Leave the Villainous Second Male Lead Alone - Chapter 1.15

For as long as he could remember, Callisto had dreamed. No matter how deeply he slept, vivid, tormenting dreams haunted his nights. Elsie, his nanny, worried about him and stayed by his side every night, but it didn’t help. The dreams never left him.

At some point, Callisto realized they weren’t just dreams.

Sometimes they showed the next day or the following week, and other times, they revealed events months or even a year into the future. But without fail, everything he saw in his dreams eventually came true.

The most devastating of these dreams was the death of his nanny.

Even though he foresaw it, Callisto couldn’t stop it. At just five years old, there was no way he could protect her from the assassin’s blade. On that stormy night, just as he’d seen in his dream, Callisto fled, leaving his dying nanny behind and hiding in the slums.

For two years, he wandered the streets. He was chased by wild dogs and beaten for being a beggar.

Yet, during this time, Callisto clung to the hope that a noble would rescue him.

One sunny day, an elegant and dignified earl found him, inspected the area around Callisto’s waist with a shocked expression, and then brought him to his estate, declaring him his son. But even in this newfound life, Callisto’s dreams showed no happiness. Instead, he saw himself being tormented by the Earl’s legitimate son time and again.

Still, when the Earl appeared, Callisto followed him without hesitation. Anything was better than the misery of the slums.

That’s how Callisto ended up in the Winyates household and met Etienne. Etienne was just as he had appeared in Callisto’s dreams. Silky silver hair that shimmered around his shoulders, translucent milk-white skin, long silver lashes, and violet eyes like violets. In all his seven years, Callisto had never seen anyone so beautiful. A beautiful devil. Determined not to be fooled, Callisto glared at him. But then Etienne smiled gently at him. “Huh?”

Callisto was dumbfounded. From that moment on, his dreams started diverging from reality. While most things played out as he’d foreseen, Etienne alone was different. The more time passed, the clearer this became.

Etienne’s gaze, in particular, was nothing like in the dreams. In reality, Etienne looked at Callisto as though he were a mischievous little brother, a real one.

I’m not his brother, Callisto thought sullenly. If Etienne started seeing him as a true sibling, it would be troublesome. He didn’t know why, but it just felt… wrong.

On the day of the Winyates banquet, Callisto had been nervous since morning.

But to his surprise, Etienne’s behavior was nothing like in the dreams. It was then that Callisto realized something for certain: while his dreams might show the future, Etienne was not the same person from them. That is… until he met Lawrence Armagnac.

“Does adding honorifics make bad words pretty? And we weren’t even talking about me just now.” Why was it so hard to pair up the main characters? If Callisto had truly seen the future through his dreams, he would know Lawrence was on his side.

Yet here he was, making a fuss. I sighed heavily, but Callisto’s voice cut through, sharp and questioning.

“So, you don’t actually want to get along with that fox, right?”

“Huh? Well, it’s better to get along than not, isn’t it?” I replied casually, still puzzled over why Callisto was being so antagonistic. Then, a thought struck me, Etienne was a secondary male lead. Soon, Etienne would begin lessons at the Earl’s manor with children from other noble families.

Lawrence would be among them. Although Callisto, being only the Earl’s ward, wasn’t supposed to join these lessons, Lawrence, moved by pity after meeting Callisto at the banquet, would request special permission for him to participate. During these lessons, Etienne would inevitably fall for Lawrence.

That’s when it clicked Callisto must have already dreamed about this period.

That would explain why he was so guarded about my interactions with Lawrence. I had worked so hard to avoid the fate of a secondary male lead, only to find myself dragged into an unwanted love triangle because of Callisto’s unnecessary visions.

I hurriedly opened my mouth to clarify.

“What I mean is there’s no need to have a bad relationship. It’s not like I’m particularly fond of Lawrence or anything. Do you get what I’m saying?” Please get it. I desperately emphasized that I had no interest in Lawrence, watching Callisto’s reaction closely.

“Hmm… So, you don’t like him, right? Really? Swear it.”

I hadn’t said I disliked him.

While I absolutely couldn’t afford to fall for the main love interest, outright disliking him didn’t seem like a smart move for my peaceful future, either. I hesitated, unsure of how to respond.

“Why do I need to swear…?”

“Not swearing? Then it’s a lie?”

“Fine, fine. I swear, okay?” Callisto seemed pleased with my answer.

His mood visibly lightened, and he even snuggled his cheek against my chest, purring like a contented kitten. After causing all that trouble, now he was acting sweet and affectionate. I was baffled, but the soft, warm touch of his skin was oddly pleasant.

Besides, Callisto’s round eyes and bright smile were so adorable that I let it slide.

Still, I thought to myself: I can’t raise him like this. I might avoid raising a possessive tyrant, but at this rate, I’ll end up with a spoiled brat instead. No, not even a brat this is the level of a “problematic elementary schooler.”

A niche character tag I’d never even seen before.

Sighing, I resumed walking toward Callisto’s bedroom at the far west end of the manor. He had grown heavier, and my arms were starting to ache, but the little troublemaker showed no intention of letting me put him down. Raising this demanding child felt like an uphill battle. In the original story, there wasn’t much mention of Callisto’s bedroom.

I only recalled scenes where Etienne visited his room to punish or torment him. Despite the considerable distance between Etienne’s room in the east wing and Callisto’s in the far west, Etienne would go out of his way to bother him.

It was an unnecessary level of diligence. Because of this backstory, I had avoided visiting Callisto’s bedroom. I wasn’t sure how specific his visions of the future were, but if he knew all of Etienne’s actions, I didn’t want to risk unnecessary misunderstandings.

But as I reached the west wing, I regretted never having visited before. The first sight of Callisto’s room was completely unexpected.

The Earl of Winyates was a good man, but he was busy managing numerous businesses. Even as his son, I rarely saw him, and his visits to my bedroom were few and far between. Naturally, he had entrusted the care of Callisto entirely to his staff.

The head butler, Cliffe, treated Callisto in a manner he deemed fitting for an “illegitimate child of the Earl.” Callisto’s room was stark and barren, a far cry from my own luxurious and elegantly decorated bedroom.

The small, narrow bed, accompanied by a shabby wardrobe, sat in a space devoid of any decorations. The blanket draped over the bed looked far too thin to ward off the chill seeping in through the walls.

My brow furrowed, and I bit my lower lip in frustration.

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