Arc 1, New Moon

Chapter 4

Ernst’s new residence was the furthest villa from the royal palace. There weren’t any nobles living here. The intention was to keep Ernst from meeting other nobles. Ernst couldn’t determine whether this was out of consideration for him, or as an act to exclude him.

The working staff for the villa were hastily arranged, and all of them were inexperienced. They dithered about not knowing what to do, and if someone needed something, it took quite a lot of time to find it. Furthermore, they had no idea how to serve the former Crown Prince, Ernst.

Ernst also had no clue. Up until now, the servants of the royal palace had dealt with everything. It was impossible for someone who had never worked in the royal palace to know what was done only in the royal palace; thus, a hard-to-fill chasm emerged between the servants and Ernst, who had just begun his life in the villa.

When Ernst woke, all he had to do was stand at the side of the bed. Once he stood, the maids changed his clothes.

On his first morning in the villa, Ernst stood at the side of the bed as usual. Yet nothing happened; only an awkward atmosphere formed between him and the maid serving in the room. He’s already 60 years old, so just what exactly is this former crown prince doing? When the maid looked at Ernst with what looked like pity in her eyes, Ernst realized that he would have to change his own clothes for the first time. If Ernst weren’t such an avid book reader, it was possible that he might never have realized.

The bathing chamber was naturally the same; there was no one inside it. There wasn’t any manservant who would wash his body for him. After having such an extremely difficult time putting on his own clothes, Ernst painstakingly peeled them off once again, and stood alone in the bathroom.

He had no idea what he was supposed to do here.

Bathing involved being lathered with bubbles, but Ernst didn’t know where to find the bubbles. Completely naked, Ernst circled aimlessly around this bathroom, which was only 1/5th as big as the royal palace bathing chamber that he was accustomed to. No matter where he looked, he couldn’t find any bubbles.

Eventually, he settled with just soaking himself in hot water for that day.

The next day, when he asked the maid about the bubbles, she gave him a weird look and handed him a strange white block. He had asked about bubbles, so why did she give him this thing? He didn’t understand it even after a long time.

In the villa, the timing of everything was uncertain.

By contrast, Ernst had lived many years according to a strict schedule. Every morning, he strenuously labored to put on his own clothing in order to hurry to meet the time in which he should attend breakfast. In order to make it in time, he began waking up an hour earlier in the morning. However, even if he hurried to make it to the breakfast table, breakfast seldom appeared on time. This was the same whether it was during the day or in the evening.

In the past, Ernst had been scolded to not make noise at the dining table. Whatever was put in front of him, even if he didn’t like the taste, he had to shut up and eat it. This was the proper conduct of a member of the royal family. For that reason, even if he had to wait over an hour for food to appear at the table, Ernst merely sat there silently. Standing by the wall of the dining room, the butler assigned to be Ernst’s assistant looked at Ernst with annoyance. For Ernst, once he had sat at the dining table, it was unthinkable to stand without having finished the meal.

What occurred in the villa was intriguing to Ernst, and he found himself enjoying it. Little by little, the butlers, the maids, and the cooks all began to grow accustomed to Ernst, and bit by bit they began sharing conversations.

Ernst forgot what it felt to be bored.

After being taught how to create bubbles himself, Ernst eventually got used to washing on his own. He remembered the movements of those large hands. Wash between the ass, wash his manhood. He didn’t feel that same tingling, electric feeling that he’d had when the manservant had washed him.

Living in the villa, he learned for the first time since birth what it meant to be alone. When he lived in the royal palace, someone was always in the same room as him, even if he went to sleep. Now, Ernst could be alone as much as he liked.

Sometimes, when Ernst took a bath to wash himself, he gripped the tip of his manhood between his fingers and turned it up. The books he’d read had pictures. What was called an ‘erection’ looked somewhat like this, didn’t it? Ernst had tried to pull it up like so, but the appearance still didn’t quite match. A soft and unreliable thing like this, how exactly was it supposed to take on an unnatural appearance like that?

There were things he had read only in books which he had now seen while living in the villa, and experienced for himself. After living in the villa, that which he could only vaguely see in his head now took on distinct forms, granting him understanding. But something like ‘sexuality’ was still a subject that Ernst completely didn’t understand.