Chapter 11: Crystalized Family (Part 2)

*Hans POV*

"Welcome back home, miss Yuki! miss Freya! miss Rei!"

"Louder!!"

"Welcome back home, miss Yuki! miss Freya! miss Rei!"

"I can't hear you!!"

"Welcome back home, miss Yuki! miss Freya! miss Rei!"

"You call that a welcoming greet!?"

"Welcome back home, miss Yuki! miss Freya! miss Rei!"

I keep on screaming over and over again.

After the announcement, we split into multiple groups.

The first group focus on cooking and preparing the meal.

The second group focus on the prompt, decorations, arrangement, and cleaning.

The third group focus on greeting and welcoming.

If it isn't obvious already by now, I follow the latter group.

We're practicing our greetings on the port, noises of seagulls, waves, and ships echos in the air.

We have been practicing our greetings over and over again.

My throat feels dry and hurts from constant yelling and lack of drinking water.

"Hey, you, flea over there!"

The senior butler suddenly shouts.

His voices come from the other side and loud, they attract so much attention.

"Y-yes!?"

"You're the twerp that pisses miss Aoi this morning, right?!" "Let me hear your greeting!"

The senior yelled at the young butler, it was the same person from this morning.

"Y-yes! g-g-good morn-!"

"Who told you to say good morning, huh!?"

The senior brings his face closer to the young butler and glares at him from point-blank.

"You twerp can't even do a simple salute, huh?! no wonder you and your family are born with such low status! you're a disgrace from birth- no! before you even born!" "Incompetence like you should never even be born in the first place! you're nothing but an eyesore!"

The senior keep on hurling insult after insult at the young butler.

"I am sorry! I am so sorry!"

The young butler apologize, over and over again, he was on the verge of crying.

All of us watch what happens and it getting more and more difficult to watch.

Do I need to steps in? but even if I did, what possibly can I do?

Incompetence is bad, I agree, but to use someone's weakness to pressure them like this...

Before I can think much, my body begins moving by itself.

I took a step and Vert immediately stops me.

He grabs my right arm tightly, not wanting me to go.

"Don't."

Vert shakes his head in disagreement.

"But..."

I try to reasons with him.

"Even if you go, what can you do? you will only get yourself bullied, just like him." "It's sad, but he's the perfect example of how trivial we're." "We're but a servant, we can easily be replaced by anyone at any time and without warning."

Vert explains, his face expresses a deep sadness.

I understand what Vert is saying and I know that he's worried about me, he said all of this to me because this is a good moment to feed me this critical information.

"Oh my, did I came at the wrong time?"

The great advisor's voice suddenly echoes in my ears.

Her voice drags me back to reality and I open my eyes.

The great advisor stands right next to me along with miss Chidori behind her.

They caught all of us by surprise, none of us notice her until just now.

"M-miss Chidori, Great advisor!"

The senior butler quickly turns around and greets them.

The rest of us did the same and salute them.

"Something the matter? sounds like all of you arguing about something."

The great advisor walks and stands before the senior butler.

"N-no, no problem at all, great advisor!"

The senior butler answer.

His voice was not so convincing and he's sweating in panic.

A pretty funny view to be honest.

A big guy the size of a gorilla looks so scared in front of a little bean sprout.

"Hmm..."

The great advisor checks her surrounding, including everything behind her.

She look left and right before fixing her gaze at me.

Our eyes meet.

We keep staring at each other for one minute.

Feeling uncomfortable, I break my gaze away from her and resume my salute.

"...There is no problem, right..? you know the consequences if you messed up the greeting, right?"

Miss Chidori ask- no, threaten.

Her eyes went as sharp as a blade and she looks ready to kill.

In contrast to the great advisor gentle approach, miss Chidori uses fear.

"Y-yes!! ma'am! there's nothing wrong at all!"

The senior butler freighted and sweating.

"Alright, we trust you."

The great advisor flashes a smile at him.

"Before we're going through, I would like to take a couple of gentlemen with me."

"Yes?"

The great advisor kindly put her words together and tilt her head to the left and smiles.

"I take this one and that one with me."

The great advisor point at the young butler from before and me.

"Eh?"

I subconsciously react.

Me!?

The other butlers start mumbling to themselves and each other, believing that the two of us cause a problem.

"Silence!!"

Miss Chidori suddenly shouts.

The group immediately went silent with a single terrifying shout from her.

Like a dog leading a group of sheep, the only thing the sheep can do is obey.

"It's alright with you, right?"

The great advisor looks at the senior butler with a smile.

Behind her, miss Chidori stares at him while radiating a murderous aura.

Say no and he dies right at that moment.

"Y-yes! not a problem at all, ma'am!!"

The senior butler shouts out of fear.

"Thank you, let us go then!"

The great advisor cheerfully walk away and left.

Miss Chidori follow close to her.

Both I and the young butler can only silently follow them and stares at each other.

Neither of us understands why we were chosen, the only thing that we can think of is that we're in big trouble.

"Insect that thought of himself as the big gun, no matter how high he climbs, an insect is insect."

Miss Chidori suddenly mumbles.

She sounds disgusted and pisses.

"Don't say it like that, now that we already show ourselves like that, he won't dare anymore, hopefully, he learns his lesson from this."

The great advisor calmly response with a gentle voice and smile.

