The butler led him down a series of decorated hallways with the maids following behind. In almost every hallway, there were portraits on the wall, though he couldn't tell who exactly was pictured in them. Yunho tried to memorize the halls in case he needed the information later, but there was too much to remember.
They reached a large white stairway leading down. Yunho couldn't help feeling queasy when looking down the stairs. He hadn't ever been too afraid of heights, but the unfamiliar setting was making him nervous to go down.
"Does young master need help walking down? You're still weak, no?" The butler reached out his hand.
Yunho felt embarrassed. How could a young man need help going downstairs? And help from an old man at that! Weren't the roles here reversed?
But after looking at the stairs again, the youth swallowed down his pride and took the butler's hand. The maids followed behind them, staying on standby for if they were ever needed.
The group walked down the stairs, and Yunho couldn't help but suck in a breath at the sight of the ground floor. It was even more spacious than his bedroom, which he already thought was far too big. Though it wasn't very furnished, every piece of furniture it did have was of glaring high quality. He almost forgot to let go of the butler's hand as he was too absorbed in taking in his surroundings. But once he realized this, he immediately dropped the man's hand with a mumbled "thank you".
The butler wasn't offended and continued to guide him. The servants were obviously used to this and paid no mind to the downstairs' interior. The group continued until they reached two big double doors.
Yunho's breath hitched. He wasn't familiar with high-class home layouts, but a special door most likely meant it was an important room, such as a dining room, where one would have lunch, like the lunch he was supposed to be at, and was also really stressed about attending. The youth was preparing to psych himself up before entering, but the butler opened the doors without a moment's hesitation.
The dining room was grand with arc windows. The space was lit with the bright, afternoon sun, casting everything in a warm glow. And in the middle of the dining room, there was a long dining table with maids placing food on it. Yunho paid no mind to the assortment of meals and zeroed in on the three seated figures at the table.
There was an older, but still very graceful woman seated, and an older man with a refined aura about him.
But the figure that Yunho was really focused on was the young woman seated oddly far from them. Her clothes were simple and not much better than a servant's, and there was very little food in front of her. She had long, silver hair and dazzling blue eyes, just like Yunho's reflection. Despite quietly eating, there was something about her that just told him she was special. Is this the real "main character energy"?
"Young master Iris has arrived!" The butler announced while a maid led Yunho to the table. The older man and woman looked expectantly, waiting for him to sit down.
Yunho stared at the seats at the table. There was a considerable amount of seats between the older man and woman and the young lady. It was like they were distancing themselves from her, but it left quite a few seats for Yunho to choose from. He felt like he was supposed to sit next to the older man and woman who were presumably the Count and Lady, a.k.a his father and mother, but if that girl was the female lead...
"Iris, are you not going to sit down?" The older man spoke up with slight annoyance.
Yunho was startled out of his overthinking and decided to cut the difference, sitting in a chair not too close or far from all of them.
The man and woman seemed a bit confused at this choice but didn't comment upon it.
"How has my Iris been feeling? I heard from the physician that you fell ill from training in the rain," the older woman said with a concerned look on her face.
Yunho hadn't prepared himself to talk to anyone, so there was a pause of silence as he stared blankly.
"Oh...I've been doing better now...mother?" The youth replied, adding the last part in an attempt to sound out more information. He prayed his guess was right though because if it wasn't, this lunch would become ten times more awkward.
Thankfully, the woman nodded and ate a bite of her food.
"I'm glad. I was quite worried about you. I want my baby boy as healthy as can be," she replied with an eased smile.
The older man nodded, "your training must be halted. Going back too soon will only make you fall ill again, and no son of mine will be bedridden if it can be avoided."
Yunho stiffly nodded and watched as a maid came over to the table and placed a savory-scented dish in the middle of the table. He couldn't tell what it was exactly, but it looked like a casserole of sorts. The maid's hand reached for the knife to cut the dish when the Countess stopped her by grabbing the servant's wrist.
"How about we let our dear Irene serve us? A good daughter doesn't mind helping out her family, right?" The woman smiled balefully as she sent a contemptuous look towards the young lady that'd been quietly eating her little food. Irene looked up, and her lips turned down into an almost imperceptible frown. She got up and took the knife from the table, carving out a piece of the dish to place on the plate.
"This is the only thing she's very useful for. It's a shame she wasn't born from one of our servants," the older man, the Count, said with a haughty laugh, "but even then, who would want such a foolish servant girl?"
The maid slinked back without even a single word or look back. Things like this were commonplace within the Evastine household in the novel.
Yunho couldn't help feeling disconcerted. One, from what he'd witnessed so far, Yunho was sure that he actually had transmigrated, and two, if he had, then that girl was the female lead, and he, for one, did not want her to remember this later in the story. And three, he didn't like how little Lord Damien and Lady Rosetta, their father and mother, thought of her. It reminded him of his own parents…
—
12 years ago.
Yunho was filling in a coloring book in the clinic waiting room. It was just his general checkup, but that just meant for a month afterward, he'd have to go to all the appointments and specialists his doctor would refer him to. Every checkup was a discovery of a new problem. A heart murmur, a weak ear, fever...
Yunho didn't even know if his body could be 'healthy'. He continued to color the book, trying his best to stay in the lines. His mother was seated beside him and stared at him as he colored. She tsked. His mother was a serious woman with short brown hair and sharp brown eyes. Yunho could feel her gaze on him, and it made him shift uncomfortably.
"What did I have to have this waste of time and money..." His mother muttered with contempt.
Yunho glanced at the woman, his coloring slowing down. Despite only being 7 years old, he had heard phrases like that a lot. While his older brother got praise, they'd only look at him with disgust.
Trying to appease his mother, Yunho showed her the page he was coloring. It was a picture of a family with a Christmas tree and a dog in the background. The coloring book was an old holiday edition that stood out in the current August weather.
His mother paused and looked at the page. There were a few beats of silence. Then suddenly, she bursted out with laughter. She was laughing so loud that some of the other parents in the waiting room started to look their way. Suddenly, his mother gripped him by the arm and pulled him up to her level. She leaned into his ear.
"You absolute idiot. Did you think I'd like that little picture? Huh? Sometimes, it baffles me that you could feasibly be my child" She said with a sneer. She put him back down and stopped laughing, her face was stoic as ever. Everyone else had stopped paying attention already, but Yunho was still speechless.
He looked down at the picture. It wasn't fully colored yet and still needed some finishing touches, but he didn't have the heart to finish it. The family in the book just stared at him, their smiles now taunting.
—
"I can serve mother and father." Yunho suddenly said, standing up and looking at Irene.
He had to do something right?
***
End of Chapter 4