ORCA 101

It felt as though he was performing a precarious tightrope walk. If that stupid little goldfish ever grew a half-witted brain and blabbered something to the young master, getting buried on the back mountain wouldn’t be a far-off reality. The fishy stench of dead animals that had piled up with heavy thuds in the deep ravine was still vivid.

Moreover, he felt like he would choke himself to death before he could even be murdered if he stayed in the same space as the young master any longer. Whether it was the greenhouse or the vegetable garden, the young master’s relentless visits seemed intended to keep him under surveillance. The occasional glances shot his way felt like sharp teeth. He felt as if his body was being chewed up and mangled. The thought that the man might just be waiting for the right moment gave him goosebumps.

‘If a servant dies, is the funeral cost the family’s responsibility?’

The question he had heard nearly two months ago finally returned to him with an ominous meaning. Therefore, no matter what means it took, he absolutely had to escape this mansion. Even if he survived right now until the young master left, the current atmosphere made it obvious that the man would return again someday. It didn’t matter whether that would be a year or two years from now. If possible, he never wanted to face him again for the rest of his life.

“Dammit!”

Pepe cursed, kicking a stone at his feet. After tearing at his own hair, which he had taken such care to style, he took his anger out entirely on Niah, who was an easy target. His gloomy voice, continuing like a low murmur of curses, dyed the surroundings pitch black.

☀️🌊

Having been summoned by his parents, Orca was currently staying in their room dressed in formal evening attire. Sitting at the tea table with his legs crossed, he tipped his dangling ankle back and forth in the air. He didn’t even bother to hide his bored expression. He completely tuned out the same old admonitions, which were always wrapped up in pleasant words. How could they say “don’t cause any unnecessary trouble” in such a remarkably noble way? Boredom washed over him in an instant. It seemed they weren’t satisfied with him just showing up immediately when called.

He briefly considered acting like a spoiled scoundrel again so they would give up on him entirely, but he shook his head. For him, the worst yet best punishment would be getting stripped of his family name, so he didn’t care what happened to himself—but the goldfish was the problem.

He had managed to extend his vacation until the summer, so leaving the family before spring even ended wouldn’t be profitable. It was also uncertain whether they would let him leave quietly. Though, if they didn’t let him leave quietly, he didn’t plan on leaving quietly either.

If it comes to that, should I just take him and run away…?

Orca scoffed quietly to himself. He wondered what he was thinking, planning to take a goldfish to a battlefield. He mocked himself, asking if he intended to let that coward sleep in the blood-soaked quarters of the headquarters. Or he ridiculed himself, wondering if he planned to find a safe nearby village and rent an inn room for him. Solely because of his own greed, he couldn’t force the boy to move from place to place for the rest of his life, leaving him all alone in an unfamiliar place among strangers.

He could certainly build a house in a pretty, cute village that the goldfish would like and have him stay there, but even then, he wouldn’t be able to live there with him. The boy would surely want that, but to do so, Orca would have to leave the military.

Leaving wasn’t the real problem; rather, it was that he had no confidence that someone like him—whose only skill was hunting down and killing living things—could support the goldfish with a status that was neither a soldier nor a noble.

When he left the family, he didn’t want to take a single thing with him. He wanted to vanish without a trace, as if he were a person who had never existed from the start.

However, he couldn’t confidently affirm whether the goldfish would truly want that kind of life. If Orca told him to go, the boy would gladly follow, but in a place without a glass greenhouse, a garden in full bloom all four seasons, or the “cute things” he bragged about every day, the goldfish probably wouldn’t be able to be happy with all his heart. It might be a bit better if they took Harriet along too, but he didn’t really like the idea of leaving the two of them behind while he went out to do chores or off to the battlefield.

He scoffed once more. As expected, the goldfish was the one thing that wouldn’t go according to his will. Ridiculous laughter kept slipping out because he found himself absurd for not being able to leave Rosselia for nearly two months, on top of scheming to take the boy away with him.

