No Hero

No Hero Volume 2: The Hero Grim Reaper

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Legend of a Hero Chapter 3: Make Your Choice, Besieged Hero – translated by Kiyutsuna

I praise Charles too much? Hehe, are you being jealous again Gēge? Honestly, you’re already thirty two years old and you still like to cling to your Dìdi. Kyle-gē and An Te Qi-bàba will laugh at you!

You’ll kill them if they dare to laugh? Gēge! You can’t be so rash!

Honestly, don’t be so trigger happy. And stop being jealous! Charles has his faults too, of course. Such as… I like motorcycles, but he hates them the most. Every time he hears that he has to ride DSII, the corners of his mouth drop five degrees, and his brow furrows by 0.2cm!

Looks like I can’t ask Charles to go bike racing in the mountains later… But that’s alright, Melody will accompany me. She loves DSII to pieces!

With each minute feeling like a year, about thirty years pa.s.sed before I finally felt the motorcycle come to a stop. Just as I breathed out a sigh of relief, Melody whispered to me, “Butler, look ahead.”

I raised my head, expecting us to be hiding somewhere not far from the scene. However, it was not so. DSII was parked in plain sight on the street. The road in front of us was crowded with pedestrians and police cars, but not a single sound could be heard. Even the sirens were turned off. It was precisely because of the silent atmosphere that I had initially believed that we were concealed in some hidden place.

Although there was such a large crowd, n.o.body paid any attention to us. Even though Melody’s revealing get-up, my old-fashioned outfit, and the heavy-duty motorcycle that was DSII, should have stood out quite a lot, no one spared us a glance. Instead, they all wore serious expressions as they gazed upwards toward the sky.

“Please! Save my wife and child!”

A desperate shout filled with pain tore through the crowd. My heart dropped. I had only heard such a painful cry once, from Bramble when he had nearly lost Briar.

Even though the person who had shouted was blocked by the crowd, I did not need to look at him to know… There must be something up there, something that put this person in such unbearable pain.

I tilted my head upwards, and then froze in place with the rest of the crowd.

In the sky, a mother and child were hanging off of a tall building’s flagpole. The building was at least twenty stories tall, and they looked as if they might drop at any moment.

“What is going on?” I cried out in bewilderment, “Why is n.o.body going up to save them?”

We were noticed by those closest to us then. A lady shook her head and said, “If that were possible, they’d have been saved already, but they just can’t be saved!”

I was startled and asked, “Why can they not be saved?”

The lady sighed, saying, “They were hung up there on purpose. The criminal who hung them said that if anyone dares to approach the building, or tries to place landing mats underneath, he’ll make them fall immediately!”

So that is why. No wonder she said they could not be saved. I frowned and then asked, “What about the heroes?”

“All three don’t dare to move. The criminal said…”

In midair, a sudden voice speaking through a speaker boomed, “How is it, done debating yet? Heroes? Heh heh heh! Shall it be these two lives, or the lives of several hundred people?”

The lives of several hundred people? What is this about? I simply could not understand.

The lady lowered her voice, “This insane person seems to have planted bombs somewhere else as well. He’s forcing the heroes to choose between saving these two, or the several hundred people elsewhere.”

“Is it confirmed that there are bombs?” I pressed.

“That’s the thing, we don’t know! So the heroes don’t dare move. Even if they saved the two on the building, n.o.body knows if it’ll end up killing hundreds of other people.” After that, the lady shook her head, then looked back up at the mother and daughter, and sighed quite a few times.

To save the two in sight or the unknown hundreds elsewhere? This certainly is a huge dilemma. No wonder the heroes are unable to make a choice.

I walked to stand beside the motorcycle and then whispered, “DSII, does the young master know of the situation yet?”

DSII also replied quietly, “Ah Ye knows. We’re currently using the surveillance cameras to trace the person who was speaking on the rooftop. Using the rewind function to see where he’s been, we’ll know where the bombs have been set!”

I nodded. It looked like there should be no problems now. The young master truly was an accomplished hero; he was very clear on the correct action to take.

Melody suddenly grabbed my head. As I looked at her in confusion, she told me, “We can’t see anything from here, let’s go! We’ll move to some other building’s rooftop.”

