Villainess [6]: Edward and Noel Seek Clues
Red Pill [0]: Clues, Inferences
After mulling over the finer details of the disappearance with Count Cosgrove and then leaving the Royal Palace that evening, Margrave Sydney had his two older sons go to Guinevere House to follow up on Count Cosgrove’s initial search of Lady Childeron and Lady Felton’s dorm rooms later that night. As such, the brothers Lord Edward Sydney and Sir Noel Sydney split up their workload with Edward searching Lady Children’s room and Noel searching Lady Felton’s room, both rooms on the first floor. When their search turned up nothing, they had the guards on duty that morning summoned to Guinevere House and spent the next two hours up to 11:00 p.m. questioning them and the maids and students that were there that morning (Miss Edgeworth included) but got nothing, save that none of them had seen Lady Childeron or Lady Felton after they left their dorms.
Of the three sons of Margrave Rory Sydney, Kevin was the youngest and the sluggard of the three, Noel was the middle child and the smartest, and Edward was the eldest and the designated playboy. Hence, Kevin dressed like a delinquent, Noel dressed like a dandy, and Edward was a charming mix of both that often stole women’s gazes and colored their cheeks rosy and fluttered their hearts at his roguish yellow eyes and bad-boy grin and easy manner of talking. In fact, Edward had such an easy time talking with the female students and maids in Guinevere House that Noel had to remind his brother on the sly that they were on duty chasing down leads, not off duty chasing after women’s skirts.
The next day, while the professors were busy questioning their students in their homerooms, the Sydney brothers expanded their search area and spent the morning and early afternoon talking with the maids and the guardsmen at Miriam House and Mariana House and then at the Royals House and Leeds House and at Jeremy House in the Garrison Quarters. The result of their efforts was that none of them had seen Lady Childeron or Lady Felton at all since yesterday morning, meaning they had taken steps to escape detection from even the guards on duty at the time both ladies left the school grounds. Still, the hearsay they received about the circumstances surrounding these events had them retracing their steps in Mariana House and Guinevere House that housed most of the key participants.
At Marian House, for instance, after Lady Kessler and the Drevis sisters returned to Lady Fleming’s dorm that afternoon, where two of Marquess Fleming’s guards manned their stations, the brothers questioned the girls, but none of them had a clue where the missing ladies could have gone. But then the girls included Miss Edgeworth’s connection to Lady Childeron and Lady Felton’s disappearance, saying those three bitches (their words and Lady Kessler’s emphasis) kept preventing them from meeting with Lady Fleming in the hallways during school hours in the weeks leading up to their disappearance. When the brothers asked if they thought their departure had anything to do with having Lady Fleming set up, they all nodded and said that she had been subjected to their setups for weeks. When they asked how they got involved, the girls said that two of those bitches (Lady Felton and Lady Childeron) gave them fake eviction notices and attacked Lady Kessler in the hallway yesterday, because they all witnessed Rosalie setting up Lady Fleming last Friday at the courtyard fountain.
As for Lady Fleming, who had been at her dorm all day recuperating from her injury at the hands of the Prince, she said she had not seen Lady Childeron or Lady Felton yesterday at all. But on hearing her friends’ observations on what happened during the fourth week of school, Janet had a panic attack, but after a few moments of recuperating, she clued the brothers in on the collective involvement of Lady Childeron and Lady Felton and even his Highness with Miss Edgeworth’s setups against her. After concluding their questions, the brothers were about to leave, when Viscountess Durham arrived to check up on Lady Fleming, so they waited in the hallway for a time and talked with the guards sent from Marquess Fleming. When the viscountess came out again, they asked her for details: her observation was peculiar. After repeating what they already knew, she said that Lady Fleming’s aura felt different from the previous times she had seen her in class. When they asked her to explain, she told them that Lady Fleming’s presence had become very heavy, even oppressive, and asked the brothers if they felt a similar vibe when they talked with her. They said they had but chalked it up to Lady Fleming’s panic attack after realizing the involvement of Lady Childeron and Lady Felton and even his Highness with Miss Edgeworth’s schemes, then asked Viscountess Durham why she brought it up.
