"Didn't you say he was sick?"
Ernesto whispered to Lucas while watching Ndulou eat so well. Ndulou has natural pale skin and a skinny body, but he doesn't look sick at all. He seems to be the same.
The three of them hurriedly teleported back to the Marquis castle after receiving Lucas' message saying that Ndulou was sick.
Ernesto first asked the dragon to help him replenish his strength using magic, and then they went to the study room to check up on Ndulou. However, Ndulou was not sick, which was a great thing, but he just ignored Ernesto the entire time.
Ernesto introduced Watson, the blue wolf to him, but only received a short response. He just continued to work on the papers in his study.
At dinner time, Ndulou was still not talking to Ernesto and silently finished his food. He was about to leave when Ernesto called for him.
"What is it?"
but the response was a long pause of silence.
Ernesto asked him upfront, "What did I do wrong? Tell me so that I can make up for it." He then thought, "I just left him this morning. What the fuck happened while I was away?" Ernesto thought of anything he might have done wrong, but nothing came to his mind.
"There's nothing wrong, sir," Ndulou shook his head. "I'll be in my room. Just call me if you need something else," he responded bluntly, then walked closer to the door.
"Then why are you requesting my father's audience?" he asked with suspicion.
Lucas also reported to him that Ndulou had requested a short audience with Marquis Oliva, but the Marquis could not grant him any moment because of his usual busy schedule.
"I wanted to report your absence." Ndulou paused for a moment before grabbing the doorknob. "Good night, young master," he said, leaving Ernesto dumbfounded.
"What's wrong if I skip class? I already know what they are going to teach."
Lucas looked at Ernesto, who seemed to have forgotten the purpose of Ndulou's moving in. Naturally, Lucas walked behind Ndulou.
[Come find me when Ndulou is asleep.]
He stealthily talked to Lucas using telepathy.
He needs to hear the whole thing that happened while he was gone. Lucas was the only one who could tell him the full details of Ndulou's current mood.
"Oooh, is he on his period?" Fetahaya commented.
Ernesto glared at him and pulled out the food she was eating.
"What kind of maid eats at the same table as their master?" he asked the dragon, who was casually eating dessert since she had already gulped down all the meat served on the table. The other servants didn't give the dragon her own plate; instead, Fetahaya randomly picked up food from Ernesto and Watson's plates.
"Nah! It's okay! I already look weird to them," she pointed at the servants standing at the corner of the dining area. "There's no need for troublesome things," she said, waving her spoon as if she wasn't doing anything wrong.
"How about you? You are my slave, right?" He looked at the blue wolf, who was now disguised as a teenage human wearing neat and luxurious clothes, and his lengthy hair was now shoulder length. His scars and bruises are all gone. The people inside the castle treated Watson as their guest because of how neat his appearance was now.
[Oh master, unlike Sir Dragon, I love to be disguised as a noble human]. The wolf speaks in his mind, preventing the servant from hearing their conversation.
[Doesn't mean you wear a noble outfit, it means you become noble.] Ernesto's advice to the arrogant wolf.
[Hehe! I forgot to tell you about that, master! I am a real noble! I'll tell you the details when there's no one else to hear.] The blue wolf tapped Ernesto's plate. [You should eat first. You need to regain your strength.]
Ernesto looked at his food, which he hadn't eaten yet.
He let out a long sigh before mumbling. "There are a lot of things to sort out."
.....
…..
After dinner time, the two higher beings and one human are sitting across from each other, having tea in Ernesto's bedroom.
"Now tell me what you mean. You are a real noble, before Lucas came to report," Ernesto ordered the blue wolf to speak up.
"Do you know that Sir Dragon's current soul is female?" The blue wolf started his statement with sparkling eyes.
Ernesto crossed his arms and answered coarsely, "I know."
The blue wolf jolted up and down in his seat. "You know? Really? That would make things easier to explain! The original dragon was my friend. The both of us travel around the world. We love discovering new things. We are great adventurers!" The blue wolf was so excited that his shoulders were going up and down.
"Then?" Ernesto was not impressed, but rather curious, if the blue wolf was okay with the dragon's new soul. Since it was his friend's body but not his friend's soul, Ernesto was curious if Watson would feel resentful about it.
"Of course, traveling around with the appearance of a dragon and wolf was impossible, so we polymorph into humans. We also love to do things like what humans do. Eating, money-making, and, of course, lavishly using money! Then, eight hundred years ago, a human king granted me a noble title!"
Ernesto leaned forward in curiosity. "Do you still have your noble family?"
"It's the Dukedom of Ayam. I adopted humans to maintain my noble title and source of money."
"Wait. They have chained you to that prison for a hundred years. How will you contact the duchy? The current generation might not even recognize you."
