SIWALL Ch 31

Elliot opened his eyes, suffering from a severe thirst. Sleep vanished all at once, as if he had entered a state of complete awakening, and by blinking a few times, he could tell he had come to his senses.

So this body tends to get drunk quickly and sober up just as fast.

After learning this piece of information about his body, Elliot sat up.

However, something was strange. A brightly glowing mass of gold was lying right next to him.

“Well, what do you know. Is this a dream?”

Elliot rubbed his swollen eyes. Then, the glow of the golden mass slowly subsided, much like how eyesight stumbles and returns under the fluorescent light of a bathroom when waking up in the middle of the night.

That wasn’t a lump of gold—it was a person!

Arzen Teron.

His handsome face was shining excessively in the morning sunlight, which was why Elliot had briefly mistaken him for a nugget of gold.

How could something like this happen?

Elliot gently pinched his own swollen eyelids. It hurt.

“Why… is the Grand Duke here?”

Elliot looked around.

The place where he was lying was Arzen’s room.

Just why…?

Suddenly, something Darlin had said flashed through Elliot’s mind.

‘What is the Grand Duke like in bed?’

Elliot held his breath and slowly pulled back the blanket to check underneath.

“Phew….”

Fortunately, he was wearing all of his clothes. As he let out a sigh of relief, a low voice came from beside him.

“You’re unbelievable now.”

Arzen, who had just woken up, was looking at Elliot as if he were pathetic.

“You’re not my type.”

Without realizing it, Elliot pulled the blanket up to his chest. His eyes narrowed.

“I-I’m not your type either, sir, not by a long shot.”

“Really? Considering that, you seem to quite like my face.”

Arzen rolled over to face Elliot, propped his head up with his hand, and gave him a deep, sultry gaze.

W-w-what. How can he make such a s-s-seductive, shameless look, how d-d-dare he…!

Suddenly, the conservative old man inside Elliot woke up and began shaking a finger in reprimand.

“Look, even the tips of your ears have turned red….”

Arzen’s voice trailed off as he looked up at Elliot’s ears with an amused expression. It was because the tips of Elliot’s ears were truly bright red.

Elliot quickly covered both ears with his hands.

“I-It’s because it’s hot! And it’s too shameless, and improper, and also….”

Elliot stammered out his excuses.

Arzen, who had been momentarily surprised by the color of Elliot’s ears, seemed to have regained his composure by then. He asked in a low voice.

“And?”

“Also… embarrassing, and awkward, and….”

“Is there more?”

“Also… also….”

Elliot’s eyes rolled around here and there trying to find his next excuse. Seeing that, Arzen gave a faint smile and got out of bed.

“I’m starting to understand a little why Generwin Tulion keeps you around.”

Leaving behind just those words, he left the bedroom first.

“What did Generwin have to do with anything?”

Elliot frowned at the remark, which left an unpleasant, lingering hunch.

Don’t tell me that jerk still thinks I’m Generwin’s lover?

He felt a strong sense of obligation that he needed to correct this mistaken misunderstanding as soon as possible.

Elliot sluggishly crawled out of bed, checked his attire one more time—aside from being a bit disheveled, there was no sign of anything “improper”—and opened the bedroom door.

Surely Arzen wouldn’t have gone far yet.

Judging thus, Elliot quickly closed the door behind him and turned in the direction Arzen was likely to have gone. However, the moment he stepped out, the man he unfortunately encountered was Darlin, smiling with his chin double-folded. Darlin looked Elliot up and down in his unkempt clothes and gave a short whistle.

“Elliot, must have been a good night? Was it thanks to me?”

“Darlin, that’s not it….”

“It’s fine. I already know everything, you know. But be careful, Elliot. Rumor has it that the Grand Duke’s bed attendants don’t last very long before getting replaced.”

“No, it’s not like that….”

“Work hard so the Grand Duke doesn’t get tired of you.”

Darlin winked, gave Elliot’s shoulder a casual slap, and walked past. Casual as the slap was meant to be, Elliot felt like his shoulder was about to shatter.

That son of a bitch… he’s definitely doing this on purpose.

Rubbing his aching shoulder, Elliot headed for the stairs on the opposite side from Darlin, leading up to the second floor where his room was located. Suddenly, he felt that going to meet Arzen to explain things was completely pointless.

Elliot knew better than anyone that a bed attendant didn’t do that kind of work, and that Arzen would definitely never do such a thing to his attendant… but he also knew very well that the rumor about bed attendants being replaced before long was indeed true.

“Right, I’m just an attendant and a servant after all….”

And not even Arzen’s type, to boot.

Elliot let out a small sigh and walked down the stairs.

That day, a strange rumor circulated around the Teron estate.

It was that the Grand Duke, whom the servants respected, and their beloved colleague Elliot Brown were in a relationship.

