"Neigh!"
"Nrrneigh!"
"...A dream?"
A horse was whinnying right by his ear.
Whispered at by low neighs, Rest returned from the world of dreams to reality.
The place where Rest had been sleeping was a small shed in a corner of the manor's garden—in other words, a stable.
The horse inside the fence had clamped its teeth onto the hair of Rest, who was buried in the bedding straw and asleep, and tugged.
"I know. I'll bring water right away. Just wait a moment."
Suppressing a yawn, he got up and brushed the straw clinging to his body away.
Sleeping in the stable, woken by horses, taking care of horses.
It was his daily routine.
He fed them, changed their water, and carefully cleaned the inside of the stable.
When he finally brushed down the horses' bodies, pleased neighs rose up.
"Neigh."
"Feel nice and clean now, Jenny? Lucy?"
"Nnh-nnh."
"Yeah, I feel good too. I dreamed of Mom for the first time in a while."
Rest smiled gently, recalling his mother's soft smile.
It had been exactly two years since Rest's mother was called to heaven.
The cause was an epidemic. Rest had desperately scraped together money to buy medicine, but it wasn't in time.
Until the very end, his mother had been worried about Rest.
Thanks to the medicine, she was able to pass on peacefully without suffering — a small mercy in the midst of misfortune.
Rest was twelve years old. He had come to this mansion after losing his mother when he was ten.
The age of adulthood in this country was fifteen, so he couldn't take on any proper work.
Therefore, in accordance with the nation's laws, he was to be taken in by a relative… in other words, by the father who had abandoned both him and his mother.
(Well, I'm sure that father didn't want to take in someone like me either…)
Rest narrowed his eyes coldly as he used farming tools to spread out the feed.
Rest didn't want anything to do with his father either.
If he had been an adult, he could have lived independently, but as a minor, things weren't so simple.
His father had apparently been searching for reasons not to take Rest in as well… but it seemed he had his own reasons, and he grudgingly accepted Rest into the mansion.
Rest only learned this later on… his father, a court magician, had political enemies, and they were locked in a struggle to undermine each other.
The king who ruled this country was known as a person of great character.
If it came to light that he had abandoned a child who lost both parents, he would earn the king's disapproval.
To leave no opening for his political enemies to exploit, he reluctantly took Rest in.
(Even so… putting me up in a stable really shows what kind of man he is. Well, maybe the one with the rotten personality is his wife, though.)
"Ahh… it's that time already. I'm heading out."
"Oink oink."
Rest sighed as he patted the horse's head.
"[Purification] For the finishing touch, he cast the spell.
In an instant, clean air flowed into the stable, sweeping away any lingering germs and odors.
The two horses neighed happily.
(If that guy found out I could actually use magic, what kind of face would he make… Well, not that I care.)
Rest shrugged and stepped out of the stable.
His morning routine of tending to the horses was done, but… there was still one far more unpleasant task remaining.
A reunion with his father, stepmother, and… his half-brother after a whole day apart.
It was time to gauge the moods of his family — people who looked down on him.
○ ○ ○ His father — Lucas Eberun, honorary viscount and court magician — was the second generation of a newly elevated noble house, and the mansion he lived in couldn't really be called large by noble standards.
Even so, compared to the stable, it was worlds apart. It was well-maintained, with a tidy exterior.
Around ten servants worked in the mansion.
In a great noble's estate, it would be the children and young relatives of nobles who served, but being a newly elevated house, the servants were all commoners.
For Rest, they were far more relatable than his own blood relatives.
"Good morning."
"…Morning. Same old thing again today?"
"Yes, well."
"I see... Stay strong. Don't let it get to you."
The male butler patted Rest's shoulder sympathetically.
Entering the mansion, he headed for the dining room while exchanging greetings with the servants he passed along the way.
A knock at the door was met with immediate permission to enter. Rest let out a heavy sigh, then opened the door.
"Pardon me. Good morning, everyone..."
"Heave-ho!"
"Ouch...!"
The moment he opened the door, something hard came flying at him.
It struck Rest squarely on the forehead and clattered to the floor—a stone about the size of one's palm.
"Ahahaha, bullseye! Nailed it!"
Clapping both hands in glee was his half-brother... Cedric Eberun.
Seated at the dining table, Cedric wore a beaming smile as he jeered at Rest, blood trickling down from his forehead.
Though they were called brothers, the age gap between Rest and Eberun was only half a year.
Rest was the child his father had sired with a maid while his legal wife was pregnant.
