ORCA 21

Orca, closing the book with a sigh, exited the study. The orange-colored auditory hallucination that had been incessantly calling him gradually faded.

On his way back to his room, he ordered a servant he encountered to draw a bath. He felt a sense of impatience, as if he had to do something.

As soon as Orca entered the bathroom, he submerged himself at the bottom of the tub without even taking off his clothes. He paid no mind to his injured hand. As he quietly listened to the ripples of the water, his restless heart seemed to calm down.

It was just one goldfish. Just one small, weak, and insignificant goldfish. It was so shriveled that it would not be noticeable even if he ate it, and so frail that there would be no satisfaction in biting it to death. It was a pathetic being that he had no need, nor reason, to be swayed by. There was not even room for doubt. It was just one of the things he had considered annoying his entire life.

Orca sat up abruptly. The water’s ripples twisted, making a loud noise. He swept back his hair, wiped his face, and got out of the tub. The water his clothes had absorbed fell loudly onto the tile floor, clatter-thump-thump. When he arrogantly looked down on it as nothing, he felt much more at ease. The goldfish was nothing to him. It was merely a source of amusement.

He untied the cloth that had lost its function and then took off the clothes clinging to his skin. The wound on his hand was still open, but it was not bleeding. Orca approached the basket, holding the wet shirt and cloth.

“Damn it….”

The basket for collecting bathroom laundry like towels and robes was already full. The things he had used this morning were in the dress room, so this should have been empty. But familiar articles of clothing were curled up and looking up at him. The word ‘familiar’ was laughable. The clothes, socks, and underwear the goldfish had left behind were all tangled together, reminding him of last night.

He had clung to him, sobbing his eyes out, and then had grinned foolishly. He would startle and flinch, but then would quickly relax and lean his back against him. He would wiggle his fingers as if nervous and curl his toes, saying it tickled. Despite being scared, he had begged to be petted. Despite being a coward, he had approached and let himself be held, and had dared to worry about him with that weak little body.

That was why he was annoyed. For a goldfish the size of two finger joints, its presence was excessive. He wanted to grab it and devour it right away. On the other hand, he was afraid he might kill it in the process. He might not be able to control himself. These feelings were unfamiliar.

‘Young master?’

The orange-colored illusion was blinding.

Andrian, standing crookedly with her arms crossed, approached Luan. She was very displeased with the situation right in front of her. The dining hall was as boisterous as usual, but there was an awkward air flowing somewhere. Everyone was busy observing Niah’s face and whispering something.

The person in question, Niah, had no energy to care about such things. He did not even eat his favorite food and just had tears dangling from his eyes. His lips, which he had been chewing on since earlier, were a mess with blood welling up. A salty taste spread on the tip of his tongue. The corners of his eyes, red from constant rubbing, also stung. His physical condition had not been good since he woke up.

He had cried so much that now his head was hurting too. He had not even started the garden work yet, but he was already exhausted. He knew he would be scolded again if he stayed like this, but he could not easily calm down. He had not known that he would suddenly be unable to see the young master, without even knowing what he had done wrong.

Harriet sat next to Niah and kept patting his shoulder. By this point, she too was deep in doubt. Of course, she did not bother to ask. It was obvious that if she asked for the reason, he would cry even more, and then he would probably collapse right away. His trembling body, like a young animal abandoned on a rainy day, was pitiful.

The only thing she could do for him was to try her best to soothe him. Harriet let out a regretful sigh as she watched Niah crying silently. She could only vaguely guess that he was not crying because he did not want to go to the young master, as she had thought.

Andrian, who had taken a seat next to Luan, shot a sharp glance at the other servants nearby. Then she threw a fit. She was not pleased that no one was getting involved, whether that idiot Niah was blubbering or not. Normally, they would have all giggled and given him a piece of their minds, but today they were treating him as if he were not even there.

It seemed more like they were all keeping their mouths shut, watching each other’s reactions. She wondered if they had all lost their minds, being wary of that stupid goldfish bastard. She also did not like the look of that newcomer, Harriet or whatever her name was. The most annoying thing was, of course, Luan’s attitude.

“Luan! Say something! What on earth is going on?”

Contrary to her sharp tone, Andrian squawked in a small voice. She had fixed her habit of shouting like a fury since the day the teacup had flown at her. That incident still appeared in her dreams. The sharp, fragmented pieces of glass and Orca’s piercing gaze mingled and tormented her.

She had not been in a good mood for several weeks now due to the unsettling dreams. In the midst of that, the servant in charge of attending to Orca had changed from Bailey to Niah. For Andrian, who would often grab Niah and make him do her share of the work, this was a very troublesome change.

