# 3
3. The Damned Master of the Count's Household (3)
When Isabella approached the window and drew the curtains, the blocked rays of light shone into the room. When she opened the window, cool air rushed in, and only then could I breathe.
Across from the window, in a corner the light couldn't quite reach, sat a bed. And on it, the sheet was rounded upward. I saw an arm sticking out from under the sheet and realized it was a person.
Isabella approached the bed. The sheet flinched, then slowly retreated. Not that there was any space to escape to.
"Are you awake, Master?"
"......Get out."
A turbid voice mixed with anger flowed out. Isabella spoke with her hands respectfully clasped together.
"I will bring in your dinner. I've prepared something easy to eat, so please eat everything for the sake of your health."
"Get out!"
The round body moved quickly, grabbing the vase on the nightstand and throwing it. As Isabella slightly turned her head, the vase grazed right past her and crashed onto the floor, shattering.
At this appalling situation, my jaw dropped, but Isabella herself was nonchalant.
"I will bring a new vase."
"I don't need one. Don't come."
"And I've brought the child who will serve you from now on, Master."
Isabella signaled me with her eyes. Until then, I had been standing by the door in shock, but I gathered my expression and went to stand beside her.
The person on the bed, seen up close, was larger than I had thought. And an adult male at that. Though his face was completely covered, I could guess from the voice I had just heard and the form I had glimpsed.
"N-Nice to meet you, Master."
"This child will attend to you from now on, Master. If you need anything, please tell this child. We will prepare it right away."
"Please take care of me."
I clasped both hands together at my stomach and bowed. But the answer that came back was one thing.
"Piss off."
And it came back even rougher.
I flinched, my shoulders trembling, and glanced up at Isabella. She continued speaking without caring at all.
"I will bring your dinner."
She turned her body toward the door. Her walk was unchanged from when she had come here, without the slightest variation. While I secretly admired Isabella's composure even as my heart pounded from the shock, it was the moment I was about to quickly turn and follow her.
Suddenly protruding fingertips fumbled for the knife on the plate on the nightstand this time. Discovering him slowly picking up the knife, I was startled and turned my body back toward that direction.
"You could die if that hits you wrong!"
I tried to grab that hand. But perhaps because I rushed out so hastily, I didn't look below in time.
My body stepped on the sheet lying on the floor and slipped. In the time it took to think "Huh? What?", my vision flipped. My hand that was flailing in the air seemed to have caught something.
Something crashed onto me as I fell backward. Before I could even feel the pain of the back of my head hitting the floor, a heavy weight pressed down on my chest. Cough, I stuck out my tongue and squeezed my eyes shut.
"Master!"
At Isabella's urgent shout, I realized that the person who crashed onto me was the Master, Vincent.
I opened my eyes wide in surprise. A face was right in front of my nose. Thick eyebrows and emerald eyes beneath them, a high nose bridge, rough yet full lips—a face so handsome that people would turn to look twice when passing by. I was stuttering without even realizing it.
But something was strange. Vincent, who seemed as startled as I was, suddenly looked around on both sides. His emerald eyes were pointing in the wrong direction.
No, looking closely, the color of his eyes was also strange. They had a slightly whitish tint.
Both his hands came toward my face. When the tips of his long fingers brushed against the hair covering my face, I was so startled that I pushed him away and backed off. Only then did I realize what I had done.
I quickly checked on Vincent, but he had fallen backward and this time started fumbling the floor. It was quite an urgent touch.
As I narrowed my eyes, sensing something strange, Isabella supported Vincent. Vincent's hands urgently fumbled over Isabella who was helping him up. Then he hesitated and straightened his body. Even then, his face was darting this way and that.
Just like exactly.
"Eyes..."
Like a person who can't see.
His face that had been quickly turning stopped abruptly. Isabella shot me a fierce glare. Only then did I realize I had made a slip of the tongue.
Before I could say anything in my panic, Vincent's face turned menacing. Then he let out a loud shout and started throwing whatever his hands could grab in my direction.
Crash! Thud! Bang! I was helplessly hit by the indiscriminate attack. I tried to raise both arms to block the attack, but it was useless. Isabella, who had come to my side at some point, grabbed my forearm and pulled me up. As if she was used to this situation, Isabella didn't even look surprised, and I alone was terrified as I hurriedly followed her.
Only after we went out of the room and Isabella closed the door did the commotion stop. I grabbed my thumping heart. My heart, which normally didn't startle easily, was pounding wildly.
"He is very sensitive. Be careful from now on. Especially watch your mouth."
"......Yes."
At my answer, Isabella turned around without a word. I sighed as I watched her walk away. I had a premonition that life ahead would not be smooth.
