Book 1, Chapter 105 (1/2)

Partner

The housekeeper brought Richard to a part of the island he’d never been to, leading him through a murky corridor until they came upon a set of stairs.

This was a six-storey building, situated behind the castle. There was no special layout to the construction and the rooms were extremely cramped, with many people being forced to fit into limited space. There were a total of five such buildings, built for the branches of the Archeron Family and the best of slaves, as well as high-ranked officials and young knights.

Because of the relatively small area of the floating island, two to four people would share a single room. Coco, however, was on the top floor that was allocated to the youths of the family. Those were single rooms, because their partners hadn’t been decided yet and they needed the convenience to enter and leave.

The housekeeper seemed to be extremely familiar with everyone in the floating island. Although there were slaves which bowed towards him along the way, he did not stop and ask for directions. Instead, he brought Richard to a room at the end of the corridor, and knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” Coco’s gentle voice appeared from behind the door.

The housekeeper reported his name, and Coco seemed startled, “Ah, please wait for a moment.” Moments later, Coco opened the door. She had a shawl draped over her shoulders, covering the upper half of her body, and a white gown which extended to the legs. Her dainty white feet which stepped on the carpet seemed rather striking. The time now was extremely late in the night, and it seemed like Coco had been woken up from her sleep.

To the youths of the Archeron branch families, the housekeeper was a secondary figure of authority behind only Gaton himself. This was more so for the weaker families. Thus, the moment she heard the housekeeper was standing outside Coco immediately got up and wrapped a shawl around herself without a change of clothes.

She looked at the housekeeper, and then at Richard who was standing behind, as if understanding everything. She immediately bowed, “Are we going to conduct a magic experiment now? Please wait a few minutes, I’ll have a quick change of clothes!”

To Coco, this job was far more important than her sleep.

The housekeeper stopped her, speaking in an unhurried tone, “No, this has nothing to do with magic experiments. Coco Mary Archeron, you have the honour of being chosen by young master Richard as his first partner. Since young master has to set off at first light tomorrow, he shall be spending the night with you.”

“What?!” Coco cried in surprise, and her face turned pale as she unconsciously retreated by two steps.

The housekeeper was not going to repeat things a second time for her. Instead, he went to the side and said to Richard, “Young master, please enter. Also, I will be waking you up at five in the morning for breakfast. We will be setting off at six-thirty. The journey tomorrow is long, so please restrain yourself slightly tonight.”

Richard nodded with an indifferent expression.