Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 86
Amber, who was inexplicably given a name to match a pet and dismissed from the room just as mysteriously, stepped out and saw Hasting waiting for him in the corridor.
The young knight, always serious, looked at him inquiringly. Amber hesitated for a moment before fully explaining what had happened in the room.
Hearing that the Duke had given him a name, Hasting showed a rare, subtle smile.
“Come with me,” Hasting said.
Their accommodation in Lababata wasn’t luxurious, but it was spacious and clean. Amber had thought Hasting might take him to a kitchen or a stable, but instead, he led him not downstairs but to a small room at the end of the second-floor hallway.
It was only when Hasting gently pushed him into the room that Amber snapped back to reality, stepping back uncertainly.
This was the first time he had looked so bewildered that evening.
The room was decorated in typical Lababata style, not overly furnished but with vibrant handmade carpets covering the floor, several small silk pillows and blankets, a wicker cabinet, and a low table with a decorative teapot set.
“We are just staying temporarily and didn’t bring much,” Hasting explained, seeing him unmoved. “Besides the Duke, everyone’s rooms are the same.”
Amber checked carefully. “I live here?”
“This is your room,” Hasting clarified. “You’ll stay here while we are in Lababata.”
“Alone?” Amber asked again.
Hasting looked at him strangely, thinking for a moment. “Are you afraid to sleep alone?”
It seemed true that children disliked spending the night alone, but Hasting needed to be available for the Duke at all times, and Hall was inconvenient. Only Shiloh had the extra capacity.
“No.” Amber pursed his lips.
He was just surprised that the ‘Duke’ would be so generous to provide him a room of his own—a luxury he had never even dreamt of.
“That’s good then.” Hasting, though not expressive, was willing to offer extra patience to the child. “If you need anything, ask Donna in the kitchen. She’ll take care of you. Oh, and…”
He paused. “You can make friends. That’s fine, but don’t discuss our affairs with anyone beyond those you’ve met tonight, and don’t refer to the Lord as ‘Duke’ in public.”
Amber nodded, though he still didn’t understand the exact rank of a ‘Duke’.
“So the Duke, the Lord,” seeing Hasting’s expression, Amber quickly changed his wording, “is my master now? And what about Erica?”
He vividly remembered that it was Erica who handed a bag full of gold coins to that cunning pig, leading him into the sunlight of Spice Street.
“He is also Erica’s master.” Hasting, understanding Amber’s concerns, spoke soothingly. “You don’t need to worry too much now. You’ll understand in time.”
“Is he everyone’s master, including that rabbit-headed gentleman?” Because he was wearing decent new clothes and standing in such a beautiful room, Amber tried to choose his words more elegantly.
Hasting paused. “He’s… Not exactly.”
Technically, Charlie was an employee of the Duke, but their employment relationship wasn’t as clearly defined as Hasting’s servitude, which still felt somewhat foreign to the strictly straightforward knight.
Amber muttered, “I thought not.”
The very impressive-looking Duke had dismissed him with a “just go away if there’s nothing” attitude, but Mr. Rabbit Head wasn’t so obedient, and in the end, only Amber had left obediently.
Was it because they still had matters to discuss?
Amber had many more curiosities—though he had only stayed for a short while, the Duke’s room was the most elaborate and luxurious he had ever seen, filled with many mysterious things he had never heard of.
Including “Emerald”.
Was that a dragon?
Amber hadn’t dared to look too closely at the glass jar, but he had remembered the Duke’s words. Such a significant figure wouldn’t treat his promises like that fat pig who sold him—was he really going to take care of a dragon?
There couldn’t be a cooler job than that!
Hasting didn’t stay long but left a candlestick with a long, straight candle as white as snow, clearly one that would burn for a long time, before he left.
It was nothing like the black candle ends Amber had previously saved so carefully.
Wrapped in a blanket, Amber curled up in a corner of the room, watching the flickering candlelight without blinking.
Gold coins, a Duke, a dragon, and a rabbit… He wasn’t sleepy at all but felt as if he was in the middle of an extraordinary dream.
He wished this dream could last a little longer.
“That child’s parents should be dragged in a donkey cart to the town hall for a flogging.” Donna, responsible for the meals, fumed to the rabbit-headed shopkeeper early the next morning. “He seems like he’s never eaten anything—you should have seen him in the kitchen. What kind of child doesn’t recognize milk!”
Charlie used his calming voice to soothe Donna’s anger and bestowed upon her the noble task of “saving a malnourished child from dire straits”, which quieted her down.
Unaware that he was nearly at the center of a storm, Amber, having eaten his fill, had already voluntarily run to the courtyard to fetch water.
Because before Emerald awoke, his so-called duty was merely a nominal title—at this time, not just Amber, but no one was allowed near the sleeping Pluto Owl.
Who knows if such creatures would imprint on the first person they see?
Dwight wasn’t willing to take that risk.
“Didn’t you tell Amber we are leaving in two days?” the rabbit-headed shopkeeper asked Hasting. “Helping with the backyard reconstruction now doesn’t really matter.”
Before Hasting could respond, Shiloh came over grinning. “Let him do some work. Otherwise, he’ll worry he’s eating too much and won’t be able to pay when it’s time to settle the bill.”
Rabbit-headed shopkeeper: “What?”
