The Butler's Master

Attack and Escape - Part 4

[Attack and Escape – Part 4]

"Your fathers might not approve of this, but this is good time as any for a lesson of the less desirable side of the business world. They are survival skills, but any respectful businessman should take utmost care to never reveal knowledge of such methods of business." Kyrano was much stronger now after the rest that had been enforced upon him by the young men who had become somewhat like noisy, nagging caretakers to him. While the man was still in no good shape to be walking around, he was much sharper and clear-headed than he had been when he had first arrived.

And that meant that in all interactions between Kyren and his butlers, the man was observing them quietly, making corrective comments at time.

"Is it going to be illegal?" Kyren had already guessed it coming –considering the many stories of grandeur that he had heard from his father that the man had been capable of. Back when he had been young and innocent, he had marveled at the things Kyrano had allegedly done, but it could not be denied that after he grew up, the realization that some of the things done in his mother's stead had been somewhat borderline-legal had sunk in.

"They are grey areas that will become useful for the heirs of the Greaves-Crawford Household, as well as the butlers of the Reyes Family in serving their master." The man who was more of a legend –belonging to the stories of grandeur his father had told him for bedtime –answered directly.

Kyren knew –from news, anecdotes, word-of-mouth, and most importantly, his father and Head Butler's testimony –that his mother had once been a very different person, and for some reason, talking to Kyrano gave him a general sense of what his mother might have once been like. Sure, he knew that her cool, calm sensibilities had been there ever since her youth –Louise was very-aptly nicknamed the Ice Queen of the business world –but there was just the aura of complete capability that surpassed even common sense around Kyrano that somehow made sense to Kyren how this man sitting in front of him might once have served his mother whole-heartedly.

"The first lesson –and likely the most important that all three of you are required to accept before we move on to all other lessons –is that all members of the Greaves-Crawford Household and all other respectable Households have conducted, and are conducting illegal side hustles that are not reported in their annual audits."

Kyrano Reyes, the once-famed Butler in Black, waited in silence as the young heir of the Greaves-Crawford Household, as well as the young butlers of the Reyes family exchanged horrified looks. The younger generation sat before him, young and eager to learn and prepare themselves for the future out in the world. Kyrano could barely remember the days when he was their age, in the Rose Academy beside his mistress and thinking that his future standing by her side would span many more years.

"Master Brandon..." The first protest from Kyvan was weak, but Kyrano could not expect otherwise. Between the Reyes twins (not him and his brother), Kyrano knew that the nephew who was still a little younger, a little naiver but a little more expressive was Kyvan. Kylar, on the other hand, reminded Kyrano of himself –at least his younger self.

"Mr. Brandon and Keyron own multiple shell company offshore registered in many smaller countries and funds are occasionally siphoned there for rainy day money. They have given enough to the local officials there to build good relations, but the appropriate cut-off mechanism if anybody there tries to overstep their boundaries." Kyrano explained, knowing that he was destroying the picture of the perfect Master and Head Butler of the Greaves-Crawford Household.

"I wouldn't have been surprised if it was just Dad, but Master Brandon too?" Kyvan still seemed to have problem catching on.

"I expect that Mr. Brandon learnt how to be a proper businessman over the years as he grew up." Kyrano answered. "I will leave the details of your mother's dark secrets for your own discovery in your free time, Kyren. But the whole point of my telling you this is that you cannot expect to deal with a businessman –or his entire Household –by only the legal way. When Miss Louise and Mr. Brandon dismantled the Hague Household, they made sure to cut the Master and Mistress of the Hague Household off their back-end support as well. What Keyron failed to realize –and this I suspect because he held some faith in the young boy at that time –was that James Hague had already been introduced to the Underground world by his parents before they passed. The moment his Household was dismantled, James Hague went underground. The rest... well, you have seen the consequences."

"Then, you mean if I want to bring James down, I need find an Underground backing as strong as his?" Kyren asked in confusion.

"When you were dealing with Lyca in my stead," Kyrano changed the topic so abruptly that the young master was startled, struggling to follow, "what did you do when the supplier left you abruptly to supply for your competitor?"

"You gave me info that they were offering their employees secret benefits beneath the table, so we arranged for some of our people to pretend to be their employees to reap the benefits, then report them to the authorities."

"And what did Lyca gain?"

"The supplier came back and the competitor's divested business arms." Kyren answered, brows furrowed in confusion. "What does that have to do with bringing James down?"

"You don't beat them in the same game." Kylar interrupted with a thoughtful expression, and Kyrano showed the briefest hint of a proud smirk at the nephew who he had heard was the most studious of the three musketeers. "You take over from the inside. Miss Louise did it 7 years ago, and many analysts were divided between wanting to condemn her for her secret moves that borderline the laws, and wanting to applaud her for her very-forward planning."

"Oh, that." Kyren nodded. "But how do we take over from the inside? Everybody who works for James know who I am, and I'm pretty sure they know about Kylar and Kyvan."

"They don't know the man named Kyrano. That much was clear to us all back in the apartment." The man himself answered.

"No, no." Kyren understood the man's train of thoughts almost immediately, jumping up and waving his hands in physical show of his refusal. "I'm not letting you go in there alone, even if you are the legendary Kyrano Reyes. You haven't recovered yet."

"I know." The man rifled through the first aid box that had been left on the bed by his side back when the three young men had patched him up. It did not take him long to find his weapon, and he brandished it with a grim smile in front of them. "Mr. Brandon and Keyron did a lot to erase my existence from the public back when I first died, but there were many places that they missed out. I helped them hide my existence from most of my own contacts –I needed to make sure that they were not caught in a lie just because someone out there knew I was still alive. But my name still remained and occasionally floats up when I use it to access old assets back when I was still alive."

"Let me do it." Kyvan offered, though the look of utter determination on the elder Reyes twin was scary in itself. The three young men would have a long fight about who would be the one sneaking into James Hague's group, but Kyrano did not bother to tell them that he had already predicted the winner.

A butler's code was binding, after all.

Kyrano watched as the young men began to turn to argue with each other, determination equally strongly written on their faces. Duty hung strong on the shoulders of the young butlers, but Kyrano had recently groomed the young master of the Greaves-Crawford Household himself. The young man now knew exactly his boundaries, and the things he could –and could not –order from his butlers.

It would be a long argument.

Kyrano left the tiny scissors that he had retrieved from the first aid box. It was not the best choice as a hairdressing tool, but they would have to make do. There wasn't much fashion to be expected out of a young man who would eventually adopt his name, after all.

The argument soon began, and Kyrano –against all odds –laid down and drifted away to dreams of better days where he witnessed the childish, irrational arguments between his brother and the young master of the Greaves Household.