Volume 1, Diary of a Butler 4: The Master’s Safety at Risk(2/2)
There is actually light! Could it be the young master?
I was in such a hurry that I was even unable to go up the building normally by walking up the stairs. Instead, I rapidly jumped onto the wall of the building and dashed vertically up towards the top. With a final leap, I silently landed on the railing of the balcony, allowing the strong breeze at the top to blow at my cape so strongly that it fluttered nearly horizontally.
I lowered my head to take a look and standing on the balcony was a silver-haired man. I could not help but let his identity escape from my mouth, “Young Master An Xiang Ye..”
“Wow!”
The young master widened his eyes and stared at me blankly. After a while, he gently called out, “Charles, you’re so cool!”
Hearing that, I truly felt like my strength had given up on me momentarily. My nervousness that had built up over the entire day was suddenly dispelled with this sentence.
“Charles.”
At this moment, the young master’s face became serious. He said softly, “There’s a stench of blood coming from your clothes..”
I was shocked. Oh no, I’ve actually worn a cape that is covered in blood in front of the adolescent young master. I hope I did not scare him..
“That’s great Charles!”
Instead, the young master had on an expression of relief as he looked at me, and he smiled as he said, “I had thought that you were angry and didn’t want to be my butler anymore, so you had left. Thankfully, you were only feeling a little hungry and had gone out to bite someone, that’s all.”
Y-Young Master, it is not like that.. Moreover, if your butler was feeling hungry and went out to bite someone, that is not something you can end your sentence with a “that’s all.”
I believed that the young master would not be frightened by me. On the contrary, his kind of miraculous line of thought was probably going to leave me ceaselessly amazed in the coming days.
At this moment, the young master tugged at my cape and with a pitiful expression complained, “Charles, I haven’t eaten dinner yet, so I’m really hungry, and I mean seriously hungry! Make me a late night snack.”
I gave a weak smile within my heart, but I still gave a courteous reply. “Understood. Is there anything that Young Master particularly wishes to eat?”
Without any hesitation, the young master replied, “Meat, fried meat.”
“Understood.”
The young master’s expression looked exactly like he had been starved for three days, so without bothering to even change my clothes, I hurried into the kitchen to heat up a wok full of oil and fried an entire wok full of chicken nuggets and french fries.
Not too long after, I stood in the living room and waited upon the young master throughout his meal. As he ate his chicken nuggets, he praised, “When Charles wears a cape, he really does look like a vampire!”
Seeing the young master eat with immense satisfaction and then hearing his praise, I could only force a smile in return. However, I also gave a sigh of relief. For such a thrilling day to end in a way like this, there was nothing better than that.
While the young master was eating, I explained to the young master honestly as to why I had left and was not home. At the same time, I told him my concerns. Though I had injured many people and also threatened them, it did not mean that I was certain the other party would not try anything again.
As I spoke, I started to worry. Will it be better if I quit the job so that I can ensure the young master’s safety?
However, after the young master had finished listening to me, he nearly rolled on the floor with laughter. As he laughed, he said, “Charles, oh Charles. Sometimes, you’re really so foolish to the point where I’m doubtful if you are truly a vampire?”
I looked at the young master quizzically, not understanding what he meant. Of course I am a vampire; I have been one ever since I was born.
“Sigh..” The young master gave a long sigh, and then it was his turn to make a helpless expression as he explained to me, “Charles, I can even shake off the bodyguards who have been tailing me for a long time. Think about it, will those novices at pursuit sent by the underworld be able to catch up with me? Therefore, from the very beginning, you didn’t have to meet up with them at all.”
Ah.. I was suddenly enlightened.
“I thought I was slow-witted, but I didn’t imagine that the butler that I found would be even more slow-witted than I am.” The young master grudgingly finished his words and then started roaring in laughter again, “It has always been other people telling me that I am slow-witted, but I can actually say that to someone else for once!”
Though I had been called slow-witted, I too could not help but laugh along with the young master.
“Oh yeah, don’t worry about my safety, Charles. I am in the combat major after all.” When the young master said this, his tone was proud.
Hearing that, I abruptly remembered the robbery incident on the night we went to sing karaoke. The bodyguards had probably known that the young master was strong enough to deal with it on his own, and that was why they had not shown themselves, right? And I too have personally witnessed the young master’s marksmanship.. Maybe I really can continue to stay here as a butler?
After finishing his late night snack, the young master went into his workroom as always, and started to do his firearm modifications. Seeing that, I too started my daily routine cleaning.
