Chapter 88
“The Person in My Memory”
Of course, my uncle wouldn’t call me here just to insult me like a child.
‘Where is he?’
While searching for him among the people, I caught my reflection in the glass wall.
The anxious face looking back at me was not a good one.
‘Why do I look like this? I just came because I was invited. There’s nothing to be nervous about, nothing to rush.’
After all, my uncle said he had something to tell me. That was why I had to come to this banquet today.
I wasn’t expecting anything. I wasn’t wishing for anything.
‘I only came here as the Swordmaster of the Vivi family, answering the head’s call.’
At last, after wandering through the music and laughter of the party, I found my uncle.
He was surrounded by people, talking.
I waited behind a pillar, sipping my drink, until his talk finished.
“Count.”
I’d been calling him that ever since grandmother handed him the family headship when I was a child.
Sure, if he asked me a dozen times to call him uncle, maybe I’d think about it. But he never had.
When I called, my uncle—Count Dinel Vivi—turned to look at me.
For a moment, he said nothing. I thought he was just delaying since he had something to say.
But after glancing at me, dressed up more neatly than usual, the words he spoke were only:
“……Serdin, you came too?”
“Yes, you called me.”
“Right. Have fun, then.”
He turned back around, just like that.
“……”
I hadn’t expected anything great. But even so, those words were much lower than the lowest expectations I had.
“Wait, Count.”
“What is it?”
“You said you had something you wanted to tell me.”
The invitation had clearly said that. What was it he wanted to say…?
“Did I?”
His reply turned every question, every hope, into nothing.
I shut my mouth.
“…No. Nothing.”
I turned away.
I walked slowly until he was out of sight. Not in a hurry—calm, as if nothing was wrong.
Only when I rounded the corner did I stop walking.
“……”
Enough. What was I even expecting?
But before I could even take a breath, Gren appeared from the direction I had come.
“Didn’t you say Father’s thoughts might be different from mine?”
He must have heard everything.
Gren clutched his stomach like he couldn’t hold back his laughter.
It was a face I really wanted to punch.
No, don’t respond to his provocation.
“Why act so proud, Serdin? All you have is that Swordmaster position you luckily got.”
He put weight on each word of luckily got, just to anger me.
But I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
With a calm expression, like all the frustration and heartburn had melted away, I placed my hand on my chest and said:
“Phew, I’m glad I was lucky.”
“What?”
“Thanks to that luck, I don’t have to listen to your nonsense. I can just walk my own path. My luck is too good.”
Gren’s face darkened for a moment, but quickly returned.
He was used to this kind of back-and-forth with me.
“Other than that, you have nothing, Serdin. No backing, no foundation, nothing.”
“Gren, you have no backing, no foundation, and no sword aura.”
“The only thing I lack is sword aura. But I’m the direct heir of the Vivi family. I have all rights as successor. One day I’ll be the Count, with the full support of the family behind me.”
It sounded like he’d practiced that speech. He kept going nonstop.
“But you? Sorry to say this about Aunt Riana, but—”
“If you’re sorry, don’t say it.”
“You don’t even know who your father is. Honestly, it embarrasses me that someone like you shares the Vivi name.”
I wanted to punch his nose, but instead I grabbed a bottle from the table.
Of course, I wasn’t about to hit him with it.
I poured into a glass. The liquor was strong just from its smell.
“What’s this?”
“It’s been a while. Wouldn’t it be rude to leave without clinking glasses? You won’t refuse, will you, Gren?”
“……”
“Right, you’re weak at things like this, aren’t you, Gren?”
Gren took the glass from me with a puzzled face, and we both emptied them at once.
He coughed. “If you gave me one, then I—” cough “—should give you one too.”
He pulled a glass from inside his coat.
“……”
Who carries a glass in their coat? Obviously suspicious.
“You should drink my glass too, Serdin.”
He poured and handed it to me.
I recoiled, frowning. It wasn’t even about whether he put something in it—the fact it came from his coat made it worse.
“What, are you avoiding it?”
Gren sneered.
“Don’t want to? Figures. You’re weak at this, Serdin.”
He was too good at getting under people’s skin.
I grabbed the glass and drained it in one go.
Gren’s face showed slight shock.
“……”
Right away, my strength drained from my body. He must have coated it with some drug that sapped energy.
‘So he really has no basic decency…’
But I knew Gren’s level. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be enough to kill me. That was why I drank it.
“Oh dear, you don’t look well. You’d better go home, Serdin.”
“……”
“You look like you’ll collapse any moment.”
“……”
“Not collapsing? Why aren’t you collapsing?”
I widened my eyes and immediately refilled the glass, then shoved it toward him.
One dose wouldn’t be washed out just like that.
“What, what are you doing? I’m not drinking that.”
“…I knew it.”
“What?”
“I gave it to you just in case. As expected—you’re a coward, Gren.”
His lips trembled.
I pushed the glass toward him again, nodding my head.
Even as strength drained from my hands, I forced myself to stay firm like a stone.
Gren gasped, then finally snatched the glass and drank it.
In the end, poison tastes best when shared.
Gren collapsed from just the small amount of drug in his own glass.
Using the last of my strength, I smiled at him and called over a servant to drag him away.
He hated me so much, yet still went this far. At least his dedication was impressive.
‘Now, somewhere quiet.’
I staggered upstairs into an empty room and sat on the terrace, wrapped in heavy white curtains.
The sun had already set. Alone, I just sat still, waiting for the day to pass.
“Other than that, you have nothing, Serdin. No backing, no foundation, nothing.”
“Did I say that?”
The words echoed in my head.
One was Gren’s, meant to hurt me.
The other was my uncle’s, spoken carelessly without any weight.
I leaned against the terrace wall, staring into the distance.
“Serdin, you don’t need to shrink back. You know that, right?”
That voice came to me.
Half-moon teal eyes when smiling. The warmth in the way she always said my name.
That playful tone.
My mother.
When I first came to the Vivi family, I was too young. Soon after, my mother passed away, so I didn’t have many memories.
But the few I had were vivid.
The emotions I felt, the love in her voice when she called my name.
It seemed my mother wanted me to have a family besides her.
But here in the Vivi house, almost no one called me by my name.
They either ignored me, or just called me “you” or “that kid.”
Only the servants, like Murphy, sometimes used my name.
But when I was locked in the closet for three days after hitting Gren, no one called my name at all.
“I told you to behave, Serdin.”
Even then, Count Dinel—my uncle—felt so precious to me.
Because after three long days, someone finally called my name again.
And he resembled my mother.
