TCSM 03

Chapter 3

The Count’s Damnable Master (3)

When Isabella approached the window and pulled back the curtains, the rays of light that had been blocked out flooded into the room. Once she opened the window as well, cool air rushed in, and only then did I feel like I could finally breathe.

In the corner opposite the window, where the light barely reached, there was a bed. A lump covered by a sheet rose from the mattress.

When I saw an arm sticking out from beneath the sheet, I realized there was a person underneath.

Isabella approached the bed.

The sheet twitched, then slowly began retreating backward. Not that there was anywhere for him to run.

“Are you awake, Master?”

“………………Get out.”

A hoarse voice laced with anger drifted out.

Isabella politely clasped both hands in front of her and spoke.

“I will bring your dinner. I prepared something easy for you to eat, so please think of your health and finish the whole meal.”

“Get out!”

The rounded body suddenly moved, grabbing the vase from the bedside table and throwing it.

Isabella merely tilted her head slightly. The vase grazed right past her and crashed onto the floor, shattering.

My mouth fell open at the horrifying situation, but Isabella remained completely unfazed.

“I will bring you a new vase.”

“I don’t need one. Don’t come.”

“And I have also brought the child who will be attending to you from now on.”

Isabella gestured toward me with her eyes.

Until then, I had been standing by the door in shock, but I quickly composed myself and went to stand beside her.

The person on the bed looked bigger up close than I had expected.

And he was a grown man.

His face was completely covered, but I could tell from the voice I had heard earlier and the vague shape I had glimpsed.

“P-pleased to meet you, Master.”

“This child will be attending to you from now on. If there is anything you need, please tell her. She will prepare it immediately.”

“I look forward to serving you.”

I clasped both hands together over my stomach and bowed at the waist.

But the only answer I received was—

“Fuck off.”

And this time, it came even more harshly.

I flinched and glanced up at Isabella.

She paid no attention and continued speaking.

“I will bring your dinner.”

She turned toward the door.

Just as when we had first arrived, there wasn’t the slightest change in her calm footsteps.

My heart was pounding from the shock, and I secretly admired how composed Isabella was. I was just about to quickly turn around and follow her when—

A hand suddenly reached out.

This time, its fingertips groped around the bedside table until they found the knife lying on the plate.

When I saw him slowly pick it up, I was startled and turned back toward him.

“If you get hit with that in the wrong place, you could die!”

I tried to grab his hand.

But perhaps because I had rushed forward without thinking, I failed to look down.

My foot stepped on the sheet that had been lying across the floor, and I slipped.

Huh? Huh?

Before I knew it, my field of vision flipped upside down.

I think the hand I had been flailing in the air managed to grab onto something.

Something fell over me as my body toppled backward.

Before I could even feel the pain of the back of my head hitting the floor, a heavy weight crushed my chest.

“Ghk—”

I stuck out my tongue and squeezed my eyes shut.

“Master!”

At Isabella’s frantic shout, I realized that the person who had fallen on top of me was my master.

Vincent.

I opened my eyes wide in surprise.

A face was right in front of mine.

Dark eyebrows, emerald-colored eyes beneath them, a sharp nose, roughened but full lips—the sort of handsome face that people would supposedly turn around to look at if they happened to pass him on the street.

It was enough to leave me stammering without even realizing it.

But something was strange.

Vincent, who seemed just as startled as I was, suddenly began looking around in all directions.

His emerald eyes were staring at completely empty spaces.

No.

Looking more closely, even the color of his eyes seemed a little strange.

They had a faintly cloudy hue.

Both of his hands moved toward my face.

When the tips of his long fingers brushed against the hair covering my face, I was startled and pushed him away, scrambling backward.

It wasn’t until I heard the loud thud of him hitting the floor that I realized what I had done.

I quickly checked on Vincent.

He had fallen backward and was now groping around on the floor.

His movements were rather frantic.

When I narrowed my eyes, sensing something strange, Isabella helped Vincent up.

Vincent’s hands frantically searched over Isabella as she pulled him to his feet.

Then he hesitated before straightening his body.

Even then, his face kept turning sharply from side to side.

As if—

“Your eyes…………”

As if he were someone who couldn’t see.

The face that had been turning rapidly suddenly stopped.

Isabella glared sharply at me.

Only then did I realize that I had said the wrong thing.

Before I could say anything in my confusion, Vincent’s expression twisted into something vicious.

Then he let out a tremendous roar and began throwing whatever he could get his hands on at me.

Crash! Bang! Smash!

I was helpless against the indiscriminate assault.

I raised both arms to try to shield myself, but it was useless.

Before I knew it, Isabella had come up beside me, grabbed me by the arm, and pulled me to my feet.

