ORCA 11

“No, I, in the basement, sob… I slept in the basement.”

“The basement? Why?”

“I, I don’t know… I just woke up, huff, and I can’t remember…”

Orca looked down at Niah, who was choking out the words. His flushed cheeks told him that it was no lie that he was in pain. Orca let go of the collar he had been clutching as if shaking off something filthy and clicked his tongue.

Niah, having been tossed a couple of steps to the side, lost his balance and sat down hard. Catching his breath, which had become ragged from making excuses, he wiped around his eyes with his sleeve.

“You stupid man.”

Orca grabbed the collar covering Niah’s neck and forced him to stand up. He roughly shoved the staggering body toward the vegetable garden. Niah had to scramble to keep from falling forward. There was not a trace of gentleness to be found.

“Whether it’s night or dawn, you’d better finish your share. Why is there so much trouble because of someone like you?”

Next to Niah, who had taken his place at one end of the expansive vegetable garden, piles of various herb seeds and vegetable seedlings formed a small hill. Just looking at it was enough to drain his energy.

Perhaps because he had been crying ever since he woke up, he was hungry, and his head felt dizzy from a headache. He no longer had the energy to calmly worry about what happened yesterday. Niah began to gently loosen the pile of soft soil, trying to finish his work as quickly as possible.

Bailey fled the room as if running away as soon as he finished preparing Orca’s lunch tea time. This was his first time meeting Orca in person, so every day was a series of tensions. He was all the more flustered because he hadn’t expected the mistress of the house to specifically pick him to serve the young master. It had only been three days, but it already felt like three weeks had passed.

According to rumors, as long as he didn’t loiter in front of him, do stupid things, or make unnecessary, loud noises, nothing big would happen. So, both yesterday and today, he kept his mouth shut and moved like a shadow.

Even Adrian, who was unrivaled among the mansion’s servants when it came to volume, was quiet. Even when he was angry at Niah, he never shrieked. He would just grit his teeth and scold him quietly. Since he had also heard that the young master had tried to harm her by throwing a teacup, he understood Adrian completely.

However, in his position of having to go in and out of the young master’s room at least five or six times, the advice in the rumors wasn’t very helpful. He tried his best to make absolutely no sound, but he couldn’t finish his work without loitering nearby. Whether it was drawing bathwater, tidying up the bedding, or serving tea, the workload was heavy because he was doing the work that several people would normally divide among themselves.

Honestly, he felt a bit proud to be serving the young master, whom everyone else was terrified of and wanted to avoid. It was as if he had become close with the captain of the border guard who held high honor.

Most of all, it was nice to be able to boast that it was no big deal whenever other servants praised him for being amazing. Of course, in reality, he was busy running away as soon as he finished his daily tasks, but that was a secret, naturally.

In truth, he hadn’t had any real conversations with the young master. He didn’t have him run various trivial errands, either. It was always just him greeting him, reporting on the work he had just finished, and then leaving the room. Because of that, he rarely even had the chance to hear his voice. He had only heard it once when he happened to be nearby while he was talking to the mistress of the house.

But today was strange. The young master, who would usually be indifferent and say nothing no matter what he did, suddenly asked him as he was pouring the tea.

“Where is that goldfish right now?”

“Ex-excuse me?”

“There should be a goldfish in the mansion. Orange-colored.”

“A goldfish…? If it’s a goldfish, it’s in the garden… or it might be in the greenhouse. No, was the one in the greenhouse just a crucian carp…? Or… a koi…?”

Bailey, under the gaze of Orca, who was staring directly at him, let his words trail off and shifted his eyes downward. Then, suddenly, with the look of someone who had solved a riddle, he asked back, acting a bit too familiarly.

“Ah, by any chance, do you mean Niah?”

Orca didn’t answer the question and just stared at him. Surprised by his own voice which had come out too loudly, Bailey shut his mouth tightly and checked his mood. Thinking that if he stayed any longer he would end up like Adrian, he hurriedly continued his words to make a quick exit.

“If it’s Niah, he’s probably in the vegetable garden. The large garden next to the east wing of the mansion. I heard earlier that he was planting something there today. Niah is a garden servant, so he’s likely there right now.”

Orca scowled ferociously at the answer from the babbling Bailey. Bailey quickly bowed his waist and ran outside. Once he disappeared, silence flowed into the room.

Leaning back against the plush sofa, Orca’s eyes wandered toward the ceiling. His fingertips tapped rhythmically on the armrest. As the friction noise grew louder, his expression became increasingly unpleasant. As he closed his eyes to suppress his anger, an orange goldfish swam slowly across his pitch-black field of vision.

The goldfish was swimming through the water when it suddenly jolted its body and its fins fluttered wildly. After struggling for a long time, it turned pale, flipped its belly up, and even began to float. Feeling even more annoyed for no reason, Orca narrowed his eyebrows and lifted his eyelids.

“After I went through all that trouble to save you.”

The sigh-like mutter filled the void in the room and dissipated. He sat there for a while before standing up and stretching his legs out the door. He dashed through the hallway without hesitation. The hot, steaming tea remained untouched, not even a single sip taken.

While he was retrieving the body that had been tossed to the ground along with the shoes and returning it to the mansion, he had carefully considered how to deal with this. It had been only for a brief moment, but he had even considered the option of taking him to his room.

However, even though he was the one who had touched him first, he didn’t feel like laying a dirt-covered goldfish on his bed to sleep. This was the reason he had taken him to the basement where the servants’ rooms were. He hated things that were dirty.

In conflict zones, he concentrated on naval warfare as much as possible unless it was a very urgent situation. Ground warfare, where being covered in other people’s blood and flesh was a common occurrence, was filthy and nauseating. At the same time, the instinct stimulated by the fishy smell of blood felt disgusting.

Feeling such emotions in his human form, rather than his beast form, was not a very pleasant feeling. If he could just commit slaughter as he pleased, that would be one thing, but for him, who had a duty to take responsibility for the safety of his allies, it was nothing short of torture. It was difficult to maintain the sanity of ‘Orca Wair,’ captain of the 1st Division of the Border Guard.

Sometimes, he still had instincts strong enough to tear enemies apart while remaining human. That was quite tiring. He always needed to be vigilant. Furthermore, when new recruits would sometimes gag nearby, he had to struggle to suppress the urge to kill them.

Regardless, if he had expected that the one whose life he had spared would act like this, he wouldn’t have ended it by just throwing him in the basement. At the very least, he would have dumped him on the rug in his room, at the foot of his bed, or even in the bathroom, and watched him wake up.

If he had done that, it was certain that he wouldn’t be looking up at him now with a face that looked like it didn’t know anything. It might have been fun to watch the goldfish, upon waking up and seeing him, throw a fit and grovel. Anger and regret mingled together.

Niah, who was sitting with his knees drawn together, instinctively looked up at the man who had cast a shadow over his body. His hands, which had been moving out of obligation, stopped. His brain wasn’t functioning properly. His eyes kept closing, and his mind felt hazy. He had no strength left, like a burnt-down candle. Everything before his eyes was blurred.

The man was standing stock-still in that spot, looking down at him as if he had some business. Because the other servants had gone to eat lunch earlier, he was alone in the garden. He had no choice but to try and ask the man what he wanted, but his voice wouldn’t come out properly. Only hot breath escaped between his lips. A small cough followed.

“…”