LM Chapter 6.1

Hayley stepped down from the carriage and offered his hand to Lyndon. Lyndon felt a bit awkward, but he took Hayley’s hand and stepped down from the carriage.

Just as they were about to enter the mansion holding hands, the butler Edmund urgently called out to Hayley.

“Your Grace!”

“What is it? Is something wrong?”

“Well… the late Duke urgently requested your presence…”

“Father?”

“Yes. A message arrived demanding you come down immediately.”

Hayley replied, unable to hide his panic, “I’ll prepare to go at once.” Then he looked at Lyndon. “Lyndon. I’ll be away on business for a while. You’ll be on your own for now. Don’t do any work. Spend your time reading books or strolling in the garden.”

“Huh? Will you be gone long?”

“Well. I suppose I’ll know once I get there. Sleep in my bedroom. I’ll tell the steward.”

“Ah, yes… Please, please be careful, Your Grace.”

Hayley smiled and nodded to Lyndon.

Hayley climbed back into the carriage he had disembarked from earlier, and the carriage circled around the duke’s residence before driving out once more.

Lyndon remained standing there for quite some time, until the carriage was no longer visible.

Come to think of it, this was the first time the mansion had been without the duke. It also felt like ages since he’d come to this residence and actually fallen asleep on his own without fainting.

Perhaps because of that, Lyndon felt a little sad.

He didn’t know what this lonely feeling meant, what the duke’s absence truly signified, or what it felt like…

He simply concluded that his heart felt a little sad at the thought of being alone.

Lyndon washed in Hayley’s bathroom without Hayley, dried his hair, changed clothes, and lay down on the plush bed. He’d always thought it was a big bed, but lying there alone, it felt especially enormous.

“Haa…“ Lyndon sighed.

He felt a bit off.

As he closed his eyes, thinking he should just sleep instead of dwelling on useless thoughts, the cards he’d seen thousands of times at the casino unfolded before him.

“Ah, the spade card there…“

He recalled the game where he’d gone all-in at the end. The streak of luck before that, when he’d won quite big, also flashed through his mind.

”Ah, I want to go back… If I just had one more chance… Then I could really get my hands on some serious money…”

He’d completely forgotten he’d already blown a fortune there. He muttered to himself that he should ask Hayley to take him back next time, then opened his eyes. The bedroom was quiet. No sound reached him. No one speaking to him, no sound of the Duke’s damp breath, no sound of flesh straining against the bed below. Nothing. 

And so, the emptiness returned.

“Your Grace… no, Hayley… when will you come…”

Clatter-clatter.

Then, the sound of a carriage came from outside the terrace. Hooves pounded roughly on the ground, clatter, clatter, picking up speed. The fierce sound of the carriage grew closer and closer, until the coachman abruptly stopped the carriage.

”Huh?”

Lyndon, who had been lying in bed, immediately jumped up.

He approached the terrace and looked outside. But instead of the snow-white carriage he had ridden with the Duke, a pitch-black carriage he had never seen before stood in front of the building.

“I thought it was His Grace arriving. In the dead of night… An urgent visitor?”

As if ignoring Lyndon’s sorrowful muttering, the carriage door suddenly swung open, and a massive man leaped out. Earth-shaking, thunderous footsteps echoed behind him. The huge man stood still, surveying the surroundings.

His jet-black hair, as dark as pitch, fluttered in the wind. The hair, darker than the night itself, stood out strikingly. For some reason, every time he moved, the air around him seemed to shiver with an eerie tremor. An inexplicable, threatening aura rippled from his every gesture.

“Who is he…?”

But perhaps because he was quite far away, the man’s face wasn’t clearly visible. Still, at least three things were certain.

First, he was a stranger. Second, like Hayley, he was a tall, large man. And third…

“Ah, our eyes met… Um… or did they?”

The man standing in the dim light was eerily handsome. The darkness and distance made it hard to see clearly… but regardless, he had a look that seemed the polar opposite of Hayley.

