The manor’s guest wing was as luxurious as the rest of it. Which ant the bathtub was sothing of a small swimming pool that Ignotus, being the clean freak that he was, couldn’t stop himself from diving into.
The undeniable tension hovering over him and his people wasn’t going to stop him.
He lay relaxed in the steaming water, staring at three gold-plated faucets, all shaped like a wolf’s head, yet a tad different.
’Why is its mouth shut like that?’
They truly were vassals of death.
’Is that one blind?’
One couldn’t see.
’I feel like it’s judging my posture...’
One couldn’t hear.
’The last one is mute. Hm."
The last couldn’t speak.
Ignotus dunked his head underwater to stop the wolves from staring at him and stayed there for a while, perhaps a dozen or so minutes. Only then did he pop back up, splashing water everywhere.
’Luxury is the privilege of choosing when to be wet.’
With that thought, one that made him reminisce about his past life, he dried off with a towel that was too soft to dry anything properly and got dressed.
Afterwards, he headed down to a smaller dining room where the group was gathering for a very late-night al.
Lykos and Ulv were eating in silence, still simring from the encounter at the entrance. Beside them was Grom, who stood with Felix at the sideboard. The butler acted the most differently from usual, fussing over a platter of roasted chicken, his movents a little too stiff, his eyes a little too focused on the silverware.
"So, Felix..."
Ignotus sat down, grabbed a chicken leg, and pointed it at his butler.
"Back there at the gate, that Rollo guy ntioned you ’moving up’ in the world."
His pretty quiet arrival surprised the others.
"What’s the story?"
He asked while taking a massive bite, showing no concern that the chicken might be poisoned.
"Did you steal his coin back when he was a kid? Because if so, good job."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The room went surprisingly quiet.
This was the first ti Ignotus genuinely asked anything personal about any of them, sothing that surprised them more than the question itself.
"...answer him."
Lykos was the first to curiously look up at Felix, making him freeze mid-adjustnt of a napkin.
"It was..."
The butler tried to force a smile, but it barely looked like one... Ignotus would’ve done a better job of looking normal.
"It was a long ti ago, Young Lord."
His voice was unusually thin.
"A different life, a different House."
"Talk..."
Ignotus chided while chewing.
"I don’t like not knowing things."
Felix sighed, his shoulders dropping as he leaned against the wall. He didn’t dare look at anyone and instead stared at the flickering candle in the center of the room.
"Before House Plant, I worked as a junior butler for a minor vassal House. One day, while I was cleaning the main hall, I accidentally..."
The air in the room seed to freeze as Felix’s voice seed to trail off, but that was only the case for him. The dining hall vanished, and he no longer saw himself sitting at a table with a regressor and a group of warriors; he was back in that suffocating, polished corridor of the past.
Sounds of a gala nearby ca slightly muffled from behind the heavy oak doors. Young Felix, barely an adult and dressed in a uniform that was two sizes too small, frantically swept the marble floors. He had to be perfect. If he did well today, the head butler might finally give him the bonus he needed to buy his mother’s dicine.
The usual burden of most mortals.
Everything was fine... until he saw them.
A group of young nobles, led by a teenage Rollo, strutted down the hall.
They were loud, arrogant, and slled of expensive wine... a drunken lot.
Felix quickly bowed his head low, pulling his broom back to clear the way.
But as he moved, the bristles caught a tiny pile of grit, flicking it upward.
A single, grayish sar of dust landed on the tip of Rollo’s white-leather boot.
The world stopped, Rollo halted, and stared down at his foot in utter disgust.
"You..."
After a few monts, he looked at Felix.
"Do you have any idea how much these cost?!"
He was enraged.
"More than your life! More than your entire bloodline is worth!"
"My Lord, I—I am so sorry, I didn’t an—"
Rollo didn’t even look him in the face.
"Kneel."
He just gestured to the floor.
"Kneel and beg. If you don’t, I’ll ensure every House in the stratum knows your na. You’ll be lucky to get a job shoveling manure in the pits."
Felix felt the eyes of the other nobles on him. He felt the heat of sha rising in his chest. He thought of his mother, coughing in their damp little room, waiting for him to co ho with good news.
"rcy... Lord."
So, he did it.
"Please..."
His knees hit the cold marble with a dull thud, and he pressed his forehead against the floor, right next to the barely dirtied boot.
"I am sorry, My Lord. Please... please forgive my incompetence. You’ll never see here again."
Rollo laughed.
"Look at it. It’s practically vibrating. Truly, the Unnad are just dogs in better clothes."
Rollo kicked his foot out, shoving Felix’s head aside as he walked past.
"Dumb bastard."
"I’d be so embarrassed if I were you."
"Yeah, I know, right? I’d probably kill myself."
"I can’t imagine living a life like that."
"He’s that old and yet still making mistakes."
Rollo’s friends trailed behind him with snickers and sneers while Felix stayed there, his forehead pressed to the stone, until the sound of their footsteps died away.
"Ha..."
He stood up, his vision blurred by hot, stinging tears. He needed to get away. He needed to hide, and so, he quickly turned the corner into the servant’s corridor. But that...
That was when his heart shattered.
There, on a wooden bench, sat a small, familiar box wrapped in a faded blue cloth.
His mother’s lunchbox.
She had brought it for him.
...she was supposed to be in bed, but she had walked all that way just to make sure he ate. And the bench... the bench had a direct view of the main hall through the open archway.
His mother had seen him.
Felix walked ho in a daze, clutching the cold box to his chest. He kept telling himself he was wrong. She had just dropped it off and left. She was nearly blind in one eye; maybe she hadn’t noticed the boy on the floor.
But when he opened the door to their cramped apartnt, his mother was sitting by the window, perhaps waiting for him.
She slowly turned to him the mont he entered, her face pale and her breathing labored.
She didn’t ask how his day was, and she didn’t ask about the bonus for the gala.
All she did was just smile.
It was a weak, heartbreaking expression... a smile that tried to tell him that it was okay, that she didn’t think any less of him, but the deep, hollow sorrow in her eyes told the truth. She was devastated that her son had to break his Soul just to keep her alive.
She never spoke of it, and weeks later, she was gone.
A mortal’s life was ever fleeting.
The mory snapped like a dry twig.
Felix’s eyes cleared, returning to the present.
He was shaking, while around him, the dining room held obvious silence.
Ignotus hadn’t moved. The half-eaten chicken leg in his hand was forgotten, the grease cooling on his fingers. He was looking at Felix with eyes that had turned into two shards of gray ice.
Felix’s Lord didn’t look sad, nor did he look like he wanted to hug him.
He looked like he was calculating the most efficient way to dismantle the two siblings.
’...change of plans.’
Ignotus didn’t value most things; his love ca and went. He didn’t care for gold, and he barely cared for his own reputation, but he cared about his things, and Felix was his butler.
’I’ll help.’
With Eris’s agreent, he slowly set his food back on the plate and stood up.
The chair legs screeched against the stone floor, making Lykos flinch as Ignotus walked over to Felix, his presence expanding, filling the room with a suffocating pressure.
"Felix..."
He reached out and clamped a hand on the butler’s shoulder.
"Listen."
"Y-Yes, Young Lord?"
Felix craned his head up in a stutter.
"I’ve changed my mind about our ’noble ga’ here."
Ignotus turned his gaze toward the wall, looking in the direction of the second manor.
Puff...
A sudden, violent pulse of Will erupted from him, snuffing out the candles on the table and the torches on the walls, plunging them into darkness.
"Go back to your rooms and don’t get out until the sun is up."
No one was to humiliate his people.
’No one.’
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