Chapter: 02
Dennis, deciding that he could endure it no longer, spoke briefly to Cervantes.
“You’re being unfair.”
“What? You mean I’m being unfair?”
“Yes.”
Cervantes’s expression turned cold.
“Why?”
“Don’t you simply want to show off your abundant male hormones?”
“What?”
“I may not be as much of a man as Commander, but I’m a man too.”
Dennis spoke somewhat curtly, leaving Cervantes bewildered. That wasn’t what he had meant at all…. He wasn’t some childish man who wanted to show off his muscular body and feel superior to Dennis. He had merely wanted to become closer to Dennis.
Cervantes could have died before he even had the chance to savor the victory of a war that had essentially already been won, but he had survived thanks to Dennis’s sharp shooting skills. He had only been trying to celebrate in his own way, yet instead, he had been misunderstood as being overly self-conscious.
“It’s entirely your misunderstanding.”
Indeed, Cervantes was well aware that the other officers teased Dennis by calling him the goddess of the infantry. Dennis was a beautiful young man. Unlike the other officers, he wasn’t the rough, lustful type who was obsessed with women.
“I’ll wash by myself.”
Cervantes firmly denied it and entered the shower room alone.
‘Well, what subordinate would actually want to bathe together with their superior?’
Even he wanted to enjoy his bath alone and take his time.
Dennis breathed a sigh of relief and prepared the underwear and casual clothes Cervantes would change into. Soon, a smile appeared at the corners of Dennis’s lips.
‘Just being together is enough.’
Dennis suddenly remembered an old memory. More precisely, he remembered what had caused him to develop special feelings for Cervantes.
When Dennis turned ten, all the nobles of the empire were invited to the Founding Day banquet. Dennis stubbornly refused to wear the dress his mother had prepared for him.
At the time, Dennis strongly disliked being different from his older brother Dan. So Dennis’s father dressed him in the same clothes as Dan and took both of them to the Founding Day banquet.
However, Dennis had never imagined that being twins would become something for others to tease them about.
‘You two really look exactly alike.’
Prince Elion was famous for being extremely mischievous.
‘Because we’re twins.’
Dennis found the prince incredibly annoying for teasing him despite already knowing the answer.
‘If you’re twins, are you the same there too?’
It wasn’t merely that the prince was being excessively mischievous. The prince was already showing signs of becoming a terrible person. No matter how young he was, as a member of the imperial family, he should have received the finest education…. Yet he was absolutely rotten.
‘Both of you, take off your pants.’
They naturally refused, but the noble children following the prince surrounded Dennis and Dan.
‘How dare you disobey the prince’s command?’
Elion’s prank had gone far beyond the limits, and both of them were in danger of having their pants forcibly removed.
That was when thirteen-year-old Cervantes appeared and rescued Dennis and Dan.
‘Your Highness will one day become the emperor of the Solencia Empire. If you wish to earn the loyalty of your subjects, then prove your courage first.’
Though he was only a boy himself, Dennis had been astonished by the way Cervantes courageously stepped forward without making an exception for an unreasonable situation.
‘I know that too, Cervantes!’
‘If you know that, then Your Highness should take off his pants first. Then everyone here will take theirs off as well.’
Even back then, Cervantes possessed an overwhelming presence. It was as though he were overflowing with an almost demonic force.
Dennis could still remember Prince Elion’s flushed face as he huffed angrily.
From that day on, Dennis admired Cervantes and gave up on becoming a beautiful young lady like a flower so that he could become as strong as him.
Thus, under his father’s guidance, he devoted himself to shooting practice. Of course, he had never expected that he would meet Cervantes like this….
‘Still, I thought he would recognize me.’
When they met again, Cervantes did not remember what had happened during the Founding Day celebration. Apparently, it hadn’t been particularly memorable to him.
Dennis shook off his thoughts and headed toward the military kitchen to fetch their meal. By then, Cervantes would have finished bathing and would probably be wearing the clothes Dennis had prepared on the bed.
Even if it wouldn’t last forever, Dennis was happy simply to be with him. That was why he had never once regretted coming to this brutal battlefield.
