Side Story 8 |
The next morning, Isley took a flower and headed towards Layla’s house.
He was about to knock on the door, but he put the bouquet on the floor and turned around. Because he wanted to show the girl who said she hates people who don’t have a job and make money.
Of course, Isley had already been hired as an etiquette teacher. However, he didn’t think he was successful in finding a job until he was fully acclimatized to his current job.
So, he made a promise to himself not to meet Layla until he was properly seated.
Isley suppressed his desire to see Layla’s red cheeks, and moved to the Count mansion. From now on, he had to teach Vincent manners about four days a week, excluding weekends. As Isley was walking down the street, he remembered the nine-year-old little boy he had met yesterday. A round face, small hands and feet, and a small body. In Isley’s opinion, Vincent was on the small side compared to other children his age. It was so compared to the neighborhood kids.
‘He spilled fish from the first meeting. As rumored, it was a huge set of accidents.’
Although they were all different in appearance, age, and where they were born and raised, Isley saw Vincent and remembered himself as a child.
This is because he also had a lot of accidents as he worked hard in many ways to win the love of his mother. Whether he intended it or not. So Isley had the idea that he might get along well with Vincent.
When he arrived at the front door of the mansion, the guards, who had been guided in advance, bowed their heads and let Isley in. He walked to the mansion, across the garden, which he thought was boring, without a single plaster statue. Arriving at his destination, Isley ran into the maids who were sweeping and mopping the hallway.
“Hello…!”
On a boring and annoying mansion day, the appearance of a new character was enough to energize the female employees. Especially if it’s a handsome guy!
Isley smiled softly and nodded his head.
“Hello.”
Then the maids said, “Hey! Handsome!” and ran away quickly. From that look, Isley recalled the young girls he had seen at parties and hunting competitions in the past. They used to act like those maids sometimes. Even though I didn’t do anything, they made me look like that just because of my face, and they fell in love with it. Isley knew what he looked like, and had a rough idea of what people thought. As long as he smiles, he can easily win people’s favor, he said.
With a smile on his face, Isley greeted the employees he met and went up the stairs to the second floor leading to the front door. He fiddled with his tingling cheeks.
‘It’s awkward…. Forcing a smile and saying respect to people. It’s annoying to make other people feel good, but… Well, it’s not as bad as I thought. If you keep going like this, I think you’ll get used to it. No, you’ll have to get used to it.’
When Isley reached the end of the stairs on the second floor, he could see the traces of a large picture frame attached to it. It used to be a good location for a family picture to hang, but now there is nothing.
Isley stared at the traces and greeted the Count he stumbled across.
The two talked and walked up to Vincent’s room. The Count stopped at his feet as he approached the child’s door. And suddenly, something happened and he left the place.
‘What? You act like you don’t want to run into your son.’
Isley was puzzled for a moment, then opened the door and listened. But it’s not really weird. The figure of the boy who should have been in the room was nowhere to be seen. Only Vincent’s servants are sweating profusely.
“Is there no master in here?”
“It seems that he hid because he did not want to take classes. He was already gone when I entered the room.”
“Oh, is it? Then I will look for him.”
“Once the master hides, it is difficult to find… I’ll help you find it too!”
“Fine. Hide and seek is my specialty.”
Isley went out. He was told the structure of the mansion yesterday, so he was able to move around without thinking. Isley started walking down the hallway, moving the mana in his body and searching the room. While looking around, he found Vincent in a small room that was being used as a warehouse, in a box placed there. When I forcefully opened the closed lid, I heard the sound inside.
The child looked at Isley and widened his eyes.
“What, what! how can you…!”
Isley laughed softly.
“I’m pretty good at finding others.”
He grabbed Vincent’s back and took him to his room.
“Young Master, come to think of it, since it’s our first day of class, shouldn’t we introduce ourselves? As you may have already heard from others, my name is Isley. I have no surname and I’m a commoner. From today, I became the master’s tutor.”
“Ugh!”
“You are master Vincent Wheeler? I already know. There was a riot yesterday, and there is no way I don’t know you.”
The child struggled to get away from Isley, slapped his hand holding his clothes. Isley just smirked and pinched Vincent’s cheek to make sure he wasn’t rebelling. Realizing that his own actions didn’t work, Vincent screamed.
“Why did you pinching me? I’m going to tell Dad everything you’re doing right now! Then you won’t even be able to set foot in Arya?!”
“Would it be of no use? Your father said that as long as I correct the bad habit of the master, it doesn’t matter how I treat him.”
