7. sometimes, it’s better not to know

Penchev actually hoped that he would feel discomfort or fear like ordinary people when meeting his eyes. However, Ash*tes casually ignored such wishes and showed no sign of discomfort upon seeing his eyes.

Slightly disappointed inside, Penchev was about to open his mouth when Ashites spoke first.

“You……”

“……”

“No, wait. Are you the butler?”

“……Yes.”

Ashites realized it as soon as he saw his eyes. That this handsome fellow standing before him had feelings for his noona no less intense than his own.

Of course, he thought that even so, he couldn’t beat himself. But Ashites knew. How gentle and kind she was to her people. Remembering this fact made him irritated again.

She must have been kind and gentle to that guy too. And that bastard must have fallen for her, being so beautiful, kind, gentle, and lovely beyond measure. Just imagining it made his face scrunch up terribly.

Ashites, his face slightly contorted, suddenly examined his eyes.

Gray irises surrounding vertically slit pupils.

Ashites gained an insight and stretched his lips into a long smile.

Even seeing Ashites’s face like this, Penchev maintained his expressionless face and tried to convey the young lady’s message.

“If you have nothing else to say……”

“Hey, you.”

“……”

He was about to convey the message, but it was cut off.

He had only heard rumors about the Tower Master’s rudeness, but it was indeed beyond imagination. Does he treat others like this too? Surely, he didn’t behave this way towards his young lady? Just thinking about it made something well up inside him.

In fact, not only Ashites but also Penchev realized it as soon as they met.

A kind of intuition, or something. That both of them harbored someone in their hearts. And quite deeply at that. To an extent that neither would back down.

Anyway, despite Penchev not answering, Ashites started rambling on his own.

“You must have suffered quite a bit because of your eyes.”

His tone was full of mockery despite the content. Nevertheless, Ashites continued speaking while sneering at Penchev, who still maintained his expressionless face.

“You probably didn’t even know the reason. No doubt my Noona took you in out of pity……”

“……”

Lysith had never been bothered by his eyes from the beginning, so she had never pitied him, but Penchev kept his mouth shut without refuting. Although he was a bit irritated by words like ‘Noona’ now, it seemed advantageous to just listen to his story.

And as if his thoughts were correct, Ashites uttered important words. It was a story he hadn’t known until now.

“That’s a curse.”

“……A curse?”

“Yes. There shouldn’t be many left now. To think one would be here.”

Both his golden eye and the black eye sparkled simultaneously with interest. Of course, thinking of him as a love rival made him so irritating that he just wanted to get rid of him.

But if he’s the protagonist of the curse, he might be good for experiments later…

“There are only three types of people who remain sane when meeting your eyes. Those with imperial blood, those immune to curses, or those who are exceptionally loved by the gods.”

“……”

“Meeting imperial folks is like catching stars in the sky, and those immune are very few. Even in the magic tower, there are only about four including myself.”

The reason he was blabbering like this was simply to tease him. There was no particular reason. Just because he was annoyed.

He thought he was deliberately saying things that would upset Penchev, but Penchev wasn’t actually very affected.

He was just thinking, then the young lady must be the third case.

And Ashites, not knowing that Lysith was fine even after seeing Penchev’s eyes, eventually uttered words he shouldn’t have.

“Since the last case is so rare, I hear your kind calls them ‘soulmates’ or something……”

“……!”

The words after that didn’t really register in Penchev’s ears.

Lysith neither had imperial blood nor was immune to curses. If that meant she was the last case, then that story…

Ashites, unaware of what he had just said, still had a giggling expression.

How many people in the world receive God’s exceptional love? Ashites knew well about that rarity. It was a probability of maybe one in a hundred years. There was even a time when there wasn’t one for 500 years. Moreover, since one had recently appeared against those slim odds, there was no way Lysith could also fall into that third category.

And who was that one person? It was the current Emperor of the Faeous Empire, Verheigen Valdheim Faeous. Although few people knew this fact.

Anyway, talking about its rarity would only make one’s mouth sore.

Hearing this, he could see the face of the man before him slowly sinking.

Well, perhaps he had teased him enough? Ashites finally stopped smiling and tilted his head with his arms crossed, gesturing him to speak if he had anything to say.

Penchev, who had been staring blankly at Ashites for a moment, conveyed in a somewhat sunken voice.

“The young lady is unwell……”

“What? Where? How? Why? Can’t I go see her directly?”

At Ashites’s words that seemed to spew out, Penchev closed his mouth for a moment before continuing.

“……She is in no condition to meet anyone or go out, so she asked me to tell you she will visit later.”

Even after hearing his words, Ashites didn’t leave. He just muttered something while covering his mouth with one hand, and then said he understood before leaving the reception room.

Of course, before leaving, he didn’t forget to pat Penchev’s shoulder as he stood in front of the door, acting annoyingly as if to cheer him up.

Ashites, who quickly left Lysith’s modest mansion, quietly gazed at a room on the second floor where she might be, before walking towards his carriage.

It wasn’t in his nature to withdraw so obediently, so he planned to come back at night. Of course, it wouldn’t be an official visit then.

After looking at her room window, Ashites started the carriage and chuckled, remembering the butler’s cursed eyes. Then he thought,

Ah, somehow Noona didn’t seem too welcoming about me entering the mansion. So this was why…

She must have been worried that I might be uncomfortable because of the butler’s eyes. How lovely!

……It was quite a funny misunderstanding though.

Anyway, Ashites was happy. He felt like he could fly with happiness.

Lysith had never been reluctant to let him into the mansion. Outwardly, that is. She only cared a little bit inside, but she hadn’t really shown it in her expression or anything.

Yet, Ashites had noticed her inner thoughts early on thanks to his unique perceptiveness. The very fact that she asked if he really needed to come in from beyond the fence last time had stuck with him like a splinter.

At first, she even asked if he wasn’t going to leave.

“I’m fine with it. As expected, Noona is too kind……”

His attitude showed not even a gram of thought that Lysith might be interested in Penchev. After all, why would she like a man who provokes discomfort when meeting eyes when there’s such a handsome younger man beside her who is also rich and powerful?

He thought about trying to act cute when they meet again. The aegyo of a 21-year-old man might be a bit creepy, but the completion of everything was the face, and crucially, he was quite confident in his looks. She would accept it, right?

And Penchev, who had predicted that Ashites would be in a shitty mood, was unfortunately, like Ashites, in a good mood. He felt like he could fly too.

Penchev, who had cleaned up the teacup the Tower Master had drunk from in the most perfunctory way possible, rubbed his nape which somehow felt heated.

Even if they weren’t actually soulmates, it was good. Just the fact that there exists a word among those defining their relationship… It’s as if they had really become that kind of relationship…

He had heard bits and pieces about how few people receive God’s love. He couldn’t hear properly because he was half out of his mind. But now, if someone whispered that even this damn curse or whatever was all for meeting the young lady, he felt like he could believe it without a shred of doubt and be happy.

Among such a small number, his young lady was there, and she kept him by her side without being burdened by his affection, so where else could such salvation be found?

He felt like he might die of suffocation from happiness.

He exercised patience not to show it in the corridor and barely made it to his room where he covered his face with both hands, then rubbed it, and fiddled with his nape, not knowing what to do.

No, in fact, his true feelings made him want to run to the young lady right now, embrace her and tell her he had heard such words. But she was lying in bed sick now, so he had to endure.

“Phew……”

Penchev, who had barely calmed his excited breathing, organized his thoughts while fiddling with his gloves.

He didn’t tell exactly what kind of curse it was.