Red Tape

It was just a whim that came like a midday shower.

As soon as he finished hunting, Erwin went to the nobles’ exclusive clothing store to select fabrics for his new tuxedo.

Madame Chrisia, a former palace designer, runs this store, which sells unique fabrics imported from far away as well as designs that quickly reflect trends.

In addition to clothing, it sold gloves, hats, and other miscellaneous items, which increased its popularity.

As Erwin was about to leave the clothing store after choosing his fabric, he saw a few hats lined up on the stand.

Suddenly, he remembered the boy covered in mud sitting under the carriage.

The boy was crouching in a pitiful manner, as if he had accidentally spilled something precious into the river.

Covered in mud all over his body, he reached out to the hat that was stuck under the carriage wheel, looking desperate.

Why did it make me think of him?

“A hat.”

“Yes?”

Madame Chrisia approached him with a puzzled expression. She had already written down how many pairs of gloves she would send to the Duke’s house, but there were no hats among them.

On top of that, Duke Erwin had brilliant blond hair, and she thought to herself that covering it up seemed like a sin.

“I’d like to buy a hat.”

“Shall I know for what purpose? For banquets?”

“No. “I would like to see it for hunting.”

Madame Chrisia lined up hunting hats in front of Erwin.

As soon as he saw them, his eyes were drawn to one. A brown hat made of such soft fabric that you couldn’t see the thread. It had a round shape with a short brim.

The servant’s hat seemed to have a similar shape and color. Of course, the materials and craftsmanship are very different.

“Send it with the clothes.”

“Yes, I will.”

Erwin, who had finished his work in the store, returned to the carriage.

He could see the estate’s familiar landscape from the carriage window. It was the land that would one day be his.

Calliwell is the third largest state in the Frieta Empire. It was the second largest, excluding the king.

As he looked at the forest gradually becoming greener in the spring, the events that had happened at the hunting grounds this morning flashed through his mind.

He killed a rabbit on his father’s orders.

It was a white rabbit, so the red blood was clearly visible.

Erwin held back the nausea that rose up his throat several times as he remembered his father’s mercilessly shooting and killing the animals that ran outside sniffing the scent of the new season.

However, after shooting himself, he couldn’t bear it.

As soon as he saw his father walking forward, he grabbed hold of a nearby tree trunk and vomited out his insides.

The food he had eaten that morning was all thrown up.

The nausea that felt like his insides were turning over didn’t get better at all. When Erwin frowned and raised his head, he saw a lowly servant staring at him intently.

The little thing has no fear. He dared to stare at him, without turning his head.

He is a strange man. Ever since he broke the vase down the stairs, he had been staring at me.

But he didn’t have the energy to blame the servant for his lack of manners. He was busy taking care of himself.

“Get out of the way.”

Erwin pushed the small, skinny servant in front of him away and took a step forward.

He threw away the handkerchief he had used to wipe his wet lips and started walking when he heard a rustling sound behind him.

He turned around absentmindedly and saw the insignificant servant. The boy, crouching down and scraping dry leaves and dirt with his bare hands, was hiding the traces of Erwin’s vomit.

Erwin’s eyebrows furrowed.

Did he know something?

Did he hear something from his fellow servant? That the master is a weakling who threw up at the sight of blood.

Erwin received his first hunting rifle when he was six years old. Since then, he had followed his father on his hunts and soon became accustomed to the sound of the rifle.

Hunting rabbits and foxes that had been overpopulated and controlling the forest was nothing special.

It was just cool to see my father hunting the prey, and the gun’s sound was even refreshing to my ear.

One day, the duke’s family had received a hunting dog as a gift from the imperial family. It was an imported breed with short ears and a blunt nose brought in from another country.

The dog, with its highly developed sense of smell and sight, dashed into the forest as soon as the bang was heard and returned with a dead animal.

Not only the duke, but Erwin also loved the dog. The dog followed Erwin well.

However, the next year, a problem arose.

It was when he visited the hunting ground, which had been vacant for over half a year. The hunting grounds keeper, whose name he could not remember now, spoke with concern.

That the dog was sensitive because it had just given birth to puppies.

He should have listened to those words carefully. However, Erwin did not know the protective instinct of the mother who had given birth to puppies.

