ORCA 52

“I ate a lot. The grilled chicken thigh. But I’m really not in pain….”

“Get up.”

Niah, having failed to persuade him, was plucked up like a carrot being pulled from the ground. Orca pretended not to see the goldfish looking up at him with a sullen face and led him into the room. The way he scooped him up into his arms as he walked slowly, complaining of a tingling sensation in his legs, was familiar. Niah, who had gone limp in his arms obediently, secretly burned with determination.

I have to be all better by tomorrow….

His sense of frustration was completely gone.

The mansion, having finished over a month of party preparations, was bustling from early dawn. Even after Orca had left, small social gatherings were held a couple of times a year, but a grand party like today’s was a rare occasion. The servants threw open the mansion’s main gates leading to the tree-lined street and hurried to prepare to welcome the guests.

Musicians who would be staying at the mansion for the duration of the party arrived one after another, and delivery people from various grocery stores also entered in a line. Meat and fish, vegetables and fruits that couldn’t be harvested from the kitchen garden, and wine and champagne stored in the underground pantry were not enough; carts loaded with a massive amount of alcohol, as if they had raided the entire brewery, circled the garden.

On the garden lawn, several long tables for serving food were set up, and on top of them were placed carefully arranged flower baskets. Round tables were covered with clean cloths and decorated with vases. Four chairs were assigned to each table, placed in neat rows. The chairs and tables were brought from the storage room on the 6th floor of the central building, where Niah’s room was, and wiped clean. The garden servants took charge of the work.

By the time Niah had made his third round trip between the garden and the 6th floor carrying chairs, he was gagging quietly, retch, retch. His legs trembled and he staggered. He felt completely drained of energy, as if the breakfast he had just eaten had already been fully digested. But after moving all the chairs, he had to go and arrange the guest bedding without a moment’s rest. Harriet, whom he ran into by chance, comforted the momentarily pale Niah before leaving.

The kitchen was busy preparing hundreds of servings of appetizers to be served before lunch. The guest list, organized and handed over by the head butler, was more than 10 pages of square parchment. The tiny, densely written words were enough to make one feel dizzy.

On the very first page were the names of the Ware relatives returning from the townhouse. They alone numbered in the dozens. After making appetizers for hundreds of people, they had to handle the schedule of lunch, tea party, and evening banquet in that order. In between, they had to do the dishes, wipe the plates, and prepare ingredients. It meant they couldn’t leave the kitchen except to sleep.

Luan was on edge, directing the kitchen. The party was just about to begin, but the servants were already half-exhausted. Everyone was rushing around busily, yet there was still an overwhelming amount of work to do. Now that the day had finally come, the month-long, painstaking preparation process felt like a mere preliminary skirmish. The thought of having to repeat this for the next ten days was horrifying.

Orca’s birthday was also included within those ten days. If, by some chance, an engagement were to be arranged, that day would be as good as being dead. Their master would surely want to present an incredible dish. Roasting a whole pig or a whole deer would undoubtedly be a common occurrence. On top of that, if an engagement ceremony were to be held soon after, it seemed it would be better to just die then.

More than anything, serving hundreds of people was bound to be exhausting. Having become accustomed only to small-scale social gatherings inviting at most a few dozen guests during the three years Orca was away, it wouldn’t be strange if they fell ill from exhaustion before the party was over.

They trembled at just one ‘Young Master,’ so to have hundreds of members from other noble families coming was a number that made one’s vision go blank. Not only cooking, but tasks like laundry and cleaning would also require tens of times more effort than usual. Of course, each family would bring a few of their own servants, but that didn’t mean the workload would decrease. In any case, the host of the party was the Ware family, and it was naturally the duty of the Ware family’s servants to see this party through to a perfect conclusion.

Amidst everyone’s busyness, Pepe, who planned to use the party to leave Roselpia one way or another, acted rather indifferent. While he waited for the party to begin more eagerly than anyone, he had no interest in attending to the guests. With a haggard appearance, he just sat in a corner of the mansion, nervously shaking his leg.

The head butler spotted this but pretended not to see and passed by. A few servants had come to him to voice their complaints, so he was not unaware of Pepe’s recent changes. However, concerned that an unnecessary commotion might arise during a party that the master and mistress had paid special attention to, he decided to watch for the time being. It would be a disaster if he acknowledged it and ended up adding fuel to the fire.

Pepe had neatened his appearance to look good for the noble guests or the Ware family members from the townhouse, but he couldn’t erase the dark shadows that had settled deeply around his eyes since Orca’s return. The area under his eyes was hollow, and he looked spaced out. The premonition that he only had ten days left had him dangling precariously at the edge of a cliff.

He let out a long, stale breath as he tried to come up with a contingency plan in case things went wrong and he couldn’t leave as planned. To make matters worse, Andrian would occasionally cling to him, pestering him about what he was going to do next, giving him a headache all day long. His neck would throb, and his vision would often turn yellow. He was already struggling to take care of himself; there was no way he had the capacity to help Andrian with his situation.

