ORCA 102

Turning his body sideways, he countered half-heartedly as if it were a massive chore. The head of the Wair family elegantly curled the corners of her lips. Orca found his mother’s smile repulsive. Even when she wore a dignified face and ordered the servants to release the beasts, telling him to go “hunt,” she always maintained that smile as if it had been drawn on with a brush. It made him want to vomit. His father had patted him on the back, telling him to do a good job, and that they should get along well once he returned. The sound of his hearty laughter sounded exactly like a pig being slaughtered.

Averting his gaze from his smiling parents, Orca placed both hands on his hips and struggled to keep his temper. He didn’t want to show even a single thing that could be used as a weakness. This was especially true in front of his parents, who smiled like stuffed hides while maintaining their composure no matter what kind of situation unfolded. Looking at those offensive faces made his blood boil. It made him feel like an absolute idiot, desperately lunging into a fight whose conclusion had already been decided.

“True. The person Miss Hilda gets engaged to doesn’t strictly have to be you. However, Orca. Even if you don’t start a family, you will never be stripped of your name from the Wair family.”

“…”

“More importantly, you’re a good son, so you won’t ever let such a thing happen anyway. Am I right? After all, hunting is no longer necessary for you now.”

“Sounds to me like you mean you’ll strip me of my name if it becomes necessary again.”

“Heaven forbid. But I certainly could make it as if it never happened.”

“Do you mean I should hunt so much that it becomes impossible to make it as if it never happened?”

“Oh dear. Is that how it sounded to you? You’ve misunderstood, child. I’m simply letting you know because you seem to think you can do whatever you want if there’s no one you have to take responsibility for. As your parent. A parent is supposed to be a guide, after all.”

A surge of irritation washed over Orca at his mother’s attitude, as she wore that signature smile of hers as though she could see right through him. It was repulsive how relaxed she was, looking down on him as if he were merely rolling around in the palm of her hand.

“Think about it a little more leisurely. The Grey family is putting Miss Hilda forward, so we must present a man who matches her. If the engagement is successful, our family will gain immense power, and that will be for the good of both you and everyone else.”

“Your hobbies must have changed. Are you playing chess now? If you’re the queen, Mother, then what am I? A pawn?”

“What a ridiculous comparison. You’ve been standing on a chessboard since the moment you were born, Orca. You are meant to be the king of my chessboard.”

“If you give up the king, you’ll be checkmated.”

“Thinking about getting captured from the very beginning isn’t a very good mindset. Has my teaching been insufficient?”

“It was overflowing. It overflowed so much that it must have become deficient now.”

“Haha, let’s stop this childish wordplay here. At any rate, consider it carefully. You’re no longer a child either, so you must work for the family.”

Orca turned around immediately and headed for the door. His stride was swift and wide. During the single year he had served as a regular soldier in the border guard, and during the three years after that when he was appointed and served as captain, there was never a time when he wasn’t a member of the Wair family. Yet now they were telling him to work for the family. It made him incredibly displeased, wondering what on earth he had been doing in the military for the past four years if it wasn’t for the family. He felt sick to his stomach, feeling as if even his very birth was nothing more than a plaything in his mother’s hands.

He opened the door calmly. He didn’t want his agitation to be discovered. The voice that reached his ears just before the door closed completely sounded beyond cheerful—it sounded as if she was deeply amused. It felt exactly like being mocked.

“Orca. Don’t worry, the remaining pieces won’t be sitting idle either. Because chess is a game of protecting the king.”

What a joke. It’s a game of eating before you get eaten.

He was ultimately just one of his mother’s chess pieces anyway. He possessed a grand-sounding name, but in reality, there was nothing he could do according to his own will. He could possess anything and achieve anything, but to do so, he had to pay a corresponding price and receive permission.

Sometimes the surname ‘Wair’ was the price, but sometimes permission wasn’t granted precisely because of the surname ‘Wair’. The family name had always bound him everywhere and at all times, acting as a shackle and a constraint.

The reason it was natural for him to eat fine meals, wear expensive clothes, and have people he didn’t even know bow their waists to him was also because of the surname he held. Yet, regardless of his intentions, the reason he was rolled around on a chessboard was also because of the surname he held.

Even he, who lived this life, couldn’t move as he pleased. The person who decided the direction of even a single, barely permitted step forward was never him. He was utterly sick of it.