"No, no, no, master, I instructed my adopted children to make sure they would pass down their job of letting me in anytime at the Duchy as their youngest son. I am sure that once you notify them I am here, they will immediately send my servants or even the descendants of my adopted children," he proudly explained.
Watson Ayam always returned to his duchy as a human young noble and usually played the role of a young master. One of the distinct characteristics of being a member of the Ayam family is their blue hair and amber eyes. His adopted children never had these features, but used magic to consistently color their hair and eyes the same shade as Watson's right after they were born until their deaths. They set up Watson's unique blue hair and amber eyes as the family trademark.
"Why come back as a young noble instead of being the lord?" Ernesto thought that if his slave had the power to control a duchy, then it meant he would have a lot of resources and manpower to use.
"Naah! That's a lot of work! I always come here just to play. A teenage human has fewer responsibilities and gives me a lot of free time to play!" Watson raised his hand to show his cheerfulness. "Master! Let me stay here as a noble! I'll add your guard to your dearest friend, but let me play too!"
Ernesto thought twice about what the jolly wolf meant by "play." But he will love to accept the idea of having an additional guard.
"Don't mess around. I'll imprison you again if you give me any kind of headache," he warned the overly excited wolf.
"Yes, master! I'll behave!" The blue wolf saluted at him.
Ernesto then looked at the unusually silent dragon.
He called out to the dragon, "What's wrong? Is it weird that you are just silently drinking tea?" to which he received a cunning smile in return. "What?"
"Kid, did you already explore the la—" The dragon cut her own statement and continued her sentence in Ernesto's mind. [if you don't want a headache, don't let the wolf know about the area beneath.]
[Below?]
[Even the underground city is dangerous. Anyway, let's leave that area for a while; do not enter that place for, I think, like a year.
The wolf noticed the two were now conversing by telepathy. Feeling left out, he got up from his seat and just roamed around the room.
[Why?] Ernesto responded in his mind.
[Did you steal something underneath?]
[steal? I didn't st— ah! I took a goblet. Is there a guardian there? I have met no one there.]
haaaa—
The dragon let out a sigh.
[That's an essential thing in the area beneath. Anyway, you cannot return it. It would be problematic. Just wait for a year for the area to settle down.
[Ate Fe, that area is deserted; you can have—ha?Wait a minute. Is that city filled with those from other realms? Those transparent people?]
The dragon nodded to his question, but before Fetahaya could explain the details, they could hear a gentle knock at Ernesto's door.
"It's me, Lucas."
Lucas went back to his tactless demeanor.
"Come in."
The dragon and the wolf both stand up after Lucas enters the room.
"Master, have a good night! I'll be checking my room across yours. " The blue wolf runs out of his room without waiting for his response, while the dragon simply waves her hand and leaves the room. The dragon doesn't have her own room, so she will probably stay in the forest near the castle.
"Want some tea?" Ernesto casually asked his servant.
Lucas waved his hand to refuse. He then brushed his hair with his fingers and sat on the couch while loosening his necktie.
"Young master, I'll make my report short. This day is quite tiring. I badly wanted to sleep."
Ernesto just drank his tea to let Lucas do his report. "First, you abruptly left the child alone to meet weird adults."
Ernesto stopped sipping his tea and looked at Lucas with an upset expression.
"Why did they mistreat Kuya?"
"Young master, you might have forgotten that societal status is important. The child is a baron child, and worse, he is not even the heir; he came here as your buddy without the standards needed to be one. What do you expect the teachers would do if they saw a low-ranking child who appeared alone to be educated? It would be different if you were there on the first day of the lesson. You might have set up the teacher's boundaries toward the poor child. Please note that the teachers that the Marquis hired were all high-ranking nobles."
Lucas had an acute sense of hearing, and he could hear the conversation inside the study room even though he was standing outside.
"Second thing you have forgotten, the child lacks education, so he needed to start from the bottom. Third thing, you might have forgotten the meaning of ,"study buddy." The child was looking for you the whole day."
Lucas detailed everything the marquis's son overlooked because of his ignorance of noble rank and status, as well as his responsibilities.
Ernesto was speechless after hearing the news, as he admits what he missed out on.
"But the child wasn't mad at you because of that."
"Is there another reason?"
"This is just my observation. The child seems used to the treatment of being disregarded or discriminated against. I think it pained him for a moment, but still was positive afterwards. He is aware of his own status and his boundaries, but his mood changes when you come back home with that blue-haired boy."
"Watson? Why?"
"I think he thought you would replace him, especially since you brought someone from the dukedom."
"He knows Watson is from Ayam?"
"The child studied the royalties and noble history of the kingdom just this afternoon. That is why he instantly recognized the blue-haired boy. He turned upset after you introduced him as your slave, which he thought was a lie and that you were just toying with him."
Ernesto's jaw dropped.
"How much did he misunderstand?"