WHTVT C11

Chapter 11

He shook off a body that was growing chilly for no reason and looked around the room.

This room definitely boasted a wider, more luxurious structure than the annex. Even at a glance the furniture was all framed in the finest wood, and the silk wallpaper decorating the walls was an expensive thing. Fortunately the butler seemed to have taken Chase to a fairly decent room.

But making that splendor meaningless, Chase was only sitting crouched blankly on the huge bed in the middle of the room.

What’s he doing like that, making the person who came to bully him feel uneasy……

Looking at Chase hugging his small knees tight to his chest and burying his head between them, Noel clicked his tongue inwardly.

“I said you weren’t eating……”

Then a voice drained of strength flowed low from the dark.

Even having heard Noel’s footsteps, he didn’t even lift his head.

For a moment worry jolted whether Chase was sick somewhere. A kid already thin, starving on top of that and sitting like this—no wonder he had no energy.

But Noel suddenly recalled his place and steeled himself.

Who are you pitying right now? Snap out of it, Noel. My lifespan’s about to fly first!

An instinctive sense of crisis swept him—that if it even took the warm shape of kindly bringing a meal, that tactless system might promptly float “quest failed.”

Noel evened his breathing and spat the coldest words he could.

“Hey! Not eating, shut in a corner of the room—what are you doing.”

“…Huh? Noel……?”

As if only now recognizing Noel’s voice, Chase’s head lifted slowly.

Chase blinked and stared at him. He’d thought of course it was a servant, but a completely unexpected person was standing in his room, so plenty of puzzlement mixed in his expression.

Receiving that gaze as-is felt somehow awkward; Noel walked briskly to the window as if avoiding it. Then he grabbed the thick blackout curtain and flung it wide.

Swoosh—!

With a noisy sound, clear blinding sunlight poured into the room without restraint. Facing the kid’s state again under the light, Noel swallowed a short inward sigh.

Ah, shit. Looking again he looks like he’d fall over if you poked him.

The rumpled hair and bloodless lips were too vivid. Looking up from the garden at only a small head he hadn’t thought it was this bad, but the appearance faced close still wasn’t something you could talk about.

The conscience he’d pressed down poked and poked, but it couldn’t be helped.

Noel pretended as hard as he could that it was nothing and set the silver tray he’d brought down on the table with a bang!

“Picky about food at your level? You think if you skip meals and act pitiful someone will give you attention? Fine. Choke down something like this that suits your look!”

The words he spat were blunt, but the motion of setting the plate down was careful so the food wouldn’t splash. Unconsciously he’d regulated the force in case hot meat juice flew or the plate slipped.

The moment that action ended, welcome letters carved into the air.

Ding—!

[Meager food provided 2 times complete!]

[Congratulations. You have cleared ‘Sub-mission: One Step Toward Awakening the Main Villain!’]

Yes! Done!

Noel cheered with joy inwardly.

See, my calculation was right. One lone plate of steak was perfect ‘meagerness’ compared to lavish food.

While he was moved alone inside, Chase, who had been crouched on the bed, had at some point slid down and was standing in front of the table. Because he’d approached without even making a footstep, Noel started and almost fell backward.

“…This, is this for me?”

Chase’s voice was still sunk low. His gaze went back and forth between the meat plate and Noel’s face. That familiar clear smile hung at the corner of his mouth.

The moment he faced the child’s sunny smile, Noel’s conscience poked and poked again. Wait, was I originally a person with this much leftover conscience. At the self-reproach rolling in afresh he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.

He couldn’t ruin the work with useless feeling. Chase hadn’t even said anything particular, but Noel whipped his head away like a thief whose feet stung for no reason. Then he raised his voice even louder and snapped bluntly.

“If you don’t want to eat it, throw it in the yard! I’m only giving it because if the kid Father brought starved to death in front of my eyes even my face would be cut down.”

The instant the words ended Noel turned his back without lingering and left the room. If he stayed even one more second here, the clumsy villain act felt like it would be found out.