(Then again... even if they were the same age, the difference in how they were treated was night and day.)
Rest produced a handkerchief—or rather, a tattered rag that looked more like a cleaning cloth—and wiped the blood flowing from his forehead.
Three people were inside the room: the master of the house, his wife, and their son.
The dining table was already laid out with food, and the three were in the midst of breakfast.
"...Good morning. Sir, Madam, Cedric."
"Hmph."
Without making any mention of the wound, he bowed his head and greeted the master of the house.
Rest's father—the master of the house, Lucas Eberun, honorary viscount—did not reprimand his eldest son for his childish prank, merely snorting with a bored expression.
"Oh my, you're filthy again today, aren't you? Just looking at you, I feel like poverty might rub off on me."
The one who spoke with such cutting condescension was Lucas's wife and Cedric's mother.
Lisa Eberun, the lady of the honorary viscount household.
Lisa fixed Rest with a gaze as though he were something she'd found in the trash, and pointed her manicured fingers toward the floor, just as she always did.
"A wretched child born from a dirty belly deserves to eat like a dog! Now hurry up and eat your slop today too!"
"That's right, that's right! Hurry up and eat, you filthy-blooded wretch!"
Cedric, sitting across from his mother, laughed and stomped his foot repeatedly against the floor.
It was appallingly ill-mannered behavior for a meal, but neither parent saw fit to reprimand him.
"......"
When Rest lowered his gaze to the floor, he found a plate there, piled with something brown.
This was his daily morning ritual.
The three of them were telling Rest to crawl on all fours like a dog and eat his meal.
"...Thank you for the food."
Enduring the humiliation, Rest got on his hands and knees and began to eat.
He was not permitted to use a knife or fork.
If he did not eat like this—like a dog—he would be struck across the back with a whip.
"Oh my! How hideous can you be! To think you'd go that far just for a meal—it really is true that a base mother produces a base child! You truly are the son of a stray cat!"
Looking at Rest wolfing down his inedible meal like a dog, Lisa spoke with undisguised disgust.
"That woman and this child... How unsightly can you get? I can't stand having such lowlifes sharing the same space as me!"
And yet, despite claiming she couldn't stand it, Lisa called Rest to the breakfast table every morning like clockwork.
Lisa had still not forgiven her husband for his infidelity.
She despised Rest, the child born from her husband's affair with a maid, and trampled on his dignity like this as an outlet for her frustrations.
It was Lisa's decision to have Rest sleep in the stables.
(Women's jealousy really is ugly... If you have a complaint, take it up with the husband who cheated, not me.)
Killing his emotions and eating mechanically, Rest quietly despaired of his stepmother on the inside.
The one who had the affair was his father... Lucas.
Lucas had forced himself on Rest's mother while she worked as a maid, getting her pregnant.
His mother was a complete victim, and there was no reason whatsoever for Lisa to hold a grudge against her.
"Thanks for the meal! Now then, time for today's magic training!"
Cedric appeared to have finished eating first and stood up.
As he moved to leave the dining room... he casually stepped on Rest, who was on the floor, as though it were nothing.
"Guh...!"
"Hey, you're my practice partner for magic again today! Go wait in the yard — I'm going to change."
"...Understood. Master Cedric."
When Rest groaned his acknowledgment, Cedric let out an "AHAHAHAHA!" and left the dining room, laughing heartily.
"My lord, my lady. I apologize for interrupting your meal, but... Master Cedric has his training, so if you'll excuse me."
"...Do as you please."
"There's no helping it... But don't you even think about defying your father."
"Of course. My apologies for the intrusion."
Rest hurried out of the dining room.
Honestly, he was grateful to Cedric for getting him out of that uncomfortable breakfast.
(...What a bunch of arrogant pricks again today. What do they even get out of treating someone like this?)
Rest touched the wound on his forehead and cast his magic.
The wound, still seeping blood, vanished.
He had healed the injury using healing magic.
"Just to be safe, I should wrap a towel around it..."
He wound cloth around his head so no one would notice he had healed the wound.
The people in this household were fundamentally indifferent to Rest, so that alone should be enough to cover it up.
Even though they had been living together for two years now, not a single one of them had ever noticed that Rest could use magic.
"Well then... time to go."
Rest trudged down the hallway with an exasperated sigh, heading for the manor's courtyard to accompany Cedric's training.
———————————— Volume 1 of the book goes on sale April 1st!
The digital edition, Melon Books, Gamers, and Animate each come with exclusive bonus short stories!
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