The Servant in the Horror Game is Suspicious Chapter 33

He’d been chilly since yesterday evening—had he finally thawed out a little? A child’s heart was truly a mysterious thing.

Even while breathing in sharp, ragged huffs after rushing to catch up, Ian maintained a haughty gaze, looking anywhere but at Jade. He must have been in such a hurry to get out that his coat buttons were done up all wrong.

“You’ll catch a cold like this.”

Setting the sack on the ground, Jade undid Ian’s coat buttons one by one and re-fastened them in the right order. As Jade leaned over, his hair brushed against Ian’s forehead. His strands scattered softly, and a cool, forest-like scent drifted toward the boy.

“I’ve got it…!”

Ian instinctively tried to pull away, but he was trapped by the coat in Jade’s grip. He reflexively swatted at the hands, but Jade didn’t even flinch, as if a mere fly had passed by, and remained focused on the task.

“I said…!”

“I told you, it’s cold.”

Jade didn’t stand up straight until he had finished every last button. Ian, his face flushed, fidgeted with his own hair and forehead.

The spot where Jade’s hair had touched felt ticklish. The man always smelled refreshing. At first, Ian thought it was just like the forest, but it also reminded him of the sea. It was cool, yet somehow cozy.

In truth, Ian had never actually seen the ocean. The only sea he knew was an illustration in a fairy tale book Jade had read to him one day.

When Ian admitted he’d never seen the sea, Jade had described it to him. A place that could be calm and then suddenly whip into a storm; a place where the surface was beautiful with shattered sunlight, yet so deep that if you jumped in recklessly, you might drown.

Jade said he loved the ocean. He added that he used to see it quite often.

The distance between the capital and the southern regions where the sea lay was immense. Since Jade was a servant from the capital, Ian thought this was strange, but he didn’t say it aloud. He simply listened to Jade’s explanation and felt that the man himself was like the sea. He possessed the beauty of shattered sunlight, but was deep enough that one could easily fall in.

“Let’s head in. Tonight’s menu is roasted potatoes.”

“……”

Jade pointed toward the woods and took the lead. Ian toyed with the round button at his neck. The buttons the man had fastened felt warm.

Suddenly, Ian noticed the back of Jade’s hand was red. It was the mark from when Ian had tried to swat him away. Ian’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Doesn’t this forest have a lovely name? Elloban. It feels like something magical might happen here.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

Ian replied flatly. He had been to this forest several times alone to scavenge for food, but he had never entertained carefree thoughts about the name being “lovely.” He was a peculiar servant, to say the least.

‘I wasn’t going to come out.’

He had firmly resolved to be more wary of him. To carry out that resolution, he had been keeping his distance since yesterday.

However, once Jade left for the woods, leaving Ian alone in the empty villa, that rock-solid resolve wavered.

The moment the door closed, the ambient noise of daily life vanished, and every trace of a human presence was cut off. It felt like being left alone not in a villa, but in an endless, empty snowfield. Since a certain point, Ian had found that feeling unbearable.

Before Jade arrived, he had lived alone in this villa for over half a year. Nine months, to be exact. He had always been alone even when living at the family estate, and he was used to solitude. If anything, the intrusion of others was uncomfortable. No one had ever bothered to step into Ian’s domain before.

But now, he had to feel this strange emotion every time Jade stepped out of the villa. It wasn’t a welcome feeling at all. It was uncomfortable and made him feel rushed. Even now, hadn’t he scrambled to find his coat and run out the moment Jade moved away?

In his haste, he hadn’t even put on socks. He looked ridiculous, running out in bare feet shoved into boots with his coat buttoned wrong. And yet, the growing distance between them made him anxious—even though he was the one who decided to be on guard.

“Hurry up. You’ll get lost at this rate.”

Jade turned back and beckoned him with a wave. Ian, wiggling his small bare toes inside his boots, quickened his pace. As they moved deeper into the forest, there were spots where the snow hadn’t melted, making a crunch-crunch sound.

“This forest is so quiet. I’m not really scared since I come here often, though.”

As they walked side by side, Jade tried to strike up various conversations. For every five sentences Jade spoke, Ian might offer one in return, but Jade didn’t seem to mind. Ian found this part of Jade’s personality fascinating. He was straightforward and unreserved about everything.

“It’s scary if you go deep.”

“Oh, have you been deep inside?”

“…Yes.”

He’d had to, if he wanted to find anything to eat. Left alone, Ian had wandered all around this forest, looking everywhere. He had to keep himself alive somehow.

