For Sale: Male Lead, Obsession Included - Chapter 10
Thud—
“…?”
As Belvo went down like a piece of paper, the faces of the surrounding servants began to lose color.
Likely, so did mine.
In all my years here, not once, really not even once, had my brother ever taken my side.
No, he didn’t even care. When Lavelier tormented me like catching a mouse, he just walked past me as I lay on the ground.
Slowly, as I enjoyed the expression on my face, he stepped on Belvo’s arm and snapped it.
“Aaaagh!”
Despite the man’s agonized screams, my brother just stared at me, not loosening the strange smile on his lips.
“So, this is what happens when you disrespect your master, right? Or did I see wrong?”
Pacione flicked his hair back behind his ear with a nonchalant gesture. Quickly, I bowed my head and offered my apologies.
It was clear he was not in his right mind.
“I was presumptuous to discipline those beneath me. I’m sorry.”
I finally confessed the truth, and Pacione’s smile grew even wider.
“No, not at all. Don’t be sorry. I was just beginning to enjoy seeing a demeanor fitting of my bloodline.”
Pacione wiped his muddy feet on Belvo’s clothes and then gracefully disappeared into the mansion.
I thought his strange antics, which started suddenly a few years ago, would end with a fleeting adolescent phase, but it seems I was mistaken. They were becoming more intense by the day.
‘It must have started when he began his campaigns against the barbarians of the Eastern Continent.’
Standing dazed in the place he had swept through, I felt very odd.
I couldn’t understand why Pacione, who had openly taken my side in front of others, did what he did.
‘What’s his ulterior motive?’
I watched that shameless man until the end, then glanced around. The maids and servants murmured beside Belvo, who was still groaning.
They didn’t help him up, following an unspoken rule.
Because Pacione would punish those who assisted an employee he had disciplined.
An awkward silence ensued, and soon the maids who had harassed me began to kneel one by one.
“We’re sorry, Miss. Please forgive us.”
“Miss, we, we are sorry.”
“We have committed a sin worthy of death!”
Their apologies were not heartfelt; they were filled with fear.
The fact that Pacione had defended me meant that a formidable barrier of status had been erected between the maids and me.
They quickly realized that if they harassed me again, they might end up like Belvo.
‘Their attitude changes with just one act of support from my brother.’
I stared at the backs of their heads and moved on.
If they thought a simple word could earn my forgiveness, they were sorely mistaken.
“Let’s go.”
Declan quietly followed behind me.
“Thank you, Master… for saving me.”
“…”
Following my second rule of not being overly kind, I made no effort to speak to the male lead or worry about his frostbitten hands.
I didn’t want to open my mouth and end up fussing over him like a fool.
I quietly added more logs to the fireplace in my room, concluding my acts of kindness for the day.
***
After his master, young just like him, had given up half of her bed, she was now softly sleeping.
Declan couldn’t bring himself to lie down on the clean bed, so he sat on the edge of it and just watched his master.
The boy’s red eyes were somber.
He had foolishly got dragged to the laundry place today and caused trouble for his master. And his master hadn’t accepted his apology and had turned away to sleep.
Did she hate him now?
Would she start treating him as something useless, like other masters?
“…I hate that.”
She was the first to let him use warm bath water and the first to give him a bed and books.
Declan looked down at his swollen fingers.
No one had cared whether his fingers were chopped off or not, except this person.
‘Only this person…’
The boy mustered the courage to reach out his finger.
His fingertip touched the rustling hem of his master’s nightgown.
Declan was so exhausted he could collapse into sleep at any moment, but he forcefully kept his eyelids up.
He feared that if he closed his eyes, he might find all this kindness had been a dream.
Declan spent the night holding onto the old piece of fabric in his hand as if it were a lifeline.
…He didn’t want to lose her.
The moonlight cast a glow on Estira’s profile, and Declan’s eyes deepened with a heavy, dark red hue.
