This is the last chapter for this arc. But! Before you read this chapter, I have a drinking game for you. Take a shot every time you encounter the word 「beautiful」. And if you"re feeling adventurous, also take a shot for the word 「ugly」. Although I suggest for you to change the drink to non-alcohol, for fear of alcohol poisoning lol. Okay, ready? Enjoy the chapter!

TL: clover

ED: clover

My surroundings were made of beautiful, sparkling things.

Yes, I was aware of that since I was only 5 years old.

Yugo Beltran. That is my name, the one who was born as the second son of Beltran Ducal House.

I love beautiful things.

Not to mention my own figure, my parents, my older brother, and my little sister. Each family member is beautiful and their appearances made my heart satisfied.

I began to be interested in beautiful things and began collecting variety of beautiful things. From beautiful shoes to beautiful clothes. From beautiful carpet to beautiful tableware.

The feeling of being surrounded by beautiful things calmed me down.

I became more and more fond of beautiful things.

On the other hand, I gradually began to loath dirty things and things that are not beautiful.

I don"t want them to enter my sight. There must be nothing but beautiful things around me.

I gradually began to think so.

There was no one to say otherwise in my surrounding.

I don"t think there is anybody who would rebuke the son of a powerful ducal house. They always flatter me in accordance to what I like.

Because that was the easiest thing to do, everyone attached a smiling mask and attended to me.

Generally, that was fine with me.

Because I didn"t want to see dirty things. Even if it was just a glimpse, I would be bothered by it.

As I said, I continued to be surrounded by nothing but smiling people.

Neither my father nor my mother said anything. Perhaps they didn"t feel like meddling excessively and only said that I should do what I want.

And my older brother for some reason is throwing a disdainful gaze at me.

My older brother is also a beautiful person. I would like to become closer with him, but my older brother doesn"t even try to make eye contact with me. Eventually, I also gave up talking with my older brother.

But, within my family, only my sister loves me dearly.

My sister is similar to me; we both love beautiful things. Although she is a child who is a little bit selfish and troublesome, I love my little sister whom I can share similar feelings with.

Every day, only invite my favorite people, arrange the dishes I newly got in my favorite garden, and enjoy the beautiful confectionery.

—Aah, how beautiful this world is.

If I can live my whole life in this wholesome world, I want to do it. At any rate, I am only the second son. Since n.o.body expected anything from me in particular, even if I live lazily like this and died beautifully, that is already good enough for me.

It was my younger sister, who was supposed to be living in the same world as me, who shattered that world.

My little sister—Lily, suddenly changed one day.

She improved her relations with her exclusive butler who couldn"t be said to be good friends with her until then, and surprisingly, she began contacting our older brother who I continued to avoid.

Our older brother hates my sister as much as he hates me, no, he hates my sister more than me.

I thought that I should stop her because she would only receive a gaze full of contempt even if she talks to him, but my little sister was not discouraged……and then, when I realized it, somehow things became completely different from before.

One day, that older brother of mine started a conversation with our sister.

When I thought that it was unusual of him, my older brother told my sister, "I heard you were going to an orphanage."

—Orphanage!

That place is where the dirty children are, it"s a place that is not highly recommended hygienically.

To think that my beautiful Lily was going to that sort of place.

Such a dirty place in not suitable for the beautiful Lily.

That"s what I thought, so after my brother left, I went to Lily to advise her.

That she shouldn"t go to the orphanage.

By the way, although I thought that the intelligent Lily would surely understand, Lily furrowed her eyebrows unpleasantly and told me that she didn"t understand what I meant.

And she said that she wanted me not to speak with her for a while.

I was shocked.

It was even more shocking because Lily, who I thought to be the closest to me among the family, rejected me.

I don"t understand what Lily was saying.

This world doesn"t need anything except for beautiful things, and dirty things should be eliminated.

That should not be wrong, but Lily rejected me.

It was very confusing.

I had never thought about approaching Lily, even without being told not to approach her.

