CH extra 06

The duke Blanche, Yulinelle Blanche, found that there were a few people that he just couldn’t win against. The list went: the marquis DuBois, Lantiya DuBois, Caradil Evgedin, and, the worst of them all, Swanhaden Blanche.

Caradil Evgedin was a complete tomboy that was impossible to win against, and Lantiya was frighteningly efficient at ripping someone to shreds while smiling pleasantly. And Swanhaden surpassed them both. He acted like a bull in a china shop. He made it a point to use his smart brain of his to harass him at every possible moment.

Ever since he was little, he made it a point to use formal, polite language towards him–acting as if he was a polite, well-mannered boy. He said that he was respecting his elders as he massaged his shoulders and back and got him water or coffee, but that was just Swan pretending to be nice. In actuality, he used the excuse of massaging his back and shoulders and used bone-crushing strength to crush the aforementioned parts and put other disgusting additives in the water and coffee he provided.

If Yulinelle assigned him any tasks, Swan would pretend to respectfully accept the task and that he was going to work hard on it. But the results always told the truth–he didn’t care at all. If he needed a specific piece of information and was trying to find it, Swan would always steal the information before he could reach it and force him to work overtime. Then, when that particular piece of information lost its importance, he would finally give it to Yulinelle and ask, “Was this what you were looking for?”

The more he thought about Swan, the more angry he became. He would snicker and mock Yulinelle but pretend he was being respectful to his face.

He didn’t even want fatherly respect from him–he just wanted Swan to stop picking on him. That was when Yulinelle witnessed how Swanhaden was treating Shuraina.

Seeing him struggle to behave in front of her made him feel all kinds of satisfied.

The duke, clutching an entire day’s worth of documents, patted her shoulders as he passed her by.

“I hope you use him even more. Just, like, grab him by the collar. Just abuse Swan. Then I’ll allow you to live here forever.”

“What?”

“Hahaha! That little shit, hahaha! Ha, haha, haa…. I’m so tired.”

Yulinelle passed her by as he laughed raucously, then soon seemed too tired to continue laughing.

Aside from being happy that Shuraina was here, he was completely bogged down with all of the work that was on his plate–but he felt refreshed right now.

Yulinelle had spent the last few nights working on documents, and his dark circles were almost down to his chin, but he was oddly happy. He was so sleepy that he felt like his sanity was hanging by a thread, but seeing that little jerk look all flustered like that made him think that he’d be able to finish a few more documents than usual tonight.

He still had a veritable mountain of documents waiting for his approval. Not just financial documents, but approvals for recent changes to the law. Moreover, he also had to look at documents related to the Nobles’ Alliance, and….. just, a lot more.

He felt like he was gasping for air, but if he just increased his caffeine intake just a bit, he would be able to finish all of last year’s documents by tonight.

If he passed the due date and received late fee documents, then that meant he would get even more work on his plate.

Yulinelle headed to the kitchens and grabbed a cup and poured coffee and some hot water. He held the cup of coffee and, feeling a pang of dizziness, held onto the desk. He felt his blood sugar getting low, so he took a random piece of bread and munched on it.

“D, duke! Wh, why are you here?! We’ll bring the coffee to you!”

It wasn’t always the case, but if he asked a servant or maid to bring him some coffee, the drinks tended to be swapped out with something gross. He made it a point to sneak into the kitchen to get some coffee for himself. Yulinelle thought of how pitiful his life was with a bitter smile, then grabbed his documents.

“We’ll take the documents to you, too! Please go and rest!”

“No. Hand me the documents… I said give it.”

When the servant attempted to take the hefty pile of documents, Yulinelle snatched it right back.

Yulinelle usually spoke just as casually as Swanhaden, but he made it a point to speak as formally and noble-like as he could in front of his estate’s people. There were times when he just decided to speak in monosyllabic sentences because he was tired of policing his own speech. He was always wishy- washy, so all of the employees were pretty used to his way of speaking.

All of the documents in his hands were ones that needed to be finished by this day, and if he didn’t finish it today, then he would be forced to spend the entire day working tomorrow as well. Even though his life was just overtime after overtime work.

He languidly walked the halls of his estate when he bumped into Shuraina once again. When Shuraina bowed deeply in greeting, he just nodded.

“Sir, do you know where the library is?”

“I don’t know.”

“……?”

He was just thinking to himself about how far his office was when Shuraina’s sudden question made him stop right there. He thought that Swanhaden could tell her later and was about to ignore her and leave.

He couldn’t help but feel guilty at Shuraina’s awkward expression so he turned around. Even if they were paying her enough, she had come all the way here to try and end the vicious cycle of their family–maybe he was being too mean. I mean, did it matter for him? His role in the cycle was done already. No, but she was here to help. No….. Aaaaaack.

He scowled as he stood in front of her. Then, he took a deep breath.

“I’m just going to say it once, listen close.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Turnaroundandwalkstraightandthenturnrightatthecornerafterthisandthengoleft. Thenwhenyouseeaflightofstairsgoupandthengoright. There’saflightofstairsnexttothewindowsogothereandgotraightandthenturnrightagain. Thenyou’llseethelibrary. Ugh, I need to take a breath.”

“……?”

“And be careful when you’re going down the stairs.

“Ah….. Thank you.”

He had tried to say everything in a single breath and had spoken too fast.