Eh? so their sudden arrival is all planned?

I can hear their conversation, is it ok if I listen?

As curious as I am though, I am not as foolish as to say anything not important in front of them.

It's better for me if I remain silent and obey whatever they are saying.

Right outside the port, a black limousine is waiting.

The limousine didn't have any wheels and it floats a few inches above the ground.

Yes, it's a floating car and that limousine isn't the only one.

All cars parked here have no wheels.

This is not the first time I saw them, but it still amazing regardless.

While the rest of the world still using tires, the Sakura Empire has long but abandon them.

The limousine left door automatically slides in, revealing a partial view of its inside.

I can see a pair of seats inside.

"U-umm..!"

The young butler raises his voice.

"Hmm?"

The great advisor halts her advance and looks at him.

The same goes with I and miss Chidori.

"Excuse me, great advisor, but am I allowed to sit in the same car as you and miss Chidori?" "I think that it's inappropriate for the likes of me to even view you, let alone sat in the same car..."

The young butler lowers his head.

The treatment he's been getting so far must have broken his spirit, his voice lack confidence, and his body gesture scream that.

"Of course you are, why not? cmon, get in, if you didn't come in, then you will get left behind~!"

The great advisor smile and cheerfully enter the limousine along with miss Chidori.

I take one last look at the young butler before entering the car.

I sit right in front of miss Chidori and the great advisor.

The young butler soon joins us and sits next to me.

The limousine door slides and automatically closes by itself, then the floor between me and the great advisor slides to the sides, revealing a projector beneath the car floor.

The projector is active and projects a holographic form of a young girl.

The young girl possesses long, smooth, and beautiful silver hair, tied into a ponytail style on the right side of her head.

A silver crown decorated with red, blue, and yellow jewel rest on the left side of her head.

Her beautiful eyes glow like that of a pearl.

Her upper clothing consists of a white cashmere with red leather insides, she also wears a matching white skirt with frills to compliment her attire.

Last and not least, she wears a pair of white thigh-high boots with small heels, the same one as the great advisor.

"Whoa..!?"

The young butler next to me shouts from having a young girl suddenly pop out nowhere.

"Done with your business, aunt Rinne?"

The holographic girl looks at the great advisor and kindly asks her.

"Yes, please drive us home."

The great advisor kindly responds in kind.

"Roger~"

The holographic girl uses her right hand to give an ok sign and wink.

"F.A.B, carry us home."

The holographic girl claps and gives out an order.

"Understood, miss Rosse."

Robot voices resembling the voice of an old man voices echo from the speakers inside the limousine.

The limousine then begins to start and drive away by itself.

The steer moving on its own without any driver.

"Hey hey, what kind of sorcery is this??"

The young butler couldn't believe what he saw.

A car that drives by itself, I can't blame him for getting surprised.

"Well then, aunty, we see you soon." "Please look after aunty for us ok, Chidori?" "Bye~"

The holographic girl waves goodbye to miss Chidori and the great advisor before she's disappeared and the projector went offline.

"It's not sorcery, it's technology."

The great advisor answers his question after waving a goodbye back at the girl.

"You heard the term called "A.I" before your arrival here, right?" "This car is currently being piloted by one."

The great advisor explains.

"A.I... you mean artificial intelligence? first was flying car and now artificial intelligence, just what this empire doesn't have?"

The young butler sigh.

"The idea was to kept the cherry blossom tree and to an extension, the entirety of Sakura Empire free from all kinds of pollution." "Burning fossil fuel for our need causes too much pollution, which certainly is not in line with our ideology." "So we simply look for different alternatives and scraps the fossil fuel."

The great advisor giggles and explain.

"The same goes with the car tires, with no tires around, mean there's less trash, which means cleaner surrounding and less pollution."

The great advisor adds to her explanation.

"You're going that far just to avoid pollution..?

The young butler asks.

"It's may sound strange coming from me, but I believe this is how we humans meant to live." "We're born as part of nature and need nature to survive." "While nature on the other hand does not need us." "Thus I believe it's only right if we return the favor to nature by preserving it and only take as much as we need." "It's up to you if you want to believe me or not, but for the past 20 years since the birth of the Sakura Empire, never even once did we suffer any natural disaster despite our proximity to Japan."

The great advisor smiles.

Her innocent smiles resemble that of a child, so pure and honest.

There's not even a single trace of lies in her word, every single word she said is carefully thought and comes directly from the bottom of her heart.

If angels truly exist in this world, then this person right here is that angel.

I vaguely understand now why miss Chidori and miss Aoi won't take any offense against her so lightly...

"Excuse me, but..."

I raise my right hand.

Which then beg the question, what would an angel like her want with the two of us...?

Why would an angel like her bring someone like me to sat in front of her?

What's her true objective might be?

"Yes?"

The great advisor response.

"May we know as to why you brought us here?" "Are we in some sort of trouble or something?"

I kindly ask for an explanation.

"Ah, I almost forgot..! now that you mention it..."

The young butler remembers his previous fear.

"Ohhhh, right, I almost forgot!"

The great advisor claps her hands.

"Actually, I have a little favor to ask you guys."

The great advisor innocently smiles and tilts her head to the left.

"Favor?"

I confusedly ask and tilts my head a little to the left.