Eldest Uncle

The eldest uncle and his family had just arrived at the castle grounds. They came with a horse-drawn carriage that looked a bit overpriced; it had a pretty luxurious carriage design. Androcles, Cecelia, and Ernesto greeted them there, but meanwhile, Arsenio was only looking from the 3rd floor, the room of one of the maids.

"Welcome to my house, Henry." Androcles greeted his eldest brother warmly.

The three of them there just got out of the carriage. Henry, who is Androcles' eldest brother, came here with his wife and daughter. Henry, his wife, and his daughter belonged to the de Bodic noble family. The three of them came here only to stay for a while, before they finally went to where the king was.

"Thanks for the welcome, Androcles."

The de Jansen and the de Bodic met each other in the courtyard of this castle. Ernesto, who tries to appear polite as a member of the de Jansen noble family in front of his eldest uncle, has also shown how he welcomes his uncle. He bowed politely like a noble from his previous world. But meanwhile, Henry's daughter could only stand there, not paying any attention to what Ernesto was doing. And the worst thing there was, Cecelia, put on a worried face that didn't even look like she wanted to see them in front of her at all.

Arsenio who saw it also felt a little sad about his mother's condition. He could only see his mother who put on such a face from a distance.

"She must be stressed. In that case, she would be warier of them. But if they managed to get her out of her alert zone, she would be even more stressed. I don't know if the adrenaline will increase later. But when the stress she experiences increases, she will force herself to increase her reaction to her body, so that her adrenaline increases. Just like me back then, when I was under stress because my girlfriend was killed by them, my adrenaline increased so that it forced me to kill them without thinking about their family's condition," Arsenio said, looking straight at Cecelia.

The moment he finished saying that to himself, Henry glanced at Cecelia with a cynical face.

"Your son is very polite. But sadly..." Once again, Henry glanced at Cecelia with a cynical face before he finally continued, "Don't you have two children? Where is your other son, Androcles?"

Realizing that they were looking for him, Arsenio left from there. He ran away so that no one would know his whereabouts.

Coming out of there, Arsenio walked along with the third-floor hallway thinking and talking to himself.

"I remember something. I used to investigate a family suicide case. Before the five of them finally committed suicide together, the husband once said, 'This is a romantic thing between us'. To this day, I wonder, what kind of romance is that? The five of them committed suicide at the same time. Was it romantic to them, or were they just a bunch of idiots? But most importantly, if that romantic thing ever happens again, I won't let that happen. Only crazy people think it's romantic when they die together with their loved ones on purpose."

After saying that to himself, he headed to the dining room.

Arsenio knew that those, who were in the courtyard of this castle, would definitely go inside and have breakfast together. That's why he first went there before they came there.

When he got there, the maids had already finished their work. All the dishes are neatly arranged there. They were already standing back, in every corner of the room, waiting for breakfast to come.

The closest maid that Arsenio could reach was Alika, so Arsenio approached her first before deciding to sit there.

"Ika and the rest of the maids, thank you for your hard work in making these delicious dishes. Good job to you guys."

Arsenio praised them because he realized that it was them who had prepared all the needs of the castle. So there's nothing wrong with praising them.

"Thank you very much for your compliment, Lord Arsenio. But, I'm not of much help in this at all," Alika said. "I was just peeling some vegetables in the kitchen earlier."

"Even so, that is already part of my praise. Even if you're just mopping the floor or peeling the vegetables, you're working for this house."

"Umm… You're right, Lord Arsenio. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Before Arsenio walked away, because he thought Alika would not say anything more, Alika stopped him and asked:

"But, if Helena had also helped you when she became a horse, does that mean the number of compliments she received would be more than mine?"

"Why do you ask that?" Arsenio canceled his intention to just sit there and stood right in front of the pink-haired woman who had an innocent face and white skin.

"It's just, I feel like I have to be a horse too so you can ride. Just like Helena, I want to be like that."

"...Err, okay."

Arsenio doesn't understand what Alika is saying at all. He was stunned by his confusion and assumed that Alika must be joking.

"In that case..."

"Wait, Lord Arsenio!"

Arsenio can't leave from there, Alika keeps stopping him.

"What else now?"

