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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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‘Actually, I’m not sure if there’s anything to be resentful about…’
Eileen tilted her head with a puzzled thought.
Of course, she wasn’t tactless enough to outwardly express it and fuel Rudrick’s anger.
Rather, when it came to matters related to Rudrick, she was the most sensitive, to the point where her usually expressionless face would change first.
Eileen, who had been gauging Rudrick’s mood, came to the conclusion that she didn’t know the reason and shook her head.
It was a familiar situation.
Occasionally, when emotions flared up and fights broke out like this, Rudrick would intervene at an absurdly timed moment and stop them every time.
Either by getting angry and breaking up the fight like now, or by carefully admonishing and comforting each one.
‘…They say women are all children even as they age. Is that true?’
Eileen thought with a bitter smile.
It had become a routine that she had taken for granted at some point, but as the saying goes, don’t lose the preciousness in familiarity.
Only now, after realizing the preciousness of the daily life she had been leading as a matter of course, did she find it irrelevant.
So even now, although she didn’t know what was so resentful, even the sight of him making a resentful expression was beyond adorable.
In fact, in principle, no matter how much the two fought, it was unimaginable for Rudrick to take such a subservient attitude towards Eileen and Elena.
But what did it matter?
There was no drug as sweet as love.
Once you fell for it, it was the kind you couldn’t escape from addiction.
Even now, nearly ten years later, the rose-colored lenses on Eileen’s eyes showed no sign of coming off.
Anyway, while each of them had similar but different thoughts, they arrived at the detached palace and in front of Rudrick’s room.
As if the custom-made suit the attendants had made him wear for the important occasion was uncomfortably tight, Rudrick spoke while unbuttoning the cuffs of his sleeves.
“I have something to get from the lab, so go in and wait.”
“Alright.”
As Elena readily nodded her head, Rudrick stared at her intently and added.
“Arwen might be in there when you go in, so don’t fight again while I’m gone because you can’t hold back. I’ll really get angry then.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Eileen responded to his words.
“At least acknowledge it.”
Grumbling, Rudrick headed to the lab for a moment, and the two of them, who had sorted out their emotions to some extent while he was gone, silently entered the room.
Inside the room, Arwen had not yet returned.
As if they had both made a promise, Eileen and Elena scanned the room.
It had already been well over a month since he had stayed here, so it was about time he decorated it to his taste, but for a noble’s room, it was an excessively barren space.
Of course, the furniture and basic facilities were properly equipped, and as items used by the royal family, they were high-end, but they were quite different from the typical image of a noble’s room.
But perhaps they were used to this sight, as they both sat on the chairs placed in front of the table.
The first to speak was Elena.
“…Until now, I didn’t have the luxury to properly look around the room with. But it’s just as I thought. It hasn’t changed at all.”
“I suppose so. People don’t change in an instant. Rather, I thought there might be a bit more of a masculine feel left when he was younger, but…”
“Well, Rudrick has always been this style from the beginning. You must have known that too.”
“I’m not unaware of that.”
Although they were snarling at each other as if they would kill each other just a moment ago, neither of them wanted to go to the bitter end at the cost of going against Rudrick’s mood.
As proof, they were having a relatively calm conversation compared to earlier when their emotions were highly agitated.
Eileen, naturally receiving Elena’s words, muttered.
“Rudrick is a bit different from a typical noble young master. In some ways, he’s even more feminine than a woman.”
[T/N: guys before you start going off about mistranslations and whatnot its not mistranslation because remember its flipped so feminine is masculine and masculine is feminine in this world]
“He’s on the easygoing side, but… you must know it too, Your Grace. Even if he says that, he’s not really angry.”
Elena shrugged her shoulders.
Combined with the time before the regression, they had spent nearly eight years together.
As someone who had been with Rudrick for most of his twenties, not only Elena but all five of them knew Rudrick so well that they could say they didn’t know anything about him.
“…If Rudrick was really angry, he wouldn’t have gotten angry like that. Rather, I remember he would become silent and his face would turn expressionless.”
“You know that well too, Your Grace. Have you experienced it?”
“Once.”
“It’s a rare sight, so you’ve experienced it well. For reference, I’ve experienced it twice.”
“Elena, that’s not something to brag about…”
“Looking back, they were embarrassing moments.”
Elena laughed softly.
Until Rudrick returned, naturally, the topic of their conversation was Rudrick.
From memories with Rudrick in the past to anything related to Rudrick could become a topic of conversation.
“Your Grace… no, cousin, you know how curious it is the more you know.”
“What is it?”
“Everything, starting with his personality.”
As they had a calm conversation, the tense and heavy atmosphere gradually eased.
At some point, the second-person pronoun Elena used to address Eileen had changed from ‘Your Grace’ to ‘cousin,’ which was proof of that.
