"An Insane Hyena Cup for me."

"Right away, young Lord, and for Mademoiselle?"

"Same for me!"

"And for Lord Mael?" A feminine voice asked.

"A Legit Dragon Egg Royale for me."

"What the hell is that?"

"Yeah, it sounds like a super fishy name for a cocktail."

"As if Insane Hyena Cup wasn’t ?"

Both I, Ramia, and Mael were in one of my favorite rooms in the castle. To be honest, I wish I had found this room earlier.

We were in the middle of the morning. Usually, by now, we three should be outside having sparring sessions in the backyard, but sadly, or maybe thankfully, today the weather didn’t seem particularly inclined to allow us any outside activity. Winter was approaching, yet today a sudden rain fell upon us.

So here we are in one of the castle’s bars.

A sumptuous room deep inside the castle, yet I could hear from afar the soothing sound of the rain.

Behind the bar, on top were Syrus and a woman, both dressed in bartender outfits, and behind them was the bar top adorned with hundreds, maybe thousands, of bottles of expensive-looking alcohol. Both were skillfully preparing our Boisson, while we were sitting upon a chair strangely too tall for the three of us. It was a very fascinating sight.

The woman aggressively, yet gracefully, shook the cobbler shaker in her hand while keeping a gentle smile.

The woman was the servant in charge of this room.

"Here’s for Young Lord and Mademoiselle Ramia," Syrus said while sliding our drink.

Both Ramia and I were completely silent and silently looked at each other when we were handled our drinks.

I mean, it’s not like we knew exactly what an "Insane Hyena Cup" was. We were just handed a bunch of random names of non-alcoholic cocktails, so when we stumbled upon that catchy name, we had no other choice but to choose it.

A snow-like drink was placed in front of us, inside a large martini glass; the bottom was a red blood, and as it rose, the color changed to red, blue, violet, green, white, and finally, a really dark red. A straw and a green leaf were adorned on top of the drink.

I carefully brought the straw to my mouth, and I sipped in.

To be honest, I didn’t know who sipped who, for I felt my soul was aspirated the moment that thing reached my palace.

Sucré... This is definitely one of the best things I’ve ever tasted in my life.

"Young Lord, how is it? Is it to your liking? "

Wait, Syrus, I’m savoring the moment.

If I were a character in some comedic novel, I’m sure at this moment, at this instant, tears would’ve gone down my face while having a flashback about his childhood.

"Yes, it’s absolutely divine. Right, Ram-"

Just like me, she was completely silent for a moment, but my words were interrupted for another reason. I was interrupted by the sight of her having teary eyes.

"Oi, you okay?"

"Yeah, it was just something in my eyes." She said this as she wiped her tears away. "Yes, Rufus rus, it tasted good. In fact, it was excellent. You know what, you should drop off as Ronandt’s butler. Be my personal bartender, and together we'll work to help you reach your full potential."

"Oi-"

"I’m very honored by Mademoiselle's generous proposal, but I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. This old man hasn’t yet reached the apex of butlerlery, so until then, I’m afraid I can’t accept your proposal. "

"I see. What a shame. " She simply said, "Hey Mael, you’ve been silent since earlier. What’s-"

Mael, who had been silent since earlier, was calmly stirring his "Legit Dragon Egg Royale" in silence.

The mocktail was served in a sour glass. It looked like a strange fruit salad made of essentially red fruits, all drowned in a thick and pinky milk-like substance, the thing even exuded a glacial smoke.

"What?" Mael asked, finally noticing our gaze on him.

"Your drink, It’s not like what I imagined. "

"Yeah, me too... I want one too! " Ramia commanded the cocktail waitress.

"Me too!" I also ventured.

The woman simply replied with a head nod and began to busy herself with the preparation of the drink.

"You two..." You haven’t even finished yours yet. "

"It will be by the time I am done with this one." She said, greedily taking a big slurp of her mocktail.

She takes a big slurp, which causes her drink to flow backwards.

She began coughing repeatedly, so I began blowing her back to calm her cough.

"That’s what you get for being so greedy."

"Humph... Leave me alone! " She retorted, still plagued by the cough.

Mael simply sighed and shook his head in response, then returned his attention to his drink before returning to me.

"Now that I think of it? You said you were baptized under the authority of Djeem the Accursed? Right? "

"Euh... Yes? What of it? "

"Isn’t everyone baptized under that authority… you know… " Mael muttered, as if trying to avoid saying a word that might offend me in some way or another.

"Yeah, why? Grandma told me that those born under that authority were missing something. You look completely normal to me. Then why?" Ramia boldly asked.

"You…"

"I see… I guess I should’ve explained it earlier then... You see, I might look normal, but actually, I’m missing something. Something very important to any human being."

"What?" They both asked in unison.

"Default-" Ramia pressed her clenched fist against my ribs, but I stopped her by a hairbreadth."Ahaha... Sorry, sorry, it’s just that I was a very silent baby when I was born."

"Very silent baby?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Syrus."

"Yes, Sir Mael, Mademoiselle Ramia, when the Young Lord was still everything but a newborn, he was very silent, so silent that we all thought that he had some sort of sickness that caused him to be that silent. It’s only later on that we realize that he wasn’t sick or anything but silent. After all, there were times when he would cry like any other baby. "

"I see, so he’s been weird since such a young age." Ramia mocked.

"I’m somehow not even slightly surprised," Mael added.

"Eh, what’s that supposed to mean?"

Neither of them responded, instead.

We three cracked up laughing.