I nodded, indicating my consent. We walked out of sight, and then both slipped into the vampires’ movement style, and leaped onto the wall. With our bodies parallel to the surface, we dashed up to the rooftop. This building was not very tall, only around ten stories, and there were no signs of any non-humans living here.

The high vantage point finally allowed me to see the whole scene clearly.

The crowd below had formed a semicircle in front of the building. In the inner portion of the semicircle stood reporters and policemen. Apart from them, three figures were standing nearest to the building. They formed a triangle and were gazing up at the mother and daughter.

In the center of the triangle was Solitary b.u.t.terfly, whom I had met before. At the other two corners stood two men.

One of them was dressed in a similar fashion to me, but his old-fashioned suit was white instead. The strong winds at night made his cape fly out, which gave off a very surreal feeling. I thought he must be the one called the Aristocrat, First Wind.

Within the triangle, the person who stood at the farthest point was at least twice as ma.s.sive as First Wind. His whole body was bulging with muscles. Other than the Beast, Dragon Peace, I did not think he could be any other hero.

However, even those who were closest, the three heroes, were still about twenty meters away from the building. If anything were to happen, I feared the rescue attempt would not make it in time.

Melody made a “hmph” sound and spoke in a disinterested tone, “This situation is nothing! Just wait until the young master finds the bomb. There is no bomb the young master can’t defuse. Without the threat of a bomb, the young master can fly up the back of the building. With his skills, it’s a piece of cake to approach the criminal without alerting them to his presence.”

I could not agree more. As I nodded in reply, the cell phone in my pocket rang. Picking it up, I heard the sound of the young master’s voice… no! It was actually Dark Sun’s voice.

When the young master “turned” into Dark Sun, even his voice sounded different. It sounded lower and colder.

“Charles, give the phone to Melody.”

“Yes.” I immediately handed the phone to Melody.

Melody took the phone with a look of surprise, but she only uttered “young master” in confusion before silently listening to the call. It seemed that the young master only spoke a few sentences before hanging up. Melody returned the cell phone to me and then told me somewhat helplessly, “Young Master said the place where the bombs are is a bit far away, so he needs time to diffuse them. He wants me to think of some way to distract the criminal in the meantime.”

“But, did not the criminal forbid anyone from approaching the building? How are you going to distract him?” I was somewhat worried. If it was not done properly, there was the risk of angering the criminal. Then the mother and daughter would be in danger.

“Charles.” Melody called out to me suddenly.

“Yes?”

She looked me over, and asked with an extremely doubtful expression, “Do you know how to use the vampires’ ‘Face Morph’? Meaning baring your fangs, having veins popping out all over your face, and then opening your mouth wider than is humanly possible?”

I did not know whether to laugh or cry. This kind of ability could be categorized as a basic skill for a vampire. Do I really look so unlike a vampire?

“Of course I do.”

“Words alone aren’t proof enough. Show me.” Melody retorted with disbelief written all over her face.

Though I found it somewhat strange that Melody would demand such a thing at a time like this, her expression of absolute insistence seemed to brook no refusal.

“Alright.”

I took a deep breath, then with some effort, I let my brows furrow deeply. My lower jawbone began to extend downwards to inhuman proportions, while my fangs slowly grew to be the size of my pinky finger… Then, Melody’s face also morphed. She opened her mouth with a roar, her chin almost touching her collarbone. Her white fangs glistened and veins popped up all over her face. Within an instant, she transformed from a stunning beauty into a fearsome non-human.

As I puzzled over the reason behind her actions, she suddenly threw herself at me with enough force to knock me back a few steps… However, since I was already standing by the edge of the building, those few steps instantly sent us falling right over the edge.

“Melody?!”

The building we were standing on was not very tall, so I only had time to shout once before we crashed to the ground with a loud BANG! Strangely, I felt little pain, and upon looking down in puzzlement, I found that Melody had used her blood ability to make a cushion underneath the two of us.

So, Melody did not truly wish to harm me. But why was she doing this? Pushing me down a building, yet protecting me with her blood ability? I really could not understand.

“Maintain your Face Morph!”

That was all Melody hissed at me before she hauled my entire body up, and then sent me flying with a punch. After that, she rushed over to continue beating me up.