The redhead shrugged. “From his looks, you can tell he hasn’t been in a good place before. Too sudden an environmental change can make him sick. Keeping him busy might actually make him feel more secure.”
Donna had exaggerated a bit. Amber was thin, but not malnourished. After all, he had survived in a physically demanding underground fighting ring and starving him into a scrawny monkey would have served no purpose.
But maintaining a diet that paid attention to more than just replenishing strength was impossible. His constant, physically focused diet not only kept him far from being strong but even affected his teeth and stomach, with many everyday foods being completely new to him. Donna’s overly enthusiastic breakfast had left him quite overwhelmed.
“One of the knights fell seriously ill after being brought to Brandenburg as a child,” Hasting explained. “He wasn’t used to it.”
“I didn’t know there were underground fighting rings in Lemena,” the rabbit-headed shopkeeper said.
The Duke hummed quietly from the other end of the table but didn’t look up from his morning paper.
He was getting used to the noisy mornings. Ever since leaving Brandenburg, it had been hard to maintain the quiet mornings he preferred. His new baseline was that as long as he woke up without hearing animals like donkeys and horses, it counted as a peaceful morning—a dreadful thought he dared not mention to Priscilla.
Priscilla’s caravan was departing today, and some of the personnel taken away by Lestrop had to be replaced. Erica would take this opportunity to become one of them. Her mercenaries would be transferred to Dwight, and after the integration, they too would depart for White Bridge.
Thus, there was a relatively free period for recuperation, and Charlie took the opportunity to roam through several main streets of Lababata—a feat most people would hide if they had a rabbit’s head, but he seemed to take pride in it, feeling it wasn’t enough to show off on just two continents, fearing that people wouldn’t know he was different.
He didn’t just roam by himself. He also took Amber along.
This child always considered himself mature and stable, but it was really hard to maintain such composure in front of Shiloh and Charlie, especially Charlie, who had countless stories and ideas in his head. Even the most ordinary street, through his narration, could become an adventure site. Amber had to exert great self-control not to follow him out for the entire day.
Because he needed to stay and work, Amber seriously thought.
“Don’t wiggle around like a bug in front of me,” Dwight said coldly. “If you can’t wait, go wait on the porch.”
Shiloh laughed heartily, and Amber’s face reddened slightly, feeling somewhat defiant.
Because Charlie said he would bring back many gifts—one for everyone.
He felt even the Duke was waiting.
But seizing the rare opportunity, Amber preferred to wait at the door for Charlie: he couldn’t wait to see what his first ever received gift would be.
However, when he stepped out, he found two tall mercenaries under the porch, their eye color as pale as the ice on snow-capped mountains.
The Duke’s eye color was also light, but it didn’t give the chilling feeling of being seen as a piece of raw meat to be dissected like the mercenaries did.
Amber instinctively disliked them, and the mercenaries didn’t take him seriously either, just glancing at him once before shifting their gaze away, not stopping him from going onto the street.
Charlie didn’t make him wait too long. Almost before the sun had completely set, Amber, who had excellent eyesight, spotted Charlie appearing in the distance and, just as he imagined, carrying a lot of things—the boxes stacked high, almost taller than him, with only the top of his high top hat peeking out, making one wonder how he could see the road ahead.
Charlie’s walking path seemed more chaotic than a clown walking a tightrope on a unicycle—a long box on top wobbled dangerously before being quickly steadied.
He peeked out from the side. “Thank you… Oh, it’s you, Amber.”
Amber took the top few boxes, accompanying him slowly across the street. “You look very happy.”
Charlie carefully observed the path beneath his feet through the gaps in the boxes. “Do I look happy?”
The black-haired boy nodded.
The rabbit-headed shopkeeper stopped speaking, his ears suddenly twitching.
Unaware but stopping quicker than him, Amber felt something was off and sprang a big step toward the street, his action only slightly quicker than Charlie’s hand pushing him.
A few inches from Charlie’s hand was another hand, with slender fingertips and several beautiful bracelets strung on the wrist.
Although it didn’t successfully grab Amber’s collar, the owner of the hand didn’t immediately make another move but ignored the rabbit-headed shopkeeper and turned to look at Amber, who was tightly holding the boxes.
“I’ve found you.” Sasha, whose skin had darkened a bit compared to that day in the underground fighting ring, flashed an aggressive smile.
“Where’s Erica?” The much taller girl looked down at Amber.
Amber watched her warily but remained silent.
He actually knew the answer to this question—no one had specifically hidden it from him in conversation, so he knew that Erica should have already joined some noble’s entourage and left the capital of Lababata.
But even though Erica hadn’t specifically asked him to keep her whereabouts a secret, he had no intention of answering every question from this persistently pursuing woman.
Seeing him not answering, Sasha stepped forward impatiently and reached for Amber’s shoulder, but someone intercepted her halfway.
Charlie, still awkwardly holding a large pile of items and really unable to free his hands, simply placed himself and the load between the girl and the boy, completely blocking Amber.
“Is there something you need with this child, Miss?” he asked politely.
Hearing Charlie speak, Sasha took a few more interested glances at him, her gaze lingering a bit on his well-fitted waist and legs. Then she widened her eyes and stared intently at his head, as if trying to see through the fur to check if there was a human head hidden inside.
<<< || Table of Contents || >>>
Kinky Translations 