Don't Keep a Dog in the Garden - Chapter 16

“How long do you intend to leave him as he is?”

In Cassia’s office, Rinox, who was standing with his back to her and looking out the window, suddenly spoke.

Cassia, who had been buried in paperwork, turned at his voice.

She rose from her chair and looked outside, and saw someone’s back walking into the garden.

It was Whisker.

A week after he was found in the garden, he brushed himself off and got up.

Even when Marsilla protested in alarm, he began pacing around the room, then from the next day, he went up and down the stairs.

And now, whenever he had the chance, he wandered the garden.

Rinox and everyone in the mansion watched his every move with wary eyes.

After stealing a glance at Rinox’s stern profile, Cassia lowered her gaze again to the midsummer garden that had swallowed that golden head.

Rinox hated Whisker.

Not only hated him, but loathed and despised him.

Of course.

Whisker had driven his older brother to death.

And was it only his brother? House Orlendo had nearly been wiped out.

Even if it was on the Emperor’s orders, to Rinox, Whisker was nothing less and nothing more than the enemy of his family.

Keeping Whisker by her side was her choice, and she had no intention of regretting it, but her heart felt heavy at the thought that she hadn’t considered Rinox’s feelings.

“If being with him is uncomfortable, you can go back to House Orlendo.”

“Are you casting me out?” Rinox asked at once, his voice turning sulky.

“That’s not it. You….”

Cassia hurried to deny it, then trailed off, startled by the face of her subordinate, who looked as if he might burst into tears despite his massive build.

At that, Rinox’s shoulders drooped even more.

“You may give me any order you like, but please don’t cast me out.”

She had never once thought of casting him out.

If anything, Cassia was the one who should be begging Rinox to stay in House Diorent.

She knew better than anyone what role Knight Commander Rinox played in the residence.

Cassia, clumsy at reading other people’s hearts, studied the green eyes of her subordinate and asked again, “Don’t you want to avenge your brother?”

“That is something House Orlendo will handle. My place is here,” Rinox answered with a will as unyielding as steel.

Was Whisker resentful? Of course he was resentful.

If the opportunity came, he wanted revenge too.

But Whisker was both sword and dog.

Whether it was the master he offered his sword to, or the master who held his leash, he obeyed orders without exception.

That was the fate of one who serves, and Rinox also bore that fate.

It meant the blade of vengeance had somewhere else to point.

Reading that resolve in Rinox’s rigid gaze, Cassia lowered her head with a complicated expression.

She wasn’t sure whether she should say she was sorry or she was grateful.

Maybe both were right, and maybe both were wrong.

People’s hearts were always difficult.

After wrestling with it, what she said was an excuse.

“I owed him a debt, long ago.”

Rinox silently listened as his mistress brought up a past he did not know.

Bolstered by his silence, Cassia added, “And this time, I owe him my life as well.”

No matter who killed the Second Prince and the Crown Prince, Cassia was able to avoid the Emperor’s blade thanks to the truth Whisker had made.

And Whisker had taken that blade in her place.

So this was an excuse for no one but herself.

Rinox, who read her heart more easily than she did his, said in a steady voice, “No matter who you keep at your side, I will protect you. That’s enough for me.”

Cassia lifted her head and gazed steadily into Rinox’s green eyes.

Even she, inept at reading other people, could clearly see the upright, gentle loyalty there, and the corners of Cassia’s lips curled up, just slightly.

“I owed you a debt too.”

“Please don’t say that. I….”

Rinox started to answer urgently, then let his words trail off.

Startled by Cassia’s smile, rarer to see than a shooting star, he almost blurted out something he shouldn’t have.

His green eyes swayed, but he didn’t dare let them wander over her face, and instead turned to the window.

Just then, Whisker emerged from between the trees again.

Rinox, steadying his stirred-up heart with a hatred he still couldn’t name, continued in a calmly cooled voice, “The reason I avoid him isn’t because of my family or my brother. It’s because he will put you in danger.”

At Rinox’s words, Cassia’s gaze moved to the garden.

Between the towering trees boasting cool, blue-green leaves, Whisker stood there, looking this way.

Straight at Cassia’s face.

Even though he was far enough away that she could barely make out the line of his features, it felt as if their eyes met.

When Whisker even waved his hand over his head, flapping it back and forth, Rinox furrowed his brow, and a small sound of air leaking out escaped Cassia’s lips.

At that breathy laugh that resembled a smile, Rinox, standing beside her, felt dizzy.

“Who has really become the dangerous one, Rinox?”

Cassia asked back as she looked at him with eyes like the noon sun, then turned away, leaving him behind with no answer.

Rinox stood there, staring at her back, and as he chewed on the words she left behind, he felt dizzy again.

***

Leaving Rinox alone in the office, Cassia started down the stairs to the first floor.

When she stepped off the last stair, Whisker was just coming in through the front entrance.

He trotted up to Cassia with a light step that made it hard to believe he was a patient who nearly died not long ago.

His recovery really was unbelievable.

Then again, if it weren’t, he wouldn’t have survived until now.

A man wrapped in countless scars like a shadow of death stood before Cassia, smiling as brightly as sunlight perched on his head.

She frowned and muttered, “I heard you’re not supposed to push yourself yet.”

“I’m not pushing myself at all.”

Whisker answered smoothly and lifted Cassia’s right hand.

Cassia was about to shove him away when she saw the bandage around his neck.

Before she could bring herself to push him off, Whisker indulged his own greed and kissed the back of her hand, then lifted his head.

His red eyes sparkled as if he’d just received a transfusion.

Cassia pulled her hand free and turned her body away, avoiding his eyes as if escaping a red snare.

Whisker looked down regretfully at his own hand, where Cassia’s small hand had rested for a moment, then followed after her and spoke, “So the Third Prince Jachim became the Crown Prince?”

“You stuck your eyes and ears in this house too?”

“Oh, come on. No way. I just happened to hear it in passing. My hearing’s pretty sharp, you know.”

Whisker grinned as he played innocent.

But even if Butler Ellen thoroughly managed the household staff, it was possible one or two of the Inspection Bureau’s spies had mixed in.

The Inspection Bureau Chief of the Fedemillon Empire, Whisker Mastiff, was that kind of man.

There was no way to know the truth, and it wasn’t much of a secret that Jachim had become the Crown Prince.

Cassia continued the conversation in an offhand voice.

“I hear His Majesty is holding a banquet for the new Crown Prince.”

“He’ll be pleased if Your Grace congratulates him.”

“He’ll be pleased with your congratulations too.”

At Cassia’s flat words, Whisker stopped and stepped in front of her, blocking her way.

“Are you telling me to go to the banquet?”

“I’m not telling you to go. I’m saying we should go.”

At Whisker’s question, head tilted, Cassia answered with her head tilted the same way.

Then his eyes rounded like candy.

With a face that looked like a child receiving an unexpected gift, or a boy hearing unexpected bad news, Whisker asked again, “With Your Grace…?”

At Whisker’s reaction, Cassia found it odd as well.

To be honest, she thought he would be happy.

After all, even after Cassia’s cold rejections, Whisker never tired of asking her to be his partner.

Now that they had decided to face what came next together, wasn’t being her partner at a banquet only natural?

But what showed on his face now was, at best, flustered, and perhaps even dumbfounded.