No Hero

No Hero Volume 1: Vampire Butler

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

Diary of a Butler Chapter 4: The Master’s Safety at Risk – translated by Raylight

Dear Father,

You have said once before that no matter what happens, a good butler must always stay calm and collected while keeping a straight face, so as not to let his own mood affect that of his employer. However, you have never mentioned what I should do if even keeping on a straight face is not enough to hide my feelings from my employer.

Please bless me from the heavens, as to prevent my own mood from affecting the young master henceforth.

When I first arrived at the garbage dump, there was not a single person there. Thus, I could only pick an empty spot that was not overly dirty to wait there.

It was very clear today with an abundance of light. It seemed like the other party had specially picked a sunny day and, as expected, the day they had picked so meticulously was good. I felt as though my entire body had been thrown in an oven… After saving the young master, shall we have roasted fish for dinner tonight? I wonder how many fish will be necessary to satisfy the young master’s appet.i.te?

I am not sure if twenty fish will be enough, but the oven at home definitely cannot roast that many fish. Maybe I should purchase a bigger oven and then buy another smaller oven. The large oven can be used to roast main dishes, while the small oven can be used for desserts…

I tried my best to ponder over how to be a better butler, shifting my attention away from the word “hot.” However, the more I thought about it, the hotter I felt… Sure enough, I should not have thought about something like ovens.

Hm, then how about we have ice cream for dessert? Though we had just eaten some not too long ago, in such hot weather, the young master should want to have it. The ice cream from last time made him very happy, and he finished no less than three tubs by himself.

“Charles Endelis!”

I turned my thoughts on desserts back to the current situation and looked in the direction of the voice. There were about thirty or so people, and in each of their hands they held a gun. They were standing quite a distance away from me, about a hundred meters. I also saw my previous employer, Mr. Burt. He was standing in the center of all the bodyguards. It seemed like everything had gone well for him since I had left. Furthermore, it appeared that he was even heftier than before.

In the past when I was still his butler, the only duty I fulfilled as a butler was preparing food for him. The food that he liked coincidentally happened to be rather similar to the young master’s taste; they both liked high calorie food. Though the amount he ate wasn’t as much as the young master’s intake… the young master is able to maintain a third of Mr. Burt’s width. The young master’s stomach really is something that is even more mysterious than a vampire.

Though I saw Mr. Burt, I did not see the young master An Xiang Ye.

I frowned, and in a loud voice I asked, “Mr. Burt, may I inquire as to the whereabouts of my young master?”

Mr. Burt, extremely lacking in manners, gave an enraged roar, “Did you think that I would be foolish enough to bring him here? I’m warning you, Endelis, my other subordinates are currently watching that lad. As long as you dare to attack us, they will immediately slaughter him!”

I fell silent for a moment, and then taking a step forward, I practically vanished into thin air. When I re-appeared, I was standing in front of Mr. Burt.

I looked at him, but he had not seemed to manage to react yet and was only staring at me blankly. Actually, he was not the only one. Not a single one of the bodyguards on either side of him managed to react in time, though these bodyguards had more or less modified their bodies.

However, regardless of how strong or fast one is after modifying their body, if one’s brain cannot keep up, then what use is there?

Just like now, if I had wanted to kill Mr. Burt, he would have long since been dead. Regarding those modified bodyguards, no matter how numerous they are, they would not be of any use. That is because their reaction speed simply could not keep up with my movements.

It was only when I reached out my hand and grabbed Mr. Burt’s neck did I see a reaction from him. He stared at me with wide-open eyes. Though this action was something that the young master did rather often, when the young master did it, it would always make others want to answer his questions. However, for Mr. Burt, it instead… Cough! I nearly thought of something lacking in manners.

I indifferently told him, “Sorry, but I am also not so foolish as to let you do as you wish simply because you are using my young master as a hostage. I must tell you, if you do not hurt the young master, I will guarantee that your life will be spared. If you do or have hurt him, I would also not kill you. It is just that you will not be alive either. You know that vampires can turn humans into ‘blood thralls’1 who will unconditionally obey their master’s orders, right?”

I watched with great satisfaction as his pupils abruptly shrunk, and I nodded my head as I continued. “I would definitely turn you into such a thing. Then, I would let you spend eternity in pain. You would not wish for that kind of situation to happen, right?”

At this moment, those slow-witted bodyguards finally came to their senses, and all thirty or so guns were pointed directly at me. However, before Mr. Burt gave a command, they would not dare to do anything.

I gave a flat demand, “Mr. Burt, please set the young master free.”

