This Delusional Voice Keeps Telling Me I’m a Villain

Side Story 1.5 part 1
Dark World – Theodore’s POV (I)

Translated by: chocolala
Proofread by: Dreamer and lil-valley

I am Theodore Espada.

I was born as the son of Count Espada—more accurately, an illegitimate son. I was a child my father had with a random woman. That woman gave birth to me and dumped me at the Count’s residence before she vanished.

Since then, I have been leading a shitty life.

Count Espada was a womanizer who hated children. He had three wives, each of them a gold-digger. Due to his regular womanizing, the financial situation of the house was always in the red. Even then, he still irresponsibly made seven children—although he hated them. Anyway, the house was always short of money. There were no decent human beings among his children; they always sneered at Theodore in disdain.1

Today, I was beaten by six of them.

What was the cause again? Oh yes, something that belonged to my shitty sister, Sally, was broken, so they blamed me? Same old, same old. Whenever anyone among the siblings broke something, I would be blamed by default. This time it was Anne’s doing, but no one cared about the truth. They only treated me, who they despised, as a punching bag whenever they wanted to relieve their stress.

However, I was not the kind of person who would let myself be beaten in silence. I retaliated every single time. Those shitty brats kept finding faults with me, yet they were damn weak. I made both Sally and Anne cry, and even if I made them cry, no adults would yell at me. After all, our father and his wives all hated children.

…Nevertheless, my whole body was aching. My head was dizzy. My mouth tasted of blood. Haa… damn.

It was already dusk.

I could smell dinner, but surely there would be nothing left for me. It had always been like that. My portion would all be taken by my damn fat older brother, Leidy. And though the portion for a child was originally small, he still gobbled that whole, leaving me nothing. The only means left for me to get my fill was to slip from the house, scavenging the trash or pickpocketing for some change.

I was hungry. I was about to go outside of the manor to find food.

When I was about to leave the compound of the manor, there was an unfamiliar horse carriage stopped at the entrance. It was painted in black, and the body of the carriage bore a crest of a double-headed eagle painted in gold—quite high-class. No matter which angle I looked at it, the carriage should belong to a high noble. Why would it stop here? I was curious so I tried peeping from outside the manor. A middle-aged man adorned in an expensive attire wearing a monocle on his right eye alighted the carriage; he noticed me peeping and approached me.

“You~2 you have a good body and great magical power, don’t you?”

“Magical power…?”

“Hm, if I raise and train you well, you would make a nice mage or a knight, or even both—a magic knight. Then, you’ll be useful I suppose.”

After Duke Hubert Minusle spoke, he grabbed me and threw me into the carriage just like how one would throw trash. I couldn’t resist at all. I had no time to struggle before I was hurled into the carriage. Hubert talked to my father, and, from the content of their talk, I perceived that my father had borrowed a large amount of money from Hubert. Hubert replaced his debt repayment with me. I didn’t know why, but even though the debt was somehow cleared, my father’s face was so pale like he was dying. Leaving my father behind, Hubert returned to the carriage and sat opposite of me. The horse carriage eventually departed, away from the Count’s residence.

“First, let’s do something about your wounds and the dirt on your body.”

The Duke applied some healing and cleansing magic on me. Once he was done, the wounds instantly disappeared, my body felt refreshed, and my hair even turned glossy. Bathing was rarely an option for me, so it was my first time seeing myself so clean.

“Wow, you~ do have a stunning face. I only found out after applying the cleansing magic. Until now, you were so hideous like a sewer rat—even worse than the actual sewer rats.”

His words were scathing, but it was the truth, so I stayed silent. Rather, I was bothered by another thing.

“You, what do you intend to do with me?”

“Not ‘You’, it’s ‘Father’. Yes, repeat after me! Father!”

“F-father.”

“That’s right! From now on, call me father. And, use polite speech. I am investing in you and making you my adopted child. How lucky of you~ For me, who feels that I need no other son than my cute, cute Urschel, I am adopting you as my child, okay! Ah, why am I adopting you, you ask? That’s-”

The Duke kept prattling on and on even without my prompting. It turned out, my father had a debt that had reached hundreds of million, and Hubert bought out his debt. In place of the payment, Count Espada’s authority, title, territory etc were all taken, but it didn’t even suffice. So, he also took me. By the way, Count Espada was left barely alive without being killed off in order to create a sense of obligation —of gratitude—so he could still be used later. Earlier, he had made a request and a threat to my father, saying things like ‘For the time being, go spend a night with the wife of a Marquis who is my political opponent and fabricate an adultery, so I can use that to vanquish that Marquis. Oh, if you mess it up, your whole house is doomed, alright?’. I had no attachment to the Espada house, but I couldn’t help but think that what the duke did was so savage.

“That’s how nobles are. There’s no helping it. By the way, you~ will be in my custody. Among all of Count Espada’s children, you~ are the only promising one. There’s potential in your physical abilities and your magic capacity is extraordinary—you really got what it takes. I can take care of your basic needs like clothing, food,shelter, and also your education. In return, I expect you to work at gaining prestige for my House. Ah, but just because you’ve become the son to a Duke, don’t be snobbish or go astray. If you ever do something that tarnishes the Minusle’s name, that head of yours will be quickly gone.

And one more thing, this is something you should never forget.

…If you hurt my Urschel even once, you won’t only lose your head. I’ll show you hell on earth, alright?”

A threat. I sensed it right away. It was a threat.

I was not adopted into the ducal house out of goodwill. He saw value in me, so he adopted me. The duke took me in for future prestige…. No, it was to make me his pawn—to be used later. If I turned out to be useful, he’d continue using me, but if otherwise, he’d throw me out…Worded nicely, I was a disposable tool.

