Chapter 40
Kairen checked the letter in his breast pocket once more and set off.
Unlike the bustle of the main house, the corridor leading to the annex was quiet.
Just then, as Kairen turned the corner, he heard the servants whispering.
“As expected, our mistress is an angel. Even when we loiter around the kitchen, she doesn’t get angry—instead, she feeds us pieces of tart.”
“They taste incredible, too. It was worth her trouble to summon a master from Eisengard and learn from him.”
They were maids who had been cleaning.
Normally, he would have ignored them and kept walking, but when he heard his mother’s name, Kairen stopped without realizing it.
A faint smile spread across Kairen’s lips at the servants’ praise.
‘As expected... Mother is respected by everyone.’
Though she had entered the family as a second wife, she had melted the rigid atmosphere of House Northgard with her characteristic gentleness and consideration.
She was devoted not only to him, but also to his elder brother, the son of the former wife.
He was proud of such a mother.
But.
“Our mistress certainly has a strong dedication to her craft, though. She even burned her hands making two different versions.”
“I know. By the way, have you tried the Bitter Version? I hear its slightly bitter flavor is something else.”
“I haven’t even seen it. They say the old head chef, who’s been at the lord’s residence for over thirty years, hasn’t tasted it either.”
“Oh, come on. They say even true gourmets in Eisengard seek out the Bitter Version. The Grand Young Master boasts about it so much, yet no one has tasted it?”
The conversation that followed stopped Kairen in his tracks.
‘No one...?’
“There isn’t. Every time our mistress makes one, it goes straight to Young Master Karl’s room. There has to be some left before we can taste it.”
The maid giggled as she swept.
“But our Young Master always eats only the Sweet Version and praises it as the finest taste. He is our lord, but honestly... isn’t he a little cute? Though he can be rather irritating, too.”
“Shh, he’ll hear you. He’s still young, so he probably doesn’t know what bitterness tastes like.”
Though the words were not especially harsh, they were still gossip, yet Kairen could not bring himself to cover his ears.
“But our Grand Young Master is quite mischievous, too. Since he knows how delicious the Bitter Version is, he sometimes asks servants like us, ‘Want to try some?’”
“Really?”
“Yes. But when you actually try to eat it, he jokes, ‘Oh, I ate it all. There’s none left.’ Last time, he only showed me an empty plate.”
“Exactly, exactly. The two young masters are so alike. The younger one brings out the Sweet Version to show off, and the elder one teases us with the Bitter Version. When you see things like that, you realize blood will tell, even between half-brothers.”
The servants’ laughter faded into the distance.
But Kairen stood rooted to the spot.
The smile slowly vanished from his face, which stiffened.
‘Strange...’
His mother was certainly a kind woman who shared tarts with everyone in the lord’s residence.
The servants had eaten the Sweet Version, and he himself had eaten it until he was tired of it.
‘Then why... has no one tasted the Bitter Version?’
Even the head chef had never tasted it.
He himself had never tasted it.
Only his elder brother, Karl, knew its taste.
Simply because it was his elder brother’s preference?
Or...
‘Could there be... another reason?’
A suspicion he ought not entertain began to creep into his mind.
Kairen shook his head vigorously, trying to dispel the irreverent thought.
But his body reacted honestly.
Thud.
His heart sank.
The fingertips gripping the letter began to tremble faintly.
The puzzle pieces coming together in his mind were forming a horrifying picture.
‘Mother... is a second wife....’
A second wife who had entered the family after the former Grand Duchess died.
No matter how devoted she was, she occupied a precarious position where she could not help but draw the most scrutiny from the family’s retainers and servants.
There was no way his clever mother was unaware of that.
Yet would such a woman feed the son of the former wife, the leading heir, only 「unverified food」?
Food no one had tasted.
Food that had not even been tested for poison.
If anything happened to his elder brother, the first person suspected would be his mother.
‘Mother is smarter than anyone. Why would she bring such danger upon herself?’
He couldn’t understand.
He didn’t want to understand.
Yet his cold reason pointed to one possibility.
‘What if... it contains something... something others must not taste?’
“No... That can’t be.”
Kairen bit his lip and groaned.
Simply suspecting his kind mother felt like a sin.
His mother had baked the tart despite burning her hands.
There was no way such devotion could be fake.
But the cold thorn of suspicion lodged in one corner of his heart did not disappear; it dug in even deeper.
‘I have to make sure.’
Kairen swallowed dryly and set off again.
The annex.
Outside Karl’s office.
Kairen steadied his breathing and knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
“...Come in.”
A weak voice came from inside.
Kairen opened the door and entered.
Karl, who had been sitting in his wheelchair and looking out the window, slowly turned his head.
“Kairen? Have all the guests left?”
“Ah... Yes. I asked Mother’s permission and left first.”
Kairen answered in a tone he forced to sound normal.
But Kairen’s gaze was directed not at his brother’s face, but at a plate sitting in the corner of the desk.
“......”
A half-eaten grapefruit tart.
The red flesh of the fruit remained vividly intact.
It was the Bitter Version, with a different hue from the one he had eaten.
“Kairen?”
Karl turned his wheelchair to face his younger brother directly.
When his brother entered and continued to stand there without saying anything, Karl put down his pen.
“Why are you standing there? You look troubled. Is something on your mind?”
His brother’s voice was as gentle as ever.
Kairen clenched his fists tightly.
‘I mustn’t let my brother find out that I suspect Mother.’
If he revealed a suspicion without proof, he would only worry his brother and cause discord within the family.
If his suspicion was wrong, he would inflict an irreparable wound on his mother.
Kairen hurriedly put on his 「mask」.
Just like the nobles who had fawned over him.
“No. It’s just... I was wondering whether you had heard about what happened to me in the borderlands.”
