly be ‘preparing’ to do at night? Sparring? Assassination? Studying? Eating? Cleaning?

Lino held his breath, waiting for the rest of the conversation. He was so focused on what those two were going to do tonight that he didn’t realize Grondil was watching him the whole time. He also missed the fact that Yuneria, standing next to him, was fidgeting restlessly, unable to hide his anxiety.

“It would be best to confirm everything properly before the exchange takes place. Let us do that.”

“I will have everything ready.”

“I’ll leave it to you.”

With that, Grondil left the dining room. Lino, who had been holding his breath, let out a long sigh and started to sit down, but then froze. A terrifyingly murderous aura was radiating from the person next to him.

“……”

Should I just ignore him? 

Feeling embarrassed by his half-bent posture, he straightened his waist again. If he sat, he felt like he’d be screamed at—something about how a commoner dared to sit while a noble was standing. But if he stood, his height meant he’d be looking down at Yuneria. Knowing this was another point Yuneria loathed, Lino tried to take a couple of steps back to create some distance.

“You… you little bastard.”

“……”

But before he could step back, the confrontation began. Yuneria’s small, white hand roughly snatched Lino by the collar. Normally, Lino would have easily dodged the grasp of someone like Yuneria, whose physical abilities were only slightly better than a civilian’s, but the venomous words that followed made him lose the will to respond.

“You filthy male whore…!”

“Male… whore?”

Lino wondered why Yuneria was suddenly introducing himself. “And why should I be called that?” Even with his easygoing nature, being called a male whore out of the blue was unpleasant. Hearing it from Yuneria made it feel even filthier.

Truthfully, he had heard the slur “male whore” countless times in the slums. He had always let it go in one ear and out the other, so it had never wounded him. Since looking down on him as a male whore was the standard, he used to give a harsh lesson to the bastards who approached him for a “taste.” It had actually been a way to relieve stress, rather than a cause of it.

But now, his stress levels spiked until his head throbbed. Even though it was just one person calling him that.

“What, you don’t think you’re a male whore?”

“Yes. I am strictly here as His Highness the Duke’s escort knight.”

“A mere commoner—”

“You keep going on about commoners. Were nobles born with ‘noble’ written on their foreheads?”

Unable to contain his irritation, Lino sharply struck away Yuneria’s hand. Yuneria used his freed hand to cover his nose.

“Maybe not… but even if you don’t have ‘male whore’ written on yours, everyone can tell.”

“?”

“There’s a foul stench vibrating off you even from a distance. The vulgar scent of a man-chaser, the smell of semen, the scent of low-grade aphrodisiacs, and the smell of mold from a cheap inn… it’s all mixed together into a rotting reek.”

“Hmm…”

Lino’s brow furrowed.

He was deeply offended, but mostly because every single one of those descriptions was factually incorrect. Yuneria had clearly chosen them to insult him, but Lino wasn’t sure where to even begin correcting him.

Seeing Lino’s crumpled brow, Yuneria grinned, his misaligned jaw twisting further. This insignificant commoner piece of trash laughed at me from our first meeting, and only now does he realize his grave mistake. A lowly creature who has to experience physical suffering to learn that a stupid head makes for a hard life.

Acting as if he could no longer stand the stench, Yuneria waved his hand to stir the air. He pushed Lino back with all his might, telling him to get away because he smelled. He expected Lino to be so lost in humiliation that he’d lose his balance and tumble back pathetically.

But Lino didn’t move as Yuneria intended. His clear, bright green eyes—holding no trace of humiliation, shame, or anger—looked directly at Yuneria. He spoke in a flat voice.

“I value cleanliness very highly. I spent two hours bathing last night, took a quick shower this morning, and washed my face and hands before lunch.”

“…What?”

Once his lips opened, they didn’t stop. He paid no heed to the bewildered Yuneria, who demanded to know what this nonsense was.

“Nonsense? I am merely correcting the errors and misinformation in the statements Sir Disson made to me.”

