<Chapter 72>
#8. A Frightening Encounter (4)
Melty’s hand froze at the gentle yet implicitly loaded voice. Calix clicked his tongue briefly at the sight of Melty stiffening and fidgeting uncomfortably. Normally, Melty would have smiled brightly at the mere sight of food, but since taking his seat, he had been completely frozen, not even noticing that the food was being served.
Just when he had barely managed to relax and take a bite of food, he hadn’t expected interference from such an unexpected direction. Calix frowned and glared at the culprit who had created this situation.
“If you called us to eat, do you intend to spend all your time satisfying your curiosity?”
“What’s the point of eating together if we’re going to do it without conversation?”
“Right. Anyone watching would think I said something inappropriate.”
Calix gave Braiante a disapproving side-eye as he stood up for Amelia like her steadfast protector. To anyone observing, the two were clearly a united front.
“I can’t help but be curious when you arrive in a carriage. Moreover, you bring someone I’ve never seen before in the carriage and don’t even properly introduce them.”
“Hmm. Indeed. I hadn’t heard that your aide had changed.”
Calix was dumbfounded by Amelia’s act of appearing fragile. Normally, he only came to the herb garden in person when matters were urgent. It was only natural that riding a horse was faster than taking a carriage. His choice to use a carriage for this journey was entirely out of consideration for Melty, who would be traveling with him.
Calix regretted not switching from the carriage to a horse somewhere nearby, had he known it would needlessly pique Amelia and Braiante’s curiosity. Melty, who took Calix’s tight-lipped silence as him being an “affectionless son,” cautiously opened his mouth.
“W-well… I’ve been helping with assistant duties in place of Angel-ssi.”
“And he’s also my lover.”
“Yes! And I’m Calix-ssi’s lover… Ah!”
Melty, who had been nodding vigorously while answering, belatedly realized what he had just blurted out. He hurriedly covered his mouth, but there was no way to take back words already spoken. He looked at Calix with eyes full of reproach.
Calix, resting his elbow on the armrest with his chin in his hand, calmly received Melty’s gaze pouring onto his face. Turning his head slightly to look at him, Calix smirked as he observed Melty’s brown eyes that spoke volumes without uttering a word.
“Calix. Won’t you explain properly?”
“It’s exactly as you heard, so what is there to explain? Let’s just eat instead of wasting time.”
“You didn’t tell us you had a lover, did you?”
“I did.”
Calix calmly responded to the barrage of questions while deliberately cutting a piece of meat and bringing it to his mouth. Braiante, who had been observing him as the only one who had started eating, frowned and asked.
“When?”
“Just now.”
“……”
Braiante was rendered speechless by Calix’s calm and shameless demeanor. Amelia, who had been comfortingly stroking Braiante’s back, glared at Calix and spoke on Braiante’s behalf.
“Son. Don’t you think that’s a bit hard to count as telling us beforehand?”
“Is it? But I could have not told you at all during our entire stay, so shouldn’t this count as having told you?”
Even Amelia was left speechless by Calix’s response, delivered with a bright smile. Having instantly robbed both of them of their words, Calix turned his head toward Melty.
Surprised by his tremendous eloquence, Melty was staring at him with his already round eyes opened even wider. He was still covering his mouth with his hand, but it wasn’t hard to guess that beneath it was a widely gaping mouth.
With a small chuckle, Calix took Melty’s plate of steak, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and placed it back in front of him.
“Don’t complain about being hungry later. Eat quickly. The chef here is quite skilled.”
A sharp intake of breath could be heard from across the table at his gentle and soft voice. Pretending not to notice, Melty obediently nodded and used his fork to pierce the smallest piece, bringing it to his mouth.
“Aren’t you two going to eat?”
“…Oh my.”
Amelia let out a deep sigh at Calix’s question. Then she immediately laughed out loud as if amused. Melty, with his fork in his mouth, moved his eyes busily back and forth, unable to understand the situation.
“I wonder who he takes after to be so stubborn and clever.”
“The cleverness must come from you, and the stubbornness from me.”
