Chapter 15

‘What, what’s this? Why is this appearing?’

Flustered by the mysterious system message, Ian glanced at Ash. It wasn’t easy to tell what the child was thinking with those violet glass bead-like eyes. And soon the child lowered his gaze downward.

Ash’s face, darkened as if shadows had fallen over it, seemed somehow pitiful, and just as Ian was about to ask why, there was an unhurried knock at the door. The person who eventually entered was, unsurprisingly, Clayton.

The old butler, who entered with his usual dignified expression, looked over the master, young master, and tutor in the study one by one before speaking.

“The room for the teacher is ready, but if the introductions aren’t finished yet, shall I come back later?”

At those words, everyone in the room turned their gaze to Ian. Still not accustomed to such attention, Ian made a briefly awkward expression before nodding.

“For now, it would be good if you rest comfortably in your room and we meet at dinner time. Then, please guide the teacher.”

“Well then~! I’ll see you later at the dinner table.”

His eyes, curved in a smile behind his glasses, reached both Ash and Ian evenly before disappearing following Clayton’s guidance. Between Ian and Ash, who remained in the spacious study, silence lingered.

“That tutor seems like quite an energetic person, doesn’t he?”

Ian leaned back fully in his chair and spoke toward Ash beside him. Since that earlier look had bothered him, he was pretending to make other conversation while trying to check the child’s reaction. But the response that came back was silence.

Ian was flustered again. Had Ash also been upset about bringing a stranger into the manor as a tutor?

“Are you upset that I hired a tutor without consulting you? I’m sorry for not telling you beforehand…”

While making excuses similar to what he’d said to Clayton, Ian looked at Ash. The child with lowered violet eyes looking down at the carpet while dangling his feet that couldn’t reach the floor looked like a painting of a displeased angel.

The longer the silence stretched, the more Ian was overwhelmed by helpless emotions, but thankfully the angel moved his small lips that had been firmly closed.

“…No. It’s just that even though it’s the first time meeting him, the teacher seemed close to you, brother…”

The child gloomily fixed his gaze on his own shoe tips, worn smooth and shiny from use.

“What…?”

The sound that came from his mouth was, even Ian thought, a rather foolish voice. To think the reason for his dejection was just that—he was about to say it wasn’t like that when the child suddenly threw himself into Ian’s arms.

“…I was being unreasonably petulant. Please don’t mind it. I’ll work hard from now on as the teacher instructs.”

Hearing this flawlessly adult tone that some adults might wish for, even though the child was right beside him, it felt like he was far away. Ian had been feeling like he was missing something, but it was hard to guess exactly what. The child had always been one who didn’t easily reveal his inner thoughts.

‘Right, Ash is shy with strangers. Having a stranger suddenly appear wouldn’t have been comfortable. That’s why he was briefly uncomfortable.’

Not paying attention to the words “the teacher seemed close to you, brother,” Ian was thinking arbitrarily when Ash looked up at him with his mouth corners pulled up high, making Ian stop thinking and stroke the small head.

The tutor Jeremy Shiller, who came to live with them at the manor, was as eccentric as his first impression suggested. After teaching Ash during set hours, he would wander around the manor alone, observing low shrubs, insects, birds, and wild animals, returning around dinner time covered in dirt from head to toe.

What he did at night was unclear, but he was late in the mornings due to oversleeping and wouldn’t come down on time, and for lunch he’d go out saying he’d eat outside, putting a chunk of bread in his pocket. Still, he appeared faithfully for dinner, taking a place at one side of Ian and Ash’s table.

“The chef here has excellent skills. And it feels like my digestion is better since we don’t have to observe formalities.”

“What’s it usually like in other places?”

Ian tilted his head, curious about other places and at the comment that it was comfortable not having to observe formalities. At those words, Jeremy wiped his mouth with a napkin and grinned.

“My position is ambiguous. The servants don’t think of me very comfortably, and the higher-ups think I’m not of the right standing to eat with them. So usually I ate alone in my room. Still, just like unavoidable things happen in the world, occasions arose when the higher-ups would call me to dine with them.”

Perhaps his throat was dry from moving his mouth constantly, Jeremy moistened his throat with the water glass in front of him and continued.

“When they wanted to commend me or when they had occasion to pressure me. Then I’d sit at the far end of a long dining table and eat while holding my breath. I couldn’t tell where the food was going.”

Though Ian couldn’t imagine Jeremy eating while holding his breath at all, he was glad anyway. When eating, one’s heart should be at ease.

“I’m glad you’re not uncomfortable. We do have a dining room, but it’s too grand for just two people, so we came to use this table. If there’s any food you’d like to eat, let Clayton or Mrs. Gauner know and the kitchen will prepare it.”