If moving to the townhouse or another family became impossible, there was no suitable solution other than to leave this place. It was a public secret that the Young Master was someone who would be leaving soon anyway, but in reality, no one knew how long he would stay. Niah, who was with him every hour, might know, but nowadays he wasn’t in a position to strike up a conversation, and the timing wasn’t right.

It felt like he was performing a precarious tightrope act. On the day that stupid goldfish bastard got clever and blabbed something to the Young Master, being buried in the back hills was not a very distant future. The foul smell of the dead animals that had piled up with thuds in the deep pit was still vivid.

Besides, if he continued to stay in the same space as the Young Master, he felt like he would strangle himself before being murdered. It seemed the reason he sought him out regardless of whether he was in the greenhouse or the kitchen garden was to monitor him. The occasional glances that flew his way felt like sharp teeth. He felt as if his body was being chewed up and mangled, chomp, chomp. The thought that he might just be waiting for the right moment gave him goosebumps.

‘If a servant dies, is the family responsible for the funeral expenses?’

The question he had heard nearly two months ago belatedly took on a profound meaning. Therefore, he had to escape the mansion, no matter what means he had to use. Even if he survived until the Young Master disappeared for now, with the current atmosphere, it was obvious he would come back again someday. It didn’t matter if it was a year or two years later. If possible, he never wanted to face him again for the rest of his life.

“Damn it!”

Pepe kicked a stone at his feet and cursed. He tore at his carefully styled hair and then pointlessly blamed the easy target, Niah, relentlessly. The gloomy voice that continued in a muttered curse stained the surroundings black.

Orca, summoned by his parents, was staying in their room dressed in formal evening wear. He sat at the tea table with his legs crossed, tapping his ankle in the air. He didn’t bother to hide his bored expression. The same old words of request, composed of pleasant-sounding words, all flowed past him. Why did they have to state ‘don’t cause any unnecessary trouble’ in such a refined way? Boredom washed over him in an instant. It seemed that just coming immediately when called wasn’t enough to satisfy them.

He considered acting like a hooligan again this time to make them give up entirely, but then shook his head. For him, the worst and best punishment was to be disowned from the family, so he didn’t care what happened to him, but the goldfish was the problem.

He had gone to the trouble of extending his vacation until the summer, so leaving the family before spring was even over didn’t add up. It was also uncertain if they would let him go gently. Well, if they didn’t let him go gently, he wouldn’t go gently either.

In that case, should I run away with him….

Orca unconsciously snorted. He wondered what he was thinking, bringing the goldfish to a battlefield. He berated himself, asking if he was planning to make that coward sleep in the headquarters’ barracks, which reeked of blood. Or he scoffed at himself, wondering if he intended to find a safe town nearby and get him a room at an inn. Solely for his own greed, he couldn’t make him move from place to place his whole life and leave him alone in unfamiliar places among strangers.

He could build a house in a pretty and cute town that the goldfish would like and have him stay there, but still, he wouldn’t be able to live there with him. He was sure that’s what he would want, but to do that, he would have to leave the military.

The problem wasn’t so much leaving, but rather that he, who knew nothing but how to kill living things, was not confident that he could support the goldfish with a status that was neither a soldier nor a nobleman.

When he left the family, he didn’t want to take anything with him. He wanted to disappear without a trace, as if he had never existed in the first place.

However, would the goldfish really want such a life? He couldn’t confidently affirm it. If he asked him to go, he would gladly follow, but in a place without a glass greenhouse or a garden that bloomed all year round, without the ‘cute things’ he boasted about every day, the goldfish probably wouldn’t be happy with all his heart. It might be a little better if he brought Harriet along, but the thought of having to leave those two alone and go out to do odd jobs or go to the battlefield didn’t sit well with him.

He snorted again. As expected, the goldfish was the one thing that didn’t go his way. It was ridiculous enough that he hadn’t been able to leave Roselpia for nearly two months, but now he was even scheming to take him with him, and a hollow laugh kept escaping him.

“Is something good happening? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you smile.”

At the generous assessment that counted a snort as a smile, Orca looked at his father instead of replying. The man, who was adjusting his bow tie, had a rather benevolent smile. With an unimpressed face, Orca belatedly denied it.

“Not at all. Nothing.”

“Really? You look more cheerful than usual.”

The man chuckled heartily and added a few more words. He patted Orca’s shoulder with a good-natured face, saying they should end the party on a cheerful note as well. Orca didn’t answer. It was an ambiguous request, and he couldn’t tell if he was being told to stay crumpled up somewhere and shut up, or to come out and grin foolishly.

He knew it was a childish act of defiance, but he didn’t want to readily do as his parents wished. The former was one thing, but if they expected him to greet guests with a big smile, that was too harsh a treatment. He couldn’t tell if they didn’t know about him or didn’t want to know.

