Half Blood

Chapter 20 : Chameleon

[Third Person's POV]

It was 8 years ago in the Walker Mansion. The sky is gloomy as it's supposed to be, and the trees are vibrant red, their shade becoming crimson. A figure can be seen sharpening a wooden stake at the large vineyard behind the mansion. It was Alexander.

"What are you doing, Young Master?"

A voice asked from where he could be sitting. It was the head butler, Dan Curdohl. He was watching over the fruitless grapevines in the area, but Alexander didn't bother looking and answered in a casual tone.

"It's for your daughter, Mr. Curdohl. I swear I'm gonna land a hit when she comes back," eagerness escaping in his determined tone. Dan could only sigh in response.

"Fix your language, Young Master. Even with the Curdohl Family under your command, you should be addressing your combat instructor, Midnight Curdohl, as Miss Midnight," he corrected.

Dan was strict and a meticulous man; he had been accustomed to fixed manners and etiquette ever since he was a little kid. Alexander could only complain with silence.

"Please present yourself in the right manner, we have a new maid arriving today, Young Master," Dan spoke.

He left the wooden stake shoved in the dark terrain as we followed Dan back to the mansion. A single bat familiar perched on his right shoulder, its head bopping with every step he took; its composition was made out of his darkened blood -a sign of all familiars created by a malison.

He then lifted a finger, creating another, which his Dan noticed.

"Young Master, please refrain from using your malison. You're still recovering from what happened last month."

That statement hit his mood. Saddened eyes appear, but he brushed them off with a short dismissal. Both of them reached the mansion; a horse-drawn carriage can be seen beside the large fountain. Two large suitcases were placed on the ground with a woman in a green dress standing beside them. This was Leah.

Alexander headed first inside the mansion to fix himself while Dan greeted the new maid, and Agatha, who was 9 at the time, helped Hieval carry a laundry basket; she spotted Alexander heading straight to the kitchen before returning to her duties.

The young man sat lazily, with one leg on the table and an apple in his palm. He grumbles to himself about all the history of new maids hired in this mansion.

"How long will this one last?" he asked himself, taking another bite. Then, Alexander heard footsteps. He scrambled and hid in the stockroom.

"This is the kitchen area. Mornings are at 6:30, then lunch is at 11:00, and evenings are at 8:00," Dan continued, explaining the hours while touring Leah in the kitchen. Alexander sat behind a sack of flour while observing their conversation through a stationary familiar in the corner of the ceiling.

Dan ordered Leah to stay in the kitchen before continuing his duties of reconfirming with her selected room.

"What a big kitchen," she mumbled, then noticed a half-eaten apple on the counter.

Her eyes tracing any potential secret; her gaze was sunken yet a faint sense of danger persisted. She entered with a concise goal in mind, which could stretch into a long and patient plan.

"You're an odd one," Alexander spoke beside her, snapping her back to reality. She saw the young man leaning on the door of a stockroom. Alexander noticed that she was eyeing the walls, so he tried to pry about it. Leah, however, smiled back; she was sure that whatever Alexander suspected of her was not of her worries.