Now that I think about it, Mom sometimes told me she was sorry. I wonder what she meant by that.
When she was still alive, his mother would periodically apologize to Caim as if repenting for something. Caim had always found it strange—he should really have been the one apologizing for being born cursed. So why was his mother always saying it instead?
“Huh?” Noticing something, Caim lifted his head.
“Grr...” A few meters away, several wolves were hiding in the shadow of the trees, growling and baring their ferocious fangs at him.
“Wolves, huh? It’s been a while since I’ve seen any. I wonder what they want.” Caim cocked his head and stretched his hand toward them.
The next instant, the wolves whined like puppies and fled. The stench of his poisoned blood was so strong it could even drive away animals and monsters. In fact, before Caim started to live in the forest hut, the wolves had frequently terrorized the area, but now they hid and kept a low profile.
“I’m useful as beast repellent, so I hoped I’d be treated a little better...” Caim whispered in a self-deprecating tone before gathering up the food that had spilled on the ground.
Because of the poison curse, my body is far filthier than any mud, so it’s not like I need to care about my food being soiled.
Caim’s shoulders slumped, and he started to walk back home—all the while unable to shake the worry that he would spend the rest of his life suffering malice and scorn.
“What?”
When Caim reached his destination, he saw a woman standing in front of the dilapidated hut that served as his home. The woman, who looked to be in her early twenties, was wearing a maid uniform. Her long silver hair was striking enough, but it didn’t stand out nearly as much as the pair of triangular animal ears atop her head and the tail stretching out from beneath her long skirt.
“Tea...”
“Master Caim! Welcome back!” When she realized Caim had returned, the woman’s expression brightened, and she ran to him.
The woman’s name was Tea, and she was a maid serving Count Halsberg’s household—meaning Caim’s family. She was a beastfolk, and her black-and-white striped ears and tail showed that she was a very rare kind of tigerfolk—a white tiger.
Tea had been the personal maid of Caim’s mother and had looked after him during his childhood. While the other servants had always shunned him, Tea had been the only one to treat him kindly, and even now that he’d been driven out of the mansion, she was so concerned about Caim that she regularly visited him.
“Were you out buying food? You were so late I was starting to get worried!”
“Ah! Stay away! You shouldn’t touch me!” Caim hurriedly stopped Tea from hugging him as she usually did.
“Huh?”
Tea loved physical contact and would always embrace Caim whenever she saw him. However, Caim was currently injured, with blood still flowing from the back of his head. If Tea carelessly hugged him, his poisoned blood might get on her.
When Tea noticed Caim’s injury, her friendly smile darkened.
“Master Caim, what happened to you?”
“Well...I fell and hit my head...” He awkwardly tried to make up an excuse, but that only made Tea frown.
“I don’t buy that. It was the villagers, right? I can’t believe they’d dare to harm you, a member of the count’s family! I’ll go knock some sense into those fools right now!”
“Wait! Don’t do that! I’m fine!” Caim hastily stopped Tea before she could storm off.
In fact, something similar had happened once before—Tea had flown into a rage and gone to the village. There she had spanked the kids and yelled at the adults until they apologized. However, a few days later, she had been reprimanded severely by Count Halsberg—Caim’s father. Apparently, the mayor had complained to Count Halsberg that Tea had ranted at them and even used violence unprovoked. In response, instead of protecting Caim, who was being persecuted, or Tea, who had been angry on Caim’s behalf, Count Halsberg had supported the villagers. He’d said that they shouldn’t cause a commotion, since the village was generous enough to look after a good-for-nothing cursed child like Caim.
“Father is keeping an eye on you, and the only reason he’s overlooked that trouble is because you were Mother’s favorite. If you keep causing problems on my account, you’ll be fired.”
“But if I don’t do anything, the villagers will get carried away and abuse you even more!”
“We can’t do anything about that. It’s my fault for being born cursed. Besides, if I’m driven out of this village, I really won’t have anywhere to go this time.”
“Grrraow...” Tea whined sadly, looking as though she was about to burst into tears at the sight of Caim’s gloomy expression. “I’ll at least take care of your injury. Come here, please.”
“No, you’ll...” Caim started to refuse, not wanting to let her touch his poisoned blood, but when he saw that Tea wouldn’t take no for an answer, he paused. “Fine, but be careful about my blood.” He reluctantly relented and followed Tea inside the hut.
There was no furniture inside the hut—only a wooden plank on the ground for Caim to sleep on.
“I’m going to clean the wound. It might sting a little, but please bear with it.”
Caim did whine a little, but it wasn’t because of the pain. To deal with the injury on the back of his head, Tea had pushed him right up to her chest. With his face buried between the wonderful mounds concealed beneath her maid uniform, Caim couldn’t keep himself from flushing.