Edited by: bafflinghaze
The road brought them to a busy street.
Paperwhite lanterns lit the way, encompassing the street in a gentle glow.
Like any other slum, the buildings were shabby and small, crowded, and somewhat filthy. Some were quite literally crumbling before their eyes. The road was little more than a dirt path.
The inhabitants looked fatigued as they wandered the street, dressed in worn clothes made from hemp and coarse wool. They were even less fortunate than the common people, dust-covered and starved to the bones, with sallow skin and sharp cheekbones.
There were noticeable attempts to cover these flaws. Many tried their best to look well-kept despite the obvious signs of poverty burdening their shoulders. None had very tall postures, but they didn’t shrink into themselves in shame, either. They were… not necessarily comfortable with their lives, but there was a spark of something in their eyes. A lack of fear or something akin to it, although a trait Neo was accustomed to seeing and feeling during his time in the slums wasn’t present in these people.
He found it strange that no one was fighting for the last scrap of food. Where were the boundary lines? The street gangs? The herd of street urchins pouncing on their latest victim? There wasn’t even a brawl happening in the open streets or closed alleys.
The people went about their evening… peacefully.
Neo thought the sight was wrong.
There was no peace in the slums. It didn’t exist. It shouldn’t exist.
He could feel a flaring heat on his back.
Their group stuck out like a sore thumb with their sheepskin cloaks—or in Tybalt’s case, a deerskin coat—and shoes.
Most of the inhabitants didn’t bat an eye at their presence, but some gave them a cursory glance before looking away.
There was strange air about the area, unfamiliar to Neo, who had only seen the violence of the slum he had come from.
He suddenly paused in his steps.
What is this?
What appeared to be a night market began to emerge before his eyes.
People were setting up makeshift stalls with wooden crates and boxes, tidying up the area with brooms made from branches, placing moth-bitten cloth over the crates, and creating a market.
More and more lanterns began to light the path, bathing the entire street with a warm luster.
People walked through the “market”, trading resources with one another as they laughed and gossiped like how one would in the common markets.
“Seems we found the eastern slums,” Tybalt commented with a relaxed smile on his face, “It’s a good thing we chose the right way. The western part can be pretty rough if you’re not careful… Did you guys come out from there…? Naza…? Hello…?”
Children ran through the streets, playing games with big smiles on their faces.
They wore rags, with dirt and soot covering their cheeks and hands, but they dared to laugh and push one another with a playful air about them. By this age, they should have learned to be silent and keep their hands to themselves if they still want them.
Neo didn’t understand why they were so happy. Didn’t they know how poor they were? How hungry they were? There were no parents to rely on, or adults to care for them. They were on their own and shouldn’t even trust the other children on the streets to keep their lives.
A child suddenly tripped and fell. He laid there for a few seconds, looking around. No one had noticed him fall, so he started to cry. The child couldn’t have been more than five, but he was surely old enough to know not to risk his life by being so… loud.
Neo’s shoulders tensed apprehensively as he watched the child wail at the top of his lungs. He will surely be beaten for his transgressions. Slum children didn’t have the luxury to cry so openly in the middle of the streets. Crying wasted energy, and was a sign of weakness.
Such actions would only get the boy killed.
One of the older-looking children approached the child and stretched out his hand.
Neo hurriedly stepped forward, about to intervene—
“It’s okay, Jody! Let’s go see Miss Sunny and have her take a look!”
The child sniffled but took the other boy’s hand.
The two kids ran off.
Neo stared at this scene with an unreadable gaze.
He saw them running toward a large wooden building. The sign hanging above it indicated what it was for.
A strange, bitter feeling emerged in his chest.
There’s an orphanage here.
The remaining children were picked up by their parents, and Neo felt the bitterness grow.
Obviously, not all children were orphans in the slums.
He knew that.
Of course, he knew that.
It’s just…
Neo suddenly realized why he was feeling this way.
It’s not fair.
He shrank into his cloak and tugged his hood further down his face so that he didn’t have to look at the friendly atmosphere around him, quickening his pace.
If Rainier or Tybalt had noticed his reaction, neither said a word.
—
The carriage was parked by the side of a road a block away from the slum’s exit.
Neo offered Tybalt a ride back, but the lavender-eyed boy declined the offer.
“I have some business to take care of. I’ll see you at school!”
So they parted ways.
Neo and Rainier boarded the carriage and Rainier ordered the driver to take them back to the Odum Manor.
