"Sebastian."
It was time to rest in the middle of the night, and Charles, who had already changed into his pajamas, called the deacon's name by the candlelight.
"Do you have any orders?" The deacon who was about to leave holding the candlestick stopped and turned to look at him.
"Melu." The boy called out the head maid's name, and the sapphire left eye glanced at the deacon, "Do you see if there is anything wrong with her?"
The deacon's half-turned body turned completely this time, and his handsome face carried an inexplicable smile: "Young Master, don't you have an answer?"
"I'm asking you a question!" Charles glared at him, "Answer me! You know it, absolutely don't lie to me!"
"I'm sorry, young master. Even though it's been so long, I haven't found any problems with her." If possible, the deacon actually wanted to make up all kinds of lies to lead the master to suspect or even drive away the maid, but under the contract, he couldn't do it. . More importantly, his young master is not an idiot, and Merlu is not. He will not do this kind of time-wasting useless work.
Charles who got such an answer didn't know whether to say it was unwillingness, or whether it was a complicated expression of relief.
"If the young master is so worried, you can take the initiative to test it yourself." The black deacon suggested with a smile.
"Why me?" Charles subconsciously retorted angrily, "It's up to you to do this kind of thing!"
As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he regretted a little, but the deacon had already bowed down to accept the order.
"As ordered."
"Wait!" The order was given, and Charles was unwilling to contradict directly, but added in a tangled tone that he didn't realize, "Don't go too far."
In the darkness, the deacon holding the candle gave him a fixed look, then lowered his head.
"Understood. I wish you a sweet dream, master."
Time passed, and before I knew it, Merlu had been in the manor for more than two years, and her master, Charles Phantomhine, was already twelve years old.
The entire mansion, including the relatives and friends who are close to the earl, have known for a long time that their young earl has two right-hand men, one is the almighty deacon Sebastian who accompanies him to deal with various incidents, and the other is It's Mel, the head maid who is in charge of internal affairs.
"Today's lunch is cherry foie gras, pan-fried salmon, charcoal-grilled lamb chops and walnut bread, the soup is black truffle cream soup, and the dessert is butter pudding and Penn puffs."
In the dining room, the head maid standing by the dining table introduced the menu of Phantom Hein's dinner to today's visiting guests. The delicate and beautiful face of the blond girl complemented the table with gorgeous silverware and flowers.
"Oh~" There was a burst of exclamation at the scene.
The guests who visited the mansion today are the young master's aunt "Red Lady" Angelina Dares, and Liu Tao, the manager of the British branch of the Chinese trading company "Kunlun" which sells opium in the UK under the young master's supervision.
These two each brought a follower, the former is a deacon named Greer, who is behind the red lady; while the latter is a beautiful girl wearing a modified cheongsam, named Blue Cat, just like the real cat. Sitting on Liu Tao's lap.
Right now, the four of them are all looking at the food on the table with joy. Not only do they look gorgeous and charming like jewels, but the aroma they emit is enough to make people intoxicated.
"I like this cherry foie gras!" Mrs. Hong immediately judged her favorite, pointing to one of the dinner plates decorated with chocolate, caramelized walnuts, and apple strips. The cherry red fruit is fascinated, "If It’s not that I ate it in my mouth, I really didn’t expect these fruits like real cherries, which are full of foie gras. Especially its red and plump appearance, it’s so pleasing!”
"The foie gras is soft and delicate, and the red shell wrapped in the outer layer is made of real cherry puree. It tastes sweet and soft, and smells like rum." Manager Liu of the trading company also praised it, "Count, your head maid is really amazing."
"Hmph, of course." The young earl sitting on the main seat snorted softly, "After all, he is my servant."
"Ah, I'm really envious of Charles." Madam Hong looked at her nephew enviously, "It's not enough to have a Sebastian who can do everything, but she is so lucky to pick up Merlu who can do everything in the house, unlike my Gray Er...!" She turned her head and stared at the long black-haired deacon behind her with hateful eyes, frightening the latter into panic and guilt, seeing him so hopeless, Mrs. Hong immediately vented In a tone of voice, he looked back at his nephew plaintively, "Hey, Charles, can you make a consultation and give me Mel? Anyway, you already have an all-purpose deacon, so let me do it."
