There is still a long way to go about socializing in such a roundabout way. I asked as a joke and ended up with a big wound in my heart.
I think that even people that take care of real dogs receive some kind of gratitude. How can a human being be like this?
Dialin swallowed the curse and argued again.
“Why do you hate me?!”
“Noisy.”
“……Huh?”
A very clear reason came out at once, and it was also a fact she could not refute. From Ceres’ point of view, a noise-making entity itself could be rejected.
Still, it was unfair.
You don’t have to hate me!
“Hold on, these days I don’t snore and move much less!”
Ceres did not react as keenly as to immediately kill Dialin now. She, too, felt her tension loosen up, reducing her sleep talk and snoring.
She felt offended.
“It’s noisy.”
Still, it was noisy by Ceres’ standards. The degree of his patience increased after listening to it every day, but it was not as if it was impossible to hear.
Ceres accepted table manners and the alphabet as if he was absorbing them like a sponge. If they keep going like this, maybe it will be possible to socialize within a month.
However, it was not easy to calm down his sensitivity.
It wasn’t like Dialin was shouting everywhere she went, but the word “noisy” didn’t disappear.
It’s just that her existence itself was irritating and noisy.
Although he doesn’t throw a candlestick at a chirping bird in the morning anymore, he does come to her bedroom from time to time and stare at her for a long time.
Rather, Dialin was the one being tamed by that sensitivity.
“It’s not like my voice is some kind of cutting blade.”
“Noisy.”
“People need to breathe to live.”
“……”
That silence is the silence of ‘I would rather you die’.
That’s too much for someone who works hard, really.
“To the point of hating people for being noisy……”
Dialin grumbled.
It was impossible to live more quietly than now. She cares so hard, but hearing Ceres say he hates her was quite tingling to the heart.
“Then you hate cats too?”
“Hate.”
“What about birds?”
“Hate.”
“A mouse?”
“Hate.”
“You don’t like anything that just moves, do you?”
Ceres thought for a moment and then nodded.
“Hate.”
“…….”
It is a very firm and certain criterion.
“Okay, from now on I just have to live without breathing.”
I will live without even breathing once.
It remains to be seen if the word ‘Like’ will come out, but Dialin was very determined to fill the house with silence.
However, other noises that Dialin couldn’t even think of occurred throughout life.
As she made up her mind and went into her no-noise-fighting strategy, even Dialin began to hear sounds that she was normally unaware of.
For example, the sound of wind blowing leaves hitting the window.
“!”
“It’s a leaf.”
Dialin calmly informed Ceres, who jumped up with pricked-up ears.
Ceres, who had been raising his body sensitively, lowered his posture. He was about to run out and tear off the leaves, but when Dialin spoke first, he lost the will to attack.
“Are you going to fight the leaves?”
Dialin calmly asked.
“……”
Ceres quietly sat down.
He was still glancing at the window to show how bothered he was, but at least he was not running out to kill leaves.
“Good boy.”
Dialin praised Ceres for sitting quietly.
How did she end up taking care of his common sense like this? Sometimes it’s impossible to show how proud she was when Ceres listened to her after she explained using words.
She even thought about raising a dog after this job.
“Come here.”
Dialin gestured to Ceres.
Without asking or arguing, Ceres quickly put his arm on Dialin’s lap and sat down on the floor.
Even though she told him not to do this, he kept taking this posture, probably because it was comfortable.
Yes, it might look like a young master having a silly tantrum like a child.
Dialin gave up on correcting that posture. In the meantime, the discussions between Ceres and her were increasing one by one.
“Take a deep breath in, exhale.”
“Huuuu……whoa.”
Ceres obediently followed Dialin’s instructions.
For Ceres, she was a person who makes loud noises when she sleeps or when she moves, but when Dialin soothes him down like this, a calmness that he has never experienced in his life comes over.
It wasn’t a calm where all the noise of the world disappeared, but as soon as he heard the noises, he just stopped paying attention to them.
It was a new and surprising experience for Ceres.
As long as he had Dialin, he could bear it without going wild. He could feel his burning nerves cooling down.
The drugs and sorcery that calmed Division 8 members who were in frenzy from the heat of battle when they were on the front lines were more like pushing them far away, similar to plunging them into the deep abyss rather than sinking.
It was different from Dialin’s tranquility.
Ceres felt instinctively that this was peace.