The cute little dog wriggling around in the kennel, Erwin stepped forward without hesitation to see the puppies, and the excited mother dog bit Erwin’s ankle.

At the sudden pain of sharp teeth tearing and digging into his tender flesh, young Erwin screamed and fell backward.

What if he hadn’t screamed? What if he had just brushed it off and endured it?

Clang–.

When Erwin turned his head at the ominous sound, his father was pointing his gun at the mother dog who had just given birth.

And then, bang—.

“Ah, father…”

His father shot the mother dog dead with a gun. And that was just the beginning.

Bang, bang, bang, bang—.

The Duke shot and killed all the younglings who couldn’t even open their eyes properly, saying that they didn’t need the seed of the beast that didn’t even know who was in front of them.

Erwin witnessed it all. He was seven years old at the time.

After that, whenever he encountered gunshots, dead animals, and blood, he couldn’t stand it anymore. If his father had found, he would have slapped him in the face, calling him a weak fool.

The carriage arrived at the mansion, and Jeffrey, who had been waiting, greeted Erwin.

The Duke of Calliwell had a servant who followed him back and forth between here and the townhouse, and Jeffrey, the butler, mostly assisted Erwin.

I handed over my cane as he walked toward the front door, which he accepted familiarity. Then I took off my frock coat and gloves one by one and handed them to him.

Erwin, who was about to enter the hall and climb the stairs, stopped for a moment as if something came to mind.

“Oh, the new kid in the hunting grounds.”

“If it’s the hunting grounds…You mean Liam?”

“Liam?”

“Yes. A kid named Liam Jenner.”

“Jenner starting with Z?”

“No, it starts with J.”

“That’s a unique name.”

“I know it’s an Asterian name.”

Erwin nodded absentmindedly at the name of a small country in the southwest.

Jeffrey cautiously watched Erwin.

“But why did that kid…Did he cause any trouble while you were hunting earlier?”

“No. It’s just that I think he’s a little strange.”

“That’s a little. He’s quiet for his age. From what I’ve heard, he seems to have had a hard time since he was young. He came all the way here from Ferwick by himself.”

“Ferwick?”

“Yes.”

After exchanging a few more words, Erwin return to his room, change into his everyday clothes, and pretended to feel sick, skipped dinner, and took a walk around the house.

He remembers the conversation he had with Jeffrey while climbing the stairs. Jeffrey, the general manager of this house, knew the circumstances of not only the owners but also the servants.

“I heard that he and his mother moved around here and there. Slivek, Ferwick, Aber…Ah. He also lived in Senain for a while.

“…Senain?”

Senain, where his mother was born and raised, is a place he has always wanted to go. However, he has neither the time nor the freedom to do so. As the successor of the Duke, there were too many things to learn, things to do, and dinners to attend.

“Yes. His mother had asthma and could not go to cold places, so she moved around mostly in the south and west. A life like a journey. It seems like he lived like a bird.”

A child who lived like a bird.

As the eldest son of the family, he is trapped by his responsibilities and missions, and it seems that even dreaming is a luxury for him, but that lowly servant lived an enjoyable life.

To endure the harsh and long winter here, he needs many books. There were several books next to Erwin’s bed. Most of them are travelogs written by merchants or explorers who had traveled abroad.

A life in which you sail wherever the waves take you, and your feet always end up in different places like the wind before leaving.

“A life like a journey…”

After quietly mumbling, Erwin stops walking.

Why did he come here?

His feet stopped in front of a cabin near the hunting grounds.

I saw a skinny back crouching in the corner of the yard, absorbed in something. Looking at the spine of his back, he seems  quite skinny.

Unlike the beggar-like appearance a few days ago, he was wearing fairly decent clothes today, but he still looked shabby.

As soon as I looked inside, wondering what he was doing, I felt nauseous.

“Ugh… .”

The boy who sensed the presence of people turned around. He was holding a decapitated pheasant in one hand and a knife in the other with the hand holding the knife was covered in blood.

It was a crisis. If this kept up, he would be showing off his sides in front of a mere servant twice a day.

“…That’s barbaric.”

Erwin barely swallowed his nausea and turned around.

Those words that didn’t need to be said might have stemmed from jealousy. Jealousy and envy of that lowly being daring to live the life I wanted and dreamed of.

Now that I admit it, I feel even more depressed.