I AM

Chapter 7: Who?

"Are you sure your feeling okay Alexandre? You're barely touching your food"

The duchess said anxiously while watching Alexandre taking small bites than usual out of the steak in front of him.

He looked like it was taking a lot of him to stomach what he was eating to the point that he might as well just puke everything out.

Alexandre kept glancing at the duke eating peacefully on the center chair. He's excessively losing appetite by the minute, knowing that the duke is nearby.

But on the other hand, he didn't want his breakfast to go to waste nor get reprimanded by his father again so he kept eating.

"No, seriously Alexandre, you don't need to finish that, okay?"

The duchess looked at the maid standing behind Alexandre's chair and signaled her to pick up his plates.

"Go and take a rest up at your room, I'll just bring you some warm soup--"

"No, let him finish that"

Hearing his father's voice again sent shivers down Alexandre's spine. It was just like he was frozen in place and chills all over his body felt like he's about to get hit by lightning.

"You think you'd get the luxury to waste food like that on the battlefield?"

"The people over there were killing each other for a single grain of rice"

"But it seems like you don't really know how it feels to be in their position because you're sheltered like this. Naive to the world around you, aren't you Alexandre?"

His voice was stern while still focusing on his food, he wasn't even looking at him. Though it's not like Alexandre was looking at him anyway, he only kept his head low.

There was a slight silence in between. Chewing his food as he placed his cutlery down the table.

Even though he was eating really well earlier, it seemed like the food has gotten quite rotten in his mouth, as an unpleasant memory suddenly popped up, univited.

"I probably don't have the right to tell you that. So much for the one who brought them to their ruin in the first place."

It was only for that moment, but Alexandre could almost hear the bitternes in his father's voice. He finally looked up and saw the duke staring outside, faraway into the distance.

He couldn't see his face properly but his hands-- the nerves were popping out, from him clenching it too hard.

'Ah, Right now, father feels disgusted' Alexandre thought as he straight up stared at the duke's back.

His fear didn't go away completely, but somehow, a bit of tension that has been on his shoulders the whole time, faded.

He doesn't really have the whole idea of what happened, but just from that, he knew that his father was human, just like him after all.

I guess it makes sense. If he's being strict with Alexandre, he's probably giving himself a much harder time.

He stared at the cutlery placed neatly on top of the table, beside his plates.

He looked up at the duchess sitting right across from him. He pursed his lips as he nodded lightly, slowly picking the knife and fork back up.

The duchess let out a sigh as she smiled, while Alexandre continued eating his steak piece by piece.

Their breakfast continued on in silence. No words were spoken but the sound of glass, like water droplets falling subtly onto a glockenspiel.

Though the same thing doesn't seem to apply to Alexandre. His thoughts has been really noisy since earlier and something has been sitting at the corner of his mind