Chapter Volume 1, Diary of a Butler 1: Trying Hard to Become Familiarized with the Work Environment (1/2)

Volume 1, Diary of a Butler Chapter 1: Trying Hard to Become Familiarized with the Work Environment

Translator: Raylight

Dear Father,

At the moment, it is the year 2112. I have finally managed to find another job as a butler, and moreover, the employer isn’t someone from the criminal underworld. Ah, according to my employer, he isn’t a criminal. Therefore, it is certainly a year worth commemorating.

Please bless me from the heavens. At last, I can become a genuine butler.

After I had agreed to the butler job, An Xiang Ye’s and my positions were no longer on equal footing. Therefore, with a tone of respect, I said, “Master, there are a few matters which I must inform you about…”

Once he heard the form of address, he started laughing and teased, “Do I look that old?”

Indeed, to call this young man of about twenty something years ‘Master’ is a little odd. I could only ask, “Then may I inquire as to who the people of importance within the family are?”

“There’s Bàba and Gēge.”

I followed the conventions of a butler for addressing people and replied, “Then, I shall address your father as Master, your elder brother as Great Young Master, and as for you, I shall address you directly as Young Master. Is that acceptable?”

This time, he laughed heartily. “If you address them that way, you will definitely be killed by Gēge. The most important person in my family is Gēge. Also, Bàba is not Gēge’s papa.”

I have to say that I was very much at a loss. The person in power is the eldest son and not the father. This I could understand, for the authority of those in rich and powerful families have always been tangled and complicated. However… Bàba is not Gēge’s papa? Might the young master and his elder brother be brothers from the same mother but different fathers?

I hesitated for a moment and then recalled that there was already a secretary-slash-butler in the household. Hurriedly, I asked, “Then may I ask how Mr. Kyle addresses you?”

He tilted his head to one side to think. He said, “Kyle-gē calls me Young Master and calls Bàba Mr. An Te Qi. He calls Gēge…”

He looked very distressed.

A butler should never let his employer be distressed. I immediately suggested, “Then I shall address you as Young Master, your brother as Master, and as for your father… For your father….”

I was really at a loss as to how to address him. I could only force myself to say, “How about Master An Te Qi?”

“Okay.” The young master seemed not to mind the forms of addresses much. This part of him was quite like a young man.

“Then, Young Master, shall I come over every day to serve you, or should I live here?”

Without any hesitation, An Xiang Ye replied, “You can live here. There are still empty rooms here anyway, and it’s really boring to live alone.”

“Okay.” I nodded my head and answered, “Then I shall move in tomorrow.”

The young master thought for a moment, ran into a room, and following that, ran out again. He shoved a cell phone and a key into my hands, saying, “Right, this is for you. Kyle-gē said that if you were willing to accept the butler job, I’m to give this to you. Then, you should give him a call. His contact number is already saved inside the cell… Do you know how to use a cell phone, Charles?”

At the last part, the young master stared at me, his eyes uncertain.

I understood his misgivings. In an ordinary person’s eyes, a vampire seems like they have no relation to science or technology. However, the truth is not as such. Many vampires walk on the cutting edge of the era’s technology. Though I myself am considered part of the conservative faction, for the sake of properly fulfilling my role as a butler, I have learned a lot regarding the modern era’s science and technology.

I gave a smile and respectfully answered back, “I do know, Young Master.”

“Good, this is for you! Congrats on having found a job, Charles.”

Young Master An Xiang Ye smiled broadly as he picked up the blood bag I had brought over. Then, he poured the scarlet liquid into an extremely beautiful cup he retrieved from the cupboard. Around the cup was a ring of decorative runes made of gold. Moreover, I suspected that the ruby in the center of the glass, one the size of a fingernail, might actually be genuine.

As he handed it to me, he said, “The cup is yours. Treat it as a congratulatory gift for having found a job!”

I received it and looked at the ruby. As expected, it is a real gemstone…

At this moment, I saw that the young master had poured blood into another cup as well. Following that, he picked up the cup.

He actually used his cup to touch the cup in my hands. After they gave a clear resounding sound, he said, “Cheers!”

My eyes widened as I cried out in surprise. “That’s human blood!”

“I know.”

After he spoke, he drank the cup’s contents with his head raised, facing the sky. Then, he tilted his head to one side as though he was pondering something, and then he said, “I wanted to see how human blood tastes like. Hm, it’s icy and isn’t too disgusting.”

“…”

I had a premonition that I was going to have an employer unlike any other.

