He waited for about a minute for Angelica to wake up naturally on her own, but she was still in her little dreamland and he was excited and impatient.
"Angelica." he repeated, "Angelica. Angelica." until she showed signs of movement.
Like her personal alarm clock, Leige, who had never otherwise woken someone up before, repeated her name and poked her a little to pull her out of her dreams and into the present.
Eventually, she stirred, and opened her eyes blearily.
"...Leige?" after a night of the torture that was flicking through books she didn't understand and trying her best to answer questions of which the relevance had been questionable, they were now comfortably camping at the first name basis area.
"Come on, come on, let's go." seeing that she was awake, he quickly stood up, stumbled a little from the weakness in his knees from the uncomfortable position he had been in the whole night, recovered, and impatiently tapped his foot.
"...Go where? Wait, what time is it? Ar-" she yelped, cutting herself off as she stared in horror at the puddle of what she had to assume to be saliva sitting at where she had been lying. "D-D-Drool?! On the floor.... Of my meticulously cleaned library?!"
He decided not to mention the heaps of dust that had been swept off of the books, nor the scuff marks from his shoes.
Having enough manners to let her dab her handkerchief - a scrap of fabric, on the floor with a face brimming of mortification, he then impatiently pulled her up.
"Where do you live? How far away is it from here? Take me there." he blurted out all in one go, excited to go research in person.
Seeing her silence, Leige hesitated, thought over what he had said, and added a little,
"Please." Angelica seemed to blink slowly, sitting up from where she had been relentlessly scrubbing.
"Wait... School?" the fluffy pink-haired boy furrowed his brow in confusion before quickly shaking his head.
"No, not school. This is more important." Besides, who even needed school? Quite frankly, it was a waste of time for him and he supposed that Angelica missing one day wouldn't hurt, although if she was really reluctant then he was fine with going on his own.
"...Hold on..." Angelica rubbed her eyes, still muddled from the uncomfortable rest. "Wait... We're skipping school?" she seemed unprecedentedly calm, which caused a little suspicion.
"...Yes.." he would much rather go to research more about legends and myths in the village than have a nap on an uncomfortable chair, but it wasn't like he couldn't guarantee Angelica not getting into trouble, so he would understand if she didn't want to come with him.
...Actually, in all honesty, sneaking out of a mansion while he was meant to be at school seemed like a stupid thing to do.
But he was actually an adult, so everything was okay, because no matter how stupid something was, being an adult could justify it.
...Right?
Anyways, he felt that he would need to do something outside of researching in books sooner or later to be able to understand the core of magic, and this world, so it had only been a matter of time.
After reasoning with himself that this was not in fact a horrible idea, he turned back to Angelica, only to see that her eyes had comically widened.
"Wait... We're skipping school?!" she shrieked, the reality of the situation finally getting through to her.
Leige nodded, a little reassured after her acting like he had expected.
"You don't have to, but I want to go to your village. Today. Now. Can you tell me where it is?" Angelica pursed her lips in thought.
She had never missed a day of school before - not to mention she was here on recommendation, not because of wealth.
Missing a day could seem like nothing at all to Leige, but to her, it could mean disapproval from the teachers, catch up work that she wouldn't be able to catch up on because she had no friends to ask except Yumi, who was, well, not very good at paying attention in class, so she had learned.
Missing a day of school was rare for anyone - there was no such thing as getting sick, because as soon as someone from this area got sick they would be cured immediately through magic.
The only reason someone would not go to school was if they were away with their family, or if they had a special slip of permission from the head of the school.
Not to mention, not going to school would mean Angelica's parents would be informed, and that meant putting extra burden on them which was the worst thing Angelica could possibly do.
She couldn't even imagine the extent of anger and worry she would end up facing from them.
Chewing her lip, she made her decision after some careful consideration.
After he had been told the location, Leige thanked her and began to consider how he would get there.
Other than Angelica, there was no one else in the mansion he trusted. As for George, well, considering how worried the boy had gotten last time, Leige supposed that a note would be sufficient evidence that he hadn't been taken hostage.
He couldn't ride a horse, he wasn't that much of a rebel in stealing the fancy thing that resembled a car, he probably couldn't borrow a carriage, and it was a little far for his weak legs...
"Excuse me?" his voice travelled across the wafting steam and the scent of spices which filled the bustling kitchen. It took a second time to get one of the chef's attention, who grinned widely and alerted all the others with his booming voice.
"Hey, little Leige! What are you doing here, breakfast is in an hour or two, you woke up too early!" from his last encounter with the chefs, he had quite liked them, especially how they refused formalities and treated him with food.
