Comforting Darkness

Chapter 26: The Tutor, The Emerald Witch

"Ihhi furoy-eh mihhi jii kenen tsureru nen." Ciel's monotonous voice was heard over the rambling noises of the moving train.

"That will never do. You are stressing the wrong syllables." Sebastian said with his as a matter of fact tone sitting at the opposite seat.

"Argh, I give up. I am feeling sick!" The boy complained as he flopped and lied down on the seat. "Reading in a train makes me... so dizzy! Ich..." He started one more try.

"You simply lack discipline." The butler sighed really troubled with the non-existent progress of his students.

"We are the ones lacking discipline or German language is like you purposely twist your tongue in a knot?" The blond tutor said next to the butler. "At this point, I believe that even Greek would be simpler to learn to speak and at least be understood."

"Miss Selina is right. German pronunciation is impossible. Being able to read it is enough." Ciel confirmed having given up on his textbook.

The demon butler crossed his arms on his chest and sighed once again, glancing at the woman beside him, clearly accusing her for not even trying to discipline her student, just because now they were both students under his tutoring.

"Don't look at me like that. I never said I was a good student and he never showed such unwillingness in our lessons. Could it be personal?" She ended up whispering behind her own textbook, teasing the demon.

After two days of travelling by train, the Phantomhive group reached the Nuremberg outskirts and started enquiring about the case at hand... However, communication was a little bit difficult.

"Hey... Sebastian. What language are they speaking?" The young Earl asked somehow terrified by what he was hearing.

"East Franconian. It is a southern German dialect." Sebastian said in his usual cool way, while Selina, standing next to him with narrowed eyes, was not sure if the German man in front of them was speaking funny or if her ears were somehow damaged, because she could not make out even one word.

"The dialect is too strong!! My studies were practically useless!! I cannot even follow what they are saying!!" The boy yelled to his laughing butler.

"The fundamentals are vital in everything, young master."

Ciel sighed. "So what is he saying?"

Sebastian went on interpreting; the man did not want to have anything with the witch's curse no matter how much gold Ciel would give him. Sebastian translated using a funny voice and a heavy pronunciation, that made Selina bite her lips in an effort to hold the laugh threatening to escape her throat. She made a mental note of making him use it again when they would be alone, where she would be free to laugh at her heart's content.

"Has he seen an accursed human? And you do not need to translate the dialect too... it is stupid!" The boy commented glancing at the demon.

What seemed to have happened at the victims was quite horrible; their faces had gotten really swollen and their skin resembled a melting thick mud. The government came and collected the dead along with the only survivor, a man so shaken up that could tell nothing besides "the wolf man is coming" and being quite hysterical about it. Sebastian asked Ciel if they should search every hospital to locate the man.

"There is no point in speaking to a madman. We should go at once to this 'werewolves' forest' ourselves."

"However, the man refuses to take us in his carriage, no matter how much we offer." Sebastian reminded him.

A clever and determined small smile appeared on the boy's thin lips. "Then ask him... how much the carriage costs." He ordered and received an approving smile from both butler and tutor.