Staring quietly at the door that closed with a bang, the smile at Chase’s mouth slowly receded. Then he slowly lowered his gaze and looked at the table.

On the wide silver tray, without a single garnish, one lump of meat sitting alone was all. Noel had thrown it and left calling this shabby arrangement “meager food,” but in Chase’s eyes it was different.

That was because there were Chase’s own circumstances Noel didn’t know even in a dream.

The butler’s words that Chase ate the same lavish food as Noel were a bright-red lie. The butler had only glossed, watching Noel’s mood; in reality he’d told the servants to take care of Chase’s meals as they saw fit.

There was no way servants would put their hearts into a child who had slipped from the master’s interest. The food the servants had brought to Chase’s room until now was at a level that couldn’t be eaten.

The soup gone completely cold gave off a sour spoiled smell, and the rice ball hardened stiff was no different from a stone.

Better than being abandoned in a forest full of monsters, but it was clearly a neglected, unmanaged diet. Chase, whose senses were sensitive to begin with, felt sick at the smell of spoiled food and pushed the meals away every time.

The people here didn’t go out of their way to hit Chase or openly abuse him by giving rotten food, but they treated him perfectly as a ghost. No one spoke to him, and no one took interest in his hunger.

But it didn’t matter. That had been natural to him.

The meat in front of his eyes was different.

It gave off dense heat as if just down from the fire, the outside crisp and the inside moistly grilled, juices pooled.

When the savory-sweet scent of butter and garlic brushed his nose, an appetite that had been dead a long time surged violently.

Is he mocking me and put poison in it. Or is it made with spoiled ingredients.

Chase assumed the worst out of habit. The world he’d lived through until now had always been that way.

Behind reasonless kindness a greater pain had always crouched.

But at the moment he was about to sink into a swamp of suspicion, Noel’s actions from a little while ago rose.

The rough words spat out. But the hand that had pulled the dark away. The careful motion of setting the food down so it wouldn’t scatter while pretending to be angry.

Above all the trouble of coming all the way to this tucked-away room on his own feet carrying hot food, when he could have just ordered a subordinate.

That person is a strange person…… so maybe it’s okay……?

Honestly it was like a gamble. He might eat this food and retch his insides out badly. But right now he wanted to try believing Noel.

Chase swallowed dry and carefully took the fork. Then he cut a very small piece of meat and pushed it into his mouth.

No harsh herb taste, no fishy smell. Only perfectly cooked warm, savory juices lingered at the tip of his tongue.

“…It’s good.”

Since he was born, food this whole and tasty was without a doubt the first.

Noel really was a strange person.

Meanwhile, Noel, who had come out of Chase’s room, walked the corridor stroking his chest.

“Huu, I lived. Thought my heart would burst for real.”

Strength left his legs and he almost sank to the marble floor. He’d been tense the whole time in case he coughed blood for no reason.

He’d cleared the quest, so anyway he wouldn’t cough blood for a while. Just as he was about to take a much lighter step on the relief of succeeding at the sub-mission—

Ding—!

That familiar translucent blue window filled his vision.

[Sub-mission: Two Steps Toward Awakening the Main Villain!]

Goal: Douse Chase %^@# with water. (Success upon 2 completions)

Progress: 0/2

On success: Two steps closer to quest completion

On failure: Hematemesis

At a development he hadn’t expected at all, Noel’s steps stopped dead.

“No, shit. You should at least give me time to rest!”

Is this a joke? Why another mission out of nowhere! At the situation suddenly thrown in front of him he was so appalled a scream came out on its own.

He’d just given a meal to a kid sitting still, and now douse him with water outright? Slap him with a water slap, or what! What is this, a morning trash drama!

[There is no action guideline to ‘slap with water.’]

“No! That’s just how people talk! You can just throw missions at me with no schedule like this?”

At a quest he couldn’t even ignore, Noel crumpled his brow hard and glared at empty air. At the same time the letters on the system window changed with a slither.