Chapter 9: Mismatched Eyes

Ethan gasped for breath, struggling to quell the anger boiling up from his danjeon. It was impossible to classify all these paper books in just a few days, so he had boldly given up his part-time restaurant job.

Instead, he wanted to make the gwi earn their keep.

He figured he could put the others to use in some way, except for Samwol, Sawol, and Chilbok, who were absolutely unsuited for such work.

Samwol, a water gwi, would dissolve all the paper in water. Sawol was a mischievous spirit, ruining everything they touched. Chilbok was just a pocket.

On the first day, he summoned Imae Iwol, the most reliable, and Yuwol, the child spirit. He thought that since they had human forms, they would be better than the beast-like spirits.

However, the strong giant Iwol stacked the books Ethan had carefully separated by year all the way to the ceiling, and Yuwol, though somewhat helpful, chattered incessantly. If Ethan got caught up in their antics, the work pace would actually slow down.

Taking yesterday’s failure as a lesson, today he called Oweol and Ilwol. He hoped that the intelligent crow and wolf, even among beasts, would be better than the merely strong Iwol. And they wouldn’t chatter noisily.

The crow, good at errands, and the fiercely loyal wolf initially obeyed well. That was until the crow, climbing to the ceiling to retrieve the books Iwol had stacked high, discovered a magnificent, gold-rimmed chandelier.

Now, its role was more decorative than illuminative, but it was an expensive ornament that perfectly suited the mansion, built to emulate ancient architecture from a time before electricity.

Clink!

As the crow touched the chandelier’s crystal and gilded wires, the attached beads fell to the floor.

And a canine spirit, instinctively chasing after them, caused the stack of books reaching the ceiling to collapse with a crash.

“Ugh! Hey, you damned bird, you damned dog! Get out now!”

[Someone’s here.]

Yuwol, the child spirit, whispered. The bird and dog, knowing their wrongdoing, reacted simultaneously to Ethan’s furious command and vanished, which only infuriated Ethan further, knowing their usual stubbornness.

And then—

“Such a mess, I’ve never seen.”

Just like Bliss’s calm, echoing voice, everything had become an uncontrollable reality.

****

Tuk.

A bead fell from the dangling chandelier.

“Dale, what’s the price of the chandelier decorating this library?”

“I’d need to confirm the exact price, but considering it was made by François Workshop, it would likely be between 12 and 15 million Gide.”

‘This must be what it felt like for one’s world to turn yellow,’ Ethan lamented internally.

Twelve million? Even if he worked a full four weeks, earning 1.5 million Gide a week here, it would only be 6 million Gide.

He even doubted if he would be allowed to work at all after causing such a disaster.

It was an amount he could barely cover if he emptied his entire savings, but doing so would leave him utterly destitute.

Yet, with no other options, Ethan had no choice but to force out the words that wouldn’t come, as if spitting blood.

“…I will compensate you.”

“For what? These books?”

This time, Philip spoke in a solemn voice, uttering a dreadful truth.

“All the books here are either first editions or published as close as possible to the first edition.”

Ethan’s face turned ashen. He had thought that a little spilling, collapsing, a few tears, and damaged corners were not a problem for the content itself, but first editions were a very serious matter.

He wanted to argue, ‘Why would you leave first editions lying around so carelessly?’

But that wouldn’t excuse his mistake, so he decided to shut up and appeal to the generosity of the wealthy nobleman.

“I’m sorry! I truly messed up! I was in a rush, thinking I had to finish in a few days, when I should have taken my time.”

“I’ll work diligently on the organization, and I will somehow compensate you for the chandelier. That’s all my savings. Please, I beg you.”

His downcast eyes and pleading posture were so pathetic they would naturally evoke sympathy.

Dale and Philip unconsciously looked at Ethan with pity, but Bliss had not forgotten the deliveryman’s words about knowing his own good looks very well.

He scrutinized Ethan, as if testing him, and then spoke.

“Didn’t you say you were Uncle Hans’s nephew, from Hans’s grocery store? Why not tell him?”

‘Damn it.’

Ethan swallowed his last shred of pride.

“You can give me any other work besides organizing materials. I’ll do anything.”

“You can inform Uncle Hans of my mistake, but I absolutely do not want to burden him with compensation. Please don’t make him jointly responsible for the damages!”

“You’re offering to work off the debt? Not really my preference.”

Ethan finally exploded in anger.

“No, what kind of ridiculous nonsense is that?! You must have only met people who butter you up with sweet words because you’re a high-ranking noble, but I, for one, don’t care for mismatched eyes!”

“Mis…matched… eyes…”

Even Philip, a seasoned secretary, mumbled blankly, having never heard such a term while serving his superior.