“Whatever it is… His Grace… No, Hayley isn’t here right now…”

He’d figure it out and leave.

Having lost interest, Lyndon returned to the soft but cold bed. He wanted to fall asleep quickly.

Not because he was sleepy or tired…

But because he wanted to see Hayley as soon as possible.

“Sleeping makes time pass faster… He’ll be here soon…” Lyndon murmured, closing his eyes.

Bang!

But about twenty minutes later. Hayley’s bedroom door burst open with a loud bang.

“Your Highness! His Grace truly isn’t here! Our master has gone down to the estate!”
“I can’t believe it! That Hayley always avoided me before. Is he hiding again today, saying he’s not here?”
“Hiding? Master is not that kind of person!”
“I saw a figure moving on the terrace earlier!”
“That, that… In any case, Master is not here!”

But Crown Prince Cedric Lorenz was stubborn. He barged into the bedroom, rummaged through the bathroom, and as if that weren’t enough, tore back the canopy and searched the bed.

And so, he finally came face to face with Lyndon, who was fast asleep.

“No… what is this?”

Cedric gave Lyndon a strange smile. His jet-black eyes glowed and vibrated, and his equally pitch-black hair fluttered. An inexplicable, unpleasant aura rippled out from him.

“That bastard… that…”

The butler was at a loss for words.

Should he say that the boy was actually a rent boy selected to handle the Crown Prince’s sexual desires? Or perhaps he was just one of the many butlers? Or was he the master’s concubine?

In truth, Hayley and Lyndon had confirmed their feelings for each other about half a day ago. They had just promised to end their coercive relationship. But that conversation had taken place secretly in the carriage.

Although Hayley and Lyndon had held hands when they got out of the carriage, that was all.

The head butler didn’t know what kind of relationship Hayley and Lyndon had developed.

He couldn’t tell if Hayley was just playing with him or if he was truly the one he loved.

He lacked the judgment to distinguish such things.

“Wake up!” Cedric shook Lyndon awake.

“Ugh, yeah…” 

Lyndon’s neat features scrunched up slightly before his eyelids lifted. Through his snow-white lashes, clear blue eyes emerged, like a crater formed by volcanic eruption, filled with water. Those pure, clear eyes.

“Ha!”

Cedric’s expression twisted. The thought that this was an incredibly delicious-looking face instantly struck him.

Meanwhile, Lyndon struggled to recall the identity of the handsome man appearing before him. Then, he belatedly realized it was the very same man he had gotten off the carriage before falling asleep.

As he hesitated over what to say, the man’s voice reached him.

“Who are you?”
“Huh?”
“I’m asking who you are, using Hayley’s bed.”
“… Ah, well, that… ”

Just then, the anxious butler stepped forward.

“I’ll explain. That fellow is one of the butlers who checks the cutlery. He suffers from sleepwalking at night and wanders around all over the place. Today, the fool had the nerve to wander into the Duke’s bedchamber. Lyndon! Get down here this instant!“

The head butler desperately tried to hide Lyndon. If the fact that Lyndon was the Duke’s lover became known, who knew what the Crown Prince, infamous for his madness, might do.

“Ah, yes, yes! I’m, I’m sorry!”

Even the clumsy Lyndon seemed to realize the situation was turning strange. He hurriedly climbed down from the bed. Bowing his head in apology, he tried to rush out of the bedroom. But then, Cedric grabbed Lyndon’s arm.

“Butler?” Cedric’s eyes flashed brightly. A gleam of interest flashed between his jet-black pupils.

“Ah…”

‘I messed up.’

His hasty cover-up had been a mistake. The Crown Prince was already a madman who went nuts over butlers.

When was it? He’d once made a lewd remark to the butler, who was over fifty: ‘Is your manhood particularly splendid? Or maybe your backdoor is even more splendid?’ He’d hurled filthy, lecherous remarks like a street thug.

