ORCA 108

More than that, she felt a profound surge of interest regarding what on earth he could have found on his own, considering how he used to be utterly unimpressed by whatever exotic goods she had shown him in the past. There was indeed a reason why the bastard had stayed glued to the house for two months instead of bursting straight back to the battlefield.

The fact that the fellow who was scheduled to return toward the end of summer was playing around with a servant who looked naive by any standard was absurd, but she figured it didn’t particularly concern her.

At any rate, thrilled by the thought of using this as an excuse to tease Orca, Hilda took over one side of the terrace. Even though she had left the crowd under the pretext of being drunk, she grabbed a glass of champagne and even brought a massive heap of side dishes and appetizers right in front of her. She even waved her hand toward the distant Orca as if flaunting it to his face.

A murderous aura radiated from Orca, who had sensed some dark foreboding, but Hilda merely snickered and turned her gaze toward the ‘orange-haired servant.’ She knew her arch-rival, who was glaring as if to kill her, wouldn’t be able to come over to her for a while. After all, lingering over there and humoring the guests’ chatter must be what his parents ordered him to do.

‘That guy is honestly lowkey stupid. He really has no tact whatsoever, for a scoundrel.’

Dropping a single piece of flower confit into her champagne, Hilda shook her head side to side. Air bubbles quivered up inside the elongated flute, making a refreshing sound. Taking a sip, she popped a piece of Brie cheese into her mouth and rested her chin on her hand. Her pupils remained fixed on one spot, never moving.

She emptied her champagne glass while observing the orange head that kept hovering near a table he had already wiped several times. It suddenly occurred to her to wonder if he was doing that on purpose to make it obvious, but she quickly concluded otherwise. It was because Niah had diligently buried his face downward with the full intention of hiding.

Hilda subtly glanced at Orca. Orca, too, was casting occasional glances at Niah.

‘Birds of a feather really are putting on a spectacle together…’

Snorting in amusement, Hilda tapped on the table before pressing her hand to her forehead once more. Then, she let out a precise groan. Unlike before, the awkward acting slipped out timidly, as if she were afraid someone might hear—or rather, afraid that someone other than the person who absolutely needed to hear might catch on.

“Oh, dear me.”

Niah, whose mind was entirely elsewhere, failed to immediately notice the call directed openly at him. Hilda thought about just going over to fetch him since it was a hassle, but she decided against it and cleared her throat. This was because she felt that if she dragged him over recklessly, her stupid fish friend would chase after her in a massive fit of rage. Killer whales were inherently possessive by nature, so if she wasn’t careful, she might find herself letting out a death rattle on someone else’s estate.

‘If you keep making me angry, I’m going to drown you in this mansion’s lake, so shut up.’

If it were a matter of dying a lonely death abroad by falling from the beautiful Sonnet Cliffs of the Robert Empire where she had stayed until yesterday, that would be a somewhat tempting offer, but being drowned in the Wair family lake was out of the question. Furthermore, she had no desire to actually suffer a threat now that was more than ten years old. This time, Hilda feigned illness a bit more loudly.

“…Oh, my!”

Only then did Niah abruptly look back. After blinking rapidly, he scanned his surroundings and hurriedly scrambled up onto the terrace. The only servant nearby was himself.

“A-Are you feeling unwell somewhere…?”

Keeping his eyes cast down as much as possible, Niah asked hesitantly. He wasn’t accustomed to striking up a conversation with someone else first, let alone a noble he was meeting for the first time. Niah took a half-step back, waiting for ‘her’ to command him with something. Concealing the hand holding the wet cloth behind his back, he gave a tiny sniff and took another half-step back.

Hilda flashed a wide grin while resting her chin on her hand. The naive-looking, gentle face paired with the simpleton way of speaking—which matched her expectations without a single deviation—felt rather refreshing instead. It was because she had never anticipated Orca’s taste to be anything like this.

“My head hurts. Is it because of the alcohol?”

Believing Hilda’s words—which were thoroughly laced with amusement—hook, line, and sinker, Niah blinked in panic. He thought of a doctor before changing his mind to an attendant. The attendants who came with the nobles were bound to be waiting nearby. Since earlier, they had been popping out from out of nowhere, startling him more than once or twice.

