I’ll Take Responsibility for My Friend, the Duke! [Chapter Two]

Chapter Two

She’s got a strong sense of responsibility; she’s not exactly what you would call lively, but rather courageous; and at times a bit of a tomboy.

That’s Lise, so cute and lovely…

She’s someone I want to protect.

I first met her 7 years ago.

For the first 5 years of my life, I had been an only child within the walls of the Luxel household. That all changed when my mother, who had a hard time conceiving her second child, gave birth to my little brother.

My mother had to rest during her pregnancy, and my father had to work and also take care of my mother, so they sent me to the Marvin household.

They made the decision out of love; they didn’t want to make me feel lonely or sad if something were to happen to my mother during the birth. Now that I think about it, it might have been a very tough time for them.

The head of the Marvin household was a friend of my father’s; they also had business-related connections. He’s always been a very kind man.

That Uncle had been in our home countless times, so I already knew him well enough, but this was my first time actually coming to the Marvin household.

Uncle’s first daughter, Liselotte, had been born 6 months before me but we were in the same school grade. Her little brother, Yuri, was only 2 years younger, so we all got along pretty well from the get-go.

To be completely honest, I wasn’t planning on opening up my heart to this family at first, but Lise was always there for me, watching over me, protecting me.

I didn’t want to open up for a few reasons…

Although young, I had already been carrying the burden of my family’s prestigious power, so I had to act accordingly. Then, my mother’s body got weaker and I could no longer rely on her, so I decided to become an excellent son to avoid worrying my parents.

I’ve always had the personality of a grown-up; I would usually be mindful of the people around me.

No one saw me as the 7 year old Alfred; they only saw me as the next duke. They thought I would help advance their families power if they coddled me. There was no shortage of those kinds of people.

Besides, I was never lonely, even if my parents weren’t paying attention to me. And no matter what, my mother would never get upset… I love my mother; of course I don’t want anything bad happening to her.

That’s why it annoyed me so much when they told me I had to go live with the Marvins; but in the end, I was totally fine with it.

Since my parents had gone to the trouble of asking the Marvins for their help, I had no choice but to be a good boy and go.

The Marvins were totally different from the people I had usually been interacting with.

For some unknown reason, they didn’t give me any special treatment.

They didn’t treat me like a guest and even prepared a room for me. They bought me the same stuff as their other children and scolded me as if they were my own parents. And their mother also treated me just as kindly as my own.

Yuri was the youngest of the children so he didn’t try to cater to me. He just did his own thing.

Lise and I were almost the same age, but she was born just 6 months earlier, and therefore treated me like her little brother.

She would tell me she was my senior in life. At times she would keep her distance, but she would also drag me around everywhere.

But the distance between us was always a strange thing to me; perhaps she was testing the waters and was being considerate of my feelings.

A private tutor would look over our studies every day, but I had already learned everything he had to teach us since I was already an excellent student. That’s why I would often end up helping out with both Yuri and Lise’s studies.

Whenever that happened, Lise, who usually acted like a big sister, seemed like my little sister. Nevertheless, this only happened whenever we studied together; otherwise, she would usually take care of both of us like a big sister. That’s how our relationship was.

I never realized how much she was helping me out.

Lise really loves books; she would often read beneath and even on top of the tree. We would travel to different worlds through books, and at times we would also play in nature and express our thoughts on them.

I was slowly drawn by Lise’s naivete as well as her caring and considerate nature.

I tried to be next to her as much as I could. I would keep visiting the Marvin household even after my little brother was born.

At the age of 10, a tea party is held in every child’s home to promote socialization.

Invitations are sent and received as an attempt to integrate children into society. I would typically refuse the parties that hadn’t invited Lise; otherwise, I would get her permission and attend with her; but, I was always invited to every single party. I always stood next to her and stared down anyone who would come close to her.

Sometimes she would complain,

“Whenever I’m with you all the other girls look at me with hate because they’re jealous of me. How about we go our separate ways?”

“Lise… I don’t wanna get involved with people like that. Besides, I’m worried about you; you’re not very responsible and you slip up sometimes. Let’s just stick together.”

