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Chapter : 16
Hmm.
The first place his eyes went was the bed.
“That looks normal.”
Lying atop it was a smooth, well-toned naked body.
It was Grand Duke Ferzen.
After confirming that his lord was properly there, Alik muttered,
“His clothes are all still here, too.”
Whoosh—his gaze shifted next to the sofa.
The neatly arranged jacket was also exactly where it had been the night before.
Hmm.
But Alik didn’t stop there.
He began a thorough inspection, starting with the duke’s shoes—right down to the soles.
The curtains are untouched, and there are no marks left on the doorknob either.
With both hands clasped behind his back, the man scanned the room.
His gaze was slow, but sharp.
“There’s nothing out of place.”
On the surface, everything was perfect.
In other words, just as it had been last night.
“…Then why does it smell like morning dew?”
But Alik had watched over Ferzen for a very long time.
The instincts he’d developed through countless hardships couldn’t be fooled.
This scent of grass.
This foreign trace.
Following it, Alik buried his nose into a handkerchief and sniffed.
His movements were practiced, as if he’d done this many times before.
“Not here either.”
The handkerchief, the shirt, even the cardigan.
After repeatedly inhaling the air, he became certain.
The strange scent was growing stronger.
“……”
At last, he found it. Alik immediately reached out.
“…Damn.”
Just as he seemed to reach a conclusion and let out a sigh—
“How disgusting.”
“Have you awakened, my lord?”
Ferzen had risen at some point and was pulling on a nightgown, his brow furrowed.
“To see something like this the moment I wake up. Revolting.”
Yet his expression suggested this kind of situation wasn’t unfamiliar.
“My lord, where did you go last night? Somewhere like a forest, or near a lake, perhaps.”
“Alik, your obsession grows worse by the day.”
Instead of answering, Ferzen replied in his characteristically languid tone.
“If I were assigned to serve someone like Your Highness, anyone would end up like me.”
Alik’s expression as he picked up the quiver was just as unyielding.
“Where did you go?”
“……”
“Why is there only one arrow left? What, did you go hunting at dawn?”
At that question, Ferzen raised one eyebrow as if asking what nonsense he was hearing.
“Hunting at dawn?”
No matter how Alik pressed him from behind, Ferzen’s morning routine remained unchanged.
“You know I’m a coward, don’t you? The nights in the imperial palace are terrifying.”
The grand duke stretched leisurely.
Then he drew back the curtains himself and even drank some water.
Coward, my foot. Even a passing bird would laugh.
Alik thought even his Adam’s apple was annoyingly handsome.
At moments like this, he couldn’t help thinking that the gods had wasted effort on utterly unnecessary details.
“In this imperial palace, sealed off like a prison on all sides, where could I possibly have gone?”
“I know that my lord is someone who can go anywhere.”
It was a perfect answer.
“Well… that’s not exactly wrong.”
At that, Kaije smiled.
“I told you, I went to bed early. You saw it yourself, didn’t you?”
But there wasn’t the slightest change in his tone.
“This place is unbearably boring. There’s nothing to do but drink and sleep.”
Muttering, Ferzen flung open the bedroom window.
As the cold dawn air brushed past his hair, his face came into view like a painting.
“The princes are training already.”
His blue eyes settled on the monster-hunting grounds visible across the way.
There, the princes of Yekaterina were in the midst of their drills.
“How is the crown prince’s illness?”
Resting his chin on his hand as he watched the grounds, Ferzen asked.
“It’s been quite some time since he lost consciousness, and there’s no sign of him waking up… so it seems to be getting worse.”
Alik’s gaze also turned toward them.
“The other princes must be full of anticipation. If the crown prince were to die, the opportunity would fall to them.”
“Who knows. Is that really so?”
“…Pardon?”
Alik asked again, but Ferzen didn’t answer.
After a brief silence—
“Ah, I nearly let myself be led astray again by you, my lord.”
As if reminding himself that now wasn’t the time, Alik held up the quiver he’d been gripping.
“I still can’t understand why there’s only one arrow left.”
Then he asked bluntly,
“Do you perhaps know anything about this, my lord?”
“…An arrow disappeared?”
Ferzen spoke as if surprised, though his face showed not the slightest hint of agitation.
“Well. Why ask me?”
His eyes, as he traced over the bow, were gentle.
These were things long fitted precisely to Ferzen’s hands.
Because of that, even if he’d aimed at a small animal in the dead of night, there would be no obvious traces left.
“Did you perhaps go hunting last night? Did something happen there?”
“Impossible.”
Kaije replied, his expression already softened.
“Nothing happened. Ah—wait.”
“……”
“I did let one piece of prey get away when I let my guard down.”
Speechless, Alik quietly stared at his lord.
That shamelessly handsome face.
Didn’t you say you didn’t go hunting? That you slept?
He wanted to demand it—but…
You’re too obsessed.
Knowing exactly how the duke would respond, Alik could only bite his lip.
“So in the end, you not only went hunting, but chased your prey and even lost an arrow. And you let the prey escape as well.”
He asked calmly.
Kaije Ferzen was a man whose peculiar fastidiousness demanded that all his belongings be kept strictly in their proper places.
And once he set his sights on a target, he never let it escape.
“I truly can’t understand this. Is this really something you would do, Your Highness?”
In short, this was something that should never have happened in Ferzen’s history.
Alik knew his lord’s attention had recently been drawn strangely toward something—but still…
“I had no choice.”
Unlike Alik, who was forcing down his irritation as he spoke, Kaije looked entirely at ease.
“Seeing it in person…”
Instead, he nocked the lone remaining arrow to his bow and aimed somewhere beyond the horizon.
“It made me want to torment it even more.”
Shhk—!
The arrow flew sharply through the narrow gap in the window.
“My lord!”
“Krrraaaak!”
It pierced straight through the throat of a demonic beast in the princes’ hunting grounds.
“Who dares?!”
“Your Highness! Are you unharmed?!”
“What are you all doing?! Find out immediately where that arrow came from!”
The entire hunting ground surrounding the princes erupted into commotion.
Naturally so—a single arrow from nowhere had instantly ended the life of a battle-grade monster.
“Exactly.”
Lowering his bow, Ferzen smiled meaningfully.
“I told you not to let your guard down.”
His lips were red and alluring.