“I’ve felt a presence that heavy once before,” the viscountess said, “and that was at the end of my time as a student in Lassen Academy at the graduation party. You know which one I’m talking about, right?”
The Sydney brothers nodded.
The magic duel between two saintess candidates during that graduation party, Lady Bartleby and Lady Weaver, still lingered on the lips of nobles and commoners alike, albeit in whispers in light of the former’s death. Of course, that duel had been eclipsed by another between their father and Marquess Fleming in a surprise upset that had since cast a pall over their father’s legacy as the first member in their family to become the Captain of the King’s Royal Guard.
Sir Noel Sydney turned from these thoughts and said, “Do you think that has anything to do with the missing Lady Childeron and Lady Felton?”
The viscountess grimaced and said, “I hope not. After finding out that almost all of the students in Lassen Academy expect her downfall at any time, Lady Fleming has more than enough against her already.”
When the students and maids started lingering at their doors to eavesdrop, the viscountess left the Sydney brothers with a lead that went nowhere. Tantalizing as it was, there was no real link between Lady Fleming’s aura and the disappearance of Lady Fleming’s former friends save for a broken friendship. At most, the import of most of the students and maids they had talked to put Lady Fleming in a bad light, which their father had briefed them on beforehand.
(Of course, unbeknownst to both brothers and the viscountess, Janet’s clones had been observing their exchanges with Janet and Mindy and the Drevis sisters inside and Viscountess Durham out in the hallway. As such, under the orders of Janet’s ex-suicide clone, two clones followed the brothers out of Mariana House as the pair headed to their next destination.)
As for Guinevere House, after greeting the guards and passing by the open double doors, they entered upon a scene of several schoolgirls surrounding one of their own in the central hallway, all of them hurling questions. In the center of it all was the object of their inquiry, Miss Edgeworth, struggling to answer everyone’s questions amidst the escalating hearsay about a recent engagement (as three more of Janet’s clones were there observing her). Meanwhile, a white-haired and blue-eyed brother-sister duo, a butler and a personal maid, were carrying out Miss Edgeworth’s luggage from her dorm room and passing by on their way to the open double doors.
So the brothers asked the butler what’s happening, and he said, “Miss Edgeworth is switching dorms.”
“To where?” Edward said.
“To the Royals House,” the butler said.
Unaware of the foregoing events at the Academy, Noel said, “But why is she going there?”
“She’s engaged to his Highness.”
“WHAT?” both brothers said in unison.
“I know it’s sudden, gentlemen,” the butler said.
“Then what’s going to happen to Lady Fleming?” Noel said.
“I don’t even want to guess. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get going,” the butler said and went on his way.
Noel traded a glance with Edward as the butler exited the scene of escalating hearsay about Baron Palmer informing the Prince and Miss Edgeworth about their engagement in the hallway this afternoon, which had spread like wildfire on the lips of everyone at the Academy and now formed the topic of all the hullabaloo. Yet when their congratulations on getting engaged to the Prince turned into cautionary admonishments against Lady Fleming’s jealousy for taking away her former fiancé, the brothers approached the teeming crowd of girls.
“Popular, isn’t she?” Noel said.
“Too popular,” Edward said, then clapped his hands a few times and shouted above all the girls’ voices. “What’s all the hullabaloo about, eh?”
The ladies stopped their questions and turned in Edward’s direction, and like bees attracted to flowers, they crowded around him without noticing Noel beside him at all just like last night. Noel let out another sigh and gritted his teeth at his elder brother putting the moves on the girls with his mere presence again, chatting with them all at once. Then Edward flicked his eyes towards Miss Edgeworth, and the meaning was clear: while he handled the other girls, Noel was to go to Miss Edgeworth and question her.
