Night of Eden 33

 Chapter 33

***

"You're going to the Shore?"

"With Nicaea?"

"As a real trainer?"

The questions fell like dominoes. Noah turned to his friends, the corners of his mouth slowly curling upward.

"Really?"

Someone exclaimed.

"Holy shit...!"

Someone jumped to his feet.

"Ha! What the hell... Huh?"

Kenneth, stormed over to Noah, biting his lip and clenching and unclenching his fists in front of his best friend. Then suddenly,

"...Congratulations, asshole!"

He shouted, throwing his arms around Noah’s neck.

"Let go... Get off me, you asshole...."

Noah cackled and pushed away with his elbow, but to no avail.

"Gentlemen! Raise a toast! Noah Miller, the brat, has finally become a tamer! A tamer!"

Kenneth clutched Noah's nicely tanned face in both hands and kissed him on the lips.

"Ew, you crazy bastard!"

Noah grimaced in disgust.

Wahahahaha!

The onlookers grabbed their stomachs and laughed.

"Anyway, congratulations. You finally made it."

"Oh, I'm blinded by tears, Noah."

A group of young men clinked glasses in front of Noah.

They were all male servants of Belvida, the youngest and most virile of them all, footmen.

The footmen were responsible for tending to their male masters and greeting guests at the manor's entrance, so they were usually in good shape.

As a result, the maids, who were in charge of cleaning up the kitchen today, were all dazzled.

"Any other man, I'd be jealous and want to kill him, but not Noah Miller. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Yeah, me too."

There were a lot of yes, yes, yes.

"In that spirit, cheers!"

The chef passed around another mug of ale, as if waiting for the glass to empty.

The others he handed out himself, but Noah's was different: it was Penny, the chef's nine-year-old daughter, who handed him the glass.

A skinny little girl with her hair parted in two, she walked eagerly over with a glass bigger than her face.

The glass was less than half full when she set it down with a clang.

"You promised me, didn't you? I'll be in charge when you become a tamer."

Noah's eyebrows shot up at the angry Penny's words, but then he smiled and bowed politely, like a knight before a queen.

A wave of laughter swept across the table.

Noah took Penny's hand like a gentleman and led her to the chef. When they returned to their friends, there were cheers all around.

Kenneth waited for the commotion to die down before he spoke.

"So, when are we leaving for the Shore?"

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? That soon?"

Noah shrugged.

"The heir to House Macmilan is coming, and my orders are to show him Nicaea and then follow him directly to the Shore."

"Oh, right, there's a shooting match tomorrow, isn't there?"

The conversation shifted briefly to clay shooting.

As with any Belvida servant, there was some debate about who would win.

Kenneth leaned in through the chatter.

"By the way, Noah, why are you unveiling Nicaea so soon? Wasn't he a surprise from Lady Liana?"

"He was. She was supposed to ride up on horseback and present him to Master Theodore in person."

Noah took a sip of his ale, then continued.

"But the lady is running late, and I suppose she felt bad about keeping her fiancé waiting, so she asked Master Edwin to deliver the gift for her."

"Aha!"

Kenneth exclaimed.

"She’s going to break her promise and pass it off as a gift?"

Noah smirked and clinked his ale mug.

"So how many days are you going to spend on the Shore before coming back?"

"Well, I don't know the exact date. Two days, maybe, or a week? If he adjusts well, I’ll be back soon enough, and if he doesn't, I’ll have to stay with him. Horses are sensitive creatures, especially Nicaea."

"I see."

Kenneth nodded. Someone who hadn't been listening stepped between them.

"Huh? So Noah Miller works for Master Theodore, then?"

"Oh, yeah?" said another, throwing his arms around his friends' shoulders.

"So our Mr. Miller is going to be working for Master Theodore!"

"Cheers!"

Kenneth raised his glass, and another five clinked.

Gulp, gulp, the maids watching from the kitchen giggled under their breath as the cool ale slid down the young men's throats.

"But you're not going to like this, Noah."

A girlish voice interrupted. It was the chef, standing a few feet away from the table.

"It's Theodore MacMilan, not someone else."

The young men's eyes narrowed, and then one, two, nodded.

"Well, I've heard he's got quite the personality."

"It's not just his personality. I've heard that Master Theodore's knowledge of horses, in particular, is as good as any trainer. He has already owned three Nicaea-class horses."

"Yes, and Shore has one... what is her name again, Rothesandra? Isn't that one of yours?"

Worry slowly crept into the men’s faces. As if to disperse the tension, Kenneth spoke up again.

"Don't worry, boys," he said, "I'll tell you what our Noah Miller is like."

His pupils were glistening with pride.

