NOVEL NEXT A Fairy Tales For The Villains
Vol. 1 Chapter 2 - I Became Old Boy?!(2)
I heard familiar voices coming from somewhere, it was none other than Lettis and Venya’s. Their heavy steps grew closer and suddenly, I saw the two boys popping up from some stairs I didn’t even know was there.
We stared at each other in silence. We were all in our sleepwear; the last time we saw each other like this was about eight years ago. Either way, no matter how embarrassed we were, it wasn’t the time nor the place to be thinking about it.“Sasha, did you bring us here?”‘Even him?’ I stared at Lettis, whom I considered was the more dependable of the three siblings, in disbelief. Venya, who was scratching his silver-grayed head, which looked like a bird’s nest, gave an unfriendly look to his older brother. Lettis gave us an offended stare in reply.“I’m asking just in case, you know? I wouldn’t–”“The fact that you even asked, means that there’s a serious problem with your brain.”“Well, when I woke up, we were all gathered in a room I’d never seen before, of course, I’ll think someone’s playing around…”Waking up under an unfamiliar ceiling was the same for the four of us. A tingling feeling began to grow inside me while everyone exchanged puzzled eyes.“Was there a place like this in the mansion?”“Hyung, are you an idiot? How can you not know such a thing when you’re the eldest son?”“So, do you know this place?”We definitely did not. We’d been roaming around this mansion since we were kids, but this area was obviously new to all of us. It was a large room cluttered with furniture. Chairs with different designs around the short-legged beds, a marble table with lamps on it, a large wardrobe, drawers, a dresser, and a thick rug on the floor. All of it looked out of sync as if the decoration had no aesthetic sense.The stinging sun and a vast blue sky were seen through the large slanted roof window. It was the only window in the entire room. That was particularly annoying…“Did you guys wake up in the room downstairs?”“Yeah. When I opened my eyes, I was in the same bed with him, I freaked out.” Venya replied sarcastically as always, and his older brother couldn’t help but bit the bait.“I was even more startled, you know?”Ignoring the sibling’s blabbering, I took a step forward and approached the small door on the opposite wall. The wooden door creaked open as I grabbed its rusty iron doorknob.“…There’s a bathroom here, too.”Venya muttered low, following me from behind. His voice sounded like that of someone who had discovered something new. ‘Is there anyone who doesn’t know what a bathroom is?’ Well, for these noble children, this bathroom was quite small. However, as the daughter of a nanny, it was rather suitable for me.“Was there something like this downstairs too?”I don’t know when the adults were around, but I used to comfortably talk when it was us alone. It was like that since we were little, so neither they nor I cared about it.“Oh. I thought it was another entry, but it turns out it’s a bathroom.”I knew it for some reason. There wasn’t an exit door. I had nothing to say, and the feeling of being reluctant and distraught was growing every moment. There was also another door to the left of the rugged drawer. I closed the bathroom door and approached the one on the opposite wall. But then, Lettis shouted.“Be careful, you don’t know what can pop out from there.”Normally, everyone would have laughed and asked what the fuss was all about, but no one did. Even Venya, whose joy in life was teasing someone, was chewing his lips due to the current situation. We all felt as if we wouldn’t be shocked even if there was a hundred-years-old dragon struggling to come out from behind that door.Of course, there couldn’t have been a dragon. I thought about it later, if what was there was a real dragon, it might have been better. Anyway, only an ordinary room was beyond the door that Lettis, as the eldest son, opened cautiously. It was a really simple and common room. Although it must have been quite peculiar to the eyes of the siblings.“…What is this? Is it a dining room?”It wasn’t a bedroom or a bathroom, it was a kitchen. A place where we could wash dishes, store food and cook. It was a place no different from the bathroom or the poorly designed bedroom, in other words, it was a very far-fetched kind of place for nobles.The first one to move was Venya. He looked around with his usual expression of “What’s the big deal?” then looked back at his sister and me and blabbed.“Isn’t this like an enlarged version of Estelle’s dollhouse? You two can play here all day long!”Lettis began to giggle at the absurd joke, but once I glared at him, he immediately stopped and changed the subject with a serious look.“Alright, let’s stop fooling around.”“Fooling around?”“Sasha, didn’t you plan this with other servants to make fun of us? You stayed here.”