He was always filled with honor and pride at having become the aide of the Cervantes he admired. Whenever he saw Cervantes wearing clothes he had prepared with his own hands and eating food he had arranged for him, Dennis felt a sense of fulfillment.
At times, Dennis had seriously examined his own feelings, too. He had tried to find the reason why he liked Cervantes so much without question.
He didn’t have to think for long to find the answer.
Cervantes had made Dennis into someone special. Into a capable soldier who was loyal to the empire….
When he was with Cervantes, Dennis was respected as a human being.
Because women in this era were passive beings who were expected to be protected by men.
It was past midnight when Dennis took his underwear and entered the bathroom to wash.
Of course, Cervantes had already fallen asleep, exhausted. Since Dennis had never once washed while Cervantes was awake, it was very important for him to make sure that Cervantes was deeply asleep.
Dennis placed his underwear on the bathroom shelf and stepped into the shower room.
Even though it was the commander’s bathroom, there was no bathtub. There was only a shower curtain and a washbasin.
It meant that soldiers were not afforded the luxury of soaking in a bathtub.
‘Let’s wash quickly.’
Dennis washed his hair with soap and cleaned his body as well. If he were at home, he would have added fragrant oils to a bathtub filled with rose petals or enjoyed a luxurious bubble bath, but at some point, washing within ten minutes had become a habit.
Still, he could afford to take his time a little today. It wasn’t wartime anymore, and once Cervantes fell asleep, he rarely woke up easily.
Meanwhile, Cervantes had been sleeping deeply before suddenly waking up.
Even though he should have been able to sleep soundly after the war ended, it seemed that he had woken because he had awkwardly drunk some of the wine served with dinner.
Thirsty, Cervantes looked for some water, only to find that Dennis had already prepared lemon water and red wine on the bedside table.
‘As expected, he never misses a thing.’
Dennis was precise and attentive in everything he did. Even though he was a man himself, every one of his actions was calm, with none of the roughness one might expect.
‘He’s the perfect aide.’
Of course, he wasn’t very expressive with his emotions and was extremely quiet.
He was more beautiful than most women, yet his personality was closer to that of a rugged man. He never hesitated when working and was bolder than anyone else.
When the Sekari War broke out and the entire empire issued a military mobilization order, everyone, including Cervantes, had been astonished when Dennis enlisted.
Ash-blond hair tinged with gray, green eyes, a slender body, and delicate skin….
He was the most beautiful man Cervantes had ever seen.
The army was a group filled with rough men who were brimming with sexual urges and constantly making vulgar jokes. Yet someone as beautiful as a figure from a painting had appeared in such a place.
On top of that, everyone was even more surprised to learn that he was the son of Count Vertir, who had been known as the Golden Marksman.
The words spoken by the officers at the time were still vivid in Cervantes’s memory.
‘Can he even hold a long rifle with those skinny arms?’
‘Is he really Count Vertir’s son…?’
‘Commander, just send him home. He can arrange flowers or something.’
Everyone had underestimated Dennis, thinking that someone who seemed to possess not even a trace of male aggression would never adapt to military life.
But after seeing his shooting skills, they were all left speechless.
His sharp and precise attacks, along with his almost animalistic ability to detect even hidden marksmen, made it impossible to deny that he had inherited Count Vertir’s blood.
Cervantes put the old memories aside for the moment and wondered whether he should drink the lemon water or the wine.
‘If I want to sleep a little longer, wine would be better.’
He got out of bed, poured himself a glass of red wine, and drank it.
However, perhaps because he was still half-asleep, he suddenly spilled the wine, soaking his clothes and chest.
“Damn…!”
Cervantes threw off his upper garment and headed toward the bathroom.
Then he heard the sound of water coming from inside.
‘Dennis must be washing.’
He hesitated slightly.
Dennis hated being disturbed while washing.
‘It’s fine. I only need to wash the wine off my chest.’
Still, Cervantes wanted to be polite, so he knocked on the door.
But perhaps Dennis couldn’t hear him over the sound of the water, because there was no response.
‘The washbasin should be enough.’
“Dennis, excuse me for a moment.”
Cervantes carefully opened the bathroom door and stepped inside.
