At the mention of Mother, Doran let out a low, resentful breath. He was the sort of man who feared her so much that he could not disobey even the smallest word from her lips.
And yet, despite that, he had continued to show an unpleasant interest in Khalid.
Nox knew exactly how filthy his father’s tastes were, and so he worked all the harder to protect him.
Before his marriage, his father had been the sort of trash who preyed on children fifteen and younger. After marrying, Mother—being of imperial blood—had found that conduct beneath contempt and, quite literally, kept him under brutal control. Because of that, Nox had thought his father had at least suppressed that disgusting inclination after marriage.
But once Khalid entered the house, he began eyeing him again at every opportunity.
Nox cut him off flatly.
“We’ll be going now.”
“You dare look down on me too, just like your mother—”
He did not bother listening to the rest.
That man, knotted through and through with self-loathing, had never once tried to change himself. He simply stood where he was, busy indulging his vile desires.
“Young Master…”
“Shh. It’s all right.”
Nox spoke as though soothing him. He lightly drew Khalid in by the shoulders and began walking forward. He did not forget to match the child’s pace.
Khalid’s ears reddened without his noticing, and Nox noticed it very well.
A faint smile touched his lips.
At times, the thought that he might become a child’s first love made him quietly happy.
And at the same time, it made him think how pitiful it was—for the child to come to like someone like him.
Because in the end, he too was nothing more than a filthy nobleman with his father’s blood in his veins.
Nox did not want that child giving his heart to him.
He only wanted to cherish him.
He would never harbor the kind of filthy desire his father did.
He swore it to himself again and again.
And so, when the morning training ended and they returned, Khalid would attend to his clothes with those small hands of his.
Khalid always undid Nox’s buttons with trembling fingers, as though he were perpetually tense. Nox would watch that for a moment, then sigh with a quiet laugh and take off his own clothes instead.
“S-sorry.”
“It’s fine. Go draw some water for the bath.”
“Yes—yes, sir!”
Then the child would scamper off to fill the tub. Nox slowly removed the rest of his clothes, draped them wherever was convenient, and put on the robe Khalid had laid out for him.
Then he headed toward the bath.
When he entered, he would find the child there, checking the temperature of the water he had just prepared.
“You should go rest for a bit too.”
“Huh? B-but what about attending your bath?”
At that, Nox raised an eyebrow.
Not once had he ever told the child to attend his bath.
“And where exactly did you hear that?”
“I—I overheard the adults talking the other day, and they said that if you want to be favored, attending someone’s bath is only natural…”
Instead of taking off his robe, Nox crossed his arms and looked at him. Judging by the tone of what they had said, the kind of “bath attendance” they meant was probably not an innocent one.
“Do you even know what kind of bath attendance they were talking about?”
“Huh? Isn’t it just helping you bathe?”
At that, Nox let out a breath of disbelief and gave a hollow laugh.
“No. Go rest. I can wash on my own.”
“B-but…”
“Tch.”
He gave the boy a look of mild reprimand, and Khalid rose from his place with his spirits visibly drooping. Nox found it hard to watch the child look so downcast, and in the end he gently stroked his hair.
“I’ll call you again at mealtime, so don’t worry.”
Then, just like that, the child’s face brightened at once.
“Yes—yes, sir!”
“Good.”
The relationship between them was peaceful.
The child did his work well, despite those little hands of his, and Nox never demanded anything unreasonable from Khalid. Everything between them seemed properly balanced, without a single problem to disturb it.
Perhaps it was because of that peace that Nox let his guard down for a while.
Then one day, when he had to leave the estate for a family function on his mother’s side, something happened he had not expected.
His maternal relatives were notorious for being exacting, and Khalid was still young and somewhat clumsy. It was difficult to bring him along.
“The only work you’ll have is odd jobs.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t go anywhere near Father’s room.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ve already spoken to Maeta. You’ll be assigned to the annex, so all you’ll have to do is clean.”
“All right, Young Master.”
Khalid understood his young master’s anxiety very well. So he smiled more brightly than usual, trying to reassure him.
“I’ll do everything you told me. So please don’t worry.”
