𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐭

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐕𝐈 • 𝐒𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐭

It was already the next day. You've awaken from your bed after a good slumber. You've wore your shoes, tidied up your bed and brushed your hair then tied it into a ponytail.

You opened the door of your room and you met eyes with Bertrum's. He greeted you with a delightful smile. "Good night, Mrs. Y/N!" he lightly said. "Good night, Mr. Bertrum." you replied as you smiled back at him, happy to see him again. After the day when you both talked about your interests in literature, you felt like you could trust him. Bertrum appreciated how polite you were being despite being new to the place. "Please call me 'Bertrum', miss. You don't need to call me mister." he requested. "Oh.." you felt your face warm up in timidity. "Okay, Bertrum." you shyly said, but you tried to stick a smile to hide the nervousness.

He walked you to the kitchen to eat the breakfast. It was pancakes and a cup of orange juice this time. You sat down on a chair and started eating your meal, while Bertrum was sitting next to you like he did yesterday. He was looking at you almost the whole time, but you didn't notice it since you were busy pleasing your appetite. After you finished and Bertrum washed your plate, you both walked outside.

"Do you want to go back to the library and read? Or do you want to try something else?" Bertrum asked you. You looked at him. You actually wanted to do other things, but you didn't want to annoy him. "Oh. Uhh.. yes! I'll go back to my room and grab my novel. I hope you don't mind." you shyly said. Bertrum nodded and you two went to your room. You opened the door and went to the your drawer and took you novel, then headed out. "Here it is." you said and you two went to the library.

As you two came, you sat down on the same sofa of yesterday and opened your novel, starting to read. Bertrum went looking for something else to read and came back with a book. Though it was a very thin one, it looked like it was a children's story book. You got curious to know what it was about. "What is this book? Why is it so tiny?" you asked curiously. He looked at you. "Oh - it's a book of poems. That's why it's tiny." he giggled. "Wow! You're interested in poetry? That's cool. I am also very interested in poetry." you commented. "R-really..?" Bertrum asked you with surprise. You nodded with a smile. He smiled back happily. He thought he was the only one in this Manor who liked these kinds of things; art, literature, poetry, Romance. He felt some kind of foreign feeling in his stomach. He opened his book and started reading it as you continued to read your own novel.

After almost an hour, Bertrum closed his little book. He probably has finished it. Though you were wondering why he had finished so lately, it looked like you could read it in just eight minutes or less. He was probably re-reading every poem it had or perhaps to further understand them and do some analysis. "Are you done?" you asked him. "Yes. I finished it. The poems were pretty nice. If you're interested, you can read it." he offered. "Oh - thanks a lot. I'd like to do that but maybe later. I have read a few chapters of my book and I guess this is enough for now." you said. "Oh - alright then. So you're changing your activity?" the aristocrat sitting next to you asked. You didn't expect that question. You felt a wave of hesitation, you were afraid that what you were going to say would be seen suspicious. "Y-yeah.. I'd like to.. go outside of the manor. You know - where the Hedge-Maze is." you nervously said. You looked away, afraid of how he'd react. What would he say? How did his face look? What was his reaction? Did your request arouse his suspicion?

"Oh.." he said in a low voice. You started sweating as fear started to consume you. His tone... "I see how it is... Hmph.." you started to panic. You really didn't want to look at his face. "I understand. You're probably tired of being inside a very luminous golden place. You need some fresh air." he suddenly said, his normal tone was back again. Your expression immediately changed to a nervous smile as you quickly glanced at him. "Y-yes! That's what I meant." you said, pretending like nothing happened as you mentally sighed in relief. "Okay, let's go." he said and stood up. You got up and closed your book once you bent the paper of the last page you read.