As if being chased by something, Orca went out to find his goldfish. The door closed quietly behind him.

Niah was making his rounds through the central guest rooms, doing the final tidying up. The guests, who would be guided to their rooms as soon as they arrived at the mansion, were planning to wash off the fatigue of their journey before lunch, so he had to hurry.

First, he meticulously checked whether there were any foreign substances on the bedding or curtains, and closed the windows that had been left open since last night for ventilation. While one person wiped down the furniture with a wet rag, the other wiped away the moisture with a dry cloth. Once they lit scented candles on the table and by the window near the bed, and checked if the bathroom cabinet was well-stocked with bath products and towels, it was finally over.

Compared to the rooms of the mansion’s masters, the guest rooms were very small, so the work was finished quickly. However, the sheer number of rooms made it a grueling chore.

Paired up with Bailey, Niah ran around diligently to every nook and cranny. For the first few times, he only moved exactly as Bailey instructed, but once he got a bit used to it, he did quite well on his own. Of course, he did occasionally gag out of sight of Bailey.

It was still a long way until lunch, but he was already famished. Even though he had scraped clean a plate piled high with food earlier, his stomach had emptied out in no time, likely because he had been working without a single break. He firmly suppressed his desire to just flop down and rest.

Scrubbing the bedposts vigorously, he tried to estimate when he would be able to see the young master. Since he was told it was an incredibly large party with many guests coming, he might not even be able to meet him today. He had a lot of work himself, and the young master would surely be busy too.

The moment that thought crossed his mind, he instantly grew gloomy. Even if he had to endure it during the day, he wanted to go see him briefly at night. If they had to stay far apart like this the entire time and he could only see him tomorrow morning, that would be too much—it would be far too cruel to him. However, because he didn’t want to bother the young master, he couldn’t bring himself to make a decision easily. He figured it would be better to ask him if they happened to run into each other later by chance.

Niah was about to pray to make sure he would get permission, but he stopped himself in a hurry. He felt like if he made another wish right now, the angel would give him an even more difficult punishment than last time. Therefore, he decided to save it until he was truly in an urgent situation later.

“Niah. If you’re all done, now the next, uh… Ah, hello, sir.”

Bailey, who had just stepped out of the bathroom, cut himself off while speaking to Niah and instinctively bowed his waist. Niah looked back toward the door. His face, which had been visibly downcast, brightened with color in an instant. Standing by the wide-open doorway was his wish, fulfilled ahead of time. To think it would be granted even without a prayer; he felt glad that he had saved his wish this time.

“Sir.”

Seeing Niah’s unhesitating reaction as he beamed into a smile the very moment their eyes met, Orca laid down the tension he had dragged all the way from his parents’ room. The unpleasant feelings that had coiled around him offensively scattered away, and his stiffly frozen muscles relaxed all at once, allowing his blood to circulate. The suffocating air that had filled his lungs emptied out, leaving him refreshed. Hiding his exhausted expression, he tilted his head and deliberately asked in a low voice:

“Are you busy?”

“Yeees.”

“No, sir!”

It was Bailey who panicked at the mindlessly bright sound of that “yeees.” Straightening his waist in a flash, he squeaked out a denial right after. Fidgeting with the cloth in his hands, Niah’s startled eyes darted sideways. His curving lips dropped flatly downward.

Bailey nervously watched Orca, who had knitted his brows, and laughed awkwardly. “Ha, ha,” he laughed, cutting off each syllable bluntly, then rushed over to Niah and quickly snatched the cloth away. Shielding his forehead—where his antennae had almost popped out in distress—he spoke in a barely audible whisper.

“I’ll handle this by myself, so go on ahead.”

“But there’s still so much left…”

“Of course you have to come back! Just stay for a little bit and come right back, just a little bit.”

“Is it really okay for me to go…?”

“Yeah. But you have to come back, okay? As fast as possible.”

“Mmm… okay, I got it. Thank you!”

Unsure of whether the words telling him to go were a lie or not, Niah hesitated before finally turning his body. If Bailey got angry later, he would deal with that when the time came. Bailey felt all over again that Niah was truly peculiar. In this entire mansion, Niah was the only one who smiled like an idiot upon seeing the young master. His thoroughly excited figure scurried away into the distance. His hair fluttered up and down like ears. He looked like a goldfish going for a walk—no, like a puppy going for a walk.