Peace was good.
“Ah!”
Just then, a short scream was heard outside the window.
But this time, he couldn’t stand it. He felt a presence wandering around the house for no reason.
Therefore, he was even more on edge. He had a feeling it was the same person who had delivered the groceries the other day.
If he just quietly left, he tried to put up with it.
However, the sound of something pouring down, panicked footsteps, bustling movements, and even screaming.
Ceres’ patience quickly reached its limit.
“Ahh! No! Wait!”
Dialin clung to Ceres before he jumped out the window. However, when he heard the tumbling sounds once again, the confidence in herself to hold on to him disappeared.
What kind of stupid human would trip over the box he was carrying, get up and fall again?
Even though I asked Ruben to make them pay attention to the sound since the last incident!
Excited in an instant, Ceres growled as an automatic reflex.
“Argh……!”
It showed no signs of calming down.
Dialin, who became the decision maker, also had a fever in her head.
I’ve worked so hard to calm him down! As much as this guy is working hard on other things, can’t he try hard to calm down?
In the end, when Ceres, impatient, pushed Dialin away and tried to head for the window, she exploded as well.
“Hey! Don’t you dare go out!”
It was quite a threatening shout.
It was such a coercive tone that Ceres’ feet stopped without even realizing it. Meanwhile, the deliverymen hurried away from the mansion.
“Whoop, whoa!”
Ceres breathed heavily and stared at the back of the people out of the window. Even now, he was able to do enough to follow and get rid of it.
But it’s not the enemy.
The possibility of being an assassin was slim.
Ceres was staring out the window as if he would kill everyone in sight if Dialin didn’t stop him there.
The one closest to him right now who was able to make an appropriate judgment was Dialin.
Ceres returned with a heavy stride.
“Whoa, whoa……”
Kneeling in front of Dialin, breathing out as he had learned.
Ceres hugged her by the waist and rubbed his forehead against her belly. He couldn’t be more sensitive than this, so his head was throbbing all over.
Hurry up and pet me. Hurry up and calm me down.
At the childish gesture that urged her on, Dialin let out a sigh and put her hand on Ceres’ head.
“……Well done.”
She stood there for a long time, stroking his hair.
* * *
“Let’s sort things out.”
After Ceres calmed down a bit, Dialin began to decide upon certain things.
In order for Ceres to look like a precious young master, she thought she should treat and cater to him like a maid. That way, he will be able to naturally ask for and accept such treatment even when he goes elsewhere.
However, she wondered if there was any need to do so since there was no one higher than Ceres.
Hierarchies existed in human societies.
Submissiveness to orders shouldn’t be all about sociability, a person should know how to treat people from the bottom and from the top separately.
There, Dialin had a question of ‘Why should she be below?’
“After all, I am also the daughter of an aristocratic family, right?”
It was a barony that was no different from a commoner, but a nobleman was still a nobleman.
Ceres was a war hero, but he was not ‘yet’ a nobleman. Putting it that way, Dialin was higher in status.
“Then I’ll speak informally too.”
“……? Yes.”
Ceres admitted without much resistance. Whether it was informal or formal, it was not something he cared about.
“……Really?”
Dialin rather hesitated when Ceres did not protest the subject she first brought about.
She threw it in a fit of rage, but never expect it to go this easily.
She gave all her strength and prepared her whole body as much as she could, but there was a feeling of collapse as if her opponent had let go of the strings she was vigorously tugging. Embarrassment ran through her as if she had lost her footing by herself.
Dialin cleared her throat with a dry cough.
“Yes, then, Mr. Ceres.”
“……”
It’s obvious knowledge, but isn’t it standard to call someone by their first name when speaking in casual speech?
Dialin still doesn’t seem to have reached the ‘Hey, Ceres!’ stage, so she added ‘Mr.’ However, Ceres, who was okay with ‘hey’ or casual speech, became puzzled by ‘Mr. Ceres’.
He stared blankly at her as if Dialin had spoken really strange words.
“……Wh-why? What’s wrong with you……sir?”
(Note: She went back to formal speech)
Dialin was stabbed and scared by herself for no reason.
Is he okay with any other casual words but he can’t let his addressed title off the hook?
But Ceres shook his head.
“Mr.……”
“Mr.?”
“Again.”
“What? Mr. Ceres?”
Ceres had a stunned expression on his face as if he had heard a great sound.