Nox forced the corners of his mouth up into a smile. Khalid nodded, and with that, Nox left for his mother’s family estate.
To some, it was only a week.
To them, it was a week too long.
Nox should have taken the child with him then.
Even while attending parties at his mother’s family estate, Nox kept thinking about him. He had arranged for the boy to stay in the annex, so there should have been no reason for him to cross paths with Father.
And Father, too, had been keeping his head down because of Mother’s warnings, so Nox had thought there would be no real problem.
But for some reason, he could not shake the unease in his chest.
A strange anxiety kept pricking at his heart.
“Why are you so distracted?”
“Ah—my apologies.”
His mother made it clear she found him displeasing in that state, and Nox straightened his back and forced himself to focus.
Yes. The chances that that craven, spineless fool would dare disobey Mother’s orders and try something were low.
He kept whispering to himself that everything was fine, over and over, trying to calm the turmoil inside him.
And then that long week ended.
When Nox finally returned home after the family event, he noticed something wrong.
“Where is Khalid?”
At that, the head maid, Maeta, bowed with an expression of utter shame.
“Well… Khalid has disappeared.”
She could not even raise her head as she glanced nervously at Nox. His brow furrowed at once. Maeta knew very well how much he treasured Khalid.
“I told you explicitly not to take your eyes off him.”
“Well, that is… the last time I checked, he was definitely in the annex.”
Maeta offered the excuse, and Nox stood there with a frown, thinking.
The child had been in the annex, and then vanished without a trace?
He looked at Maeta coldly.
He was certain she was hiding something from him.
She hesitated, faltering under his stare, and at last confessed.
“In truth… the moment you and Her Grace left the estate, His Grace the Duke summoned Khalid.”
“What?”
His heart dropped.
He had not expected his father to be so brazen.
No—had he truly not expected it?
The instant he heard those words, Nox broke into a run toward his father’s room.
“Young Master! Young Master!”
He heard Maeta calling after him, but he paid no attention. Forgetting all noble decorum, he raced down the corridor and arrived at his father’s chamber. His clothes and hair had fallen into disarray from the haste of it.
He caught his breath once, then flung open the door without knocking.
A thick smell of alcohol hit him at once.
“So now you treat your own father like he’s nothing! Opening the door without permission?”
“Where is the child?”
“The child? Which child are you talking about?”
“I asked where Khalid is.”
“Khalid?”
His drunken, bleary eyes went vague for a moment as he thought.
Then he clapped his hands together.
“Ah—that pretty, insolent little thing!”
“What did you do to him?”
At that, Doran burst into loud laughter.
Then, without warning, he hurled the bottle in his hand to the floor.
Crash!
The loud shattering echoed through the room, but Nox did not so much as blink. He simply stared at Doran. Doran, breathing hard, met the eyes of the son glaring back at him.
His son resembled his wife far too much.
That black hair with its green sheen.
Those dark green eyes.
And even the gaze that looked on him with naked contempt.
Doran Rainerio could not stand it.
So he began pointing at him and shouting.
“You show more respect to some lowborn servant than to your own father!”
“I have never done that.”
Nox lied calmly.
And that lie sent his father into a greater frenzy. Not even noticing the shards of broken glass underfoot, he strode forward until he stood right in front of Nox.
Because Nox was still young, his father’s eye level still seemed fairly high.
But that was all.
In the eyes lifted toward him, there was nothing but cold feeling, frozen hard as icicles.
“I asked what you did to him.”
“I couldn’t do anything. Anything! The little wretch wouldn’t stay still!”
He lifted one arm and spoke as though lamenting some injustice.
Clear bite marks from a child’s teeth were still visible on his forearm.
“He dared injure the body of a noble. He ought to be dragged back at once and punished. But the little bastard ran off too fast. I have no idea where he’s hiding!”
“….”
The contempt in Nox’s eyes deepened.
His father could not bear it.
“Get out! Get out of my sight! I said take those damned eyes away from me!”
He staggered back to the bed and collapsed onto it.
Nox looked at that pathetic sight for a long moment, then slammed the door behind him and started toward the annex.
At least the child seemed to have escaped his father’s hands.
But there was no way of knowing where he had run to.