ORCA 54

A servant was assigned to each carriage that passed through the mansion’s main gate and entered the tree-lined road. The people who stepped out of the carriages were all dressed in splendid dresses and stylish formal wear. They set foot on the ground with the help of the attendants who accompanied them and offered elegant smiles to the greetings given by the Ware family’s servants. The Ware family’s servants, who bowed their heads in return, checked the guest list and then led the way.

The servants, except for those in charge of the stables and the kitchen staff busy with food preparation, were all assigned tasks different from their usual ones. Niah and Bailey, who had been dragged to the kitchen because they were short on hands, found themselves sitting across from each other, washing dishes. Bailey grumbled a bit, but Niah was relieved, thinking this was better than greeting the guests.

The attendants from other families who had come to serve their masters either followed behind carrying luggage or moved the carriages they had arrived in to a corner. The coachmen, after putting the horses into stalls one by one with the help of the stable hands, were the first among the accompanying attendants to be shown to their lodgings. A stable hand led the attendants, weary from their long journey, to the east wing and assigned them rooms.

Meanwhile, the nobles leisurely admired the garden and acknowledged the head of the Ware family, his wife, and their son, who were visible in the distance. Some waved their hands, while others stopped in their tracks and bowed. Those who were acquainted with each other exchanged light greetings amongst themselves. Even though they had just arrived, there were already many who were introducing acquaintances to each other and being introduced in turn.

A refined clamor crossed the long stone-paved path. They passed through the entrance hall, praising the well-tended garden. The nobles visiting the Ware estate for the first time marveled at the grandeur of the mansion’s interior. Excited voices flowed from here and there.

The master of the Ware family skillfully handled the nobles who approached and spoke to them. Empty conversations continued cheerfully with laughter. Since the purpose of hosting the party and the purpose of attending it were both for their own profit, they had to pretend to be enjoying themselves even if they were not.

If it were not for a banquet or ball hosted by the Imperial family, there were few opportunities to become acquainted with members of so many families and discuss business. Trying to host a party oneself was difficult to manage, requiring an incredibly large country house and enormous expense. In reality, it was impossible for anyone except the Ware family and a few other houses.

Therefore, even those who were not invited paid a large sum to buy a spot and sneak in. They were often blocked for not being on the list, but the family that had been paid to bring them along would usually ensure their safe entry. Of course, there were also many cases where, if an incident occurred because of this, they would feign ignorance.

The Ware family tended to moderately condone such workarounds. They disliked noisy disturbances more than anything, so if there was no harm done, they would simply let it pass.

It was in their nature to be more displeased by trouble arising at a party they hosted than to go to the trouble of finding a sharp-eyed servant to keep watch. They were bothered by even the smallest, most trivial things. This was the reason they had a desire for honor and a love for ostentation, yet never became the center of controversy.

From this perspective, Orca was certainly an unprecedented ‘oddball’ in the Ware family, so he couldn’t help but be subject to special management. The fact that the Ware family, especially his parents, were constantly anxious and tried to control him from A to Z was perhaps natural given their personalities. Orca’s circumstances, thoughts, or feelings were a secondary issue. They had no intention whatsoever of bringing them forward and resolving them.

His parents, standing behind the chessboard, merely offered to act as guides and were indifferent to everything else. The grand party, hosted under the pretext of Orca’s return and birthday, was nothing more than a tool for them to achieve their goals. Orca was merely a perfect excuse for throwing a party.

As soon as the carriages were cleared, new guests entered the tree-lined road in succession. The servants scurried about, guiding guests into the mansion and informing the attendants of their room locations and today’s schedule. The attendants, carrying luggage and listening intently, followed the leading servant to their rooms without a moment to look around. It was their job to go ahead of their masters to finish unpacking and prepare for them to rest.

Only after leaving the central hall and climbing the stairs did they breathe a sigh of relief and exchange names. When people in similar situations meet in a distant foreign land, a sense of comradeship is bound to form, no matter how complete a stranger the other person is. In any case, at a party like this, the ones who had it the hardest were the attendants serving their masters, so there was no harm in encouraging each other and getting along.

Orca was socializing with guests, fielding a barrage of questions at a slight distance from his parents. Perhaps because it was his first time attending a party since entering the military academy, the people loitering nearby were endless.

Among them were a few individuals who greeted him warmly, saying it had been a long time, but they were faces he did not remember. He responded briefly. The trivial questions were just bothersome. He summoned up as much dignity as he could to avoid showing his annoyance.

Most of those surrounding Orca were the children of noble families, their ages varying from very young boys to women his own age. Whether young or old, being nobles, their conversations proceeded gently. Occasionally, their parents would approach and pose subtle questions.

The young children called Orca “Captain.” Their chattering voices, as they stood a step back in a polite posture, mingled together, making it impossible to understand them. Those who were a few years older or appeared to be his peers would call him Lord Orca and restrain the children, then, as soon as it became quiet, they would quickly say what they had to say. Though they spoke in a dignified tone, to Orca’s ears it was just as noisy and incomprehensible. It did nothing but grate on his nerves the entire time.