"He's the one who survived the 'stables' with the nastiest bastards in Belvida, and for the last five years he's had to clean the head trainer's horse-shit boots every day, every day."

"Yeah, he's not exactly handy. And he's awfully good at flattery."

"In that spirit, another one!"

Kenneth held out his glass.

Cheers!

The large mugs of ale clinked back and forth.

The young men ate and drank until the chef announced that they were out of alcohol.

Noah watched quietly, then slipped out just in time.

Penny, who was playing with a rock on the floor, spotted him and followed him out.

"I want to go see the baby pig."

Noah smirked and swung Penny up onto one of his shoulders. The child giggled bashfully, her jet-black hair tousled in a mess.

They headed straight for the barn.

As soon as their feet touched the ground, Penny ran to the pigpen. Noah handed her a piglet, Diggie. The spotted pig had grown plump in a few days and was glistening all over.

"This one, Penny, is yours while I'm gone."

Noah patted her on the head and headed for his room next to the barn. As if on some kind of string, Penny trotted after him, carrying Diggie.

He was about to say no when he remembered that Penny's mom had died suddenly of a fever only a few months earlier.

"Do you want some water?"

Penny shook her head. Then she pulled Noah's chair over and sat down as if it were her own.

Noah gathered his clothes and went to the storage room. When he came back into the room with his changed clothes Penny's eyes widened at the sight of him.

"What do you think?"

He was wearing a suit jacket instead of his work overalls.

It was made to imitate the sports jackets of the aristocracy, with a dressmaker's quill pinned to the pocket.

Penny stared at it for a long moment, then blurted out.

"It's fake."

Noah, who had been fiddling with the shield-shaped warpen, couldn't help but cringe.

"Bessie said the real ones from the Anderson Taylor Shop have three flags embroidered on them, not two."

"...Really?"

Noah frowned a little.

"It's okay, though, because you’re handsome."

At any other time, Noah would have laughed it off, but his head snapped to the faded mirror.

Was it because he's been traveling a lot lately? Why was his skin so dark?

Maybe he should go to Lu, she said she had some herbs to whiten the skin….

He looked up and down at his tanned face, then straightened his disheveled hair.

He flipped it to the left, then to the right. He even tried to gather it all the way to the center.

"Ugh, tacky. Come here."

Penny put down Diggie and walked over to Noah. Her head didn't even touch his chest as she stood on the stool.

"It's a style that's supposedly in vogue among the Masters of Peron...."

Penny muttered and smeared saliva on her hand, then moved Noah's hair, strand by strand, to one side.

It was messy spit, not pomade, but the effect was amazing.

Noah looked less like a stablehand and more like a young entrepreneur on Eighth Avenue, an up-and-coming neighborhood in Peron.

"Not bad...."

Noah raised one hand toward Penny. Penny gave him a high five, pretending not to blush.

Then there was a knock on the door.

Penny ran over to answer the door again. And the moment she noticed the person standing in the doorway,

"....?"

Both Penny and Noah could not help but look surprised.

"Uh... There...."

It was Dorothy.

Penny had always looked up to her sister Bessie, the leader of the Belvida maids, so it was only natural for her to blush at the sight of the shy Dorothy.

Noah quickly stopped Penny in her tracks.

"...What's going on?"

"You know what...."

Dorothy hadn't said a word, but her face was bright red.

"I, I'm...."

Noah had no idea, but Dorothy hadn't been able to take her eyes off him since the kitchen.

To her, Noah Miller was a man who could catch her eye anytime, anywhere.

But here he was, dressed in a crisp white shirt, a jacket with a warpen, and his hair neatly combed back, and Dorothy's heart skipped a beat.

She could feel the man across from her squinting at her in confusion.

Dorothy reminded herself that she was here for something else entirely, not the handsome man in front of her.

"...Are you sure you want to... going to the Shore?"

Noah nodded.

"Then... Dana… you’ll be able to meet her, right?"

"Maybe?"

"Well... You know...... if you happen to meet Dana..."

Dorothy fumbled in her pocket.

"Can you give this to her?"

Noah lowered his head. In her little palm was a tiny pin. Unadorned, plain.

"It's for... You know, to fix the hat the maids wear….”

Dorothy pointed to the starch white hat on her head.

"...tell her congratulations….on becoming a handmaiden.”

Dorothy's face turned an unbearable shade of red.

"Of course...."

And with that, she scurried away.

Noah stared after her, a slow smile spreading across his face.

When Dana became a handmaiden, she wouldn’t wear a hat anymore...

Even as he thought this, his large hand clutched the tiny pin tightly.

***

*Thought: I’m worried Noah will be a victim in Theo’s mad plan he has for Dana

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