Perhaps recalling things that had happened in the past, Elena, who had been pondering with a furrowed brow, continued.
“Sometimes I feel like he’s playing around above my head, but other times he feels so light that he seems to lack maturity.”
“…I think I have roughly similar experiences too. First of all, the fact that he attracts every woman is a heavy sin. What’s even scarier is that he’s not even aware of it himself.”
“Ah, you’re right, cousin. I agree with that too. Sometimes I even think he might have been born to seduce women.”
“Well… it’s not simply annoying, but the expression ‘mischievous’ would be a bit more appropriate.”
“The saying ‘homme fatale’ isn’t there for nothing.”
Elena shrugged her shoulders.
“…Cousin must remember it too, of course. He’s unexpectedly deep. Sometimes he’s so kind that it’s a bit frustrating.”
“Are you talking about ‘that time’?”
To the words spoken in a slightly heavier tone compared to earlier, Eileen, who reacted sensitively, raised her eyebrows and asked back.
Instead of answering, Elena simply nodded her head.
The conversation naturally cut off as the atmosphere turned heavy.
As if it wasn’t a past she particularly wanted to remember, Eileen bit her lip with narrowed eyes.
Because both Eileen and Elena at that time had the same expression as now.
“At that time, he could have just picked anyone and we would have understood.”
“He probably said, ‘What about the people left behind then?'”
If there was a difference, it would be that the sorrowful sadness on their faces was even more poignant than now.
The two, who recalled the painful past they didn’t want to think about, fell silent without needing to say who would speak first.
And then, through the door that swung open, Rudrick, who had a few books he had brought from the lab in his hand, made a puzzled expression.
“Why is the atmosphere like this? Did you two fight again?”
“Your Grace, see for yourself. If I had fought with my cousin, at least this room wouldn’t be left intact.”
“I happen to like this room right now. Be careful not to ruin it for no reason and make me use another room.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
When Rudrick stared at Elena and spoke, obviously not knowing about the serious conversation that had taken place just before, Elena responded with a deliberately cheerful face.
Now that Rudrick had arrived, there was a tacit agreement between the two that the heavy atmosphere and heavy conversation would end here for now.
“It seems Arwen hasn’t returned yet.”
“…Rudrick, just in case, I’m saying this out of concern, but it’s always better to be careful.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s a bit embarrassing for me to say this directly, but her true nature is not a cat, but a True Ancestor. Moreover, she’s sharing a room with a young man.”
“…?”
As if it was a good opportunity, Eileen spoke in a worried tone.
Rudrick himself tilted his head, wondering what she was talking about, and Eileen, who hesitated for a moment, spoke cautiously with an uncharacteristically rich change of expression.
“Rudrick, you remember what I told you last time, right?”
“…About what?”
“If someone tries to lay a hand on you, Rudrick…”
“I don’t like it, you can’t, don’t do it. Is that it?”
“You remembered it well.”
This time, Rudrick’s expression subtly changed.
Every time a conversation like this took place, he couldn’t help but feel strange, intensely realizing that this world was twisted somewhere.
Of course, as long as Rudrick was also a man, a man in his prime at that, there was no reason for him to tell Arwen, who wasn’t even in cat form, to come to bed and sleep together unless he was crazy.
Moreover, he had no choice but to be careful in an environment where he had even slept in the same bed with Arwen, whose transformation was undone while sleeping yesterday, in the dictionary sense of the word without any obscene meaning.
Separately from that, what made Rudrick’s feeling particularly subtle was the fact that Eileen had said those words assuming a situation where a deranged Arwen would pounce on him.
Despite the fact that in Rudrick’s common sense, it should usually be the opposite situation.
“Um, Eileen… No matter what, isn’t that a bit of a stretch?”
As soon as Rudrick, who had been pondering for a moment, said those words, the door opened again, and along with the illusion that the surrounding temperature had dropped by a few degrees.
Swish swish.
A thin and long white tail swayed gently, and a cat, who made a dissatisfied expression despite being a cat, naturally approached Rudrick, rubbed its face against him, and then glared at Eileen and spoke.
“That’s quite a stretch. If you’re jealous, just say you’re jealous.”
“…What?”
“How could I do that unless I’m crazy?”
Hahh.
At the sight of Arwen casually responding and making a clumsy biting gesture, Elena and Eileen were simultaneously at a loss for words.
It was strange.
Surely the Arwen in their memories, the Arwen they remembered, would have had a noble image as a True Ancestor, but what was in front of their eyes now was a cat that was very satisfied with life as a pet.
“You should go and learn it too.”
“…?”
“Transformation magic.”
Arwen, who had leaped up, settled on Rudrick’s lap and casually added.
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