IBSBV Ch 2

Chapter 2 

Eddie, who stopped in front of the Grand Duke, suppressed the surge of emotions and looked down at him.

As he stepped closer, the sharp stench of rot assaulted his nose. The Grand Duke’s hair was so greasy it seemed to have hardened into a mold.

“When was the last time you bathed?”

He asked the question as calmly as possible, but the Grand Duke seemed stunned, blinking and turning his head abruptly.

“Leave.”

He repeated the same command, as though he knew no other words. Since this was the expected reaction, Eddie surveyed the surroundings with an indifferent expression.

Despite the darkness in the room, with no candles lit, his eyes were drawn to the yellowed bedding. The Grand Duke’s clothes were filthy as well.

The butler, his servant, looked far more presentable, but his master was in a state worse than a beggar on the street.

“Leave, I said!”

Dirty environments could make people more aggressive or lead them to self-loathing.

Eddie turned away from the bed and walked toward the window.

With a whoosh, he pulled back the blackout curtains, revealing a world outside that was blanketed in white snow, shimmering in the light. He then flung open the window.

The cold wind rushed in, blowing through Eddie’s dark hair. Startled by the noise from outside, the Grand Duke scrambled to pull the blanket around his body.

The pitiful sight of him, exposed to the light like a rat in the streets, quickly filled Eddie’s heart with despair.

“Shut the window! What are you doing, butler! Butler! Get this insolent bastard out of here! I want him thrown out of my castle!”

As the butler hurried toward him, Eddie reached out, unwilling to be stopped by someone who couldn’t even properly serve his master.

“No matter how much you try to throw me out, I’ll be back. I will never leave this castle on my own. I have nowhere else to go. So, Your Highness…”

Eddie grabbed the Grand Duke’s blanket, which had grown even dirtier under the sunlight.

When the Grand Duke lost his grasp on it, he visibly trembled. almost pitiably so.

Eddie knew that to someone who had closed their heart, every action could feel violent. However, he also knew that if he approached slowly enough to match Grand Duke’s pace, he might suffocate before he even opened the door.

The Grand Duke’s appearance in the light was almost unrecognizable.

Eddie placed his hand on the Grand Duke’s cold, swollen feet, which were reddened as though frozen, and the Grand Duke flinched.

‘So cold.’

Although he was tall for his age, the Grand Duke seemed to have little flesh on him, as though he hadn’t been able to eat properly.

Despite being the protagonist, he was truly pathetic.

“I will take care of you, Your Highness.”

Seeing the unstable aura of curses surrounding the Grand Duke, Eddie unhesitatingly grabbed his arms.

“So, first things first, you should bathe. Even if you don’t want to, you’ll have to bear it.”

“Let go! Are you not going to let go?”

Eddie easily subdued the Grand Duke’s flailing, skinny body, and then looked directly into his trembling, confused eyes.

“Oh, I suppose I should have introduced myself earlier. Nice to meet you. I’m Eddie Royson.”

It was a delayed first greeting. It was also the moment when Eddie Royson became engraved in the Grand Duke, Louis’ memory, a moment he could never forget.

It was also when the boy, who had always hoped for someone to cross the line first and take care of him, whether it was rude or forced, had the name Eddie Royson etched into his mind.

 

***

 

When he opened his eyes in Eddie Royson’s body, surprisingly, his first thought was nothing at all.

He had chosen death after discarding all lingering attachments and desires, so his mind was utterly blank.

His heart was the same. He merely breathed because his body continued to function, without any questions or doubts. He was no different from a living corpse.

Into Eddie’s ears, unfamiliar yet strangely familiar voices seeped in.

“He has cherished you since childhood. So do as you’re told.”

“You’re gifted, aren’t you? Now that you’ve awakened as a Guide, you should make good use of it and earn as much as you can. I heard the hazard pay is quite substantial.”

“You must be loyal to him. Only then can everyone live comfortably. Our family has neither land nor wealth—he is the only pillar we can lean on. Never forget that.”

“We ordinary folk toil endlessly and earn mere scraps. But you’re different. If you work just a little harder, our whole family can live in comfort. Naturally, you should make the sacrifice. There’s no need for everyone to suffer together, is there?”

The chorus of voices, sounding like both Eddie’s family and his own family, made his head throb as if it would split.

At the same time, the memories within his body began to seep into his soul. Even the consciousness he had forcibly extinguished was reigniting.

