Chapter 201
I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 201: I Like You
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I Like YouChapter 201. I Like You
— Weren’t you in the middle of work? — asked Valdrova.
— It’s nothing important.
— No, I only came because I was bored, so if it’s inconvenient, I’ll come back later…
There was no way he could refuse.
Where in the world could there be a matter as serious as pure boredom?
— Not at all. It’s fine if you come in.
— But you seem to have a lot of work…
Valdrova looked at the pile of work documents stacked on Ferda’s desk.
— Really, it’s fine.
— Really…?
— In the worst case, I can burn it all.
— Huh? Is that allowed?
— It is allowed.
His voice was so firm that, paradoxically, it inspired no confidence at all.
— N-no, you can’t do that. You have to work, right?
— But won’t you be bored?
— Don’t mind me, Ferda-ssi, you work. I’ll just sit next to you.
— Next to me…?
— Yes! I’ll stay as quiet as a mouse!
— Understood.
Valdrova approached carefully, dragged Mori’s chair over, and sat down next to Ferda.
— Cheer up!
She raised both hands, making a cheering gesture.
But there was no way he could concentrate.
Even with a mask, that face was turned toward him, and for some reason, it made him nervous.
She said she came because she was bored, but if he couldn’t even relieve that boredom and instead made it grow, wouldn’t he be disqualified as her future partner?
“As expected, burning it all is…”
Just as Ferda was about to make a major resolution, Valdrova’s face leaned closer.
She read the document Ferda was holding.
— Mid-year budget usage report… What does this mean?
Ferda answered her.
— It’s a document that verifies how the money to be used in summer is being spent.
— I see. Does it look well-written?
— They say more budget is needed than expected, but for now, this amount is still fine.
— Mmm…
Valdrova looked at the numbers written below, showing a worried expression.
— Do you think I could do something like this, Ferda-ssi?
— You could, but there is no need.
— But, aren’t these the things that you are originally supposed to do?
— These troublesome and miscellaneous tasks are exactly what I should be doing. Your Highness does not need to learn them separately.
Valdrova’s words cut off abruptly.
The silence chilled his liver and bile.
“Did I make a verbal mistake?”
“Should I have said: You can do it too! If you learn intensively, you can do it?”
— Actually, that’s not what I came to say… I keep rambling on other words.
Valdrova fiddled with her fingers, twisted them, hesitated, and then spoke.
— I’m sorry for avoiding you these past few days. Actually, I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t bear it…
— Not at all. I can wait until Your Highness’s heart is ready.
— …You’re doing it again.
A look of extreme disappointment.
Ferda still didn’t know what he had done wrong.
— Um…
— Yes.
— I like you.
— Huh?
Ferda flinched.
He flinched so deeply that even Valdrova, who had uttered the words, was surprised.
— That… that name, Eleanor.
— Ah, is that so?
— Yes. It’s the name that Ferda-ssi gave me… if you don’t use it, I feel upset.
— Ah.
“So that was it?”
“Every time I felt her mood sour, it was when I mentioned the word ‘Your Highness’.”
— I see.
— Yes.
— …
— …
— Then, Eleanor…?
— Yes!
Valdrova answered with tremendous vigor.
“It seemed that was really all.”
— Hehe, you can go back to work now. I was a big bother, wasn’t I?
— Not at all. This is fine.
— Can I be even more bothersome?
— You can.
— Then…
Valdrova’s restless hand leaned forward along with her body and carefully took one of Ferda’s hands.
— Can I have this?
— Do you want me to cut it off and give it to you?
— There’s no need to go that far!
— It’s a joke.
It didn’t sound like a joke at all.
Ferda looked at Valdrova and smiled faintly.
Valdrova couldn’t see that smile, so she lowered her head and fiddled with Ferda’s hand.
From the crease of the thumb, running along the smooth surface of the nail, moving to the index finger.
The feeling of her scanning them one by one made him feel as if she were trying to read everything on his hand.
Naturally, Ferda couldn’t concentrate.
— Ferda-ssi…
— Yes.
— What do you like about me?
It was a sudden question.
Valdrova continued speaking, turning his fingers one by one.
— Ferda-ssi is handsome and smart… so you would probably like a prettier and smarter girl than someone like me. For example, that person Olivia…?
Olivia Arken.
A beauty who wouldn’t be shamed by the title of “Rose of the Empire.”
But Ferda knew her other side.
That other side was so deep and dark that it gave the sensation of looking at another version of himself.
No matter how beautiful she was, it only left an unpleasant feeling.
— Whether it’s me or Olivia, even if we are both smart, there is something that cannot be obtained even with effort. That is what you, Eleanor, have right now.
— What is it?
The question itself was that very thing.
— I can’t say.
— Why?
— Because it’s more beautiful when you don’t know it.
— What is that. That’s…
Valdrova grumbled as if wondering if she was being teased.
“It was truly paradoxical.”
“That she didn’t know her own value made her feel so precious.”
His heart, which had been beating with agitation, gradually found stability.
A pleasant silence arrived, and Ferda focused on the documents again.
Words disappeared again.
Ferda turned pages, and each time, Valdrova fiddled with Ferda’s hand.
Eventually, Valdrova began drawing something on Ferda’s palm.
Following the sensation, tracing the lines, letters emerged.
— Are you writing letters?
— That’s right. Can you feel it?
— Yes, I can feel it.
— Mmm… Then I will write letters, why don’t you try to guess?
Valdrova radiated an atmosphere that this would be fun.
There was no way Ferda could refuse.
— Very well.
— Then, here is the first question?
Her fingers drew gently on Ferda’s hand as if it were drawing paper.