The distinct blue and gray eyes, combined with his sculpted features, made him a cold yet captivating, unapproachable handsome man.

In the Aitoolian Empire, his eyes were praised as the most beautiful, surpassing even stunning women.

Of course, he didn’t care for it at all and found it rather bothersome, but ‘mismatched eyes’? What an excellent verbal assault, instantly casting praise into the gutter.

Dale and Philip inwardly clicked their tongues, expecting Bliss to, as usual, show no mercy, confiscate Ethan’s account, and bill Hans’s grocery store for the exact missing amount.

“I don’t understand. How does my preference for not having you live here as a servant, working off your debt, connect to my ‘mismatched eyes’?”

“…!!!”

“Nonetheless, it seems ‘working off your debt’ is all you’re capable of, so Dale, prepare a room for him and have his belongings brought over.”

“Also, provide him with a suitable uniform. We’ll ‘truthfully’ inform Hans from the grocery store.”

“His first task will be to clean this place.”

A hint of playfulness flickered in Bliss’s eyes, but only Dale and Philip, who had served him for a long time, noticed it.

Ethan’s face, after blinking for a moment, flushed crimson.

****

The alarm was ringing, but it wasn’t the one he usually heard.

Ethan always had trouble with mornings due to a peculiar habit: he’d wake up right before the first alarm, turn it off, and go back to sleep.

Hans would marvel at how his body knew the time so precisely yet he so boldly ignored it, but for Ethan, it was a sweet excuse to get a little more sleep.

So, he often set multiple alarms at 5 and 10-minute intervals. Today, however, he had turned off an alarm, yet it felt like it hadn’t been turned off, and his dazed mind was slowly but surely returning to its senses.

‘Could Uncle Hans have taken special measures to wake me up early…?’

No!

Ethan shot up with unbelievable speed, looking around. The luxurious patterned ceiling and lighting immediately caught his eye, and next to unfamiliar furniture lay the jacket he had worn yesterday and his luggage.

The blaring alarm came from an electronic clock disguised as an analog one. He checked the time after turning it off: 5 AM.

‘Ha. The life of a s*ave has begun.’

After washing his face and haphazardly pulling on clothes, he trudged down to the dining room, his eyes still half-closed.

He got lost twice on the way, still groggy, but seeing the busy kitchen counter, his face soured slightly.

Yesterday, upon arriving with his luggage, he had been introduced to the mansion’s staff after Dale explained he would be working as a servant for a month.

Rumors of his blunder must have already spread, as most of the staff looked at him with pity, and he struggled to resist the urge to find a mouse hole and hide.

“Hello. What can I do?”

“Welcome. Just sit at that table and wait. Others will be coming too.”

“We all eat together here before starting the day. Lord Bliss and Mr. Philip have their breakfast at 7:30.”

“I’d like to help with something.”

“Then could you help move the food to the table?”

The spread was a feast. As the servants gathered, meal preparations quickly finished, and everyone sat down to eat.

Ethan hesitated, wondering what to eat, then timidly served himself some French toast and bacon.

It was his best attempt at a compromise, never expecting to see such a lavish spread, like a typical family dinner, before 6 AM.

“Try some of this too. It’s delicious.”

Ethan looked at the whole chicken boiled in seasoned vegetables and shook his head.

“No, this is enough for me.”

Then Dale, who had been quietly eating among the servants, interjected with a pointed remark.

“Eat heartily. A day that starts a little earlier than others is quite long. Moreover, Mr. Ethan, you have physical labor to do this morning, don’t you? Cleaning the library.”

‘Damn it.’

He was right.

Ethan, with a grim expression, accepted the chicken leg Dale handed him.

****

Philip watched Bliss chew and swallow the meal, which the chef must have painstakingly prepared with his master’s ‘condition’ in mind, without much enthusiasm.

Coming to the mansion purely for rest was only half true, and half not, so breakfast was used to briefly outline Bliss’s daily schedule.

But today, he seemed lost in thought. It was clear from his lack of reaction even after Philip had just finished explaining.

Philip didn’t want to disturb him, but there was a meeting with researchers in the underground secret laboratory this morning.

“Lord Bliss. Is something troubling you…?”

“Ethan Prescott—”

Clink.

With a small sound, Bliss put down his fork and reached for a glass of fresh orange juice.

“How could he have stacked those books all the way to the ceiling? The chandelier was far from where the book tower started, wasn’t it?”

Philip blinked, listening to Bliss mumble after drinking his juice.

“An unregistered Esper, perhaps.”

Philip’s eyes widened, his meal completely forgotten.