SIWALL Ch 29

“Why is this letter like this?”

Arzen’s expression twisted as he read through the letter supposedly sent by Loran.

“Is something the matter?”

Henderson, who had been sorting and organizing the checked and replied-to letters beside him, asked politely. Arzen handed the letter over to him.

“Read this.”

Henderson took the letter and quickly checked the contents. Henderson said with a dubious expression.

“For some reason… there are an awful lot of expressions about things being big. The sentences are simple, too.”

“Do people actually see a piece of the divine as some kind of brute and love it?”

Arzen casually tossed the letter returned by Henderson away. Even though there wasn’t much to it, it was an unnecessarily grating letter. He felt like he had received a similarly odd impression recently, too.

“The Piece of the Divine rose to that position precisely because he carries the eyes of the God Lante. Is there not only a single person across the entire continent with golden eyes like his? He is a person who cannot be presumptuously judged by a mere letter.”

The pious Henderson quietly reprimanded Arzen. At the old butler’s censure, Arzen let out a hollow laugh.

“What’s so great about some eye color. At that rate, brown eyes aren’t bad either—what kind of piece would they revere someone with eyes like that as?”

“Brown eyes are common. If you go around saying things like that, you’ll get hit with stones no matter how much you are the Grand Duke.”

Henderson chuckled warmly. However, Arzen turned back to Henderson as if genuinely perplexed.

“Brown eyes like that aren’t common. I have never seen such eyes.”

“Whose eyes are you speaking of?”

“Why, naturally…”

Arzen’s words ground to an abrupt halt mid-sentence.

“Was it an illusion reflected in the light of the glasses?”

At Arzen’s muttered words, Henderson lifted his nose-pince and inspected it closely. Come to think of it, Henderson’s eyes were a faded brown as well.

Could it…?

Henderson bit his lip.

“This old man shall serve you with even greater devotion, Your Grace!”

It was the exact moment when poor Henderson’s loyalty spiked unnecessarily.

That night, there was a birthday celebration banquet for the Count of Velatros. The Count of Velatros was the father of the aide Luor. Even Arzen, who usually did not attend such gatherings, had to show his face for Luor’s sake.

Since it was a banquet where aristocrats played and feasted late into the night, Arzen was expected to return late past dawn. That meant Elliot had the day off today!

When dinner time arrived, he packed a basket of boiled eggs along with salt and headed down to the garden excitedly. It was to have dinner with Benny and Rachel.

However, in the corner of the garden beneath the large oak tree, there was someone else besides Benny and Rachel. It was an unfamiliar face. He was a man with narrow eyes and some flesh on him, and he was pulling out practically a feast from inside a basket.

Soup, meat pies, baked potatoes, bread spread with jam, and rye biscuits came out one after another. Benny and Rachel cheered at every single menu item that appeared, but judging by how they weren’t overly surprised, they seemed accustomed to the man’s extravagant lunchbox.

“Oh my, Elliot! Come right over.”

Rachel spotted Elliot first and called out. Benny welcomed Elliot right after.

“You must be Elliot. Nice to meet you. I’m Benny’s new assistant, Darlin.”

“Ah, hel—”

“I know, I know. My name sounds like a girl’s. When I was born, I was so tiny that my mother mistook me for a girl and gave me the name Darlin. Even though there’s definitely something huge attached right between my legs, haha.”

“Darlin! Stop saying things like that while we’re eating!”

Rachel laughed it off while wrapping her arms around her rounded belly. Benny let out a hearty laugh as well and pulled out a few sandwiches he had packed. They looked like an unreserved, close-knit bunch.

Elliot alone stood stock-still, wearing a confused expression.

Wait, didn’t that just sound a bit… inappropriate? Why is everyone laughing?

Elliot took a seat beside Benny with a dubious expression. For some reason, he didn’t want to sit next to Darlin. As he fumbled out his boiled eggs and salt to lay them out, Darlin exclaimed, “Wow!”

“Elliot, does that even make a dinner?”

“Ah, I’m going to share these eggs with Benny’s sandwiches. I’ve always eaten like that.”

“Good grief. Have you no shame? Sandwiches for a measly few eggs? You’re a born merchant, Elliot.”

Though the end of his sentence was tinged with playfulness and a hearty laugh, Elliot felt that Darlin didn’t seem to like him very much. Benny must have thought so too, as he defended Elliot from the side.

“Elliot and I have always done it this way. And Elliot doesn’t eat much anyway. He’s a very frugal and modest fellow.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll shut up since I’m the luxurious and big-eating one.”