Braiante responded with a voice full of laughter, as if he had been waiting for Amelia to finish speaking. Just as Calix had done, Braiante cut the steak into bite-sized pieces and placed it in front of Amelia.
Familiar with his thoughtfulness, Amelia smiled brightly and used her fork to pick up the largest piece of what he had cut and put it into Braiante’s mouth. She had become curious when her usually unresponsive son had someone caring for him since he got off the carriage.
Knowing that Calix would obviously interfere if he knew, she had invited Melty to the family dinner when Calix was away. Her son, who had immediately figured out that she had deliberately invited him, had made the major announcement that they were “lovers,” and was now blocking any further interest, suggesting they mind their own business.
“I see. Oh, were you very surprised?”
“A… a little bit.”
Though surprised by her son’s new aspect, Amelia had no intention of playing along and calmly directed a question to Melty. Blinking his round brown eyes, Melty answered docilely. Each time Melty uttered a word, Calix made a displeased expression and glared at her with heated eyes. She smiled awkwardly and opened her mouth to resolve the tense situation.
“I see. Um… I might have been a bit stiff. It’s just that it’s been so long since we’ve seen our son.”
“It’s hard to act normal when you hear that the person who came with him is his lover.”
Braiante supported her words as she finished speaking. Perhaps it was because he showed such devotion to Amelia, but Melty no longer found his appearance intimidating. In an instant, the man who had seemed stiff and scary now felt like a doting husband.
“Really, it’s fine.”
Thinking ‘What a harmonious couple,’ Melty nodded with a bright smile. Until just a moment ago, the atmosphere had been so tense that he couldn’t even open his mouth, but seeing the situation now, it seemed that this was the family’s usual dynamic. If this was their everyday life, there was no need to be surprised or tense.
“Don’t worry about it and just eat. You two, please tone it down as well. If you called us for a meal, you should at least allow us to eat.”
Unlike his gentle voice when soothing Melty, Calix’s voice when snapping at Braiante and Amelia had a thin layer of irritation. Realizing the cause, Amelia twitched the corners of her mouth and let out a small laugh.
“You’re too cold-hearted, son.”
“Yes. Aren’t you being too harsh with your mother?”
“……”
Amelia’s exaggerated movement of shrinking back and Braiante’s quick gesture to embrace her were unchanging no matter when he saw them. The only difference from usual was the presence of Melty, who was subtly observing the situation and couldn’t eat properly.
From the moment Melty had hesitantly entered the room, Calix could instantly grasp what was going on. Braiante, who had first encountered Melty, would have quickly and accurately reported everything he saw to his wife, Amelia. And she, curious about the “stranger” who had come with him in the carriage, must have arranged this meeting.
‘I can never let my guard down, seriously.’
His mother, Amelia, was originally someone with abundant curiosity who couldn’t stand not knowing something. And she was someone who could control Braiante, the current head of the family, with just one finger. The reason he had deliberately revealed their relationship was to satisfy her curiosity. But it seemed that had only aroused her curiosity in a different direction.
“So, when did you two become lovers? Hmm?”
Although she spoke with a chin-up smile, Amelia’s gaze was blatantly directed at Melty. In place of Melty, who was hesitating about how to begin, Calix quickly moved to change the subject.
“By the way, is the herb garden alright? When I saw the letter you sent, I thought the situation was quite serious.”
Braiante narrowed his eyes at Calix’s obvious attempt to change the flow of conversation. If it had been his usual self, he would have sided with his wife and repeated her question once more, but the matter he needed to discuss with Calix was also important. Braiante, who had gently patted Amelia’s shoulder to soothe her, opened his mouth.
“We’ll go to see the site a bit later, so even setting that aside. I sent that to you for a different reason.”
“A different reason?”
To Calix’s questioning, Braiante nodded and continued.
“Yes. There’s someone you need to meet.”
Someone I need to meet?
Calix furrowed his brow at Braiante’s words. No matter how much he thought about it, no face came readily to mind. There was no reason for a person worth sending a letter to urge his footsteps to be staying here.
“Who exactly is it? The person I need to meet?”