“I-I called a male whore a male whore! What errors or misinformation? Don’t tell me you’re going to deny sleeping with His Highness. Your vulgar moans were echoing so loudly through the estate—”

“I have never denied it. Isn’t it a bit much to call it ‘denying’ when you never even asked? And since I haven’t had relations with His Highness recently, it’s impossible for me to smell like semen. Even… even if we had, His Highness cleans up afterward, so there wouldn’t be a scent.”

“Wh… what?”

“And the scent of low-grade aphrodisiacs isn’t coming from me either. There was a bit of an accident when I went to fetch His Highness and Sir Disson from the Baron Merchant Guild’s basement, but as I said, it was a brief accident and I recovered quickly. Besides, that was ages ago. How could the smell of aphrodisiacs still linger?”

As Lino pointed out each detail meticulously, Yuneria’s face flushed red with rage until, unable to contain his fury, he screamed.

“It does! You do smell!”

“Furthermore, I have never stayed in a cheap inn.” Because when he lived in the slums, he never had enough money for even a single night in the shabbiest room of a cheap inn. He was grateful just to get a piece of plastic with a hole in it to shield him from the dew.

“I say you smell, and you dare to talk back to me so arrogantly!”

“The conclusion is that the smell Sir Disson is picking up is not coming from my body. That means you’re smelling someone else…”

“……”

Lino trailed off and fell silent, looking at the seat across the table where Grondil had been sitting, before shifting his gaze back to Yuneria. He hadn’t said anything meaningful; he had just moved his eyes. But Yuneria, his eyes bulging, lunged at Lino with his hands outstretched. Rather than a strike, it looked like he was trying to claw Lino’s face, his nails sharpened and ready.

But Lino had no intention of being caught easily this time. Without even moving his feet, he simply shifted his upper body to dodge Yuneria’s attack.

“You… you…!”

“My name is not ‘you’ or ‘you little bastard,’ it’s Lino Cliff. If you wish to be treated as a noble, I believe it would be better for you to uphold a noble’s duties and manners.”

“Someone like you!”

A hand, hiding no murderous intent, went to his waist. He was still a knight, after all, and carried a sword. Lino wondered if Yuneria’s sword was for actual combat or just for decoration.

Shring— The sound of a blade scraping its scabbard echoed through the dining room. Seeing that the blade was quite long, Lino leaped back.

His posture… wouldn’t a gun be better for someone like that?

Yuneria’s stance with the longsword was like a knight who had just shed his rookie tag. His center of gravity was set, but his grip and wrist were all wrong. If he swung like that, he’d likely strain his ligaments.

Well, not my problem.

Lino didn’t take a stance in front of Yuneria’s sword; he just stared blankly. Seeing Yuneria flushed and struggling, the stifled, nauseous feeling in his chest seemed to subside a bit. The Yuneria of now was the exact opposite of the one he had shown the Duke earlier, which was almost funny.

“What era is this that you’re ‘commoner this, commoner that’ every time you open your mouth? I might just have to report you to the Grievance Officer.”

“Hah, a male whore knows about that?”

Yuneria bit his lip and swung his sword at Lino. A moment later, a short groan of ugh escaped his bitten lips. As expected, his wrist seemed to have given out after only a few swings. Lino had no intention of getting hit by the blind sword of a ‘Holy Knight’ who was one in name only, so he retreated out of the dining room step by step.

If he kept moving like this, he was bound to run into someone. Then word would reach Enoch or the Grand King.

“If you want to insult a male whore that badly, why don’t you go to the pleasure district? Oh, wait. Are you broke? From the treatment?”

“You bastard!!”

Lino was internally surprised at himself, seeing Yuneria’s misaligned jaw tremble with rage. I had this side to me, too. As he took another step back, he realized it wasn’t a new side; he had just been suppressing it. Thinking about it again as he retreated further, he realized he had been holding back for quite a long time. Hmm… it’s not that I have a good personality; I just have a lot of patience.

Before he knew it, Lino had left the dining room and reached the central hall leading to the second floor. It didn’t take long for people to discover Yuneria and Lino, and various screams broke out. He heard the sound of many footsteps hurrying away.

“What are you two doing right now!”

Finally, Enoch—the man Lino had been waiting for—appeared.