He realized—he had possessed someone. That there was no way out of this possession. And that even if there were, there was no life worth returning to. The first thing that came to his mind upon reaffirming these facts was Grand Duke Louis.

When he had been so desperately lonely that he longed for happiness, the protagonist of <The Villain Wants to Be Happy> had caught his eye. For some reason, he wanted to see him.

 

***

 

The hastily found bathroom, unsurprisingly, had no water prepared. It had been unused for a long time, and instead of warmth, the air was filled with a chilling coldness.

Eddie set Louis down first. The moment his bare feet touched the marble floor, he yelped in shock.

“Cold! What the hell are you doing to me?”

“As I mentioned earlier, I am Eddie Royson. And as of today, I am your servant, Your Highness.”

Eddie responded calmly, then removed the fur-lined shoes he had been wearing. He slipped them onto Louis’s feet. He also took off the sable coat he had received from Sover and draped it over the trembling boy.

Fortunately, Louis didn’t reject them or throw them away. Instead, he clung to the coat, holding onto its lingering warmth as if it were a lifeline—no, he curled up completely inside it.

Like a snail withdrawing into its shell, trying to shield its soft flesh from harm.

Pitiful. Unsightly. Yet it seemed this wasn’t quite this bad in the original work. 

Even though the current Louis was young, at eighteen, he was too different from his appearance in the novel where he grew up to be a Grand Duke.

Perhaps this was the gap between fiction and reality. What had seemed merely unfortunate when read in words now felt undeniably harrowing when faced in person.

‘All these tragedies must have piled up and driven him mad.’

Just as he had been left with no choice but to choose death, Louis must have had no other way but to lose his mind.

Eddie rolled up his sleeves and turned on the faucet. The bathtub, neglected for who knew how long, was covered in dust. It was likely that the servants’ bathroom was far cleaner than this.

The sound of rushing water echoed through the empty space. As the tub filled, the floating dust turned the water murky within moments.

Eddie quickly looked around. There were no cleaning tools in sight. With no other choice, he rolled up the hem of his pants and swept the dirt away with his feet.

He was in the middle of scrubbing when—

“I brought some necessities.”

Knock, knock.

The butler, who had disappeared when Eddie subdued Louis, reappeared.

He handed over a basket. Inside were a large towel, three smaller towels, two bottles of shampoo, three bars of soap, and two magic stones.

“His Highness’s chambers are being cleaned by the nanny and maids.”

Eddie had planned to clean the room himself after bathing Louis, but this saved him the trouble. As expected, the butler was perceptive.

With a nod, Eddie finished cleaning the tub as quickly as possible and began filling it properly. The moment he dropped the magic stones into the water, it instantly warmed up.

“You may leave now.”

He pointed to the door with his eyes at the butler who stood awkwardly, not making a move to leave. However, he didn’t move. As if belatedly realizing his role, he merely watched Eddie with his eyes. 

Though he was acting familiarly as if he had served Louis for a long time, Eddie was an outsider who had arrived barely hours ago.

‘Now he decides to be wary?’

He should have done that from the start. The young master he was supposed to protect had been locked in this desolate, freezing prison, never truly safe for even a moment.

Not once.

Eddie’s lips twisted.He knew all too well that humans were full of contradictions. He was no exception. But having suffered at the hands of such contradictions, he couldn’t help but find it infuriating. He shifted his gaze away from the butler and approached Louis.

“The bath is ready.”

“Get out.”

“A soak in warm water will help ease your body.”

“I said get out! Don’t touch me!”

“I’ve already touched you, so what’s the point now? Besides, if I leave, you’ll have to wash yourself. Can you do that?”

Louis clenched his lips in stubborn silence.

“I can… wash on my own. Just because I can’t see—”

“There’s no need to force yourself. In this grand ducal estate, no one outranks you, Your Highness. You have people to serve you—why should you struggle alone? Don’t refuse what rightfully belongs to you. If you keep rejecting everything, you’ll never reclaim what’s yours.”

“…I….”

Louis faltered, unable to retort. Eddie leaned in and murmured. 

“I’ll undress you now.”

First, he retrieved his coat from Louis’s grasp. Then, he lifted his tattered shirt.

The moment Eddie’s hands brushed against his bare skin, Louis flinched violently and curled inward.

“It’s all right. Your curse has no effect on me.”

Unless someone thrust a weapon imbued with the energy the curse despised, there was nothing to fear.

“You don’t need to worry.”

At his whisper, the tension drained from Louis’s body. Eddie seized the opportunity to pull off his shirt and pants in one swift motion.