She even put a dot at the end and asked playfully.
— What did I write?
— An apple?
— Yes. It’s an apple. Then, next question!
Valdrova wrote letters diligently, excited.
— Ferda. That’s my name.
— Correct! Next question…
— Eleanor. That’s your name.
— Correct! You guess well. I’ll need a slightly harder question.
Valdrova shook her head gently with joy and hummed a melody.
— The next question is, hmm…
Her excited movements calmed down a bit.
The hand she held grew strangely warmer.
— …Is this also something to guess?
— Understood.
Ferda concentrated, trying to read the letters Valdrova was forming.
She put a dot and asked.
— What did I write?
— …
— Hmm, was this one hard?
— No. I think I know what it says.
— Then, tell me.
— That is…
Ferda touched his face unconsciously.
He hesitated, with a terribly troubled expression.
The words she wrote were something Ferda also knew well.
But, in sobriety, they were words he could not utter.
For someone of few words and not rich in expressions, they were cute and beautiful words he dared not pronounce.
Valdrova was waiting for him to say those words.
That was why Ferda spoke to her carefully.
— I like you.
She made a deeply satisfied face and replied.
— Me too.
Valdrova wrote it several more times.
She smiled, savoring Ferda’s troubled face again and again.
Valdrova Castle, Ruri’s Room.
What she did after finishing her daily routine was simple.
She took off the clothes she had worn today and put a honey-preserved fruit into her mouth from the jar she had saved as a reward.
She rolled the sticky sweetness around in her mouth and threw herself onto the bed just as she was.
Current time: midnight.
Tomorrow’s work started at 4 AM, so if she slept now, she would get 4 hours.
Ruri always slept that amount, and it was enough.
She closed her eyes according to her routine.
— Mmm…
But her eyes wouldn’t close properly.
She, who had trained herself to fall asleep the moment she lay down, couldn’t fall asleep easily.
A stray thought was interfering with her terribly.
That stray thought was causing a vague emotion like a diffuse mist in her head, disturbing her.
Ruri’s head turned gently.
Where her eyes reached, there was a pile of books.
The books she had completely looted from Ferda’s office.
Books full of seditious and obscene content.
— …Pervert.
Words thrown at Ferda.
Ruri knew those words were not in her heart.
Ferda didn’t know what kind of books they were; the one who knew was Ruri.
The one who made a fuss on her own and ran away was her.
Remembering herself at that moment, Ruri covered her face.
“Screaming and running away…”
Ruri couldn’t believe she had done something only a damsel would do.
When had she ever felt so moved?
Of course, Ruri had been moved many times by major events.
But over something so trivial?
Had she ever been hypersensitive over nothing?
“All of this is…”
Ferda’s face came to mind.
A man with almost no expression, with a fragile body.
Deep blue eyes, a beast’s jawline.
And an incredibly cozy scent.
An embrace wider than expected.
— Ah…
Ruri shook her head vigorously, erasing that image from her mind.
This is crazy.
Even imagining it was making her feel strange.
Like reaching for a taboo that must not be reached.
Ruri got up from her seat and put another honey-preserved fruit into her mouth.
When did this start?
Ruri dug into the root cause, and that root was unmistakably this book in her hand.
It was an unknown oriental script, but Ruri knew the title.
“49 Ways to Tame the Sassy Maid.”
Ruri, content completely foreign to her.
She was the maid of the Red Dragon, Valdrova, not Ferda’s maid.
The one who was in a position where she could reject any demand at any time was Valdrova’s maid, Ruri Silverwind.
This book was arbitrarily imagining something that could never happen.
“A book like this needs to be burned right now.”
Ruri conjured flames.
But she couldn’t easily bring them close to the book.
A sudden question in her head.
“Think carefully… is there necessarily a reason to burn it?”
The sassy one isn’t her, it’s Ferda.
Even though he is tall and has a noble atmosphere unbefitting his age, he is younger and still acts like a lord in front of a dragon spawn, doesn’t he?
He likes being hit, but he still puts on airs arbitrarily.
“That perverted tendency must not be transferred to my lady.”
Valdrova is a woman like a blank canvas.
She will be stained by someone in an instant, so she will definitely be stained by Ferda.
“So…”
At least I need to keep a cool head.
Ruri recalled the advice she received when she was appointed Commander of the Mobile Brigade.
“Know the enemy, know yourself, and you will win a hundred battles.”
Ruri, having hardened her resolve, looked at the book again.
49 Ways to Tame the Sassy Maid.
“If I know the 49 methods, I can also prepare countermeasures for them.”
Thinking this way, her mindset changed.
Her hesitation and worry disappeared immediately.
This must not be burned.
I must absolutely read it!
But there was no way Ruri knew the unknown oriental script.
She needed someone who knew oriental script.
Who could it be?
“Penelope.”
Ruri reflexively emitted killing intent.
She would rather be caught by Ferda than let that demon find out she was reading this book.
Then, what other methods are there?
“Mori.”
Ferda went to find Mori to read this book.
As the Owner of the Library of All Things, she definitely knows about oriental script.
“I will ask that child.”
She has no ego, so if I tell her to keep it a secret, she won’t let it slip easily.
It’s late at night, so there is no better time to ask secretly.
Ruri decided to execute it immediately.
She stood up from her seat and put her hand on the doorknob.
— …
She hesitated for a moment, then looked back again.
What caught her eye were the other seditious books piled up.
“Think carefully…”
Since she is reading seditious books anyway, what difference would it make to take a few more?
Right.
It will be fine.
Ruri picked up about three more and headed to Mori’s bedroom.
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