However, I had no way of resisting him.

Even if I resisted, I had no means to keep on living. From what he said, he’d guarantee my clothing, food and shelter; so, rather than that shitty life I led in the Count’s house, this was far better. I should just obey.

The current problem was that guy called Urschel or something… He was the child of this twisted Duke after all. He couldn’t be someone decent.

‘Let’s stay indifferent about him. I shall not involve myself with that guy.’

That was certainly what I had thought at that moment.

 

Side Story 1.5 part 2
Dark World – Theodore’s POV (II)

Translated by: chocolala
Proofread by: Dreamer & lil-valley

The Duke’s manor was so gorgeous and ornate that the Count’s residence greatly paled in comparison. The manor and its garden combined was fifteen times bigger than the whole area of the Count’s residence. Surely these people must have lived every day deep in luxury. The manor, the garden, the furnishings, and the tapestries—everything was scarily luxurious.

…To imagine that I would be living here from now on, I felt faintly dizzy.

I was brought to the reception room; there, I met the Duke’s son, Urschel.

“…Urschel, this is Theodore. I was asked to take him in from Count Espada. From today onwards, he’ll be my adopted son—your little brother.”

…There were some falsities in what he said, but it was meaningless to correct them. So, I didn’t bother with that. The boy standing before me was Urschel. Brown hair with green eyes, a common look you could find anywhere. On top of that, the vibe that surrounded him was awfully carefree, like those who lived without a care in the world. His attire was something that belonged to nobles, so he did look like a noble; but, if he were to wear a commoner’s clothes, surely he would look no different than any commoner.

That guy squinted his eyes, hovering his hands over them.

“…Urschel, what are you doing?”

“I can’t help it, he’s too dazzling.”

What the heck was he saying?

“…Theodore. This is my only son, Urschel. He’s a bit, no, he’s so weird that it would go beyond your imagination, but he’s my very dear son, the apple of my eye, please get along with him.”

Haa, the insincerity in his words was so intense it was nearly visible. If I even hurt a single hair on his head, I would see hell—getting along was practically impossible. A good relationship between brothers was nothing but an ideal. Just like those scums back then, this guy surely would denounce me. Moreover, this guy looked at me as if he was estimating my worth—he had clearly been looking…

Not looking at all. He was totally not looking at me.

He was obviously thinking about something else in his mind. His expression was like languishing on something as he stared into something aside from me. It was as if I didn’t enter his gaze at all.

A while passed and suddenly Urschel returned to his senses and glanced at the Duke.

“Father, there’s no way that Theodore is actually taken in exchange for unpaid debt, right?? You’re not actually doing anything like slave-trade, are you??”

“Ughkkk!! Urschel! I had no choice! That guy insisted that he had no money…!!”

“But, if this is leaked to the royal family, what are we supposed to do! Father! You’ll be sentenced to jail!”

“There, we can settle it with money…”

“Dirty! Adults are dirty! The Ducal house is dirty! But father, if you provide custard puddings as sweets for today’s teatime, I’ll help you hush up this affair. I’ll also fabricate the facts to be something like ‘I willfully took him away to cover up the debt transaction thing. To distract others we can also reveal the existence of human trafficking among other nobles!”

“As expected of my son; you’re playing dirty!! Alright, today is custard pudding!!”

…What the heck was this farce?

‘Custard pudding’? I had no knowledge of any food with that name, but for the sake of that thing, it was certain that Urschel was willing to use his own self as a cover and sell others out.

Coincidentally, I saw Urschel beaming with utter joy with the fact that he would have custard pudding during tea time.

…For some reason, my heart leapt.

He looked incredibly happy as he broke into a carefree smile, his cheek jiggling from joy… I had never seen such an expression anywhere else until now, so I ended up staring fixatedly at him. Urschel and I locked gazes. Involuntarily, I averted my gaze.

That somehow made him misunderstand something and his eyes sparkled, “Theodore, do you also like custard pudding?”

‘Huh? I never said anything of that sort.’ However, when I saw Urschel with a hopeful expression, I couldn’t say that out loud; my eyes only darted around.

“It’s okay, let’s eat together! Custard pudding!”

Suddenly I was hugged. This unexpected warmth threw me into further confusion.

“From now on let’s get along with each other! Theodore! I’m your big brother now. You can just call me Urschel casually!”

This Urschel was quite different from what I had expected. I was so sure that he would be like the Duke, wanting to use me or make me as a pawn; or like the scummy brothers in that Count’s house who would treat me poorly, but it seemed like he was neither.

Perhaps, it was true just like the Duke had said—he was a weirdo way beyond my imagination.

By the way, the first time I was made to eat the custard pudding, just a mouthful instantly overwhelmed my taste buds. I didn’t pass out, but I was attacked with super strong nausea. At that sight, Urschel smiled delightfully, in an elated mood. This guy named Urschel, not only his taste buds were broken, but even his head was broken.

…However, when I saw him joyfully savouring that dessert that was no more than a weapon, my face strangely grew warm…

After arriving at this Duke’s manor, did my head go weird as well?

Author’s note: Characters other than Urschel, the MC, are wholly affected by the compelling force1 while Urschel keeps snubbing it, so for things related to Urschel, the compelling force loses its influence.

chocolala: I like this kind of chapter where it tells the same story from another’s POV. It’s funny to discover how different their minds perceive the same situation. But Theodore, be prepared! btw look at that illustration, I forgot Urschel is 14, that’s too babyfaced! lol