Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 191
“Elaby, you rascal! You said it wouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes—” Brandenburg Knight Alfred approached and patted Elaby on the shoulder. “And yet, you were almost an hour late!”
He glanced at the young man following Elaby, eyeing him with interest.
The young man wore a proper shirt and trousers, was clean-shaven, and only carried a woven holiday suitcase, looking entirely non-threatening, yet not particularly noteworthy either.
Elaby said, “This is Oscar.”
Charlie politely bowed to Alfred. A knight capable of bearing a sword and riding a horse was considered noble, and although Alfred seemed unpretentious, adhering to proper etiquette could avoid many unnecessary troubles.
“I’m Alfred.” The knight, who wasn’t yet thirty and stood nearly seven feet tall, spoke in a deep voice. “Are you another performer Elaby found for the children?”
There was no offense in his words. Elaby had indeed been sent by Miss Priscilla to town to find entertainers for the children. However, Oscar looked—how should one say it—quite refined.
He didn’t resemble a trained acrobat or a slick magician, more like the well-to-do youngest son of a farming or merchant family.
Oscar blinked. He did know a few tricks but wasn’t planning to perform them.
“I’m a novelist,” Charlie said with a smile. “The children enjoy my stories.”
Alfred nodded, finding this explanation reasonable.
“I thought Elaby had snuck off to the bar, but it turns out he was doing real work.” Alfred patted Elaby’s shoulder again.
Elaby gave him a look. “I always take my work seriously.”
He efficiently arranged accommodations for the newcomers. Their luggage was thoroughly checked, and the bird keeper’s noisy birds, always clamorous, added to the racket by occasionally squawking a few words.
The musicians from Brandenburg were unhappy, feeling that associating with these rustic performers lowered their status. However, due to limited tent space, they had to become temporary neighbors despite their reluctance.
Charlie and the birdkeeper, magician, and craftsman got along quite well.
The birdkeeper, Alai, came from a distant land, nearly on the other side of the continent. Traveling so far alone without advanced transportation was almost a miracle. Bird performances were just one of his livelihoods. To Charlie, he seemed more like an adventurer traveling with his friends, except his friends were intelligent birds.
The magician’s hometown was much closer to Lemena. As a child, he had spent a few years as a novice magic apprentice, but due to limited talent, he couldn’t progress further. However, he genuinely loved magic, so he turned to studying magic tricks and gradually developed some skills, gaining modest fame.
Charlie preferred these free spirits over pampered family musicians. They couldn’t meet the Young Master and Miss without permission, but the wealthy Dwight family provided good treatment, and the temporary colleagues each received a small jug of fine wheat beer after dinner.
Their camp was set up on a flat area less than ten miles from the Lake of Sighs, with a small river winding through the meadow and shaded by a grove of trees. Despite the summer heat, it wasn’t too hot outside.
Arnie’s main tent was arranged comfortably, with many magical items to regulate the temperature, making the tent as cool as autumn. The sheets, pillows, curtains, and even the carpet inside the tent were brought from Brandenburg to make it feel like home.
Priscilla’s tent was just a few steps away. Today she had some motion sickness and had spent two hours picking berries with Arnie in the woods. Her face was flushed, and she had gone to bed early.
After dinner, Arnie visited her with the doctor, who said she had a bit of heatstroke. Priscilla’s long, waist-length light blonde hair and layers of lace-embroidered dresses weren’t ideal for cooling down.
Priscilla didn’t think it was a big deal, but Arnie became upset again. His face, which had only recently brightened, now clouded over. Priscilla sat on the bed, talking to him softly and assuring him she’d feel better by morning.
But Arnie’s mood didn’t improve. He brushed off the attendants’ hands, trying to lift him off the bed, and slid down to the floor himself, then stomped away.
The two attendants exchanged glances.
They had been caring for the Young Master for quite some time, and, frankly speaking, this Young Master was different from ordinary children. Often, they knew he was angry but couldn’t figure out why, making it hard to cheer him up.
Arnie didn’t want their comfort.