“I-If you tell me where your attendant is, sir… I will go and call them for you…”

“I didn’t bring an attendant.”

His gaze, which had been fixed solely on the tips of his shoes, snapped upward. Avoiding the eyes he met, Niah immediately hung his head low. He swallowed hard and twitched his lips. He began to regret not following Harriet instead of lingering here. If he had to undergo such an uncomfortable situation as the price for slacking off a bit to steal glances at his young master, it felt a little unfair. Because they were so far apart, he could only see glimpses of those splendid eyes, nose, and lips throughout the entire time and couldn’t hear a single word of that gentle voice, so receiving a punishment was nothing short of perplexing. Growing disheartened, Niah opened his mouth hesitantly.

“Uh… then, then… umm… shall I escort you up to your room, sir…?”

Hilda bit her back teeth at the stuttering, dim-witted response. To her eyes, the servant who wore a face that screamed he was in a total bind was simply hilarious. She figured even a servant who had just started yesterday would attend to someone more skillfully than this. Tossing her sick act completely out the window, she yanked Niah and seated him right next to her.

“Forget that, just stay here for a bit. It would be a disaster if I suddenly collapsed out of nowhere, wouldn’t it?”

Because this newly discovered taste of Orca was so unexpected, her curiosity grew more and more. It was even truer because the boy looked like the type who would prostrate himself completely if ordered to. The moment the thought occurred to her that Orca might be a massive pervert who liked that sort of thing, curses naturally pooled inside her mouth. At any rate, it seemed noble bastards were all pretty much the same.

Having been lightly dragged over, Niah obediently followed the unknown noble’s command as if it were his own master’s. Since he had to do so whether he liked it or not, he firmly suppressed his desire to run away and quietly planted his bottom on the seat. However, he couldn’t easily shake off the wish that the person beside him were his young master. Niah tightly gripped the wet cloth in his hand and stared solely at the terrace floor. He felt that if he looked at his young master right now, he would break down in sorrow for no reason.

Hilda pulled the chair Niah was sitting on tightly toward her side. She even adjusted the angle so that they would be perfectly visible to Orca right in front of them. Just as she intended, Orca, who had been observing the two intently, became extremely displeased. He couldn’t fathom the scheme Hilda was hatching. Above all, the situation where that grizzly cub was laying hands on his goldfish without any restraint was offensive.

However, what displeased him the most was himself, sitting pinned to his seat and listening to frivolous chatter despite witnessing that maddening sight. A superficially glitzy ‘King’ amounted to only this much in the end. No matter if he was called a King, he was merely a single piece placed upon a chessboard.

The owner of the chessboard was not the King, but the person playing chess. Therefore, he was not his own master. A wave of nausea surged within him, making him feel as though he had returned to his childhood days. This was exactly why he never wanted to stay long at the mansion. If not for the goldfish, he wouldn’t have lasted three or four days and would have returned long ago.

Niah felt a bit intimidated by Hilda, who moved him around so effortlessly. This was because he felt that this noble—who possessed a massive height and frame compared to him, though small compared to the young master, along with sharp looks—was indeed a beast-kin. Feeling fear toward a beast-kin larger than himself was akin to an instinct. It was similar to the class divide between a noble and a commoner.

While Niah fell into the ordinary category among humans, he was noticeably on the smaller side among beast-kin. Of course, the size upon undergoing beast-transformation did not unconditionally correlate in direct proportion to one’s human appearance, but most were massive compared to a goldfish. The only ones at the mansion who failed to catch up to Niah’s height were Bailey the ant, Aki the squirrel, and Norma the Maltese.

Stealing a glance at Hilda, who looked delighted for some reason, Niah shrunk his shoulders. Because he couldn’t tell what kind of beast-kin she was based on appearance alone, being beside her grew all the more terrifying. Honestly, she didn’t even look sick, but he couldn’t muster the courage to ask.

“What’s your name?”

“Pardon?”

Baffled by the abrupt question, Niah’s gaze landed on Hilda before dropping to the floor repeatedly. Then, it slid all the way down. Resting her chin on her hand again, Hilda peered closely at the features of the utterly disheartened servant.