Chapter 25: Haze of Clarity
25.0
“Mas-ter.”
Uggh…
“Master~”
It’s so bright…
John grumbled to himself before draping the sheets across his head, shielding his face from both the noise and the intrusive sunlight.
“Master John, wakey, wakey.”
“Shhhh….” John exhaled with annoyance. “I…need more…sleep…”
“That won’t do my dear master.”
“Whatever…zzz…” half-heartedly reply, John dozed off back into his dreams. “Zzz…zzz…zzz…”
A soft, hmph, echoed throughout the room. Following that were the sound of a few gentle steps around the vicinity.
Whoosh!!!
A rush of cold air converged around John, causing the hapless boy to burst into attention while he sat up with his eyes wide open.
“What’s going on!? What happened!?”
To which, John was greeted by Kahnira fully dressed in her maid uniform, hands clutching at the blanket that was on him mere seconds ago.
Her eyes sparkled with pride for successfully waking her master up.
“It is time, master. I have prepared breakfast for you”
“Oh, my, god!!! It’s only morning!” John threw his body back to the bed and closed his eyes. “Yesterday was exhausting, let me sleep in today.”
John vaguely remembered events of yesterday after he stormed out of the main house. He remembered his eyes flowed with tears, he remembered Kahnira comforted him telling him something important before he fell asleep in her arms.
After what happened with Serene and her folks yesterday, all he wanted was to curl into a ball and forget about everything that occurred at the party last night.
“Poke.”
At Kahnira’s announcement, a finger made its way into John’s soft cheeks.
“Stop it.”
He rolled his body to the right.
“Poke, poke, poke…”
Her fingers continued to touch his cheeks, but John scowled.
“Leave me be, I don’t have the energy to get up today.”
“Master is stubborn,” Kahnira whimpered, almost as if she was going to throw a hissy fit at John.
“Whatever.”
“But this maid is more head strong.”
With absolutely no warning, the girl dived into John, her arms slithered all the way from John’s back and clung tightly around his torso as she pressed herself onto him.
“!!!”
Kahnira proceeded to use her strength to pull John into an upright position, rocked him from side to side as she held him tightly in her chest.
“Kahnira, you are squeezing me—”
“I understand master is upset, but master has to get to school today remember?” she released her embrace gradually, letting the panicked John ease as she rubbed his head. “As I promised yesterday, master. I will be here for you.”
“…”
He completely forgotten what his maid said to him yesterday, all that remained in his memory were the shameful tears that came with the realization of his family’s cruelty towards him.
That said, there were two other reasons he had stiffened up at his maid’s warm embrace.
Two…very…voluptuous reasons…
“Master?” Kahnira’s arms tightened briefly around him, causing John to lower his head even further. “D-did I injure you…?”
John shook his head.
“What’s the matter then?”
“Y-your…” his boyish voice cracked. “Y-your chest is squishing my b-back… I c-can feel everything.”
“!!!” the maid jolted in surprise, but her hands did not leave John’s side. “P-perhaps master is d-disgusted with…”
John shook his head.
“I…” John placed a hand on his steaming face, whatever fatigue or desire to sleep was squeezed out of his body by Kahnira. “I d-don’t hate it. But…”
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He turned to meet the maid’s scarlet gaze.
Kahnira was just as flushed as he was, but unlike him, her eyes danced with joy for knowing that his spirits were now lifted.
How can I tell her that this isn’t appropriate?
He kept the funny feeling that was stirring in his loins to himself, he may be young, but when a beautiful girl like Kahnira was embracing him, his body reacted on its own.
Not wanting to take away the innocent pride she had in taking care of him, John remained silent.
He may have not much remembrance of last night, but he was certain while he was sobbing away, this maid had an equally a sorrow expression that seemingly shared his pain.
Kahnira is the only person I have left… It’s best I don’t make her sad.
Before long, John spoke up to the maid who still had her arms around him.
“What’s the time now?”
“Precisely seven o’clock, m-master. I woke y-you up just in time. Your transport will be here in 15 minutes”
“B-bring me my uniform and leave me to change. Wait for me by the table.”
“Yes, master.”
Kahnira heeded John’s words as she got off his bed, brought him his uniform before slightly lifting her skirt as she bowed to him.
With a quick change of his clothes, John hurried out to have his food with Kahnira.
His ride came no moments later and John was off to his school.
The smile on him when he bid his maid goodbye, persisted until he reached the school premises.
The moment he passed the stale stone gates, his body shrunk, eyes narrowed as the colors of the world seemingly drained from his vision, leaving him in the monochromatic school environment.
“I shall fetch you at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Is that alright, young master?”
“Huh!?”
John who hadn’t notice the open door beside him snapped to attention.
“R-right, right… The usual time.”
With trembling steps, he got off the carriage, allowing the coachman to return.
For the first time, this State Academy of Shi Jou looked bleak.
Perhaps, it was because he had never come to school without Serene, and that returning from his school break on his own reminded of the time when he was all alone in the National Academy.
His dissertation by the Perxins and his own family was all that is needed to sap all the joy he had in his life.
On the way here, he occupied himself by coming up with ways to approach Serene, to speak to her about what happened yesterday.
Now that he had stepped foot into the State Academy of Shi Jou on his own, he was no longer sure.
“Oh? Is that you, John?!” a friendly voice called out to him by the school’s hallway as he walked at the pace of a turtle.
“Sere—!!!”
His excited voice cut off when the image of a brown haired boy came running to him, replaced with a vague smile.
“It’s rare to see you this early here!” his friend, Ha Zun chriped. “Don’t you and Serene always come together or something?”
“About that. Well…what about you?” doing his best to shift the topic, John reverted the question to his friend.
“What about me?”
