My Dear Grand Duke on a Leash - Chapter 21
Chapter 11.1 — The dog, the lark and the Princess (5)
As Riette grabbed the brown dog’s leash, Cain instantly pulled on the dog’s chain. Even though he was only pulling with one arm, the dog’s body snapped back greatly. It was a strength you wouldn’t expect from an ordinary man.
She picked up the frightened, writhing puppy and quickly turned to Cain.
“Grand Duke…!”
The fighting dog, which had switched its target, was charging at Cain as if it was ready to tear him apart.
Even though it was wearing a muzzle, it threatened with its fangs which were bigger than daggers.
As if he wasn’t afraid, Cain blocked the dog’s neck with one arm, and at the same time, as he pulled the chain with his opposite hand, the Rottweiler gasped and whimpered for air. Taking advantage of that gap, he approached the cage, holding the dog almost in the air with one hand. After opening the iron door and throwing it, he slammed the door just before it could lunge out again.
Thud!
“Grrrrrr, gruff! Gruufff!”
The dog seized up beside him, biting the bars through its muzzle.
In the meanwhile, Cain steadied his ragged breathing and swept his hand through his disheveled hair. The sight of him obsessively straightening his black hair, shirt, and sleeves against the backdrop of a rampaging dog beyond the cage was uncanny.
“Grand Duke!”
Contemplating, Riette put the puppy down and ran to him. Cain, who had been staring at the place where the cuffs had fallen off, raised his head to her.
“Please don’t come. It’s a temporary cage, so it’s dangerous since there’s a risk of it falling.”
When he took her exactly three meters away from the cage, the fighting dog immediately stopped moving. It was only then did he finally sit down and began to catch his quickened breath.
Riette grabbed Cain by the arm.
“Grand Duke, let me see. Are there any injuries?”
“…I don’t think this is the time for you to be concerned about me.”
As he said, his cuffs fell off before they hit and rolled onto the floor. On the contrary, not even a hair on his head was damaged.
Riette glanced down at her own body.
The expensive outfit that most people couldn’t even touch the fabric, even if they earned their entire life, became a raggedy mess. Her silk gloves were torn, and the backs of her hands bore light claw marks from being scratched by a struggling puppy. Her wheat-colored hair, tied back in a single ponytail, was in disarray, while the silk blouse and forsythia-colored skirt were stained with dirt.
Cain rubbed his thick eyebrows together rather temperamentally.
It was because blood was slowly staining Riette’s silk gloves red as it looked like a young puppy had scratched it in its struggle. Nevertheless, the cheerful princess glanced up at him with her angelic face awkwardly bashful, seemingly oblivious to her wounds.
“I’m such a big mess, aren’t I?”
Sighing heavily, he took off his blazer. As he did that, it revealed a vest tailored to fit his thick chest and thin waistline, a pocket watch strap, and a leather holster. He carefully wrapped the coat around Riette’s slender body.
“…I’ll get you to the infirmary. It would be better to talk afterward.”
His scent emanated from the coat that draped over her shoulders. It was a ridiculously obvious expression, but it was a very unfamiliar and foreign sensation to her.
It was a rough scent that felt primitive and animal-like, while there was a hint of sweetness mixed in at the end. Riette wondered if this was what it would smell like if she buried her nose in the fur of a hound that had just run wild through a field of blueberries?
Somehow, it strangely suited him well… as if his true identity was the hound in her delusion.
˚ ·: * ✧ * :· ˚
“I’m sorry, Grand Duke. My apologies are late, but…”
As the royal physician eventually left after administering first aid, Cain was sitting on the table next to Riette, who was seated in a hospital bed. He turned his head toward her, who was devoured by her own robe and her dejected body.
“The Grand Duke almost got hurt, because of me…”
Refraining himself from the urge to straighten Riette’s disheveled hair and collar, he muttered in a low voice.
“No. As the princess said, fighting dogs never harm humans because the only thing they kill is other dogs. So, the Princess’s judgement to stop the shooting was perfectly rational.”
It was a decision that she made because she understood the psychology of fighting dogs accurately.
Fighting dogs wouldn’t fight if they were separated by a distance greater than a cage. So it was reasonable for Riette to believe that increasing the distance would prevent the unnecessary killing.
However…
“Holding a loaded firearm is extremely dangerous. You should never touch a firearm, even if it’s not loaded.”
“Yes…”
Eventually, Cain simply left it at that to her. Riette slightly raised her gaze up to meet his eyes before carefully taking her chance.
“But, Grand Duke…”
“Yes, Princess.”
“Did you really mean to shoot that dog?”
“Of course.”
Why would he bring out a gun if he wasn’t going to fire?
“…I wouldn’t have shot it if I was alone, but there were more than thirty Chalonné nobles and princesses in the garden. In many ways, it makes sense to quickly eliminate threats that couldn’t be controlled.”
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