Bell was sipping his tea and reading when his retainer, bodyguard, and personal driver spoke up.
"Young Master, may I make a request?"
Bell looked up, surprised, but didn't show it. It was the first time Jerman had ever asked for anything.
"Depends on what the request is."
Jerman asked, "Could I take some time off?"
"...Oh?"
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Jerman had been at his side nearly every waking moment since Bell left his room for the first time. If he wasn't in the manor, where he didn't need his protection, or at school, where non-students weren't allowed to enter without permission, Jerman was there.
The man practically lived in Bell's shadow.
"Why?" Bell asked.
He already planned to grant the request; curiosity was the only reason he asked.
"Young Master, I've seen the kinds of situations you get yourself into. I told myself long ago that the best way to live my life was by this motto. No worries. No stress. All I had to do was turn my brain off, just follow your orders, and protect you. Sorry if I come off as dissubordinate. That was truthfully how I thought in the past."
Bell's lips twitched into a faint grin before his expression smoothed again.
Jerman couldn't have known that Bell already had a clue that had been the case.
"What's changed?"
"Young Master, I can see that you're going to dive headfirst into many more dangerous situations."
"And?" Bell replied flatly.
Was this going to be a lecture?
Was he going to try to deter him from doing it?
If that were the case, he would have to disappoint him.
"If I want to properly fulfill my duty, the current me won't be enough. So, I plan to leave your side for a while."
Bell began to have a clue about what Jerman wanted to do. "Training?"
"Something like that," Jerman said. In truth, it would be closer to torture and survival than training, but there was no need to worry his Young Master with details. It was quite similar to the way that his own Young Master would train, although there was an actual chance he would die to a dagger slicing across his neck.
"Alright. You have my permission," Bell said, returning to his book.
"Thank you." Jerman bowed. "I'll stay with you the rest of the day, but tomorrow, someone from my family will take my place. I'll return as soon as I can."
"Should I have expectations?"
"Yes. When I return, I'll be a different man entirely. I'll be the best retainer I can be."
That marked the day Jerman finally left his side. Bell didn't realize how used he'd become to the man's presence until it was gone.
The next day.
"Nice to meet you, Young Master!" said a man with a grin so wide it could split his face. He bowed so low his head nearly hit the floor. Any deeper, and his torso would've been parallel to his legs.
'Reminds me of that coworker who tried to suck up to the general manager,' Bell thought. 'He never got the promotion either.'
He just ended up being a sucker who annoyed the rest of his coworkers for no reason..
"Are you Jerman's temporary replacement?" Bell asked, sliding into the car once the man opened the door.
"Yes! I'm Jerman's younger brother," he enthusiastically introduced himself.
"His younger brother… You're Ernit?"
"You… y-you know my name, Young Master?" Ernit's eyes watered instantly. Just hearing Bell say his name was enough to make him emotional, but the fact that he had known of his existence beforehand. Momma, I made it!
Bell knew the name of every member of House Agnus and its loyal subfamilies, so obviously, he was aware that Jerman had a younger brother, even though he never told him.
He just hadn't expected him to be this different.
'Is he crying?' he wondered.
When Maya and Sarakit joined them, they immediately noticed that the driver wasn't Jerman but didn't question it. That was, until Ernit started talking.
And kept talking.
And talking. Talking. Talking. Talking.
He didn't dare bother Bell, but he had no problem chatting up the two girls like old friends. Maya and Sarakit smiled politely at first, but after the tenth question, their patience thinned.
Eventually, they both glanced at Bell, silently begging for rescue.
From the corner of his eye, Bell saw their desperate looks despite reading his book.
"Ernit."
"Yes, Young Master?"
"Shut up."
"Yes, sir!" Ernit said cheerfully, giving a salute through the rearview mirror..
'What a peculiar character,' Maya thought to herself.
'When is Jerman coming back?' Sarakit wondered, already dreading the replacement.
The rest of the ride was peaceful, and the two girls both whispered their thanks to Bell.
The rest of the ride was peaceful — well, mostly. Ernit's driving was reckless enough to make their hearts stop every few minutes. He braked at the last second, ignored oncoming traffic, and seemed to forget that parking wasn't required at every red light.
