Side Story: Jealousy Had Green Eyes
This happened a little over ten years ago.
The setting was a certain party. I don’t remember exactly what the occasion was, but I do remember that it was the sort of gathering someone like me was expected to attend.
In other words, it was one of those rare occasions where people who normally would never cross paths all ended up in the same place.
As was typical of such gatherings, the party lasted until nearly dawn.
There was only so long people could dance and chat together. By the time the night had grown deep, the women and the men had completely split into separate groups.
After people of roughly the same age had gathered and claimed a lounge for themselves, someone suddenly said,
“You know the saying that jealousy is a green-eyed monster? Then isn’t it only natural for people with green eyes to be more jealous?”
It was a theory with quite a few logical leaps.
Of course, I didn’t bother pointing that out.
Judging by the circumstances, it sounded like someone who both had green eyes and a jealous streak was trying to defend themselves. And in a situation like that, you couldn’t exactly say,
‘No, you’re just a terrible person.’
Ah, Celesto would have jumped into the conversation, though.
In any case, I took another bite of my cookie and kept my mouth shut. I had no desire to mingle with people who were that sociable.
The problem came next.
Someone else who had been listening to the conversation suddenly said,
“Then could it be that… the two young lords of House Castenor are also incredibly jealous?”
Honestly, it took considerable effort not to cut in at that point.
Laughter immediately erupted throughout the lounge, everyone breaking into giggles one after another.
“……”
Without realizing it, I set my cookie down. Considering the topic, my appetite had vanished completely.
‘It’s such utter nonsense that I don’t even feel like correcting them.’
Among the five brothers of the Count Castenor family, there were only two men with green eyes.
The second son, Leocel Castenor, and the third son, Celesto Castenor.
As fate would have it, they were the friends who had each shown me a different kind of unforgettable spectacle.
While I wore an awkward expression, everyone else continued chatting merrily from their seats.
Some even lowered their voices and began whispering among themselves, as if exchanging confidential opinions.
The whispers continued. The fluttering of fans carried on for quite some time as well.
Well, one thing was certain: no one was asking for my opinion.
No one here actually wanted to know the truth. They simply wanted to indulge in amusing fantasies about the two green-eyed brothers of House Castenor.
Curled up in a corner, I finished a glass of fruit wine.
I couldn’t understand why so many people seemed so delighted by the idea of those two feeling jealous.
Jealous? Them?
Leocel was, by anyone’s standards, a man who couldn’t have been further from jealousy. Honestly, considering how promiscuously he lived, not being jealous was the normal thing. If he were jealous, that would just be shameless.
And as for Celesto…
“…Pfft.”
A laugh slipped out between my lips.
Celesto Castenor and jealousy. It was truly a combination of words I had never imagined.
He might have been blessed with a handsome face, but in reality, Celesto was practically an impenetrable fortress. There was his prickly personality, and then there were his almost obsessive religious convictions…
He was the kind of person who was unlikely to form the basic attachment that jealousy had to be built upon.
The idea of a man like that getting jealous over a woman? As someone who had known him his entire life, I couldn’t even imagine such a thing.
He was already the kind of guy who talked about joining the Holy Knights. Jealousy? As if…
Thinking that, I left the lounge.
It wasn’t easy to relax in that atmosphere. I figured I should come back only after the conversation had died down.
The problem was that I had nowhere else to go. It wasn’t as though I could simply return to the ballroom.
With no other choice, I headed down a dark corridor, avoiding people’s eyes. Hallways like this usually led to the rear garden.
Just as I expected, there was a door at the end of the corridor leading to the back of the estate. As soon as I stepped outside, a breeze carrying the damp air unique to a summer night brushed past me.
I followed the moonlit garden path. If I wanted to avoid ending up in an awkward situation, I had to choose my resting place carefully.
‘I might end up seeing something I’d rather not.’
Even if the party had settled into a quieter lull, most people still spent their time in the areas designated by the host.
The kind of people who would deliberately come all the way out here generally fell into only two categories.
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