However, not much time had passed before the young master called me over. He passed me a piece of paper, saying, “Charles, buy these things for me, the faster the better. If you can’t find something, ask Kyle-gē.”
“Please wait for a moment, Young Master.”
I walked to the tool cabinet by the side and took out a tray. Then, according to the items written on the paper, I took them out from the tool cabinet one-by-one and placed them neatly on the tray. Following that, I turned around and placed the tray on the young master’s work desk.
I reported back to the young master politely, “The preparation is done, Young Master.”
The young master looked at me with wide-open eyes, and then lowered his head to look at the work tools that filled up the entire tray, as though he was checking whether all the parts and tools were present. He lifted his head, saying in shock, “Everything is here! I remember that there weren’t these items here before! How did you know what I would want?”
A true butler should always know what their master wants, and when the master becomes in need of such, immediately present it to them. Since I had already known that the young master would be doing modifications to firearms every night, as his butler, I naturally prepared all of the materials.
It was just that the young master’s needs were too special, so I had to spend some time to cram all the knowledge regarding this field, to have the ability to know what the young master needed.
Though I said preparing all the things that the master may possibly need beforehand is a duty that every butler ought to do, this was my first time actually doing this. That was because all my previous employers had not treated me as a true butler, so naturally I had no opportunity to do so.
I courteously replied, “Young Master, Charles has been observing your actions when modifying firearms and realized that you would often have to stop due to a lack of the necessary tools. Therefore, I have prepared a small quantity of all the parts and tools that you may possibly use.”
“Charles is really attentive. It really is much more convenient this way!”
The young master looked extremely happy as he said, “Do this in the future too! This way, I don’t have to modify yet have to stop mid-way while I wait for Kyle-gē to send the items over before I can continue.”
“Understood.”
Thinking about it, for the sake of fulfilling the young master’s needs, I will have to work even harder to pay attention to information on modifying firearms even though this was not an easy task. Many parts and tools were basically illegal, some of which were rare items that could not even be bought on the black markets. I had to use the cell phone that Mr. Kyle had given me and call the number listed in the contacts list as “Munitions Group.” Then, I had to ask the person on the phone to help purchase them before I could complete the entire set.
Though the difficulty of my work had increased by quite a bit, my mood instead became better.
Even if it is the criminal underworld, even if they are arms dealers, even if it is illegal, none of that matters right now. What is most important is that as of now, I am finally a butler. A butler’s main duty is to fulfill all of the young master’s needs.
The young master sat down and took one of the tools on the tray in passing. Just as he was about to begin his modifications, he abruptly lifted his head to look at me. When he was about to open his mouth, I lowered my head and politely said, “Young Master, Charles will pour some milk for you.”
The young master revealed a shocked expression, and he asked curiously, “Charles, don’t tell me that you know how to read minds?”
“Young Master, Charles does not.” I replied honestly, and the corner of my lips nearly went up. Thankfully, the many years of my honorable father’s teachings on how to remain expressionless still came in useful.
My honorable father had spoken before that a true butler should act as if he knows how to read minds and concentrate on capturing his master’s every movement. Then, without even needing his master’s instructions, he ought to know exactly what he should do next.
Therefore, for a butler to be suspected of knowing how to read minds, this is entirely a compliment.
The young master gave a smile, and as though he was joking, he claimed, “You don’t, but I do! Let me guess, you are very happy at the moment, right?”
.. I have been seen through again? I am indeed expressionless right now, am I not?
To have my emotions seen through over and over again made me hesitate for a moment. However, I still could not help but ask the young master, “Young Master, Charles should not be showing any kind of expressions, right? However, you seem to be able to detect some of Charles’ emotions. Why is that so?”
The young master pondered over it for a moment, and then he said a little hesitantly, “Hm, should I say yes or no? Usually when there’s nothing up, your eyebrows and the corners of your mouth are normally completely horizontal. When you are angry, your eyebrows go up by three degrees and the corners of your mouth go down by two degrees. When you are happy, the corners of your mouth rise by three degrees and your eyebrows slightly arch.”
The young master looked at me, and after he exclaimed “ah,” he continued, “That’s right, also, when you are in disbelief, your eyes widen by 0.82mm, and when you are confused, your head tilts to the left slightly by five degrees.. Charles, at the moment you’re feeling both confusion and disbelief, right?”
Young Master.. With your high level of skill in “reading faces,” perhaps you might be better suited to be a butler than anyone else.
The young master continued to stare at me and was “reading faces” as he said, “When you are feeling distressed, both your eyebrows will scrunch up towards the center. The space between the eyebrows will decrease by 0.2mm.”
“..”