Summer Vacation – 8

I waited until the three women finished bathing. Actually, each room naturally had decent bathing facilities attached, but I thought it would be a waste to pass up the bathhouse that Cordelia had so strongly recommended. Since I had received the recommendation, I wanted to try it right away. No matter how spacious a bathtub might be, it’s a different feeling from a bathhouse.

“You can go down now, I believe.”

Just as my neck was about to snap from waiting, I finally received word from a maid that the three had finished bathing. I quickly followed her guidance to the bathhouse.

Upon arriving, I was fortunate enough to meet the three just as they were coming out. All three had that fluffy feeling unique to people who have just bathed. The fragrance of shampoo wafted subtly from them.

“Oh my, were you waiting?”

“You said it was so good, I wanted to try it.”

Hestia looked at me somewhat surprised and asked.

“What’s so good about it that you bathed for so long?”

“Ahaha… Maybe it’s because it’s been a while.”

Hestia laughed awkwardly at my question. The other two behind her also had somewhat awkward expressions. What’s with this atmosphere?

It’s clearly an atmosphere suggesting something happened. I approached Hestia and quietly asked so the other two couldn’t hear.

“Did something happen between the three of you?”

“No, nothing happened?”

Hestia denied it, but my intuition was telling me that 100% something had happened while the three were bathing. But since she claimed nothing happened, it would be silly for me to keep pressing, so I reluctantly decided to back off.

It could be a secret conversation they only want to share among women. I’m not their guardian, and I can’t know everything that happens between the three of them.

“Is that so? Well then, I’ll go in and bathe now.”

So I moved towards the bathhouse without any lingering thoughts.

The bathhouse was really similar in format to a Korean bathhouse. Since I’ve never been to a bathhouse outside of Korea, I can’t tell if this is a Korean standard or a worldwide standard.

There’s a changing room in front, and after taking off your clothes, you enter the bathhouse. It makes me think that even these trivial details, which the author probably didn’t specifically set up, have been influenced. Perhaps all these empty settings are composed according to what the author unconsciously thought.

“Wow.”

I exclaimed as soon as I entered the bathhouse. Various types of baths were placed throughout the spacious bathhouse. Baths with flower petals floating in them. Marble statues of lions and the like spouting water from their mouths in various places.

To put it simply, it had the structure of an expensive bathhouse that would cost more than 10,000 won to enter.

“It’s worth bragging about.”

This is definitely worth accepting. After roughly washing my body, I threw myself into the largest bath, which clearly looked like a hot bath.

“Ahhh…”

An old-man-like sigh of satisfaction escaped me without my realizing. The bathtub in the dormitory was sufficiently large, but there’s a different feeling about a large bathhouse like this. I released all the tension from my body as if I had become a slime, dissolving into the water in a limp state.

After soaking my body for about 5 minutes, the bathhouse door suddenly swung open. Cold air from outside the bathhouse rushed in. Who could it be? There shouldn’t be anyone coming in. I frowned due to the misty steam and turned around.

“Hahaha! Is the water temperature alright?”

“Hup.”

I momentarily sucked in a breath and stood up abruptly.

“Why are you so surprised? Is there any reason why I can’t bathe with you?”

“No, sir.”

Duke Deneb walked in majestically, completely naked without a thread on his body. I met him in an awkward posture, unsure whether to remain seated or stand up.

“No need to stand up. As the son of that man, you’re not quite my son, but at least a nephew. Just think of me as an uncle and be comfortable.”

“Y-yes.”

Despite saying that, I was feeling an indescribable discomfort inside. Who wouldn’t feel uncomfortable being alone naked with a friend’s father—and a major figure at that—whom they’re meeting for the first time? Uncle my foot.

Moreover, that intimidating aura emanating from the Duke’s body. While Mikhail’s body was nothing to be ashamed of, that build, those muscles. If my body had muscles harmoniously formed like an athlete’s, his was like that of a bodybuilder. His back, swollen as if about to burst, had a demonic appearance.

And that monstrosity dangling without any intention of hiding it. I never thought there would be someone else in this world as large as me.

Perhaps the Duke was just like any other middle-aged man in some ways, as he began showering while humming an unrecognizable tune.

“Well, let’s see.”

A moment later, having finished his shower, the Duke approached the bath where I was sitting and dipped his hand in.

“It’s too lukewarm?”

Duke Deneb immersed his enormous body in the bath and then approached the lion statue that spouted water. He fiddled with the statue for a few moments and then, with a satisfied face, came and sat next to me. What did he just do?

“Hmm, now it’s refreshing.”

The answer came quickly, as I felt the water temperature rapidly rising. I almost cursed. What kind of old-man-at-the-local-bathhouse behavior is this? Even saying it’s refreshing after turning on the hot water was like an old man.

This is an outrageous act, like pouring kimchi juice into someone’s soup without permission. It was at just the right temperature, and now it’s instantly become uncomfortably hot.

Of course, this was his castle, and I didn’t have the guts to complain to a friend’s father whom I was meeting for the first time.

Duke Deneb closed his eyes without saying anything and enjoyed the bath like me. To be honest, I just wanted to get up, but leaving as soon as he came in would be a clear declaration of “I’m uncomfortable with you” to anyone watching.

