Weeping Men: The Innocent Princess's Secret Delight - Chapter 1.10
The Princess, who received absolute support from her father, was confident. It was a confidence that he had never experienced himself.
He couldn’t move for a moment, feeling a strange emotion. Taking advantage of this pause, the Princess naturally received the puppy.
“Now I’ll love you, okay?”
She whispered, hugging the puppy tightly. Her voice was full of affection.
Kaizen stared at the puppy’s gaping mouth and impulsively asked.
“…Would it be alright if I come to see it occasionally?”
He immediately regretted it. But she was already smiling brightly.
“Of course! Sir Pentmian is a friend to me and the puppy, right?”
She even said such pleasant words. Kaizen wanted to smile along but couldn’t.
To him, for whom even parental trust wasn’t a given, the position of being friends with Her Highness suddenly felt far too generous.
***
From canceling scheduled external appointments in the morning to bringing home a dog found at the end of the day, the Princess’s whims reached their peak.
The maids, alarmed at the possibility of germs, immediately took the dog away. In the hands of these skilled individuals, the dog was thoroughly washed, its fur trimmed neatly, transforming it into a teddy bear-like appearance.
Judith prepared a place for the prettified dog in a corner of her bedroom.
“Nngh…”
The dog looked terrified. Its tail was completely tucked between its legs, and it was shaking so much it couldn’t even sit properly on the cushion.
Judith just stared at the dog impassively, without trying to comfort it.
“Puppy.”
Then she spoke.
“Behave yourself. If you act like we’re strangers again like earlier, I’ll punish you. Okay?”
It was a threat directed at an animal that couldn’t understand.
Of course, it was a lie that she had fed and taken care of it.
She had thought the stray dog wouldn’t return and had hoped to use this encounter as an opportunity to build a sense of kinship with Kaizen as a fellow dog owner. She hadn’t expected it to appear right on cue.
‘Still, it was effective. I saw all sorts of vulnerable sides of him.’
Kaizen crawled on the ground unaware of who had arrived, Kaizen becoming talkative, Kaizen’s face turning bright red with embarrassment after a slip of the tongue. Judith chuckled as she recalled these unexpected aspects.
While advancing her plan to bind him to her side, if she could make him let his guard down like this in front of her, she thought she might soon see him cry too.
‘I’m so excited!’
The mere thought made her beam with joy.
Additionally, there was only one way she had learned about the dog Kaizen had cherished in his childhood.
‘I did some background checks too.’
He’s going to be mine anyway. There’s no harm in knowing a bit about his background in advance, right?
Judith was shameless due to her poor character.
But she couldn’t remain completely immersed in her rosy future; the dog beside her was bothersome.
“…Why do you keep shaking? Did I hit you or something?”
Even when scolded, the dog, unable to understand, just kept glancing around nervously and wouldn’t stop trembling.
“Come here.”
Finally, she stood up abruptly. Judith picked up the constantly vibrating white ball of fur and hugged it tightly.
“Stop shaking.”
It was more of a physical restraint than warm care. Her tone was brusque, but still, her embrace was warm. The dog gradually began to calm down.
Judith held the dog, which was trying to bury its face in her armpit, and faced it.
“Heh, heh.”
As their eye contact lengthened, the dog stuck out its tongue and panted. Judith stared at that face for a while, then muttered,
“…It is cute, I guess. I can use this as an excuse for why I took interest.”
Unaware that its appearance had just been evaluated, the dog, feeling the grip on it loosened, finally managed to bury its nose in her armpit.
“….”
The sensation was cold and damp. It wasn’t particularly pleasant.
Still, she endured it and left it be. Even this could be used as a topic of conversation later.
To obtain Kaizen, becoming the owner of such a dog was nothing.
***
A peaceful imperial palace without incidents. Within it, is the office of the 4th Division Commander.
Thud!
A sound unbefitting the peace echoed there.
The one who made the noise was Kaizen. He had his head planted on the desk. Documents were spread out on the desk.
“…Stop thinking about it.”
He warned himself. Then, as if nothing had happened, he got up and signed a few documents.
And again, Thud!
“Please…”
This time, he even let out a groan.
But no matter how hard he tried, the memory that kept coming back, tormenting him now, wouldn’t leave his mind.
“Sir! Please teach me how to walk the dog properly. When it’s with me, the puppy keeps stopping!”
It was the day he was summoned by Her Highness on such a pretext.
He had rushed over, worried that the puppy might be sick, only to find out it was just stopping to smell the flower scents.
As a result, they ended up taking a walk together. They walked side by side, chatting, and then rested in a pavilion.
“Today, when I woke up, I found it sleeping with its back pressed against my side. It was really so cute…”
Judith, in the middle of talking about the puppy, closed her eyes feeling the breeze. Then she smiled languidly.
“….”
Kaizen, sitting across from her and staring as if entranced, reached out his hand.
As his palm covered and stroked her crown, Judith’s eyes suddenly opened.
“Sir? What are you doing?”
Only then did Kaizen realize his rudeness. He had dared to pat Her Highness’s head.
“Um… uh…”
The crude excuse he made then!
“…There was a mosquito…”
Bang! Bang!
Recalling it again, he kept banging his head in embarrassment.
“A mosquito? It’s almost autumn now!”
The face that said that while awkwardly smiling was so vivid that it made him even more ashamed.
‘Please… let’s get a grip…’
He had lost count of how many times he had been disrespectful. If he were to judge himself by military law, he would have dismissed someone like himself long ago.
‘…Still, reaching out my hand was instinctive.’
Meanwhile, Kaizen kept replaying the image of Judith he had seen face-to-face in the pavilion. He still hadn’t come to his senses.
The two ears drooped beside the face that was smiling pleasantly. The gently wagging tail was visible behind her back.
It was as if she was smiling right in front of him.
That’s why. Whenever she smiled, Kaizen always patted her head.
“…!”
Kaizen, who had been unconsciously touching his lips, stood up from his seat entirely. The corners of his mouth were curled up into a round shape.
‘If this continues, I might make an even bigger mistake.’