As though she were accustomed to situations like this, Isabella didn’t even look surprised.

I was the only one panicking as I hurried after her.

It wasn’t until we stepped outside the room and Isabella closed the door that the commotion finally stopped.

I clutched my pounding heart.

A heart that normally wasn’t easily startled was hammering wildly inside my chest.

“He is very sensitive. Be careful from now on. Especially with what you say.”

“………………Yes.”

At my answer, Isabella simply turned around without another word.

I watched her walk away and let out a sigh.

I had a feeling my life here wasn’t going to be peaceful.

And that day, I ended my first day by watching the dinner I had gone through all that trouble to bring get overturned by Vincent’s hands.

My room was directly next to Vincent’s.

Normally, the rooms of servants and their masters were on different floors, but I had been told to stay in the room beside his so that I could answer whenever he called.

Damn it.

Still, for the first time in my life, I fell asleep on a soft bed beneath clean blankets.

I did wake up several times because of strange noises in the middle of the night, but either way, it was a surprisingly comfortable place to sleep.

The next day, I got dressed properly and entered with breakfast, only to get smacked in the face with a pillow.

Vincent Bellunita.

He was the master I would be serving from now on.

The only child of the highly esteemed Count and Countess Bellunita, he had attracted people’s attention from a young age with his beautiful appearance and had been recognized for his extraordinary intelligence and abilities in numerous fields.

On top of that, the Count and Countess were deeply devoted to each other, and theirs was a happy, close-knit family that anyone would have envied.

Then, the Count and Countess died in an unfortunate accident, leaving Vincent Bellunita to inherit the family at a young age.

There had been plenty of talk among the public about someone so young being forced to take responsibility for the family, but contrary to everyone’s concerns, Vincent led the family admirably.

Thanks to him, the influence and prestige of the Bellunita family continued to grow day by day.

…………………That was where the happy past ended.

One day, tragedy came for him.

It happened at a party hosted by the royal family.

The party had been proceeding smoothly until a man suddenly rushed at him with a knife, turning everything into chaos.

The man was a servant of the Bellunita family.

Fortunately, Vincent had a guard by his side, so his injuries were only minor.

But the strange substance the assassin sprayed into his eyes was another matter.

At first, it was apparently nothing more than a slight stinging sensation in his eyes.

Then his vision gradually became blurry, until he could no longer distinguish shapes.

And at some point, the light disappeared completely, replaced by darkness.

He had gone blind.

Since then, Vincent Bellunita had shut himself away in his room.

That was the story as far as I knew.

To the outside world, Count Vincent Bellunita was simply recovering from injuries he had sustained at a party.

There had been rumors that Vincent himself might have been involved in the incident because the assassin had been dressed as a servant of the Bellunita family.

But the rumors soon died down.

It was discovered not long afterward that although the assassin had been wearing the uniform of a Bellunita servant, he wasn’t actually a servant of the family.

However, no one ever found out who the assassin really was or what his motive had been.

In the end, Vincent had gone blind, and that fact was a secret known only to a few people close to him.

Even the servants of the mansion didn’t know.

That was why I had to be the one to attend to him.

And I had to do it secretly.

Confidentiality.

That was one of the conditions I had to agree to in order to work as a servant here.

I was never to speak a single word about anything that happened here.

I nodded and signed the contract.

It also meant implicitly agreeing to the consequences I would face if I ever revealed anything.

But I didn’t care.

All I could think was that I should just do my best.

However, I soon realized that serving Vincent was much, much, much, much harder than I had expected.

“Take it all out!”

Crash!

The twelfth plate met its glorious end.

I secretly sighed as I stared at the plate fragments that had been shattered spectacularly across the floor.

The moment I bent down and began cleaning up the broken pieces, the glassware and utensils came tumbling onto the floor as well.

“Get out!”

Wrapped from head to toe in a sheet, he snapped angrily.

He was practically a cat.

A cat that was completely on guard, looking at me as though to say, How dare someone like you think you can tame me?

There used to be stray cats that often came around in front of Uncle Mark’s bakery.

Among them was one cat that grew thinner every time I saw it.

It looked so pitiful that it was the only one I secretly tore off pieces of bread for.

At first, the cat had been wary of me.

But one day, it slowly approached and took the bread I offered.

Eventually, it would purr and rub its face against my hand.

But unlike that cat, he was simply too big to treat that way.

And he was a fully grown adult man.

I gathered the broken pieces and utensils and placed them on the tray before looking at Vincent.

“I’ll bring them again.”

“I don’t need anything. Just get out.”

“If there’s something you would like to eat, please tell me. I’ll ask the cook to prepare it.”

“All I need is for you to disappear.”

“Then I’ll leave it in the room.”

“I said I don’t need