The area around Orca grew increasingly chaotic. With the arrival of new guests, the number of people only increased, never decreased. They were clearly speaking in a friendly manner, but to him, it came across as a jumbled noise. He tried to block out his hearing, but perhaps because he had already become sensitive, even that was not well controlled.

He suddenly wondered how on earth he had endured parties like this in the past. He had been required to attend not only the large and small parties and social gatherings held every other week, but also events like banquets held at the Imperial Palace.

Back then, he had neither a proper space to escape to nor the means to do so, and if he acted like an ‘oddball,’ it was a time when education and instruction would be repeated, so he just endured it. He did express his defiance on occasion, but for the most part, he seemed to have spoken and acted as his parents told him to. He knew that suffering for a short while would, in turn, make things easier later.

Perhaps that was why the memory of the crescent-shaped bloodstains on his palm remained more vivid than the memory of what he had specifically done. Like flushing filth away with clean water, he only wished for time to pass quickly and set him free.

But now, with an escape route available, enduring it was dozens of times more difficult than it had been then. He regretted having meekly let the goldfish go when he said he had to go to Bailey or whatever his name was earlier. Now he had no idea where he was or what he was doing, which made his already uncomfortable mood even fouler.

He had to make a great effort to maintain his composure. It was merely a matter of clenching his jaw and standing still, but for him, it was an immense ordeal. Perhaps due to the heat rising from his irritation, he was engulfed by the feeling that the capillaries around his jaw were burning away. Orca rolled his eyes and observed his parents.

His parents greeted guests and conversed with gentle expressions and attitudes. They did not talk with any one person for too long, nor did they allow anyone to be left out. In the midst of this, they instructed servants to guide the guests in the order of their arrival at the mansion and sent them up with pleasant words of greeting. It was a masterful performance. Therefore, unlike the scene around Orca, the faces of the nobles lingering by his parents’ side changed from moment to moment, but their number remained constant.

To Orca, the nobles who had come to the party looked like chess pieces. He became curious about what his constantly smiling parents were actually thinking, what plans they were making, and when he might be excluded from those plans. A voice that had said he would never be disowned no matter what he did brushed past his ears.

Suddenly, their eyes met, and his parents nodded simultaneously, as if on cue. It was such a subtle gesture that only he, who had seen such commands for a long time, could barely recognize it. It meant to shut up and act only as he had been taught.

He began to wonder if the talk of finishing the party enjoyably did not mean being crumpled up somewhere or grinning foolishly while greeting guests, but was instead an order to play the role of a nanny. Orca felt a faint twitch in his eye and averted his gaze. An impulse to kill everyone—not just his parents but the innocent guests as well—welled up inside him. He would not do it, but the reason he refrained was no longer solely because of his parents.

Hilda Grey was the last among the invited nobles to set foot in Roselpia. The merchant ship she was on had anchored in the waters near Roselpia only at dawn today. After transferring to a small sailboat and disembarking on land, she had to travel for over five hours by carriage before finally reaching Roselpia.

Thinking she would get an earful if she showed up looking shabby, she tidied herself up at a nearby inn, and by then it was almost lunchtime. She remembered her promise to her parents to arrive without being late, but she leisurely looked around the town she was visiting for the first time in years before heading to the Ware estate.

Living like a wanderer, going from one country to another and intoxicated by the unfamiliar, made familiar sights feel newly welcome. Included in that was her long-time rival.

“What’s this, Orca. Looks like you’ve changed careers to a nanny while I was gone.”

“…Hilda.”

“How does it feel to be my fiancé? Awesome, right?”

At Hilda’s hearty voice, the entire central hall buzzed for a moment. Standing tall amidst the noblewomen adorned with fancy dresses and sparkling accessories, Hilda wore a reddish suit and showed off her long hair. Her beige hair, which fell to her waist, fluttered in the breeze blowing in from the entrance.

She grinned and looked Orca straight in the eye. Their gazes met in a straight line. Even accounting for the fact that she was wearing heels, besides the Orcas, there was no one larger than the members of the Grey Grizzly Bear family.

“Why so quiet? Are you stunned by this noona’s beauty after seeing me for the first time in a while?”

Orca thought it was an entrance typical of her, yet he remained silent without much of a reply. If he were to spit out something like ‘stop talking nonsense,’ or ‘if you’re going to do something crazy, get lost right now,’ he would attract even more attention than he already had.

The one silver lining was the fact that Hilda was also opposed to the engagement. If she had been even slightly positive about it, she would not have acted in such a way. The Hilda Grey he knew was that kind of person.

Although the two families had interacted closely since they were very young, he and Hilda had not gotten along particularly well. To avoid creating trouble, they only pretended to be on good terms when their parents came to check on them. Because the directions they pursued and the goals they had were different, they only ever had one-sided conversations with each other, except when their parents were watching.

Hilda did not hesitate to mock him, saying that while she was turning the empire into the Grey family’s trading company, he could either become a worthless imperial knight holding a sword or put on a fish skin and go off to war.

There was no way the girl who cackled while saying such things would get engaged or married to him. While he would refuse it from his side, if the other side also rejected it, it was only a matter of time before it was called off. Especially since the Grey family doted on Hilda, they would not force her to do something she did not want to.

