BCDBS l CH 19

Chapter 19

Please, Gerard, stop talking…!

Tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap.

My tail drummed against the windowsill, fast as my racing heartbeat.

“Ah…”

At least one mercy: Gerard finally realized the danger.

He instantly threw himself to the floor, forehead pressed to the ground.

Which meant all of Kain’s attention turned on me.

“Cherry, I don’t like people coveting what’s mine. Naturally, the reverse is true too.”

“Chrrt, chrrt!”

No, it’s not like that! I was just—watching the intruder—

I tried to explain, but of course, if my squeaks never worked before, they wouldn’t work now.

“You’ve been staring at that striped bastard all the time lately.”

Kain rose to his feet, closing the distance one step at a time.

And I, retreating two steps each time, felt his looming frame twice as menacing as usual.

“Do you like him?”

No, that’s not it!

“If you do, should I cut off his head and have him stuffed?”

There it was again. The taxidermy threat.

“Annoying as it is to have him in my fortress, I could endure it… if you liked him.”

“Chrrt…”

What kind of joke was that?

But the smile he wore—it was no joke.

A smile before murder. A killer’s grin.

Gerard, do something!

I shot the trembling man a desperate look. But the best he could manage, folded up like an empty sack, was to keep himself from collapsing.

All this…

It’s that suspicious golden tiger’s fault!

“Cherry, answer me.”

“Chrrt, chrrrt…!”

Somebody save this poor squirrel!

* * *

Meanwhile, in the peaceful Kreutz gardens—

“Hm? I thought I heard something.”

Erjin idly rubbed his ear.

A soft, squeaky cry had tickled his hearing.

A hallucination, surely.

Stress ringing in his ears, that was all.

After all, this was the Black Dragon Fortress, crawling with cruel, sly serpents and the ruthless Kreutz dragon himself.

There was no way anything so small and cute could be squeaking here.

“And yet…”

From the day he’d arrived, he’d felt it.

Something tiny had been stalking him.

Like a watchdog bristling at a stranger, it followed him endlessly, eyes sharp, fangs bared.

Even earlier, when he’d tried to nap, it had been there.

If Kreutz had set a spy on him, it was—

“…far too pathetic.”

Erjin stretched lazily, gaze flicking back to that same window where he’d felt a presence.

The Duke’s office, by position.

“I swear I saw something there. Small… round, like a perfect dinner roll.”

A doll?

Kain Kreutz, keeping a mere doll in his office? Unthinkable.

“…It must be a cursed doll.”

Erjin nodded to himself with conviction.

After all, Gerard was the sneaky, underhanded type to dabble in such things.

“And those eyes—what intensity.”

That little ball of fluff had stalked him with such persistence that he’d been forced to change spots.

He chuckled faintly.

“This fortress never fails to surprise.”

The corners of his lips curled.

A cursed doll in the Black Dragon Fortress.

Just how wicked and malevolent might it be?

* * *

“Chrrt.”

And so, I was imprisoned again.

In that damned red pouch.

“You’ve returned, my lord.”

“Lower your heads.”

“…Excuse me?”

“I said, bow lower. Especially you, Felix.”

Kain’s words were too clipped, so Gerard interpreted for the knight.

“May I ask why, my lord?”

“No great reason. Cherry simply shows his face too much.”

Thus explained Gerard, ever helpful, to the poor knight.

From office to chamber, we repeated this farce three times.

Of course the rumors spread.

And within an hour, they reached my ears.

“They say you, Lady Cherry, have… unusual tastes for handsome knights.”

That was Lia, whispering through the door.

She herself had been banned from approaching me, thanks to being rather pretty.

So we were reduced to exchanging words like Romeo and Juliet through the door.

“Chrrt?!”

“But don’t worry—I corrected them. I said it’s not knights you like, but handsome men in general.”

Lia Viper. No surprise she’s Gerard’s twin.

Another screw loose in her head.

How was I supposed to wash off this perverted squirrel stigma now?

Forget it. I’m done.

My legs gave out, and I sank to the floor. I didn’t even have the strength to protest anymore.

Knock, knock.

Her farewell tap, and her footsteps faded.

“All done with your little Juliet?”

Kain’s voice floated across the room as he sipped tea.

Of course he did it with flawless elegance, noble to the core.

Except for one thing: his robe hung carelessly off one shoulder, baring far too much skin.

Utterly clueless.

If I really were a squirrel with a taste for pretty men, who would my first target be?

This foolishly beautiful dragon, obviously.

“Chrrt.”

“What now?”

He tilted his head as my tail flicked against the floor in irritation.

What’s wrong?

He dared to ask?

Too many things to list.

Being stuffed into this pouch like contraband.

Being smeared by ridiculous rumors.

And most of all—

This entire situation is unfair!

The only reason I spied on that suspicious tiger was to protect my safe, cozy life here in the Black Dragon Fortress!

Because Erjin Astrahan was hiding something.

Lazy as a sun-drunk cat he might act, I knew better.

He had another purpose.

“He’s always been that way,” Gerard had said.

“Lazy. Indolent,” Kain agreed.

They both insisted he was just a useless heir who would eventually leave on his own.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling.

Because—

I smell it. Something’s off!

My instincts, honed by three years of survival as a fugitive squirrel, screamed warning.

Erjin Astrahan was hiding something.

And it spelled trouble for the fortress.

***

The gentle young lord hides a terrible secret?

The secret life of the young master?

No, no—that sounded like some old novel title.

Shaking my head, I muttered, His story is probably more like a spy thriller.

Maybe something like The Real Reason He Came to the Black Dragon Fortress.

Thoughts tumbled endlessly, keeping me awake.

Erjin Astrahan filled my mind.

Not because he was beautiful, as Gerard claimed.

Not his golden hair, nor his lake-deep eyes.

But because—

Was the Astrahan family truly tied to that tragedy three years ago?

The moment I’d seen him, I couldn’t stop reliving it.

Those piercing blue eyes. The Marquis’s estate is burning down.

“Chrrt…”

I rolled over, and Kain’s face came into view.

Moonlight softened his features into something angelic.

Though with eyes open, he was more a devil.

Perhaps it was the long day.

But the sight of his peacefully sleeping face annoyed me.

So much for the chronic insomnia, the hypersensitivity at bedtime.

Kain had fallen asleep before the first verse of a lullaby.

So it was all a lie.

Clambering from my tiny bed, I padded across his hand and onto the mattress.

I stared at him for a long moment, then pressed my paw to his cheek.

Not waking up?

I’d never dare this while he was awake.

He’d have me by the scruff in an instant.

“Chrrrt…”

A wicked grin spread across my face.

Was this what conquest felt like?

Like pressing the first footprints into fresh snow.

Cold, too. Just like him.

The Kreutz family, I’d learned, all had low body temperatures.

So the day I thought he was dying at our first meeting? Pure mistake.

Nodding to myself, I stroked his cheek again.

“Chrrrt…”

So addictive.

Cold yet soft, firm yet pliant. Perfect for forgetting my worries.

A man who looked carved from stone—and yet his cheek was this soft.

Surely I alone in all the continent knew this.

Drunk on secret knowledge, I tugged my bed closer for better access, ready to fully indulge in cheek-poking bliss—

Thump.

A faint vibration rippled through the floor.

Right outside the bedroom door.

And suddenly—

The guards’ presence vanished.