Sir Albert's Concern

"Allow me to give you a demonstration, My Lady."

Laura's heart jumped a beat when she heard the store owner.

After giving a sneaky glance at the obedient dog at his feet, she had an ominous feeling rising in her guts.

"The first step is to choose between a soft muzzle, or a basket muzzle. Both have their own use, so it's very important to choose wisely depending on the animal and the situation."

Lloyd took a muzzle from a shelve.

"This is a basket muzzle. It may look harmful to the animal, but it's totally safe. For example, dogs and other canines seem more comfortable in basket muzzles than soft muzzles because their mouth isn't being held closed."

It had a 'prison bars' appearance, which literally looked like a basket made of leather straps.

Lloyd slipped the muzzle around the nose of one of Blackie's heads, before tightening the two leather bands behind the dog's pointy ears.

Laura had a pale face.

She watched in silence the store owner casually attaching a piece of leather to the maw of a Thaumiel-class beast that could destroy an entire city if it was pissed off.

She wanted to run out of the store and get as far as she could from this lunatic, but the fear of being devoured by the Cerberus if she tried to leave paralyzed her.

After confirming that the muzzle was well attached to Blackie's head, Lloyd nodded confidently and took another one from the shelf.

"This one, however, is a soft muzzle. Do not be lured by its name, as it's everything but soft. It is more stressful for the animal, so you need to use it only as a last resort."

Compared to the basket muzzle that had enough space between the straps of leather for Blackie to pant, drink, or eat, this one was formed with a single piece of fabric closely tightened by tough lanyards of rubber.

Lloyd put the muzzle on Blackie's second head, and confirmed once again that it was well attached.

"Perfect."

Laura realized why she had a bad omen when she saw the store owner slowly turning his head toward her with a wide grin.

"I'll tell Blackie to bite you, but fear not, nothing bad will happen."

She almost passed out when she heard him.

'DO YOU REALLY THINK A STUPID PIECE OF LEATHER CAN STOP A THAUMIEL-CLASS FROM DEVOURING ME ?!'

...was what she wanted to yell at the store owner's face, but she didn't have the courage to do so.

Her body was frozen by fear.

She didn't dare move a single finger in front of the two-headed Cerberus.

Accepting her fate, she just hoped the Knights would find enough remains to identify her corpse and notify her family of her ridiculous death, so they could apprehend this dangerous lunatic.

"Blackie..." Lloyd called his dog with a sweet voice.

"Grrrr..." Understanding what was about to come, the black dog turned both heads in direction of the young lady and lowly growled.

"ATTACK!!" Lloyd suddenly shouted, pointing to the frightened girl with his finger.

"BLAFF! BLAFF!" Before leaping on Laura, only the head with the basket muzzle was able to bark, which was proof of the store items' quality.

Laura, who closed her eyes shivering in fear, was already resigned to her fate.

With its four massive paws pinning her to her seat, both of Blackie's heads did their hardest to break the muzzle and take a bite of the appetizing young Lady, but their mouth couldn't break free.

After a few seconds without feeling anything except for the hot breath of Blackie's two heads and the viscous saliva dripping down from their mouths, Laura slowly opened her eyes.

"Eh ?!..."

Watching the two heads of the Cerberus towering over her trying to break free from the muzzle, Laura couldn't believe a mere muzzle stopped a Thaumiel-class beast from feasting on her.

"Is this staged ?!" She thought out loud.

"Of course it is not, Lady Greenhall. I am not that shameless, after all." Lloyd said proudly, but for some reason, Laura fixed him with doubtful eyes.

'If sending an unrestrained Thaumiel-class beast onto your customers is not shameless, I don't know what is.' she thought, but didn't speak aloud this time.

"Blackie, sit !"

Lloyd called back his dog when he noticed the stream of saliva dripping from its two mouths soiling the lady's clothes.

The product demonstration and Blackie's performance were a success, but in the heat of the moment, he completely forgot that this young lady was a noble.

"Pard-"

As he was about to present his excuses and hand her another clean towel so she could wipe out the saliva, he got abruptly cut off by the young lady.

"I-I want to buy these !"

Although young, Laura was a very smart girl.

She understood that each additional minute she passed inside this crazy store was another chance for the owner and his horrific beast to bully her.

When she saw him about to say something, she just used the first excuse that passed through her mind to leave.

"Ah, sure. Do you-"

Lloyd didn't have time to say anything before getting cut off again.

"I-I just want to buy t-these muzzles, p-please !"

'-and get the hell out of here !' Laura thought, completely exhausted.

