The Reincarnated Villainous Young Master's Guide to Happiness

Chapter 23: Cornflower

A child suddenly tripped and fell. He laid there for a few seconds, looking around. No one had noticed him fall, so he started to cry. The child couldn't have been more than five, but he was surely old enough to know not to risk his life by being so... loud.

Neo's shoulders tensed apprehensively as he watched the child wail at the top of his lungs. He will surely be beaten for his transgressions. Slum children didn't have the luxury to cry so openly in the middle of the streets. Crying wasted energy, and was a sign of weakness.

Such actions would only get the boy killed.

One of the older-looking children approached the child and stretched out his hand.

Neo hurriedly stepped forward, about to intervene—

"It's okay, Jody! Let's go see Miss Sunny and have her take a look!"

The child sniffled but took the other boy's hand.

The two kids ran off.

Neo stared at this scene with an unreadable gaze.

He saw them running toward a large wooden building. The sign hanging above it indicated what it was for.

A strange, bitter feeling emerged in his chest.

There's an orphanage here.

The remaining children were picked up by their parents, and Neo felt the bitterness grow.

Obviously, not all children were orphans in the slums.

He knew that.

Of course, he knew that.

It's just...

Neo suddenly realized why he was feeling this way.

It's not fair.

He shrank into his cloak and tugged his hood further down his face so that he didn't have to look at the friendly atmosphere around him, quickening his pace.

If Rainier or Tybalt had noticed his reaction, neither said a word.

---

The carriage was parked by the side of a road a block away from the slum's exit.

Neo offered Tybalt a ride back, but the lavender-eyed boy declined the offer.

"I have some business to take care of. I'll see you at school!"

So they parted ways.

Neo and Rainier boarded the carriage and Rainier ordered the driver to take them back to the Odum Manor.

It took approximately half an hour to travel between the manor and the town. The Odum territory was large and vast, with many small noble houses and villages under its protection. As a Ducal, it was situated close to the Capital of the Empire. The manor was built closer to the border of the territory rather than at its center for easier access to the Royal Palace and the Academy.

The ride was quiet.

Neo blankly kept his gaze on the window, watching as the carriage passed the town gate and into the open road.

While his visit to his mother's brothel had been enlightening. He felt like the hardship he'd once experienced was a joke. He didn't have to experience any of it. If only he knew there was someplace else besides that wretched street...

But there were no "what if"'s in the world.

That lifetime had been lived once. The people there burned from his anger. He had died for his choices. He could not go back to that exact moment and force himself to change, the world didn't work that way. This was a new timeline, a parallel timeline that had the same potential for chaos like in his first life—but he had come back. It was home, yet, it wasn't.