Mr. Burt’s face became gravely distorted, as though he was extremely conflicted. In the end, he instead roared, “I can’t set him free. However, I can send you to h.e.l.l and reunite you with him! Open fire! Shoot him dead!”

“I had thought that you understood my strength.”

Mr. Burt’s reply made me feel a little shocked. Though I had not shown my true strength in front of him, I should have shown him sufficient strength. Otherwise, under the situation where he already had a bunch of bodyguards with modified bodies, he would not be willing to fork out ten million to hire me.

“Of course I know how strong you are. However…” Mr. Burt hollered, “I also know that you don’t dare kill people and are a spineless fellow, Endelis!”

After hearing this reply, I suddenly felt that it was a little funny. Do not tell me that the reason I left, which was my unwillingness to follow his orders to kill, had become that I did not dare to kill?

At this instance, a gunshot rang in the surroundings, and simultaneously I raised my hand up, grabbing hold of something.

“A silver bullet?”

I opened up my hand and gave a dull smile as I examined the silver bullet in my palm. For vampires whose “Generation Number” is further off, silver bullets might actually be considerably lethal. However, for vampires whose “Generation Number” is only a single digit, they simply do not count as a type of weapon. They are not as much of a threat as energy weapons, which are currently the most popular.

Mr. Burt’s expression turned into one of disbelief. He stammered, “Y-You’re not afraid of silver? How is this possible? Aren’t all vampires scared of silver!”

“I am scared…”

I gently tilted my palm, and watched the shining silver bullet fall onto the floor. Then I lifted my head up, and smiled as I continued, “I am scared that it will contaminate my blood. However, you would have to let it touch the blood in my body before that would work.”

Once Mr. Burt heard that, he immediately roared, “Shoot! Hurry up, shoot him! Didn’t you hear what he said? If you can hit him until he spurts blood, then we can finish him off!”

To have had such an employer in the past, this is really enough to make me feel ashamed for eternity!

Within moments, gunshots rang out. I hesitated for a moment, and threw aside Mr. Burt, who was in my hands. Then, I dodged the majority of the bullets with lightning speed. I did not manage to avoid a portion of them… Combat was simply not my specialty. However, it actually did not matter that much. The silver bullets were not enough to cut my skin open and subsequently contaminate my blood.

As for the reason why I wanted to avoid those bullets, it was purely for the sake of the clothes on my body. However, that too was not important now, for whether there were three or three hundred holes, it would be the same. In conclusion, this set of clothes could not be worn again.

The other party fired at me non-stop, but other than that, they were completely unable to do anything else. Just as I had said before, their reaction speeds could not match up to my movement. However, even with their random firing, they never seemed to run out of bullets in their magazines… I could not help but sigh. Modern weapons sure are advanced. It is practically as though they have unlimited bullets.

Even though I was extremely reluctant, I still had to raise my hand against them and attack. The young master’s situation was unknown and if I were to delay any further, I was afraid that the young master’s life would become even more endangered.

I dodged to the back of a bodyguard and just as I was about to knock him out with a chop, he suddenly gave a violent shudder and fell to the ground. This made me a little puzzled. What exactly happened?

“Hurry up and stop! We’re hitting our own men!” The others yelled in a panic.

I see. I felt that it was a bit laughable. Before they came back to their senses, I darted to the back of another person and knocked him out. Then, I once again darted behind another person.

This person’s reflexes were not bad. He sensed me and spun around, and immediately there were the loud sounds of gunfire. However, while he was turning, I had long since followed him and shifted behind him again. I was just in time to see him shoot down a few of his comrades who were originally standing behind him. I could only raise an arm to knock him out so as to prevent him from killing more people.

In less than a minute, I once again returned in front of Mr. Burt. He was half sprawled on the floor and was the only human left on the scene who was not lying down. However, the credit for this was truly not completely mine. I had only knocked a few bodyguards unconscious; most of them had fallen under the gunfire of their comrades.

I lowered my head to look at Mr. Burt and softly told him, “You still do not understand my strength, Mr. Burt. Otherwise, you would not have come and pursued me for such insignificant secrets. That is really not worth it.”

Mr. Burt was like a fish out of water… Perhaps a puffer fish would be more appropriate. His mouth opened again and again, but other than breathing in hard, he did not manage to form any words the entire time.

I looked at the sea of people on the ground surrounding me and gave a sigh. After this experience, Mr. Burt would probably not come and pursue me again. Therefore, there should be no need to slaughter anyone to warn him.

However, following that, a difficult problem arose. Even though I grabbed Mr. Burt’s neck and interrogated him, he changed his att.i.tude from before and kept insisting that he had not captured the young master and was only deceiving me.

