Chapter 019: Leaving the Party Behind
“It’s obvious.”
Roanne shrugged. Audrey’s hostile attitude toward her was a brazen one that could never exist if her husband cherished his younger brother.
Furthermore, with the younger brother, Alexis, wandering around like that, Francis’s conduct as an older brother was far too indifferent. It was hard to see it as a good relationship between siblings.
“Lord Francis is……”
Once he started talking, the butler’s chatter showed no signs of ending.
“He is someone I don’t quite know how to describe.”
“Why? What do you mean?”
Roanne rolled her eyes.
“Well, it’s hard to define……”
But ultimately, the butler’s chatter, once begun, continued from there.
“The Countess spared no devotion or support for her eldest son, Lord Francis. However, several of the businesses he started didn’t go well and had to be closed. Still, the Countess searched far and wide to arrange his marriage to the current Madam. Since Lady Audrey’s family is quite wealthy and has connections to the Royal Palace.”
“Hmm.”
“Thanks to that, after the marriage, Lord Francis also entered the Royal Palace and is working in administrative affairs. That was also thanks to the help from Lady Audrey’s family. Anyway, he is a gentle and quiet person, but other than that, I don’t really……”
Roanne blinked.
‘In short, he’s a useless fellow.’
Still, is he better than the one who wanders and causes trouble?
Roanne chuckled. Well, even she was confused when her thoughts reached that point. If one monopolizes a mother’s love and is pushed forward by a wife’s family to that extent, wouldn’t they want to look after a wandering younger brother out of a sense of mental leeway?
Could that be considered a gentle personality? He is incompetent and is turning a blind eye to his brother’s plight.
‘Maybe…….’
He’s an even bigger villain than the Countess.
Roanne thought. But well, it’s not like I need to care about that.
Shaking the thoughts out of her head, Roanne soon prepared dinner. Shortly after, a delicious smell spread throughout the kitchen. The butler was staring intently only at the noodles Roanne was making, with an ecstatic face.
While the butler was spilling all the family secrets like this, Alexis was present at a party he always attended.
“Why have you been so scarce lately?”
One of the group spoke to Alexis. It was a voice already heavily intoxicated. Alexis also picked up a crystal glass from a silver tray held by a passing servant.
He gulped down the liquor, thinking he might as well get drunk, but strangely, he couldn’t taste much of anything. Feeling depressed, Alexis wiped his mouth roughly with the back of his hand and set the glass down.
“Do you know Ceres has been looking for you constantly?”
“Ceres?”
Alexis’s eyes sank indifferently.
“Who is that?”
“Hah.”
The other person looked at Alexis as if it were absurd.
“You two were stuck together playing at parties for a while, and now you don’t even remember?”
At those words, Alexis ran his hand roughly through his hair.
“Who remembers anyone when they’re so drunk they’re out of their mind?”
“She’d be upset if she heard that.”
The other person giggled.
“It seems she thinks you two are dating now.”
Alexis chuckled at that.
“Crazy talk.”
“Ah, she just appeared over there.”
Alexis turned his gaze to where the person pointed. Just as he said, a woman was approaching from a distance with her flashy blonde hair fluttering.
‘Who is that?’
Alexis furrowed his brow. No matter how hard he tried to remember, it was an unfamiliar face.
‘I should start drinking in moderation now.’
She seemed to be a woman he got to know while wandering through parties in a state of total intoxication.
“Alexis!”
The woman cried out.
‘She’s calling my name so familiarly.’
Suddenly feeling offended, Alexis glared at the woman with a terrifyingly stiffened face.
“Just why are you appearing only now?!”
The woman called Ceres cried out in an anxious voice. At that shout, the party venue momentarily fell silent. Several surrounding nobles turned their gaze, and Alexis instinctively knit his brows. He could overtly feel the gazes of those watching the situation with excitement.
“Who exactly are you.”
At Alexis’s cold voice, Ceres’s face stiffened.
“Wha… What did you say?”