(The two clones that had tailed the Sydney brothers all the way here now sought out their three compatriots, one of them saying, “She’s really moving out?”
“To the Royals House, yeah,” one clone said.
“That’s just peachy, isn’t it?” another clone said. “Now the new couple can fuck all they want.”
“Don’t be disgusting!”
“Hey, it’s not our fault we got dragged into that disgusting daydream!” the drowned clone said.
“Just drop it, will you?” the other clone said.)
Noel approached the commoner girl, saying, “Congratulations, Miss Edgeworth.”
“Thank you, Sir Sydney.”
“Just call me Noel,” he said with a bow.
“Then just call me Rosalie, Noel,” Miss Edgeworth said, giving out her hand for him to kiss again as if that was the most natural thing in the world: too natural, in fact.
“I can’t be rude with the new fiancée of his Highness,” Noel said and kissed her hand again like he had done last night but then held onto it and felt the delicate smoothness of her fingers and noticed the glossy finish of her nails. “Your hand is very fine for a commoner.”
She pulled away and said, “Why are you here again?”
“Sorry,” he said. “I was just curious.”
“Curious about what?”
“About your move to the Royals House,” Noel said.
“Oh, that,” Miss Edgeworth said.
“Care to tell me about it?”
“Why should I?”
“My brother and I are still investigating the disappearance of Lady Childeron and Lady Felton.”
“I told you already: I don’t know their current whereabouts,” Miss Edgeworth said. “Why don’t you try asking Lady Fleming? Maybe she knows something.”
“I already asked her about it, but she said she doesn’t know such things.”
“Then why ask me again?”
“But I didn’t ask you this time,” Noel said, smiling at the slip-up of answering an unsaid question, causing Miss Edgeworth to avert her gaze for just long enough for him to know she had something to hide this time around. “You just assumed I did, but now you’ve got me even more curious.”
The girl paled before him, saying, “About what?”
“About your move to the Royals House,” he said. “Care to tell me about it?”
If words were swords, and if conversation was like a sparring match between combatants, Noel had pressed his advantage and had Miss Edgeworth cornered with the same question. If Edward was the charmer that made women swoon with rosy cheeks and starry eyes, Noel was the interrogator that made Miss Edgeworth pale in the face with wide eyes and gaping mouth, yet despite it all, her next words deflected him.
“For your information, I’m going to the Royals House for my safety,” Miss Edgeworth said. “I’ve already gone with his Highness to see their Majesties this afternoon, and they said they’ll announce our engagement tomorrow morning, so he’s taken steps to protect me from his former fiancée. I know what that witch is capable of.”
“And what might that be?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“Spell it out for me, if you will,” Noel said.
“Stop playing with me,” Miss Edgeworth said. “You already know what it is, don’t you?”
“I do, but I’m not ‘playing,’” Noel said, pressing his luck with her. “Lady Fleming is in more danger than you will admit, but you’re here prattling on about what might happen to you, when everything we’ve investigated so far points to a conspiracy against her and her friends, and you and his Highness have become unwitting accomplices to it.”
Miss Edgeworth looked over at Edward before turning back to Noel, saying, “What are you trying to pull?”
“I have no ulterior motive, I assure you,” he said.
Yet far from acting like the innocent girl her fans thought of her as, Miss Edgeworth deflected him again, saying, “You only say that because I’m a commoner, but it’ll be lèse-majesté when his Highness hears of it.”
“Interesting way of putting it,” Noel said. “Now that you’ve mentioned his Highness in that light, answer me this: Did you use him to ruin Lady Fleming’s reputation?”
“How can you say that, you blackguard?” Rosalie yelled.
Her fangirls turned towards Miss Edgeworth’s outburst, despite Edward’s presence in the hallway, and came over to her side when Rosalie turned on the waterworks and said, “It’s because I’m a commoner, isn’t it?”
“Quit the act already,” Noel said.
(“Ooooh, I’m starting to like this guy,” one clone said.
