The carriage shook and swayed dangerously as the horses pulled it carefully over the bad roads where stones and potholes alternated with knee-deep mud and the occasional river.

Sanghyuk’s mood wasn’t foul because of the bad road and slow progress of their journey, though. He wasn’t usually one to pout when things didn’t go his way, but some things were just too much!

“I don’t even know the guy! I don’t think dad even knew the guy! Just because he’s dad’s friend’s son, that doesn’t mean he’s the same as his dad and just as trustworthy! Take me, for example: I’m nothing like my dad; so why should the guy be the same as his dad? I don’t trust him! You hear me, Hongbin? I don’t trust him at all!”

He vented to his servant, who thanked his rigorous education for teaching him how to keep his amused grin hidden as he listened to his young master repeat the same rant for the fourth or fifth time since they’d started the journey.

“I don’t understand why I couldn’t just stay at home and wait until dad’s agents found someone suitable for me to marry. Why would he trust a stranger with that? Does the guy even know what he has to watch out for when making the choice? His father may have known, but he’s been dead for years! If the guy is just little older than me, the chance that he ever even listened to his dad when he told him about that back when he was still alive are really very slim!”

“You know your father didn’t trust his agents not to go with the option that was best for them instead of best for you when finding you a partner. The Lord made the deal with his friend to make sure you got into a safe marriage, not a profitable one, should he die before he could arrange your marriage.”

Sanghyuk huffed at the reminder, waving his hand dismissively.

“Yes, yes, I know! That’s not the question here, though. Who’s to say dad’s friend’s son won’t choose what’s best for him and not for me, too?”

Hongbin shook his head.

“Lord Hakyeon isn’t that kind of person. He doesn’t care for his own profit, he will honor his father’s promise and make sure you marry someone who will protect you and treat you right.”

“How do you know that? Do you know him?”

“I grew up in his father’s household until I left for school. I’ve known him all my life. He is a good person.”

Sanghyuk’s jaw dropped.

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

The young servant shrugged.

“You never asked.”

Sanghyuk narrowed his eyes and kicked Hongbin’s shin lightly.

“You should have told me! I thought we were friends!”

Silence fell over them as neither voiced what both of them thought: but friendships between a noble man and a servant were never real. As well as they got along, they were never equal, and could never have a real friendship.

“Are you really sure he won’t marry me off to someone unsuitable, just for his own profit?” Sanghyuk broke the silence after a while, his voice unsure and showing his fear now.

Hongbin nodded reassuringly.

“He won’t. I’ve been told by my friends who still work for him that he’s been inconsolable since his father died, but he’s been honoring all of his father’s promises. He is a good person. He won’t let you down.”

Sanghyuk sighed.

“I’d still rather have stayed at home… Oh why couldn’t dad marry me off early like everyone else!”

Hongbin shook his head.

“He didn’t want to make a hasty choice, as well as grant you your freedom for as long as possible.”

Sanghyuk snorted at that.

“Freedom… I haven’t left the castle since I was eight! If I’d been mated to someone who’d let me at least leave the house once a year, I would have had more freedom than I ever had before!”

Hongbin knew the young Lord was being unreasonable, but he wouldn’t voice it like that.

“For that to happen, he’d have to find someone who’d let you do that first. But with your status-“

“Ugh! Status, status! I am a person, first and foremost! A human! With a brain and feelings! Not some rare collectible to lock away in a private museum!”

The silence that followed Sanghyuk’s words was heavy. They both knew that what Sanghyuk so vehemently denied was actually the truth: Sanghyuk was a rare collectible, whether he wanted it or not.

As an incredibly rare omega, he was sure to be coveted by everyone, regardless of social status. As a noble omega, even everyone with a higher social status than him and his dad had already kneeled in front of his father begging for his hand. And since he wasn’t just a noble omega, but also a fertile one, it was truly a wonder no one had started a war over him yet.

The silence stretched on, and the two young men stared out of the windows. One with well-hidden excitement and anticipation to see his old friends again, and one with dread, anger and a deep rooted sadness he wasn’t allowing to surface.

