I Heard Alois has a New Toy

Secret Exchange

The next morning I had shared breakfast with Alois again, only to be greeted with silence during the whole meal. I tried to talk to him but he never responded. I guess he's still angry about last night. Although I was a little hurt, I didn't want to worry about it. There were more pressing matters to attend to. I had, in fact, decided to go explore the manor on my own. And although Claude said it would be best if I didn't go alone, I insisted.

I started in the downstairs west wing of the manor, where the library was. Claude had informed me that Alois would be busy today with his studies and to not bother him in the office, which was also in the downstairs east wing, so I had to make sure to stay quiet.

I walked into the double doors to find a large room with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. This was where they kept all the fiction books along with outdated encyclopedias. There was a separate door that led to the office on the left side of the room that was surrounded by glass cases that held various treasures on each side. There were more bay windows, just like the ones in my bedroom, on the far wall. And couches and chairs filled most of the floor space along with tables and board games.

I closed the door gently behind me and headed for the first bookshelf that contained literature books. Scanning each book carefully, I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. I went to the next bookshelf and had the same result. I looked at each table and found nothing. I looked in each board game, nothing. The only place left was to look at the glass cases near the door.

I decided just to look on the inside instead of actually opening them, they were glass after all. I peered around at each object carefully and still saw nothing strange. Damn, what a bloody waste of time that was.

I've been searching the room for so long, it should be lunch by now. I went over and sat down in one of the chairs when someone opened the door, it was Claude.

"Your highness would like your presence in the office now, Lady y/n." He said.

He peered around the room for a second before closing the door behind us as I headed to the next room over.

Claude knocked on the door and Alois answered and told us to come in. I was then left alone in the room with him, but I knew Claude would be outside the door anyway.

Alois then jumped up and ran over to me. He pulled me into a tight embrace and spun around.

"I've been waiting to see you all morning, I'm so excited," he said while smiling.

This was odd, I never thought of him getting excited over seeing me. But I guess he is excitable.

"What do you mean?" I asked, "You just saw me during breakfast and didn't say a word to me."

"Well that's because I was angry at Claude for making me study all morning, but now it's finally lunchtime."

This boy seemed to change his emotions so quickly, I better watch out for that.

"Now what were you doing this whole time?" he asked, his smile fading. Like I said before, his emotions change so very quickly.

"I've been inside the library, I'm surprised you didn't hear me in there," I responded.

"You didn't talk to Claude or those triplites, did you?"

"No."

"Good."

He walked over to the desk at the far end of the room and sat down, motioning for me to sit. He grabbed a pen and paper and started scribbling what I assumed were letters.

"Did you read today?" he asked me, still trying to write, but struggling.

"Yes, but I haven't found a book I could get into yet," I responded.

Alois passed what he was writing to me. It read, with terrible handwriting: Claude can hear us. I want to talk later when he is not around.

I had to reread it over a few times to understand it completely. I grabbed a nearby pen and wrote: OK.

"What do you want for luncheon?" he asked.

"Sandwiches maybe," I answered.

He wrote on the paper again: Claude doesn't like when I talk to others.

"Sandwiches?" he said, "I don't care for finger food."

I then wrote back: I have seen.

"Well," I said, "how about a shepherd's pie? "

He took the paper and folded it neatly.

"I shouldn't have asked, lunch should already be prepared by now," he said looking at the door. This conversation seemed meaningless and I was bored already.

"We should get going to the dining hall now," he said.

He then stood up and walked to the fireplace, and threw the paper in the fire. I stared at him for a bit, admiring his features in the firelight. Then I looked at the fireplace itself. Something felt off about its placement in the room. Then I realized why. That's where the door leading to the library should be. In its place was a brick fireplace that led all the way up to the ceiling.

And here I was thinking I had explored every corner of that room, but there was one place I had not looked, and it was that door. The only reason I had not looked in it before was that I did not want to disturb Alois while he was learning, but now I must look in there. I knew there was a good chance that there is nothing there and that I would be wasting more time looking into it. But I was still curious after all.

Alois turned to look at me, glaring. It was kind of scary seeing him with the light from the fire behind him and shadows covering his whole face. Especially since he looked too mean at that moment.

"Claude, we're ready for luncheon," Alois yelled loudly.

The door opened almost immediately and we were taken to the dining hall.