He was enduring enough. The proof was that he hadn’t engaged in meaningless killing since entering the military academy. In the army, too, he tried not to cause any trouble that would tarnish the family’s name. And yet they still weren’t satisfied. He felt mentally exhausted. He couldn’t guess how much longer he had to live to suit their tastes.

Orca pressed his temple with one hand. His gaze, which had naturally lowered, stopped, caught on the cufflink on his other wrist. It was the cufflink Niah had chosen and fastened for him after much deliberation this morning.

‘Young Master. You look so pretty today.’

The voice that had whispered softly with blushing cheeks calmed his churning heart. The smiling face flickered before his eyes. The weight of him jumping into his arms, feet dangling, was so vivid that his mood improved considerably.

Pretty and cute were the highest compliments for Niah, so Orca was subconsciously pleased whenever Niah called him pretty. Even if his face brightened, it was, as always, almost expressionless, but Niah paid no mind. He would just keep repeating, ‘Young Master, you’re pretty,’ ‘Young Master, you’re cute,’ as he pleased.

For example, he would fiddle with Orca’s eyebrows and call them pretty, or he would point to a tiny mole somewhere on his forearm and call it cute. They were not compliments that the rugged-looking man would hear several times a day. In fact, they were expressions of a kind he had never heard even as a child.

Orca, who had his legs crossed, uncrossed them and stood up abruptly. It was about time to find Niah and be praised. On a party day like today, he had no idea where he would be or what he would be doing, which made him slightly impatient. He wondered if he could find him quickly and narrowed down the options of where to look first.

He probably wouldn’t be leisurely feeding the fish on a party day, so he thought he might be inside the mansion and tried to recall possible locations. The kitchen or the distillery came to mind first, but he might be in a completely unexpected place. Orca took a step, feeling a subtle excitement. He was a skilled seeker, and Niah was not very good at hiding.

“You’re finished speaking, I assume. I’ll be leaving now.”

He stated it like a notice and walked toward the door. His tone hadn’t been asking for permission in the first place. But his mother lightly stopped him. The teacup in her hand was set down on its saucer without a sound. She turned her head slightly to look at Orca.

“Orca. Have you thought about the engagement?”

Orca, who had turned his back, stared at her with glaring eyes. His heart began to churn again. His mood, which had plummeted in an instant, fell to rock bottom. His mother was a person who didn’t know how to give up. She called it affection and always choked him, making him miserable. The face he confronted was perfectly serene. He thought it would be better to talk to a wall.

Orca felt tired before the conversation even began. He made a face that said he was fed up.

“I believe I told you that I have no intention of getting engaged to Hilda Grey, or to anyone else. You haven’t tired of this for years.”

“And you, for years, have not tired of only saying no.”

“Find someone else. There are plenty of people to marry in the Ware family, are there not?”

He turned his body at an angle and retorted perfunctorily, as if annoyed. The head of the Ware family raised the corners of her mouth elegantly. Orca found his mother’s smile grotesque. She wore the same brush-painted smile when she ordered the servants to release the beasts and told him to ‘hunt.’ It made him want to vomit. His father would push him from behind, telling him to do well, that they would do well when he returned. The sound of his hearty laughter sounded like a pig being slaughtered.

Orca, tearing his gaze away from his smiling parents, placed both hands on his hips and tried not to get agitated. He didn’t want to show anything that could become a weakness. This was especially true in front of his parents, who maintained their composure and smiled like taxidermied hides no matter what situation arose. Looking at those unpleasant faces made his anger surge. He felt like a fool who was fighting to the death in a battle whose outcome was already decided.

“That’s right. Hilda’s engagement partner doesn’t necessarily have to be you. However, Orca. Even if you don’t start a family, you will not be disowned from the Ware family.”

“……”

“Besides, you are a good son, so you wouldn’t create such a situation. Isn’t that right? We don’t need the hunt anymore, after all.”

“That sounds like you mean you will disown me if it becomes necessary.”

“Of course not. We can make it as if it never happened.”

“Do you mean I should hunt so much that it cannot be made as if it never happened?”

“Oh, dear. Is that how it sounded? It’s a misunderstanding, my child. I’m just letting you know because you seem to think you can do as you please if you have no one to be responsible for. As a parent. Parents should be guides.”

Orca was infuriated by his mother’s attitude, who wore that same smile as if she could see right through him. He found that leisurely air of hers, as if she were rolling him in the palm of her hand, unpleasant.

“Think about it a little more leisurely. The Grey family is putting forth Lady Hilda, so we too must present a man of suitable standing. If the engagement is successful, our family will gain great power, and that is for you and for everyone.”

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

“What a ridiculous comparison. You have been on the chessboard since the moment you were born, Orca. You must become the king of my chessboard.”

“If I give up the king, it will be a checkmate.”

“Thinking about getting captured from the start is not a good idea. Was my teaching insufficient?”

“It was more than enough. It seems it overflowed and became insufficient.”