By Zephyria 
Ah, how utterly obvious human malice could be. It was so pathetic and trite that I couldn’t even sigh. He swept back his wet hair and took a light breath. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to make these rude things disappear without a trace, just as easily as drying his soaked body without feeling a single drop of moisture.
“What are you looking at? Why aren’t you kneeling and groveling right now? Beg for forgiveness, and promise never to be insolent again!”
The voice of a human consumed by jealousy was sharp and venomous. However, in this case, the problem was that what stood before that blade wouldn’t be scratched by mere words.
What should I do with this…? The blue eyes, which had been contemplating for a moment, regained their vitality. He swept away the faint boredom and disgust and quickly put on a pitiful expression. The drooping ends of his eyebrows and the gentle eyes filled with tears as if he were sad were simply heartbreaking.
“I’m sorry… but I don’t really know what I did wrong… If you could kindly teach me, I promise I won’t do it again…”
The eyes of an unspecified number of people, pretending to know or not know, were staring intently at his every word and action. He willingly became the leading actor on that stage, putting on even more exaggerated lines and ridiculous tragic attire. It was a familiar task.
Artificially inflating the negative emotions of humans was easier for him than snapping his fingers. It was always like that.
“What? You still don’t know? I see, I really need to make you come to your senses!”
As the person trying to mock him lowered himself further, the servant became elated, unaware of what he was dealing with. This, too, was just as obvious. I wish these humans would all disappear… He muttered inwardly, wearing a pitiful facade that would make anyone who saw him feel sorry for him.
“What are you doing!”
As he raised his voice as if screaming at the roughly grabbed collar, the concentration of malice surrounding him deepened without end. What are you, why are you different from us, why only you, only you, only you! Such clear animosity, which didn’t even require effort to read, boiled like poison in an iron pot.
He forcibly bit his tongue to suppress the laughter that was about to leak out. For the sake of the sole audience of this ridiculous farce, it was necessary to be faithful to the role he had been assigned.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
It was then. Another leading actor appeared on the stage. The knight, with lake-like blue eyes and sun-shattering blonde hair, looked as if he had jumped straight out of a fairy tale, someone everyone admired.
“K, Knight…!”
The servant, who had been grabbing his collar until just now, shaking his hand roughly with a triumphant air, quickly shrank and trembled. He also slightly released his grip on his collar.
“Hey, are you alright?”
“Hic… Sir Kyle…”
He pitifully trembled his shoulders and hid behind the knight. He was on the verge of vomiting at the inappropriate flattery, but he skillfully endured it. For the sake of future enjoyment, this level of hardship was not even a proper insult.
“Come with me. I need to check if you’re hurt.”
The knight carefully wrapped his arm around the shoulder of the most hideous and, at the same time, pitiful thing in the world, and moved to a place where there were no eyes. This scene would be diligently conveyed through the eyes, ears, or mouths of many people who were watching, and would eventually be safely delivered to Noah Hamilton.
How is it, are you enjoying it? He suddenly wanted to ask. I’m working so hard for your enjoyment alone…
“Are the servants… usually rough with you?”
Kyle Gray had taken him to a small training ground that he used personally. There was no concern for other people’s eyes. Feeling strangely tired, he didn’t bother to give an answer. And then, daringly and presumptuously, he sat comfortably on a chair in the corner, even though Kyle Gray hadn’t offered him a seat.
“You really do look alike. It’s truly… incredibly similar…”
However, the knight lost in his daydream didn’t even realize what kind of insolent behavior the servant in front of him was committing. He muttered several times with a dazed look. You look like him, how can you resemble him so much…?
He was doing well, talking about being a half-wit who was deceived by the resemblance every time and didn’t even know who was truly sitting in his heart. He was about to kick the dull-witted knight in the back, but soon even that became too bothersome, and he relaxed his limbs.
“It’s natural to look alike. ‘This body’ originally belonged to that child.”
He chuckled and swept back his wet bangs once more. He wanted to see the innocent face that was thoughtlessly enjoying itself right away.
“Young master, young master!”
Nicole came running with hurried steps and whispered something in my ear. Some of the servants near the water fountain were openly picking on Allen, and Kyle, who happened to be passing by, had saved Allen. I ordered Nicole to spread the news far and wide throughout the mansion. In a very, very small voice, so that it wouldn’t reach my mother’s ears across the room.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing, Mother. It seems there was just a small squabble among the servants.”
My mother, who was leisurely embroidering in front of me while drinking tea, nodded her head, saying, “Mmm.”
“I told Nicole to handle it well, so don’t worry.”
“Hehehe, you’re starting to act quite grown-up now? It seems the day my baby leaves home is approaching.”
“What are you talking about? Leaving home? I’m going to keep living here with Mother.”
“Well, I wonder if that precious person in the Imperial Palace would agree?”
My mother burst into a refreshing laugh, like a girl, and stroked the back of my hand.
“Oh, by the way, he’s not coming this month?”
Even though it was just my mother and I in the room, she didn’t directly refer to the Crown Prince. I understood the subjectless words without difficulty and nodded.
“Yes, he must be busy preparing for the harvest festival and everything else, so I can’t possibly take up his precious time. I’ve sent word that I’ll be taking Suppressant this heat cycle, so he doesn’t need to come.”
“Oh my! How can you be so considerate?”
It was just that I didn’t want to face the Crown Prince, even if only for a while, but it was an undeserved compliment. But I didn’t bother to deny it and just smiled. I had already realized several times that being humble in aristocratic society only benefited others.
“But you know. Lately, there’s been a lot of discord among the lower servants… It’s said to be because of that new servant of yours.”
My mother casually threw out the words. She had delegated the authority to me to teach me how to manage the affairs of the family, but it seemed she hadn’t completely closed her ears to the news inside the mansion. It wasn’t explicit, but in my mother’s words, I could strongly sense the intention of getting rid of the newly arrived servant, who was nothing more than a seed of discord.
The fact that even minor emotional disputes between servants were being conveyed to the mistress of the family was proof that Allen’s situation inside the mansion was quite difficult these days.
Ever since Kyle had shown a strange liking for Allen, the subtle ostracism of the servants had completely transformed into open hostility.
The favor shown by the young masters of the Hamilton Count’s family, who were out of reach for everyone, would have ended as just a matter of bad luck, but Kyle’s favor, which many people secretly admired with the hope that maybe, just maybe… was a completely different matter for them. Realistic jealousy is always the best prey for animosity.
When I recalled the various humiliations I had had to endure in the mansion after being branded as an illegitimate child of a collateral line who just happened to resemble Allen, when I had been a precious young master who no one had dared to defy until Allen appeared, it was the same.
“Noah, my baby. I know very well that you are full of affection and have a tender heart… But if there is an ominous bud, you must nip it in the bud from the beginning.”
“Thank you for your valuable teachings. I understand what you mean, but… Mother. Allen, that child… strangely keeps catching my eye and tugging at my heart.”
I took a sip of tea and slowly opened my mouth.
“Is it because he looks so much like me that it’s startling?”
“…What?”
“You’ll be surprised when you see him too, Mother! Oh, would you like to meet him?”
It was time to move on to a new phase.