Chapter 346 — Skilled Immigration
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
By the time the knights of Kant Territory had been seen off and the day's routine paperwork of approvals and documents was finished, the whole day had slipped away.
Gaoyang walked to the window and looked out at the giant sun slowly sinking outside. However many times he saw it, the sun of this other world never failed to strike him with awe. Gazing at the faint patterns rippling across that colossal disc—likely the traces of atmospheric turbulence—he casually pushed the study window open.
A cold wind immediately poured into the room, swirling through every corner of the study. The Month of Revival had already arrived, but the warming of the weather would still take a long while yet; at least for these days, the wind at morning and evening still carried considerable force.
Gaoyang did not mind the cold in the least. On the contrary, he rather liked the feeling of his mind clearing under the bite of the cold wind, so he faced the chill and drew a deep breath. But there were others here who feared the cold: a shadowy figure emerged from the nearby air almost instantly, rushed forward, and with a smack shut the window tight—all the while grumbling as she closed it: "There's something wrong with you, opening the window on a freezing day like this, you'll freeze someone to death..."
Facts had proven that the best way to force a Shadow Master out of stealth, aside from throwing a flashbang, was to open a window.
Gaoyang looked at the muttering, grumbling Amber, caught between laughter and tears: "A bodyguard like you usually doesn't live to the end of the shift under any other lord..."
"If you were an ordinary lord, I wouldn't be your tag-along in the first place," Amber turned her head and planted her hands on her hips with perfect self-righteousness. From the look of her, she was clearly preparing to mouth off a few more lines, but before the girl could speak again, the aroma of food had already slipped through the crack in the door and drifted into the study. The half-elf thief instantly sniffed without a shred of dignity. "Whoa... the roast smells amazing today..."
Gaoyang sniffed the air seriously as well and found it a little strange: "Doesn't seem like Betty's cooking?"
"I'm not analyzing anything with you, I'm hungry and I want to eat!" Amber said rapidly while waving her hand, and in the blink of an eye she had opened the door and dashed out, leaving Gaoyang behind shaking his head with a wry smile as he followed her out of the study.
Many nobles were in the habit of laying down a whole pile of dining rules: not only the hierarchy of seating, but also where servants should stand during the meal, what music should be played, and even the placement of plates and the number and orientation of candlesticks—all subject to meticulous regulation. They took pride in observing such strict dining etiquette, regarding it as the mark of a "civilized man." But dinner at Gaoyang's house was different from other nobles'. The Cecil family's table manners had already been greatly simplified in the century after their decline, and after their Xuan Yuan Sect had risen from the coffin and voiced their displeasure at having a crowd of people standing beside them blowing and beating during meals, the last remaining scraps of dining rules had been pared down seven or eight parts. By now, basically only two rules remained: "No one eats until the Ancestor is seated," and "Wash your hands before the meal."
When Gaoyang reached the dining room, he saw that Hetty and Rebecca were already waiting for him by the table—even that lump of a sea monster, who normally scarcely left her room, was properly coiled by the table waiting for the meal to begin—while Betty bustled about setting out cups, plates, knives, and forks.
Gaoyang walked toward the table and glanced at Tyr with a smile: "How rare. You felt like coming out to eat something today?"