In fact, the Count had been begging Isley to change his son yesterday.
Vincent, who had been shivering for a while, kept his mouth shut, seeing that he could no longer see a way out of this situation.
Eventually, when Vincent arrived in the room, he was forced to study math while sitting on the sofa. Of course, he didn’t just study quietly. He tried to run away, tried to play a prank, but was caught by Isley’s stinging gaze and all failed. The child who was beaten with honey chestnut looked at the book with a dissatisfied face. Isley looked at him and raised one corner of his lips sullenly.
‘It’s amazing. How did I end up teaching others?’
At first, Isley had no intention of getting a job as a tutor. He was just going to give him a decent amount of money, and he was going to get a job that looked like a decent job. As he wandered around the streets, he heard from people that the Count was looking for a tutor for the young master.
There was no hesitation after I heard that they were paid twice a week compared to other places. It didn’t matter to Isley that his son was a serious troublemaker. Without even thinking for a second, he headed to the Wheeler mansion with the documents fabricated by the Empire.
‘Once I get a job, I should do well. That way you’ll be able to see Layla’s face directly. I want to see her already… Shall we just go see her?’
Then Isley shook her head.
‘No. Let’s hold on a little longer.’
A week passed, and two weeks passed. In the meantime, Isley was getting used to the mansion. He managed to make friends with the employees and became very close with Vincent. They were chatting, and he groaned and ate lunch together. It is now common to use slang for each other. Being friends doesn’t mean that Vincent’s attempts to run away or play pranks on him have decreased. Vincent kept getting into accidents to make sure he didn’t get tired of it, which made Isley both annoying.
‘I had a lot of accidents when I was young. Would the employees who took care of me feel this way?’
Isley looked at Vincent and reflected a lot.
The longer he spent in the mansion, the more he learned. The Countess Wheeler passed away in an accident a year ago. And from then on, Vincent started playing a lot of pranks, and the Count was just immersed in his work and the management of the estate. This did not mean that the Count was not interested in his own child. That’s a fact that can be seen from the fact that Isley was hired. But he used to avoid Vincent, like someone who was afraid to face his child. Even if Vincent went to visit the Count, the opposite did not happen. Vincent sometimes looked out the window with a gloomy face. There was always a Count. Combining all these facts, Isley came to one conclusion.
On a sunny day, no different from usual, on a day when milk was served with soft castella for dessert, on a day when an employee fell into a rag in the muddy water of the master’s prank, Isley said to Vincent, who was studying an etiquette.
“Did you make such trouble to get your father’s attention?”
I knew this because I wanted to receive the love and attention of his mother, so I had to work hard, not caring about hurting himself and his brothers. That Vincent had had an accident to get his father’s attention.
“Hey, what are you talking about all of a sudden?”
Vincent flinched as if he had been stabbed by a needle. He lowered his head deeply, wondering if he wanted to hide his bewildered face. The voice that came out of his little mouth was trembling.
“… No.”
“Isn’t that right?”
As Isley lightly denied it, Vincent raised his voice a little more than before.
“No.”
“That’s right.”
“No!”
The child raised his head and turned to Isley. Her white face was as red as blood.
“No, no, I said no!”
“It’s not. Am I right? I can tell. No one else knows, but I can be sure.”
“What are you talking about?!”
“I’ve been like that too.”
“… What?”
“I wanted to get my mother’s attention, who didn’t take care of me, so I had an accident, and on the other hand, I pretended to be a calm and mature child. I also did not hesitate to injure others. so I can know Vincent, you did it to get your father’s attention.”
There was a sincerity in Isley’s words that only those who had been neglected could feel. Vincent felt an undeniable sincerity and pain in those words. So, after hesitating for a while, he opened his mouth.
“Okay… You are right.”
Vincent was fiddling with the teacup on the desk.
“I didn’t mean to cause an accident. Who likes being scolded by adults? I just wanted Daddy to take care of me anyway. Because my dad…”
“Are you avoiding it?”
“… Yeah.”
Vincent snorted.
“You admit it, are you feeling refreshed now? Are you satisfied?”
“No. Not at all.”
“What… Then why did you ask really.”
For a moment, silence passed. It was Vincent’s voice that broke the silence that had stayed in the room for a while.
“You are all right. I mean dad… Always look at me and avoid me with a sad face.”
The child turned his head toward the window and gave a depressed expression.
“I hate it. Because… I killed my mother.”
“… What?”
Isley’s eyes fluttered in confusion.