I Became The Villain’s Master - Chapter 2.5

***

Screech. Scrape. Squeak.

The fork scraped the innocent plate, leaving the delicious steak untouched.

In the empty dining room.

Sugar, sitting alone at the long table, moved his hand expressionlessly.

Squeak. Scrape.

The servant waiting to attend to him was dying inside from the bizarre noise.

The young master was always frightening, but today he exuded an especially unapproachable aura.

Irritation, anger, and frustration could be seen swirling together.

He had been like this ever since the youngest miss, angry at him, declared she would eat in her room forever.

The younger young master also didn’t come down to the dining room, saying he would eat with the miss in her room, and the Count too ordered meals to be brought to his office if Merchen wasn’t there.

Because of this, the servants expected young master Sugar to eat in his room as well, but he stubbornly came down to the dining room to eat alone.

And on the seventh day.

The young master, who rarely opened his mouth, parted his lips.

“Moby.”

“Yes, young master.”

The servant’s name wasn’t Moby, but he didn’t bother to correct the young master’s mistake.

“About three weeks ago, did you know that Merchen helped two laundry room slaves with frostbite escape?”

“Ye-yes?”

“Of course, you wouldn’t know. Even Father doesn’t know about it.”

Sugar chuckled and threw his fork.

The fork flew and hit the wall with a thud before falling to the floor with a clang.

The servant bowed his head, shaking with an ominous feeling.

“With the new one too… Why has a child who never cared about slaves changed so much?”

A child who liked strawberry cake more than people.

Sugar muttered as he stood up, holding his plate.

“She found us annoying, but she wasn’t a child who built walls.”

The plate plummeted to the floor, shattering into pieces.

Large and small fragments flew in irregular trajectories in all directions.

“No, Merchen liked me the most.”

“……”

“Merchen liked me more than our doting father and Cream. Surely.”

But suddenly one day, she changed.

The habit of twirling her hair when deep in thought, the snippy way of talking, and always getting food on only her left cheek while eating.

No matter how I look at it, it’s the same.

“The gaze. The way she looks at me has changed.”

“The gaze?”

A look that sees a pathetic and immature little brat.

That gaze no longer held even a hint of the affection it once did.

Sometimes, her distant gaze felt as strange as if an entire lake had been condensed and poured into a tiny cup.

And recently, it’s been filled with hostility.

“She used to be a child of few words, but lately her vocabulary has grown and she’s become more talkative.”

“Ah, the young miss is inherently smart! The Count even said she’s a once-in-a-century genius…!”

Ignoring the servant’s words, Sugar bent down and picked up a sharp shard.

The servant, who had flinched and stepped back, quickly bent over.

“I-I’ll clean it up!”

“Of course you will. It’s your job.”

“Y-yes, of course…”

Sugar stood up holding the shard and looked down at the dim-witted servant with a contemptuous expression, then held the shard to the servant’s neck.

“Moby. What did I talk about today?”

“Huh? You spoke about the young miss…”

“Really? I don’t remember.”

The sharp edge pressed clearly against the servant’s neck.

A red line appeared on the darkly tanned neck.

The servant, turning deathly pale, blamed his own carelessness and quickly corrected his answer.

“You didn’t say anything.”

“That’s right. I just ate quietly. Clean this up thoroughly. We wouldn’t want Merchen to get hurt if she happens to change her mind and come down here to eat.”

Sugar threw the plate shard and left the dining room.

The servant wanted to collapse as his legs gave out, but remembering the sharp shards scattered everywhere, he quickly tensed his body.

***

“Rory! You said you’ve never played chess before! Why are you so good at it?”

Cream grabbed his king who had just been defeated by Rory’s knight, shouting “Aaagh” while stretching.

Rory, who had won three times in a row, smiled sheepishly as if he didn’t understand why either.

“Rory said he didn’t know, not that he’d never played before.”

I corrected the fact while taking a big bite of strawberry cake.

Cream shrugged his shoulders, saying let’s play one more round, and Rory nodded with a broad smile.

As Rory placed the chess pieces back in their positions, he shyly opened his mouth.

“Um… thank you, young master.”

“For what?”

“Just, for not hating me. For asking me to play chess together…”

“Hmph. Don’t misunderstand. I originally came here to see Merchen, you know?”

What the heck?

I raised my head sharply at his crude remark.

Rory’s spirits immediately dampened, and he pouted his lips.

When I glared fiercely at Cream, he stiffened and quickly changed his words.

“Pla-playing with you is kind of fun too…”

“Really?”

“Yeah! So stop making that expression like a wounded baby bird…”

At his increasingly sheepish voice, I almost burst out laughing.

I scooped up generous portions of cake with two spare forks and held them out to the two.

“Take a bite each before you continue.”

Rory and Cream’s expressions brightened as they tilted their heads.

They both opened their mouths at the same time and ate the cake in one bite.

“Merchen shared her strawberry cake! She even fed us!”

Cream muttered, overcome with emotion, while Rory chewed with his cheeks and mouth like a squirrel with a mouthful of acorns, seemingly overwhelmed by the cake filling his mouth.

It’s nice to see them eating well.

After watching him contentedly, I turned my gaze to my brother who kept gushing.

His two black eyes, exactly like mine, sparkled and shone.

Unlike Count Hauser and Sugar who had curly hair and round, gentle eyes, Cream and I had thin, soft straight hair and slightly upturned eyes that gave us a more fox-like appearance.

That’s why when I looked at Cream, I often thought he looked like a mirror image of me.

“Rory! I won’t go easy on you this time!”

“Okay!”

Cream clenched his fists, while Rory just smiled brightly like sunshine, seemingly just happy.

In a way, they could be seen as a combination of a ‘quick-witted and cunning fox’ trying to win the younger sibling’s favor and an ‘innocent baby bird’ falling for it.

But from my perspective, Cream had already unknowingly opened his heart wide.