“The head chef, Mrs. Roska, already told me to just say whatever I want.”

Perhaps he’d already become acquainted with the kitchen’s real power, Ian nodded at Jeremy’s words. And suddenly he turned his gaze toward the silent Ash.

Unlike the teacher who was eating with only his hands and face washed while his clothes remained dirty, Ash showed not a single sign of disorder. Previously, he seemed to carefully pick out vegetables he disliked, but now he ate everything without leaving anything.

Gradually, Ash became more polite and adult-like in attitude, as if seeing the bumbling, eccentric teacher’s behavior made him determined never to act like that himself. So watching the two sitting side by side was amusing enough to make one laugh.

Then Ian realized that while Jeremy actively went outside the manor, Ash’s trips outside the manor had decreased significantly. Was that the reason? Suddenly the squishy swamp filled with disgusting smells came to mind.

His appetite suddenly gone, Ian stopped his hands holding the knife and fork.

“It’s good that you go around the manor, but you should be careful of the swamps.”

The moment he spoke, he felt a gaze from beside him. But Ash, who was in the direction the gaze came from, was silently concentrating on his meal.

At Ian’s sudden words, Jeremy, who had been diligently moving his hands to empty the plate that head chef Mrs. Roska had satisfyingly brought, looked up and put a friendly smile on his face.

“The vegetation around here is different from other places, so it’s really interesting. But as you say, Baron, it’s not an environment to casually wander around. Thank you for your concern.”

Even after saying that, he appeared the next evening too, covered in muddy water and a mess. Ian shook his head with a helpless smile.

At the sound of tapping on the window, Ian looked up. Taking the bread piece he’d saved after the meal and approaching the window, he saw a crow perched on a tree branch persistently tapping the glass with its beak. It was impressive that it didn’t break despite such tapping.

“You’re rushing me—wait a moment.”

When Ian opened the glass window while talking to himself, the crow twisted its small head to the side and cawed as if it had been waiting.

[Mortal, your steps are as leisurely as spring raising its head at the end of a long winter.]

Not understanding the crow’s strange grumbling at all, when Ian set down what he’d brought on the windowsill, the crow approached closely and began pecking at what he’d brought with its beak. It devoured everything without leaving a single crumb.

Meanwhile, Ian carefully stroked the small head wrapped in black feathers with his fingertip. At that touch, eyelids that closed from top to bottom unlike humans closed. It also leaned in as if asking to be petted more, and with much reduced wariness, it playfully bit his finger gently then released it.

[This one is satisfied. It’s commendable how you revere and serve me unlike other humans. If that person returns to this land, I shall look after your wellbeing.]

The crow looked at Ian with affection in its black pupils where the whites were barely visible, but Ian didn’t notice this at all as he petted the crow.

“Feel good? Shall I scratch here too?”

Just as he was thinking of scratching with both hands, the crow, startled by something, flapped its wings and escaped from Ian’s hands, flying away.

To the bewildered Ian, a familiar voice came from below.

“Haha, I thought I was well hidden, but it figured it out and flew away. You’ve tamed that crow, haven’t you?”

Jeremy, who Ian had thought would be wandering around the manor again, emerged from around the manor corner with his hands thrust in his pockets. Then he soon stood under the window looking up at Ian.

“Tamed it? I just gave it some food.”

At Ian’s modest words, Jeremy looked at the crow that had moved to perch on a tree branch in the distance. It cawed loudly once and sat there as if watching the two men.

“The crows around here are unusually large and seem clever. That one’s the biggest of them all. For such a creature to follow you, Baron. It must have realized you’re not threatening to it.”

“I’ve been thinking this for a while, but you seem very interested in biology?”

At Ian’s words, Jeremy smiled and said:

“I’ve always liked it, but the area around this manor is special. Some legends say there are places in this region where chaos settled the sighs it exhaled before hardening. Though maybe such stories arose because the swamps are so muddy.”

“I see…”

Ian recalled the fairy tale book Ash had read before. From Ian’s position as a stranger to this world, it was difficult to respond to such words. When he briefly trailed off, Jeremy, who had been looking up, glanced around briefly then spoke again.

Though his expression was no different than usual, there was some seriousness in his tone.

“If you have time, could I visit the study to have a conversation?”

As Ash’s guardian, there was no reason to refuse a meeting requested by the tutor. When Ian readily nodded his permission, Jeremy disappeared around the manor corner. Ian also turned and went inside.

For a moment, the shrubs under the tree where the crow that had been watching from afar was perched rustled. What emerged was Ash.

Ash, who seemed to have been hiding and watching the whole time, now looked up at the tree. The crow looked down at the child then soon turned its head and left its spot. Watching this with a displeased expression, the child turned his gaze back toward the study window, then soon disappeared among the shrubs.