Chapter 14 - Volume 2 (1/2)

Family Arc – Chapter 5

The next morning.I started my special attack on Shade.

「Good morning」

「Ha…? Eh…?」

「Good morning」

「….good… morning」(1)

Even though it was morning, my goal is to make sure that there won’t be a time he’d be impolite.

It looks like Shade is weak in the morning. With a sleepy look, he was bewildered in the face of an uninvited guest.

「I apologize for the abrupt visit. But a lot of things are tangled up, and I already don’t know what –  or perhaps I should say, I already don’t know whose feelings would be the correct one to prioritize. That’s why for the time being, let me hear about your sentiments. You…. In this house… you were locked in a room by Aunt, and your meals were stopped, right?」

Momentarily dumbfounded by my non-stop chattering, he was then plainly suspicious; Giving me a look as if he was searching for my intentions, he stared at my face.

「That is… who did you hear it from?」

「From Crinum. And in truth, I did slightly doubt that possibility」

「…………」

「It’s not like I’m asking you to trust me, whether it be me or my father, we are on Aunt’s side; I don’t have any means to dispel your suspicion on whether I’m really deceiving you or whether your distrust is unjust. But, I want you to answer me one thing no matter what. Why didn’t you tell Uncle that you were receiving terrible treatment from Aunt? Or for instance me or Father – you could have searched for someone reliable who could take care of you and get you out of this house. Was it that troublesome for you?」

「I…」(2)

Because I was surprised at the first spoken word he said, he immediately gave out an apology.

「That was rude of me. Since I was poorly brought up, I lost my focus for a second」

「No, I don’t mind. In particular, if you’re able to converse with it, then it’s fine no matter what form of speech you use. But if you want to get used to polite speech, I’ll go along with you」

「Well then, I do hope you forgive me even if I mix in inappropriate words. Personally, I do think you are a person I can trust」(3)

「…even when you’ve only just met me yesterday? As you know, I am related to Aunt, the person who neglected you」

「But… you’re related to me too. You’re my cousin, right?」

「That – might be true, but…」

「At least, no one in this house greets me with the common『Good night』 or 『Good morning』 courtesy. Compared to them, Iconsider you as someone who I can speak frankly with」

「Then, would you let me hear the reason? Why didn’t you say anything to Uncle?」

「There was no major reason for why I didn’t do it. It was simply because it would be useless even if I did tell him」

Shade said indifferently, with something akin to coldness in his voice.

「Aside from flowers, the only thing that person is interested in is my eye color. That’s it」

「Eye color? Well, your eyes certainly are unique in color, did you happen to inherit it from your honored mother? 」

「When you say『honored mother』, I had to think about who you were referring to. Mother was normal, she had brown-colored eyes. According to Father, the gene was from his grandmother passed through my father. In other words, I inherited this color from my great-grandmother」

「Great-grandmother…? Oh, her…」

「Were you acquainted with her?」

「Since it’s regarding your father’s grandmother, it’s also related to me. She died long before I was aware of my surroundings so I personally didn’t know her. But, there were a lot of tales about her. Like, she completely ignored the marriage proposal from the royal king of that time. Now that you mention it, I feel like I’ve heard something about her unique eye color before」

「In the Duke Lilia’s family, I heard that a lot of people had possessed hair and eyes of the color red」

Indeed. My closet was filled up exhaustively with a puzzling rouge color. Could this literally be the clan’s image color?

Looking at Shade’s dark red pupils under the morning sun, it was definitely a color closer to rogue.

「Uncle was really fixated over this color, huh? Once in a while, there are those in the aristocracy who love their『Family lineage』 to death, but was Uncle also of that sort?」

「That’s nearly a disease, isn’t it?」