It took approximately half an hour to travel between the manor and the town. The Odum territory was large and vast, with many small noble houses and villages under its protection. As a Ducal, it was situated close to the Capital of the Empire. The manor was built closer to the border of the territory rather than at its center for easier access to the Royal Palace and the Academy.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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While his visit to his mother’s brothel had been enlightening. He felt like the hardship he’d once experienced was a joke. He didn’t have to experience any of it. If only he knew there was someplace else besides that wretched street…
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After living two lifetimes, and now that he was on his third, Neo didn’t really know what home meant anymore.
He had many homes.
Did it make him flighty and disloyal for considering all of them as “home”? Was it wrong of him to have so many mothers and fathers and siblings and friends?
He wasn’t a stationary anchor. His soul had traveled through time and space.
Time was a complicated matter, the cycle of reincarnation was continuous, and the transmigration of the soul was profound. Neo was not specialized in time and space. He didn’t ask questions regarding his reincarnation and transmigration. He just… couldn’t.
Neo was afraid to know why.
He would rather have the gods erase his existence than find out he didn’t deserve his place beside those he had grown to love.
Because he had known love.
He had loved and was loving and will love, just as much as he hated.
The truth would have been too hard to swallow, and he would have preferred to be a part of the oblivion than to know he was something meant for nothing.
“Are you alright, Young Master?” It was Rainier who spoke first amidst the long silence.
“Yes.” Neo hadn’t lied. He was fine in a physical sense.
“Are you sure?” Rainier asked again, which sparked something in his heart.
“It’s nothing,” he said again.
But the servant continued to prod for some goddamn reason, “You keep saying that, but—”
“I said it’s nothing!”
The carriage fell silent.
This was the first time Neo had raised his voice since he came back.
Judging by the way Rainier stared at him behind the sheer fabric of his blindfold, Neo could only turn his head away in shame.
He couldn’t help it. For some reason, he felt so irritated.
“Young Master…”
Neo glared at the servant.
“You are frustrated. Take a deep breath.” Rainier had grown bold since they started working on the anti-Slave Emblem.
In the beginning, Neo only trusted him as a servant.
Rainier worked for Aurelion.
Neo didn’t trust his integrity, but he trusted his abilities as a Capable Servant.
When he started the research to counteract the Slave Emblem, Rainier wanted to be a part of it. Neo only allowed it because he had been a victim.
Rainier assisted him every step of the way, making sure he was eating, and applying bandages over his wounds.
Neo didn’t know how, nor did he know when, but Rainier had become a confidant. The two of them formed a mutual trust around their common goal. While it first took root with the Emblem, it now became something bigger.
It was frightening because before he even realized it, Rainier wasn’t just a servant anymore. He had become a friend, an ally.
And Neo was scared to know what that would mean for their relationship.
After a few more seconds of sitting in uncomfortable silence, Neo conceded. “It takes Tybalt three seconds to make a choice, and those choices affect him in ways that benefit him. But when I make them, it never works out,” he admitted, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
Rainier tilted his head, keeping his expression neutral, “I don’t understand.”
Neo breathed out sharply, “I’m not good at making choices. I’ve never been good at picking and choosing and figuring things out. Even now… I don’t even know what I’m doing.” He pressed the tips of his fingers against his forehead.
It took Rainier a few seconds. Realization dawned on his face, before he replied in a quiet voice, “Young Master…”
Neo smiled in self-ridicule, “I chose the left because I saw a coin. I was greedy. I chose the coin and the left path, and look where it got me? That street was the worst place in the slums, yet I kept going because I knew I was just as deficient as the rest of them. I didn’t know there was an orphanage! How was I supposed to know there was practically another place in the slums where I didn’t have to live like a rat?! All I saw were the western slums! That place was huge! It was hell, and somehow, somehow, I managed to survive because I wasn’t kind enough! Kindness killed. I wanted to live, and to do so, you had to take from the weak. I stayed there because I knew I belonged with the rest of them.”
—
Rainier didn’t know what to say. He knew the Young Master had a rough childhood before he was brought back to the Odum Ducal, everyone in the manor knew that. But this was the first time the Young Master has ever talked about his experience there, and the revelation was… chilling.
The Young Master wasn’t even ten when he came back, and still, he managed to survive a horrific place not many knew even existed. The poor were invisible in the eyes of the privileged.
Quite literally, Rainier thought, his mind drifting back to the secret passage in the alleyway
The Young Master took several breaths. Rainier watched in fascination as he cooled down from his sudden outburst and sunk into his cloak.