That made it even more impressive. The forest was full of poisonous mushrooms; how did Jade always manage to find the edible ones? From the sounds of it, it didn’t even seem like he’d been that deep before.

“Let’s stop here.”

Jade stopped at a suitable spot, set down his sack, and pulled out the hand axe. Ian sat down on a nearby tree stump as if it were a chair.

Elloban was an ancient northern forest, and because the trees all stretched so high, there were few places where young trees could grow.

Jade stood by a fallen old tree. It was thick because of its age, but it was already dried out, making it perfect for firewood. After the hardship of gathering wet branches when he first arrived, he now made sure to check if the wood was dry before collecting it.

“Let’s see if this axe is sharp, shall we?”

“…Can you cut it with that?”

“It should be enough. Probably?”

Jade laughed confidently, gripped the axe, and aimed for the thickest part of the dead tree. Thud! With a dull sound, the blade bit into the wood. A heavy vibration traveled through the axe from his palm up to his forearm.

“…Haha. If it’s too thick, it’ll be hard to carry back, right?”

“……”

Compromising with reality, Jade turned his eyes from the trunk to the branches. After a few strikes, a branch fell with a crack.

After repeating this several times, sweat beaded on his forehead. Still, wood chips flew quite well every time the axe came down.

Jade wiped his sweat and began stuffing the severed branches into the sack. Meanwhile, Ian sat with one leg tucked up, resting his chin on his hand as he watched Jade.

“Is it interesting?”

“Not really…”

Despite his answer, Ian didn’t look away. Occasionally, he would move his hands as if imitating Jade’s motions.

Jade swallowed a laugh and kept cutting. Then, spotting a relatively thin branch, he held the axe out to Ian.

“Would you like to try, Ian?”

“…I’ll try.”

Surprisingly, Ian readily accepted the offer. He climbed down from the stump and reached out for the axe.

Jade picked out a small branch he’d just found and placed it on the stump.

“Try this for practice first. You might get hurt if you just start swinging at the big logs.”

“……”

However, Ian ignored Jade’s words once he had the axe and walked over to the dead tree. He began hacking away at one of the sturdier branches.

“Ian, that one’s too thick…!”

Thwack. In just two or three swings, the thick branch snapped.

“Whoa.”

“That was nothing.”

Ian shrugged, holding the heavy piece of firewood.

Jade was speechless. He’d thought Ian’s small arms would struggle just to hold the axe, but he had sliced through the wood instantly. And such a thick branch, too—with that small, delicate body.

Ian immediately started hacking at a second branch. But his form was terrible. If he kept going like that, he’d strain his arms and potentially injure his muscles or bones.

“You need to grip it a bit higher. Here, let me help.”

Jade stood behind Ian, almost hugging him, and placed his own hands over the small ones. He adjusted the boy’s posture, corrected the grip, and lifted their arms together. The moment they brought the axe down with Jade’s hands guiding him—crack—the branch broke in a single blow.

“I think you can do it now, right?”

“……”

Jade let go of Ian’s hands, stepped back, and gathered the cut wood into the sack. Meanwhile, Ian stood holding the axe, looking down at the ground with a somewhat dazed expression.

“Ian?”

When the boy didn’t move, Jade called out to him. Ian slowly turned his head toward him. Perhaps because of the cold, his pale face was flushed red. His expression was frozen stiff.

“Are you very cold? Do you want to go back first?”

He suggested returning to the villa, but Ian simply shook his head. He just stared down at the axe and his own hands holding it.

Was he upset because Jade had grabbed his hands while showing him how to use the axe? Well, considering Ian had been avoiding him lately, it was a possibility.

But contrary to Jade’s assumption, Ian slowly lifted his small hands again.

“I forgot where you told me to hold it.”

“Huh? Oh, a bit higher up like before…”

“…I can’t do it.”

Ian held out the axe as if asking to be shown one more time. It seemed he wasn’t offended after all.

“You said it was nothing a moment ago…”

“It’s difficult.”

Ian spoke in a voice that was barely a whisper. He had cut through a thick branch just fine on his own, but now his hands were incredibly clumsy as he gripped the axe. Even after being shown the proper form, he was doing worse than the first time. It seemed that cutting the thick branch earlier had just been beginner’s luck.

“All right then. There’s no harm in learning.”

Jade stood behind Ian again, gripping the handle with him. Ian’s neck was flushed red, as if he were freezing.

It was spring, but the air was still cold enough to see their breath. Jade decided that once he finished gathering the wood, he’d have to give Ian a muffler. He continued to chop, and the pieces of wood they cut together began to pile up neatly.