For his aunt's coquettish and rascal words, the entire Phantomhine family was completely immune, and Charles didn't even change his expression, and directly ignored her words.
"Thank you, Mrs. Angelina, for your great love to me, but I have no intention of leaving the young master." The blond maid replied with a smile, and then lightly changed the topic, "It's not enough to have a meal without a drink, and to match this dinner For drinks, red wine from Bordeaux is prepared for distinguished guests.”
Before she finished speaking, the handsome deacon in a black tuxedo had already pushed out the dining cart, on which an unopened bottle of red wine was placed on a carriage-shaped wine rack. The dining car stopped by the table, and the deacon gracefully took off the wine bottle and cork, and poured red wine to everyone one by one through a white handkerchief.
"Yeah, no matter how many times I watch it, I still feel that the deacon's wine pouring posture is very graceful." Picking up the beautiful goblet and shaking it gently, Manager Liu, who is wearing a green Tang suit, turned his face to the person next to him. The deacon smiled and praised, "I remember that when I came to visit the expensive house, you were always in charge of entertaining. It really is that you specialize in surgery."
This cryptic and mocking sentence did not make the deacon angry, he just narrowed his dark red pupils and kept smiling: "You are joking, my level of housekeeping is much lower than Ms. Meilu's. But... Whether it is foie gras or lamb chops, the taste is relatively strong and oily. Therefore, the wine paired this time is relatively clear and refreshing in taste, and I hope that guests can enjoy it.”
"Hehe, this is really considerate." Liu Tao bent his lips, stopped talking, hugged his maid and continued to enjoy the food.
The dinner was enjoyed by both the host and the guests. Afterwards, they left the dining room and went to the reception room. The rest was left after the servants cleaned up the table, and Sebastian also helped out.
He stood in front of the dining car and put all the empty plates on it, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the head maid directing the follow-up work.
"Melin, you will clean the floor of the restaurant in a while. Feeney, have you informed Baruto to bring out the Pu'er that was prepared today?... Well done, the guests will need it soon, so make the tea as soon as possible Woolen cloth."
Holding a stack of empty dinner plates, the blond girl was about to go around the dining table and put them on the dining car opposite, but at this moment, the black deacon narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Ah!" At the same time, the maid's steady footsteps suddenly swayed, and she fell to the side, and the dinner plate in her hand was naturally thrown out.
"Master Melu!" X2
Seeing that it was the end of the ups and downs, Mei Lin and Fei Ni rushed over directly. Fei Ni, who was walking extremely fast, stopped Mei Lu who fell down at the first time, and Mei Lin showed her superb skills like a juggler. Catch the scattered plates firmly.
"Are you all right? Are you not injured?" The two asked their head maid nervously.
"No... I don't know why my right foot hurts just now... Thank you, otherwise it would be terrible." With the help of Finny, the girl regained her body and thanked them with a smile.
The smiling face of the girl who hadn't fully recovered from the shock made the two of them feel distressed. After looking around to see if something fell on the ground to no avail, they all volunteered to take over the work for the head maid.
Naturally, it was rejected: "It's just a pain, it won't affect the work later, thank you for your concern, let's go to rest here after work."
As Meilu said, she pushed the dining car to the kitchen.
The deacon in black, who had a panoramic view of this scene, looked away as if nothing had happened, put the last few silverware on the dining table into the dining car, and pushed them away.
What the host and guests discuss in the reception room is never something that the maid needs to know.
"Considering Manager Liu's eating habits as a Chinese, this time I have prepared cooked Pu'er from Yunnan for you, which can relieve greasy food very well." Delivering the prepared after-dinner tea to the reception room, the maid While serving tea, he introduced to everyone, "For ladies like Mrs. Angelina, drinking more tea can help you keep in shape."
"Oh, Xiao Meilu is so caring, she really likes it!" Seeing the girl's graceful posture of making tea, and the playful gesture of smiling at her at the end, the red-haired, red-eyed lady in red was excited. , hugged the person directly, and held him tightly in his arms.