I did not know what to do. After all, I could not really kill him.

Maybe Mr. Burt was telling the truth. However, inside my heart I understood that a greater possibility was that he had already killed the young master, and was only insisting that he had not captured the young master in order to save his life.

I released the person in my hands with despair in my heart. If something has truly happened to the young master, the only employer to have a.s.sociated with me this pleasantly, and he actually met an unfortunate demise because of me, then tell me, how am I to have the courage to look for the next employer?

Should I obediently go back to my ancient castle, and become a vampire served by others, never to dream of being a butler anymore?

“Miscreant!”

I froze for a moment before returning to my senses. With a quick look around, I found the person who had spoken.

He was standing on top of a high mountain of trash. Even if one did not want to notice him, it would be difficult to do so.

When he saw that I had noticed him, he instantly roared, “To have actually hurt so many people! Miscreant! As a hero, I will never let you get away with this!”

So it was a “hero.”

I took measure of him. His entire attire looked rather stylish, and he was wearing a mask on his face. The body part that he had modified was his left arm. This was the body part that most people would choose to modify. A modified arm was after all, not as meticulous as a real arm, and was unable to do some finer movements. Therefore, a majority would choose to keep their right arm and modify their left arm into a formidable modified limb.

However, he did not seem to be a famous hero. As everyone knows, the most violent hero, Dragon Peace, has exaggerated muscles as his trademark. He does not seem to have modified his body, but everyone has speculated that that pair of strong arms must have been modified. His arms must simply have been made to look very much like real ones. Moreover, he does not wear anything to cover his face, yet for some reason, no one has found out where he lives.

The most dashing hero is First Wind. Though he is nicknamed the most dashing, it is because he has handsome posture and elegant movements. As to what his face looks like, no one actually knows. That is because he is always wearing a mask that covers half of his face. The place that he has modified is his left arm.

As for the only female hero, there was no need to even mention her. The person in front of my eyes was definitely a male, not a female.

The last one, the one nicknamed the most mysterious hero, Dark Sun, always wears silver goggles. He also has a very special trait, and that is that he never speaks. Furthermore, the duration in which he appears has never exceeded three minutes. Therefore, he has seldom appeared on the media. The media could only interview the people who had been helped by Dark Sun as to what had happened.

Since this person had shouted miscreant right at the start, he was obviously not Dark Sun either.

The only possible candidate was First Wind. However, my disrespectful speculation was that this person was definitely not him either. His presence was simply not enough to be named the most dashing hero. Compared to this person, Young Master An Xiang Ye’s presence could practically be that of a prince.

As of now, other than these four heroes that have been established, the others are not really heroes. After all, these so-called heroes could not appear more than a few times before getting killed by the villains or vanishing without a trace.

At most, this person in front of me can only be considered a “hero apprentice,” right? To this hero apprentice, the thirty or so people who had surrounded and attacked me with guns were all good people, and I was the miscreant who ought to be beaten down?

I gave a small smile and told him, “For a hero who has just started their career, it is a little risky to pick a malefactor who can defeat thirty and more people , right?”

That person lowered his head to look at the people lying all over the floor, and gulped. He then bellowed, “Don’t think that I don’t know that you had them kill one another. It absolutely wasn’t you who had defeated them at all!

“So? If it were you, could you get thirty or so people who had modified their bodies, who are even wielding guns, to kill each other?”

I held my temper, and then used the last shred of my patience to explain to him, “I am not a miscreant. They are the ones who are the kidnappers. Not only did they kidnap my young master, they even tried to use the young master to threaten me. Right now, I must hurry and look for my young master. Therefore, please do not try to fight me.”

That person hesitated briefly, but still raised the weapon in his hands. The handle was shaped like a sword hilt, but what extended from the hilt was something that looked like a shining blade. It was an energy blade.

I gave a sigh.

The weapons of humans have really made rapid progress with each pa.s.sing day. Now, energy weapons have almost replaced silver blades and silver bullets as the weapon that vampires are most afraid of. For vampires whose generation numbers are higher, whether they are pierced in the heart by a silver blade or an energy blade, both would turn them into dust.

For vampires whose generation numbers are relatively lower, blocking silver blades is not something difficult. The high heat of the energy blades is what is truly difficult to block. Also, if one were to have their limbs chopped off by an energy blade, due to the wound being cauterized by the high heat, it would be a more difficult matter to re-attach the limb.

After he had activated his energy blade, the hero apprentice’s confidence appeared to have increased. He shouted with a fierce and vicious voice, “I have seen your fangs, you are a vampire! Do you think that I would believe your words?”

“So, you intend to make a move. I feel that this is very regretful, extremely regretful.”