“I know, right?” another added.)
Yet Miss Edgeworth’s fangirls all stepped in and told him off, saying he had no right to bully her, so Rosalie changed tactics, looking over at Edward approaching the ruckus and then at Noel, saying, “You’re Lady Fleming’s guards, aren’t you?”
“We’re not, Miss,” Edward said.
“Yeah, sure you’re not,” Miss Edgeworth said, wiping her eyes and glaring at him. “For all I know, Lady Fleming could’ve hired you both to bully me!”
Noel was about to retort when Edward cut in, saying, “We’re just looking into the disappearance of Lady Childeron and Lady Felton, but our investigation has led us to your possible involvement in their disappearance yesterday.”
One of her fangirls asked Miss Edgeworth if she should go get his Highness, and Miss Edgeworth nodded, so she ran out of the dorm house to fetch him at the Royals House. Meanwhile, Miss Edgeworth continued to glare at the Sydney brothers, saying, “Who did you hear that from?”
“I can’t reveal that, Miss,” Edward said.
“Then you’ve no right to detain me, you blackguards!”
“We’re not detaining you, Miss,” Edward said. “We’re just asking questions.”
“More like harassing me!” she said.
“Just answer a few more questions,” Noel said, “and we’ll get out of your hair for today.”
“Just for today?” Miss Edgeworth said.
“Pending whatever else we find out, yes,” Noel said.
“So you’re not leaving me be?” she said.
“Just a few questions,” he said.
“Fine, go ahead.”
(“Yeah, suck on it!” one clone said.)
So Noel pressed his advantage again, saying, “His Highness and Baron Palmer were both looking for you when Lady Childeron and Lady Felton disappeared from the school grounds. Where were you at the time?”
“I was at Rhapsody Chapel,” she said.
Noel thought back to yesterday’s briefing, in which Margrave Sydney said Father Robinson had asked for an investigation into Miss Edgeworth’s magic aptitude test result taken at Rhapsody Chapel. Hence, the elder Sydney brothers had two parameters in their investigation: one is the whereabouts of two missing ladies; and the other is Miss Edgeworth’s magic aptitude test result. With the first objective in mind, he used the second objective to work his way in, saying, “You already took your magic aptitude test there last Sunday, so why were you there again yesterday?”
“I went there for confession.”
Noel fought the urge to grimace at her response, for she had checkmated his advantage in one sentence. Since priests were obligated on pain of excommunication to keep confessions secret, he could only admit defeat and say, “Did Father Barrymore hear your confession?”
“Yes, he did,” Miss Edgeworth said, “but I doubt you’ll ever get a word out of him.”
(“Gee, let me guess,” the drowned clone said. “Is that because you fucked him to keep him quiet?”)
Noel locked eyes with his smirking opponent, knowing she was right: not even Queen Blaise, Saintess of the Church of the Holy Light, could compel a priest to reveal a confession, so he said, “That’s all for today. Thank you for your time, Miss Edgeworth,” and he turned to leave—
When the Prince (and three more of Janet’s clones) passed the double doors into the hallway, parting the crowd before him and saying, “Rosy, where are you?”
“I was wondering when you’d get here, Donny,” Miss Edgeworth said, coming to his side like a maiden to her fairytale prince and then pointing Noel out to her fiancé. “He’s been harassing me all this time!”
“She’s exaggerating, your Highness,” Noel said. “I was only asking questions.”
The Prince walked up to Noel, fisting his hands as if he was going to strike him, making Edward step in and say, “Don’t try anything physical, your Highness.”
“I won’t if you back off!” the Prince said.
Yet before Edward said something caustic, Noel shook his head at him and said, “Let me handle this, Brother,” and then to the Prince: “I’m sorry for offending your new fiancée, but we’re conducting an official investigation.”
“Into the pair that left the school?” the Prince.
“And Miss Edgeworth’s possible involvement in it,” Noel said.