***

Despite how late it was already getting and that the horses really needed to rest and be fed soon, they boarded the carriage once more after a short stop, much to Sanghyuk’s dismay.

“Just one more hour and we’ll be there. It’s later than expected, but they are surely waiting eagerly for us to arrive.” Hongbin announced as he climbed inside after Sanghyuk.

Sanghyuk huffed and turned to stare out of the window again. Far away on the horizon a storm was brewing, and he was pretty sure it was in that direction that they were heading.

“Fitting. All I needed was to get stuck in a mud pitch just before arriving. Or maybe a tree will fall on us and destroy the carriage and we have to walk the rest of the way in pouring rain. Or the horses get scared and run off blindly and we crash. Or the wind blows us off a bridge and we drown…”

“Lord Sanghyuk!”

Sanghyuk jumped as Hongbin’s voice ripped him out of his thoughts, sounding as if it hadn’t been the first time he was calling for him.

“What?”

Hongbin flinched a little at his Lord’s biting tone, but answered nonetheless.

“If you look out of the windows on this side, you can already see the castle in the distance.”

Sanghyuk grumbled something about why would he want to see that before he needed to, but scooted over to the side Hongbin was sitting on anyway to take a look.

Against a dark and stormy sky that promised to rain hell down on earth, the silhouette of an even darker castle stood defiantly as lightning flashed around it, managing to look even more daunting than the massive storm clouds overhead.

“Looks absolutely lovely.” Sanghyuk deadpanned before turning his face away to look out of the other window and at the last remains of sun kissing the green fields in the distance. The weather over the castle might fit his mood better, but the fading sun was too good of a metaphor for his own soon to be ending freedom to leave it unobserved.

“It is actually quite lovely, it only looks this dark because of the weather right now.” Hongbin tried to defend his old home, but Sanghyuk wasn’t listening.

His expression had managed to adopt the same dark tone as the sky above them by the time the carriage rolled through the gate and stopped in front of the large castle doors, and it even surpassed it when heavy drops of rain began to splatter down around them while Hongbin’s knocking went unheard for more long minutes before a tiny window opened in the massive doors for someone to peek outside.

“Binnie!” A voice exclaimed and the doors opened seconds later, revealing a butler that had to visibly refrain from hugging the servant in front of his master.

“Lord Sanghyuk! We awaited your arrival much earlier today, but since you didn’t make it we weren’t expecting you to arrive until tomorrow anymore. Please, come in, though! You need to forgive Lord Hakyeon, he is currently too busy to welcome you.”

Out of the corner of his eyes, Sanghyuk registered Hongbin stepping back to help the hastily arriving servants with his luggage, as well as two stable boys who came to take care of the horses while he followed the butler inside.

“If you’d like to follow me to the dining room; supper shall be served in no time, and if you’d like to be shown around the house afterwards, it will be arranged.”

Sanghyuk nodded, wondering if it was normal for butlers nowadays to talk that much. His own butler back at home surely didn’t talk even a fifth of the amount this one managed to talk in a few minutes during a whole day.

He wasn’t about to alienate the man, though; it was never wise to get on bad terms with your servants, but for someone like Sanghyuk it could prove to be a fatal stupidity.

He followed quietly, keeping his thoughts and newly rising anger at the resident Lord to himself. He could at the very least come and greet his guest, even if it was just shortly! Such a lack of respect and manners, really!

Sanghyuk frowned even more when he noticed he had to actually strain his eyes to make out the floor he was walking on and not lose sight of the butler leading the way only a couple steps ahead of him. Why were the hallways kept so dark? I was nearly impossible to see where one was going!

Eventually, the butler stopped in front of a door, opening it wide and stepping aside for Sanghyuk to enter first. The room behind it was the dining room, and Sanghyuk supposed it was quite large; supposed, because half of it was kept in the shadows, with only one half being illuminated.

“Supper will be served in just a moment. Please make yourself comfortable, Lord Sanghyuk.”

With that, the butler left, and Sanghyuk found himself alone in the dark room. He shivered slightly, hugging his arms around himself to warm up a bit.