This only made the head butler more troubled. He couldn’t see a way to get Lyndon out of this.

“Ah, well…”

Seeing the butler’s flustered state, the Crown Prince pulled him aside and whispered into his ear, making sure Lyndon couldn’t hear.

“If you don’t want to get beaten, then get lost… Go get some drinks.”
“…”

A hot drop of sweat rolled down the butler, Edmund’s, temple.

He was fifty-five years old. His birthday was approaching, meaning he would soon be fifty-six.

Edmund had worked here at the House of Whitaker since he was fifteen. That meant he had guarded this place for nearly forty years.

In those long, long forty years, this was the first time such a thing had happened. No, to be precise, it was the first time he’d encountered a bastard like the Crown Prince, ‘Cedric’.

Edmund first heard the rumors about ‘Cedric’ when he was nearing his fifties.

Initially, there were light rumors that the Crown Prince was homosexual. Homosexuality was a common pastime among the upper classes. Naturally, Edmund brushed it off lightly.

But the rumors that followed were far from ordinary.

“The Crown Prince has assaulted every noble young man!”

Up until then, even Edmund reacted with a slightly stronger “Really?!” but that was all. He could only hope that such a misfortune would never befall young Master Hayley Whitaker.

Yet, to Edmund’s relief, young Master Hayley Whitaker seemed completely outside the Crown Prince’s tastes. He was perfectly safe. (Here, Edmund felt a bit indignant. What was wrong with his beloved young master!)

From what he heard, the Crown Prince seemed to favor quite masculine and well-groomed men.

Then again, young master Hayley was a man’s man, yet his appearance was flamboyant and extremely beautiful. Butler Edmund dismissed Cedric as a dimwit who couldn’t recognize precious jewels (if he had truly violated Hayley, he would have been furious), snorting derisively.

Thus, peace reigned for a time. Edmund was certain there was no connection whatsoever between the duke he served and that unsavory Crown Prince.

But the rumor that followed was one even Edmund couldn’t dismiss so calmly.

The rumor that followed was precisely…

“The Crown Prince has begun assaulting the butlers of every noble house!”

That was it.

Yet, a quiet wave stirred once more within Edmund’s heart.

And no wonder – he was a man of considerable age himself. (At that time, Edmund had just entered his fifties.) Whether the Crown Prince violated butlers or drank himself into a stupor, whatever it was, it was something that happened to young men in their twenties or thirties. 

He thought it was not something he, who now struggled even with natural erections, would experience.

But not long after. The Prince proceeded to violate the head butler of the Huxley family, who was in his seventies. Then, seemingly dissatisfied with something (unbelievably, it seemed he was enraged about having sex with an old man… no, about violating an old man), he framed the baron’s family for treason and had them destroyed.

After that, Edmund couldn’t live peacefully either. The same went for Hayley. Even though they thought it couldn’t be true, the entire duke’s household trembled in fear.

Immediately, they became desperate to find a rent boy to deal with the Crown Prince.

And that was when Lyndon entered.

“What are you doing? Go get some drinks. Or else you’ll be the one getting fucked.”
“…”

Again, sweat poured down Edmund’s temples. He couldn’t decide what to do.

Because… he really didn’t want to be devoured himself. But leaving Lyndon there with the Crown Prince… He was precious to the Duke…

“What the hell is this old bastard… Or do you want to get fucked by me?” Cedric sneered, twisting one side of his handsome face. It was the most chilling sound in the world. 

Getting fucked by the Crown Prince? 

The butler of the baron’s household, who was in his seventies, had been violated by the Crown Prince, then had his throat slit clean off while his anus was ruptured.

Though perhaps a bit younger than that man, his own fate, being similarly ageThe pigeon flapped its wings and took flight. Edmund stared blankly after the pigeon’s retreating form as it vanished into the night sky. His gaze remained fixed until the pigeon was no longer visible.