“I didn’t see you yesterday.”
“We didn’t make plans though?”
“That’s odd, your father—”
!!!
Reminded by the person who Ha Lun Mien, John’s body shivered.
“My father?”
“I… He came to the Sarvod’s celebration party last night. Why didn’t you come?”
“Wait, you had a party!? Why didn’t you invite me!?”
“Not me, my family. It was pretty last minute.” John continued at the wide-eyed Ha Zun. “His name is Ha Lun Mien, right? Both of you are from the Ha family, yes?”
“That’s him, that’s him! Wow, you did see my father!!!”
“I wished I hadn’t—” John closed his mouth before he fully vocalized. “He is my father’s advisor for our family, it seems...”
“Is that so!? That’s good isn’t it? That means the both of us are meant to be great friends!” Ha Zun spoke starry-eyed.
“Yeah…”
I accept you as my friend. But your father…
Recalling to the peculiar man from yesterday, John remembered something.
“Listen, Ha Zun, I wanted to ask something.”
“Okay?”
“Do you know if your family come from a lineage of…” John’s eyes cast downwards, “… the ancient threat to us Easterners?”
“I don’t think I understand John.”
“You know, something…like the barbarians? The ones they teach in history class? The emissaries of…”
…chaos.
“Ah! So that’s what you are wondering about, sure thing! I think my great grandfather was a pure blood barbarian if it is according to our history books.”
“!!!”
“Even I am one myself!” Ha Zun declared proudly.
“What?!” John who finally reached his class exclaimed.
“Well… It’s not exactly what you think. Ever since my great, great grandfather married an Easterner, our family never had any connections with that part of our family lineage. It also doesn’t help that he died when my grandfather was around our age.”
“O-oh… I see.”
But why is your father so…
“Why do you want to ask, John?”
“I was just—”
“You don’t want to be friends with me anymore?”
“No, no, no! No!” John quickly spoke. “I was just curious since you never brought it up, that’s all...”
“Ah! I thought your were—”
Ha Zun’s voice was interrupted by a deep rumbling, one that was unique to the Perxin’s carriage.
!!!
John threw his bag at his seat, ran towards the drop off point where he had been moments ago, rushing with the upmost importance to greet his best friend.
The moment he saw the tigerkin got off her carriage, his eyes lit with joy.
“Serene!” he called to her, walking over with a gallant smile. “Listen, I wanted to talk to you about—”
Woosh.
As though he was not there, Serene passed John by without so much acknowledging his existence, let alone words.
!!!
“H-hey, Serene I just wanted to…”
Before John could finish, the girl made a turn, disappearing into the hallways, leaving John to run after her.
“Wait, why are you doing this!?” he followed her quickly. However, when he turned to where Serene had gone to, the tigerkin was nowhere to be found.
Tsk, what is this silly cat’s deal… I mean, she was upset yesterday, but not talking to me is something new…
“I… She must have went to class, I’ll speak to her there.”
He walked to class with haste, sure enough, Serene had returned to her seat when John had entered.
“Se—”
“Young man.”
“!!!”
A gruff voice belonging to one of his teachers came behind him.
“This is no time for loitering. Return to your classroom before I send you to the principal’s office.”
Speaking not a single word, John obediently went back to the end of the class where he sat. Silently complaining to himself as he can only watch Serene who were a few seats away from him.
We have different classes today, I don’t know if I can find time to talk to her… Maybe after school? But I’ll have to leave magic theory class early.
He shook his head.
If I can’t talk to her today, there’s tomorrow right? But, she’s not taking history classes with me this semester.
Gritting his teeth, John watched the class in disinterest, busied himself with finding a suitable time to speak to Serene.
The semester barely started and he was already piled with endless amount of study material, examinations and events that he was required to fit into his already packed schedule.
Just when he thought the homework given to him was more than enough, the next class added another stack on top of his existing burden.
Granted that this was a new semester, the teaching material had gotten far more intensive. But when one was the son of Dai’Ne Sarvod, John’s name was registered into the various competitions that his father had planned for him.
He could barely allocate his time to fit in the endless tasks that he needed to complete within his typical schedule.
The rest of John’s day ended without him speaking to Serene.
By the time he found himself back to his home, the sun had begun to set.
“Welcome back…master?”
Though he expected this semester would be far difficult than the last, he did not account for how time consuming it was. And he was to repeat the same thing each and every weekday.
“I am so tired I could die…”
“Master, I will be preparing dinner now if you wish for an early—”
“Give me an hour.”
“Understood.”
With all his speed, he breezed past the assignments that came his way, finished his shower with his spirits mostly rejuvenated, his energy for the day was already spent but spending the rest of his night with the diligent maid was a reward well worth working for.
“Were you lonely while I wasn’t here?” with a curious gaze and a mouth full of food he looked at the maid who had now changed into her nightly attire. “I mean— Glup. This is the first day I’ve gone to school after you entered my life.”
“A little,” the maid had a faint blush on her. “But I had many things to keep myself occupied. I’ve started reading the books you told me about, I also found a spot behind our home that we can use to grow vegetables.”
“Oh! Kahnira’s cooking with her own vegetables sounds great!!!”
“M-master, you are embarrassing this maid.”
“What? How?” John’s eyes grew wide. “I love your cooking, it’s amazing! I bet if you opened shop, everyone in Shi Jou would come!”
“M-master! Y-you’re making a b-big deal out of this... I d-don’t want to cook for just anyone you see…”
“I mean…” John stopped before he smiled at his blushing maid “Then, it is I alone who will have the privilege of having your meals.”
“T-this maid is beyond elated.”
The master and maid continued their chat until late into the night, until young John had finally fallen asleep in his room, with Kahnira putting the tired boy into his bed.