“It was easier to choose wretchedness once you’ve been given a taste of it. If I had known I could have wandered into a place where humanity hadn’t failed at being kind, maybe then, I wouldn’t have turned out to be…”
The youth looked down at his hands and bit his lips. The action threatened to break the skin and draw blood, and Rainier was immediately concerned by this.
“Don’t do that.” He reached out and placed his thumb over the Young Master’s bottom lip, “You’re going to make it bleed.”
The Young Master recoiled, eyes wide with surprise.
Rainier withdrew his hand as if he had been unknowingly burned, and silently admonished himself for his behavior. He was startled by his own concern.
He was always the perfect servant. His smiles were charming while his presence was, at best, lukewarm. In those rare moments where he didn’t wear his blindfold, he was aware he lacked a certain spark in his eyes.
To the Young Master before, he had been like a puppet, with two masters controlling his string. He had no wants or likes or dislikes, and he knew he was but a chess piece used by two teenagers in a highly politicized battleground.
But the present Young Master wasn’t the same Young Master he once served. In a sense, the Young Master was still the Young Master, but something about him was different from the way he was before. Rainier had grown to pity him, and at the same time, he also began to respect him.
He didn’t know how it happened, but they were starting to trust each other.
It was then that he realized the childish wish he made as a child was about to be fulfilled.
—
“Can I…” Neo’s voice suddenly cracked, much to his horror. He sucked in a breath and felt his face flush with humiliation.
Rainier had been unusually gentle in his approach. He had sounded concerned, not perfunctory nor exasperated by his dramatics.
His ears pricked up when he heard a rustling of fabric.
“Young Master.”
He shifted and then paused.
Cornflower eyes met his own with an emotion he wasn’t able to decipher.
“Young Master,” Rainier called again.
It was like the servant wasn’t able to say anything else besides those two words.
Neo squeezed the fabric of his cloak.
A few seconds later, he answered, “Yes?”
Rainier neatly folded his blindfold into a small square and tucked it into his pocket.
After a moment, he continued, “Sir Phelan might be making great choices, but what’s to say everything isn’t merely by chance? Pre-destiny falls only to those who believe in the notion of destiny. It’s not particularly bad to take life into our hands and try to make something out of it. If it was fate all along, what can you do? You tried, but was it really your fault if the fixture point of your fate had already been set?”
Neo would have never thought he and Rainier would ever enter into a debate on time and destiny. The notion was entirely ludicrous, but somehow, here they were.
He refuted, “But fate is only the bringer of all destinies. Free will determines whether we take the opportunity presented to us. Even if it’s been pre-planned, we still have to make a choice.”
“What’s to say we are only confined to a singular choice?” Rainier rebutted with a raised brow.
“What proof is there for a choice to be more than singular?” Neo challenged.
The servant blinked, perhaps taken aback by the question.
Neo saw the way he narrowed his eyes in thought, how he pursed his lips and stared into an empty space.
Slowly, he answered, “Or maybe, fate and choice can both co-exist together.”
“Together…” Neo paused.
The servant turned back to look at him, with a small smile on his face, as if he had just discovered the secrets of the universe.
Neo had forgotten everything in that moment.
“Maybe fate will continue to give us chances until we finally do it right, regardless if we are deserving of it. We only apply our morals and ethics to ourselves, but do the gods truly care? The results should matter more.”
“… But what if you’re tired?”
Rainier chuckled. “Then stop,” he said, the warmth from his eyes nearly drowning Neo. “Once you’re done, don’t punish yourself anymore. When you’ve paid your debts, what else is there to do besides being happy?”
“Is that what you want?”
“I don’t know, yet. Do you want that?”
“Maybe.”
—
She had died in a room filled with gold silk and incense. The four walls had been veiled by smoke. The finest of brocades were embroidered by masters of the East. The Lotus Garden was a luxurious establishment, but it took and took, and didn’t know how to give.
His mummy was beloved, but not irreplaceable.
He inherited nothing from her besides a handmade medicine book and six years’ worth of memories. Even with all the gifts she received from both the Lotus Garden and her clients, none would have gone to him.
The Lotus Garden took everything, as was their right, being the owner of Alouysia Webbers.
After her passing, he lost her meager protection and opted to cover his face with dirt and blood to avoid being trafficked. No one cared for a bastard son of a whore unless it was to sell him. He had, after all, taken after his mother in appearance.
