WHTVT C5

Chapter 5

“Yes?”

At the servant’s echo, Noel put force into each word and asked again.

“Did you not hear? I asked where that child is right now.”

“Probably…… in the annex.”

The annex? You know that’s my private hideout and you gave it to him?

Only then did he understand why he’d run into Chase at the hideout yesterday. They’d let an uninvited guest in there without even his permission.

So that was why the butler, who usually didn’t even glance at him, had unusually come all the way to the dining room today to ask after him.

“Why is that brat using that place? The butler wouldn’t not know it’s my space. Is this Father’s will?”

“…Yes? Ah…, that is……”

“That is what.”

Why is he stammering like that. Don’t tell me the butler decided on his own.

“When I was told to give him an empty place, I… the annex……”

“Your decision?”

Noel’s voice sank ice-cold. Hearing it, the butler thought, ah. He’d been cut off mid-sentence by Noel’s anger and couldn’t explain what came after.

It was definitely a place Noel had said to use himself. But he’d asked permission while drunk, so that night seemed wiped clean from Noel’s memory. He couldn’t open his mouth about it now. Asking in a hurry had been the losing move.

Sure enough, anger Noel couldn’t control rose all the way to the crown of his head.

A mere butler, without the master’s permission, handing a private territory to someone else. It was as good as deceiving a superior.

He wanted to throw the plate in front of him into the butler’s face that instant. But because of those thin modern morals he only clenched his fist and trembled, and in the end didn’t act.

Damned memories. Completely useless.

“Get him out of my annex immediately.”

“…B-but there is nowhere in the main house for him to stay.”

Laughable. How many rooms does the estate have that he’s talking nonsense.

“That’s for the butler to figure out. Do I have to order even that one by one? If you’re that lacking in ability, why not step down from the butler’s seat?”

It would be much faster for Noel to go get the kid himself than waste time like this. He needed to find out what kind of kid he was anyway.

He didn’t want to continue talking with the butler. Pressing his throbbing forehead with a fingertip, he stood up abruptly.

“W-where are you going.”

He was anxious that in the duke’s absence this wastrel young master might harm Chase. A child picked up from the road, yes—but on paper he was the child His Grace would become guardian of.

“What does the butler need to know that for. Do I have to report even my moving? With Father away you seem to be mistaking yourself for acting duke.”

“…Ah, no. I apologize.”

At the thoroughly sneering voice the butler shut his mouth, face gone blue. If he blocked the way any further, Noel might pick up a stone and crack his own head.

Brushing past the butler who fussed with his lips moving, Noel moved his feet, forcing down the boiling in his chest.

Crossing the garden at a quick pace, he reached the hideout and suddenly stopped.

“Ugh, anyone looking would think there’d been a murder.”

In front of the threshold the dark red bloodstains he’d dripped while coughing yesterday were still pressed on, ugly.

What were they doing not cleaning that. Fine if it was when he used it as a hideout—people rarely came and servants were strictly forbidden, so it was almost abandoned. But a kid was living there now.

Noel clicked his tongue and grabbed the cold iron latch. Normally he would have flung the door open without asking, but for form’s sake he knocked.

Knock knock-

Even at the knock it was quiet as a dead mouse. He waited a moment; there wasn’t even a sign of life.

So Noel didn’t exercise patience and just yanked the door open.

“What is this, is the genre horror?”

The room, thick curtains drawn tight so not a sliver of sun entered, was so dark a ghost might jump out any second.

The hideout hadn’t originally felt this gloomy…….

As his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, same as yesterday, he saw a small silhouette crouched in one corner of the large sofa.

“Ah? Yesterday……”

A hoarse voice drained of strength leaked from the dark. Chase watched Noel standing in the doorway. Then he half-rose awkwardly from the sofa.

Who’s going to eat him. Why’s he reacting like that.

Out of a pointless sense of grievance Noel stared at Chase, then headed silently to the window.