‘When you become the empire’s greatest merchant, I’ll shipwreck every one of your merchant ships I see.’

‘Try it, you fish. You’ll be lucky if you don’t get hit by my merchant ship and drop dead.’

‘You slow-ass bear cub. Once you’re out at sea, you’ll be the first to become whale food.’

‘Hmph, fins are useless in the mountains, you know?’

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

‘Oh, just try it! Then I’ll break all the trees at my house and pile them on top of you.’

‘The only thing you know how to do is use brute force, right? How ignorant.’

‘Fuck, what?’

Around the ages of eight or nine, there was nothing they wouldn’t say. On days when the Grey family visited the mansion for some reason or when a social gathering was held, Hilda and he would sit in a corner and engage in useless arguments. The other children their age were ‘nobles,’ but Hilda always laughed heartily and did not shy away from swearing.

Most of the curses were insults directed at him, but he did not retort because he was genuinely offended. No matter how carelessly he spoke or acted, Hilda’s personality was such that she would be more extreme, not less. Those boorish arguments, which happened every so often, would relieve the pressure just as he was about to suffocate from the constraints of his family.

Separate from those circumstances, their dislike for each other was genuine. They had rarely ever exchanged an ordinary conversation. It had always been like that until around the age of fifteen, when Hilda suddenly declared that she had to go on a journey to become a merchant.

After her declaration, Hilda seemed to have really left, as she never appeared before him again. He realized Hilda had left when he saw only the head of the Grey family and his wife at the mansion or the Imperial Palace. He never bothered to ask when or where she had gone. They were not on terms to be curious about such things.

He was just briefly envious of Hilda for having left so freely. A feeling similar to an inferiority complex began to creep up. However, thanks to his own admission to the military academy the following year, he had lived his life having forgotten that first and last feeling of inferiority. So, he was not exactly pleased to see her.

There was no way he would be happy to see a person who knew all the shameful parts of his childhood appear and start flapping her tongue. He could not predict what words might fly out of that mouth. If possible, he wanted to pull out her tongue before she could cause any trouble.

“Hilda. Be quiet and go rest, why don’t you?”

“The hooligan has become a decent person. Oh, no, that’s not it. You’re telling me to shut up and ge—, mph!”

Every eye in the central hall turned to Hilda. Her mouth covered by her father’s hand, she shrieked with a muffled voice. Her mother, who approached next, dragged her away and disappeared upstairs. Her mouth was still covered.

The small shouts directed at Orca grew more distant before finally falling silent. As silence descended upon the central hall, Hilda’s father awkwardly remarked that his daughter was naturally a bit boisterous. A few light jokes followed, and the excited atmosphere of the party’s first day quickly returned, covering the silence.

Orca could only pray that these ten days would pass safely. He felt pathetic for trying to escape a situation by begging someone else, but this time, he had no choice. Having confirmed that nothing had changed between when they were fifteen and now, Hilda Grey was, to him, nothing more than a being whose mouth he wanted to gag, even if it meant snatching a sea anemone from a Pompom crab. It was not as if they could get into a fruitless argument and fight like they did in the old days.

Lunch was served buffet-style in the garden, where seating had been prepared in advance. The long tables were filled with main dishes like leg of lamb marinated in wine and roasted in an oven, chilled roast beef, veal steak, beef stew, steamed herring with sorrel juice, and grilled trout, along with side dishes such as green pasta, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, and omelets. For wine, sherry, which pairs well with fish dishes, and hock, which goes with meat dishes, were prepared. On one side, musicians adorned the party with cheerful and warm melodies fitting for late spring.

The head butler, having selected the most handsome among the available servants, moved among the guests with them, pouring wine into their glasses, while footmen and several other servants stood before the long tables, carving and serving the bone-in roasted meat or transferring food onto plates.

With a spread comparable to an Imperial Palace banquet, some people were already looking forward to the evening’s dinner. As if to amplify their anticipation, the steaming hot dishes were quickly replaced with new food as soon as the platters emptied.

Orca and Hilda, who naturally ended up sitting together at a six-person table set far apart from the others, continued their meal calmly, as if they had never caused a commotion. Of course, the situation under the table was a bit different. This was because the grudge from being told to shut up and get lost still lingered with Hilda.

She stretched out her foot and stomped hard on Orca’s instep across from her. Orca did not want to play along with her childish antics, but Hilda was so persistent that he ended up kicking her hard. The space beneath the tablecloth that covered their legs was like a battlefield. It was a petty fight, so childish one could not bear to watch it. But both of them moved their forks with casual faces, pretending nothing was wrong.

Fortunately, their parents did not seem to notice and only exchanged friendly conversation. Orca, who had devoured the roasted duck that burst with juices as if chewing on ‘Hilda,’ kicked away the shoe that was on his instep. Hilda’s mouth opened slightly, agape.

‘You crazy fish head.’

‘Shut up.’

Orca regretted it as soon as he had unwittingly retorted. Vowing to not engage with her as much as possible, he shifted his gaze away from hers. The only time Hilda was helpful was when she interrupted talk of the engagement.