From start to finish, I did not make any moves. It was mostly a one-sided beating. However, each time Melody threw a punch or used her claws to scratch me, she would use her blood ability to gently push me away in that instance before the hit landed. So none of her punches actually landed on me; they merely grazed by.

“Monsters!”

The people around us began to scream. At the same time, as Melody attacked me, she would purposefully push me towards the crowd as well… Could it be, this was Melody’s plan to divert the criminal’s attention in order to fulfill the young master’s command of stalling for time?

I began to understand. I let myself be led through the crowd by her attacks. The surrounding people began to panic in earnest and parted to the side like the ebbing tide. Even though I did not wish to fight, regardless of the reason, if I allow Melody to keep up the solo act, people might see through it.

In the time that followed, I no longer let myself be beaten around. I began to roar at Melody and attack with my own claws. At the same time, I also ceaselessly bombed the ground with my blood ability, using the booming sounds and swirling dust clouds to make the scene look more frightening.

Compared to the death-like silence from before, the scene right now was like a pot that had exploded – noisy and chaotic. The crowd screamed endlessly as they kept on backing away to distance themselves from us.

The criminal who took the mother and daughter hostage made no move throughout the entire time. It seemed that he was not suspicious.Thank goodness!

“Please take your fight somewhere else!”

The heroes have arrived! Melody and I exchanged a glance discreetly, then stopped our fight and leaped away from each other.

Melody extended her jaws as far as they could go, bared her white fangs, and screeched at the approaching heroes, “This is none of your business! We will fight wherever we like. Lowly humans, scram!”

The look produced by popping veins and bared fangs while screeching was truly very ugly. But, it was also truly very effective in concealing our ident.i.ties. Even if we were to appear before the heroes in the future, I doubt they would recognize us. Therefore, even though my jaws ached from opening them so wide, I tried hard to maintain my ugly appearance so as to avoid being recognized later.

By now, all three heroes had approached.

Solitary b.u.t.terfly walked toward Melody, while the other two walked toward me… This made me start to consider the option of making my retreat. I honestly did not think that I could win against two heroes, especially not after seeing Dragon Peace up close.

From a close distance, his body looked many times bigger than it did from afar. Those fists looked like they could crush my skull in one blow. Even his face was bulging with muscles. He wore no mask, so I could see his deep frown, which made him look very angry and fierce. The intimidating aura that he gave off was even greater than that of a Face Morphed vampire.

“Please head elsewhere.”

The other person spoke, and this made me shift my attention from Dragon Peace to him. He wore an old-fashioned suit that was mostly white with a dark colored cape and a mask covering half of his face. His physique was on the slim side; even his modified left arm was not of the muscular build.

His straight posture in addition to his slimness truly gave him an elegant air. Even though his features were hidden, judging from the lower half of his face, he seemed to be a young man. On top of that, his speech was gentle and polite, all fitting the characteristics of one of the Four Great Heroes — the Aristocrat, First Wind. Likely, he was the Aristocrat himself.

At first glance, First Wind may not have looked as intimidating as Dragon Peace… However, whether it was his confident att.i.tude or his billowing dark cape, something made me feel that he was very powerful indeed.

I glanced at Melody and tried to suggest, “Perhaps we should go somewhere else to fight?”

But she only glared venomously at me and yelled, “Don’t even think about it! Just stay put, I’ll finish off this woman in ten minutes, and then I’ll come and finish you!”

Ten minutes, was it? I silently sighed. Using the speed of a vampire to stall for ten minutes might be somewhat doable! Resigned to my fate, I raised my claws to begin a task that I was very unskilled at – fighting.

First Wind’s lips pressed into a thin line at my action. Then he turned and spoke to Dragon Peace, “Dragon Peace, I will have to trouble you to look after the mother and daughter. Please leave this to me.”

His charisma and manner of speech were truly similar to that of the young master’s. The situation suddenly felt a bit laughable. First Wind was actually more akin to the young master than Dark Sun was.

I looked over at Dragon Peace curiously. He seemed so aggressive. Would he really listen to First Wind’s orders? Even though First Wind did use a pleading tone.

To my surprise, Dragon Peace said nothing. He merely glanced at First Wind before quietly stalking back to the vicinity of the building, raising his head to look at the mother and daughter hanging high up in the air.

