Chapter 9

Walking in stride and confidence I stood before the guests of master Ling who then spoke saying

“This is Basara, I believe you know him, Fernand.”

“I believe I do,” he said “I would also like to express my deepest apologies for that day, I have truly done something terrible having accused you of theft where I should have taken into consideration all the facts, for all that is done I am prepared to compensate you for your troubles” he said, though he spoke the words, his expressions never matched them, this man was clearly despising me.

“There is no need for such things,” I replied “If it was not for that, I would have probably never managed to find a job at a place such as Master Ling’s house, for that I should be the one to express my thanks,”

“Wonderful,” said Master Ling, “Now that our differences have been cleared, I would like to invite you all inside, Basara, I believe your training has yet to end am I right?”

“I was dismissed by Master Shen after having succeeded Honing, I will be helping the servants with whatever task they are doing right now” I replied

“You have managed to Hone already? Wonderful you truly are full of surprises. Then off you go,” he said as he walked inside the manor while the guests followed him.

I even heard one talking about how generous Master Ling was for talking to servants the way he did.

I walked inside the maid’s quarters and looked for Melinda who was ordering people around.

“Melinda, what can I do for you today?” I asked

“You already finished?” she asked

“Yes, I was dismissed by master Shen”

“Then you can just rest, I won’t be needing you right now but you will be serving lady Akari tonight, make sure you are up to the task, we don’t want these people to look down on you.”

“I will do my best,” I said

It took some time before the meal was set up, The maids began organizing themselves in waves to serve the guests, it was nearing night time so it was a dinner with various and different servings.

“Follow me Basara,” Said Milenda.

Once inside the manor we headed to the dining chamber, it was huge adorned with various portraits, scenes of nature and many, many dragons. It was said that a dragon was the source of the Ling family’s power.

In the middle of the hall was a table of enormous length, it could host more than thirty persons at once where in the middle of it, candles and chandeliers were neatly positioned to brighten the room.

I took a look at the guests, one of them was one I knew and it was Fernand who wore a white tunic under a deep purple vest, with black pants. It was quite colorful and was rather distracting, probably to call for attention when he walked into the crowd. On his chest was an emblem of a golden lion, two others were next to him, they looked relatively old, probably his parents, a woman that wore a deep blue dress that had a slit on the side to show a portion of her thigh, though she was older than whom I presumed to be her son she was still a beautiful looking lady. Next to her was a man wearing the same emblem, he wore a black suit with a purple scarf that had the lion emblem on it.

In front of them was another group that had a different emblem all together, it was an eagle. These I don’t know which family they belong to, but they seemed to be rather powerful as they too were treated the same as the Videls.

This group consisted of four members, two of them were old men that wore matching clothes of a green vest over white shirts, and black pants, accompanied by a young girl of probably my age. She wore a golden dress to match her blond hair that was wrapped in a bun. She had beautiful azure eyes her dress was a bit alluring as its neckline was cut right above her cleavage, For someone that looked so young her body was rather well developed.

Another tall looking man that seemed to not be interested in anything that was going on here. He, however, was the only one that was not dressed formally, as he was wearing a normal black shirt and pants to match.

Lord Ling, was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt that was folded all the way to his elbows, it had the emblem of a dragon drawn on the back. His shirt thought was not tight; it still managed to show his muscle lines. Which was impressive for someone that looked like a grandpa.

A seat remained unused which was probably lady Akari’s.

There were two sets of servants, the first group was responsible for presenting the food, they dismissed themselves immediately after doing their job. The second group remained behind the guests in order to attend to their needs.

Lady Akari finally presented herself, and boy it was a sight to behold. She wore a red dress to match her hair color, which had beautiful embroidery on it. her hair was let loose as it swayed with each move step she made, she gave a bow to everyone and proceeded to take her seat.

I moved her chair for her and she sat, without giving me a glance.

Why would she even bother though, I am but a servant, I should keep my thoughts to myself…

“Lady Akari, beautiful as always.” Said the man I presumed to be Fernand’s father

“Thank you for the kind compliment Lord Folio,” She said.

Pleasantries and compliments were exchanged for few minutes before Lord Ling clapped his hands for the banquet to begin.

I and the other servants proceeded into removing the covers of the food, and the guests began eating.

I took my place back behind the lady and made sure to take in the whole view.

Everyone was eating in quiet, not even the sound of spoons could be heard, this act was that of showing etiquette rather than actually eating.

I didn’t bother remembering what was on the menu as it was mostly a four-course dinner, salad fish meat, and dessert at the end…

The first to break the silence was Fernand, who wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and said

“So, lady Akari, it came to my knowledge that you will be going to Visania this year. I wonder why did you decide to do so? I mean one such as you are, an heir to the house Ling should just enjoy your life as a maiden, not bother with all the gruesomeness of the world. War should not be sought by delicate flowers…”

This man’s view of woman is rather subjective. He probably thinks that they are weak, and do not have a place in war. It is rather narrow sighted… his way of speech though filled with compliments shows a disdain of woman’s efforts.

“Thank you for your concern Sir Fernand, but I am no delicate flower, I am like you said, the Heir of the house Ling. I need to act the way and bring pride to our name. If I do not then I am not worthy of being here, we of this house need to forever stand at the front, we are the honored selectee of the king himself. We cannot bother with gender, it is strength above all.”