Seeing such enthusiasm from this new customer, Lloyd felt proud of himself.

'This performance does wonder everytime. I should treat Blackie to a good meal tonight.'

Laura saw the store owner smile while removing the muzzles from his dog's heads.

He then took two new items from the shelf and went back behind his counter.

"Do you want a bag-"

"T-Thanks you very much, farewell !!"

Lloyd saw Laura throw a golden coin on his counter, before storming out of the store.

Through the front window, he could see her slender silhouette vanishing away, running amidst the heavy rain.

"Yet another strange customer..." Lloyd sighed.

"Hmpf!" Even Blackie snarled in disdain at the running girl.

"The people living here are truly eccentrics..."

"Woof Woof!"

"Yes, yes... you deserved it after all. I'll roast you an entire chicken tonight, how about that ?."

"WOOF!"

___

While Lloyd was chatting with his cute two-headed -Thaumiel-class- pet, Laura was frantically running under the rain.

She didn't even care where she was going, she just wanted to get as far as possible from this place.

She came to an intersection, but she didn't stop. She ran in a random direction, before suddenly bumping into someone.

*BANG*

Her bottom hit the ground for the second time in a single day.

"Argh..." It felt as if she ran head-first into a wall of stone.

"Can't you look where you're going you fuck-"

Laura was about to curse the living shit out of the person she had collided with, when she noticed a wrinkled hand holding a polished black cane with a serpent-shaped handle just in front of her face.

Her body trembled.

Only one person in the entire capital had such a cane, and unfortunately, she knew him far too well.

As she slowly looked up, her eyes met a pair of vivid green vertical pupils coldly looking down at her.

The old man in front of her was dressed in an out-fashioned western-style suit. He had a monocle on his left eye, and a perfectly cut mustache strewn with gray hair.

She recognized him instantly.

Just his glare alone was enough to freeze her blood.

"Oho, isn't it Miss Greenhall ? What kind of business do you have in this remote commoner area to be wandering the streets so early in the morning, hm ?"

The old man asked softly, but Laura could see his vertical pupil constricting as he was staring at her.

The murderous intent he was emitting wasn't a joke.

"A-Ah, P-Professor...!! I'm s-sorry, I got lost and-"

"Lost, you said ?!" The old man's face took a solemn expression.

He firmly grabbed Laura by her shoulders and brought his face closer.

"Eeek!- Hmpf..." Laura screamed in surprise, but the old man put his right hand over her mouth to shut her up.

He quickly watched his surrounding to confirm that they were alone, before turning back his head to his student and asking with a menacing voice.

"Did you perhaps... enter a certain pet shop to ask for directions ?..."

"Hmpf hmpf..." Laura tried to remove the man's hand to answer, but it didn't budge a single inch from her mouth.

"Do not talk, just nod to answer me."

Laura frantically nodded her head with watery eyes.

Like every other student of the Royal Academy, this peculiar professor terrified her to the core.

Viscount Albert Lupus, of House Achalinus, infamously known as Serpentdoom.

He got this sinister nickname from the army regiment he served in during the last Great War after he flattened an entire city in a single night.

He massacred both the enemy soldiers and the innocent citizens they held hostages alike, without an ounce of hesitation or mercy.

"I see..." Viscount Albert said, with a raspy voice.

She felt as if his piercing green eyes were directly peering into her soul.

"I guess only time will tell if this was a blessed or cursed encounter for you."

The old man finally removed his hand from her mouth, before straightening up his clothes.

"Under any circumstances shall you talk about this shop. Understood ?" He said in a very inquisitive tone.

To Laura's ears, this didn't sound like a question at all...

'If you talk about it, you're done.'

...was the true meaning behind his words.

"Y-Yes, P-professor...!"

"Good. Now go, but keep in mind ; If I ever catch you wandering these streets before your first class again, even the full might House Greenhall won't stop me from disciplining you."

"Y-Yes...!"

Laura, who was on the verge of exploding in tears and almost peed herself in fear, left as fast as she could without looking back.

She didn't even bother wiping clean her watery eyes nor the stream of snort flowing down from her nose.

She just ran like a madman.

It was a shameful sight, not befitting at all of her noble status.

At this moment, she had but a single thought in mind.

'I beg of you Zenon, God of Wisdom, Father of All, please allow me go back in time and slap myself for thinking of sneaking out of the mansion....'

If only the Her from the past knew that in less than an hour she would be assaulted by a Thaumiel-class Cerberus and then threatened by Albert Serpentdoom Achalinus...

___

Lloyd was patting the heads of his sleeping dog while reading a book, when the bell at the entrance of his shop rang.