Who would have thought that this Dragon Peace, who looked as if he would not listen to anyone, would actually heed First Wind’s orders. However, this was good news for me, to only have to fight one hero, and also avoid the situation of getting surrounded by two heroes. Especially when Dragon Peace’s fists seemed huge enough to crush even a vampire with one blow.

First Wind reached toward the holster on his thigh and pulled out something that looked like the hilt of a sword. Is it a sword-shaped energy weapon?

Then, his hand suddenly raised the hilt and swung it in my direction.

This is… I was shocked. A blue-white shape had already approached the side of my face. I immediately felt a scorching heat and quickly used the vampires’ special slide steps to move aside. To a regular human, it would look as if I had suddenly disappeared, then reappeared several steps away to the side.

In that instant, the weapon in First Wind’s right hand flashed from a handle to a whip. The whip itself glowed with a blue-white light… It was a whip-shaped energy weapon!

To a vampire, this truly was the worst weapon to fight.

Compared to swords and guns, whose trajectory could easily be predicted, whips were more likely to land a hit on a vampire. If it was a normal whip, I would not necessarily fear it. Even if it hit me, the most damage it could do was a small scratch. However, energy whips were different. This was a fearsome weapon that could potentially sear off a limb with its heat.

Of course, such a weapon also had its own life threatening downside. It was much too dangerous.

Not only was it easy to harm innocent bystanders, even harming oneself was a possibility. If anything went wrong while using a normal whip and you accidentally hurt yourself, it would cause scratches and bruises at the most. But if anything went wrong using an energy whip, it would be a deadly mistake.

Therefore, despite the many advantages of energy whips, such as long range attacks, low energy costs, the difficulty for enemies to avoid it, etc, almost n.o.body dared to use one.

Deep down, I was very grateful to the young master.

Because the above details were the contents of the young master’s past homework reports on energy weapons. These reports allowed me to very thoroughly understand just how unfavorable my current situation was. Otherwise, I might have proceeded with my regular fighting tactics and promptly gotten my limbs seared off.

If First Wind was confident enough to use such a dangerous weapon, then I probably could not hope that he would injure himself before cutting off my limbs.

“Please leave,” First Wind warned with a low voice. “This is your final warning.”

He was truly a very polite hero. I was very tempted to follow his advice. Alas, the situation could not go as I wished. I could only use my blood ability to make two rapiers and shift into a battle stance.

At that, First Wind’s demeanour changed as well. His lips thinned into a tight line, and he struck out with his whip. The blue-white shape then flashed toward me.

I quickly dodged the whip’s successive attacks. But First Wind was truly a master of the whip. He only had to stand in one place, yet I was forced to continuously dodge his whip, utterly unable to get close to him. I had the thought that unless I used my blood ability to go head on with this energy whip, there was no way to break through the web formed by his whip.

Should I keep dodging, or use my blood ability to break through? I only hesitated for a moment before deciding against using it.

Even though First Wind’s attacks were fast, they were not aimed to kill. As long as he keeps attacking in this non-lethal fashion, I think I should be able to last ten minutes with my speed.

However, it seemed that my cape was unable to keep up with my dodging. After a graze of the energy whip, my cape was immediately shredded. Bits and pieces of the fabric went up in flames and then turned to ash.

Sigh… Lately, my suits seemed to get ruined far too fast. It looked like I needed to hurry and order more from the tailor. This style of old-fashioned suits takes quite a considerable amount of time to make…

Suddenly, my back hit something. I stumbled and turned back to look. I had b.u.mped into Melody. She was turning to look at me as well, but her gaze was anything but kind.

Just as I was about to apologize, her hand suddenly shot out to pull me away. At the same time, a stream of light pa.s.sed through the spot where I had been standing.

I let out a breath and said, “Thank…”

Halfway through my thanks, Melody punched me in the stomach. As I doubled over in pain, I heard her scream, “I am the one who wants to kill you. I won’t allow you to die by anyone else’s hand!”

Though it was very painful, I understood that she was reminding me we were still “enemies.” However… She could have used a little less strength to hit me…

Melody and I sprang apart in an instant. I kept on dodging the striking whip, as First Wind kept up his non-lethal attacks. Behind me, the sound of gunshots continued. But energy guns are silent, so Solitary b.u.t.terfly was not using energy guns, but the not-so-powerful traditional bullet-fed guns.