Shuraina didn’t understand a single word that he had just said, but she nodded and pretended she understood.

Yulinelle figured that he had spoken too fast earlier and realized that he had mixed up the directions. No matter how great their hearing was, they wouldn’t be able to understand what he’d just said.

He should have said it properly the first time, he lamented. He shouldn’t have tried to save his breath.

‘Aaaaaaaagh, this is so annoying!’

“Follow me!”

“No, I’ll just ask that person over th…..”

“They don’t know!”

Yulinelle, who really was too nice for his own good, grabbed Shuraina’s wrist and began to move. The Blanche family’s library was full of secrets, so most employees didn’t know where the library was located. Moreover, only Swanhaden or himself could open the door to the library.

“Go straight!”

“Turn right!”

“Make sure you remember it, I’m not going to tell you again!”

“Turn left!”

“There’s a lot of people who slipped down the stairs, so be careful!”

“Go up here!”

“Go straight, then turn right!”

And after a while, Shuraina was finally able to find the library. The duke placed his hand over the door. It shone a brilliant white light and slowly shifted forward.

“Library!”

Yulinelle was satisfied after kindly directing Shuraina to the library. Then, he straightened his ruffled shirt and then, for just a moment, relaxed on the library chair.

“T, thank you for your hard work.”

“…..”

Yulinelle wordlessly nodded before placing the documents aside and resting on the library desk.

“I need to lock the door when we leave, so choose the books that you need….then wake me up…..when you’re done. Thank you.”

“Ah, okay. Should I take my time or should I be quick?”

“Take your time……”

She could see the exhausted form of Cory overlapping with the exhausted duke in front of her. She could imagine Cory looking miserable on top of his desk littered with paperwork, just like that, when he took on the marquis title.

When she imagined Cory a a marquis, her mind began to flit to her past life. She felt even worse for Yulinelle.

Shuraina chose a few books that detailed the specifics of dragons and another about human anatomy, then about stones that reacted to magic, then placed the books into her dimension pocket.

‘He said that he needed to lock the door before he left, right?’

Yulinelle was waiting for her to finish so that he could lock up the library. It seemed like the door was opened and closed via white magic. Her pocket was filled with Swanhaden’s white magic stones. Could she lock the door with it? She grabbed one of the stones and put it close to the door. It locked automatically.

She walked towards Yulinelle. Yulinelle had fallen deep asleep in the short time she had been perusing the books. Instead of waking him, Shuraina held up his middle finger. Shuraina drew a new magic circle that she had designed recently and placed the spell on her hand, which held Yulinelle’s finger.

Shuraina used his finger to draw a transportation spell. The magic flowing within his body was expelled into the shape of the magic circle that Shuraina drew and formed the circle. She chose the destination as his office.

[Transport]

The two of them were able to arrive back at the office immediately. Yulinelle was slumped over his own desk instead of the library desk, and Shuraina landed on a chair in the office.

The office was a mess of disorganized paperwork. A few unwashed coffee mugs were placed on top of the other on the side.

“……?”

Yulinelle looked surprised at the sudden floating feeling he felt and then looked up when he felt a desk. He looked from left to right at the room as he yawned wide.

“I was hoping that someone would just move me from here to there. For it to happen in a dream.”

The duke said, muttering lowly. Yulinelle Blanche was so exhausted that he had confused reality with a dream.

When Yulinelle realized that this was his office, he stiffly sat up straight. He placed a pile of paperwork from next to him and slammed his face onto the pile. He stretched out one arm in search of his fountain pen, which he had lost the cap for.

Fountain pens without their caps were laid on the table. On the other side, the floor was covered with fountain pen caps. Yulinelle grabbed one of the pens he had found and skimmed the paperwork that was buried under his face.

“…..you’re going to build a new road?”

He closed his eyes after skimming it. His voice sounded more sickly than anything.

“You did that last time….. Just do it all at once…. Stop sending me more paperwork……”

He placed his fountain pen near the check mark. He vigorously moved his wrist, after a while, finally realized that there was no ink in his pen. He tossed it backwards. It landed in the trash can directly behind him. The trash can was filled with pens without caps.

The duke opened a drawer below his desk and took out another pen. He bit the cap off of the pen and spit it out somewhere on the desk. Then, he continued to sign the documents.

“I can’t believe I”m dreaming of signing documents.”

He gripped the pen so tightly that the tip of the pen bent.

“I need to lock the library door before we leave….how am I supposed to wake up? When is the child going to wake me up? If I knew this was going to be my dream, I would’ve asked her to hurry up.”

Yulinelle did a fantastic job of signing documents, even with his face burrowed into the desk. His eyes slowly shifted from the documents in front of him to the front. He could see Shuraina awkwardly staring at him.

“Hurry up and wake me up….. I wanna get out of this place…..”

No, just get me out of living….. Yulinelle complained but continued to try his best to finish his paperwork.

Shuraina wondered how she was going to stop the duke from talking to himself before she frowned and said one word.

“Swanhaden?”

Swanhaden’s name had been enough to scare away Eric, so she wondered if it would be effective in chasing away father’s, Yulinelle’s, sleep. She was just curious.

The effects were incredible.

Yulinelle’s eyes blinked wide open at those four syllables. His sleep was gone. He was back in reality. Yulinelle raised his head from the desk.