Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Nightlife Rendezvous: Nocturne

‘What’s wrong with this guy!? Why is he asking her out all of a sudden!’ Reley’s screams were forever unvoiced. ’I can’t! My lady will completely humiliate herself.’ 

Maybe them being unvoiced was good. Insulting a noble was straight to the gallows for her.

Reley was confused, should she look up? Should she try to see their reactions? What could the motive be anyway? It wasn’t like her master and the young lord of Athenus even had a relationship, let alone a friendly one. Heck, for all she knew, her master was one-sidedly head over heels for the scion of her master’s house’s biggest enemy!

That man, he was here during an odd time. A wizard around for the Imperial Swordsmanship Competition? He must definitely be here to handle commerce. It was no secret that the Athenus family had its mitts spread in every corner of the empire, after all. That meant, he must have asked Kristine out for something related to that! There’s no way he would have fallen for his family’s enemy as well, right?

If only Reley knew.

To her credit, though, she wasn’t completely off, since that was exactly what her master thought too. The ‘gladly’ had come out from pure, raw, animal instinct, but Kristine still thought of his intentions after blurting things out.

“Ah… gladly? I see…” Isaac said, his voice shaking. ‘Then, I will send word to you… about the details.’

“Y-yes…” Kristine muttered, her sour mood from witnessing another woman with Isaac gone completely. “I’ll look forward to it.”

Isaac nodded, his heart now beating a total of four extra beats a minute than normal. He couldn’t manage to tear his eyes away from the slight tint of red on Kristine’s pale cheeks, her face flushed from the alcohol, her rosy lips glossing from the few drops of the ale that stuck around, he couldn’t look away, so he didn’t notice until it was late.

“There you guys are, I bought you more ale and—“

From the back, a young man with silvery hair and a charming face came over to them, scratching his face with his eyes closed. A mug of ale, similar to the one that Kristine held was in his hand while the other held a bunch of meat skewers. The man casually touched Kristine’s shoulder.

He casually touched.

Kristine’s shoulder.

TOUCHED.

KRISTINE.

Immediately after being ignored by his master, the man opened his eyes and bowed down with the speed of a broken garage spring at the sight of Isaac.

The beating of Isaac’s heart slowed down by 8 beats, four less than normal. His eyes narrowed by a centimeter and a half, while his lips contracted by another half a centimeter.

He was livid, outraged, exasperated.

“Raise your head, vassal.” The cold in the wizard’s voice even made Kristine sober up a little, she realized that Isaac had asked for the new addition to standing while a viscount was still bowing, but didn’t intervene.

“Vassal,” Isaac repeated.

The silver-haired man raised his head at Isaac, his eyes trembling, sweat pouring down from every single pore on his face. 

“Y-yes… my lord?”

“Name.”

“Johan Bertile, my lord.”

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Isaac repeated the name in his mind a few times over, a strange cloudiness filling his sight.

“Then,” he turned back to Kristine. “Lady Kristine. I’ll reach out to you soon. Please wait for me.”

Kristine slowly twirled her hair in her hand and nodded, which incited an agape mouth from Johan.

Without saying anything else, Isaac started walking ahead again, breezing past Kristine. 

As he took a few steps ahead, he slowly gazed back. There, Kristine was still playing with her hair, the other three still on the spot.

A soft warmth spread in his heart as he nodded a satisfied nod and turned away.

Not noticing, that after he looked away, Kristine turned back too. For a fleeting second, she could see cherry blossoms breezing around the receding back of the young count.

Annie had no choice but to stay bowing until Kristine and her aide who was acknowledged by a higher-ranking noble were gone. Reley, on the other hand, still didn’t dare to raise her head until Annie did so.

One’s moment of pleasure was another’s suffering.

That night, Annie completely devoured the restaurant she went into after finally catching up to Isaac.

***

The dim yellow of the night had gone away as the darkness deepened. As if the stars that had come down had gone back up, an air of silence had entangled the night streets of Poseidonia. The only ones walking around were either the ones too drunk to find their homes or the ones drinking for their lack of a home.

At the edges of the noble street was a hotel run and managed by the head family of Poseidonia, made especially for the nobles that did not have any property in the port city. At the order of the imperial palace, the condo on the top floor was currently rented out to the chief guest of the Imperial Swordsmanship Competition, the knight of Kaiser, Lady Kristine et Kaiser, and her aides.

In one of the personal rooms for the aides, Johan was fixing the sheets on his bed. It was a tiring day today from the beginning to the end, but he was very happy as well.

His master was extremely happy after all.

“She was even twirling her hair, haha,” Johan mimicked Kristine’s actions as he remembered her blushing face when she met the young count, and then the giddy walk all over the town and back, chanting ‘dinner date, dinner date’ over and over.

Just a few moments ago, even Reley was sharing the same sentiment as him. How could they not be happy about their savior’s happiness? 

Done with setting up the bed, Johan sighed and looked at the windows in his room. The light of the moon was covered by the clouds, making the sight outside the giant window be hidden in complete darkness.

It was time to sleep.

The clouds moved away, and a glint of moonlight pervaded through, shining right on his window.

A silhouette.

A dark black silhouette stood outside his windows with its blood-crazed eyes staring into his soul.