Second

As time passed, night came. The ambience of the night, no pun intended, is as surreal as ever. Perhaps it is the only part of a day that is worth waiting for. At least, it is eternal as time is, which can be said as the only concept with perpetuality. Well, it would be the only non-boring forever-recurring thing as Ayre enjoyed this time.

He was still contemplating on all the things that had been said during the day.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS "TELL YOUR PARENTS THANK YOU" SUPPOSED TO BE?!"

Less than contemplating, more on ranting. However, it did not last long. He have this weird ability to ignore things.

Although the maids were startled, they were used to it so they just ignore the rants. He arrived in his room. Still dimly lit, still relaxing. Not until he closed the door when he saw a humanoid shadow... maid?

"Maid-san?" He blurted out. It was a momentary shock but he alerted himself immediately. Hey, if he's not having a memory loss, he would clearly remember something like that happening just two nights ago.

"Eh?! I-I'm sorry I was cleaning your room and the back of the door just had to be this dirty. Ehehehe."

This flirty maid again. Fuck off.

"In the middle of twilight? In this dimly lit room? Damn, Amon's better than you in making excuses."

"But... excuses? We are reducing e-AH!" The maid exclaimed out of nowhere.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." The maid was embarrassed.

"Heh, how cute."

Of course, he was referring to something else rather than the maid being embarrassed and blushing. Although he said "cute", his face had a hint of seriousness.

"Don't worry, I will. Kind of ironic though, isn't it?"

"What is ironic, Sir Ayre?"

"Nothing. You may go."

The conversation ended at that note.

If he was not wrong, it was the same maid that gave back the letter two nights ago. Ayre frowned at that and asked to particularly no one.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Someone answered.

"HOLY LADY OF THE FUCKING LAWS DON'T ANSWER OUT OF NOWHERE!"

It was Dan.

"Wow. You know I have the habit of sneaking in."

"Damn you. Why are you here?"

The conversation turned serious. Well, even though they are friends, they still have a master-employee relationship.

"The letter that was supposed to be sent to Eryl. I just remembered, did you not already told me to sent it back in the afternoon after the visit from your father?"

"You haven't returned it immediately?" Ayre noticed another point.

"No..."

"..."

"Gomen;_;"

"I'll ignore it. Anyways, what were you saying?"

"I am just wondering why you told me to return another letter."

"Oh yes that. I forgot that I told you to return it back before."

"..."

"Anyway, its not an issue, not an issue."

"Now we're even."

"So? Where is this letter? Damn, what could have been sent if you were not paying attention?" He complimented Dan to erase his previous stupidity.

"Nowhere." He said with a blank face, clearly mocking Ayre, treating as if he's stupid.

"The maid gave that to you right? The letter? You know, the previous maid that was here earlier?"

"You mean the one you're flirting with earlier?"

"Heh, stupid people won't get what happened earlier." Ayre retorted as an attempt to reclaim his dignity with a smug face and a tint of seriousness.

"Tch. No. It seems like that maid handed it to someone else. I think she had the duty of overseeing the family dinner at that time. This was given to me the next morning."

"Are you all treating my orders as bread? So cheap?"

"Hey, bread is not cheap nowadays."

"Damn. I want to fire that maid along with you. So my orders are worth less than bread huh. Going back, where it is?"

"Not here. I will get it later and give it to you. I still have some orders to attend to. I just let you know. Goodbye."

"By later, you mean tomorrow. Its already night." Ayre complained.

"Yeah, yeah." Dan replied as he jumped down the window.

...

"Now to think some things through."

Ayre noticed something strange with the past events as he interacted with the people. It was not just a feeling of something out of place. The maid itself told her what was happening. Of course, in a general sense.

"I should go grab dinner, I mean attend the dinner."

Ayre left the room without really turning off the lighting as it was already turned off. He really loved the dark.

A loud sound resounded in the dining room.

Like the foreboding start of war that was, the horn. Except, it was a door that produced it.

"What a really old door. Father, replace this old thing."

"What, you hate having that kind of flashy entrance? How about don't just be late?"

It wasn't his father. Who was his father again? Oh yes, Crill Bushnell. He was not the type to include himself in his children's immature squabbles.

"I can't. Its like, you can't stop being stupid, right?"

"I am not stupid."

"Argumentative."

Crill: *clears throat*. I don't know the onomatopoeia of it. Oh, is it "ahem"?

"Something happened a few days ago. It is not currently advisable to be out around alone, running from place to place so as much as possible, don't be alone by yourself whenever you go out. I know everyone is an adult here. I am just giving a reminder."

"Yes, Father."

Then, the dinner started. It was actually because of this announcement that Ayre attended the dinner, albeit late, instead of just sleeping directly and just having a maid prepare food for him later deep at night.

Munch munch.

"So it'll be much stricter huh."

"Yes."

"I will not tell you the details but what happened is a fairly serious event with some history."

The dinner finished with the clattering of the utensils. Nothing was said after that.

Ayre finished his usual routine of taking a bath for an hour before laying on his bed. Administrative duties at night? Hell, no. That was then when he remembered about ambience.

He lit the candle up and let his blood drop.

Whoosh. The same reaction happened. However, this time, he tried manipulating it forcefully instead of just waving his hand back and forth.

The anemic Ayre got tired a few minutes later.

"Fuck, how do you do this?"

All he managed to do in a quarter of an hour was create a very general spherical shape that was not so compact. It always scattered when his attention waver even for only a little bit.

"Now, I am out of blood."

The weird thing about the candle is that even though it is burning, the amount of wax was not reducing.

"Weird. Is it also because of ambience?"

He slept after taking his anti-anemia pill.

...

The moon set, the morning came.

'Fuck mornings.' Ayre thought.

'Maybe this is also perpetual.'

Going into his office, he noticed a letter.

"Finally. Dan did his job right." He sighed, Of course he was just playing around. He know Dan have his own things to worry about.

He then checked the content of the letter.

"HE IS BACK!"

It only contained three letters. And of course the sender. Well, at least the surname of the sender.

Ayre read it softly in a natural manner, oblivious of this name, and its significance.

"Lawson."