If this were as per usual, I would not get involved with him and would quickly depart from the scene. I believed he would not be able to keep up with me. However, at the moment, I had run out of patience due to my interactions with Mr. Burt and his underlings. Moreover, I had already given this hero apprentice his last chance.

Though I mostly drank from blood bags for survival and rarely used my fangs to have a meal, I did not mind doing so every once in a while.

With one step of my foot, I quickly ascended the mountain of rubbish. This distance was a little far, so I was not able to rush in front of him in one go. Thus, I could only separate it into several spurts. The hero apprentice’s eyes grew wide. His gaze would always be a step behind, pausing on the blur of my shadow. Obviously, he could not keep up with my speed. He panicked for a moment, but following that he showed a resolute expression. He used his modified left arm to swing his energy blade and wave it at lightning speed, and it became a shining web of blades to protect him.

By this time, I had already sprinted to his side. After seeing this web of blades, I paused in my a.s.sault and temporarily circled once around him. At the same time, I commended his reaction. It seemed like this hero apprentice was indeed more powerful than the thirty or so bodyguards from earlier.

However, while the course of action that he had carried out was good, the mesh in the web of blades seemed to be a bit too big. Once I glanced over, I saw many gaps. Aiming at one of the gaps, I stuck my claw-like hand through the web and firmly grabbed hold of his left arm.

He nearly jumped in shock and tried his best to struggle out of my hold on him. He used too much strength with his left arm, so it started to heat up and even emitted sounds similar to an engine overheating.

However, his left arm still did not manage to escape from my grip. In this time period, if I wanted to kill him, he would have died more than a hundred times.

In the end, he finally gave up. He only looked at me in panic as he muttered, “How is this possible, how could this…”

“Modified limbs are not as strong as you think they are.” I calmly said, “You really should not have picked me as an opponent.”

I am a vampire from the fifth generation. To humans, the strength of a “fifth generation” is probably very hard to understand. Simply put, if my opponent was a vampire and had found out that I was a vampire from the fifth generation, probably the only thing that he would think of is escape.

After thousands of years, among the vampires who are still active in this world, the earliest generation would be the fifth generation. The vampires who are from the fourth generation and before have long since become but a legend.

Though I am only a hundred and fifty some years old, and am simply a child within vampire circles, my generation number can intimidate quite a few vampires who are three hundred years old or older. They would not rashly try and mess with me.

This is also the reason why few vampires would actually try and mess with me, even though as a vampire whose profession is that of a butler, I had received a lot of criticism from other vampires. The reason is very simple; they do not have the confidence that they would be able to beat me.

Even vampires who are three hundred years old and above would not come and provoke me, yet this “infant” who has merely modified his left arm, wields an energy blade, and whose age could not possibly be over thirty, actually dared to wave a blade at me. I really did not know whether to laugh or sigh at that.

Seeing how he was still in a state of disbelief, I simply ripped off his left arm and grabbed his neck. I pulled his face to the front of my eyes. Even his mask could not block me from seeing his fear. Then, I used the low roar unique to vampires on him.

This was a hollow roar that sounded as though it had echoed from a valley.

“Child, to be a spectator and to experience it for yourself are two different matters. Now, are you able to truly understand my speed? Do you still believe that those thirty or more people had died because they killed each other, and that it had no relation to my strength at all?”

Under the situation where he was being held by the neck, he frantically shook his head with much difficulty.

However, I actually did not mind whether he replied or not, for words from food were not important. I bared my fangs and was about to dig into my meal.

But I abruptly let him go and jumped aside in an instant. An energy beam had been shot at the exact spot where I had been standing just now. It was not only fired once, but in multiple streams of a.s.saults. These beams continuously forced me to retreat backwards… Moreover, they were forcing me to go further away from my “food.”

“Please don’t move. I have no intention of hurting you.”

The energy beams stopped, and I too, naturally paused in my footsteps. I looked towards the source of the voice. That person was standing some distance away, with hands wielding dual guns. What was so special was that one gun was an energy gun, but the other was a traditional gun that shot bullets. The person wielding dual guns was wearing a tight leather suit that outlined the curves of her body, and had a black b.u.t.terfly mask on her face.

In an extremely clear voice, she opened her mouth to speak. “I saw everything that happened. You are not a miscreant, and I have no intention of giving you trouble. I only wish that you do not hurt him.”

A female hero? The words slipped from my mouth by reflex, “Solitary b.u.t.terfly?”

“Yes,” she admitted without an ounce of hesitation.

“You really are Solitary b.u.t.terfly?” My prey struggled to stand up, and then shouted at her, “Let us beat down that nefarious vampire together!”