And that day, I ended the day with the meal I had painstakingly brought being overturned by Vincent's hand. My room was right next to Vincent's. Usually, the servant's and the Master's rooms are on different floors, but I was told to stay in the next room to be called at any time. Damn it.
Still, for the first time in my life, I fell asleep on a soft bed with clean blankets. Although I was woken up by strange sounds here and there, it was a satisfactory sleeping arrangement.
The next day, I dressed properly, brought in breakfast, and got hit in the face with a pillow, though.
* * *
Vincent Bellunita.
He is the Master I will serve from now on.
As the only child of the esteemed Count and Countess Bellunita, he attracted people's attention with his fine appearance from a young age, and his outstanding intellect earned him recognition in various fields. Moreover, the Count and Countess also had a good relationship, making them an enviably happy and harmonious family by anyone's standards.
Then the Count and Countess passed away in an unexpected accident, and Vincent Bellunita, left alone, inherited the family at a young age. The public had much to say about him having to take responsibility for the family at such a young age, but contrary to concerns, Vincent led the family admirably. Thanks to this, the family's influence grew day by day.
......That was the happy past.
One day, tragedy came to him.
It was a party hosted by the royal family. The smooth-sailing party turned into chaos when some man rushed at him with a knife. The man was Bellunita's attendant. Fortunately, Vincent had a guard by his side, so his injuries were only minor, but the strange drug the assassin sprayed into his eyes became the problem.
At first, they say his eyes just stung a little. Then gradually his vision became cloudy and he couldn't distinguish shapes, and at some point, light vanished and darkness rushed in.
It was blindness.
Since then, Vincent Bellunita shut himself in his room—that was the story up to now. The public knew that Count Vincent Bellunita had been injured at a party and was recuperating.
Rumors circulated that Vincent might be involved in this incident since the assassin was a servant of the Bellunita family, but it soon ended as just a rumor. It didn't take long to discover that the assassin was only wearing a Bellunita servant's uniform but wasn't actually a servant. However, the identity and purpose of the assassin were never discovered.
In the end, Vincent went blind, and that fact was a secret unknown even to the mansion's servants except for a few key close associates. That was why I had to attend to him alone. And secretly, at that.
Confidentiality. That was one of the conditions I had to keep to work as a servant here. Never disclose anything that happens here, absolutely. I nodded and signed the contract. It also contained the implicit agreement to whatever would happen to me if I were to disclose anything.
Either way, it didn't matter. I just thought I'd do well. But I realized that serving Vincent was quite a lot, very very very very much harder than I had thought.
"Take it all out!"
Crash, the twelfth plate ended its life like that. I looked at the heroically shattered plate pieces and secretly let out a sigh. As soon as I bent my knees to clean up the glass pieces, this time wine glasses and tableware rolled onto the floor.
"Piss off!"
Wrapped in sheets from head to toe and shouting fiercely, he was nothing but a cat. A cat with its guard fully raised, looking as if to say "How dare someone like you try to tame me."
Stray cats often came in front of Uncle Mark's bakery too. Among them, there was one cat that got thinner every time I saw it, and its appearance was so pitiful that I secretly tore off some bread for it. At first, the cat was wary, but one day it slowly approached, took the bread and ate it, and later it purred and rubbed its face against my hand.
But to treat him like that cat, he was too big, and a fully grown adult. I gathered the broken pieces and tableware on a tray and looked at Vincent.
"I will bring it again."
"I don't need it. Piss off."
"If there's something you'd like to eat, please tell me. I'll ask the chef."
"I just need you gone."
"Then I'll leave it in the room."
"I said I don't need it!"
Vincent shouted and shrank his body. I scanned him up and down without replying. His hair was wildly disheveled, the clothes he was wearing were stretched and stained, looking dirty. Even the sheet he was sitting on had turned slightly yellowish, making me wonder when it was last changed.
"The sheet needs to be changed too. And the clothes. I think it would be good for you to take a simple bath. I'll prepare the bathwater."
"Piss off! I said piss off!"
Aaaargh! A fierce shout erupted. It was loud enough to ring deep in my ears. No wonder his voice is hoarse every day when he yells like that. Yet his venom didn't fade. Rather, it seemed like his venom only grew day by day.
I suppressed the emotions that surged up several times a day. I must have lived comfortably until now. To be this exhausted already. I shook my head and caught my breath.
I was familiar with the nasty temperaments of upper-class people. No, not just the upper class. Most of the people who hired me had that attitude. I had suffered all kinds of contempt and insult for being poor and a woman. The household run by that demon bastard was no different.
I endured all of that and survived. Don't look down on me just because I'm poor!
"I will bring it again. Please wait."
And I left the room without even looking back.
As soon as the door closed, bang, something hit it. A pillow? I let out a deep sigh as I pictured the object I guessed from the sound. I unnecessarily tapped the floor with my shoe heel as I walked away.