No Time

I'd been relocated to an assistant butler at the Yang household.

The butler didn't seem to like me.

It was obvious whenever he scoffed at my shoddy cleaning skills.

He was an old dude, maybe 60, 70 years old.

I don't have as many years of experience dusting vases as you do, ok?!

Lay off me old man!

At least I knew how to be a bodyguard and schedule manager well.

The oldie was in charge of the Yang household's master, Little Blue's dad.

He was already busy and tired from doing all that, so considering his ancient ass, the job of managing Little Blue's schedule was handed over to me.

"Young master Xiaoshen" as I was supposed to call him enjoyed my presence more.

I think it's because I let him eat junk food and didn't lecture him every day for 3 hours.

Of course, it didn't mean that I would let him do everything he wanted.

This kid, although sweet and thoughtful, had lots of bad friends.

Not counting that Jing Shao kid who's, uh, supposedly a secretary in making.

He seems sly, but he's a kid after all, the two, although their age difference is somewhat a bit further apart, 8 & 13, they still fight over the stupidest things. Just kids trying to act like adults.

So besides work, where I now even lived in the residence, I didn't have anything to do.

I mainly acted as a bodyguard to earn extra pay and followed the young master around.

He wandered around everywhere, even dangerous places.

It may sound weird to have bad places in such a safe area, a safe base that Shui Yu himself made, but it was true.

There were always some bad eggs.

I don't think Shui Yu doesn't know of this.

He probably lets it be.

As long as they don't do stuff bad enough for them to get sent to jail, they should be fine.

They're just small time crooks.

And everyone can fight them off, they've all got powers.

Oh, maybe he's letting it be so that he can have examples of troublemakers.

Then he'd throw them inside a jail or worse, maybe exile them?

I shivered at my imagination.

Shui Yu was really terrifying, but maybe I thought him even more ruthless than he was.

Anyways, enough about Shui Yu. At this point, if I continue to think of what future decisions he may make, he'll turn out to be a demon king.

Just focus on work!

And earn enough money to live a stable life with no worries!

Did I even need this much money?

No, but I had nothing to do, no hobbies either so might as well keep busy.

Besides, the bodyguards were friendly folks.

Some of them looked big, tough, rough, scary, you name it, but they were all nice to the workers under the Yang family.

Not super friendly, of course. But they were able to joke around and talk normally.

They cared deeply for the young master like he was their own child.

They'd been watching him grow up all his life.

One day, the young master asked me, "How old are you again?"

"20."

"Sir," the old butler chided.

"20, sir."

"20...20, huh. Then, aren't you still supposed to be in school? College, university, right?"

"No, sir," I replied.

I already had a job, school would be no use!

"Young master you are right, master and I had been planning to send Calix to the training academy."

"What training academy?" I asked bewildered. This old man, what had he been up to?

"The butler academy of course!"

"Those actually exist? Aren't they only in like anime?"

"These days, every newly acquitted servant is not suited to working right away. They need to learn proper skills to serve their master properly."

To what extent was this going to go???

"I already know how to clean and sort out letters and schedule appointments and take care of-"

"Stop acting like I don't exist," young master pouted.

"I don't want to go to an academy for... butlery!"

"No such word is used. Butlery is a butler's room. Even I know that," the young master scoffed at my poor word choice, no, my poor vocabulary skills. He sipped tea elegantly, with his pinky raised.

"You shall learn to do housekeeping as well as the necessary skills to serve the young master as he grows into a respectable adult."

Do I even want to be a butler in the future?

Wait, the more pressing question was, what other job option would be left for me?

Electricity manager? No, the base's solar power panels were better than me at giving energy.

What could I do without any technical school education or license?

Dangit, maybe I did have to go to school.

I take back what I said before, school had its uses!

Oh, maybe I'll become a bodyguard instead?

The old man saw through my thoughts and told me, "There's also a school for bodyguards as well. It is much tougher than the butler academy."

With grave faces, the trusty bodyguards nodded.

"D-did this school transfer in with the base?"

"Of course, many influential people live in the base, and with their work, not many can afford to spend time and effort in housekeeping and managing unexpected duties as well."

Now the old dude had a reminiscent expression on his face. Gross.

"I remember when I was a lad. My mother shipped me off to the academy. I didn't have the best results, so I honed my skills and became the top student. That was how I became employed in the Yang household. Young man, although you lack the eye to see detail, you must not betray the Yang household name! You must become #1!"

"You talk as if I already go there."

From behind me, a voice sounded.

"That's because you already are a student there."

The bodyguards, the old butler, and young master all turned and greeted.

"Master!" "Father!"

I belatedly greeted as well, "Master... What do you mean?"

The Yang patriarch smiled wisely.

"You already signed the contract before, don't you remember?"

Contract...?

"In your work contract, it contained a condition that you would have to learn skills at the academy."

A very mindful reminder to always read the small print and not skip over paragraphs that look like filler.

"The academy is starting their second semester next week, don't let us down, young man."

The Yang patriarch patted my shoulders lightly, but I felt a heavy weight.

Physically I mean, the burden was mentally pressuring as well, but the Yang patriarch was a strong ability user on top of being a powerful influential being. His hand was heavy.

Anyhow.

I was placed with being valedictorian.

This was considering that I was shoddy at wiping windows and dusting vases.

I could take care of scheduling.

But I'd seen the work the old butler did.

Although he's crummy, I had to admit, he was impressive, managing the whole household.

Our household did have a housekeeper. But the housekeeper was also an old man, even older actually. He had bad eyes, even if he was an ability user, so he couldn't do his work properly and only did a portion of it with his own successor.

So, the old butler was both a butler and housekeeper, it really was tough on him.

I did have imaginations of taking over his legacy since they mentioned it before, but whenever I looked at his schedule, it seemed too much for me.

Now, I had to somehow do it all.

This anime-like academy for butlers... I'd conquer it!

Like any protagonist would!

Yeah?