CH 5

“I only lightly touched it because Duke-nim told me to!”

Britia made a desperate excuse after seeing Sig’s reaction to her touching his tail, saying she didn’t want to touch his tail.

Sig was looking directly at her with wide-open eyes. As her hand brushed against his tail, he unknowingly let out a moan, unable to control the thrill that shivered up his spine.

It was unbelievable how strongly he reacted to a mere touch.

“Can you repeat it please?”

“Yes?”

“Again, touch it. I’ll be fine this time.”

Sig drew near to Britia after she shook her head and said she wouldn’t touch the tail again.

“At this rate, it’s so embarrassing that I can’t even close my eyes.”

➤He forced his eyes to keep open, probably meaning that he couldn’t even close his eyes meant he wouldn’t even blink once.

Even though he had not even touched her, Britia shrank in fear of being crushed to death.

“Please touch my tail again.”

“Yes, yes, I got it. So please stay away!”

When Britia yelled, he took a step back. Then he turned around to let her touch it. His tail was rigid, as if he was nervous.

Britia cautiously reached out her hand.

“Ugh… !”

Sig let out a moan like before and slammed his clenched fist and slammed his leg on the floor because he could no longer take it.

Sig believed he could overcome his humiliation, and that if Britia touched his tail, he would be able to endure the sensation and would not react so strongly again!

However, the more he tried to endure it, the stronger the stimulation was.

To the point where he almost fell to his knees!

“Please, once more.”

Sig was obstinate, as if he started to think this was a test of endurance.

“What’s the point of doing that?”

“Again… !”

Britia reluctantly extended her hand, but stopped just before touching his tail and looked at him.

“You were patient this time, right?”

Then a spark flared up in his eyes.

“How far are you going to make yourself miserable?”

His pride was deeply hurt when he noticed that Britannia had not touched his tail.

“Are you pitying me because I won’t be able to bear it?”

Britia waved her hand while looking at Sig, who was clearly upset.

“What do you mean by pitying!”

When Britia placed her hand on his tail out of fear, he gasped for air and whimpered.

“… again!”

“I don’t want to do it any longer!”

Britia shouted and hid her hands behind her back.

“Give me one last chance, just a last chance!”

Britia was unwilling to touch his tail despite his pleading.

“No! What’s the point of enduring this?”

“I find it so difficult to endure even your slightest touch in my tail, and I didn’t know that I had such vulnerability. And now, are you telling me to ignore it?”

Britia and Sig didn’t understand each other.

“Duke-nim sure acts strange!”

The thought that Britia couldn’t stand Sig being over cautious in the first place shocked him.

“Normally, no one can feel anything even if I touch their tails.”

Sig appeared startled, cracked open his mouth a little, and began gritting his teeth right away.

“Are you saying I can’t stand what everyone else can stand?”

He looked at Britia as if he were going to devour her when he asked her that.

“I don’t know why only Duke-nim had such a reaction.”

That was something Britia also pondered.

“It must be because I am a weakling.”

Britia widened her eyes in puzzlement as she watched him smile bitterly.

She didn’t understand why Sig thought of himself as a wimp over something so trivial.

Because the man in front of her possessed all of the characteristics of a powerful entity. The term ‘weakling’ did not suit him.

Britia finally touched his tail again after watching him become desperate. Unfortunately, he couldn’t handle the stimulation until the very end.

“As long as I don’t touch you, you will be fine.”

Despite his despair, Britia spoke encouraging words to him rather than offering him consolation.

“Because only I can see your tail anyway.”

“But if you touch it, I’ll show that ugly look again.”

If she told Sig the truth about his tail, Britia wasn’t sure if he would believe her. If she should tell him that she thought his tail was kind of cute, she pondered.

“Do you really think I’m carefree enough to let it go even after knowing I have this weakness?”

When Sig described his tail as his weakness, he was mistaken. The issue was that he held an overly strong belief in the tail’s existence and refused to even consider the possibility that only Britia could see it.