"Let go of her, Mrs. Red." Seeing that the maid's face was buried in the deep ditch and struggling to no avail, Charles, who couldn't stand it anymore, spoke to stop her.
"Really, Charles is such a petty weapon!"
"No matter how many times you say it, I won't send Mei Lu to you."
"I'll trade Greer for you!"
"I reject."
"Then, then I'll leave Greer here and let your Merlu transfer... to teach the head office, right? I heard Butler Tanaka said that Sebastian was also taught by Merlu!"
"Madam Red..."
"I don't care! You must promise me this request!"
The noise of the aunt and nephew became more and more distant after the maid was freed, and finally closed the door, leaving only the corridor where she was in silence.
Ever since, under the stalking of her aunt, Shire finally compromised and left behind her deacon, Grell Shadcliffe.
"I'll leave him to you these few days." That's what the young master said to the maid, in a casual tone, "Whatever you want, I'll send him back anyway when I'm done with time."
"Hey!?" The deacon of Mrs. Hong's house immediately exclaimed, "Why is this!? The reason why people want to stay here is because of Sebas... eh!"
Shire, Merle, who happened to be right next to him, and Sebastian, who was named, all looked at him in unison. The man who knew he had said something wrong was covering his mouth tightly.
"Ah, is Mr. Greer interested in my deacon?" The head maid laughed first, "In a sense, the two of you do have something in common."
When she said this, both Sebastian and Greer paused inconspicuously, but soon, the latter clasped his hands like a girl with an excited face: "Of, of course! My My ideal is to become a perfect deacon like Sebastian, and of course I want to learn from him!"
"Then, master...?" Melu turned her questioning gaze to the master.
"Leave him alone." Charles responded ruthlessly, "Just do what you like. Sebastian will go out with me today, and he doesn't have time to play house with Mrs. Hong."
After finishing speaking, he led the deacon and left the house directly in the voice of Greer "Why is this!" and Melu bowed his head and saluted "Understood."
"He, they left just like that?" The useless deacon with long black hair tied into a low ponytail with a ribbon stood in the vestibule and watched the carriage drift away, crying miserably while twisting his handkerchief.
"Don't cry." Finny handed him a pair of gardening shears, "Master Merle told me to take you to trim the hedges, this kind of thing Sebastian did very well, you should be a deacon as well ?”
So Greer took the garden shears with tears in his eyes.
Grayle Shadcliffe, the deacon of the Red Lady Angelina Dares, has a cowardly and cowardly personality, and always messes things up, comparable to the unreformed Phantomhine family servant trio.
"Really, you are really clumsy!" Chef Baruto, who was smoking and relaxing in the courtyard because he had no work, sat on the lawn and looked at the useless deacon who trimmed the hedge into the shape of a skeleton, speechless.
"Yes, I'm sorry!" Greer immediately apologized.
"But, it's very similar to us at the beginning, isn't it?" Mei Lin was also present, her heavy glasses covered most of her face, but she couldn't hide the smile on her face, "When we first entered this house, we were also so silly. It's rough and rough, and I can't do anything well."
"That's right, if it wasn't for Lord Melu, I wouldn't know how many things I would have destroyed." Thinking of Finny who had damaged the items in the house many times at the beginning because of his infinite strength, he was also scratching his head in embarrassment at the moment, " I just taught Greer gardening for a while today, and I want to go into a rage, it's really hard for Master Melu to correct us so patiently."
"Huh? Huh?" Greer looked at the three with a puzzled expression, "I just heard from Butler Tanaka that you were all brought into the house by Sebastian? Why do you praise the head maid so much?" ?”
"Ah? Did you mean Sebastian?" Baruto, who was wearing a chef's uniform, touched his head and squinted at the sky, "Yes, it is indeed he who brought us here, and we are also very grateful to him for letting us work under the young master .but… "
"But Sebas always thinks we're in the way." Feeney lowered his head in frustration, "Although his dislike is not unreasonable, we do often mess up things, and we always cause trouble for him."
"But we also want to help." Mentioning this, even Mei Lin, who has a good impression of the deacon, felt wronged, "We are all the young master's servants, but Sebastian takes care of everything. It feels like we are in this house. It is of no use except in special circumstances."
