ORCA 2

Other servants would hold their noses and giggle whenever I was crying or near the water, claiming I smelled fishy. Even though Niah knew they were just trying to be mean on purpose, he sniffed his own arm. He kept smelling himself all the way back to his room. There was only a faint scent of soap on his body.

Niah’s room was located in a secluded spot on the floor just below the attic, the area of the vast mansion least frequented by people. It sounded plausible to call it a room, but in reality, it was a narrow closet under the stairs that had originally been used as a storage space; they gave it to Niah as if they were doing him a favor. Of course, it was a ploy by the other servants, but Niah didn’t mind. Rather, he liked that he had a space all to himself.

Going back and forth to the basement bathroom every morning and evening was cumbersome. It was also difficult to go up and down the narrow, steep spiral staircase used only by the servants. But those moments were fleeting. The garden he carefully tended with his own hands, the greenhouse, the crops in the vegetable patch, the lake surrounded by the forest, and this small room were his pillars of support in the brutal mansion.

The only thing that could be called furniture was a small, old bed. Even that had one broken leg, so he had propped a large stone underneath it. Beside the bed, he stood a crude, low-height wooden box on its side and used it as a table.

On sad or scary nights, he would put a candle holder on top of it and light a small candle. The leftover candles from the mansion usually burned out quickly, so he had no choice but to fall asleep in a hurry before the room turned pitch black again. He wouldn’t dare dream of something like an oil lamp.

Another box, identical to the one used as a table, served as both a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. He kept his few clothes and undergarments neatly folded inside and placed it at the foot of the bed. With just this, the room was already full, leaving no room to step.

Niah curled his body on the bed and changed into the clean, washed clothes. Because the ceiling sloped downward, he had to go to the corner as much as possible to stand up straight. Niah left the room immediately. The texture of the clothes, made of stiff linen, felt scratchy. As he walked, he sniffed himself once more. The clothes smelled like grass that had been well-dried in the sunlight.

The mansion was chaotic. The delicious smell from the kitchen was endless, and as if that wasn’t enough, meat and wine were being delivered from the butcher shop and the winery. Some hall servants were busy climbing ladders to wipe all the long windows and hang new curtains. Others were polishing the flashy, expensive furniture and artworks placed in the hallway with dry cloths.

Outside, everyone was frantic trying to clean up the tree-lined path that stretched from the front gate to the garden and the mansion’s massive main gate. Niah was also called here and there while watering the flowers. He was out of breath from scurrying around without a moment to rest. He was hungry, too, having been chased out of the dining room for being in the way. It was when he had only managed to eat half of his share. However, what concerned him most was something else entirely.

He sat with his knees bent, scrubbing the inside and outside of the garden fountain with a cleaning brush. Because of the fountain’s wide frame, his body felt buoyant. In an orca’s mansion, there were many inconveniences for small aquatic species like him. Furthermore, Niah was a “pearlscale,” a small type of goldfish among the carp family, so he was on the smaller side even among them.

The size of a beastman in his animal form and his human form did not strictly correlate, but among the Wair family’s servants, Niah was the third or fourth smallest. The only ones smaller than Niah were Bailey the ant, the mistress’s messenger; Norma the Maltese, the stable boy; and Aki the squirrel, the hunting ground servant. Adrian, a sheep beastman, was about half a head taller than Niah.

Niah’s arm, with the sleeves rolled up, moved busily through the cold water. He moved in a circle in a sitting position, scrubbing the fountain as he scrubbed away moss or grime. The loud splashing sound was swallowed by the fountain’s water stream. The wet marble basin sparkled under the sunny sky. Niah focused on his brushing, one eye squinted tightly against the droplets bouncing off the water’s surface. The light brown clothes he had changed into earlier were now stained with mottled dark spots.

Niah kept scrubbing the fountain without rest, but he occasionally looked at the tree-lined path that stretched long toward the main gate. He bit his lip, trying hard to smooth out his face, which kept turning into a grimace. It wasn’t just because his skin, which had been soaking in cold water, was aching.

Today was the very day the young master was returning.

When Niah was hired as a garden servant, the Wair family’s young master was already away as the commander of the defense force in the territorial war at the border. He had never returned once in the past three years, so this was the first time he would see him in person. He had overheard the servants talking about how, even before he entered the military academy, there were more days he wasn’t at the mansion than days he was.

The more Niah listened to the servants, the more worried he became. It seemed the young master was not a very kind person. The rumors about the young master circulating through the mansion made Niah feel smaller and smaller.

He could endure the bullying from the servants as he had until now. However, it would be a big problem if he made a mistake in front of the young master and got kicked out of the mansion. There weren’t many places for a goldfish to work. That was even more true for him, as he had particularly poor memory, even for a goldfish.

Niah buried his head toward the fountain and pulled down the corners of his lips. Moreover, the young master’s name, which he had heard several times, was fuzzy in his mind. He was sure he had heard it, but no matter how hard he thought about it, it wouldn’t come to mind. Stupid goldfish. Niah ended up feeling like he wanted to cry.

Suddenly, servants poured out from here and there in the mansion. Surprised by the loud noise, Niah jumped up and looked around. Dozens of servants all came out and began to stand in line. Niah, who was fidgeting, also rushed over instinctively. A pitch-black carriage was slowly entering the far end of the tree-lined path. He could see the master and mistress coming down the front porch steps.

The young master has arrived.

Niah gulped. He pulled down his rolled-up sleeves and shook his clothes to tidy them up. There was nothing he could do about the wet stains. He tried to bring his arm to his nose and take a breath. Then he stopped and hid behind the other servants as much as possible. He hadn’t done anything to the young master yet, but he felt scared for no reason.

The carriage stopped at the entrance to the garden. It was a fair distance from the mansion’s porch, but it wasn’t so far that he couldn’t distinguish people. Niah peeked his face out slightly to examine the carriage. He was worried the young master might look terrifying, so he clasped his hands together and fidgeted with his fingers. The coachman, who had stepped out first, opened the back door and bowed his head.

“Orca!”

The mistress called out a strange name in a loud voice that she rarely used. Her green dress swayed gracefully with every step she took. Niah poked his head out a little further. A man dressed in a neat, deep blue uniform was slowly stepping down.

He was much taller and had a much larger frame than the master and mistress. It felt as if he would be so intimidated just by standing in front of him that he would collapse. His hair, which was blue and pitch-black like the color of the night sky, fluttered in the wind. The name the mistress called—Orca. That man was Orca. The young master who was supposed to arrive today. Orca. That was the young master’s name. Niah’s eyelashes fluttered. He quickly bowed his head.

“Orca. How long has it been?”

The mistress passed by where he was standing while asking about his well-being. The master was the same. In the blink of an eye, the young master had approached from far away to near the mansion’s entrance. The servants bowed deeply as they greeted him.

Niah, who was also bowing his head, lifted his eyelids secretly, without anyone noticing. His gaze, which had been touching the tips of the shoes, passed over the pant hems and continued to the edge of the uniform’s coat. As he lifted his eyes further, the orca-shaped emblem embedded on the chest caught his attention.

Niah hastily bowed his head again. A goldfish and an orca were too different. His heart was pounding. It was ten times, no, a hundred times more terrifying than standing in front of an angry Adrian.

Orca, who had his white shirt buttoned up to his neck and was wearing a tie, looked very much like a gentleman on the outside. He listened to his mother and father with half an ear while looking around only with his eyes. It was a clean, well-maintained mansion, just like it was three years ago. He did not like that things remained unchanged.