The Lady's Butler

The Promise Arc {Part 2}

(Part 2)

It was yet another free day, and Kyrano found himself once more in the training grounds, sweat trickling down his back as his protesting muscles struggled under the workout that he was putting them through. His mistress was sitting silently by the wall of the training room, reading her book silently while he practiced.

It was something that Louise had suggested since the day she declared duel. Knowing that her butler might have needed a self-refresher course on sword-fighting, since the last time any butler fought with swords was in their respective training schools. There were little opportunities for butlers to spar against each other after graduation, but duels between nobility was one way it could happen.

Taking in a deep breath to calm his insides, Kyrano raised his sword once more, facing the straw dummy that he had moved to the centre of the training room. Then, as if a cue had been given to him, he lunged forward immediately in a series of successive quick strikes, each aiming at areas of the dummy that would hurt worst but not kill.

The strikes flew, and the only sound generated was the rocking of the dummy on its stand as its weight was thrown around, straw falling to the ground like fake blood. Yet, in the moments before his final blow, Kyrano's concentration was ruined at the electric jolt that ran through his arm.

He made no gasp, but the involuntary reflexes of his arm made him release his tight grip on his sword, the weapon falling heavily to the floor with a loud clatter. Biting his lip to deal with the sudden pain from his shoulder, Kyrano cursed silently at himself as he bent down to retrieve the sword, knowing that he had obviously disturbed his mistress.

"My apologies, Miss Louise," He excused while hanging his head in shame, "I lost grip of the sword."

Louise had drawn her head out of the book, and was now staring at the figure of her butler standing lone in the training room, holding the sword with his left hand -his non-dominant hand.

"The situation of your shoulder; how bad is it?" Miss Louise did not let anything escape her knowledge, and Kyrano knew better than to hide the fact from his mistress.

"Given luck, I will be able to spar on equal grounds as the others. However, the pain comes in intense jolts, which will make hard, ending strikes riskier."

"Was it a right choice to choose sword-fighting, Kyrano?"

"Any choice you made would have had the same outcome, Miss Louise. I would serve you and win victory in all activities that you could possibly come up with."

"I would have expected no less from you." His mistress looked back down to her book, whatever doubts that had been crossing her mind now forgotten. "Continue training, Kyrano, but take care for that shoulder."

"As you wish, Miss Louise." Kyrano answered humbly once more, and returned to his training.

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"Sleep well, Miss Louise." Kyrano bade his mistress, watching as she nod at him, then closed her eyes. After watching his lady for almost seven years, Kyrano knew how quickly and peacefully his mistress fell asleep every night. It was their daily routine for Miss Louise to turn in at the turn of 10pm, and she would not stir nor dream until the next day.

His mistress's sleep meant that the butler was finally free to engage to the remaining tasks of the night that he had been unable to attend to. Collecting his mistress's gym outfit and uniform, Kyrano silently made his way to the laundry room to do the laundry for the night, so as to keep them ready for the following day. He next bustled with cleaning the study area in which his lady had occupied for most of the night, arranging her papers and books neatly in her usual organizational manner.