Chapter 448 — The New Order Is Complete
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 3
"Newspapers... I can understand them, I read them sometimes." Betty nodded, a pleased look coming over her face. "The lord even gave me a set of stationery, with scissors and glue — he taught me to cut out the parts of the paper I like and make them into a book!"
Having said that, Betty began circling Nikoxi Egg again. "...Mr. Egg, you really can't drink tea."
Nikoxi Egg could not for the life of him understand why this little maid was so fixated on serving tea to a guest, but he genuinely feared that the muddle-headed girl might insist on boring a hole in him and pouring the tea in, so he explained patiently: "I'm not like you. I don't normally eat or drink... or rather, the way I eat is different from yours..."
Betty finally stopped circling. She opened her eyes wide and looked at the metal sphere with open curiosity. "How does Mr. Egg usually eat, then?"
Nikoxi Egg answered offhandedly: "Oh, generally speaking, I absorb it through my surface..."
The words were barely out of him before he realized the little maid beside him had probably misunderstood, for the girl was sizing up his round body from top to bottom while swinging the big teapot in her hand, her face full of eager anticipation. He hurried to speak: "Hey, put that thought out of your head — when I said absorbing through my surface, I did not mean you get to water me!"
Disappointment immediately showed on Betty's face. "...Oh."
Nikoxi Egg produced a sphere's worth of question marks. "Honestly, why are you so set on giving guests tea?"
Betty wore her trademark blank expression again, and after a two-second delay suddenly said: "Sister Ginny said so. She said the most important thing for a maid who receives guests is to pour fresh tea for them in good time..."
"Ginny..." Nikoxi Egg thought it over and found he had never heard the name. "Has the lord's mansion taken on new maids?"
Betty shook her head vigorously. "No — Sister Ginny was a maid in the castle before. She received the guests. She was the best of all of us."
She paused then, as though recalling something, and went on: "Sometimes she would secretly carry the pastries the guests left uneaten back to the kitchen and give them to us..."
"The castle before..." Nikoxi Egg murmured, understanding now what had happened.
He saw Betty's spirits sink, and realized it was his own foolish remark that had started this foolish subject.
But he had no idea how to comfort a human being — these upright creatures, with their far too complex thoughts and feelings, had too many incomprehensible traits, nothing like the simple, intelligible nature of metal and machinery. All he could do was imitate what he had once heard humans say to comfort one another, and he said stiffly: "Don't be sad. Everything will get better."
"I'm not sad. It's already better." Betty shook her head, seeming to have pulled herself together. "Mrs. Vincent said that being alive is the thing most worth being happy about."
Nikoxi Egg floated quietly beside Betty, once again realizing that humans were truly a complicated and very interesting species.
And soon, the most complicated and most interesting of all the humans he knew finally arrived.
Gao Yang pushed open the study door, and the moment he stepped in he saw Betty with the teapot in her hands and the big metal sphere standing beside her. A smile crossed his face. "Nikoxi, I hear you've brought me a 'good thing' to show?"
Behind Gao Yang another head poked in, and Rebecca squeezed her way into the study. "I'm here, I'm here — Mr. Egg, what have you come up with?! A vehicle engine, or a bearing for the ships?"