Don't Come Near Me, I'm Just a Background Character [BL Harem]

5 - Drunk Little Boy

(A/N: Hehe... impulsive Remis again in this chapter!)

Cyrus' childish smile was innocent and lively, like thick honey dripping from a wooden spoon, making one want to melt.

But I wasn't going to. I didn't stay in a highly taxing situation for two months while devising a tremendously technical plot to eliminate a trained assassin to try and keep Aileen from carrying trauma for the rest of my life for nothing. Yes, my carelessness revealed my magic and, perhaps, revealed the fact that I knew more than I let on. Yes, soon, my family will put two and two together and come to question me about everything I have done.

But, in the middle of this hectic and very displeasing time, I absolutely refuse to associate with a capture target that strayed from his original path. Because in retrospect, I realized that just trying to hide any abnormalities from people was not enough. In order to prevent a butterfly effect stemming from the otome game world, or perhaps to prevent some sort of high-scaled plot correction that's hell bent on killing me, I needed to disappear.

No, I was going to minimize my presence in the storyline, I was a nobody, I had no affiliation with any of the capture targets nor the heroine, I was a background character. And right now, I had no intention of forgoing anything about what I knew about this world, or what happened that night—

"So, what's your name?" Cyrus' eyes bounced giddily.

"My name's Remis!" I responded with fervor.

—and the best way to do that was to act like whatever he expects me to be.

I could see his eyes immediately dim at my fervent response, but he still added, "Wow! What a beautiful name! I've met a lot of cool people, but I like you the best!"

I suppressed a dry laugh. Did he actually think he was fooling me?

I already know everything.

He was my previous sister's favorite capture target, after all.

I knew his age, I knew his purpose, I knew his personality, but most importantly, I would make sure that I knew his future.

"Ah! Really, that's so nice of you to say!" I smiled and clapped my hands enthusiastically.

He already seemed bored. His eyes darted around and his expression was fawning. "Hehe, I was only telling the truth, though. Wow, what a nice room! The table is so pretty, and- oh... what happened to your leg? Are you okay?" He glanced down at my bandaged leg and winced. What a brilliant actor, I thought wryly.

"Ah, just something! Don't worry about it, it was just a re~ally big accident." I waved my arms around and giggled happily. It's just for a few more hours...

"Oh, what kind of accident?! I'm really worried..."

Just for a few hours...

----

"Ah, this salad is absolutely scrumptious! I wonder, did the gardener of this estate get the vegetables from a garden in the courtyard?" The prime minister smiled casually, occasionally murmuring a few icebreakers to crack my father and mother's enraged and indignant mood.

Meanwhile, at the back of the table, Aileen chattered happily with the prime minister's daughter, Raen, while Cyrus continued to pester me smilingly about the night of the killing.

"So, how deep is the cut?"

"It's really deep, actually! It hurt a lot."

"Oh... what stabbed your thigh to make it hurt so much?"

"Guess! Cyrus, you're totally smart and cool so I'm sure you can figure it out!"

In the middle of dinner, I excused myself to the bathroom. Eliad seemed to want to leave as well, because the moment I began to stand, he bowed and used the excuse of escort to leave.

Outside of the dining room, I finally let my guard down and, on that small wheelchair, I slammed my head against the cool stone wall with a blank face. The image I gave off was akin to an old drunkard that collapsed on the side of the street. Eliad seemed to stop bothering, at this point, instead of trying to persuade me, he simply grabbed me by the waist and pulled me back close to his chest.

I continuously slammed my face into Eliad's stomach in grievance and hatred. My expression was dead and blatantly showed my disinclination to go back to finish pleasantries. At that point, I had completely forgotten that Eliad was, indeed, a capture target and just saw him as a personal hard pillow. My focus was solely towards the cunning one in the room which I couldn't shake off. How was I supposed to avoid a capture target if avoiding meant pretending to want to stick to him?

Muttering under my breath, I cursed, "Just fucking go away, I'm a background character, go the hell away, I'm not special..."

Yes, the severe amount of blood lost a week ago must have also affected my cognitive ability, I seemed especially imprudent at this time.

Waving Eliad off, I rolled lazily towards the nearest bathroom. Entering Aileen's room, I slid into the small stall and, while I was finishing my business, something underneath the toilet slowly rolled out. A small vial, filled with a red smoke-like substance.

I watched it roll out from me with careful curiosity.

Then it exploded.

----

(A/N: Cyrus' POV.)

The youngest child of Xenith. He was never truly revealed to the aristocracy. Despite being at the age of five, he has still not made a public appearance and is expected to debut at the age of eleven, not ten, due to the dominating influence of Xenith's count and countess.

The treasured child of Xenith was, apparently, severely injured due to a lack of political protection provided by the King. A concealed attack by one of Xenith's main competitors. That was all the countess revealed, but it was enough for the King to send the prime minister's entire family to the Xenith's main estate to apologize directly.

Calmly tapping the pentip to my chin, I smirked. The quiet sounds of the pen's collisions echoed around the large, empty room.

I wonder what kind of person he is.

----

"My name's Remis!"

My eyes immediately dimmed at his over-fervent answer. Of course, it was the case. An madly coddled kid raised in a rich family, just a spoiled brat.

Well, at least a weak lock would make it easy to find out an interesting family's secrets.

I smiled brighter and began.

----

He excused himself to the bathroom. I watched his receding figure with a vexed heart. I didn't get anything.

It was quite strange, really. Such a naive person would usually be so easy to crack. But it was like his guilelessness made him completely misunderstand all of my hidden questions.

How annoying.

A while passed. I watched Raen's natural and smooth interactions with Aileen silently with blank eyes. Soon after, I heard the door clack open and Remis pushing himself in giddily. "Wheee~!"

I raised an eyebrow in astonishment. ...what happened...? He's the same, but different.

...interesting.

I watched Remis speedily roll over next to me. "Hey cunning little brat dude, I'm back from peeing."

"...huh?"