The more they are disgusted like this, the more unwilling they are, the more tossing, and then a vicious circle.
It wasn't until Sebastian pushed them all to Merlu that things slowly turned around.
"Master Meilu doesn't dislike us for doing bad things at all, and he has never lost his temper with us. He is really teaching us to adapt to and familiarize ourselves with our work and abilities." Fini said, making a fist with his arms bent. "For example, I can't control my own strength to break the tree. Master Meilu asked the company under the name of the young master to customize a super strength training device for me, so that I can clearly measure it every time. How much strength can be used to do something, such as how much strength to hold a spoon, how hard to hold apples and eggs will not break, I take all these feelings down and become things that can be broken instinctively. A lot less... Although I can help the kitchen to wash and cut vegetables, I still don't dare to touch the little bird's head... "
"You can touch it. It's because of your previous psychological shadow, Finny, so you dare not touch it." Baruto smiled and slapped the young man on the back. This kid was too happy because a bird stopped and ate on his palm. I reached out and touched the bird's head... Then the bird went to heaven.
"Balutto is the head chef, did he learn how to cook from the head maid?" Greer looked at the head chef, seeing Merlu's cooking skills last night, it's not surprising that he would think so.
"No." Speaking of the past time, the former US sergeant and current head chef also has lingering fears, "She asked me to practice baking potatoes in the open space in the backyard."
"Huh?" When Greer turned into a bean-eyed, Finny and Mei Lin beside him had already covered their mouths and burst out laughing.
The sergeant officer who came to the mansion for the first time is an expert in tactics and blasting. As a soldier who has experienced the flames of war, he pays attention to eating and drinking quickly. The fundamental reason for cooking with firearms is that it cooks quickly.
So the result of the first baked potato can be predicted, no, the result of the next few times can be predicted.
"In the beginning, they were all roasted into charcoal, and then gradually, they became semi-cooked, fully cooked... Later she began to judge which roast was the best, pointing me when to use high heat and when to change to low heat, When should I use the residual heat to cook it again... It’s the first time I’ve lived to know that baking a potato is so particular about just using fire. When I can make a perfect baked potato, I’ll never go into the kitchen to cook again It's so rough." Thinking of the days when he was tired of eating potatoes, Baruto felt tired, "But you are right about one thing, my cooking skills were indeed taught by the head maid."
"And me!" Mei Lin raised her glasses shyly, "My eyesight...is a bit problematic. So I often fall and break things when I'm working. In the beginning, Master Meilu wanted to change my glasses, But I said it was given by the young master and I didn't want to change it, so she customized another training method for me. Master Meilu taught me how to be an elegant lady. If you want to walk smoothly and gracefully, you must have a sense of balance, so She specially customized a method for me to train my sense of balance. I followed her to learn to walk, learn etiquette, learn how to taste tea, learn flower art, learn how to match clothes... Gradually, other tasks became easier. Walking rarely falls , and never broke anything again."
Greer half-opened her mouth and stared at the three of them blankly. Rather than saying that the head maid was teaching them how to be a servant, it would be better to say that she was teaching them how to be an ordinary person who can naturally integrate into the ordinary daily life of this house and become You have to be dignified and confident, not a "humanoid weapon" that is only dispatched once in a special situation and the rest of the time is placed casually. As long as you help, you are a troublemaker who causes trouble for others.
Comparing the two, it is understandable that Sebastian lost to the head maid.
"Ah! Speaking of which, where is the head maid now?" They sat here chatting and spanking for so long and no one came to reprimand, and Grayton was a little panicked.
"That's right! It's time to make lunch!" The chef also remembered the business, and quickly stood up, "It should be too late, I have to hurry..."
"Look quickly, there is a carriage coming over from the gate, and Lord Meilu is there!" Mei Lin pointed to the distance ahead, beckoning everyone to look.
"It's not the young master's carriage, it's the family crest of an unknown nobleman..." Feeney was also a little taken aback, "Who will be visiting at this time?"
"Hohohoho." The old butler who hadn't spoken much laughed beside him, "It's the carriage of the Marquis Scotney family. There is no call letter or appointment in advance. It seems that it is a charming guest."