Have they already figured out our plan to stall for time? Or do they simply not want to return to that difficult… choice with no right answer?

I thought about it for a moment and concluded that the latter was more likely. After all, Melody and I were vampires. The relationship between humans and vampires has never been friendly.

“Eyaaaah!”

A scream? My steps faltered, and the energy whip grazed my shoulder. I smelled the heavily metallic, unique scent of vampire blood, but it was only a light wound, so there was no need for concern.

First Wind had also heard the scream. He stopped swinging his whip and then made the same motion as I had, turning to look up into the sky.

The mother and daughter were being viciously swung about where they hung in the air. Even with such violent swinging, the mother still held onto her daughter tightly, with no sign of letting go at all.

“Dragon Peace!” First Wind shouted anxiously and began sprinting toward the building.

Has our plan to stall for time been found out, and it made the criminal angry? I frowned as I thought, if that really were the case, perhaps I should go and help out. Blood ability made for quite a good cushion.

Suddenly, something snapped in the air. Amidst the mother’s screams, they began to fall. And not far from the building, the devastated man from before began to run like mad towards the building. However, he definitely would not be able to catch them. A body falling from twenty-something stories high, n.o.body would be able to catch that… Or should I say, no normal human would be able to catch that.

However, I had no doubts over whether the muscular Dragon Peace could catch them.

His attention had never left the duo. When First Wind shouted, he had actually already been running. In that moment, he had already dashed to the bottom of the building and was looking up with his arms spread wide, ready to catch the mother and daughter. Also, his face held no expression of anxiety, so I believed they would be fine.

“Get away! There’s a bomb!”

A bomb?

Dragon Peace froze with his arms still held out. For the first time, a nervous expression flashed across his features.

Suddenly, First Wind flung out his mechanical left hand, and a rope shot out from his arm. It was very thin, but looked to be made of metal. The rope wrapped around Dragon Peace’s waist a few times, and then First Wind leapt backwards, pulling his left arm back as he went. Dragon Peace was dragged through the air and flew back a considerable distance.

Looking at the falling figures of the mother and daughter, my heart sunk with them. As it did, out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a glimpse of silver on the top of the building, flashing in the night sky… It was Dark Sun’s silver hair!

What is happening? Why is the young master up there but still letting the mother and daughter fall? No wonder the voice that gave the warning earlier sounded so familiar…

Boom!

Right after the explosion sounded, First Wind rushed anxiously to the center of the explosion.

But it would be impossible for him to find the mother and daughter. Because through the whole explosion, I had not blinked even once, and I clearly saw the two explode into a pile of blood and gore.

First Wind seemed to know this; he spent no effort in attempting to locate the duo. Instead, his target was the man who had rushed to his wife and child. He had been hit by the shockwave of the explosion and was lying on the ground. He looked to be heavily injured; his whole body was soaked in blood.

First Wind lifted the b.l.o.o.d.y man, and while shouting “out of the way” he rushed to an ambulance that was waiting on standby.

Melody tugged at me then, and whispered, “Hurry and leave!”

I nodded and melted into the darkness with her. Along the way, I could not help but gaze at the roof; however, Dark Sun was long gone from there.

The young master had left… Was he not even going to explain the situation to the people? I was somewhat worried; this did not seem like the right thing to do.

Even though not everyone had seen Dark Sun on the rooftop, First Wind must have seen him. He knew the warning was issued by Dark Sun, or else he would not have so quickly abandoned the mother and daughter to pull Dragon Peace away.

“Charles, we need to leave!” Melody hissed, “DSII has come to pick us up.”

I nodded and turned to look at the bottom of the building one last time.

The chaotic and scared crowd. The ambulance’s blaring sirens. The mother and daughter who were now nothing but a pile of b.l.o.o.d.y flesh. The heavily injured man who had pa.s.sed out, but even if he awoke, would surely wish that he had never woken up…

Today, the heroes had all fallen.

Melody and I headed straight home. Even though it was still early, and there was still time to search for the werewolf, I thought that I should refrain from searching for the night!

The young master had not returned home yet, so Melody and I could only wait for him in the living room.