When the menial tasks she had always passed on became her responsibility again, she became twice as tired as usual. It was to the point where she would fall asleep as soon as she lay down in bed. Even though it was originally her job, her irritation soared. Vulgar curses flew out of her mouth without restraint. When she was washing dishes or sweeping, she would suddenly think of Niah, which would make her feel even more suffocated.

Later, it got to the point where she would not be satisfied unless she found out Niah’s whereabouts every time she encountered the garden servants. Unless it was mealtime, he was not easily seen, so she could not know where he was without asking. On some days, he would not even show up long after mealtime had passed. But the answers she got, despite the effort of asking, were always similar.

‘He went to the young master.’

‘He probably went to the young master.’

‘He must have gone to the central area.’

This only made her angrier. While she was on pins and needles every day since that incident, barely daring to breathe, she was not pleased that Niah was alive and well. It was none other than that idiot goldfish. She had expected him to surely provoke the young master and die in less than half a day, let alone a full one.

The servants had even made a silly bet. Some said he would last a day, others said he would not even last that long, and they had chattered and joked for fun. Of course, Luan was also part of that group. Not just Luan, but most of the mansion servants had thought Niah would die.

“Luan!”

“Ann! Stop it and just eat, will you.”

Despite all of them having been like that, they had completely changed their attitudes overnight. Only unpleasant words flowed from Luan’s mouth. Andrian glanced resentfully at Niah, who was still crying.

The food assigned to Niah seemed no different from that of the other servants. But upon closer inspection, it somehow seemed better. The bacon, cooked to a golden brown without any burnt parts, the rolls that were particularly shiny, the golden scrambled eggs, and the potato soup with twice as many croutons as anyone else’s were all proof.

This represented Luan’s changed opinion. It was the maximum expression the head of the kitchen could make.

“Yes, Ann. Stop it now.”

“What? Stop what?”

“…Ann. Just look at the situation in the mansion.”

“So what on earth does that mean? Don’t tell me, is it really because that idiot was wandering around in that state yesterday?”

At Roanna’s remark, who was sitting across from her, Andrian retorted as if she could not understand at all. She pointed at Niah with her chin.

Niah was lost in his own thoughts and did not notice, but Harriet did not fail to. Harriet shot Andrian a sharp glare. She did not like how she found fault with everything concerning Niah. However, as a servant who had just been hired at the mansion, she needed quite a bit of courage to pick a fight first.

“That was not even his blood, was it? Right, Bailey? You said so. Right?”

“Uh-uh? Uh-uh…. Well, that’s right. The one who got hurt was the young master. Well… that’s true….”

“See.”

Bailey, who had been silently tearing at his bread, answered while choking. Andrian met Roanna’s eyes with a triumphant face. Roanna shook her head at her foolishness. All she knew was how to shriek and shout every day; she was a complete know-it-all fool. Moreover, since the young master had come, she could not even do that anymore, so she was just an idiot.

It was a relief that Niah, though a bit dim, was quiet, but Andrian was always noisy and bustling. The atmosphere in the mansion was already chaotic enough without her adding to it. Even Luan, who had always taken her side, had changed her mind, so it would be nice if she just kept her mouth shut, but she always had to take the lead and cause trouble like this. She was no help at all.

Roanna placed the fork she was holding down on the table with a thud. She had been close with Andrian, but now was not the time to consider such things. Recently, especially since yesterday, everyone had been a little on edge.

“Ann. That is why it is more of a problem. Don’t you get it?”

“So,”

“It was not Niah, but the young master who got hurt. Not Niah, but the young master.”

Andrian narrowed her brow and turned her head towards Luan. Luan pretended to be nonchalant and ate her soup. She pretended not to see the unspoken question directed at her. Even if she tried to explain, she could not find the right words.

Besides, she knew something the other servants did not. She had not told anyone that she had seen Niah waking up from sleep in the young master’s room. For some reason, she felt like she should not say it out loud.

She also could not say that the way the young master treated Niah was somehow, somehow strange. She had no way of knowing what had happened inside after he had chased her out of the room. She could not ask Niah either. Although she had served the young master since he was very young, this was the first time she had felt this way. She had thought about it all night, but she could not find the right word.

A silence descended on the dining hall like dust. Through that stillness, only the sound of sniffling sobs could be heard intermittently. Roanna began to speak again. Andrian’s face turned forward again.

“Ann. Think about it. Who would have expected Niah to attend to the young master without any trouble? Everyone said he would die in a day or two.”

“Hah, what a thing to say. So what about today? He was told not to come. That’s no different from being kicked out.”

