Don't Keep a Dog in the Garden - Chapter 20

Early the next morning, no sooner had the rooster crowed than Marquis Orlendo and Count Taft came to the Diorent Grand Duchy.

Three generations ago, breaking the principle of primogeniture, the younger brother of Emperor Slayden ascended the throne.

And that younger brother’s direct line became the current imperial family.

Naturally, the imperial authority weakened.

The nobles known as the ‘Grand Duke faction’ endlessly picked at the emperor’s lacking legitimacy, and the emperor unleashed a hunting dog called Whisker to keep their power in check.

And now, that lawless hunting dog intends to marry Cassia, who holds the legitimate right to inherit the imperial throne.

The Whisker Mastiff is bait. A trap. Poison. This was surely the emperor’s final hunt.

Marquis Orlendo fidgeted like a horse stung by a bee.

“Which is why I’m telling you to call it off even now!”

“This is already a matter I’ve reported to His Majesty, Marquis Orlendo.”

“If Your Grace says you’ll stop, what can His Majesty even do?”

“That’s why I’m saying I won’t stop. I need him. I’ve come to need him.”

Cassia, weary of the argument that had been going in circles since early morning, spoke coldly.

Marquis Orlendo simply couldn’t understand.

He was the one who had lost his eldest son while pushing for an engagement with Cassia.

Even though the dead son gnawed at his insides, he could endure because another son stood by Cassia’s side.

Didn’t Cassia also take Rinox in as one of her own?

If the two of them were of one mind, he thought even the emperor wouldn’t be able to do anything. But Whisker?

Even if it were some other man, his blood would have boiled, and yet of all people, a mad dog!

With a face that didn’t bother to hide his displeasure, Marquis Orlendo asked bluntly, “Do you like that bastard that much?”

“What?”

At the unexpected question, Cassia raised her eyes and looked at the marquis.

As if he were a father lecturing his daughter, he continued, “No matter how blinded you are by love, Your Grace’s body isn’t yours alone, is it? If the late Grand Duke knew of this, how heartbroken he’d be.”

Not just the late Grand Duke. The great Golden Dawn, Emperor Slayden himself would rise from his grave.

Marquis Orlendo and Count Taft truly believed so.

Meanwhile, Cassia was beyond anger, she was dumbfounded.

How dare he bring up her father?

Using support she never asked for as an excuse, his rudeness had crossed the line.

Just as Cassia was about to end the conversation and order them to leave, there came a knock, and a head of golden hair slipped through the door.

“Your Grace, it’s time to have breakfast….”

Without permission, Whisker opened the door and entered, curling up the corners of his lips as he acknowledged Marquis Orlendo and Count Taft.

“Some familiar faces.”

Both men had a past of being summoned to the Inspection Bureau at least once or twice.

Marquis Orlendo couldn’t even open his mouth in front of the man he claimed was his son’s enemy.

Ignoring the two men’s pleading looks, Cassia rose to her feet.

“It’s already this late. I understand your intentions well, so return now. In the future, refrain from visiting in this manner.”

“Y-Your Grace….”

Marquis Orlendo and Count Taft called out to Cassia rather desperately, but she didn’t look back.

With a fake smile clearly meant to mock, Whisker left behind an irritating glance and followed after Cassia.

Left in the reception room after their host departed, Marquis Orlendo and Count Taft ground their teeth and resented Cassia.

“Marquis, how can this be? After all the loyalty we’ve devoted, to marry that lawless man and leave us?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? No matter how fickle a woman’s heart is, knowing how Joseph died, Her Grace can’t do this. No, this won’t do at all.”

Marquis Orlendo ground his teeth as he recalled his dead son.

It wasn’t only nostalgia or loyalty to the Golden Dawn that led the nobles of the Grand Duke faction to endure the emperor’s oppression and stand by the Diorent Grand Duchy.

Cassia Hestian Diorent, in effect the legitimate heir, held the right to inherit the imperial throne.

If Cassia became the next emperor, they would become meritorious subjects and seize real power.

Moreover, a reigning empress needs a consort.

There was also a meticulous political calculation that, if things went well, they could become the grandfather of the next emperor.

Count Taft, watching Marquis Orlendo carefully, lowered his voice as much as possible and whispered, “Then, what do you intend to do about restoring the Grand Duchy?”

“Let’s wait and see. Not every couple lives together for a hundred years.”

Marquis Orlendo also spoke in a low voice, but made his intentions clear.

