12 The Not Very Amusing Merchant

The merchant started yelling as soon as he saw Carseain.

" You...You son of a bitch"

Carseain quaintly looked down on him. Rovenin and Nox stood behind him.

" Those arrogant eyes of yours, I'll gouge them out. Do you know who's backing I have? You'll pay for this."

He screamed with a mouth that had broken teeth. His saliva was flowing all over the cell.

"How filthy."

Carseain mumbled.

"Laugh while you can. You can't even do anything to me. You are just a noble brat."

Carseain narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

" I didn't come here to listen to your brainless chatter. It's not amusing in the least."

Carseain headed back.

Rovenin : " Young Master, what should we do with him?"

Carseain: "Hmm... He questioned my ability to do anything. that sort of makes me annoyed."

He tilted his head and scratch his chin.

Carseain: " Hey, Rovenin. Torture him spill the beans with 'those' ones."

Rovenin: " You mean…" those" ones.'

Carseain: "Yup, yup 'those' ones."

Rovenin : "That's a brilliant Idea! Young Master."

Carseain: "Use the ones from page 48. He dared call my mom a bitch."

Nox titled his head.

Nox:  'Ah... When the fat-ass called him a son of a bitch. He didn't punish him 'cause he offended him but his mother.'

Rovenin: "As you command."

Both of them had a grim reaper's smile.

Nox felt a chill down his spine. He had an eerie feeling about this.

Carseain: "All that's left is a report to the Marquis. After that, I should train for a bit"

Carseain stretched his hands.

Nox: 'Oh, he's doing it himself. I thought Sir Rovenin would do it as always.'

Nox stopped.

Rovenin: " Nox, what happened ?"

Nox: " I think I dropped something back there. Please go ahead. I shall follow you."

Carseain stared at him a little and walked ahead. Rovenin followed.

_________

Carseain finished the report and he was sealing it.

Knock Knock.

"Young Master, it's me. Nox"

"Come in."

Nox entered.

" Oh... You've already finished the report?"

" Yup! Deliver it for me."

"As you wish."

Nox was handed a letter containing barely two pages in it. He stared at it.

Nox : ' So thin. Are you sure you wrote everything? No, the question is, did you even write anything?'

Carseain: " Don't worry I wrote as much as it needed to be written."

Nox shrieked.

Nox: 'He's mind-reading again.'

Carseain: "I'm not."

Nox narrowed his eyes.

Carseain shrugged off and stretched his arms.

"Haa.. finally done. Where is My Sword?"

Carseain looked for it desperately.

Rovenin brought it to him.

Carseain unsheathed it and took a good look.

" I feel like I'm forgetting something"

He mumbled.

Rovenin: "Would you like a change of clothes, Young Master?"

Carseain: "Nope it's okay."

Carseain took off his shirt and threw it on the sofa.

He went towards the balcony and climbed over the railing.

Rovenin went stiff but his face was smiling.

Rovenin: " What are you doing?"

Carseain: "Going to the training grounds."

Rovenin: " The door is that way. You can use it or did you forget?"

Carseain grinned.

Carseain: "This is way faster."

Rovenin : " It seems that I must teach you again how to use a door."

A vein throbbed on Carseain's neck. He simply jumped off ignoring him.

Rovenin: " I don't know if he has gotten a little tamer or more savage."

Nox : " I have a feeling that we will be seeing more of this."

Rovenin shook his head, palming it.

"At Least he used the doors before."

________

Nox delivered the letter and went to Rovenin's office. He helped him with his work.

Nox: "Sir Rovenin."

Rovenin: "Hmm?"

Rovenin was focused on his work.

Nox: " There is something I wish to ask."

Rovenin titled his head.

Rovenin: "Go ahead"

Nox: " May I know what 'those' techniques are ?"

Rovenin: "Ah...those? When we were young we were playing in the shadow squad's office.

We happened to find some old documents. They actually were torture technique records which were forgotten because it was so brutal that no one could administer them."

Rovenin took out a thick stack of papers which was buried somewhere deep and dusty in his office.

"Here you go"

Rovenin said, brushing off the dust.

Nox took them with an awkward smile.

Nox: ' No wait You were kids right? How come you were in the shadow squad's office? What will you even play there?'

Nox sat on a chair and placed the papers on the desk. He read the first page and immediately shut it.

His legs were shaking and his hands were trembling.

' What the f*** is this? You said you were kids when you read this? This should be age restricted content.

Why the hell is it described so vividly?

What is with this lucid and expressive style of writing? Which scholar with a few screws loose wrote this? '

Nox saw the five names and slammed his head on the desk.

'Its Sir Rovenin!!!!!!!!!!!!'

He felt his soul leaving his body.

Nox : " Sir Rovenin, why is your name written here?"

