The Northern Mad Dog Wags It’s Tail

 Britia couldn’t help but be surprised by the unfamiliar sensation that touched her palm. It felt slightly cool and had a certain texture to it. Surprisingly, it was also soft. It was a strange sensation she had never experienced before.

 “What’s wrong with you? You have a weird look on your face,” Harty chuckled as he looked at Britia who seemed to recall something. She found herself biting her lip and using both hands to touch his tail.

 “It seems like Lord Marquis doesn’t feel anything even when I touch him.”

 “It’s uncomfortable, but I’m enduring it.”

 Britia noticed that the gaze he directed towards her was definitely not friendly, but she didn’t stop. Remembering how much agony Sig suffered rather than just finding it unpleasant brought about a completely different reaction.

 “Even though I gave permission, you’re touching me so casually.”

 “I won’t have many opportunities like this.”

 “So you wanted to touch me like this? You must have gone through some hardships while enduring all this time.”

 Seeing Harty laugh mockingly, Britia felt choked up.

 “It wasn’t because I wanted to touch Lord Marquis, but because I wanted to touch your tail. The tail.”

 She emphasized with a low voice.

 “I like tails, not Lord Marquis.”

 “You persistently touch the tail of someone who you dislike?”

 “The tail is innocent.”

 “But you are guilty.”

 As Britia became more accustomed to the unfamiliar sensation, she felt happy. Although she felt conflicted when thinking of it as Harty Slanford’s tail, she knew that such an opportunity would not come again.

 So she decided to forget that this was Harty Slanford’s tail and touch it freely now.

“Stop touching persistently. It makes me uncomfortable.”

 Harty wore a poker face. He didn’t feel any pain from her touch, but he was inwardly flustered. This was the first time someone other than himself had stroked his tail like this.

 After revealing his true nature, he had always been on guard against her. But of course, he wasn’t dissatisfied with that fact. His first goal was to separate her from Sig and seek revenge for being deceived multiple times. He had no desire to get closer to her.

 But now, a strange emotion welled up within him as if they were rubbing their flesh against each other without any barriers in between them. His heart seemed to flutter.

 “That’s it!”

 Unable to withstand the unfamiliar sensation for the first time, Harty forcefully hit her hand with his tail.

 “Don’t touch His Excellency! Do you understand?”

 Seeing Britia unable to hide her regret of wanting more contact, Harty spoke even more sharply.

 “I asked if you understood.”

 “Well… I can’t give a definite answer.”

 When Britia avoided his gaze and answered, Harty let out a dry laugh.

 “You’re not satisfied even after touching my tail like that?”

 “Although Lord Marquis’s tail has an intriguing sensation, I find it very pleasurable to touch Duke-nim’s.”

 “…You touched Duke-nim’s tail?”

 Harty’s lips parted. Was she saying that she had already touched his tail, which he had sacrificed so much to keep her from doing?

 ‘Has this woman deceived me again? But more importantly, what did she mean now? My tail was just interesting, but Duke-nim’s feel good?’

 Even Harty’s pride in his own beautiful face was wounded.

 “Oh, and Lord Marquis,” Britia asked as she touched his tail. “Can you move your tail freely?”

 Britia voiced one question that she had been thinking about while touching his tail.

 “That incident at your mansion where you attacked me… Did you do it on purpose?”

“…”

 “After attacking me and seeing how startled I was, did you intentionally make me appear as someone seeking attention in front of others?”

As memories resurfaced from back then, Britia’s face quickly contorted and Harty became somewhat uneasy. It didn’t matter whether or not she was shocked by it. No wait—actually if anything he wanted her to be even more shocked than usual. That’s why he teased her and ridiculed her like that.

 “I didn’t think you were such a despicable person until now; I’m really disappointed in you, Lord Marquis.”

 “What have I done?”

 “As I was about to sit down, you grabbed my ankle and whipped me with your tail.”

 Britia turned away from her with a cloudy gaze when she asked if he was itching to start a fight. However, he glanced at her as his eyes met the side of her face and let out a small groan upon seeing her moistened pupils.

 It didn’t matter if Britia Lockhart cried or not. He actually wanted to seek revenge against this women to the point where tears and snot would be wiped away.

 “…Do you want my tail again?”

 Strangely enough, he didn’t feel that way now and wanted to somehow console her.

 “Go ahead.”

 So he gently touched her hand with his tail.  

Britia glared at Harty and firmly grasped his tail. As she intentionally applied force while holding it, whether it hurt this time or not, his body trembled.

 Thinking that sight was gratifying, Britia stroked her hand roughly on his tail. Although Harty Slanford hated it, his tail was more splendid than his appearance.

 “This doesn’t mean that Lord Marquis did never happened.”

 “You can’t cover up something after I let you touch my tail so much? Then take your hands off my tail. Don’t touch it anymore.”

“…”

 “You don’t like that? Ugh! There are women like this!”

 Harty was bewildered by Britia’s dry eyes as if the tear-filled pupils just moments ago were lies.

 Perhaps because someone had touched his tails for the first time, he must have momentarily felt strange due to surprise. He definitely wanted revenge on Britia Lockhart enough to make her face full of tears and snots.

 Definitely prevent her from doing such things towards Duke Turas!