I sat on the couch and began to clean the tabletop with a cloth in pa.s.sing. Melody was pacing around in her high heels, making fast and heavy tapping sounds as she went… Suddenly, she halted her steps and turned to ask me pointedly, “Do you think that the young master messed up?”

I smiled wryly and answered, “I do not understand either.”

“Stop wiping.” Melody glanced over and said, “You’re taking a layer off the table.”

I looked at the table surface, which was of course not peeling; however, it was now clean enough to be used as a mirror. I could only switch to wiping the table legs, and Melody returned to stomping around in her high heels.

The sound of the door opening… I shot up and quietly called out, “Young Master!”

It really was the young master returning. He walked in through the doorway, still wearing Dark Sun’s outfit and was in the process of taking off his visor.

Melody and I called out together, “Young Master, are you alright?”

The young master took off the visor. His expression looked perfectly normal. It was only when he saw me that he seemed startled. “Charles, why are you injured?”

I blinked, not expecting the young master to speak of this first.

I looked over at my shoulder; the small wound there had already closed. With the healing abilities of a vampire, the scar would probably disappear completely after some sleep. However, the young master looked very worried, so I explained, “I was careless and got injured by First Wind. It is only a small wound, do not worry.”

“Injured by First Wind?” The young master’s expression looked very shocked. He asked in confusion, “Why would you go and pick a fight with First Wind?”

So, I explained to the young master in detail of Melody’s plan to use our battle to cause chaos and divert the criminal’s attention. This truly was a sound plan, especially when neither Melody nor I were human, so the criminal would be even less likely to have suspicions.

Most people would never believe that two vampires were fighting to save humans!

“Melody! How could you do such a thing?”

If I was startled, Melody was even more startled. I a.s.sumed the young master would praise Melody’s wits. Instead, he looked very angry.

The young master frowned deeply and scolded Melody, “No matter what, you cannot get Charles involved. He is a butler. Fighting is not his job!”

Young Master… I was somewhat conflicted. So this is what the young master is angry about? Even though I was touched, I also felt that the young master should not have put it like that. Melody’s plan was truly the best course of action she could come up with in the very limited timeframe that she had. Also, she did not know of our agreement.

As expected, Melody was very indignant. She glared at me then shouted unhappily, “But, Charles was there at the time! It shouldn’t be such a big deal for him to help stall for time, should it?”

The young master replied matter-of-factly, “You can’t! What Charles is in charge of is different from you. He’s a butler.”

“So he’s a butler, he only has to chill at the sidelines while I frantically think of a plan to stall for time?”

Melody bit her lips, then shouted, “Even if I could wind back time, I can only come up with that plan! If you’re not satisfied… Since Young Master, you never wanted me to begin with, you can fire me again right now!”

After she finished shouting, she stormed out of the room, slamming the door as she went.

This whole time, the young master had remained rooted to his spot. His expression looked to be very shocked. For a long time, he only stood there silently, staring at the door in a daze.

“Young Master.” I inquired quietly, “Could Charles ask a question?”

The young master turned to look at me and said, “Ask away.”

“Mr. Kyle once told me, you previously fired Melody because you did not like her. But in the past few days, it does not seem to me that you dislike Melody.”

“I don’t dislike her!” The young master glanced at the door as he spoke, “I think Melody is as interesting as Charles. Also, just like you, she’s one of the very few people around me who dare to tell me I’m wrong! Also, Melody seems even more daring than before; she didn’t dare to shout at me before!”

The young master smiled faintly at that. He did not look upset at all by Melody’s anger at him.

But just what part of me does the young master find interesting? I really did not understand! But this was not important just now. I inquired once more, “Then why did you fire Melody back then? Young Master, please wait a moment.”

I took out my cell phone and dialed Melody’s number. After making sure it had connected through, I put it on speaker so that the other end of the line could hear the young master’s voice as well.

“Alright. Young Master, could you tell me why you fired Melody back then?”

The young master looked curious at my actions. I smiled at him encouragingly. The young master seemed confused, but he still began to explain, “Because I know that Melody likes Gēge a lot! But, I had gotten into university at that time and planned to leave home to live by myself. If she followed me, then she couldn’t see Gēge all the time. Conveniently, Kyle-gē had mentioned that they were recruiting bodyguards for Gēge then, to stay by his side. So I thought if I fired Melody, then she could go partic.i.p.ate in the recruitment.”

