“Kyle, can you pass me those documents over there?”
“Sure.”
As I spoke to Kyle, we quickly decided to tackle the work together.
If Mom really had something urgent, she wouldn’t have just told me to come home; she would’ve said hurry up, right? Probably?
We were, as always, in the library.
Whenever it was time to get work done, I used this library since old times.
Sure, there were Kyle’s room and my room, among other places, but I had been using this library since childhood.
“Kyle, we just need to get through these documents today, right?”
I looked at the stack of papers that was about 20cm thick on the table. For now, there were no other documents on the table.
That should be right, right?
“Yes.”
Of course, it was.
Having worked on these documents with Kyle before, I knew things well by now.
I wouldn’t say I was a great teacher, but at least I felt like I did a good job in this aspect.
Teaching… well, I guess it could be considered a bit of a failure?
“Let’s just get this done by mid-month, and then I’ll be off.”
“That’s shorter than I thought?”
I figured I’d be working on this stuff for at least the rest of the month.
Given that Kyle usually spent hours on paperwork, the risks of leaving him unattended were obvious.
To prevent that, I’d clearly need to do more work.
“I thought I was going to have to work all month.”
“Well, I can’t just make my partner work like that. I put in a little extra effort.”
“Really?”
I didn’t know what work he had done, but it must have been good for both of us.
There was no way I could just ignore all the tasks, so perhaps he passed some work onto the duke?
Since the duke hasn’t been doing much since the festival ended.
That really could be the case.
Seeing the duke wandering around smiling every time he passed by after the festival…
It was clear that his workload had decreased.
Since I had dealt with castle-related matters more than Kyle had, I could confidently say that without work, you couldn’t maintain that kind of smile.
I mean, he wouldn’t even have time to roam around the castle.
“Just don’t take too much on him. The Duke is also having a hard time.”
“Well… He’s been relaxing outside the castle for years, so it’s about time he relaxes inside.”
“Haha….”
That wasn’t wrong.
He did have quite a history of being absent from his duties.
I figured it wouldn’t be so bad to handle things for Kyle for about a month.
Of course, if I handed over the title of Eristirol to Kyle, he could go back to chilling like before.
“Kyle, I’ve got a question. Have you ever had weird dreams?”
“… Yes?”
“You know, the kinda steamy dreams. Do you have them too?”
I asked because of that strange dream I had recently.
If Kyle had the same kind of dream I had… did he see my body?
Since I saw Kyle’s body, I thought it’d be quite likely for him to see mine.
Maybe those dreams where someone you like shows up?
“Why are you suddenly asking me that….”
“Umm….” I was a bit embarrassed to say this to Kyle.
If I suddenly brought up dreams and mentioned that I saw him naked, wouldn’t that seem crazy?
Honestly, I thought it was a bit crazy too.
“Well, it was just that you suddenly showed up in my dream, and you were naked.”
“….”
“Nothing else seemed weird though.”
Actually, there were a couple close calls in my dream when I got way too close to his naked self, and I even caught a sweet scent from his body… but I didn’t say that.
That was just too embarrassing.
Logically speaking, if someone suddenly approached a naked person to smell them, they would definitely be considered a psychopath.
“Um… even if you say that.”
“Is that so?”
Well, having weird dreams isn’t exactly normal, I guess.
Maybe I just had that really bizarre dream back then. Anyway, we continued processing the documents while chatting with Kyle.
Having done this a few times before, I didn’t think it was difficult or annoying at all.
Besides, it wasn’t so boring; I spent my time chatting with Kyle in a pretty normal way. “… Damn.”
I had a weird dream again today.
No, not just weird, it was weirder.
Last time, I only saw Kyle naked, which I didn’t mind getting closer to, but this time it escalated further.
I dreamt of actually touching Kyle’s muscles while naked and savoring them like a complete pervert.
“I’m really going insane…” Even though it was my own dream, I felt quite troubled.