“See, Donny?” Miss Edgeworth said. “He’s been harassing me with baseless accusations!”
“I’ve only said ‘possible,’ which means circumstantial and not culpable involvement,” Noel said. “Right now, you’re a person of interest, nothing more. There’s no need for you to fuss so much. We’ve already questioned Lady Fleming, Lady Kessler, and Ladies Jean and Saraya Drevis in like manner, and they’ve cooperated with our investigation. Unless you’ve got something to hide, Miss Edgeworth, it’s far better to cooperate with us while you still can, and the same goes for you, your Highness,” he added, looking at the Prince.
Now the Prince stepped in front of Miss Edgeworth, shielding her from her questioner and saying, “Back off!”
“Don’t interfere, your Highness.”
“Then don’t mess with me or my fiancée!” he said.
Now Noel and Edward walked up to the Prince, and Edward said, “Despite what you’ve done to our little brother yesterday, we’ve got no beef with you.”
“We’re just trying to conduct a thorough investigation,” Noel added, “so we’re leaving no stone unturned.”
“Then go find the real culprits and leave us alone!”
“The disappearance happened only yesterday, your Highness,” Noel said. “We’re still gathering information in collaboration with the professors at the Academy, so the process is slower than normal but necessary. We’re just following procedure as outlined by Margrave Sydney with the consent and oversight of both of their Majesties.”
Everyone in the central hallway clammed up at the mention of the King and Queen’s section of their actions.
In the fading echo of Noel’s voice, the Prince said, “So be it, but I order you both to back off!”
Again there was silence in the hallway, a wordless stalemate between the calm fortitude of the Sydney brothers and the budding impatience of Prince Blaise.
“All right, your Highness,” Edward said, bowing his head. “If you insist so much, then we will.”
“But only for today,” Noel added, almost prodding the Prince into throwing a right hook across his chin if it hadn’t been for Miss Edgeworth holding back his arm.
“Donny!” Rosalie said.
Only then did the Prince relent, but he shoved his finger at Noel and Edward’s faces and said, “Don’t push your luck, or I’ll have you both exiled when I become king.”
Noel and his brother locked eyes with the insolent Prince, standing their ground without a word of reply.
And with that, the new couple stalked out of Guinevere House (with six of Janet’s clones tailing after them), and then an eruption of whispered gossip amongst the female students, all of them glancing at the brothers as if they were lepers. Seeing they had overstayed their welcome, the brothers walked out of Guinevere House (with two of Janet’s clones following behind) and headed into the boulevard lined with juniper trees within view of the courtyard fountain.
There they watched the couple entering the Royals House like newlyweds, so Edward said, “Damn that cheeky bastard! My God, if he was anyone else, I’d throttle him.”
“We can’t touch his Highness, Eddie,” Noel said.
“I know that already,” Edward said, “but that doesn’t mean I have to like his bullshit!”
(“Amen to that,” one clone said.
“You both are awesome,” the other clone added.)
“But it wasn’t a complete loss,” Noel said. “Now that we’ve seen Miss Edgeworth, what do you think of her?”
“She’s hiding something,” Edward said.
“I guess so,” Edward said, “but knowing it and proving it are different things.”
They then stalked off towards the Academy gates and stopped just outside the school’s perimeter wall with the prospect of expanding their search into the Student Commons Town staring back at them.
Edward frowned at the result of their efforts, saying, “This doesn’t feel right, Ell. I can understand the students and maids not noticing, but the guards are trained to monitor whatever passes the gates, to and fro.”
Now both brothers looked over at the wrought-iron gates looming over them like a shadow. Then Noel walked over to the wall and knocked on it, fluorescing the detection spell cast over it and saying to his brother, “And nobody gets past this perimeter wall without alerting the guards, but nothing’s infallible.”
“You think the guards let them escape?”
“I don’t think so,” Noel said as he rolled the budding details they’ve managed to collect through his mind. “If they were privy to something, it would’ve been obvious, and we would’ve grilled them like I did with Miss Edgeworth, and they would’ve spilled whatever they knew.”
