Afterward, the picnic quickly came to an end. My expression noticeably became worse, Cain and Alan noticed and Hunter's mood darkened.
Hunter had to leave for work, so we all naturally parted ways. However, just before I could enter the room with Cain, Hunter grabbed my arm.
"Prince Del, are you feeling unwell?"
He was very sensitive to my health. Even though I felt my heart soften because he cared, I nodded and Hunter slightly smiled.
"That's good, then."
"I'm really fine. Go ahead and go to work."
Cain, who ran into the room first, started yelling from inside, complaining about the cold and telling us to close the door. I was about to go in when Hunter grabbed me again.
"Prince Del."
"Yes?"
"......"
Hunter hesitated without responding. Conflict appeared on his usually composed face. I waited quietly without urging him.
"Earlier, about the guild leader..."
"Oh, yes."
Unintentionally, my voice sounded a bit cold.
"It's not that I don't like him. Well, to be honest, I do find him unlikeable."
"......"
"I hate that you rely on him. I don't want you to value him and cherish the special memories you have of him."
"......"
"That's why. You got those reactions of the guild leader. It's probably the same for everyone else besides me."
He was referring to Alan and Cain. It wasn't that they were looking down on Andrea or ignoring him. It was jealousy. Hunter was expressing this now.
"I just wanted to say that. Now, go in."
After saying that, Hunter left, leaving a more hurried than usual. I stood there and watched him disappear around the corner. Surprisingly, my mood was better.
***
After resolving all the requests, Andrea had nothing else to do. He lay down on the bed, blankly staring at a stain in the corner of the ceiling.
Downstairs, there was a commotion with the clinking of glasses. It was because they had started business for the evening.
Maybe I should help with the business after a long time.
Andrea got up sluggishly, took out a mask made of linen from the drawer, but soon stuck it back in the drawer. Since he was known as the boss's nephew, he thought it wouldn't matter if he went downstairs without a mask.
With his hands in his pants pockets, he went down to the first floor. As it got darker, the inside of the store buzzed with customers who came for drinks.
When Andrea showed his face, several customers pretended to know him. He roughly acknowledged their greetings and went over to the owner.
"Why did you come out, Jim?"
Victor, the fake owner and fake uncle, intentionally asked in a loud and cheerful voice.
"I thought I might help with some work."
Victor's expression became blank at Andrea's response. However, soon he used his large hands and patted Andrea on the back, and shouted, "Then, bring beers to that table!"
Andrea held two full beer glasses in each hand and placed them on the central table of the store. One of the beers overflowed, slightly wetting a customer's pants.
"Hey, what are you doing!"
A somewhat intoxicated customer, who was already quite large and had an even louder voice, stood up, dragging his chair. Along with the smell of alcohol, an unpleasant odor also spread. Andrea frowned.
"What are you going to do about this?"
The customer shouted while pushing Andrea. Victor hurriedly ran over, shouting, "Oh my!" Andrea irritated, brushed his hair back and lightly tapped the shoulder that the customer had pushed him.
"This bastard..."
A thick and rough hand, with bristly hair, heavily slapped Andrea's cheek. The inside of the bar instantly became quiet. Victor, who had rushed over, froze in surprise. The only people who didn't seem flustered were Andrea, who received the slap, and the customer who delivered it.
"The customer hit first. There are plenty of witnesses, right?"
Andrea spoke quietly. Despite Victor shouting desperately, "No!" Andrea seemed not to hear anything.
Andrea's attack began. He mercilessly threw punches and kicked. It took less than three minutes for the large customer to collapse and turn into a puddle of blood. His blood splattered, and his teeth scattered. The customer could not even scream and struggled, making the sound of choking on his own blood. It was only for a moment. Soon, he lost consciousness and fell limp.
The faces of the other customers, who thought of Andrea as the bar owner's nephew, a handsome young man polite and well-mannered, turned pale. Everyone forgot to breathe, watching Andrea's one-sided beating. Victor, who tried to stop Andrea but only fell behind him, was sweating and shouting for him to stop.
"Jim! Snap out of it! Why are you doing this, really!"
Victor's voice sounded distant and blurry, as if underwater. Andrea, holding the customer by the hair, slammed him on the floor. Why am I doing this? It feels like I'm not in my right mind.
However, he soon stopped thinking. What does it matter? After all, there was no Del here to jump in and protect Andrea. Since he was startled and scared when he saw blood, Andrea retained from doing so.
Squelch, grumble...
Strange sounds came from the man lying below. Andrea let go of the customer's hair as if throwing away something dirty and stood up. When those who had been standing around him were shocked and took a step back.
"Haha..."
Andrea laughed, sweeping his blood-stained hand through his hair. His pink eyes flashed blood red.
"Uncle, could you clean this up?"
"...Y-yes."
Andrea smiled at Victor and then walked out of the bar.
It was still not enough. He didn't know what it was, but he felt like there was something he still lacked.
I need to satisfy this thirst.
Andrea took a step forward with that single thought in mind.
***
Day 5.
The palace was quiet this morning. Cain said he had some business and went to the Magic Tower for a while, Alan mentioned he had prayer time in the morning, and Hunter had a scheduled meeting with an envoy from some kingdom for a meal.
So, I was alone now. Despite the chaos of the past few days with three men taking turns watching over me and chatting endlessly, I found it somewhat refreshing. While a week might feel short with the time limit of 7 days, it doesn't mean to stick together 24 hours a day for a whole week.
I strolled through the garden, admiring beautiful flowers, small fountains, and colorful fish in a cute landscaped pond. After exploring the entire garden, I followed the path that led to a garden. The path to the Queen's palace felt a bit overwhelming, so I decided to take an unexplored path.
At the end of the path, there were other palaces. Each palace had slightly different exteriors, and they were aesthetically pleasing, making time pass by just by admiring the architecture. Unlike the Queen's palace, which had limited entrances and a closed structure, the other palaces were lavishly decorated and had an open atmosphere.
In particular, the palace I was currently looking at, while smaller in scale, was incredibly decorated. The tops of the columns were intricate and delicate, and the decorations attached to the tops of the pillars seemed to be made of gold, rubies, and emeralds of various colors.
'I wonder what would happen if I were to take these away...'
I was joking to myself, thinking that someday, if there was chaos in the empire, I should definitely take the rubies. But then, I heard a strange sound from somewhere.
"Uh... ugh!"
At first, I thought someone was groaning, and I took a step to offer help. However, as I approached the source of the sound, the air became uncomfortably hot.
"Ah, good, good..."
"Hey, ugh, damn it, I told you to speak more provocatively, huh?"
"Heuk, no, I don't like it, go away!"
"More, more shameless, huh!"
"Let go of this! Ah, let go!"
My face turned bright red. I wasn't sure what kind of play they were doing, but this was the garden of the palace where the royal family lived. It had overgrown bushes, so fortunately it was hard to see. If the owner of the palace found them, they might get more than a scolding. As long as it ended there, it would be fine.
First and foremost, I thought I shouldn't get involved in this situation. I quietly turned around, attempting to slip away unnoticed. However, a panicked voice came from the bush.
"Ah, wait! W-wait! I think there's someone there!"
Oh no. I crouched down and stealthily tried to leave. But the people who had secretly had sex in the Palace garden were different from others. They had better hearing than expected.
Thud.
A rock flew from behind and hit me in the back of my head. As I clutched the back of my head in pain, the irritable voice of a man reached my ears.
"What the hell are you doing? Turn around."
[Ugh why do I feel like ik who it is 😑]