CHAPTER 8
A polite but urgent voice came from outside.
In this house, there were only two people who were close with Uncle and often spent time with him.
One was the head manager, Leto. The other was Gerard.
Gerard didn’t have a scary face, but he always carried a sword, so he was still kind of scary.
“Come in. And you—go to your room.”
Uncle said in a sharp tone, his face full of anger.
His voice was completely different from before, and I flinched. I couldn’t even ask for the letter I wanted and just hesitated.
“Ah, okay…”
Gerard came in soon after.
I decided to save the letter talk for later and just said, “Uncle, see you later,” as I headed to the door.
“Hello, young lady.”
Gerard stopped and bent one knee to greet me.
He had wavy gray hair and round black eyes. His lips curved into a soft smile, and he had a small beauty mark under one eye.
“Hi, Gerard!”
“If I had known you were here, I would’ve brought you a snack.”
“Stop talking nonsense. Did you find it?”
Uncle cut in sharply, walked up, picked me up, and carried me outside.
“Yes. We got one of them for now—”
“Talk after the kid’s gone.”
To top it off, Uncle gave my butt a little push, telling me to hurry up.
I was kicked out so quickly I ended up just pouting at him in the hallway.
“Fine, I’ll go.”
“Stay in your room and behave.”
“Uncle, then later, can I get the lett—”
Thud.
Before I could even finish, the door slammed shut.
“Geez…”
Uncle should grow horns on his butt or something.
I glared at the tightly closed door, then turned and walked back to my room.
I’ll get the letter later.
“When is Uncle coming back?”
“He’ll be late today. Would you like to eat first? The head chef made your favorite creamy milk sauce dishes.”
“It’d be better to eat with Uncle though…”
I sat on my bed, swinging my legs and mumbling.
Not long after kicking me out, Uncle had gone out with Gerard.
And he still hadn’t come back even though it was already evening.
“If you start dinner, I’m sure he’ll return soon.”
I thought for a moment and then nodded.
“Okay, I’ll eat and wait.”
“Good choice. Shall we go?”
Zenda bent down and held out her hand to me.
I took her hand and we headed toward the dining room.
That’s when we ran into Uncle at the end of the hallway—he was walking in with a strange, intense vibe.
“Oh! Un—”
He looked just like Uncle, but something was different.
He didn’t seem like the same uncle who usually snapped at me.
He looked much scarier, and it felt like all the good energy around him had disappeared.
On top of that, one of his hands was wet and dark red.
I didn’t want to say it, but I finally understood where Uncle’s scary nickname came from.
I was so scared, I almost stepped back.
But Uncle was faster.
He stormed down the hallway to the right without a word.
Gerard quickly bowed to me and then rushed after him.
“…Let’s go, young lady.”
Zenda gently pulled me along.
I looked back at the hallway where Uncle had disappeared, then followed Zenda quietly.
I didn’t see Uncle again for the rest of the night.
Three days had passed since I got kicked out of the stables and Uncle’s office.
For those three days, Uncle kept getting mad at me.
“Just go away, seriously.”
“Aren’t you leaving?”
“Stop following me!”
It felt like he got angry every time he saw my face.
Especially the day he came back with Gerard—his hand was bloody and he looked so scary I almost ran back to my room.
And yesterday, when I followed him around again, he yelled at me and asked if I was some kind of stalker.
I think it was when he was going to the bathroom? Anyway!
After that scary horse accident, I hadn’t had any weird dreams or visions, so I was just quietly hanging around Uncle.
Honestly, if I’d stuck too close, maybe he really would’ve tossed me somewhere.
“Thanks, Zenda!”
My face was wet from washing, and Zenda gently wiped it with a soft towel.
Even though Uncle had warned her not to spoil me too much in front of him, Zenda was always kind to me.
Even if I just said I was a little thirsty, she never gave me just any water.
She always checked if it was too hot or too cold first.
Zenda seemed really scared of Uncle, but she still didn’t hesitate to help me. I was kind of worried about that.
“You’re very welcome.”
That’s why I really liked Zenda.
Her kindness, her leaf-colored eyes, and her ripened grain-colored hair, braided to one side.
Of course, the other servants were nice too.
“Can I go see Uncle?”
“Again…?”
Zenda looked at me with worried eyes.
Her face immediately went pale.
“Yeah. Uncle doesn’t eat breakfast, remember?”
Mom used to say that starting the day with a good breakfast keeps you from getting too tired by evening.
As usual, Zenda tried to stop me a bunch of times.
But, also as usual, she ended up walking me to Uncle’s door.
“Thanks, Zenda!”
“If you get scared, run out right away.”
“Okay, got it!”
“If the Master gets angry, please tell him it wasn’t your idea—that I opened the door on my own.”
“Hmm? But that’d be a lie.”
“Some lies are okay.”
I listened to Zenda’s worried advice and slipped into Uncle’s room.
Thick black curtains covered every window, so even though the sun had risen, it still looked like night in here.
Thankfully, the room was really big and didn’t have much furniture, so I didn’t have to worry about bumping into anything.
Smells nice in here.
I looked around for something to climb on.
Why was Uncle’s bed always so high?
Before, I used cushions and steps to climb up. But today, everything was gone—probably because Uncle got rid of them.
Still, I wasn’t about to give up!
Grunting and struggling, I finally managed to climb onto Uncle’s bed without anything to step on. A first!
“Uncle, it’s morning.”
I sat near him and kept calling him over and over.
“Uncle. Uncle?”
Around the tenth time I called, Uncle—who was lying face-down—suddenly cursed and opened his eyes, which glowed in a scary golden light.
I looked at him and smiled brightly.
“Uncle, good morning! Did you have a nice dream?”
“…You’re still here?”
Uncle asked in a groggy, annoyed voice.
“Where would I go?”
I blinked and tilted my head.
“Back to the old man’s house.”
“I told you, I’m not going back to Grandpa’s. Uncle, let’s eat breakfast!”
“Sigh…”
Uncle sat up halfway and scratched his messy hair.
His bare chest popped out from under the blanket—it looked like he was made of rocks tied together with ropes.
“Uncle, aren’t you cold? Why are you sleeping without clothes? You’ll get a stomachache.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I don’t want you to catch a cold.”
“I’m too annoyed to feel cold, thanks to you. Aren’t you going downstairs?”
“…I’ll go.”
Uncle always gets mad whenever he sees me.
Even though I didn’t do anything wrong yesterday or today.
Mom, Grandpa, the servants, even the shop people Mom took me to see—they all liked me.
I wished Uncle would hurry up and like me too.
If I didn’t go down now, he’d get mad again. But if I left, he’d just go back to sleep.
So I boldly stayed on the bed, crawling around.
“Why’d you come?”
Uncle sat up completely, grabbed a wrinkled shirt from a small table, and put it on while asking.
“To eat breakfast together!”
“You go ahead.”
Uncle gulped down water angrily.
Then he disappeared—probably to wash up.
I waited quietly on the bed.
Even though he grumbled, Uncle came back, changed clothes quickly, and scooped me up to carry me to the dining room.
“Uncle, I can walk too.”
I mumbled while dangling from his side.
“The faster you eat, the faster I get rid of you.”
“Meanie…”
He must’ve remembered how I kept begging to stay by his side if he didn’t eat.
But while I ate, Uncle never took his grumpy eyes off me—not once.
He didn’t eat anything except water.
After I finished and patted my full belly, Uncle suddenly called me.
I ran over, excited, but… something felt off. The air felt heavy again.
“Get ready to go out.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Come down when you’re ready.”
“Where are we going? Where are you going, Uncle?”
