Chapter 3

"Damn..." I unconsciously murmured after I saw my reflection in the mirror.

The two servants who aided at donning my clothes must have heard me seeing that they were slightly trembling. I guessed they were surprised after they heard me suddenly swear, afraid I may lash out anytime. I can't blame them as I did lose my temper very often in the past. 

How can I not when I have those little scoundrels as my siblings, except for the youngest one, of course.

For a moment, I was feeling quite peeved as I looked over at my attire in the mirror. I was dressed extravagantly in dark trousers and an excellently cut royal blue coat. As always, I was completely overdressed for such a simple occasion, looking like I was attending a ball instead of a small dinner party.

But I have a lack of choice as the clothes I'm wearing were the few ones that were far less grandiose than the bizarre, colorful outfits inside my wardrobe. 

Outfits that I wished never again to take out of the closet, not in a million years. 

After the servants leave the room, I told Alfons that I need to request a presence with Father, but Alfons informed me that Father was suddenly summoned by His Majesty at the Palace five days ago. 

So that's why I have not seen him since my accident. I wonder what could have happened in the Palace?

"How about the servant boy? Why isn't he here yet?" I asked while I sat down on the velvet settee a little bit disappointed that Father's elsewhere.

"Forgive me, my Lord. When I notified the servant that Lord Leander expects his presence today, the servant suddenly fainted." Alfons calmly said.

Good riddance! Is he going to faint every time I summoned him?

Yesterday, the guards freed the servant boy and let him go unpunished after I commanded them to release the servant immediately. Lucky for him, he didn't receive any punishment throughout the time that I was unconscious following the incident about the luggage that knocked me down.

It's not that they didn't try to punish him, it's just that they couldn't do anything to him being as how every time the servant boy sees a guard(or any person for that matter), he immediately faints.

Heh. He did an unintentionally smart thing, albeit foolish.

"So what became of him now? Did he wake up?" I asked.

"The last time I checked, my Lord, he was still out cold at the spot near the pantry," Alfons inexpressibly said it like he was talking about the weather.

"......"

You just left him there?!

I threw an incredulous look at Alfons. I can not believe this butler just literally left the guy where he fainted, and not even one servant or a page or even a scullery maid care to haul the boy-servant to his quarters or somewhere?

Alfons must have read my mind because he says, "The servants were occupied at the moment to prepare for your celebratory dinner, my Lord."

Then what about you? Are you occupied too? You're just standing there, you know.

This is all so ridiculous that I can not help but sigh, "See to it that he will be carried somewhere adequate and when he wakes up, tell him that I'm only going to have a quick word with him. I want him here by tomorrow morning by any means."

"Understood, my Lord." Alfons bowed his head and promptly walked outside the room to pay heed to my command, perhaps.

"If Father's not here, I might as well check on the things that the House of Cavanagh sent us," I said as I stand on my feet and go to where all the parcels and stuff were stored.

The House of Cavanagh, a powerful noble family, situated in Castile Town, County of Willmont(a neighboring land of Iscania), is governed by the Earl of Willmont, Lord George Cavanagh, the father of my fiancee, Catrice. 

My fiancee, Catrice Cavanagh, is my cousin from my mother's side. She's 14 years old, a few months younger than me. She had long brown hair with sky blue eyes and porcelain skin. 

I have been lodging in an all-boys academy's dorms for two years when we're engaged, so I have not met her, not even once. I only saw a portrait of her when she was ten years old. I find her exceedingly pretty, and she had a delightfully demure look. 

We exchanged letters only three times when I was still at the dorms, but the previous me treated it as merely a common courtesy to write letters to her. Based on her letters, I thought that she would be lovely. 

After both Houses agreed to the engagement proposal, usually we make it formally by conducting the ceremony thereupon, but it was postponed because I was still at school. 

My father suggested that we should do it after my graduation. It should be around this time, but unfortunately, Father has some things to do at the Palace. Both parties will have to wait until Father comes back before we can make any definite plans.

Even though we didn't have the ceremony yet, the House of Cavanagh has already sent their dowry in advance. They're pretty hasty, huh. Though that's not bad at all. I'm pretty hasty myself too and want to proceed with the ceremony soon, so please, Father, you need to come back quickly!

I'm now on the third floor of the castle, the only rooms here were the library, a few study rooms, some guest rooms, and vacant rooms. The presents and other stuff were stored at the once empty rooms, half of it was Catrice's stuff, and half of it is for me. I wonder what things could they have given me?

When I checked inside of some boxes, there are stuffed with textiles, leather, silk, odd books, and there's even soap that smells unfamiliar but pleasant and a—hand cream?

Ah, so this is what Nicolette wanted yesterday?

This is great! I'll use this to discipline Nicolette, to make her behave the way I wanted her to and then she'll eventually come to be a soft-spoken lady-like young woman like before and not a ferocious little hellcat just like her sister, Irina.

Father and Mother spoiled them so much. How will they be able to get along with their future fiance if they continue acting like that?

As an elder brother, do I need to step up and discipline them myself? Ugh. Do I really have to? I'm already occupied with mother, always being careful around her. She's so unpredictable and tends to get crazy sometimes. If I add up these two girls, I'll go insane.

Setting that aside, I already finished looking through all the boxes(some of them have labels, so I didn't need to check the inside), I then realized that the other boxes, almost half of the room, were all filled with tea caddies¹. There was so much of it that is like the equivalent to several months' worth of tea. Does Catrice want me to drink all of it?

Earlier I've noticed, there's a small envelope attached to one of the boxes. I decided to open it and surprised to pull a note. It says,

As much as I'm delighted to receive another letter from her, even if it's in the form of a note, I can't help but contemplate one thing.

Is it just me, or is the 'drink it all' written in bold letters?

As I was holding on the note, I glanced up at the stacks of boxes that packed with tea around half of the room, some of them were towering high up too. So I only got two choices, to not drink and drink it all... What was she on about?

Well, there's no helping it. It's a gift from my fiancee, so I'll drink it all to please her.

After I'm done checking the boxes, I walked towards my study room to hide away the note. When I went inside, I was so shocked that I nearly fall. I've never seen anything like it before, not even in my past life!