CH 7

“Tell me about your past,” Cain said to Ilvalino. 

They were relaxing in Cain’s room during his free time after dinner.

Ilvalino’s injuries had finally healed, and though his legs were still in no condition to run with, they had recovered to the point where he could walk without issue.

There was no longer any good reason to keep Ilvalino at the duchy manor.

“…”

“Just whatever you can tell me is fine. You can read and have good table manners, so you’re obviously not a child vagrant on the streets, right?”

“…”

“Are you an orphan from the orphanage, or a commoner living in town? Are you a commoner living outside of town? Don’t you have anyone that would worry about you not coming home for two weeks?”

“…”

“You can walk now, but it’s not like you’re completely healed, so I’m just saying that you gotta let me know where we should drop you off.”

“I’ll walk home.”

Ilvalino was a jagged coastline, and Cain was the captain of a ship, helplessly searching for an approachable place to moor. Cain squinted his eyes and grumbled, “Hmm,” at Ilvalino, cracking his neck. 

“It’s not like I’m asking you to tell me about your assassins’ group or whatever…”

“…”

“Cat got your tongue? What are you, the Little Mermaid? Huh?”

“…”

The reference to the Little Mermaid seemed to go over Ilvalino’s head, and he gave Cain a puzzled look. Cain thought about how it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to become a children’s book author with the reincarnation loophole he had just found. It was just a momentary escape from the complicated situation he was facing. He sighed. 

“Listen, Ilvalino. Are you interested in being my chamberlain?”

“Huh?”

“You’re not injured anymore, and I’d let you go back home, first. I want you to come back, though. Would you take a job, here?”

“You don’t have the authority to decide something like that.”

“Nah, I don’t.”

It seemed like Ilvalino had finally become willing to talk. Cain fixed his lazy posture and sat up properly on the sofa.

“I don’t have the authority, so I want to know about your past so that I can persuade my father. Diana’s gotten attached to you, and you’ve made a really good impression on my mother and the wet nurse, too. They offered you a job, here, too, right? When it comes to table manners and conduct, you’re already relatively ‘proper’… You showed good etiquette while you stayed as a guest here, too.”

You’ve stayed half a month at this manor and didn’t steal or try to pocket anything.

“What the hell do I stand to gain by agreeing to serve under some stuck up nobles?”

“You’ve got everything to gain. I mean, first off, the pay’s good.”

“What? The pay?”[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

“Yeah, and you’ll have all your expenses paid for, so you’ll get to save up your money. If you’re gonna be my chamberlain, it’ll be a live-in job. You won’t need to pay rent and you’ll get meals for free. Your uniform will be provided, so that’s obviously free, too. In fact, all your necessities are going to be paid for, so you can even send off all your earnings to your family if you want.”

“…”

To tell him that it would be a worthwhile endeavor and he could spend his days helping people would sound superficial. As usual, money talked.

In his past life, Cain had a job where he could go home early, but he wasn’t paid much. When he first started out making videos, he bought all the necessary equipment and games for his channel, which left his bank account and wallet empty. He ate only beans and pasta, every three days or so. On days he had no food, he would make do with just water. During those days, he had been very determined. Being broke took away the luxury of complacency.

Cain saw some tempted wavering in Ilvalino’s facial expression and his flitting eyes.

“…”

“Elgrandark is the at the head of the Three Great Dukedoms. You can infiltrate it and be in a good position to probe for intel. As my chamberlain, you’ll be able to attend all kinds of official functions and make connections… If you tell all of this to the people you work for now, I bet they won’t object.”

Ilvalino looked up at Cain in surprise.

Should an assassin really be showing that much emotion in his face? Well, he’s not a spy, he’s an assassin, so I guess it’s fine.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t really even care about what group you belong to or where you were returning from when I found you in our back yard. As long as no harm comes to Diana, I wouldn’t mind if you kept your connections to your group, and you can continue serving them, too. The fact that I know your name and that I’ve decided that you’re an assassin is not even a big deal. It makes no difference to a man like me.”

“…A man like you?”

“Oops… It makes no difference to a kid like me, Ilvalino.”

Cain smiled and crossed his legs. His six-year-old legs were short, and the leg on top stuck out comically.

“Ilvalino. I want you nearby, where I can see you. That’s all I want.”

Even more so than the starting point of the Protagonist and Ilvalino’s romantic relationship, Cain wanted to avoid the creation of their point of contact altogether. He wanted to avoid Ilvalino having to bear the darkness in his heart that would allow him to kill everyone in the game. 

In order to evade the Assassin Route, Cain knew that he couldn’t just let Ilvalino go off on his own.

Cain got lucky when he was able to cut off the possibility of the Protagonist meeting Ilvalino while he was on the verge of death. It’s often said that the early bird gets the worm, and if Cain hadn’t gotten up early that day to go running, he would have lost this stroke of good luck.

“Ilvalino – I want you to stand by me, forever. Please, don’t let me lose sight of you.”

Ilvalino’s mouth screwed up into a stiff frown, and he didn’t answer. His ears went red, and he began to tremble intensely.

“You say that, knowing the effect a face like yours can have, don’t you?” asked Ilvalino.

“Obviously,” said Cain.

After all, I’m a Potential Suitor in an Otome game. 

Ilvalino sighed loudly and purposefully.

“I live in the orphanage on the western edge of town.”

“Ah, the one that’s adjoined to the temple?”

It appeared Ilvalino had finally decided to reveal his background.

He looked away, and with his head hanging, he began to mumble in a small voice.

“I’m in the senior class, so I go out on missions a lot. Once I leave for a mission, there’ve been times that I don’t come back for more than half a month, so I doubt anyone’s worried about me. Don’t do anything unnecessary.”

“Oh, we’ll do what we need to. Once I’ve discussed all this with Mother and we’ve decided on the day you’ll return to the orphanage, we’ll go with you. We have to announce that we’re hiring you.”

“Don’t do anything unnecessary!”

In response to Ilvalino raising his voice for the first time since Cain brought him in, Cain said nothing – he just laughed with heartfelt joy.