“Is there something good happening? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you smile.”

At the generous assessment that counted a scoff as a smile, Orca looked at his father instead of replying. The man, who was adjusting his bow tie, wore a rather benevolent smile. With an indifferent face, Orca belatedly denied it.

“Not at all. Nothing is happening.”

“Really? You look more cheerful than usual.”

The man laughed heartily and added a few more words. He tapped Orca on the shoulder with an amiable face, saying they should finish up the party enjoyably as well. Orca didn’t answer. It was an ambiguous demand that made him wonder whether he was supposed to shut up and stay out of sight, or go out there and smirk.

He knew it was just childish rebellion, but he didn’t want to submissively do exactly what his parents wanted. Putting the former aside, if they expected him to welcome guests with a bright smile after everything, that was asking too much. He couldn’t tell if they didn’t know him, or if they just didn’t want to know him.

He was enduring enough. The proof was that he hadn’t committed any meaningless slaughter since entering the military academy. Even in the military, he made an effort not to cause any trouble that would tarnish the family name. Yet they still weren’t satisfied; his mind grew rapidly exhausted. He couldn’t begin to fathom how much more he had to live according to their tastes.

Orca pressed his temple with one hand. His gaze naturally lowered and stopped, caught on the cufflink on his opposite wrist. It was the cufflink Niah had chosen with great care and put on him early this morning.

‘Sir. You look so beautiful today, sir.’

The voice that had whispered softly with shyly flushed cheeks calmed his boiling heart. The beaming face flickered before his eyes. The vivid memory of the boy’s weight as he threw his arms around him while stamping his feet made his mood feel much better.

Since “beautiful” and “cute” were the ultimate compliments to Niah, Orca had implicitly enjoyed it every time Niah called him beautiful. Even when he was pleased, his face remained almost expressionless as usual, but Niah didn’t care. He would repeatedly chime, ‘Sir, you’re beautiful,’ and ‘Sir, you’re cute,’ whenever he felt like it.

For instance, he would toy with Orca’s eyebrows and call them beautiful, or point to a tiny mole somewhere on his forearm and call it cute. No matter how one looked at him, Orca was a rugged man, so these weren’t the kinds of compliments he would hear several times a day. In fact, they were expressions he had never even heard when he was a child.

Bringing his crossed legs down to the floor, Orca suddenly stood up. It was about time to go find Niah and receive some affection. Since today was the day of the party, he couldn’t predict where the boy would be or what he would be doing, which made him feel a slight impatience. Wondering if he could find him quickly, he narrowed down the options of where to check first.

Since Niah wouldn’t be casually feeding the fish on a party day, Orca thought he might be inside the mansion and recalled the places he might frequent. The kitchen or the distillery came up as the top candidates, but he might just be in an entirely unexpected location. Orca stepped forward, feeling subtly excited. He was a skilled seeker, and Niah wasn’t very good at hiding.

“We’re done talking, right? I’ll be going now.”

He spoke as if delivering an announcement and walked toward the door. From the start, his tone hadn’t been asking for permission. However, his mother lightly caught him and made him stop. The teacup in her hand settled onto the saucer without a sound. She turned her head slightly to look at Orca.

“Orca. Have you thought about the engagement?”

Turning around, Orca stared at her with piercing eyes. His heart began to boil again. His mood, which had plummeted in an instant, crashed to the abyss. His mother was a woman who didn’t know how to give up. She called it affection, but she always choked the life out of him and made him suffer. The face confronting him was flawlessly serene. He thought it would be better to talk to a wall.

Orca grew exhausted before the conversation could even begin. A look of sheer disgust crossed his face.

“I believe I told you I have no intention of getting engaged to Hilda Grey—no, to anyone. You haven’t grown tired of this for years.”

“And you haven’t grown tired of just saying no for years either.”

“Find someone else. If it’s someone to marry, aren’t they overflowing in the Wair family?”