"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. I'm not going to force you. So, shall we end the tea party here?"
He decided to take a stronger approach. Frustrated with Theo's indecision, the words slipped out before he could stop himself.
Right after saying it, Damien regretted it and his heart began to race. If Theo got mad… well, then he'd just have to apologize.
"D-Damien?! I-I'm so sorry! The thing is... um... what I wanted to ask was…"
Theo was still stumbling over his words, but at least he seemed ready to talk now.
Damien decided to be patient and wait for him to gather his thoughts.
…
Okay, still waiting.
…
Keep waiting…
…
"...And?" Damien finally broke the silence, unable to wait any longer.
It had already been ten minutes of Theo mumbling, and Damien's patience had worn thin.
"U-uh… well, the doctor… the doctor, you see, thought that you might… actually be a man…"
Huh?
"What did you say I was?"
"I mean… there's no way, right? The doctor must have been mistaken! I'm so sorry!"
"No, no… just say that again. I didn't quite catch it."
He had heard it, but he couldn't believe it.
"The doctor… thought you were… a man."
"I am a man, though."
"...huh?"
Theo's eyes went wide, clearly in shock.
Damien might have a boyish face, sure, but he had never been mistaken for a girl. What on earth made Theo think he was female?
"I'm telling you, I'm a man."
"W-w-w-w-whaaaaaaaat?!"
Theo let out an enormous scream, so loud that Sebas and the other servants came rushing in, fully armed, thinking there was an emergency.
The whole situation quickly turned into utter chaos.
Since then, with Damien and Theo at the center, Sebas and the others had formed a circle with their swords being drawn and on high alert. Theo somehow managed to explain the situation to them—albeit leaving out a lot of details—and Sebas, catching on quickly, led the others out of the room.
When a group of adults charged in with unsheathed swords, Damien thought for sure he was going to die.
"That… that scared me…"
"I-I'm really sorry. I was just so surprised…"
Right, that was the topic.
In the chaos, Damien had almost forgotten: He had been mistaken for a woman.
How on earth did that happen?
He had always been told he had a baby face. Back in elementary school, he was often mistaken for a kindergartner. In middle school, people thought he was still in elementary school. And even now, he was sometimes mistaken for a… w-well, for a middle schooler.
But never had he been mistaken for a girl.
Sure, Damien knew he had a youthful face, but he never thought of it as particularly feminine. His height was also pretty close to the average—maybe a little shorter—but not so short that anyone would mistake him for a girl, especially not compared to someone as tall as Theo, who was almost 180 cm.