Then Edward walked off into the teeming thoroughfares, whose establishments were just beginning to wind down for the customary afternoon tea time.
And Noel followed in lock-step next to his brother, saying, “Lady Childeron and Lady Felton had outside help. They couldn’t have escaped on their own without getting caught otherwise, and I’m sure Miss Edgeworth had something to do with it. But from what we’ve gleaned so far, I can’t trust what they’re saying about Lady Fleming.”
“What about her friends?” Edward said.
“They’re the exceptions,” Noel said, weighing his options, “but let’s not go around asking questions, willy-nilly. It might attract unwanted attention. Let’s check with the Information Guild first. Hope they can point us in the right direction. What do you say?”
Yet his elder brother remained silent.
“What is it, Eddie?” Noel said, looking at Edward and getting a distinct impression of him rolling something big through that lady-besotted brain of his.
“Viscountess Durham’s observation,” he said. “In light of everything we know, what do you think of it?”
“About Lady Fleming?” Noel said.
“About the heavy aura surrounding her,” he said.
“I haven’t the slightest clue yet,” Noel said, shaking his head. “What are your thoughts?”
“My thoughts are few,” Edward said as they passed rows of bay-windowed boutiques and restaurants and saloons, all of them replete with the late afternoon hubbub of chatting voices and clinking tableware and tapping footfalls of customers as the day began to wind down at tea time. “Our father said Count Cosgrove had noticed a faint heaviness in the air in Lady Childeron and Lady Felton’s dorms yesterday, but that heaviness was gone when we checked that evening.”
“And?”
“That’s it,” he said.
Noel let out a sigh, saying, “That’s not much.”
“But it’s something,” Edward said. “On the other hand, we’ve stumbled on a conspiracy amongst the students at the Academy: from the maids at Guinevere House, we’ve got rumors of enmity between Lady Fleming and Lady Felton over Lord Woodberry; from the maid and butler at the Royals house, we’ve got rumors of Lady Fleming haunting Prince Blaise’s nightmares; from the maids at Leeds House, we’ve got rumors of Lady Fleming stealing Lord Woodberry from Lady Felton; from the maids at Jeremy House in the Garrison Quarters, we’ve got rumors of Lady Fleming causing Prince Blaise to act out during lunch; and from Miss Edgeworth at Guinevere House, we’ve got a new fiancée for Prince Blaise and a setup on Lady Fleming in connection with Lady Childeron and Lady Felton’s disappearance. If we take all of this together, what do we have?”
“We have Lady Fleming excluded from the Prince’s protection,” Noel said, “and his Highness denouncing his former fiancée in the guise of protecting his new fiancée. In other words, divide and conquer and slander.”
“And based on what we’ve seen,” Edward added, “who benefits from all that?”
“Miss Edgeworth,” Noel said.
“Indeed,” Edward continued, “but now we have some of Lady Fleming’s allies giving us a different take in Mariana House: from the Drevis Ladies, we’ve got Miss Edgeworth spurring on those rumors and stealing Prince Blaise from Lady Fleming; from the Drevis Ladies and Lady Kessler, we’ve got the disappearance of Lady Childeron and Lady Felton setting up Lady Fleming to take the blame; from Lady Fleming herself, we’ve got the same observations as her friends; and from Viscountess Durham, we’ve got a student body ready to condemn Lady Fleming for any rumor shared amongst them. No doubt, all this adds up to a concerted effort to destroy Lady Fleming’s reputation, and Miss Edgeworth is at the helm. We’ve got a phrase for that kind of subterfuge: Do you know?”
Noel stopped amidst rows of store-fronted saloons and pubs starting to gather more customers for happy hour, now staring at his elder brother for a time.
“Character assassination?” Noel said.
Edward stopped and said, “Exactly, and if Viscountess Durham is right, if there’s an assassination attempt, who’s the target? Lady Fleming or Miss Edgeworth?”
