“Don’t do that again I say! Hair is a man’s pride and I’ll not take any compromise in this!”
Hahaha! Leon was speechless for a second before he burst into laughter. “You’re only 14 this year and hardly a man. Just a young lad who still needs growing.”
The brothers romped around. Naturally, Angor couldn’t win against Leon who was already burly as a tiger. In the end, Angor could only give his brother more stares, before returning to his homework assigned by Jon.
Leon never knew how to deal with Angor when he decided to keep to himself. Leon rubbed his nose and turned to leave.
About half an hour had passed since Leon went away, and Angor finally swam ashore from the sea of numbers.
Looking at the empty room, Angor knew that Leon left a while ago, and it was almost time for lunch. He opened the door and saw two lunch boxes placed on the stone table in the yard, as always. The Head Maid Mana was taking out the meals from the boxes.
Vegetable stew sided with bread and fruit… again. Angor felt a bit down upon seeing all this.
He missed his teacher’s cooking. Those simple fried rice never disappointed his appetite as if there was magic in it.
Angor never had the delicacy again ever since Teacher started to grow weaker.
He once tried to learn the cooking skill from Jon, but the result was horrible.
Sigh. All four limbs of teacher had wilted beyond use now. I probably will never have those tastes again.
Mana went upstairs to help Jon eat, while Angor sulked in depression.
After finishing his meal, Angor entered the house just to see Mana coming down.
“Auntie Mana. Is my teacher awake?”
“Mister Jon is awake, young master,” Mana showed the empty porcelain bowl in her basket. “He’s got a good appetite today, drinking all the soup!”
“Nice. I’ll go see him.”
Watching Angor run upstairs in joy, Mana smiled in kindness. The two masters owned the Padt Manor now. On the outside, the elder master was proud and stern, while the younger one was gentle and calm. But outsiders didn’t know that they were still children on the inside. No matter how they acted strong, they hid their softness, and only showed their spirit in front of their close servants, which should have been in their nature at such an age.
“Teacher!”
Angor pushed open the attic door and saw the old man sprawling on the sling chair on the balcony, with his mute servant respectfully standing behind.
The old man had sallow, shrunken skin. His whole appearance was drastically different from the locals, with obvious foreign features. His eyes were turbid, but those black pupils still stood out.
Without his father, Angor had been considering Jon his most respected elder, and his lifelong mentor.