/
With dark eyebags that could practically go down until his chin, Marcel was reading through a thick bundle of reports in his hands.
“This is a report that came in today, sir. The three subjugation squads are currently at the Arpo village, the Ril village, and the Augun village. Strangely, the monsters’ movement this year is significantly less compared to the previous years. They said that they would give a more detailed report once they’ve arrived at an area that’s close to the woods. Next, the size and budget report for the planned construction this coming spring—”
“Marcel.”
“Yes, sir?”
Marcel raised his emaciated face and looked at the marquis.
Sitting by the window where the setting sun could be seen, Yves Russell propped his elbow on the window frame and rubbed his forehead with his hand.
His lips were drawn in such a stiff line that it’s impossible to read his emotions.
Come to think of it, it felt like he was getting more and more lost in thought each day.
‘Is there a problem? Is it connected to the lessened movements of the monsters
?’
Greatly nervous, Marcel waited for Yves to continue speaking.
And Yves Russell slowly opened his lips.
“Am I
 immature?”
“

?”
“Am I ugly
?”
Hearing these two things, Marcel almost—almost—threw the thick bundle of reports right into his employer’s face while shouting, ‘What the hell are you talking about now?!’
But he was much too scared of the marquis to attempt anything like that.
Marcel suppressed his anger by pressing down on his forehead, which had gotten wrinkled because of stress.
He couldn’t even go home yesterday and just took a nap in his office. In his current condition, of course he couldn’t control his emotions properly.
‘I need to go home today!’
Marcel licked his lips to moisten them, then he pressed his left palm onto his right palm.
It was the very posture that would fully demonstrate his lethal move: ‘ultimate brown-nosing’.
“Of cooourse not, Your Excellency! What on earth are you talking about? There are so many nobles in the empire, but there’s absolutely no one else who rose to the position as the household head at the young age of eight! And to top it off, you’ve also led your family and your estate so splendidly!”
The most important part of ‘ultimate brown-nosing’ was that the flattery he’d speak was so eloquent to the point that the listener would inevitably get embarrassed.
“Your Excellency’s intelligence has long been the pride of Loire, and it’s the most valuable thing to have amongst all others. And, politics, economics, strategy and socializing! Is there anything that you can’t do, sir? Besides that, you were also knighted at the young age of fifteen, which proves that you are a magnificent man of both the literary and the military arts. What do you mean, ugly? Or immature? How could anyone say that!”
Marcel very often used the move ‘ultimate brown-nosing’ when faced with Yves Russell.
Not often though. Maybe once a year?
What’s surprising, however, was that Yves Russell had never once been embarrassed to hear stuff like this.
“Yeah, you’re right. I am amazing, aren’t I.”
Just like right now.
“I don’t need to envy the blood that runs through the Imperial Family’s veins, I’m very competent at my job, and in addition, I’m very handsome, too.”
Marcel had never seen Yves’ face, so he couldn’t quite agree with that point, but he had no choice but to flap his lips.
“It’s exactly as you say, Your Excellency.”
“But to say that I’m imma
 immature
.”
As Yves Russell drifted off into his daydreams once more, Marcel returned to his seat and despaired.
‘Ptui, ptui! I wanna take a spit, ugh. Why is it so hard to make a living, huh. But besides that, is His Excellency
 not going to work? Did he not listen to my report? Will
 Will I even be able to go home today
?’
Marcel lamented inwardly, but of course, Yves didn’t hear any of this.
‘Okay, I admit it. It’s true that I’m naturally competent and good at what I do, but it’s like I can’t seem to restrain myself in front of Radis. Just like a child.’
A child.
When the word flashed through Yves’ mind, his thoughts became all tangled up.
He had never been allowed to be a child.
After he lost his biological parents, who he couldn’t even remember, he lost his right to be a child back then.
He needed to protect himself, and so starting at the age of four, he became an adult, and even the next year at five, he still acted as an adult.
He needed to defer to his uncle, his aunt and his cousins back then, but he was not allowed to be lacking in anything.
And then, ‘that day’ came.
From ‘that day’ onwards—the time when everyone disappeared and he came back alive—he had to become the marquis.
And at the age of eight, continuing on at the age of nine, he was the marquis

There was a bitter taste in his mouth.
Yves rose slowly from his seat.
“That’s it for today, Marcel. You can go now.”
“Cough— Thank you, Your Excellency
!”
“If you’re so thankful, then come to work early tomorrow.”
“

!”
Still immersed in his thoughts, Yves walked down the hallway.
‘Radis, how about you? How did you endure?’
He heard about Radis’ situation from Allen’s report, and it reminded him of his own childhood as well.
Before even meeting Radis personally, Yves had already overlapped his childhood with hers, and he had a mental image of her protecting herself all throughout the years.