“Can you tell me where the tail is attached?”

Sig asked her in a trembling voice, his tail drooping over the sofa and slowly making it damp.

“More to the right. Yes, you are touching it now.”

Sig touched his invisible tail and frowned.

When Britia touched Sig’s tail, he didn’t feel unpleasant. But there was unquestionably something, more of an indescribable feeling. Because of this, he wished to touch the invisible tail and verify it for himself.

“This is it.”

Britia doubted her own eyes after seeing his hand movements. She let him know where his tail was, but she didn’t think he could really touch it.

However, the hand gesture gave the impression that he was actually feeling something with his hand.

“Duke-nim, can’t you really see the tail?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t see it.”

Sig clenched his fists in deep shame because he knew he could have prepared himself if he had been able to see the tail, which was only visible to Britia.

“Are you touching something you can’t even see?”

“Even though the sensation is too vague for me to physically feel anything, I can tell that I have touched something.”

Britia tried to read his expression to see if he was enjoying touching his tail.

But she had a feeling he was just saying random things.

“Is my tail still wet? It feels damp and cold.”

Britia, however, came to the conclusion that what he had said was true when she observed him scowling and inspecting the fingers that had touched his tail.

“I can’t see it, but I can do what you did with my tail earlier.”

Sig gripped his tail firmly as his eyebrows narrowed in pain, and despite his forehead being covered in sweat, he did not release it.

Britia was perplexed by Sig’s behavior and wondered why he had gone so far.

After a brief moment of hesitation she looked at him.

“Well, do you forgive me for what I did?”

“What did you do?”

He looked at Britia with piercing eyes.

“I arbitrarily touched the Duke-nim’s tail… .”

Britia couldn’t blurt out the end of her speech.

Sig grinned while twitching his lips, appearing to be watching a prey.

When Britia caught his eye, she became so terrified that she lost track of what she had been saying.

“I am grateful to you.”

It came as a surprise after hearing Sig express his gratitude. Because it appeared as though he was thanking Britia, who had clearly regarded herself as his prey from the start.

She thought, who in the right mind would thank his prey?

Without looking away from her, Sig continued to speak.

“Because you have told me that I have this weakness.”

When he let out a low laugh, Britia felt a chill run down her spine.

“It has been a great help.”

“Well, I’m glad.”

Britia was desperate to see her family, anyone but him. She wasn’t having much fun being alone with him.

“It’s already this late.”

She excused herself and got up from his chair.

Normally, Britia would have been ready for bed. She was right; by the time he arrived, it was already too late.

It was too early for a popular party to end, but Lockhart’s party was not well-liked.

Sig looked at his pocket watch and confirmed that it was two o’clock, and followed her up.

“I’m sorry to bother you so late.”

“The coat you left with me is probably dry.”

Britia made her way to the entrance. She may have heard the loud noise outside the door due to the rather silent atmosphere.

“Argh!”

Leon and his friends, Earl Lockhart. Those who were eavesdropping while leaning against the door lost their balance and poured in.

“You guys are damn heavy, get up already!”

Leon, who was at the bottom, shouted.

“Tia, there’s nothing to be surprised about. If I opened the door unexpectedly, you would also find yourself in this situation.”

Earl Lockhart stood up, brushed his shoulders, and put on a stern face as if nothing had happened.

“What are you doing, everyone? That’s not polite!”

Britia’s face turned red in anger.

“I was going to go in to rescue you right away if I saw any sign of danger.”

Leon said as if making excuses.

“What are you going to do if something bad happens to you? Do you think you can beat a mad dog? Aren’t you afraid of ghosts? Then yoy should be scared more of a human who is worse than ghosts?”

While making excuses, Leon blurted out something that he shouldn’t have said.

“What is it, sister, are you afraid of ghosts?”

Leon’s friends slowly began to make fun of her.

Sig, who was watching them, stood in front of the Earl.

“Earl Lockhart, it’s getting late, so I’m leaving now. Thank you for inviting me today.”