He understood that his behavior often didn’t meet people’s expectations for a normal child. But he was still young and didn’t understand why he was different or wanted to talk about it with others. In fact, besides his parents, Priscilla, and the steward who had raised him, Arnie didn’t like talking to anyone else.
It’s not that he hated them; he just didn’t like them. He was more interested in things other than people, like the ants on the windowsill, the leaves that changed color with the weather, and even the viscosity of the air in the greenhouse. He could sense many small but real changes, including people’s emotions.
For example, right now, although everyone around him was acting kind and gentle without a single flaw, Arnie could feel that they were having a hard time because of him.
This feeling also made him unhappy.
The melancholy seemed to peak late at night, when everything was quiet. By the time Elaby hurried to Arnie’s tent, it was already past midnight.
“The lights have been out for two hours… It’s been very quiet… We thought he was asleep,” one attendant whispered. “It wasn’t until just now that we felt something was off.”
The Young Master of Brandenburg was far less troublesome asleep than awake. Everyone close to him knew his little habits: if he went out during the day, he would definitely wake up at night to drink water; if he was scolded by a teacher in class, he would sleep restlessly; if he had a nightmare, he would suddenly jerk awake and sit up in bed, dazed until he realized he had been dreaming.
Today, he and Priscilla had played in the small forest for a long time, so the attendants had prepared water and milk early on, but he hadn’t woken up at all. When they gently approached to check on him, they found Arnie curled up in the blanket, with only his forehead visible.
Afraid he might have trouble breathing, an attendant tried to pull the blanket down a bit, revealing a pair of red eyes and water stains on the edge of the blanket.
Arnie was crying. Such a rare occurrence threw the adults into a panic. Normally, they would have called Miss Priscilla, but since she wasn’t feeling well today, they decided to call Elaby first.
Elaby had just finished his bath, still damp, as he sat by the bed and reached out to touch the ball-shaped lump under the blanket, guessing it was Arnie’s shoulder.
“Master Arnie, would you like some water?” Elaby asked a question he himself found clumsy—there was no help for it, though. His own child only cried after causing trouble and getting a spanking, and even then, it was loud wailing, not the delicate silent tears of Arnie.
Arnie, unsurprisingly, remained silent. Elaby guessed he missed home or his mother. At such a young age, who wouldn’t be attached to their mother? Especially since the Duke and Duchess weren’t just at nearby Brandenburg. They were likely almost at the imperial capital by now, which felt very far away to little Arnie.
During the day, he was happy and didn’t think about it, but at night, with his sister sick and himself alone in the tent, he probably felt lonely.
Despite the loneliness, the Young Master wouldn’t let anyone stay with him. To be precise, he only wanted his family. Anyone else who offered to stay with him (including Elaby) was kicked out, with small legs flailing under the blanket, indicating a very clear rejection.
The rejected attendants looked at each other, while the Brandenburg Knights on night duty peeked in from the doorway. Elaby, feeling troubled, waved them away—these warriors were good in battle but useless in comforting a child. Why crowd around now?
The knight on duty happened to be Alfred, a close friend of Elaby’s. Watching Alfred’s continuous winking was enough to give anyone goosebumps. Elaby had no choice but to approach him.
“What are you up to?” he hissed through clenched teeth.
“With the new entertainers around, if the Young Master can’t sleep, why not take him out to watch the fireworks?” Alfred suggested.
Elaby punched him. “Fireworks in the middle of the night? The Young Master needs to sleep!”
“But if he can’t sleep—wouldn’t a new distraction help?”
Elaby was about to kick him when he suddenly paused.
“The safety checks are done, right?” he asked.
Alfred immediately realized what Elaby was asking, thinking he had convinced him. He happily rubbed his hands together. “Of course, we finished before dinner. Even those birds were checked and washed. They have no weapons or suspicious magical items.”
Elaby pondered for a moment. “Please wake someone up for me.”
Alfred was delighted. Although he didn’t like the sly magician, he enjoyed the fireworks show that mimicked magical effects. Guard duty on a long night was boring.
But Elaby’s next words shattered his joy.
“The one in the first small tent… Oscar, the young storyteller.”
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