Chapter 4: Truth is often Best left Unknown

Two figures sat in a room that seemed to swallow the essence of light.

"What you did was unnecessary… %&c-" 

"I told you not to call me that." 

The atmosphere plummeted, and the air seemed tightened until it felt like a suffocating vacuum, sealing one's supply of oxygen. Each word that was spoken doubled the gravity. Yet the figure sitting in front of the chilling voice seemed unfazed by this.

"Hmph." Although they huffed in irritation, if even a sliver of light pierced through this eternal darkness, it would have revealed the cold sweat drenching their body, betraying their calm façade.

"I will not repeat myself, so if you know what's good for you… Know your place, Klein Von Astralia." 

"U…Understood." Klein reclined begrudgingly. He gritted his teeth in frustration against this person in front of him. 

'I swear I will kill you one day, %&c@#!' Klein vowed to the world. 

The overbearing pressure was lifted from Klein, allowing him to finally take a breath. Still, he masked his relief behind an indifferent façade, unwilling to show any weakness.

"Now, back to business." The figure of the chilling voice blinked, and a knife pierced through a paper on the table with a THUD.

"Is that the next target?" Klein asked cautiously, careful not to provoke the entity before him any further.

"Yes. Your job is to… Clean Up." Understanding what they meant, Klein took the paper and stepped outside the room to see who the target was this time. As he glanced at the target's identity, his expression turned grim.

"I see… how unfortunate…" He sighed and watched as he reduced the paper into ashes. However, before it was disintegrated, a glimmer of silver flashed briefly, a detail swallowed by the blazing flames.

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"Lee, do you know what you did wrong?" Silvia scolded me like a parent scolding their child.

"Yes…" I looked down and fidgeted with my finger. 

Silvia's sigh echoed softly through the hallways as we walked side by side. Her sharp eyes, filled with concern, looked into mine.

"Did you know how surprised I was when you weren't in your room?" 

"I'm sorry, I thought it would be okay to look around the mansion." My shoulders slumped under the weight of guilt.

"Apologies accepted… I'm just thankful that nothing happened besides you meeting our head chef, Shiva, and the maid, Julia." I noticed a slight bounce return to her step.

"They are a little… unexpected." I chuckled. 

"I suppose so, when I first hired Shiva, I was also surprised by her deep voice. I'm glad that she has learned to accept her voice." Her smile faltered, shadowed by old memories.

"I assume she was bullied for having a deep voice?" I stopped and asked with curiosity.

Silvia walked to a window nearby and looked at the starry sky. She bit her lips until they bled and frowned.

"Yes, but that is not the full story, and it is not a story for me to tell. I have no right to tell people about her sensitive past." 

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking that far ahead." I felt guilty as if I had asked about someone's dead parents

"No, it's fine, I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it." She turned around and looked at me.

"Let's talk about something else, yeah?" She went back to her graceful smile.

"Yeah, so uh… How did you meet Juilia?" My body tensed at the previous uncomfortable interaction I had with Julia.

"Oh… Umm… to be honest, she was a volunteer for the mansion to get some work experience… That's about it, I haven't talked to her since, but I heard some interesting rumors about her from the other servants." 

"I have a feeling about what they are…" Silvia nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I heard she has some… unusual preferences." Silvia sighed. 

"But you probably figured that out already."

"Oh, I did… Albeit unfortunately." I huffed as I tried to erase my memory of that ever happening. I coincidentally looked at the paintings of what I assumed to be Silvia's ancestors.

"Hey Silvia, who is that?" A particular painting caught my eye, he was the only one that was emotionless amongst the myriad of paintings beside him. The others are either smiling or making a silly face.

"Oh… That is Lyut Von Ashburn, the founder of our family. He was a great man; he fought thousands of demons and kept them at bay for hundreds of years. People call him the [Immortal Champion], or…" Her knuckles turned white, and she frowned heavily.

"...[The Failure of the Ashburn]" She continued.

"I see…" Learning from my mistakes, I decided not to pry any further.

A moment of silence was given out of honor.

"Anyway, was the dinner tasty?" Silvia broke the silence by changing the topic.

"Yeah! It was super good, the flavor is perfect! It wasn't too salty…" I kept yapping about food while Silvia listened to my critiques with intrigue.

"How interesting, if you want, I can let you work as a chef in the mansion, since you know so much about food." She poked my belly playfully.

I blushed as I realized I was yapping about food for a few minutes.

"W-Well… I only know how to eat, I don't know how to cook it. To be honest, I could probably burn down the kitchen before I even start cooking." 

"Don't worry about that. Shiva will probably subdue you before you can do that." Her laugh sounded as rich as you'd expect. Her laugh reminded me of a meme of how British people would sound like doing the deed a few days earlier while I was doom-scrolling Reels, which made me laugh alongside her. 

"Yeah, she's really scary. She almost pierced me with her thick and lengthy knife." I made a sexual innuendo to see if people from another world would get it.

Silvia blinked.

 "... Well, she certainly could be scary, but she's actually a big softy on the inside." She sensed something was off about my words but brushed it aside.

'Well, looks like their brain isn't as rotted as modern-day ones.' I hummed at the pleasant surprise.

"Well… I certainly hope so, I don't want to have a gauging hole in me any time soon." Although I laughed at my words, I knew if I did something suspicious, I would instantly become a porcupine.

"A… porcupine?" Silvia asked curiously, her eyes sparkling with interest.

"O-Oh, it is just an animal that turns spiky when it feels threatened. It is an uncommon animal back in my hometown." 

"Wow! That sounds just like the Quillthorn! They are monsters that shoot out poisonous spikes when provoked." 

"... Yeah, but it's a hundred times less deadly."

'Seriously, who the hell thought this was a good idea?!' I prayed to whatever God there is in this world, to never see that abomination during my time here.

"How interesting. May I ask where your hometown is, Lee?"

"Oh, uh… It's somewhere on the eastern side of the world." I just randomly threw some bullshit, hoping it would stick.

"The east… The east… Oh, Vaelithar?" She puffed out her chest. She looked like a child who had just ridden a bike without falling.

"Y-Yeah, well… It's not exactly at Vael- Whatever, it's somewhere near there." 

'God, who allowed that name, and why did they make it so hard to say?!' I just hoped that she will just take it as that and move on from my origin. However, maybe it was due to the events that had happened to me ever since I came to this world, my tiredness finally caught up to me.

"Oh my, I suppose it is almost dawn. I apologize for keeping you awake for so long." She gracefully bowed at a 90-degree angle.

"No! It's fine, don't worry about it. But let's talk more tomor- Well, in the afternoon." It felt weird for someone of her status to bow to me, and for her to be a knight as well.

'But that's questions for later.' Silvia led me up to my room, and I fell asleep the moment I touched the fluffy mattress.