ORCA 1

The mansion had been bustling for some time at the news that the young master was returning. While sweeping, wiping, and tidying were part of the daily routine, everyone had been moving more busily since the news broke. It was because the mistress, who had been impatiently waiting for her son to return home after three years, had finally come out to personally oversee the servants. She even picked up a mop herself, claiming the work wasn’t up to her standards. Thanks to this, the servants had to scurry about several times faster than usual. It was better for them to work themselves to the bone as best they could rather than see a mop or broom in the mistress’s hands.

The daily deep cleaning made the mansion look as if it didn’t tolerate a single speck of dust. Every place one looked was polished to a shine. Even the basement hallway, where only the servants walked, was oiled until it gleamed.

Whenever the servants gathered, they prayed for the young master to arrive quickly. Rather than wasting their bodies all day like this, it was better that the young master be in the mansion. It had already been a month since they heard the news of his return. It wouldn’t have been strange if all the servants had fallen ill had they done this for a few more days.

The busiest servant among them was Niah. Although Niah knew that he had taken on the work of other servants, he walked around every corner of the mansion without a single complaint. If he had time to say he was tired, it was more beneficial to finish his assigned tasks quickly. That way, he could at least find a moment to rest.

Above all, it was clear that if the slow-moving Niah had complained midway, he would never have finished his assigned tasks for the day. There was no one who would willingly step forward to help him or take his side. If he had the brains to be dissatisfied with his situation in the first place, he wouldn’t have been treated this way from the start.

For the entire past month, while helping others with their work, the management of the garden and the greenhouse—the tasks he absolutely had to do—had been pushed to the background. Although there were several gardeners, there were always odd jobs left over for Niah, the lowest-ranking one. Because of that, he often had to split his sleeping hours and go outside until dawn to tend to the garden and the greenhouse.

When it got dark, he watered the trees and flower beds or pulled weeds, and when the sun rose, he removed harmful insects from the plants or neatly trimmed the shrubbery. When the greenhouse lights were turned on, the surroundings became too bright to turn on any lights.

It was fortunate that it was just the beginning of spring; if it were midwinter, it would have been much more grueling. It was certain he would have hidden somewhere and sobbed.

Goldfish were a species sensitive to the cold. Roselphea, where the Wair family mansion was located, was not cold enough to require more than a thick coat even in midwinter, but the circumstances were different for Niah.

Once, he had been severely scolded after being caught dozing off in a corner of the warm greenhouse. Still, whenever he tended to the cute lithops or cacti, his mood would improve. It was fortunate that he had a simple personality.

The servants, one and all, teamed up to pick on Niah. They didn’t catch him and beat him, but they certainly made his life miserable. To make Niah do a lot of work, it was better not to hit him. There were often days when they wouldn’t feed him on purpose if they were in a bad mood. It was entirely at their whim, even on days when he hadn’t done anything particularly wrong.

On such days, he would secretly head to the lake in the early morning when everyone was asleep. The lake behind the mansion was a good place for Niah, who was a goldfish, to satisfy his hunger. As the days of starving all day and being unable to sleep piled up, the number of times he jumped into the lake increased as well. He was scared of what might happen if he were caught and scolded, but he couldn’t stand the agony of starving. So, this was Niah’s only secret.

Niah’s humiliation didn’t end there. The servants called him by the derogatory nickname “stupid goldfish” more often than by the name “Niah.” Especially when they were angry at Niah, they invariably shouted, “Stupid goldfish!” The problem was that the servants were usually angry whenever they called for Niah.

“Stupid goldfish!”

It was a scream he heard every day, but Niah flinched in surprise every time. His small body would shrink even smaller. On some days, tears would stream down his face. Even if he tried to hold them back, he couldn’t. Then, the servants would shout even louder, as if to make a spectacle of it.

Even though these things happened day after day, Niah navigated the mansion quite bravely. He would soon forget the bad things. Even though he forgot, another bad thing would soon happen, but he would continue to forget. As time went on, the number of memories he retained remained about the same. It was like if he forgot one, another one would take its place.

Whether this nature was a curse or a blessing, Niah could not define it for himself. Perhaps it was a curse that “stupid goldfish” was the one thing he couldn’t forget, as he might have even forgotten the good things of the past. But on the other hand, it was also a blessing. It helped him ensure that painful memories didn’t pile up one by one.

If you looked at it this way, his stupidity of forgetting everything quickly felt quite okay. Good things didn’t happen to him anyway. Perhaps there were no joyful or happy events in the past that he had already forgotten. He believed that every single day. Instead of living and wishing for pretty, sparkling things he couldn’t remember, it was more comfortable to think they never existed in the first place.

Anyway, Niah was more often troubled by his current self, who would forget his errands entirely if he was even slightly off-guard, than by the past that had already passed.

“Niah! Why aren’t you going quickly? Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“Yes? Yes! Ah, wait… what did you say I needed to do?”

At the prodding of Adrian, a kitchen servant who stomped his feet as he approached, Niah asked back with a clueless face. Adrian screamed at him. Niah, who lowered his head while trembling at the other’s screech, took a step back, reading the room. His heart was pounding from the shock. It felt as if the horns on Adrian’s head were about to pierce him.

“You really are stupid! It’s no wonder they call you a goldfish!”

Adrian shouted again and scolded him with a terrifying expression. Niah only looked down at the floor and couldn’t say a word. Angered even more by that, Adrian threw the ivory tablecloth he had gathered from the long dining table at him in a fit of temper. Niah, who failed to catch it properly, scrambled to pick it up.

Perhaps because the mansion had been so busy for the past month with the news of the young master’s return, Adrian was quick to lose his temper. Not just him, but all the servants in the mansion were the same. Only Niah was scolded more than usual for things that weren’t even his fault, and he had to do more work.

Adrian glared at Niah for a moment with a displeased expression, then turned around sharply and walked away. Niah, who waited until he disappeared around the corner of the building, hugged the tablecloth tightly. Then he hurried toward the laundry room in the backyard of the mansion. He intended to get there quickly and forget what he had just been scolded for before he forgot what he was supposed to do again.

Of course, that didn’t happen the way he wanted. But perhaps this time, the “stupid goldfish” would help him right away. Niah sighed softly as he trotted along.

Stupid goldfish.

He repeated the derogatory nickname he sometimes called himself under his breath several times today. He didn’t really like saying it out loud. Just hearing it was enough.

Life in the mansion was never smooth. It had been much harder ever since word spread that the young master was returning. He couldn’t sleep well or eat properly compared to usual, and he was scolded at every opportunity. If he used to cry about once a week, it felt like he had cried every other day for this past month. Perhaps he had cried every day. No, did he originally cry every day? He wasn’t sure. Maybe his memory was even more erratic these days because his whole mind was occupied by the news of the young master.

However, Niah wished that the young master would come very, very slowly. It was because there wasn’t a single pleasant thing among the rumors circulating in the mansion.

Niah, who hadn’t slept much because he was tending to the garden until late, rubbed his sleepy eyes and got up diligently. He went straight to the basement servant’s bathroom and quickly washed his body from head to toe. He was still the only one who had woken up. Because he was often teased if he overslept and ended up washing with others, he always tried to be the first one up.