How did it come he wasn’t guided to his room first to freshen up after the long journey before being led to dinner? Wasn’t that the way it should have been? Not that he had any personal experience with that, but that was how he remembered it from the time back in the day when his family still had guests over. Granted, that hadn’t happened in almost 14 years; but did things really change that much in that time?

He shrugged, choosing a seat at the long table while he wondered why the fireplace wasn’t lit when the room was clearly too cold this way. That was when he noticed the thin streaks on the otherwise polished table in front of him: dust. He looked closer, swiping at it with his fingers. Definitely dust. The whole table must have been covered in it and someone had only just recently wiped over it quickly, but not very thoroughly.

How could the dining table gather dust? It was almost as if no one used it…

Just as the butler had promised, it didn’t take long before a small door on the side of the room opened and two maids appeared to serve him dinner. He nodded his thanks as they set it down in front of him and disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared.

Sanghyuk furrowed his brow. It was weird to eat alone. He’d always eaten with his father, and after the old man had died, Hongbin had been there to keep him company during the meals.

He started eating, jumping a little as his spoon collided with the side of the bowl of soup and made a terribly loud noise in the otherwise quiet room. Only then did he notice how quiet it really was; not a single sound could be heard, neither in the room nor from outside of it. It was as if the whole castle was completely silent.

A shiver ran up his spine again, but not from the cold. It was eerie, such a quiet house. At home, even when he was somewhere quiet and alone, there were still noises around him, coming from other parts of the house or outside. But here, there was nothing; not even the sound of the wind or the rain from outside made it to him.

Suddenly losing his appetite, Sanghyuk quickly ate just enough so he knew he wouldn’t be starving in the middle of the night and rang for the butler.

The man appeared quickly, bowing before Sanghyuk.

“You rang, Lord Sanghyuk?”

“I’m done eating. I’d like to go to my room to freshen up, maybe retire for the night. Surely I can get a tour of the house tomorrow, still?”

The butler inclined his head.

“Of course, Lord Sanghyuk. Your luggage is already upstairs, and your servant has been setting up your rooms. Please, follow me.”

He led the way through more dimly to barely lit hallways, and more than a few shivers ran down Sanghyuk’s back. He almost screamed when he walked face first into a spider web, and he started to dread what his rooms must look like.

Surprisingly enough, they were quite nice. Spacious and tastefully decorated, clean -and most importantly- brightly illuminated.

Sanghyuk sighed in relief, and felt even more relieved when he spotted Hongbin in between his multiple suitcases, busying himself with stowing away Sanghyuk’s belongings.

Sanghyuk watched him for a moment before he stopped him.

“Hongbin-ah… Have you eaten anything yet?”

The servant stopped in his tracks, holding a bunch of clothes in his arms.

“No.”

Sanghyuk sighed again.

“You should. The journey was as long for you as for me. You can always put the rest away tomorrow. Just show me where my sleeping clothes are and then go freshen up and eat something yourself.”

Hongbin nodded, only finishing putting away the clothes he was already holding.

“Which sleeping clothes do you want?” His voice came muffled from the dressing room, and Sanghyuk strolled over.

“I don’t care. Something comfortable, and warm. It’s freezing in here!”

Hongbin returned shortly after, setting the chosen pair of pajamas down on a small bench.

“Should I light the fireplace?”

Sanghyuk shook his head.

“I’m just going to bed. You go eat and catch up with your friends if they have the time. But bring more candles when you come back! This place is so creepy…” He muttered at the end, and Hongbin smiled sympathetically.

“It’s just because it got dark so suddenly, I think. Tomorrow in daylight everything will look much brighter and not creepy at all.”

Sanghyuk shrugged, and after reassuring himself that his Lord had everything he needed, Hongbin left Sanghyuk alone as he headed off towards the kitchens.

The young Lord didn’t waste much time, only quickly washing his hands and face before changing and hiding under the covers of the large and comfortable bed. The journey had been long indeed, and he was more tired from it than he’d expected. It didn’t take long until he was fast asleep.