WHTVT C7

Chapter 7

Watching the numbers tick down faithfully, Noel hastily crumpled his expression and sharpened his words.

“The—ahem—brat. Get him out of there this instant. This is the last warning.”

“Y-yes! I’ll take care of it at once!”

The butler, ashen under the barking, bowed in a rush and withdrew. Even after the situation was settled for now, a translucent system window still floated in Noel’s vision, holding an unpleasant red light.

Why isn’t it disappearing. Why’s it clinging like this?

A nameless bad feeling made Noel furrow his brow.

What. Me again, what?

[I will give you a final warning. Do not forget your place. Anyone who cannot fulfill an extra’s duty is not needed in this novel.]

Anyone looking would think I’d killed someone.

[Young Master Noel is acting on that level.]

As if it had already read his inner thoughts, the system floated letters in midair grown thick. Can’t even think anything.

“Brutal. Fine……. I’ll do it properly.”

[Then call the system anytime you need it.]

A system without a single corner he liked. I can’t even act as I please? Because I’m an extra character?

Bitterness surged. Even after the letters hanging in front of him vanished, his heart wasn’t clean.

In the end, still unsated, Noel kicked the wall out of irritation.

“Ack!”

The problem was that his foot hurt instead.

Nothing worked.

Letting out a long sigh, Noel moved his feet with his brow still furrowed.

At that same time, Chase remained in the annex, staring blankly at the floor where blood had dried.

Appearing suddenly in front of him, coughing up a bucket of blood, and vanishing.

What on earth was that man.

Last night, when he’d shown up soaked in drink, Chase had thought he was no different from the tavern drunks. While he was worrying what he’d do if he got on the man’s bad side and was thrown out, the man had dumped wine on his own face alone, suddenly coughed blood, and rushed out.

Today was the same. Appearing out of nowhere, coughing blood again.

“…Maybe he’s sick somewhere.”

He’d asked a pile of things Chase didn’t understand, but even that hadn’t been bad. It was the first time someone had been curious about him.

Even at the apology Chase had offered to get through the situation, the man had said it wasn’t his fault. That an apology wasn’t needed.

He really was a strange person.

Thinking he was strange, Chase’s gaze still kept turning toward the door.

Would that person come again. If he came, would he cough blood again. This time it would be good if he were healthy. If he came, what would he ask next.

“Ah……”

What am I thinking right now. Only much later did Chase notice that he was lining up things about that man in his head in a daze.

Stupid. Thinking he’ll come again.

Getting excited just because he’d come somewhere he could lie down……. Hopeful thoughts that didn’t fit him. Even so, curiosity about that man kept blooming, and he was pressing the bloodstain on the floor with a finger when—

The door suddenly flung open. Chase lifted his head without meaning to.

Had that man come again.

Unfortunately, the one who opened the door and entered was the person called the butler, who had given him the room.

“No! Blood here too, blood……! Wh-what is all this!”

“……”

Seeing the floor stained red, perhaps, he half-crouched and trembled. Then he barked at Chase.

“Wh-what did you do to Young Master Noel!”

Noel.

Chase wrote the name down in his head without meaning to. So the man who had coughed blood and vanished was named Noel. Not a word of the butler’s shouting entered. Strangely, only those two syllables caught clearly in his ear.

Then worry rose.

Ah, am I being thrown out like this……?

The butler didn’t seem to smell of alcohol. Chase hadn’t eaten much on purpose and had stayed quiet, but you never knew. He rose carefully and followed the butler with his eyes, fidgeting his hands.

When the other person was that angry, staying quiet as a dead mouse was best. He breathed shallow so even the sound of breath wouldn’t come out, afraid a stray spark would fly. Things his body remembered first.

Seeing Chase standing there fidgeting, the butler let out a thin breath. There was no way a child who looked like he hadn’t even eaten thin gruel had done something to Noel.

Scanning Chase’s state, the butler suddenly sank into self-reproach, as if he’d taken his anger out in the wrong place. Reason returning, he raked his hair and opened his mouth low.