It was Duke Deneb who broke the brief uncomfortable silence.

“So, how are you getting along with my daughter?”

“Yes. I think of her as a friend…”

He opened one eye slightly and asked.

“A friend, a friend. Yes, that’s why you suddenly visited another woman’s house like this.”

“…”

I kept my mouth shut. What? What did he mean by that? Is he saying, “How dare you touch my daughter”?

“Why so tense? A friend, you say. Yes, my wife and I were also friends at first.”

No. This isn’t coming from that kind of meaning. The Duke’s atmosphere was, by all appearances, closer to that of a father at a meeting with his prospective son-in-law, saying, “I entrust my daughter to you.”

“Haha… Is that so?”

I laughed awkwardly. I slightly lifted my buttocks. I wasn’t thick-skinned enough to continue sitting in this atmosphere. I was planning to just get up from my seat, even at the risk of being rude.

“Sit down.”

“Duke.”

“It’s not such a long story.”

The Duke, somehow knowing my intention, stopped me like a ghost. After a brief consideration, I eventually sat back down. Fine, let’s at least hear what he wants to say with such a set-up.

“Do you remember what I said during dinner?”

“During dinner, sir?”

“About the engagement.”

How could I forget such a thing while eating? I don’t know what he was thinking when he said those things, but it was an extremely uncomfortable conversation.

With Hestia, my current fiancée, and even his daughter’s best friend, sitting there wide-eyed, he was saying things like how he originally planned to engage Cordelia and me, and how if he had known, he wouldn’t have sent her to the Imperial Palace.

“Yes, well, I remember.”

“Then this will be quick. What do you think?”

“What do you mean?”

“Stop pretending not to know. About an engagement with Cordelia.”

Is he serious? Despite trying my best to maintain a neutral expression, I couldn’t hide the twitching around my eyes.

“I don’t quite understand what you’re implying. My fiancée is Hestia, and I have no intention of betraying her. Moreover, she is Cordelia’s best friend.”

“Sometimes, in the face of love, friendship can become nothing.”

“The relationship between the Deneb Duchy and the Gracia County…”

“That’s not for you to worry about. Besides, anyone in the Empire would choose to form a blood alliance with the Sirius Grand Duchy instead of turning the Gracia County into an enemy.”

Is this crazy old man seriously suggesting I get engaged to Cordelia instead of Hestia? Despite knowing it was cowardly, I had no choice but to pull out my trump card.

“And most importantly, isn’t it Cordelia’s own will that matters?”

The statement that one’s own will is most important. I didn’t think this man would be able to say such things in front of Cordelia. Despite everything, he seemed to be a doting father, and Cordelia wouldn’t welcome such a mess of a situation proceeding under her father’s leadership.

However, the response I received was completely different from what I expected.

“Well, that’s the easiest problem. Sure, if I say it outright, she’ll jump up in panic, but if I tell her after everything is settled, she’ll be angry asking why I did such a thing, but deep down, she’ll be happy.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Surely you’re not going to say you don’t know? You don’t seem like such an obtuse friend.”

I kept my mouth shut. As the Duke said, I knew Cordelia liked me. But the Duke knowing that fact is a different matter. How can he be so confident? It doesn’t seem like Cordelia would have told him.

“You have a face asking how I knew. It’s obvious. From the content of Cordi’s letters, or the way she looks at you. Original parents sometimes eerily see through their children’s inner thoughts from even the most trivial things. My father would also uncannily figure out when I had caused trouble somewhere and was pretending not to know. So, what’s your answer?”

I stood up abruptly from my seat.

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that conversation. It’s not a matter I can decide on my own in the first place, and even if it were, I have no intention of breaking off my engagement with Hestia.”

To be honest, I didn’t have the confidence to counter his words anymore. If I had known I would hear such a conversation, I would have fled before he spoke to me.

Whether he’s a friend’s father, a father’s friend, or a Duke of the Empire doesn’t matter. I don’t want to betray Hestia in this way.

Duke Deneb’s and my gazes clashed in the air. After a brief eye battle, he opened his firmly closed mouth.

“Hahahahaha! It’s a joke, just a joke! My, your expression. I felt like punching you. Even so, this isn’t a light topic to discuss naked in a place like this.”

“Is… that so?”

I laughed sheepishly along with Duke Deneb’s hearty laughter.

But to anyone watching, this was closer to him backing off after testing the waters and finding it wouldn’t work. Both I and the Duke knew, but we just wouldn’t delve deeper.

Anyway, I decided to leave this place for now. Regardless of him passing the previous conversation off as a simple joke, I couldn’t stay here; it was suffocating.

Regrettably, I’ll have to give up using the bathhouse from now on. I plan to preemptively prevent being alone with him. Surely he wouldn’t barge into a bathroom attached to a room.

“Mikhail!”

The Duke called out to me as I turned to leave. I struggled to suppress the “What now?” emotion that had risen to the tip of my tongue.

“What is it, sir?”

“No, I just wanted to tell you that that thing is quite magnificent. In all my life, it’s the first time I’ve seen something similar to mine.”

What the heck, giving such a personal compliment…!

But honestly, it felt good.