Even though it was a normal greeting, because of his size and appearance, it seemed like he was putting pressure on the Earl.

“Duke-nim! If you go out on a night of such heavy rain, you would probably get sick!”

Earl Lockhart said as he shook his head vigorously.

“I will wake the coachman tomorrow morning and lend you a carriage, so, please, stay here tonight.”

“No, please. It’s alright.”

“You guys go to sleep today too!”

The Earl pretended not to hear Sig and told Leon’s friends.

“As expected, brother!”

“Even if you let him leave at such an hour, he would have secretly slept in the stable!”

Britia grabbed the Ealr’s arm and turned around.

“What are you thinking, Crave? What are you going to do with Duke-nim?”

“What do you mean, Tia? Do you really want our guests to leave in the rain?”

“Don’t even try to trick me.You’ve got a face full of ulterior motives!”

The Earl of Lockhart glared at Britia with a coy stare.

“Do you think you’ll be the only one to make friends with Duke-nim?”

“Huh?”

It had sound absurd to Britia, when Earl said she became friend with Sig.

“If it were someone else, I wouldn’t have let them be friends with him. But Tia, I’d be rooting for you.You’re my twin after all.”

The Earl, who had been glancing at her, smiled and winked.

“But the opportunity to get to know him won’t come very often, so let’s use that opportunity too.”

“Crave!”

Leaving the whispering Britia behind, Earl Lockhart turned to Sig.

“You don’t have to be embarrassed, Duke of Turas.”

He smiled across his face and spread his arms.

“Lockhart loves to entertain guests.”

“I apologise, Duke-nim. Your coat isn’t dry yet.”

The butler who was standing next to the Earl, said.

“That’s a big deal! If you go out wearing something like that, you’ll catch a cold.”

Learning that Sig’s coat wasn’t dry yet, the Earl made a fuss at the butler’s words.

“Accept the favor, Duke.”

Everybody joined in.

“Now that my body has just warmed up a bit, it is unreasonable to go back through the rain like this.”

“Is there anything wrong with it?”

Sig stared at his knight, Evry with puzzled eyes.

“Well, if it’s the Duke, you’ll be fine. Still, there’s a possibility of you’re catching cold.”

Sig was so strong that no matter how much he rolled in the northern snow, he wouldn’t catch cold.

However, Evry refrained from saying that.

There was nothing Evry couldn’t do if he was told to. But he didn’t understand why the Duke, who rarely attended parties, had traveled all the way to the capital to do something like that. It was also unnecessary to include the other knights who had come along to march through the rain.

“They wouldn’t feel comfortable if we told them we were marching through the rain.”

Sig’s eyes flinched at Evry’s words.

“You don’t want to make the people you invited feel uncomfortable, right?”

Sig’s eyes turned to Britia. As his knight said, Britia didn’t want to make them uncomfortable.

But was Britia herself okay with that?

She tensed, the muscles at the corners of her lips trembling, unlike Earl Lockhart who was grinning widely.

“As expected, i’ll go back home.”

“Duke-nim!”

Earl Lockhart tried to catch him, but he looked at the butler as if he had already made up his mind.

“Bring my coat.”

The butler, Walter, observed Sig and the Earl warning him not to bring his coat while standing next to him.

“The coat will dry up in about an hour or two.”

Walter tried to obey his master’s will.

“I’ll get wet again in the rain anyway, so it doesn’t matter whether my coat is wet or dry.”

However, Sig was determined.

Even though Britia was glad he was returning home, she was troubled inside. In particular, the wet tail had a miserable, dejected appearance.

“Duke-nim!”

Finally, as he was about to turn, Britia abruptly called him.

“Are you sure you want to go back?”

Rather than Sig, she was more worried about his tail because she didn’t want it to get wet again.

Sig slowly blinked at Britia, who was sullen.

Based on her reaction up to this point, he assumed she couldn’t stand his presence and wanted him to leave soon; now he wonders if she wanted him to stay the night.