“What? I don’t want to. Look, that cute blonde girl is Ms. Luriel. That other beauty with blue hair is Ms. Atis. They’re two of the most popular girls at the moment! I’ve heard the rumors; they want to get closer to you.”

I looked over for a moment and felt their intense gazes directed at me.

I quickly took Lise’s hand and dashed out of there.

“Lise, I saw some of the tarts you love over there. Let’s go get some.”

“I can go alone!”

“Let’s go together.”

I had recently mastered the art of smiling and waving regardless of my feelings, and so this is what I did, right before taking Lise away forcefully.

However, the more I did this, the more they talked…

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“Mr. Alfred is so in love with Mrs. Liselotte.”

That rumor kept spreading.

And at times, ugly rumors also proliferated.

“It seems like Mrs. Liselotte is not letting go of Mr. Alfred, and Mr. Alfred is just too kind to refuse his childhood friend’s demands.”

I’ve tried really hard to stop all these rumors from spreading by making it seem like I’m the one in love with her, which is the truth… But everyone else seems to think that Lise is the one hung up on me. Everyone just wants to get validation from those who hold power.

But it wasn’t just a rumor, so I decided to tell my partners about my desire to marry Lise.

Both my father and mother had no attachment to people or material things at all. They felt relieved and happy when I told them I wanted to marry the Marvins’ daughter.

To my good fortune, my father hadn’t even entertained the idea of a political marriage, so he immediately got on board with my wish to make Lise my fiancée .

A couple of years had passed, and I was now 13 years old. Ability holders of my age are called to the capital’s academy for a 3 years study period that follows a 2 year period of field related tasks and experience.

Our household, Luxel, had received the power of healing.

In all honesty, I don’t give a rat’s ass about my abilities… But instead of scratching my belly and doing nothing, I figured it would be best if I advanced my status and power in order to conquer Lise’s heart.

I had told Lise of my intentions to marry her, but she always responded with this, “Al, you might fall in love with someone else in the future, it’s still too early for us.” That’s all she would ever say.

It didn’t matter how often people described me as a  “wunderkind” or as a “handsome guy”; Lise was unfazed.

Naturally, she was also unfazed by my abilities or my family’s status.

What should I do…? I could always use my status and force her to marry me, but that would cause a rift in our relationship.

Lise fell on top of me as I wondered what to do.  The whole recovery would have taken at least a month if I didn’t possess these healing abilities.

That’s how the whole “taking responsibility” thing came into play.

Everything happened in a flash after that; we got engaged, and I was able to perform the ritual that gave her the seal of power.

Now Lise is all mine.

You cannot erase that seal, and Lise doesn’t seem to realize this… She thinks you can just erase this, as if it were a temporary engagement. “If Al finds someone he truly loves I’ll be fine”, she says to herself.

She keeps saying those words over and over again…. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell her how much I love her; she just doesn’t get it.

But recently, she has stopped saying those things because I kiss her every time she tries to talk.

Our families have both given us their blessings; the rumors of the engagement will spread in the blink of an eye. With this, the endless, and frankly bothersome attempts to force me into a political marriage will come to a rest. In regards to Lise, she won’t ever be taken away as long as no one higher in status than me lays an eye on her.

I can now use my wound as an excuse to stay at the Marvin household for a full week before I go away to school in a month.

I could heal the wound now, but doing so would drain some of my life force. That’s why I prefer to get it healed with traditional medicine. Our powers cannot save every single person in the kingdom, and it’s not a cure for everything either. That’s why sometimes it’s best to concede your body and let nature do its thing. We have healed soldiers in times of war, but soldiers are not to be seen as tools for warfare. We cannot make people immortal either.

The wounds from Lise’s fall have given me a chance to experience these kinds of injuries first-hand and will hopefully lead to new medical discoveries.

The cherry on top is the scar she left me… It’s so precious to me now… Lise looks at it with regret, but that in itself is also endearing.

I was able to win her over even at the cost of these wounds… She will start to need me more, and I shall show her that she can’t live without me.