Continuing to have these dreams, it was inevitable I’d go crazy.
I mean, what if Kyle found out I had such audacious dreams, even though I’m six years older?
He’d definitely look at me all weird.
‘You mean you saw me that way when I’m six years older than you?’
No, no, with Kyle’s personality, that wouldn’t happen, but still, he’d definitely give me a strange look.
“Am I really this repressed?”
Louise’s strange comment suddenly made me think maybe she was onto something.
If not, I wouldn’t be dreaming such bizarre dreams.
When I first heard her, I thought she was crazy, but maybe she’s actually quite smart.
“Desires.”
There’s absolutely no way I had any lustful thoughts.
If I did, I would have been thinking about that stuff since my teenage years.
But in my teens, I never had such thoughts.
I had only ever touched myself once, and never again after that.
That experience was so intense, like a lightning bolt hitting my brain, that I still vividly remember it.
So, yeah, I never did it again.
“I’m really going insane.”
Because of this, it was getting hard to look at Kyle, who was peacefully sleeping next to me.
Plus, I was in a bind on how to resolve this.
How do I deal with these repressed feelings?
I remember being told back in elementary school to avoid naughty stuff and just exercise.
Should I work out or something?
I was at least doing some for health reasons, but would that be enough? “… It’s your fault.”
I grabbed one of Kyle’s cheeks with one hand, feeling it squishy and soft.
It may not be the most appealing to touch, but it was definitely Kyle’s fault.
This weird dream was all his doing.
With all the pleasant skinship and sweet nothings Kyle whispered to me, my body had clearly become strange.
“Ugh…” That said, I could not possibly tell Kyle these thoughts.
It was still difficult to actually get on top of him in many ways.
Just imagining doing something with him made me feel all tingly.
Talk about weird feelings.
I mean, we’ve known each other since he was twelve, and he’s six years younger than me!
“Ah…”
Having those ridiculous thoughts made my heart race suddenly.
Yep, I could sense my heart was aware of the embarrassing imaginations I was having.
I liked Kyle, and here we were dating and spending every night together, but even so, the thought of crossing that line gave me strong reservations.
I wouldn’t call it reservations; it felt more like fear.
The fear outweighed the reservations.
It felt like I was overwhelmed from the size I saw in that dream.
If I actually tried to do something, I’d clearly lose my mind.
“First… I need to wash up.”
Probably due to that strange dream I just had, my clothes were damp.
Definitely because of nervous sweat.
Even though I don’t sweat much on the lower half, it was still uncomfortable because of the sweat.
“Ah…!!! It’s finally over!”
“Good job.”
I finally finished the work.
Unlike usual, it was definitely quite a bit tougher, but I managed to get through it in the end.
Having seen so many documents lately, I double-checked all my signatures out of caution.
“I mean, I’m doing this because of you. Why are you apologizing?”
“Still, I owe an apology to Sophia. If it weren’t for me, she could have just gone back home normally.”
Kyle’s words were a fact.
If it had been any other guy, I wouldn’t have spent these two weeks working and killing time like this.
Only because it was Kyle, only because he was the Duke of Eristirol, that this happened.
If it weren’t for him, I would have already arrived by now.
But I didn’t mind.
I was actually helping him because I wanted to go back home with him.
I had never once heard Mom say to bring a partner home.
If it took Kyle two months, I would have been ready to wait those two months to go back home with him.
“It’s all your fault. You’re the reason I’m helping you out here.” “….” “So just give me a kiss or something.”
“Alright.”
Kyle was frustrating in many ways.
When he feels apologetic, instead of rambling about it, one simple affectionate kiss would fix everything.
Kyle approached me from behind while I was sitting in my chair, and he skillfully made me turn around.
“Ugh… Mmm… Mmh… Hmmm…”
As we kissed to celebrate the end of our work and our upcoming family meeting, it wasn’t just about those two things.
The more important thing was simply spending time together, just the two of us.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.