"You think..." Alika held her hair, stroking the ends of her pink hair. "Should I cut my hair short?"

Even to ask that alone, Alika had to ask Arsenio, which was none of Arsenio's business.

"No, you don't need to cut your hair. You are beautiful with your long hair. After all, your hair color is so bright and you have fair skin, so what are you cutting your hair for? You're beautiful like that."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm serious."

"Thank you very much, Lord Arsenio."

Alika is happy, happy to know that Arsenio complimented her like that. But the strange thing about that, although she was happy when Arsenio complimented her, her face didn't show it at all. She kept the same face, that innocent, very flat face.

After that, Arsenio left there and sat on his breakfast chair. And breakfast there arrived.

***

Those who were there, at the dining table, had finished with their breakfast. But among them, only Arsenio kept seeing the girl, the girl around his age who was Henry's daughter.

"What's wrong with him? Why does he keep looking at me even when I'm eating?" She said in her mind.

The bright purple-haired girl was confused as to why Arsenio kept looking at her. She felt uncomfortable when Arsenio kept looking at her. All she knew was that Arsenio's gaze at her was like when he was looking at someone who needed pity.

"Oh…" Henry opened his mouth and seemed to be in shock when he saw Arsenio. "So you're the son of Androcles? You are so handsome, like your father. But, too bad, your hair is black…" Henry stopped his sentence, and glanced at Cecelia who was beside Androcles.

Arsenio didn't see it directly, so he didn't know that Henry had glanced cynically at Cecelia, but Arsenio knew that the sentence Henry stopped must have gone to Cecelia. Therefore, even though he didn't turn his gaze a bit, still toward the girl, Arsenio had understood that his hair color was similar to his mother's hair color and Henry didn't want to compliment that.

"Well, my mom gave me this hair, and I like it," Arsenio said without turning his head.

"What's the matter with him? Why does he keep looking at me? Do I look good to him?" The girl asked again in her mind.

Arsenio finally gave up looking at the girl. He turned to Henry who was there with his wife.

"Hey, Uncle, you are my uncle, right?"

Arsenio asked that as if he didn't accept that Henry was his uncle. Everyone was confused by that, even Ernesto was confused by the intentions of his twin brother.

"Of course. I, Henry de Bodic, am your father's eldest brother. You should know that, Arsenio. Why are you asking that?"

That girl must be Henry's daughter. Henry's wife has the same hair color as the girl, which is purple. Arsenio knew that there was a high probability that the lineage would have some things in common, including hair color, and that was shown by the hair color of the girl and Henry de Bodic's wife.

"No, I'm just confused. I am confused, are you taking care of your daughter properly or not. She looks so skinny, you even let her eat quite a bit."

Arsenio was not happy with that. When he has so much food in front of him but it turns out that there is someone thin as if she lacks food, he is not happy with it. And what's more, the closest people to the thin person didn't pay attention to her and gave her a decent portion of food.

Arsenio just didn't like it, seeing that the girl was so skinny and had such a meager portion of food. That was the reason why he kept looking at the girl with pity.

"If you were my uncle, you should-"

Before Arsenio could finish his sentence, the girl stood up full of anger.

"I'm not skinny. This is the beauty of me."

"Beauty?" Arsenio was confused by that. "You're not even prettier than Alika."

"Alika?"

The girl saw a maid who was the center of attention. Alika became the center of attention of the other maids due to Arsenio mentioning her name.

"Are you comparing me to her, a maid?"

"Yeah. You already noticed that, didn't you? Look, Alika is much prettier than you. You're too skinny to be a pretty girl, you know."

Henry and his wife could only be silent there. Perhaps they were embarrassed for not paying attention to their daughter properly, which led Arsenio to say that their daughter was thin.

"I was surprised, I saw you come here in a luxury horse carriage, but you forgot that your daughter needs nutritious food. What is this? Are you my uncle?"

Arsenio was too bold to say that. He shouldn't have said that sentence in front of them. He forgot that he and his father had a relationship with them. But, for him, it was true. To him, it was a fact of the girl. And for him, he did have to say that directly so that Henry and his wife would take better care of their daughter.

And in the silence due to what Arsenio said, Cecelia even managed to smile, even though it was a small smile from her.

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