Between begging the old brothel Madam to arrange a proper funeral for his mother (and failing), and fighting off the other street rats for territory and food in the western slums, he became more jaded and closed off as the months went on after her death.
The streets were even lonelier without a home to return to.
The Lotus Garden lost a good number of workers that year.
The plague had gorged and reaped from the Red Light District and the slums, and his mummy had been one of its many victims.
No one noticed, nor did they care.
They were the untouchables of the Empire, the dredges of society, meant for pleasure, but nothing else.
Even the nobles who so often entered the brothel houses ignored the plights of the men and women there, avoiding the establishments until the plague finally passed.
For some reason, Nazareth survived.
To pay for his mother’s burial, he had once tried to sell himself. The brothel he chose didn’t want him since he wasn’t old enough. He needed to wait at least a year before he could be trained.
Apparently, teaching sex work to a six-year-old left a bad taste in their mouth.
They wanted him to be at least seven, which he would have been in three seasons.
Bargaining with the Old Madam wasn’t difficult. She knew he was desperate, so she was willing to preserve his mother’s body until he could someday make enough for a proper funeral.
So he waited.
Needless to say, his father had found him at the right time. If he was even one second late, Nazareth would have taken over his mother’s legacy and sold his life to the very same brothel that bought her.
A tragedy did not define a hero. Neo, Nazareth, whichever he chose to be, wasn’t a hero. Not after his descent into the western slums, not after giving his life to medicine as repentance.
He had been a villain, a bastard, a whoreson, a martyr, and a doctor.
Honestly, besides being a villain, he took pride in all the rest.
—
The carriage pulled up in front of the manor gate.
“Brother!”
The moment Neo stepped down from the carriage, he saw a flash of silver run past the gate.
“Oof!”
Guinivere collided with him and nearly sent him flying across the road.
“You are late,” she said with disdain, her sapphire blue eyes narrowed into slits, “And you smell like a brothel house.”
Neo wasn’t even able to ask her why she smelled him because HOW THE HELL DID HIS BABY SISTER KNOW WHAT A BROTHEL HOUSE SMELT LIKE?!
His brain imploded.
Aurelion also appeared from the gates and urgently made his way over, “Brother, do you know anyone associated with the underworld autopsy team—why do you smell like a brothel?”
Neo took a deep breath. “I was visiting some contacts,” he answered, before adding, “I will get the papers to you by morning. The password is Dandelion.”
Aurelion eyed him with suspicion until he finally accepted the answer and nodded.
Ever since they worked on the kidnapping case, his younger brother had been coming to him for contact information. Neo assumed Aurelion would have had more connections by now, but as it turned out, he barely had any in the underground. Neo never claimed he was ever virtuous. Aurelion might be fifteen, but he was the heir. If he wanted to survive to his twentieth birthday, he should know how to play the game.
Neo felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down. Guinivere met his gaze with a frown.
She held out her hand.
Wordlessly, he placed a handkerchief in her hand.
“Another duel?” He asked.
She nodded with a solemn look on her face, “I will bring you honor.”
“… I look forward to it.”
Eventually, Rainier ushered them back into the manor. “It is late and all of you have school,” he reasoned.
Aurelion and Guinivere went back to their rooms and Rainier walked him back to his own.
“Young Master.”
Neo paused in his steps, “Yes?”
The servant took out the dandelion pin from his pocket.
Instinctively, Neo’s hands went to check his pockets, only to find them empty.
“How…?”
Rainier smiled, his cornflower eyes sparkling with a sense of amusement. “I saw you drop it when we were walking with Sir Phelan,” he replied.
The servant approached him from behind and twisted the pin into his hair.
It happened so fast that Neo didn’t even have time to react.
“It suits you,” he complimented, his smile widening.
Neo stared at him with a mix of confusion and anticipation. He brought his hand up and touched the pin gently.
Unknowingly, he had smiled as well, with a soft curl at the edge of his lips.
The dandelion symbolized healing. Neo, Naza, regardless of who he was, had always been healing—whether he was the one doing the healing, or being healed, it hadn’t mattered when he understood it meant something was being fixed.
Cornflowers symbolized life and hope. It was a flower for devotion.
It was a beautiful color, perhaps even more beautiful than sapphire.
The two of them were standing too close to each other. They didn’t realize this at first, but when they did, they quickly separated.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” Neo said, not daring to meet the other’s eyes as he stepped into his bedroom.