More importantly, that seal would have never appeared on her finger if she didn’t love me.

Her perspective seems to have shifted after seeing that ring appear. She mentioned working really hard on her duties as a bride-to-be! She seems to be quite fired up for now.

It’s just temporary, but I think she might have found her passion.

She has started to hold my hands more naturally now, and I’m sure an adult would see that as just another laughable form of skinship… But I already have all the bodily functions of a grown man… 5 years seem so far off.

I took off for the capital. Whenever I got more than 2 days off of school, I would either visit Lise’s place or invite her to mine.

The changes to her body seemed much more prominent in my mind because I hadn’t seen her in such long periods of time.

Lise’s hair grew longer, her body started to curve in all sorts of places, her lips were so cute and her voice was sweeter than ever. Our height difference quickly reversed, I couldn’t believe how cute she was when she looked up at me. I could never let go of her tiny hands either. I just wanted to hug and hold her slender waist. She was so subtly sexy, I wanted to take a bite out of her.

I wanted to leave my mark on Lise’s body right this second. My desires grew with each passing year.

The only thing that made me forget her was the overwhelming amount of work I had. The incredible amount of studying and homework prevented me from thinking of my reality, which was far away from Lise. That’s the only thing that kept me in check.

I don’t know if Lise sees me as her fiancé or if she even sees me as a person of the opposite sex. On her 16th birthday, she looked up at me with those shining eyes and I kissed her like never before. On the eve of her first outing as a debutante, we were on the edge of crossing that sacred line.

I picked her up at the Marvin household. Lise looked beautiful as she came down the stairs.

I took her hand. She was slightly shaking from nervousness.

I dropped down and planted a kiss on the back of her hand and said,

“Lise, you look so beautiful. Shall we go?”

She must have calmed down a bit after I said that because she smiled back at me.

“Yes,” she answered.

Her sweet scent filled the horse carriage, and I could barely hold myself back.

Everyone was paying close attention to us as we arrived at the palace’s entrance. All the most powerful families were gathered here, and we were the center of attention.

With that being said, Lise had become such a beauty over the years and had stolen everyone’s attention.

It felt like Lise would be snatched away from me if I took my eyes off her. It was hard for me to part ways with her so I would grab her by the waist as much as possible.

It was our first time dancing. I guess that’s what they mean when they mention being “in sync” with someone… Cause boy, we were really “in sync” while we danced.

You are only allowed to dance once if you already have a fiancé, but I didn’t want anyone else to touch her, so we danced 3 more songs in succession.  I tired her out just as I had planned ,and she  was so exhausted that she decided to take a break.

Dukes also have to greet the royal family, so I took Lise along with me. This was a first for Lise , ,and I don’t know if it was the nerves, but she looked exhausted by the end, so I supported her as we left the palace behind.

The trip back was hard for me. I didn’t want to let go… I just wanted to take her back with me. We had only just hopped inside the carriage but I had already started kissing her. I left a red mark on her body, somewhere no one else could see. Lise turned bright red, and she looked out of breath, so I stopped right before we got to the mansion.

I didn’t want the servants to look at this sexy side of Lise either; it would be bad if something happened while I was away.

I want to cross that line…

I feel like we have no real need to wait, but I don’t think I’d be able to part ways if we were to cross that line now.

I would not be able to hold myself back since she would still be within reaching distance. If we were to do something right now then I wouldn’t be able to suppress my desires.

Just two more years…

I will be away from the capital working in the neighboring countries during those two years. I will learn about the state of my country and will also see how things actually work.

And that’s not all, I will also have to survey areas where crops have been ineffective for years for the sake of my country’s glory. These next couple of years will be the busiest and hardest I’ve experienced. I will spend many days alone, far away from Lise.

In other words, I won’t be able to see her in the next two years.

Only the ring on her finger connects me to Lise.

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Hello hello! I don’t even know how long it’s been since I’ve written a note. It might have even been recently with my memory… I just wanted to announce that wwaraitai has an Instagram now! Exciting! Please follow if you can and feel free to DM me!