 Hartt made up his mind while Britia briefly wondered what would happen if she bit this tail. Unlike when looking at Sig’s tail, she strangely didn’t want to cuddle Harty’s tail but rather bite it off abruptly.

 But if I did that, there would be a commotion.

 Just dealing with the relationship with Robley was already giving her a headache; she didn’t even know how difficult it would be for Lockhart if Slanford also did that. Britia restrained herself from biting Harty’s tail as much as thinking about her family.

 “Stop. I’m going back now.”

 When the feeling of uneasiness in his chest started to flutter again, Harty rejected her touch and turned away.

 “Are you finally going back?”

 Although it was regrettable that she couldn’t touch the tail anymore, Britia was glad that Harty was leaving. Her emotions were clearly written on her face, and Harty didn’t like it at all.

 “Open the door.”

 So he spoke more curtly than ever before, but Britia paid no attention to him at all. He had always been so shameless and rude.

 “I’ll gladly open it for you.”

 ‘How happy one must be when a man like him leaves! I can open any number of doors if asked.’

 “Aren’t you going to escort your guest to the front door?”

 “You’re giving too many orders.”

 At his grumbling voice, Harty turned around sharply. 

As if saying nothing at all, Britia raised her chin with confidence and showed him her palm as she guided him inside.

 “Lockhart’s treatment is inadequate.”

 As they walked toward the entrance hall while Harty spoke, Britia smiled faintly with cloudy eyes.

 “I think so too. We really can’t afford to treat Marquis Slanford properly.”

 “If you know that much then fix it.”

“It’s difficult to fix because we can’t afford it. So I’m sorry, but we won’t be able to invite Lord Marquis again in the future. Of course, we’ve never invited you from our side before either.

Hahaha”

 When Britia laughed with a loud voice, Harty stopped walking along the corridor.

 “I was invited to the party by Earl Lockhart.”

 “There was that time. But in the end, Lord Marquis didn’t come to the party.”

 “I asked for your understanding.”

 “He twisted his ankle and couldn’t come?”

 “How can I believe such an excuse?” Britia chuckled with disdain. Then Harty looked straight into her eyes.

 “It wasn’t an excuse?”

 “The work I was doing got delayed unexpectedly, so I hurried down the stairs and sprained my ankle strangely.”

 Now that she thought about it, when she sent Kyra as a substitute, it seemed like she had mentioned that Harty fell down the stairs and couldn’t move. So maybe what she said was true?

 “Is Lord Marquis very weak or is something stuck on those stairs?”

 “Don’t say the same thing as Kyra. The grown-up Harty is not so fragile…”

 As Harty made excuses, he suddenly noticed that the drawing room’s door opened and Devon and Earl Lockhart came out. Suddenly he remembered the suspicious presence on his forehead and quickly raised his hand to touch it.

 “Uh… um… Lord Slanford, what are you doing?”

 Seeing Harty’s strange behavior of hiding behind her while pulling his leg back, Britia wondered in doubt as she turned around to look at him. Then Harty pressed himself against her back tightly and scolded her to look ahead.

 “Stand properly and hide me!”

 “But first let me ask why you need to be hidden?”

 “The bump on my forehead hasn’t gone away yet.”

 If only there were statues or something else to hide behind; unfortunately, even a common armor found in noble mansions was absent from the corridors of Lockhart Mansion.

 “There’s nowhere else for you to hide. Just go back to my your until they leave.”

 “What? But you’re leaving too?”

 “I can’t afford for them to see me like this!”

 Harty grabbed the part of Britia’s clothes on her shoulder, trying to cover his forehead, but when it didn’t work well, he grabbed her tightly braided hair and covered his forehead with it.

 “Let’s go back to the room quickly,” Hati urged, but before that, Earl Lockheart noticed Britia standing in the middle of the corridor.

 “Tia! Mr. Devon… left…”

 He called out cheerfully to greet them, then his voice trailed off as he saw Harty Slanford walking away with a sluggish pace while holding onto Twin’s hair and covering her face.

 “What is going on?”

 Without realizing it himself, those thoughts came out unintentionally from his mouth.

 “It seems like you’ve become quite close with Lord Slanford all of a sudden.”

 “Well, we weren’t exactly close like this before.”

 When Devon asked if they had been spending time together recently upon seeing Harty visiting their room, Crave denied it without hesitation.

 But seeing such a scene now made him feel awkward as if he had lied.

 “Oh Mr. Devon, are you leaving? I really want to see you off properly.”

 At Britia’s words about wanting to see him off properly, Harty lightly tapped her calf with his tail. Despite telling Harty not to do so through a quiet voice filled with anger, Britia smiled awkwardly at Mr. Devon who was looking at them strangely.

 “I can’t do that right now. Please come visit again next time!”

 Britia smiled awkwardly and playfully hit Harty on the belly with her elbow when she saw him hitting Twin’s leg repeatedly. It seemed strange for Devon who looked this way while smiling slightly.

 “Lord Marquis, please stop. No one says anything about a bump on your forehead.”

 “Be quiet. The moment someone mentions a bump on my forehead, it means you don’t understand anything.”

 “Then what am I supposed to do?”

 “Quickly go back to your room! Hurry!”

 He continued to tap Britia with his tail, urging her.

 “Ah, this troublesome man!”