So that was it.

The young master tilted his head, and then said with some confusion, “But who would have thought, Melody didn’t go for the recruitment!”

“So after that you had actually inquired about whether she had gone to the recruitment?” I asked purposely.

The young master nodded and said, “Yup, when Kyle-gē told me she took an extended vacation, I was very worried! Thank goodness Melody is all right.”

After he was done explaining, the young master looked at the cell phone curiously and asked, “Charles, just who did you call?”

As I was just about to explain, I heard the sound of the door banging open, followed by the tapping sound of hurried high heels. Melody rushed to the young master, then pulled the young master into a bear hug.

“Melody?” The young master looked somewhat lost, but then his expression turned into one of realization as he gasped, “Ah! Charles, you called Melody just now, right?”

Young Master, you are truly slow on the uptake… I could not help but smile helplessly.

Melody finally let go of the young master, then complained, “Young Master, you could have told me back then! If you had told me, then I’d have told you that I don’t want to go to the master’s side! I do like the master, but I don’t want to serve him at all. The master doesn’t treat his servants nearly as well as you do!”

The young master smiled.

“Young Master, could you forgive me? I will never let the butler fight again in the future.” Melody looked me over, then said, “Hmph! That guy’s fighting ability sucks anyways, not like a fifth generation at all!”

After the young master nodded, he said with a smile, “I never blamed you, so how do I forgive you? And I actually need to apologize, I was too fierce just now, I must have scared you. But, you still can’t let Charles fight in the future, because that’s the agreement I made with him. Butlers should only do a butler’s task. Just like how I wouldn’t ask Melody to make tea either, because it isn’t Melody’s job!”

Melody blinked and then gazed at the young master deeply. Her gaze looked even more apologetic than when she was apologizing just now, and her whole expression softened. I could not recall ever seeing such a gentle expression on Melody’s face. It was like an older sister looking at her younger brother.

Melody actually likes the young master a lot, does she not?

Otherwise, she would not have specially come to warn me before. Even though the person she warned was me, it was likely because she was afraid that if I angered the master, and was “taken care of” by him, it would greatly sadden the young master, right?

“Oh right, really good job on ‘stalling for time’! As I expected, only Melody can handle such tasks.”

At that, the young master suddenly turned to me and looked at me with a grin. “If I had asked Charles to stall for time, he definitely wouldn’t have known what to do at all!”

That is true. I agreed wholeheartedly.

“Thank you for your praise, Young Master…” Melody bowed her head and mumbled, “Th-then, Young Master, I’m going to go and take a shower!”

Just like that, she whisked away like the wind, with her head down the whole time. As she pa.s.sed me, she even glared at me venomously and hissed, “Mind your own business!”

“Melody is embarra.s.sed!” Looking at the closed door, the young master suddenly said such a surprising sentence.

Embarra.s.sed? I really did not think that such a death glare was “embarra.s.sed” behavior.

The young master grinned, “Melody is very interesting! Every time she’s embarra.s.sed, she pretends to be angry. But when she’s actually angry, she smiles!”

When she’s truly angry? I was startled and looked to the young master in confusion.

The young master smiled faintly, “When I fired her, her smile was as beautiful as a rose! But looking at her smile made me so sad, not even a little bit happy.”

So that was it, a beautiful but th.o.r.n.y rose, was it?

“Charles.”

“Yes.”

“The next two weeks, you can go out to search for the werewolf after midnight.” The young master suddenly said, “But from now on, I won’t go out to search with you.”

I was confused and asked, “Why not?”

The young master replied somewhat helplessly, “It won’t do to drag you into battle by accident again. I made a promise to you, so I can’t go back on my word. Alright, I’ll go take a shower now. You can go search for that werewolf. I’ll be going straight to bed after I shower anyways.”

He turned and left the living room as soon as he finished speaking. I only stood still for a while. After hearing the sound of water running in the bathroom, I followed the young master’s words and went out to search for the werewolf.

The young master did not seem to want to talk about the mother and daughter. As the young master’s butler, I only needed to and could only know the things he wanted to tell me.