Mary, an eighteen-year-old girl whose heart fluttered with her first love, shed tears onto her laundry basket the moment she heard the rumor. Then, cooling her flushed eyes with cold water, she bravely knocked on Elliot’s door.

“Mary, what brings you here?”

Ah, how is my darling so sweet?

Soaked in the lingering emotion of an impossible first love, Mary felt a stinging sensation at the tip of her nose.

Unlike usual, Elliot’s face was slightly puffy, which made him look genuinely cute. They said he had been drinking with Darlin yesterday, but instead of the smell of alcohol, he smelled of fragrant soap. It looked like he had just finished washing up.

The white shirt he was wearing was neither starched nor made of expensive fabric, but it suited Elliot, with his intellectual appearance, very well.

The rumor went that he had come out of the Grand Duke’s room half-naked this morning, dead drunk.

Hope blossomed in Mary’s heart. The rumor might just be a rumor. Perhaps Elliot hadn’t done anything with the Grand Duke after all.

She brightened up and took a step closer to Elliot.

“Elliot, are you really dating the Grand Duke?”

“Pardon? What… what… pardon?”

Elliot furrowed his brow as if he had heard something he shouldn’t have.

Emboldened by this, Mary told him the rumors currently circulating in the Grand Duke’s residence:

That a bed attendant was actually a sacrificial offering brought in to satisfy the Grand Duke’s violent sexual tastes; that judging by the fact that Elliot had spent the night with the Grand Duke, he would soon be discarded; and that he should be careful not to become the next bed attendant to be thrown away, and so on.

Having heard those outrageous rumors from Mary, Elliot asked coldly.

“Who did you hear that rumor from?”

At his tone, which she had never heard before, Mary widened her eyes.

“I-It was Darlin….”

“Figures.”

Elliot let out a long breath to steady himself. Then, he flashed his signature reassuring smile.

“Thanks for letting me know, Mary. I need to go find the source of these absurd rumors for a moment.”

“Ah, y-yes, yes….”

“Sorry if I scared you. I was just dumbfounded hearing such nonsense. There’s some Camembert inside, so feel free to stay and play if you’d like.”

With a gentle farewell to Mary, Elliot vanished down the other side of the corridor. Feeling a momentary sense of distance from Elliot that quickly dissipated, Mary happily went into Elliot’s room to play with Camembert.

At any rate, it meant he hadn’t been dumped, right?

With a much improved mood, she began her playtime with Camembert.

Darlin was alone in the garden. Sitting under an apple tree, he was eating a slightly unripe apple; making a puckered face as if the taste wasn’t very good, he kept his mouth moving incessantly.

“Darlin, let’s have a word.”

Elliot stood before such a Darlin. He didn’t forget to plant his hands on both hips and puff himself up.

In a fight, striking first is everything. And as the relatively smaller and thinner person, Elliot needed to claim the higher ground.

Without looking intimidated at all, Darlin smiled slyly and looked up at Elliot.

“Oh my, how terrifying. Elliot, what’s this about?”

Ah, so irritating. Elliot’s fists planted on his hips trembled.

“I heard you’ve been spreading wild rumors around the estate. Why on earth are you doing this to me?”

As Elliot protested, Darlin flicked the apple core he was holding far across the lawn. The apple core flew at a terrifying speed, making a quite threatening whistling sound. When Elliot flinched, Darlin smiled slyly again.

“Wild rumors, you say? I was just telling what I saw.”

“I’m not in any kind of relationship with the Grand Duke. Such rumors are disrespectful to the Grand Duke, too. If he finds out, you could be in danger.”

“My, are you worried about me? As Mary said, you really are kind and sweet. Is that why the Grand Duke fell for you? Because you’re so sweet and accommodating in bed, too?”

“I told you to watch your mouth.”

Elliot’s voice dropped another octave. Noticing real anger in his eyes, Darlin raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Ah, alright, alright. My bad.”

“Don’t go around saying things like that ever again. Promise me, Darlin.”

“Yeah, yeah, I promise.”

With that, Darlin held out his pinky finger. Elliot stared suspiciously at his finger before reluctantly locking his own pinky with it.

Fortunately, Darlin didn’t try to exert force to snap or twist Elliot’s pinky. After finishing the usual signing of a promise, Elliot shot Darlin one more glare as a warning and whipped his body around.

However, Elliot was unaware.

That Arzen, who had been summoned by the Emperor since morning and was heading out to the imperial palace in a carriage, had witnessed Elliot and Darlin locking pinkies from inside his carriage.

And that, having heard the tail end of their conversation with his exceptional hearing, he had asked Luor, who was sitting opposite him:

“Who on earth is that fellow, that Elliot Brown is calling him ‘darling’?”