In the reception room of the Diorent Grand Duchy, where a portrait of Emperor Slayden hung, the two loyal subjects exchanged a disloyal smile.

***

It was the day before the wedding of the Grand Duchess of Diorent.

Late at night, when the servants, exhausted from finishing the wedding preparations according to a merciless schedule, had gone to bed early, a large shadow wandered in the banquet hall where the ceremony would be held at dawn.

It was Rinox, his expression as faint as the moonlight that was more than half hollowed out.

“Your Grace….”

Leaning against the podium where Cassia would recite her vows tomorrow, he tipped back the bottle he was holding and drank straight from it.

His mind was complicated.

No matter what, it was his mistress’s wedding, so he should wish her happiness, but he pitied Cassia for having to go through with such a marriage, resented Whisker, and felt miserable about his own situation.

By the time Rinox had emptied the bottle, a voice suddenly spoke.

“What, you there? I thought you were a wild animal.”

Startled, Rinox dropped the bottle.

He instinctively reached for his sword, but he had left it in his room and could only grope at his empty waist.

Embarrassed that he hadn’t noticed Whisker approaching this close, Rinox snapped angrily, “What the hell, showing up without a sound!”

“Is there an assassin who announces himself?”

Whisker let out a short laugh as he replied, then looked around at the tables and chairs set up in the hall.

“For an assassin, you’ve done well for yourself. To become the Grand Duchess’s consort.”

Rinox staggered to his feet, his body pleasantly drunk, and sneered.

“Once we’re married, I’ll have to replace the Knight Commander first.”

Whisker didn’t back down and shot back with an irritated expression.

Under normal circumstances, Rinox would have scoffed at Whisker’s provocation, but today wasn’t a good day.

Tomorrow, that pretty-faced bastard would become his mistress’s consort.

He would become the one Rinox’s sword had to protect.

So tonight, using alcohol as an excuse, he thought he might as well start a fight for the first time in his life.

“I’ve been thinking I should face you at least once.”

“Looks like that day is today.”

Rinox set the bottle down and clenched his fists as he spoke, and Whisker responded with the corner of his lips curling up.

A murderous aura spread through the lavishly decorated banquet hall, out of place with its surroundings.

As they measured the distance between them, searching for an opening, both men turned their heads in the same direction at the same time.

Cassia had appeared in the banquet hall.

The sharp tension turned into fluster, and Rinox quickly hid his fists behind his back.

“Y-Your Grace. What brings you here at this hour?”

Cassia walked into the banquet hall without a word, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

She had known even before stepping inside. A dangerous air filled the banquet hall and spilled outward.

“Go on. I’ll just watch.”

When Cassia spoke without any inflection, Rinox’s face, already flushed, turned so red it looked ready to burst.

Not once until now had he ever shown such an unsightly side of himself in front of Cassia, and he felt deeply ashamed of himself for picking a fight with the man who would marry her tomorrow.

As Rinox lost his will to fight and let his shoulders slump, Whisker smiled faintly and approached Cassia.

“Won’t you stop us?”

“Why should I?”

“If I end up getting beaten by that bear-like bastard, that won’t do, will it? The wedding is tomorrow.”

Whisker, who had been radiating enough killing intent to overwhelm Rinox, changed his expression and began acting weak.

Rinox clenched his fists again, and Cassia asked with a baffled look.

“You were planning to let him hit you?”

“Of course. I shouldn’t accidentally kill him, should I?”

“That’s quite a commendable thought. But I suppose I should ask why you thought that.”

“Because you care about him.”

Whisker answered as if it were obvious.

Coming from someone who had been emitting such fierce killing intent just moments ago, it wasn’t very convincing, but it was an unexpected answer.

Cassia, with a faint smile, looked at his warmly gleaming red eyes and asked again, “Not ‘that bastard,’ Sir Orlendo. Or Rinox. If you know I care about him, have you no intention of getting along?”

“I’ll try.”

With a smiling gaze, Whisker extended his hand to Cassia.

Without much thought, she placed her hand on top of his, and Cassia realized that she’d just taken Whisker’s hand far too naturally.

He kept offering his hand at every opportunity, so it seemed she had grown used to it without noticing.

Feeling a temperature that was unfamiliar yet familiar, Cassia left a remark to Rinox, who still stood there stiff and red-faced.

“Rinox, go get some sleep. It’s late.”

Rinox responded by lowering his head.

Then he watched for a long time as the two figures moved away side by side.