…How could some servants hide their masters under a rock for a joke? And why would I do something like that?It was quite fortunate that Estelle, who was just looking around with her arms clasped tightly around mine without saying a word, opened her mouth.“Sasha, it’s stuffy here.”“I think so too.”“I don’t like it here.”In other words, she was trying to say ‘Whatever this place is, I’m no longer curious, so let’s stop and get out of here.’ I felt the same way.‘We just need…’“I think we’ll have to head downstairs to get out.”As soon as I finished, Lettis butted in as if he had been waiting.“There’s no exit door downstairs either.”“You probably miss it.”“It’s not that. Really, there isn’t one.”Lettis’ voice, which immediately struck a strong objection, was mixed with some sort of odd nervousness. The same was true for Venya, who seemed uncharacteristically anxious. Although he seemed to be trying hard to conceal his feelings.None of us spoke a word as we walked down side by side. The stairway inside the sunken wall was dark and narrow. The lower floor was about the same structure as upstairs. Except that it had little less furniture, there were no windows at all, making the surrounding quite dark, and instead of a kitchen, there was another big room.“What the hell is this?”“It’s like a study? doesn’t it look similar?”I once saw the study room of the late Duke, and as Lettis said, it looked similar. But even though there were bookshelves, it wasn’t a study… It was more like a large warehouse?I could barely see the stretch of bookshelves through the thick dust in the air. It was dark, so I couldn’t exactly see what else was there. The air was murky, there was a stale smell of old paper and furniture rotting. Wouldn’t there be another door inside?“Aaak!”The old marble floor creaked beneath our trembling feet, the sound made Estelle jump and let out a short scream. I screamed too, but it was because of the wind!“Pfffhahahahah!”I could hear the Young Masters laughing their hearts out. I patted Estelle’s little shoulder as she clung onto me and at the same time glared towards the two clowns.“How can you be laughing now?!”Lettis began to cough awkwardly, but Venya gave a brazen blow.“I laughed because it was funny? You sounded like you were pulling a pig’s tail!”“That’s how YOU sound!!”My voice roared out loudly in the dark, mysterious room. It looked like a pretty big room.Either way, Venya was still shamelessly joking around. Ugh, what a mean guy. In the past, I would have started a childish war right away, but now I was determined to move on because I recalled my previous life and I was older, mentally. Wasn’t it a bit much to argue with a 14-year-old child at this mental age?‘Anyway, what the hell is this place and what are we doing here?’Shouldn’t we be getting ready to leave for Pzeya by now? Were we brought here temporarily to reduce the risk of infection?It wasn’t necessarily because of Venya, but the desire to look around at the gloomy study -storage room- disappeared, so I stepped back and began to look inside the bedroom again. I hadn’t noticed earlier, but there was a large mirror attached to the wall that connects the stairs.Bewildered and confused-looking children stood in their sleepwear in a dark room looking our way. For a moment, the scenery felt so bizarre.Was it because of a sense of alienation to see such noble children gathered in this dark, murky and narrow place? Or was it due to some kind of premonition? Whatever it was, our reflections in the mirror looked like ghosts trapped in an old, abandoned steeple.Venya, who was looking around, approached me. I wondered if he noticed the light of agitation flickering on my face.“I’m sure we’re here because of the plague. Like a temporary shelter? I think they brought us in when we were sleeping because they were afraid we’d be scared.”I thought he would be arrogant again, but, surprisingly, he spoke in a reassuring tone. I hesitated for a moment then asked carefully.“Yesterday… what exactly did your relatives say?”A gloomy shadow flicked in his sky-blue eyes, the playfulness faded away in an instant.“Considering the situation in the Capital, they asked us to go to Pzeya for a while… Because of what happened to mother and father, they say that they can’t lose us too.”Right. So far, it was exactly as I remembered. Lettis, the successor to the Serpente household, was only fifteen years old. Furthermore, the situation in the capital was so serious, it became a trend among noble children to study abroad after being entrusted to relatives.Then again, this place…“Did they say anything else?”“Anything else? Oh, don’t worry, I made sure you come with us because of Estelle. Who else can handle that crybaby if it’s not you?”I was grateful for his actions, but that wasn’t what I was worried about.There was something else bothering me.I didn’t know why the thought came so suddenly but I remembered that they, that is, the relatives of these siblings… all died in inexplicable ways a few years later.
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