I must admit that I was truly rather joyful when Solitary b.u.t.terfly did not agree and instead coldly glared at him.

“Shut up. Have you properly comprehended the situation?” Solitary b.u.t.terfly icily told him, “Didn’t you see that he didn’t hurt anyone, but instead knocked all those people unconscious one-by-one? Also, regarding those people, do you not clearly see their attire and equipped weapons? If they aren’t from the criminal underworld, I will swallow my gun… Both of them!”

The food probably did not expect to get such an answer. His eyes widened, and he seemed unsure of what to do next.

I figured I might as well tell him what to do, and coldly told him, “Scram! Otherwise, you will be dead.”

The food looked hesitantly towards Solitary b.u.t.terfly, but she only coldly told him off. “Didn’t understand what the vampire said? Then I’ll help him say it one more time. Scram!”

I admired this female hero. She really was a woman with personality.

After the prey had scrambled away, Solitary b.u.t.terfly went ahead and put away her dual guns. Then, she started to size me up, and I did the same to her.

“My apologies for interrupting your meal. I too think that he is foolish to the point of courting death, but…” She spread her hands open and said extremely helplessly, “As you know, I’m a hero! I can’t just sit there and look on helplessly as he turns into a dry corpse.”

I gave a smile and replied, “It does not matter. A meal in exchange for a meeting with the only female hero is extremely worth it.”

Solitary b.u.t.terfly was obviously filled with good intentions too, for she took the initiative to explain, “I saw those thirty or so people drive over here and thinking that those people probably wouldn’t be up to anything good, I followed them here to take a look. I didn’t imagine that I would actually meet a vampire… Is your young master that has been kidnapped a young vampire?”

“No, he is a human. I am only a butler that the young master has hired.”

“To be able to hire a vampire as a butler?” Solitary b.u.t.terfly showed a glimpse of a smile as she said, “I’m a little interested in regards to your young master.”

My face changed color and I hurriedly tried to clarify, “Young Master is only an ordinary person, and I am a vampire whose profession is that of a butler.”

“Is that so?” From her tone, Solitary b.u.t.terfly sounded like she did not quite believe me, but she did not stay on this topic. Instead, she straightforwardly said, “Go and find your young master! I hope that the next time we meet, you won’t be in the middle of sucking someone’s blood. I have no wish to clash with you. A speed that fast really is troublesome to deal with.

“Until we meet again, vampire butler.”

After she said that, Solitary b.u.t.terfly jumped to the back of the mountain of trash. Following that, a sports car came driving out from behind the mountain of rubbish… Moreover, it was even a brand that I was relatively familiar with, a Ferrari. The window of the car opened by a small crack, and with a shake of two of her fingers, Solitary b.u.t.terfly bid me farewell. After that, the car nimbly turned a corner and rapidly sped off.

I must admit that when I saw the car, I was a little startled and was even a little disappointed. I was originally hoping that she would use a method that was more “hero-styled” to leave. For example, raising up one hand and then flying away, or perhaps after pressing a remote controller, the car would drive here by itself. Then, it would automatically open the car doors and perhaps it might even talk or the like.

Obviously, I am a vampire who is too old-fashioned and has watched too many old-style hero movies to boot.

However, if humans continued to make such rapid progress like this, perhaps one day, there really might be heroes who can summon a talking car. Or maybe they would raise their hand, and under the gaze of the public, fly towards the sky?

Anyways, I still have many years that I can slowly wait.

After my encounter, I went to the university that the young master studied at and walked around once. Though I had tried my best to pick shaded areas with few people to walk in, my attire still attracted a lot of attention. However, I still did not see the figure of the young master. Inside my heart, I felt almost certain. Perhaps I was unemployed again.

To have actually lost my job because I caused the death of my employer … My honorable father, if you were to know about this from the heavens, would you expel me from the world of butlers and forbid me from being a butler from now on so as to prevent another employer from getting hurt?

After walking around for quite a while at a loss, when I once again became aware of my whereabouts, it was already night. Moreover, I had even returned to the vicinity of the young master’s house. By reflex, I lifted my head and glanced at the apartment located on the top floor…

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 ident.i.ty 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 per always, and started to do his firearm modifications. Seeing that, I too started my daily routine cleaning.

However, not much time had pa.s.sed before the young master called me over. He pa.s.sed 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 quant.i.ty 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 pa.s.sing. 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 s.p.a.ce between the eyebrows will decrease by 0.2mm.”

“…”

1Blood thralls: Originally “blood slaves.” This term is used later in the story, and we decided to change it to “blood thralls” here for consistency.