Whether he kicked the kid out or not, ventilation came first. The alcohol smell from the wine he’d spilled yesterday and the metallic blood-stench from stains that hadn’t been wiped were rolling disgustingly around the room.

Well. Fine place to sit.

When Noel roughly yanked the curtains wide and threw open the tightly shut window as well, blinding sunlight and fresh wind poured in.

Feeling his breath ease a little, Noel turned his head and looked at Chase again.

In that moment a strange dissonance rose. The child’s appearance laid bare under the bright light was truly ridiculous and odd.

A scrawny, unsightly body that hadn’t even been washed properly, with luxurious clothes that didn’t suit him at all layered on top.

Like a scarecrow wearing stolen clothes.

He’d roughly seen that bizarre look yesterday too, but facing every detail under bright sun instead of a dark night, the gap of that unbalanced appearance hit much harder.

He was staring blankly in bewilderment when Chase, still meeting his gaze, spoke.

“…I, I’m sorry.”

What?

At the sudden apology with no beginning or end, Noel blinked as if it were absurd.

And what’s with that face that doesn’t look sorry at all.

Between overgrown platinum hair, black eyes looked straight at Noel. Meeting that gaze with not a ripple of emotion in it felt strange. Eyes that didn’t match a young face. He probably wasn’t picking a fight.

Had he heard wrong. Thinking he might have imagined it, Noel looked down at him for a long time.

Around the time his eyelids stung from meeting eyes as if in a staring contest.

Chase moved his dry-looking lips a little and spoke again.

“So-sorry…. I did… wrong……”

Hm. So he hadn’t heard wrong. What process had gone through that tiny head for those words to pop out of nowhere. Pure curiosity rose and Noel asked.

“What wrong did you do to me that you’re saying that?”

Chase flinched in the shoulders, rolled his large eyes, and answered.

“Uh…. Because I… caught your eye……?”

What is this kid saying.

More than that, why does he keep calling me “you.” Does he not know at all who I, the young master of Winslow, am, or does he know and stubbornly pretend not to.

Calming a heart that was tilting crooked for no reason, Noel tilted his head. Is he trying to mock me.

“Why is catching my eye a wrong?”

“Because of me…… you look like you’re in a bad mood.”

Hm. The kid’s fairly sharp. Noel almost nodded in agreement by accident, then coughed and turned his gaze for no reason. So that’s why the old saying goes you can’t even drink cold water in front of children.

He’d thought he was pressing down the boiling anger in his own way, but the kid had read that faint current like a ghost.

“Huh? Because of you? What a joke. If you don’t mean to make me the bad one, stop the apology there.”

“…Okay.”

“And don’t stand. Just sit on the sofa.”

Still fidgeting, Chase followed Noel’s words and perched awkwardly on the edge of the large luxury leather sofa.

He didn’t seem tense, yet he kept staring straight at Noel. What on earth was he turning over in that small head.

Noel watched him quietly, crossed his arms, and opened his mouth again. There was something he had to address at once.

“But you—why have you been speaking to me without a title and without courtesy from the start?”

“Uh……? What’s courtesy?”

Pure question rose in Chase’s vacant eyes. A face without a sliver of pretense mixed in.

Don’t tell me the concepts of rank or noble etiquette aren’t in his head at all. Shouldn’t a main villain be brilliant and smart from childhood?

Noel swallowed the rising questions and moved to another topic. Frustration pressed in, but grabbing a kid who only answered that he knew nothing and getting angry would only hurt his own mouth.

“Forget it. But why are you sitting in a room that smells like this without saying it’s uncomfortable? You could have asked the servants to clean it. Why stay in a place like this like an idiot?”

Noel furrowed his brow and swept the room where the smell of the wine he’d spilled yesterday and the blood-stench still hadn’t faded. At his scolding question, Chase instead opened his eyes wide.

“Why is this uncomfortable……? Rain doesn’t hit me and it’s soft. I like this place. Do I… have to leave here?”