Warlock Apprentice

Morning Dew?

Leon knew he heard about this name somewhere. But upon careful consideration, he couldn’t recall what it was at all.

Looking at how Leon was deep in thought for real, Eton asked with a bit of surprise, “So, Viscount Padt, you really don’t know about it?”

“No need to call me by that title yet, Count Eton, since I haven’t inherited it. Just call me Leon,” he shook his head. “And no, the name of Morning Dew does sound familiar but I do not know what that refers to.”

Eton gave Leon another thoughtful look and took a wooden box from his personal servant, then passed it to Leon.

“Do you know anything about this box?”

It was an exquisite wooden box with patterns carved on it which were quite different from those famous relief sculptures in the empire. Simple outlines and sketches that resembled flowing clouds, a completely unique style compared to modern genres. Most people wouldn’t recognize it. However, Leon just knew – this was old Jon’s personal tea box.

Jon’s enemy came looking for him?

“This is a… box for storing items maybe?” Leon almost said this was a tea box, but he decided otherwise. He did not like the old man, but he wouldn’t sell him out, just for the fact that his dear brother respected Jon very much.

Leon was, however, still young. He tried to hide his expression, but Eton still caught the split second of recognition.

“You don’t know about the box?” A voice of questioning sounded.

“No,” Leon replied firmly.

After another long moment of silence, Eton curled the corner of his lips and showed a brief, yet ice-cold look. He said in a cold tone, “Well, since Viscount doesn’t know about this, I’ll not take any more of your time. Farewell.”

As Eton and his men left the hall, Leon’s expression slowly turned dark.

He gave up too fast, and the killing intent he just showed…

Leon got a very bad feeling about all this.

Upon second thought, Leon ordered the domestic knights of the family to stay alert and hurried back to Jon’s wooden house on his horse.

He came to the place for a second time today, with a completely different mindset.

His hurried movement caused the air to flow, which swayed the grass around in the yard.

“Brother? Did something happen?” Angor recognized the unusual expression and did not play the “you’re here” joke this time. He was anxious about whatever might make his brother act like this.

“You saw the tea box? The one that old Jon uses to keep his tea leaves.” Leon said while quickly moving to the second floor, then pushed open the door to Jon’s bedroom.

Angor followed behind. “Tea box?” From a small dresser nearby, he took out a small, round box with the figure of a dragon carved on it, “You mean this?”

Jon was reading in front of his desk, with the mute servant helping him turn the pages, and now Leon had caught his attention.

“Oh? You finally understand the awesomeness of my tea leaves and came to admire them, Leon boy?” Jon smiled.

There were also teas in Goldspink Empire, but they were very different from what Jon had been brewing. The teas in the empire, specifically speaking, were beverages made from flowers, syrups and milk, like milk tea. Angor and Leon enjoyed this kind of tea. However, Jon rarely drank it. He consumed his hand-made tea, brewed from the tea leaves picked from the green tea bushes he grew, without any additions. The tea garden Auri worked in was originally his own workplace when he was still strong enough. He asked Head Maid Mana to take care of it when he was no longer up for it.

Leon ignored Jon’s joke and took the box from Angor.

Then he frowned and said, “No.”

“No?”

“The patterns. This box has snake monster on it, what I saw earlier was a box with sea waves or something similar,” Leon tried to recall the box from Eton.

“Snake monster? This is a dragon, brother. ”

“Dragon? I never saw such slim dragons.”

Angor knew it would take forever to explain the different mythology conceptions of worlds to his brother so he only said: “Teacher usually uses this dragon one to keep tea for himself. The one he gave mother for storing rose tea had peaches on it, and the one for father had bats. There are other boxes too. The one with wave patterns you just mentioned must be carved with clouds, also a gift for someone.”

“So the old man uses such fashionable boxes? I never noticed,” Leon said in surprise, but recovered soon and asked Angor again, “So, the cloud box. Where did it go?”

Angor gave Leon a puzzled look, “Like I said, they’re for gifting people, Teacher doesn’t keep them here. Father once asked teacher to make a bunch of cloud boxes. If any of them are still here, they should be sitting in storage right now.”

“Leon, tell me, what happened?” It was Jon. He stayed silent most of the time, but he kept his watch on Leon’s expression. Those eyebrows never loosened.

Leon looked at Jon, inspecting him from head to toe, and slowly said, “Count Eton of the Morn Family came today.”

…

“Aha. Now Leon boy is worrying about my enemy coming for me?” Jon chuckled after hearing about Leon’s experience today.

“I’m not worried for you. I was trying to cover for you for Angor’s sake,” Leon turned away and muttered aloud.

Angor laughed on the inside. He always saw his brother as the brave and strong male owner of the family, so he actually got a tiny bit of… what was it called, tsundere?

“Just tell me. What’s your problem with Count Eton? He came and went away quickly. Particularly when going away, his look was malevolent. If it’s something that can be solved, I’ll try my best. If not, you’ll have to watch out for your own.”

“There’s no problem,” Jon replied without hesitation.

“No problem? But that box he had was made by you!”

Jon looked at Leon. “In this world, everyone I know lives in Grue Town. And I don’t see a reason why I would lie to you.”

Jon’s body was already failing when he landed in this world, added by the fact that he hardly knew the language and culture here, he spent many years to blend in with the help of Viscount Padt. After getting used to the place, his limbs already began to wilt. He wasn’t fit for long travels. The farthest place he ever went during the years was the capital of the empire, because old Padt took him there to receive treatment. And he never expanded his relationship, let along gaining enemies.

Angor saw the doubt in his brother’s expression and explained, “Teacher is right, maybe you thought wrong. Let’s say, perhaps Count Eton does not know about Teacher in the first place.”

“You mean…”

“You said that Count Eton came for something. He first asked about the Morning Dew, maybe he’s only after this?” Angor tilted his head. This was what he always did when thinking about something. “But the Morning Dew is just the name of a tea. So he came to drink tea? Something doesn’t add up.”