At the same time, Rainier hurriedly put his blindfold on and pretended as if nothing happened, “Yes, goodnight, Young Master.”
Neo wordlessly closed the door on his face.
—
Step 23: Hey, don’t be classist! Gain some perspectives and talk with your servant. It’s a thirty-minute ride and you are not okay… Mummy loves you very much, Naza, but stop being so awkward.
The author has something to say:
Thank you, RubyInkWell, raevie, aaru, YueLqn, seleneandartemis, Dignity_pride, and siyokoiy for the amazing fanarts!
By RubyInkWell
Neo
By raevie
Neo
By aaru
Aurelion
By YueLqn
Chibi Neo
By seleneandartemis
Alice in Wonderland Neo
By Dignity_pride
Guinivere
By siyokoiy
Neo
More hints of Rainier being the ML ohohohohohohohoohohohohooho
Thank you for the chapter!
thanks for the chapter <3
Did they just flirt? Well, I don’t mind a servant-master love story, but how old is Rainer? 19?
If we focus too much on their ages then we have to consider that Rainer probably can never catch up because Neo has already experienced 55+ years
Well, I know that Neo is mentally older and that it’s probably normal in his society for someone to like/marry an older person, but my modern beliefs doesn’t let me enjoy it! UGH! I keep imagining Rainer as a 20 something guy and Neo as a fragile (pff- yeah right) teenage 16 year old boy! And it feels wrong! Especially considering their past…Sorry, I just need clarification 😓
But I am still guessing that he is probably 19, because he said he took care of Neo from his early teenage years… maybe
Hmm…
Is correct. Rainier must be 19-20 years old. H e age at which they met was mentioned in chapter 2.
Thanks 😊👍
ML Rainier?! Hehwehwe-
Thank you for the chapter!!
It was then, did he realize the childish he made as a child was about to be fulfilled.*
Do you mean childish wish?
Thankieess for the chapter~~
My heart go doki doki here ayooo
Thank you for the update!!
OHHHHH
also, sis bringing the honor home!!
Thanks for the chapter! Now that was an interesting chapter, how did we get into a philosophical discussion on choice vs fate, lol? I’m glad our MC is starting to heal a little all while getting closer to R.
Seriously love Guinivere. For your brothers honor!! 😂
Six was too young but seven was supposedly okay? Gods that’s messed up.
I’m glad to see their relationship improving! Thanks for the chapter!
Actually isn’t his father also at fault? He’s awkward, cold, and busy, sure. BUT, as the one who get him out of that hellhole and the owner of the seed that gives birth to him, knowing sth is wrong with his kid, Naza, instead of investigating the cause and effects, gives guidance and consultation. Even if he, himself can’t, don’t he has ability to find someone who could be his support? Even a conscientious tutor is fine. But his hold of Naza has always been loose and half-hearted. As a Duke, it’s already good that he chose to gave protection, money and the eldest son status to a bastard, but he’s still irresponsible as a father, a big failure bigger than Naza result-wise, bc he has the chance to shown him what is right, to correct his downright spiraling crooked thoughts as the only family member Nazareth hold some expectations for, not the damn incomprehensible morality and ethics books in house arrest. What can he even see and experience in a noble house? That he’s an outsider, a misplaced rat in a fancy cage, an insignificant bastard that could be ceased to exist whenever without its values or self-protection abilities? What could he comprehend in the noble society if not just a change of battlefield? I can’t even understand what let him to confidently let his sons continue the assaults on each other in the last phase in the past, when Nazareth eventually letting go of his own weird set of scruples, or maybe he doesn’t even know what is going through his son’s head from beginning to end as he never paid the right attention on him? The list may goes on, but it could be said that he did his best, yes, that was eventually all what he could do, the guy ain’t the best at being perceptive, and never will be… Sigh…
Thank you for the chapter!
Talk it out, maybe you’d figure something out.
Well, can a tsundere stop being awkward? 😅 Rainier is the only possible closest one to open Neo’s heart, one would wonder whether he’s the ml, now warmth even flowed from his eyes, later pity will turns into affection?
thanks for the chapter ♡♡ it’s driving me nuts ♡♡ am tempted to rant about why i love this so damn much here and now but i don’t want. other people. to see. and also if i start i won’t stop.
Thank you for the chapter 🥰
Damn the more and more I read …the more I keep shipping neo and rainier together …they are perfect ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for the chapter 🥰🥰 love it
…..I see I see…👀 I approve of my new son in law