“Ahem, Lord Chase. I will move your room. Please follow me.”

“……”

He’d expected a beating or worse words in his ear, but moving rooms. Was he being driven to the stables. Chase rolled his eyes and tried to grasp the butler’s intent. Then, at the butler’s urging nod, he reluctantly moved his feet.

The building they reached across the garden was much larger than the annex he’d been in. And the room he arrived at following the butler was incomparably wider than the place he’d stayed until a moment ago.

He’d thought even the first lodging was too much for him. This was another dimension.

By the window sat a smoothly polished wooden table and a chair that looked comfortable, and even the bedding on the high ceiling was arranged without a speck of dust. Everything was perfect.

He was almost cautious about setting foot inside.

The butler looked around the room once and turned toward Chase. Self-reproach hadn’t fully left his face, but his voice at least had been steeled.

“This room was given by Young Master Noel.”

“…Ah.”

“A room the young master of House Winslow permitted himself. You must live here with gratitude. Always remember their grace and carve it deep in your heart.”

The butler’s tone was gentle, but the meaning inside it was clear.

Chase nodded slowly. And still thought.

Giving me a good room like this.

He really was a strange person.

Without knowing what Chase thought of him, Noel the moment he reached his room flopped onto the soft bed. Then he kicked the innocent blanket again and again. He didn’t care if the luxurious silk rumpled.

“Idiot! You went all the way to that kid and all you did was cough blood.”

The noisy thrashing of self-reproach stopped for a moment.

“Ugh!”

The toes he’d kicked the hard marble wall with in a fit a little while ago throbbed late. In the end Noel had to stop kicking the blanket, letting out an unseemly groan.

Even through the pain in his toes, the damned quest kept circling his head.

Dying after only coughing blood might be faster. Blackening a kid he didn’t even know out of nowhere was too high difficulty. And facing him sober, that much shabbier appearance kept sticking in his mind.

But it was something he’d have to finish someday if he didn’t want to die. He couldn’t show pity and then sleep forever.

Anyway.

“Is there no time limit on this……? Can’t I bully him after he’s put on a bit of flesh and aged a little.”

If he grew a bit, maybe the guilt would be less. Noel laid out pointless lingering attachment.

Clearing one sub-quest won’t clear the main, right……?

Muttering inwardly, he tried somehow to find an excuse not to bully Chase right now. He was pressing the innocent bedsheet with his fingers, spinning leftover cunning that wouldn’t even turn, when—

As if to finish off the questions whirling at random in his head in one go, a blue light flashed in the air and letters of a translucent system window popped up in front of him.

[There is no set time limit or period for the bullying. However, if the timing is missed and it is judged that blackening the target has become difficult, the quest will be processed as failed at discretion. In addition, the current sub-quest is merely a tutorial toward achieving the final quest.]

Noel sucked in a hollow breath as if appalled. Thanks for solving the curiosity, but not like this! He pointed at the empty air and shouted.

“You. Are you reading all my thoughts right now? This is full-on civilian surveillance! Stop looking at other people’s thoughts!”

[Young Master Noel is not a civilian. You are the young master of House Winslow. You have a clear noble status. And why would I bother surveilling. I only gave an answer to resolve Young Master Noel’s doubts. It seems you no longer need my answers going forward.]

“Huh? Who said that. Yes, well, thank you sooo much for telling me.”

Honestly he wasn’t grateful in the slightest.

It said that knowing the system was the only thing that could give him answers.

Noel poked his lip out and slammed the coverlet. He hadn’t asked to play extra in this damned novel, and a pointless hurt welled up.

[I didn’t become a system because I wanted to either. Anyway, if you need something, call anytime.]

Even emotionless text somehow looked sulky—was that his imagination. A system this prickly, with such a long aftertaste; the rough road ahead was vivid.

The system window vanished from the air after the last text. Noel threw a few punches at the innocent empty air and flopped back onto the bed.

Delaying the time at will is fine, but if you miss the timing it’s over. The explanation’s half-baked.