His voice was shaking and his legs were stiff .

Rovenin: " Oh you mean the credits? I actually wrote the whole thing.

The original records were written too shabbily and it was hard to comprehend them.

So, I rewrote it for future reference.

You can have that copy if you want the original is at the Marquessate."

Nox: " Didn't you say that they were so brutal that no one could administer them. So who is doing it right now to the merchant?"

Rovenin: " A device is doing it."

Nox widened his eyes.

Nox : "Pardon me?"

Rovenin put his index finger on the chin while looking up trying to remember the facts.

Rovenin: " Since we used to be very busy, Young Master suggested that we built a remotely controlled device to do it. Since it was a waste to let it go. I remember him also drawing out a rough blueprint although it had the basics to it, it wasn't very helpful though but he got the basic structure right."

Rovenin laughed remembering those times.

Nox went blue.

Nox : ' These monsters...'

Rovenin finished the papers and his desk.

"You should read pages 48 to 50.

Although the name is not written, Young Master also wrote some of it himself. 48-50 is one of those."

Having said that, He went outside to oversee other things.

Nox: 'The Young Master? Hmmm...it might not be as brutal as the rest.'

Nox started reading page 48.

He was utterly mistaken.

He went and sat under the desk shaking and trying to hide. He was mumbling alone.

"Young Master is the incarnation of the Devil himself!

Wahhh....wahhh....

Rest in peace, fat-ass merchant."

Suddenly, Nox's chain of thought derailed.

" Isn't that wonderful of Young Master?

As expected of an Esselgarde, he has to punish people rather than criminals with extreme brutality and even more so who dare go against the Esselgardes.

How very honourable of you, Young master! "

Nox was perfectly convinced that the Esselgardes could never be wrong.

And that it was not some fragile image he had but the truth.

< The reaction of Rovenin who can see this. >

Snap out of it, Nox. Young Master only got extra brutal because the filthy fat ass cursed his mother.

< However, Nox doesn't know this.>

He was merrily on his way to work.

" Now that I know what's going to happen to him. I'm sorry for what I did back then."

__________

A few hours ago, in the prison.

When Carseain and Rovenin went ahead of Nox.

Nox bowed and saw his Master leaving and when he raised his head his eyes turned cold.

He took a deep breath and walked towards the merchant.

He stood in front of him for three minutes but the merchant didn't realise that.

"Hey, fat-ass"

The merchant flinched.

"You, when did you get here? Di-did that person send you to rescue me? Then get me ou--"

Nox threw a small knife slicing through his cheek.

"Shut up."

This time there was bloodlust in his voice.

The merchant was sweating.

" I've been watching you for a while but you really are pathetic.

Just how useless could you be to not amuse the Young Master."

He went in and retrieved his knife. The merchant's voice didn't come out.

" Ugh... it's really filthy. I believe it was for the best that the Young Master didn't deal with you personally.

As a butler, it is my duty to not let him come in contact with such filth."

Nox started placing cuts on his body.

"Actually I was really looking forward to seeing Young Master punish you, it's really a letdown."

"Ugh...Ugh..."

The merchant screamed in pain.

"How useless, you can't even be used to alleviate some of the Young Master's stress ."

He increased the force with which he was cutting him.

"Ahhhh....Ahhhh..."

"It's a shame I can't eliminate you myself.

I don't know what the Young Master is planning on doing.

However, I also don't think Our Young Master has gone soft with his change, but just in case...."

Nox took out a tiny vial with a liquid in it. He poured the liquid inside the merchant's mouth.

"Oh... there's still some leftover. It's not coming out. It's not good to waste it.

You see it is expensive as it stops your blood from clotting."

He crushed the glass vial inside the merchant's mouth.

The merchant was forced to swallow the glass shards.

"Hmm...very good. Nothing wasted."

Nox smiled. The merchant was silently crying.

He bled continuously and a few pieces of glass shards were still piercing his mouth and throat.

Nox wiped the blood on his face and came out.

As he was on his way to Carseain's office a maid stopped him.

"Nox! Were you hurt? There's blood on your shirt."

He found a red spot a little below his bow tie.

Nox hissed immediately.

"Shhh...."

He went and whispered in her ear.

"You see, big sis. I was hungry so I swiped some ketchup and sandwiches from the kitchen."

He turned his head on both sides to check if anyone was listening.

"I think the ketchup fell at that time."

He joined his hands and made a puppy face.

" Please... keep it a secret, pretty please. Pretty Lady"

"Hahaha... stop it, Nox. Okay, I will."

"Thanks!"

"Don't do that next time, okay? If you're hungry just come to me. I'll get something for you."

She said, patting his head.

"Okay."

They waved at each other and went back to their work.

'Esselgarde is such a peaceful place.'