Chapter 61：Childhood pt5

Dylan's father sat at the table, silent and solemn. The maids served the food before quickly retreating off to the side and finally the iceberg of a man moved. He took a sip out of his wine and started to break the silence.

"Raquiez's daughter is having her societal debut next week." He said as he munched on his food.

"Oh my, she's already 6?" Jessica exclaimed, pretending to be surprised. She had already received an invitation to the party and the other wives were commenting on it during their tea party the other day.

"People are curious about…the boy, so he'll be going to." Alex continued. He paused and hesitated when speaking of Dylan and ultimately opted to speak ambiguously, though everyone knew who he was talking about.

Dylan who had been nervous eating his food perked his ears. He was allowed to go? Dylan had always thought an illegitimate son was an existence that people usually hid. To bring him the party was to tell the world that he was a part of the Kaiser family and allowed him to build connections with other nobles. Dylan had not yet demonstrated qualities worthy of showing, yet Alex was willing to take this risk. This was practically confirming Dylan's presence in the family. In the future, they wouldn't be able to ignore him like they currently were.

"Even though he has been taught the etiquette, he hasn't been to any parties before so, I expect you two to help your brother out. Make sure that he doesn't do anything to damage our reputation." Alex told the twins.

""Yes, Father."" They echoed in unison.

"Father, can I go too?" Olivia asked Alex with a cheeky grin.

Alex's face visibly softened and he smiled for the first time since Dylan met him. Seeing his smiling face and gentle aura, it finally sunk in to Dylan that this man was his father. He wasn't some kind of century old iceberg but the man who conceived him.

"You're too young Olivia. Next year, when it's your birthday, we'll throw a bigger party than theirs."

"But everyone else is going." Olivia whined in a spoiled tone.

"No means no, sweetie. Don't bother your father like that." Jessica chided, emitting a motherly aura.

Olivia was about to complain again when she saw her mother secretly glaring at her, warning her to back down. She reluctantly shut up and redirected her attention towards Dylan. She devised her plan to vent her annoyance on this half-brother of hers and spoke up.

"Big brother, can you eat this for me? I don't like capsicum." She shoved her fork at him and demanded that he eat it. Dylan stared at the green vegetable for a while and hesitated. Seeing him hesitated, Oliva felt satisfaction well up inside her. "I'm your little sister, can't you do at least this much for me?"

She urged him with her eyes and Alex applied silent pressure with his gaze. Meanwhile, the twins were snickering to themselves and Jessica just ate, and watched.

Dylan felt the pressure of their gazes and grabbed the fork from Olivia's grasp. He used a knife to slide the capsicum (or bell peppers, whatever you call them) off and stabbed at it with his own fork. Dylan handed the fork back to Olivia and just ate the capsicum without much of a fuss.

Olivia watched flabbergasted. How could he eat such a disgusting thing without a change in expression? Does he like it? If he does, why did he take so long to eat?

Dylan sensed her confusion and very kindly clarified. "I don't think you would have wanted me to use your fork so I was thinking about how to transfer it."

"Oh. Okay, thanks for eating for me I guess?" Olivia said. "Capsicums are very disgusting, and are only fit for a mutt so I didn't want to eat it."

Dylan frowned and didn't reply. Such a young child already had such a vicious tongue, it was worrisome.

Neah laughed loudly. "You're right! Only a mutt from the slums like you would eat that."

"Here, why don't you eat mine too? Oops, I dropped it on the floor. But you wouldn't mind, would you?" Neil joined in in the malicious teasing.

Dylan held his head low and just focussed on eating. For the first time in his life, he found a meal stressful and tasteless. Something that was supposed to taste great ended up being dry and gritty after having reached his mouth. He hated it. Food was sacred yet they defiled it with their toxicity.

"Apologise right this instant! How dare you speak to your brother like that?!" Jessica scolded the twins with a booming voice. She was proud of them for mocking the ba*tard, but when they had mentioned the slums, she knew they had gone too far. Her husband was a cold uncaring man, but he was more concerned about his reputation than anything else. To have fathered a son from the slums was something he considered a disgrace and therefore a taboo topic.

Jessica had already sensed the air around Alex drop in temperature and his face darken. In a fluster, she scolded the kids before he could do anything, in hopes of alleviating the punishment.

"But, Mother you…" Jessica's sharp glare prevented Neil from continuing.

The twins begrudgingly looked at Dylan, greatly annoyed over how much he resembled their father. "We're sorry." They half-heartedly apologised.

"…" Dylan didn't say anything in return.

"You're not going to accept their apologies? How can you be so self-centred and unforgiving?" Jessica sneered.

The dinner went by uneventfully after that. Throughout the duration of it, not one person called Dylan by his name and his father didn't speak directly to him at all. They made idle talk and just disregarded his presence. This made Dylan feel indignant and worthless.

A desire to be acknowledge welled up in his chest. But more than anything, Dylan felt his expectations towards his father were all broken. He was left disappointed and betrayed that he was nothing more than a stranger to the noble man. It was no wonder that his mother detested even a mention of him. She must've also been subjected to his cruelty.