'They need to be more strict with how they're handing out the driver's license,' Bell thought to himself.
Even though the car had been around for a few years now, it was only this year that having a license was required to drive one. As it was still in the early phases, there were a lot of kinks and work to be done.
One such kink was that they needed to make the test more difficult because how in the world did this man Ernit ever pass the test?
On Earth, he would've been instantly failed in most countries. Some countries were more lenient, and you could buy the license with money sometimes.
By the time they had arrived at school, there was a hole in each of the passengers' buttocks. The two ladies were certain that they had lost a few years from their lives.
"Th-thank you for the ride," Sarakit said, voice trembling. Her knees were wobbly, and she just wanted to exit the car as soon as possible.
"Thanks," Maya added. She sounded polite, and there was a smile on her face, but her eyes screamed murder; if the ride had been any longer, she might've lunged across the car and strangled the driver.
Ernit started to step out to open the door for them, but Bell waved him off. "Just head back. Spend the day practicing your driving."
Unlike the others, he wasn't angry or anything of the sort; he was just quietly hoping the next ride wouldn't be this — thrilling.
"Was the ride not comfortable?" Ernit muttered to himself. In his humble opinion, the driving he had done was perfect. It was the best he's ever performed. Proud of himself would've been an understatement, but seeing the reaction of the three people behind his seat and the pale faces of the girls, he began to doubt himself.
When Bell stepped out, he felt the usual stares from the crowd of students who were arriving at the academy.
Most students were used to the scene by now, so most just glanced his way or ignored him.
However, he couldn't help but feel that someone was staring at him more intently than the others. It was just his senses telling him that this was the case.
After bidding farewell to the two girls, he turned to look at the crowd.
His eyes quickly scanned the students; most of them were now doing their own things, with only a few of them still talking about him, mainly girls who wanted to approach him for the wrong reasons.
Just as Bell was about to turn away, his eyes caught a pair of almond-shaped, pale green ones, barely visible behind the shoulders of two passing students.
When they moved aside, the owner of those eyes came into full view.
'...Grace? Grace Hartley?'
He recognized her instantly, not just from the reports he'd compiled on all of the academy's students, but from the novel as well. She was also one of the few he'd taken the time to study in depth. After all, she was one of the female protagonists.
Neither of them spoke.
Even when she realized he was staring, she didn't look away. Her gaze stayed locked on him as if she didn't care that he'd caught her in the act. There was this intense fire burning in her eyes.
'Why is she staring at me like that? Does she have something to say to me?'
According to the novel, there shouldn't have been any interaction between the two characters, but he already knew that the novel was an unreliable source, so anything was fair game.
'If she won't come up to me, then I'll go to her.'
Expression unreadable as usual, he stepped forward.
But when he took that step, she started to frown and took a step backward. Students who were walking between them obscured his vision of her, and when the view cleared up, he was looking at her back as she was walking away from him.
Before he could process it, a girl stepped into his path, accompanied by her group of friends.
"Bell, are you free this weekend? We're having a small get-together and wanted to invite you."
He forced a polite smile that was extremely fake, but to others, it looked natural. "Thank you for the offer, but I'll have to decline. I already have plans for this weekend."
"Oh! T-then how about next—"
"I won't be free for a while," he said, the smile vanishing. The message didn't quite land the first time, but maybe now, she got it.
"...Oh."
He walked off without another word. Even so, the girls didn't curse him under their breath. If anything, they were giddy.
"He spoke to us."
"No, he spoke to me."
"I should've asked instead!"
"That's what you get for chickening out."
"I'll go next time."
"Sure. The day you grow the courage is the day the planet explodes."
"Shut up."
"Hehehe."
By then, Bell was long gone, heading toward class. Still, the image of Grace's stare lingered in his mind.
What was that all about? Why did she look at him with disdain? Did something happen between their families because there was no animosity between the two of them, according to what he knew and what he read?
'Did she find out about the incident?'
He shook his head. It didn't seem like she did. There was disdain in her expression, but it wasn't the same kind of hatred that those who knew about the incident would show when they saw him.
Grace's face was as if she had stepped on dog poop. Those who knew the incident — their faces more akin to eating dog poop.
Yuck.