She along with my older brother. I knew that I would get rejected if I get closer to them, and I am not mentally strong enough to do it.

One day, my sister picked up a dirty, ugly cat.

And, the terrible thing was, she appealed to our parents that she wanted to keep it.

That white cat has a smashed nose, large misshapen ears, and a long tail.

Unlike ordinary cats, its legs are short and its torso is long.

Such a hideous cat, it must not exist in my world.

Our parents would surely object.

Even our parents would not like such an ugly cat. Although I thought so, our parents were persuaded by Lily and allowed her to keep it.

I couldn"t believe it.

—Keep this ugly thing? In my house?

Impossible. That"s what I thought.

However, Lily doesn"t throw it away, no matter how many times I told her to. On the contrary, she rejected me even more.

—Of all things, she said the words "I hate you".

Those words shocked me to the core.

I am hated by the existence I love. That gave me a tremendous scare.

I ran away from her. I didn"t know what to do.

Although it should only be natural for her to chase after me, she didn"t, and every day Lily spends all her time and energy with that cat from then on.

—I"m sure she will return to her senses after a while.

Right now she may be empathizing with that cat. But it is so ugly. In the near future, my sister will return to her senses and decide to throw that ugly cat away.

Yes, that must be it.

That"s what I thought, so I secretly observed the state of my sister.

I did it covertly so as not to be noticed by my sister. I didn"t host the usual tea party, I was just following my sister and that cat.

In the meantime, I realized one thing.

—What is this. There are times when that ugly cat looks cute.

It was laughable. I couldn"t even believe myself who thought that way.

But, what I thought was embarra.s.sing, happened again and again.

When it was chasing after my sister with its short legs. When it was eating the food given deliciously with its tail standing stiffly.

When it was narrowing its eyes in satisfaction.

What the heck. Even though I thought that it was so ugly, no, I still thought that ugly cat is ugly, yet it looks cute somehow.

What an ugly cat. With my standard, I should have thrown it away. Even so, it occasionally touches my aesthetic sense. I don"t know what this means.

My sense of values seemed to collapse.

I made a request to the chef while thinking that way and visited my sister"s room after a long time, after having that cat"s favorite made.

It may seem cute because I saw it from the distance. So I dared to go near that cat, and as expected, it is ugly. I wanted to be convinced that the time when I saw that cat as something cute was only an illusion.

However—

That strategy failed spectacularly.

Even when I looked at it up close, the figure of that cat enjoying its meal was still cute. I thought it was ugly, but it was cute.

I thought I was becoming crazy.

However, my sister said that this ugly thing is 『cute』.

If it were the previous me, I would have flatly denied it. I would not have acknowledged that opinion.

But I knew there were times when this cat looked cute.

Maybe it"s because my sister is always watching the cat like this.

If so—I could agree that it is cute.

—Values are different for each person. They are different.

What is cute and beautiful is up to that person, it is wrong to press one"s own opinion to other people.

This kind of thing that should have been obvious, I noticed it for the first time.

—I see. I may have been rejecting things that might have been beautiful.

I don"t know how many times I rejected things just because they were ugly and not beautiful. But, if I got to know them better, parts that are beautiful or cute might have come out.

For example, like this ugly cat that is in front of me right now.

—How regrettable.

I naturally thought so.

And from now on, I thought that even if it is ugly, even if it is dirty, I would not reject them immediately, but I would make a decision after getting to know them properly instead.

If I do that, just like the sparkles of a kaleidoscope, I may be able to see things that are not beautiful at the moment when they look beautiful.

I thought that would be very wonderful.

Surely, in this way, the beautiful things around me would also increase.

The world will become more and more beautiful.

Aah, I had been doing something terribly wasteful.

This world is surely wider than I thought, and it is surely even more beautiful.

I will not miss it from now on, I want to see the whole thing.

You thought it would be Chloe who changed Yugo, but it was him, Noel the Cat!

……sorry for the JoJo reference xD can"t help it.