Wise and frightening statement Lady Akari had just said, clearly throwing the man off as he must have thought her to be like every other girl. Those who don’t work for their own dignity, those that wait for the right man, without ever proving themselves, those girls are forever weak. It doesn’t matter which strong house they come from, if one is not capable of showing her dominance, her power, and why she is who she claims to be, then she is in a weak position, if one day a man came to take that girl’s hand then he will be the one to call the shots, as she will always be in that man’s shadow, a weak girl…

“Those are rather brave words coming from you Lady Akari,” Said the man I presumed to be Fernand’s father. “You should know that that place though, a royal school it is not for the weak-willed, and with what you just said, I believe it is the place you should be, Fernand my son this girl is brave and I am sure that she inherited this out of her father, you should respect her wishes even if she is your bride to be” said the man in a laugh…

So lady Akari is this man’s fiancée…

“Rather, that courage must have been inherited from her mother,” said Lord Ling. “She was a strong-willed woman, stubborn too, but I truly loved that about her, seeing my daughter having inherited that I truly feel proud”

Lady Akari’s mother had passed away,something everyone knew, it was due to an assassin that managed to take her down in this very house, a scene that almost caused this country to go to war against its neighbor, thankfully the culprits behind the assassination were caught and found to be independent, a great calamity was prevented but the loss of the lady of this house was too grave…

“let’s not speak about that,” said Akari who looked hurt when her mother was mentioned.

“True let the ones that passed rest in peace.” Said the father

“It is wonderful news, to know that your daughter will attend Visania this year,” said one of the two old men that were seated before the Videls

“Our daughter will be attending this year too, I hope they make good friends”

“Sure we will” happily said the girl in gold

“I hope so,” replied Akari “We will surely have good times, I hope we can make the best of our years there”

“You there,” said Fernand, while looking at me.

“Tell me, how come you managed to learn how to hone? You said so yourself that you managed to do so, I know for a fact that you were an orphan so it struck me as odd to believe that someone with no backing managed to hone in these few numerous days. It usually takes years to achieve something like that…”

I did not answer, not because I didn’t want too, but because it was not my place to answer.

“You can answer him, Basara.” Said Lord Ling.

“Gladly,” I said, “I don’t know why, but master Shen called me talented, perhaps it was that.”

“Talented…” said Fernand with a bit of disbelief showing on him.

“Ah speaking about master Shen I was truly looking forward to seeing him, he is rather absent,” said the man that looked uninterested at first.

“He had something to take care of, I sent him off on a task… But I was wondering my lady might you be, I never saw you with the Selidors before” said Lord Ling

But why did he address the man as the lady? Is he a travesty?

“This is lady Vivian, my lord, she is our long distant relative we haven’t seen her in five years, she just came here with us for a visit.”

This is rather absurd… there is no way in hell that that person is a woman… what the hell is going on here…

‘Nocturne…’

‘Yes, master…’

‘Tell me… what do you see when you look at that man?’

‘I see what you see and a bit more… that is one of them…’ he said

I instantly shuddered at the thought, what the hell would one of them do all the way here, within the lord’s very table! With his family! How did this come to be?

‘Do not be rash, do not make it show, if it is alert it shall go on the offensive’

‘But I need to alert Lord Ling immediately, I don’t know how it managed to infiltrate the city. But its place does not belong here…’

‘I agree with you, it needs to die, yet if you alert the lord then a carnage will be the result…’

‘Then what should I do? Just wait until it bares its fangs on these people…’

‘You need to know its objective first, act calmly… if things go south, I will take care of it…’

‘Understood…’

The man-woman or whatever it was, I will refer to it as IT

It spoke saying that it was only out of boredom that it came to this city, to see its relatives and it was but a coincidence that they were visiting the Ling house, it tagged along wanting to see the Lord…

‘I believe he asked for master Shen probably due to him being capable of identifying them’ I said

‘Indeed, that man has a good grasp of his surroundings and a good instinct, he even noticed when I took over your body the first time, I managed to make it more subtle that it is no longer distinguishable’

‘Good, so you can take over without blowing our cover… very well…’

The man looked in my direction and our eyes met, I don’t know what it saw but I felt that he sensed that something was off, like if I was on to him. I even tried to act naturally but I couldn’t help but feel…

‘He is on to us! Let me in!’ said Nocturne

The man jumped forward summoning a sword from thin air, instantly jumping toward The Lord of the city, saying a single word

“Die!”

Everyone was too surprised to act, some were still chewing their food, but the motions of everything slowed down.

I was able to hear the sound of my heart thumping, the slow breath of everyone, the flickering candles…

And the red-eyed man that was hanging in mid-air… everything slowed to a halt, the picture froze…

Ever so slowly the man closed the gap, its eyes filled with hatred towards the lord of the city, unknown to me why would one act this way to someone that was as gentle and caring as this old man, I refused to let it go.

In a fraction of a second, Nocturne summoned his book and from within it pulled out the scythe, all in one motion before the man would even land, Nocturne had cleaved through him and was already standing on the table.

He was so fast, it felt like I teleported.

Time resumed, and only a splash of blood on the ones present on the table, while the one responsible for the act was cut in half, his torso apart from his lower body, both on the far ends of the room.

On the table where everyone was still unable to grasp what had happened, I stood, my scythe grabbed behind my back, blood still dripping from its enormous blade…

All remained unmoving, unbelieving...

it only takes a split second to make the difference between life and death… this was a fine example of it…