“Lady Fleming,” Noel said as he mulled over Edward’s reasoning in his mind, thinking of Lady Graves’ murder at Elba House and Marchioness Fleming’s false imprisonment and subsequent death and Abbess Maxine Diddly’s murder at St. Avalon’s Abbey. “Do you think the Dorians are behind all this?”
“Or a copycat group,” Edward said. “You know what they say: Where there’s smoke—”
“—there’s fire,” Noel said.
“Let’s hope it won’t turn into an inferno,” Edward said and smiled. “You look like you need a drink.”
Noel looked over at the various patrons, all of them adults, entering the pubs and saloons around them, then shook his head in a grimace at his brother’s grin, repressing the urge to hit him in the face.
“Don’t even start,” Noel said.
“I know it sucks, but you’ll be able to enter soon enough,” Edward said. “Just give it another year.”
“Why do you always have to keep rubbing it in?”
“Because that’s just what older brothers do,” Edward said, slapping him on the back. “I’ll meet you again at Shadwell’s Antiquities at eleven o’clock, got it?”
“Yeah, I got it,” Noel said.
“Try not to get too lonely now, Ell,” he said.
“Oh, just go on already!” Noel said (just as Janet’s pair of clones deadpanned at the older Sydney, both of them calling him a sleazeball).
Edward laughed as he left Noel’s side and walked towards the double-door entrance of the Cavalcanti Public House, which doubled as a billiard saloon and a gentlemen’s club, greeting a doorman as he entered. When Noel saw the women flocking over to his brother before losing track of them past the reception area, the doorman caught his eye and waved him over. Noel turned, wondering if he was signaling someone else behind him, but seeing nobody else standing out, he faced him again and walked over, saying, “What is it?”
The old man in a double-breasted uniform had a moderate build, and his shoulders stooped a bit, but his eyes held a commanding presence under the bill of his cap.
“How old are you, sir?” the doorman said.
“I’ll be twenty in a month,” Noel said. ‘I can’t enter this establishment yet.”
“Ah, I see how it is,” he said. “Still, you’re almost there, so why don’t you come in and see the place for yourself. It’ll only be brief, but—”
“Thank you for the offer, but I can’t,” Noel said. “I’ve got a younger brother to look after, and I don’t want to be a bad influence on him by imitating my older brother.”
“Ah, I see, I see,” the man said.
“Sorry,” Noel said.
“Don’t apologize for being a good man,” the doorman said. “It’s your greatest strength.”
“Thank you,” Noel said. “What’s your name?”
“Arvin Fletcher, at your service,” the doorman said, taking a knight’s bow. “I used to be a man-at-arms in the King’s Royal Guard, and I had the honor of serving under Margrave Sydney’s command when he first started out.”
“Are you serious?”
“I am, sir,” Arvin said.
“Why are you a doorman now?” Noel said.
Arvin shook his head with a smile and said, “Alas, I would’ve still been in the Royal Guard even now if I hadn’t lost my mana in the line of duty—”
“How did that even happen?”
“—but that’s all in the past,” Arvin said. “Now I’m just a civilian, but I still know how to defend myself. Hence, my current stint as a bouncer of this club.”
“Ah, I see now,” Noel said. “Nice to meet you, Sir Fletcher,” and he saluted him.
Arvin laughed and returned his salute, saying, “I swear, you Sydney men are all cut from the same cloth. Have a good afternoon, sir.”
“You as well,” Noel said before leaving the premises in better spirits than he was before (and the pair of clones tailed after him). Remembering the time and place he should join up with his brother, he retraced his steps through the brick-paved boulevard of store-fronted saloons and pubs back into the area of cafés, restaurants, and boutiques. If Noel couldn’t have a drink at this time, he’d at least sate his hunger at one of the Student Commons Town’s eateries and decided to have an early dinner at the Champion Restaurant.