*ding ding*

As he looked up, he saw an old man with a fairly elegant appearance walk into the store and approach his counter.

"Good morning, Sir Achalinus." Lloyd welcomed his regular customer, slightly bowing his head.

"Boss Lloyd, I already told you to just call me Albert when we are alone."

The old man, who just a few minutes ago was radiating killing intent toward a mere student, was now warmly smiling at the shop owner with an embarrassed expression.

If Laura saw this scene, she would probably have passed out of shock.

He seemed like a completely different person.

"Ahah, my apologies. It is still uncomfortable for me to call a Viscount by his first name."

Even if Lloyd knew this man for a few months already, he still didn't dare to call him by his first name.

Because of his shut-in personality, Lloyd was not too informed about the outside world. However, even he heard of the prestigious Royal Acadamy of Valor.

The man before him was not only a senior professor from said Academy, but he was also a noble with the title of Viscount from a reputed House.

It goes without saying that the gap in status between Lloyd, a commoner who humbly owns a small shop, and Viscount Achalinus, a respected professor from the greatest Academy in the Capital City, was as great as between heaven and earth.

'I'm glad that Sir Albert has always been cordial to me and doesn't seem to mind the differences in status,' Lloyd thought, not realizing how far he was from the truth.

Albert took off his wet coat and hung it on the coat rack, before sitting on a wooden barstool in front of the counter.

Lloyd noticed the solemn look on the old man's face.

If Lloyd opened his shop so early today, it was because Sir Albert contacted him a week ago to schedule a meeting.

'Did something serious happen to one of his pets ?...'

Lloyd recalled that the old man particularly liked snakes.

Although not as widespread as dogs or cats, taking a snake as a pet was still rather common on Earth.

The only reason why it wasn't as widespread as other animals was that reptiles required a lot more care. Contrary to popular belief, reptiles are extremely sensitive to their environment.

When Lloyd worked on Earth as Yeo Kyubok, it was not unusual for him to hear clients complain about their snake succumbing to a random virus or bacteria just because they forgot to wash their hands before handling it.

Seeing the usually talkative old man not say anything, Lloyd hesitated for a brief moment, before asking.

"Is everything alright, Sir Albert ?"

As if he was waiting for that question, Albert took out something from his pocket and silently put it down on the counter.

It was an emerald-green gem the size of a hand.

"Does it belong to one of your snake ?" Lloyd asked, as he removed the boiling water from the hot plate behind his counter.

"This... is one of my children's scales, indeed. The only one I could find..." Albert said with a heavy voice.

He had a sorrowful look on his face, but his eyes radiated a murderous intent so intense that Blackie woke up and both heads started to growl at the old man.

"Grrr..."

Realizing his mistake, Albert soon regained control of his emotions.

Fortunately, it seemed like the store owner didn't care about his little slip of emotion.

Or rather, it was more accurate to say that even such a murderous intent didn't bother him.

'No matter how much progress I made since the first time I walked into this shop, he still appears unfathomable to me... I wonder what was Sir Aurelion's real motive of opening a pet store in such a place.' Albert thought silently, watching Lloyd preparing tea behind his counter.

Lloyd was well aware of how much the old man adored his pets. He knew that whenever he spoke of his 'children', he was actually referring about the snakes he was taking care of.

'As I thought, it seems like one of them died... I guess it happens even to the most careful pet owners. After all, snakes are such fragile creatures.'

Lloyd poured the boiling hot water into two cups, each containing a tea bag.

He then grabbed the emerald shell on his counter, and looked at it from different angles.

This scale was as large as his palm, which surprised him.

'Is Sir Albert raising some sort of large snake like Green Tree Pythons, or Boa Constrictors...?'

As he was turning the scale around, Lloyd noticed a faint scratch mark on its inside.

Albert was nervously observing the store owner, when suddenly, he saw him furrow his brows and put down the scale.

'Did he find something ?...'

Albert was desperate to find a lead about who had killed one of his favorite beasts while he was absent from his estate.

For an entire week, Albert searched everywhere in the Capital City. From the Royal Academy to the slums.

He questioned -or tortured- all the people he deemed capable of doing such a vile act behind his back, yet despite his best efforts, he didn't find a single clue.

His last hope was to visit the mysterious store owner who saved his life six months ago, and asks for his opinion.

Lloyd thought for a while, staring at Albert with his deep black eyes.

He then said with a serious, but disappointed expression.

"Sigh... I guess Sir Albert isn't as caring about his pets as I believed."

"???" Albert was taken aback.

His face paled at the words of the mysterious store owner.

___

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