BXBX NOVEL Chapter 87 Breakfast
Quaid watched with a smile of amusement as his son dashed out in blind haste. Sometimes, even he couldn't believe just how intelligent his own son was. And he was still so young. Quaid chuckled to himself as he bent down to work once again. The bottomless pit of the seemingly unending administrative duties swallowed Quaid again, and soon he forgot about the carefree nature of youth.
Cadence was on a mission and no one could stop him now. He casually breezed into the servants' quarters looking for any bit of information regarding the stranger's location. After about two whole hours of interrogating multiple servants, Cadence was still deficient of the one piece of prime information that was needed for the next phase of his plan.
However, he soon struck gold with one of maids. The short scrawny girl with rather large eyes told him what he needed to hear.
"…I heard some chatter about a fancy lodging being put together for some big shot who recently came into town as your father's guest master Cadence."
"So you know exactly where I can find him?"
She nodded vehemently. One hand on her broom, she stuck out her hand in the direction she was speaking about.
"Over there master Cadence. In a section of the mansion called the imperial suite. I believe the guest is locat-"
Cadence bolted in that direction on his quick sturdy legs before the maid could even finish.
"The imperial suite!" Cadence thought excitedly.
"Of course he would be there! Why didn't I think of that sooner?!"
Cadence already knew the answer. The imperial suite was a wing of the estate that was reserved exclusively for close and important guests of the state who were important enough to be lodged in the governor's own home. Cadence quickened his pace and raced towards the residence of the mysterious stranger. He hadn't even had breakfast yet, and yet, he was still bursting to energy.
Within a few minutes, Cadence skidded to a halt right in front of Xzavier's temporary residence. He couldn't believe that he was finally about to meet the man whom had taught him so much without even needing to open his mouth. His plan was finally taking shape, when only just a short while ago, it had been nothing but an idea in his head.
Once again Cadence lifted up his hand to knock, and once again, he couldn't bring himself to complete his action.
"Come on Cadence, you have to be more creative!" he thought to himself.
"This is the mister Xzavier, the legendary orc exterminator, the one who is above magic. I need to be more creative else, I wouldn't be taken seriously."
So, that was how Cadence decided to take a different route this time. He took a deep breath, looked squarely at the door as if it was his adversary, and yelled at the top of his voice;
"Mister Xzavier! Good morning! It's time for BREAKFAST!!!"
He repeated the same cycle some three, four times until he was sure that Xzavier had heard him.
Cadence didn't know it, but turned out that it had been pointless to call Xzavier's name more than once. On the other side of the door, inside the well furnished room, Xzavier's eyes flung open at the sound of his name being yelled. He wasn't sure if he had heard right, but it sounded like a kid had just called his name. He waited again for confirmation, and sure enough, his name was being called, and also something about breakfast as well.
He quickly got up and slipped into decent clothing. Then he headed to the door to check on the owner of the voice.
Xzavier swung the door open to see the starry eyed, five foot, man child gazing back at him anxiously. Xzavier instantly recognized his visitor as the quiet young boy from yesterday. Xzavier frowned slightly and wondered.
"Isn't this the governor's son? Why is he the one who has been tasked with a menial job of calling me out for breakfast? Don't they have servants for this type of stuff?"
Xzavier regarded the young boy for some time, and realized that throughout the period he had been with the small group yesterday, he hadn't uttered a single word That the boy was quiet and reserved, could only mean one of two things; either he was extremely smart or he was the exact opposite of smart.
But whatever the case was in regards to the boy's situation, Xzavier agreed that it definitely wasn't the governor's son's duty to call a guest for breakfast. The whole thing was weird on two fronts. The second weird aspect was the fact that nobles were mostly xenophobic. They generally looked down on the lower class of their own constituents. So, it was a bit odd that a noble would consider inviting an outsider to have breakfast with him.
Xzavier was fully aware of the significance of an invite of this proportion. It was almost as if his celebrity status was finally bridging the gap between the social strata. He couldn't help but feel honored by the invitation. Xzavier's ego stirred like a mountain lion that had been roused from its slumber. He felt like he was being taken seriously.
"Hold on a bit young man, I will be out in a minute."
Surprised that Xzavier had been so quick to honor his invitation, Cadence found himself saying;
"Of course Mister Xzavier."
Cadence was thrilled. He didn't think it would be this easy to get such an important figure to have breakfast with him. He was genuinely pleased with Xzavier's humility. As a boy who had come up amongst the social elite of the country, he had seen and gotten used to the pompousness of the elite. Cadence was very close to worshipping Xzavier. So, for a man like Xzavier to honor a young boy's invitation like him, well, it only set Xzavier on a much higher pedestal.
Xzavier came out a short while later all brushed up. Cadence led the way. With absolutely nothing to speak about, they trudged on in silence as they made their way to the dining area.
Some moments later, as both Xzavier and Cadence entered the dining room, Xzavier noticed that two entities had already taken their place at the dining. Quaid, the regal governor was seated at the head of the long dining table that was bedecked in white table cloth. Seated right next to her father was the volatile Earlene, and standing next to both father and daughter was the familiar and trustworthy face of Adalia.
As Xzavier made his way towards the dining table from the entrance, he couldn't help but notice the looks of surprise on both of the girls. It was almost as if they didn't think he would be there at the time. This was particularly awkward, and Xzavier began to wonder if in fact it was possible that he might have misread the situation.
Eventually he peeled his gaze from both girls and decided to check out the facial expression of his host. Xzavier hadn't had the privilege of knowing the governor personally. But judging from his experience with him the previous day, Xzavier was convinced that he would have better luck trying to read a statue's facial expression than trying to guess what the governor was thinking. Xzavier recalled the governor's face being as inscrutable as a sculpture.
Discerning Quaid's mood and thoughts was more difficult than trying to use a hook to pull out a sword fish by its snout. Truthfully, it wasn't that his face was permanently locked in a scowl, it wasn't the fact that he had one of those ice cold penetrating stares. No, it was way worse than that. It was the blandness of his expression. It was the fact that it was literally impossible for anyone to know what he was thinking at any given point. It was the emotionless, generic blank stare that irked Xzavier.
So, when he turned in the direction of the governor, hoping to catch even the slightest whiff of what this was about, Xzavier was taken aback by the sight that greeted him. Instead of the usual poker face that was typical of the governor, on his face was something that resembled something like a smile. By all count, Quaid looked particularly happy with his arrival. At least, that was how it appeared to Xzavier.
As Xzavier and Cadence approached the table, Quaid stretched out his hand towards the left hand side of the table, welcoming Xzavier and ushering him to his place. As was the custom, Cadence sat next to his father on his left hand side, and Xzavier carefully took his seat beside Cadence.
"Mister Xzavier, glad you could join us. I hope the lodgings were to your liking?"
"Yes governor."
Xzavier remembered that Adalia had been tasked by the governor to procure a decent accommodation for him. So, he decided to give a more positive feedback instead of his regular two, three words reply.