"Well..." he had felt a little conflicted on the way to coming here whether he would tell them the truth about skipping school and needing some advice on how to get to his location, but in the end he had just decided that he was a scientist, not some sort of mastermind, and if he got busted and wasn't allowed to go he would just be busted and go another time.
There were probably around 10 chefs in the large kitchen, but the way they were laughing and talking made the number seem double. Some of them looked at him expectantly, while others were busy.
"I want to go to the village of Rien, now, but I don't have a means of transport. Would it be too far to ask whether someone familiar with the area take me there?" he spoke in his usual formal and polite tone, quite out of place in the homely atmosphere.
The chefs, like he had hoped, didn't seem to have any questions and were rather looking at each other thoughtfully.
"Ah know Albert wis from there, but ye goat tae ask 'im tae bring ye." she spoke in heavy dialect, different from the chefs before who were most likely off duty, but it was still understandable and so Leige nodded.
"Haud oan a second Lillias, ye can't expect 'im tae 'gree. Laddie, Albert, he's a fuckin' difficult one, he wouldnae 'gree, nae danger!" another chef interrupted, a male with slightly similar facial features to the woman, who rolled her eyes.
Leige was slightly surprised in the face of a new dialect, but it was rather easy for him to understand what they were saying, or get the gist of it anyway, and found the unexpected diversity of dialects to infer that the creators of this world seemed to have actually put a little effort into giving side characters backstories, and making it a little more realistic as a whole.
A brief thought flew into his mind, about whether the creators, who seemed to have made very flat and unrealistic main characters, could really care about creating different dialects for specific people who had little to no relevance at all to the plot, but it wasn't very important, so he dismissed it.
"Hey, Lillias, Malcolm, stop bickering and actually do your jobs." the chef from the very start sighed exasperatedly at them. "I'll tell you what, Leige, Albert might not agree because none of us want to get in trouble and get fired for skipping on the job, but as long as you protect him from that, he might."
Leige nodded, thankful and yet not getting his hopes up, knowing that to escort someone who was horrible, naive and arrogant somewhere that wasn't school on a school day would probably be the last thing anyone in this mansion would want to do, especially considering the amount of trouble they could get in.
However, unlike with Angelica, he was fairly confident that he could try and protect Albert from losing his job. In any case, he was not unaware of the pouch lying secretively in the drawer next to his bed, which held some coins he assumed would be valuable.
"So, yer no gaun' tae schule?" Lillian had walked over to him while the other chef, probably the main chef considering how he had ordered them around, had left.
Leige shook his head nonchalantly, leaving Lillian to snort with amusement.
"Fir wye? Rien?" Malcolm poked his head out from the cabinet he had been collecting some sort of spices.
"Yes, I want to go to Rien to explore a little."
Before anyone could reply, there was a snort from above Leige. Looking behind him, there was a man leaning against the door, looking down at him with dead-looking eyes.
He was dressed in a suit, with some muscles clearly defined from the tight-fitting shirt, and the black gloves seemingly a little small.
However, with his messy black hair long and tied back loosely, and a few cuts around the jaw and two dark eyebags under a deadpan stare, the classy look of his suit was a little ruined.
"Explore? I'm risking my job so this kid can fucking explore?" although it didn't seem like he was trying, his voice sounded as though it was amplified with a megaphone, demanding attention.
Lillian rolled her eyes. "Aw, haud yer wheesht. Yer haverin' will ruin the taste of the food." Malcolm voiced his agreement, while a few of the other chefs snickered.
"How did you even get here so fast?" one of the other chefs yelled over the boiling of pots and the sizzling of pans.
"Yeah, Vic left like a minute ago." Albert scowled as Vic, who Leige assumed to be the head chef, smiled sheepishly.
"Yeah yeah, shut up everyone. Anyway, kid, yer gonna have to offer up a reason more than 'exploring' for me to take you."
Leige paused, looking at Albert, who stared down, challenging, at him.
"I heard something about the 'magic from the Orcus', and I wanted to look into it because it wasn't in the library."
There seemed to be a noticeable pause in atmosphere.
Was Leige being a little too honest? Well, again, he wasn't the best at lying, and at the end of the day, he was a scientist.
He didn't know how to scheme, he just knew how to do what he needed to do.
Albert widened his eyes for a short second, stopped leaning against the wall and stared at him for a few seconds, as though he was inspecting and examining him, before reverting into his usual deadpan look.
Sighing, he turned to walk away.
"I'm expecting double my usual wage, no trouble when we get back, and- wait no, make that triple my usual wage, and I'm keeping this job."