Saying that, Darlin finished off a piece of meat pie in two bites. He ate so much yet talked just as much, to the point where one could learn the personalities and tastes of Darlin’s siblings throughout the mealtime.

However, he constantly dished out food to Rachel, saying that pregnant women needed to eat well, and handed Benny a bag filled with fresh fruit along with the advice that as one grows older, one must eat foods good for the body.

He even shoved a piece of meat pie into Elliot’s mouth, telling him to eat up well, too.

‘Was it my imagination that he seemed to dislike me?’

Elliot felt sorry for unfairly suspecting Darlin. Having spent all this time glued to the paranoid, ultimate-nuisance Arzen, it seemed he had rubbed off on him.

As a token of apology, Elliot handed one of the boiled eggs to Darlin. Darlin devoured it in a single bite.

After the meal, the men decided to drink some alcohol. Benny temporarily stepped away to escort his pregnant daughter inside her accommodation. Darlin, who had been munching on a bunch of grapes skin and all, watched the retreating backs of Benny and Rachel and asked as if he had just remembered.

“Elliot, I hear you serve the Grand Duke?”

“Pardon? Ah, yes. I work as a bedchamber attendant.”

“How is the Grand Duke in bed?”

“He sleeps quite well these days.”

“No, not like that.”

Darlin grinned, pursing his lips and spitting grape seeds out onto the lawn with a series of wet thuds. The grape seeds, glistening with spit, landed near Elliot.

“What’s it like taking whatever the Grand Duke dishes out?”

Elliot’s mouth dropped open on its own.

Wh… what is this crazy bastard saying right now?

“Don’t take it the wrong way. I just heard that the Grand Duke practically keeps you glued to his side, so I was wondering how amazing it is.”

Darlin shrugged his shoulders. Every time he laughed, breadcrumbs fell slightly from his lips.

Elliot was struck dumb, only blinking his eyes. In the meantime, Darlin tidied up the surroundings, picked up the giant food basket, and stood up.

“Let’s go get a drink, Elliot.”

He grinned shamelessly, baring his teeth.

A drink.

Elliot, too, smiled back reflexively and thought to himself.

Fine then, you’re a dead man.

He had genuinely intended to kill him. But the one who died was Elliot.

He had momentarily confused himself with Lim Seongsik. Back then, he used to drink frequently at factories, at after-work gatherings, during occasional company dinners, or alone in his one-room apartment. He could hold his liquor well, and his drinking habits were quite neat.

However, a hangover was a matter of the body, not the soul. He had forgotten the fact that this body was an alcoholic. Upon receiving alcohol after a long time, his alcohol-addicted body completely loosened every single nerve.

Furthermore, because Darlin poured him endless rounds of hard liquor, Elliot was confident he wouldn’t recognize his own father if he came back from the dead right now. An intoxication that made the sky spin in circles and the ground turn upside down assaulted him.

“Elliot, can you really make it up to your room all by yourself?”

Benny asked with concern.

“Oh my, worrying a grown man like some baby. Elliot’s going to be offended by that, Benny.”

Darlin laughed heartily from the side and pounded heavily on Elliot’s back.

“It hu-, it hurts….”

Elliot tried hard to express his intent with a tangled tongue, but Darlin acted as though he couldn’t hear him. With a hand like a bear’s paw, he squeezed and massaged Elliot’s shoulder as if wringing it out.

“Well then, get home safe, Elliot. Let’s drink again next time.”

With that, Darlin took Benny and headed inside the servants’ quarters. Left behind all alone in the corner of the garden, Elliot clutched his bruised shoulder and muttered.

“Damn… seriously… that hypocritical bas… if I were in Korea, man, you would’ve… ugh, already passed out… hiccup.”

And he trudged toward the mansion. He felt like he would collapse and fall asleep in the garden at any moment, so he needed to get to his room quickly and wait for this terrible hangover to subside.

Arzen entered the mansion late at night after Luor’s birthday banquet concluded, greeted by Henderson and Madam Megan.

“Where is the aide…?”

Madam Megan looked behind Arzen with a puzzled expression.

“Since it’s his birthday, I told him to rest at home for the day. Straight to the bathroom.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Masked, Arzen entered the bathroom, tended to by Henderson and Madam Megan. The pungent scents of heavy perfume and wine still seemed to linger at the tip of his nose. He walked into the bathroom still wearing his banquet attire. From outside the door, the sounds of Henderson and Megan preparing his pajamas busily echoed.

Only after entering the bathroom and being left all alone did he strip off his clothes and step into a bathtub filled generously with hot water.

He removed his mask only after submerging his body in the water. As he did, a dazzling beauty revealed itself—one that would have made Elliot involuntarily curse out loud if he had seen it.