“The borderlands?”
“Yes. Sir Sesk is fiercely loyal, but he’s so rigid that he may have reported a story that could be misunderstood... I mean, he probably told you about my clash with someone named Varg.”
Kairen feigned discomfort as he offered the excuse.
Only then did Karl smile as though he understood.
He thought his younger brother looked so gloomy because he was worried Karl might misunderstand the incident involving a foreign race and scold him.
And he felt proud of his younger brother’s kindness in worrying about that.
“Come here, Kairen. Don’t worry.”
Karl beckoned him over.
Kairen lowered his head and approached his brother’s wheelchair.
“Sir Sesk isn’t the sort of man who enjoys speaking ill of others. And aren’t they Count Eisen’s people? I trust the count’s judgment.”
“......”
In that instant, Kairen realized that he had slandered Sesk simply to hide his true feelings, and his heart tightened.
“More importantly... I also heard that the man named Varg saved you. Under the circumstances, I ought to praise him rather than scold you.”
His brother’s warm consolation.
But Kairen could not completely relax his expression.
The suspicion and guilt tightening around his chest weighed him down.
‘My brother trusts me like this... yet I’m suspecting Mother.’
But he forced it down.
For now, he had to reassure his brother.
He would soon leave the lord’s residence to enroll in the academy.
He couldn’t cause discord and then leave, burdening his brother and mother.
Kairen forced a smile and sat beside his brother.
“Yes, they were truly remarkable people. Especially that man named Varg...”
Kairen told his brother every little detail of what he had experienced in the borderlands.
The heroic tale of how Varg had shielded and rescued him with his own body, then risen again despite being injured so badly that his clothes were completely torn apart.
His love at first sight for Kara, which had immediately been shattered.
And even the atmosphere of Eisengard’s border city, liberating yet still overwhelming.
So that his brother could forget his pain and smile, even for a moment.
“I see... So that’s what happened.”
Karl gazed fondly at his younger brother, who told him vivid stories of the outside world because Karl could not leave the lord’s residence.
“Thank you, Kairen. Thanks to you, I feel as though I’ve traveled to places I’ve never been able to visit.”
“......”
“It won’t be long before you leave for the academy. Once you’re gone... this enormous lord’s residence will feel terribly empty.”
Karl smiled sadly.
That smile tore into Kairen’s heart.
His younger brother was leaving to see the wide world, while his elder brother was trapped in this cold room, slowly withering away.
And on top of that...
Kairen’s gaze turned once more toward the tart on the desk.
“Brother, have you lost your appetite? There’s still some tart left. I thought you said you usually couldn’t get enough of it.”
Kairen asked as casually as he could.
Karl gave a bitter smile and rubbed his stomach.
“Indeed. In the past, I would have eaten it all by now and run to Mother, begging her to make more.”
“......”
“Lately, I haven’t had any appetite at all. My stomach feels bloated, too... Even when I force myself to eat, it won’t go down properly. I feel as though my body is growing heavier by the day.”
‘Lately...’
Kairen’s pupils trembled.
The time his brother had begun to fall ill strangely overlapped with the time his mother had started making the tarts.
And...
‘Where do the leftover tarts go?’
Normally, the maids would clear them away, taste them, or return them to the kitchen for the other servants to share.
But the servants in the corridor had just said they had not even seen the Bitter Version.
That meant someone was collecting every leftover and disposing of it.
So no one could taste it.
To leave no evidence behind.
There was only one person in the lord’s residence with the authority to do that.
His mother, Karla.
‘I have to make sure.’
His heart began pounding like mad.
‘I don’t want to know.... But I have to... I have to....’
He could only hope this was a delusion born from madness.
But he had to learn the truth.
For his brother.
For his mother.
And for himself.
Kairen reached toward the plate of tart, desperately trying to conceal his trembling hand.
“Then... Brother.”
His voice came out hoarse.
“May I eat some? Mother didn’t give me any after I finished my share.”
“Haha, you rascal. Isn’t it a bit early for a child your age to be eating something this bitter?”
“I’m an adult now. I need to learn what bitterness tastes like.”
He tried to laugh at his brother’s usual joke, but the corners of his mouth trembled.
His brother offered him the same smile as always, but Kairen could not smile even reflexively.
“...All right. Eat it. Mother will be happy if you do.”
His brother gave him permission.
Kairen’s fingers touched a piece of the red tart.
His fingers trembled until his fingertips turned white.
‘Please...’
He prayed again and again in his heart.
Please let it be nothing more than bitterness.
Let there be nothing else in it.
‘Mother couldn’t do that....’
Just as Kairen squeezed his eyes shut and raised the tart to his mouth—
Bang-!
The unlocked office door was flung open.
The only person who could enter without knocking or showing any regard for etiquette.
“......!”
Kairen and Karl looked toward the door at the same time.
Karla was standing there.
Her usual gentle and elegant smile was nowhere to be seen.
Her gaze was fixed not on Kairen’s face or Karl’s face...
but remained fixed on the piece of tart beside Kairen’s lips.
“......”
Karla’s pupils trembled as though an earthquake had struck.
Bewilderment.
Fear.
And...
Shame.
Kairen was seeing his mother’s face stripped bare of its mask.
The tart slipped from Kairen’s hand and fell with a soft thud.
He knew.
He had never seen his mother make such an expression.
It wasn’t merely an expression of concern that her son might eat something bitter.
It was maternal love—the expression that appeared when someone she loved was about to eat something he 「must not eat」.
‘It’s poison.’
His suspicion became certainty.
And the mother he had admired turned in an instant into the most horrifying enemy.
Regrettably, an enemy whose arrows were not aimed at him.
Because she was his mother.
Because she was a gentle mother who loved her son more than anyone.