“Yes. He was told not to come. Until he is called again, he was told not to come. And he said he did not need a servant to attend to him after Niah.”

“Roanna. What on earth are you trying to say?”

“Imagine if you had gone to attend to the young master instead of Bailey, Ann. How would that have been?”

Andrian’s face instantly darkened. Just being tormented by nightmares was draining enough; having to go see the young master several times a day was worse than death. She would rather die.

“But look at Niah. If he was told not to come, he should be jumping for joy, but he is like this. Do you still not get what it means?”

“…….”

“Do not be stupid, Ann.”

At Roanna’s rebuke, Andrian clenched her teeth. She was about to ask if she was trying to say that the young master considered that goldfish bastard special, but she stopped. She was already annoyed that this conclusion had been reached, and if she said it out loud, she might foam at the mouth and faint.

While she was living in near hiding, trembling with anxiety, the thought that Niah, of all people, an idiot, had been strutting around the mansion so freely made her stomach churn. On top of that, it was absurd that everyone had changed their behavior like flipping a switch based on a still uncertain prediction.

“So please, just stay still. You do not want to die either, do you? Aren’t you the one who is most disliked among us?”

As Roanna said that, she glanced at Pepe, who was sitting in a corner far away. Pepe’s expression was just as bad as Andrian’s. She did not know for sure, but the most precarious among the servants were indeed these two.

The incident in the vegetable garden a few days ago had already been talked about all over the mansion. Thanks to that, the rest of the people could feel a little relieved. For a moment, everyone’s gaze was fixed on Niah. They tried to console themselves by thinking that since that idiot had a bad memory, he would have forgotten the few times they had bullied him. As long as Andrian or Pepe remembered, that was enough. Of course, it was best for them to be pushed out of the young master’s sight like this, but they prayed for it, just in case.

Pepe, who had been listening quietly, could not stand it any longer and shot up from his seat. The chair tumbled over with a clatter. He stormed out of the dining hall with a face like an angry bull. A few other garden servants stealthily followed suit and got up.

“What are you all doing? Hurry up and eat. Aren’t you going to work?”

Luan, who had been staring at the dining hall entrance for a moment, cut off the increasingly gloomy atmosphere. Soon, the sound of plates being scraped began to be heard from here and there. Luan, who had unwillingly acquired a secret worry, also kept pushing rolls into her mouth. She hoped that the secret that felt stuck in her solar plexus would go down every time she swallowed the dry bread. But no matter how much she forced herself to eat, it was useless, as her doubts only grew deeper. It was ridiculous that the entire mansion was in such a mess because of one mere goldfish.

Harriet, who had been carefully observing the conversations and the intersecting gazes, was deep in thought. There were many new things she had learned. All she had known was simply Orca’s social status and the terrifying anecdotes passed from servant to servant. It was natural, as she had only been employed at the Ware residence for a short time.

In a strange mansion, it took enough effort just to grasp the internal atmosphere. Moreover, as a distillery servant, she did not have much occasion to see the young master, so she had simply thought of him as someone not easy to deal with. That was the case until Niah came into the picture, and until she got closer to Niah.

In any case, everyone was speaking vaguely, but there was one inference they were reluctant to voice.

The goldfish, who had always been easy to push around and stupid in their eyes, was not only not dead at the hands of that very young master, but was walking around perfectly fine. As if that were not enough, he was even crying because he had been told not to come. This was definitely a problem.

“Niah. Don’t be like that, eat something. You’re going to collapse at this rate. Okay?”

Harriet forced a spoon into Niah’s hand. She could not know what the young master was thinking, but if that inference was true, this was no time to be crying. He had to do something.

On the contrary, Niah wanted to faint right away. Thinking of the young master was both joyful and painful. The more he thought of him, the more he was swallowed by a gentle nightmare. Tears kept coming. He wanted to forget, and he did not want to forget. It was as if he were swimming alone in dark water, chasing a vivid flash of light.

Harriet could not bring herself to leave until the very end. She was worried about Niah, who in the end had not even had a proper bite of soup. Since their work areas were different, she could not take care of him closely. She would only be able to check on his condition again in the afternoon.

She was naturally making this prediction now, but just until yesterday, she had no idea when she would be able to see him again. It was usually just a brief meeting in the dining hall or distillery for a few words. After that, unless they happened to run into each other, there were times when she would not see his face all day.

Even then, in the morning, Andrian and a few other servants would intimidate Niah, and during tea time preparations, Niah would be in a hurry, so they would often part ways quickly. In the evening, he was more often than not absent even from the dining hall.