“Seeing as I have absolutely no memory of you, it seems there was never anything particularly special.”
At those cold words, Ceres’s face turned bright red. It wasn’t from embarrassment. It was from shame.
“Aren’t you truly being too much? That day, we—”
“That day?”
Alexis tilted his head. His eyes froze to a dangerous degree.
“If you’re going to talk to me, start by telling me exactly what happened that night. Because I don’t even remember your name.”
“……!”
Ceres’s lips trembled violently, and she tried to say something but soon shut her mouth tight. However, unable to say anything more, she turned away with tears welling in her eyes. From the surroundings, someone whispered along with giggles.
“Again. Things like that happen often.”
“It’s not like Alexis ever treated her particularly well.”
“He says he doesn’t even remember.”
Hearing a group whispering, Alexis raised his glass to his lips. But at that moment, the transparent liquid in the glass felt strangely nauseating.
‘It’s no fun.’
In fact, he hadn’t particularly enjoyed this kind of entertainment before either. However, there was nothing better for forgetting his twisted feelings and loneliness. Because if he just drifted along without any thought, the days passed by quickly. But why was it like this lately?
‘I can’t keep doing this anymore either.’
The times when he drank heavily, smoked cigars, played cards, and didn’t particularly push away the beauties clinging to him while lounging languidly in party venues. Those times at least let his hollow life pass by in a blur, but why was all of this so tiresome lately?
While watching people pour down liquor boisterously, someone else suddenly came to his mind unknowingly.
The East Annex.
A kitchen where the scent of herbs was subtly mixed.
Warm broth.
A woman moving diligently. The sound of chattering. Like a bird chirping.
In a dark room, a gentle face nursing him amidst the flickering of a soft candle.
And, and again.
—If you’re that concerned, why don’t you come and help with some of the work!
In that place where his aunt Eureia had been confined and died a lonely death, how could such a thing be.
Alexis quietly closed his eyes. His face distorted slightly.
‘What am I thinking right now.’
However, after a moment, he set the glass down on the table. And he quietly stood up from his seat.
“Going already?”
Someone in the group asked. Instead of answering, Alexis put on his black coat and left the party venue without a word. After Alexis left, several people whispered once more.
“What’s up with that guy lately?”
“Did he find a more interesting place?”
It was true that Alexis’s attitude had changed noticeably of late.
Even attending this party was a rarity, and yet he was leaving just like that, not even staying for a few hours with a face that said he was bored. Previously, was he not the one who would repeatedly indulge in alcohol and tobacco until he collapsed with a blurred and dazed face by the time the party ended?
“By the way, did you hear that story?”
“What?”
“About the brothers from the Eden family. I heard they were completely beaten to a pulp?”
“What? But is the House of the Duke of Eden just staying quiet?”
“Well, what else can they do.”
The voice of the one relaying the rumor muttered secretly.
“The opponent is Alexis of Glister.”
“Aha.”
Those present burst into a roar of laughter.
“He finally went and got his revenge, that guy.”
“I knew he wasn’t one to just take it.”
“It’s more than that. Both brothers don’t have a single spot on their bodies that’s intact, so I heard they’ve been recuperating until now.”
“That’s why they shouldn’t have touched Alexis of all people.”
In this way, Alexis’s notoriety was rising once again in the party venue.
Meanwhile, Alexis hesitated, wondering if he should have another drink somewhere no one knew and go home to sleep. For some reason, he didn’t feel like it. Furthermore, strangely.
‘I’m hungry.’
Alexis was someone who had never felt such a sensation in his life, but now, after pouring down a few glasses of cold liquor, his whole body felt chilled. He needed something warm, and something gentle.
—You’re going to eat before you go, right?
In his mind, Roanne was already talking to him.
—Eat and then go, Alexis.
Because it didn’t seem like she hated me going there that much.
Alexis moved his steps with a somewhat dejected heart. It felt as if something inside him was crumbling. Still, he tucked his hands into his pockets and began to walk. This time, it was a pace neither fast nor slow, with a clear destination.
