I thought the world was going to end. But the earth didn’t split apart, nor did the sky collapse. Even though I had received a confession from the mad duke, the protagonist of the novel.
Even if the heavens and earth didn’t undergo a cataclysmic change, I thought something big would be different. But contrary to Yellian’s worries, nothing had changed. Not even their relationship with Leonard.
Of course, Yellian themselves didn’t realize it, but the way they looked at Leonard had changed from before. It wasn’t that they looked at him lovingly or with affectionate eyes, naturally, but rather they had become more openly wary of him.
Thinking that if they gave him an opening, they might end up kissing like the day Leonard confessed, their body instinctively tensed up without them realizing it.
Because of that, Yellian began to keep an eye on Leonard. They didn’t know when he might approach them.
“What are you looking at like that?”
“Heck, no, I’m not looking!”
Yellian answered while quickly turning their head away, so obviously that even a child would notice the awkward avoidance of eye contact.
There was no way Leonard, standing right above Yellian, wouldn’t notice this. No, in fact, it wasn’t just now.
Lately, Yellian had been strange. They would stare at him intently, then tremble slightly. And when he approached, they would jump in surprise.
Leonard knew the reason. The time when Yellian started acting like this was right after he had made his confession. It was because of his confession that Yellian was shaken.
Of course, this could be interpreted positively or negatively. On the positive side, at least Yellian was conscious of him. The negative side was that he didn’t know ‘how’ they were conscious of him.
Despite the ambiguity in many ways, Leonard deliberately left Yellian to struggle with their thoughts alone.
In truth, enduring that time with Leonard’s patience wasn’t easy. Even so, he held back because, in his own way, he was being considerate of Yellian.
But now, even that had reached its limit. He didn’t know how long he could keep pretending not to notice Yellian avoiding his gaze or acting oblivious every time he approached or spoke to them. Moreover, he didn’t like how openly they moved to avoid him.
“Really not looking?”
“Yup! Really not looki… argh.”
Yellian was greatly startled by Leonard’s face suddenly coming close. They nearly fell under the sofa.
Leonard looked at Yellian with an expression as if something displeased him. Yellian quickly lowered their gaze to avoid his eyes.
“Still not looking now?”
“Well, um, that is… wouldn’t it be hard to look someone straight in the eye at this distance…?”
Yellian tried to say something convincing. Unfortunately, the problem was that it didn’t resonate with Leonard. With an even sterner expression, Leonard opened his mouth.
“Is that so? I’m looking straight at you, Yellian. What’s the problem?”
“W-Well, that’s… I-I’m a bit more faint-hearted than I look…”
“Ha…”
Now they were even making excuses about being faint-hearted.
Yellian regretted saying something unnecessary as they saw Leonard scoff. They should have just honestly said they couldn’t look at him because it felt burdensome.
No, if they had said that, would he have asked what felt burdensome? They didn’t know. Leonard was an unpredictable, self-centered person. They couldn’t anticipate his reactions.
Meanwhile, Leonard was extremely irritated. How long was he supposed to pretend not to notice Yellian so blatantly avoiding him? If Yellian had treated him casually, that would have been annoying in its own way, but he didn’t want them to freeze up like this either.
“Am I burdensome to you?”
“Y-Yes… I mean, no.”
Yellian, changing their answer tactfully, gave an awkward smile. Their gaze was still directed at the floor. Leonard had finally reached his breaking point.
“Look at me.”
“…If you could just step back a little, I think I could look…”
“If you don’t look at me in three seconds, I’ll tear that outfit to shreds.”
“W-Why would you tear my clothes!”
“Because we’re going to have sex.”
Oh, this crazy bastard.
Yellian hurriedly lifted their gaze to look at Leonard’s face. Even while threatening with such insane words, Leonard was infuriatingly, flawlessly handsome. Without realizing it, Yellian swallowed hard.
“Finally looking at me properly. Didn’t you say you were faint-hearted?”
“If I don’t look, you complain, and if I do look, you still complain. What am I supposed to do, dance the twist…? No, never mind. Sometimes my tongue moves on its own. I guess it has a mind of its own.”
Yellian, grumbling with all their might out of rising frustration, belatedly came to their senses and cut themselves off.
Leonard had a dumbfounded expression, but thankfully, he didn’t immediately threaten to cut out their tongue.
“Yellian.”
“Yup.”
“How much more do I have to put up with you?”
“As much as possible…? Would that be difficult…?”
Yellian, flustered by a question that seemed somewhat off-topic, gave the best answer they could muster. Judging by Leonard’s incredulous expression, it didn’t seem to be a satisfactory response.
“I know that you find me burdensome.”
“…What? Was it that obvious…?”
Yellian, asking cautiously, immediately regretted it. They should have said ‘No, it’s not’ instead of ‘Was it that obvious?’ They had been unnecessarily honest. And to the mad duke, of all people.
While Yellian regretted something that was already done and meaningless, Leonard laughed silently.
“I’m giving you time. If it were up to me, I’d strip you down right now and have se…”
“Stop! What if young, innocent ears overhear this!”
Yellian, flapping like a startled chicken, cut Leonard off. Leonard barely held back a burst of laughter. Teasing them was definitely amusing. Though sometimes it drove him up the wall.
“Anyway, I’m holding back and waiting, so behave accordingly. Only avoid me within the limits of my patience. I mean, don’t avoid me so blatantly.”
“Yup. Understood.”
Interpreting it as permission to avoid him moderately, Yellian nodded with a much lighter heart.
They had thought Leonard was a person with no common sense, someone they couldn’t communicate with at all, but surprisingly, he had a more generous side than expected.
Feeling quite relieved by that, Yellian nodded again. Leonard, hiding his smile before Yellian could see it, stepped back.
[Kyuuung!]
“Eek, you startled me!”
In the spot Leonard had left, a golden creature jumped up. It was a dragon. The one that had followed them all the way to the duke’s estate while they were unconscious, staging a protest until it got inside the house.
Though its sudden appearance was unexpected, it was pretty cute. Its large green eyes were like emerald jewels, and its shiny golden scales glistened. Since it was still a baby, the ratio of its head to its body was about one-to-one, which was a mess, but that was exactly what made it so adorable.
“How on earth did you follow us?”
“Dragons have an incredible sense of smell for humans, so it probably followed your scent.”
Leonard replied without much interest. The owner of this estate didn’t seem to care much about having an extra dragon freeloader.
In fact, Yellian, who had taken a liking to the dragon, found it quite fortunate. If Leonard, the owner of the estate, had coldly kicked the dragon out saying they couldn’t keep it, they wouldn’t have been able to stay with it.
“Ouch! Dragon, that hurts, it hurts!”
The dragon, seemingly in a good mood, licked Yellian’s face vigorously with its tongue.
The dragon’s tongue was like a cat’s, covered with countless tiny barbs. Because of that, whenever the dragon licked them, that area would swell up red. This time, it looked like their left cheek would swell, so Yellian struggled to push the dragon away.
[Kyuuung!]
Perhaps offended by Yellian’s rejection, the dragon let out a discontented cry, then turned sharply and jumped down to the sofa’s base.
Yellian, about to call out to the sulking dragon, suddenly realized they hadn’t given it a name. They had just been calling it ‘Dragon’ all this time.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t given you a name. Sorry. I’ll give you one now.”
Though there was no way it could understand the meaning of giving a name, the dragon’s eyes sparkled as if it had never been upset, and it turned back toward Yellian.
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