At night, I packed my luggage and took a light nap until ten in the morning. Only then did I pick up that cell phone and call Kyle, the secretary-slash-butler the young master had spoken of.

Once the phone picked up, before I could speak the other person had already started talking.

“You are the butler that the young master has found?”

“Yes, Head Butler Kyle. I am Charles Endelis, Young Master An Xiang Ye’s butler.”

From what I know, a genuine influential family would always have quite a few butlers in charge of tending to different masters. However, the butler that holds the most authority within the family is definitely the master’s butler, commonly addressed as the head butler.

“… I am a secretary, not a butler.” Though the other person said so, he muttered to himself, “Though there isn’t a big difference between me and a butler.”

He asked, “I hear that you are a vampire?”

“Yes.” I was a little astonished. To think that the young master had actually told the truth. I thought that he would have hidden the fact from his family. After all, a young man living alone has found a vampire to stay by his side as a butler. No matter what, that is not something that would make someone feel at ease.

The other person stayed silent for a long time, so long that I even assumed that he had already left. However, he spoke again, “Pardon me. Just now… my master was looking for me.”

“I understand.” I nodded my head. To prioritize the master’s affairs first, it seems like the other party is indeed an exceptionally well-qualified butler… Though he believes himself to be a secretary.

“As for your being a vampire, that is a good thing. With the young master’s penchant for stirring up trouble, only a vampire would be able to withstand being his butler.”

I was very doubtful as I replied, “The young master is extremely cultured.”

The other side went quiet for a moment. With a tone that sounded very helpless, he explained, “The young master is definitely very cultured. However, being cultured has nothing to do with stirring up trouble. You will understand this in due time… Anyway, I have already sent a group of people to you, dedicated to helping you fulfill the young master’s requests. Their telephone numbers are all inside the contact list in your cell phone. That said, are there any more questions?”

I stated cautiously, “Mr. Kyle.”

“Yes.”

“I am a vampire.” I was puzzled. As humans, they would actually accept a vampire, just like this?

The person on the line flatly replied, “I know. Charles Endelis. Your father was an ordinary human and was born into an old and influential family of butlers. Your mother on the other hand is a vampire. Thus, you are a rarely seen pureborn vampire. Your “Vampire Generation Number” is the fifth generation. Since childhood, you have been raised by your father, who was a butler. After you came of age, you have gone everywhere to search for a job as a butler. Though you are a strong vampire of the fifth generation, through a safety evaluation, your danger factor doesn’t even reach 10%. Your personality is extremely gentle, which is an oddity among vampires.”

I was extremely shocked, unable to open my mouth in response.

The other person understood me extremely well and started explaining, “Charles, you are not the only vampire within the household. You are very unique and extremely famous among the vampire folks. With just a couple of inquiries, I knew about your affairs. The truth is, I had also once thought about letting one of the vampires within the household become the young master’s subordinate, but the young master didn’t like her, so I could only drop the matter. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about your identity as a vampire. Just focus on serving the young master.”

It looks like the young master’s family is much more illustrious than what I had imagined.

“Understood, I will do all I can to fulfill my duty as a ‘butler.’” I still couldn’t help but give a slight reminder to the other that I am a butler, not a hired thug.

“That is enough.” This reply made me feel very reassured.

Following that, he casually mentioned a few things to take note of. “The young master’s food intake is very large. He has a food intake of approximately three to five people’s share, more or less. So when you’re cooking, cook a bit more. He likes to eat fried food and meat. He also likes to play virtual games. He likes motorcycles, fighting, his brother… Right, if you discover monitoring devices within the house, don’t be too astonished. That is the young master’s elder brother showing care for him.”

I was silent for a moment, and then I lightly said, “Mr. Kyle, the person I serve is the young master.”

He too went quiet for a while, and his tone seemed to be praising me as he said, “Then you can tell the young master. It’s just that the young master definitely knows about the monitoring devices. Now, I am going to tell you something very important. You must remember it.”

“Yes,” I replied extremely earnestly.

The other person slowly said, “The young master is a very unique person. Since childhood, he has seldom left the house, and has had even less contact with other people. It was only in the recent few years that he has come out to take a breath of fresh air. Thus, he is proficient in various kinds of knowledge, yet is lacking in basic general knowledge and is even more lacking in matters of interpersonal relationships. When he doesn’t understand some matters, don’t be surprised. Just guide him through the learning phase.”

I nodded my head. This finally explained the peculiar conduct of the young master.

“Do you have any more questions?”

“There are none at the moment. I am very grateful for your explanation,” I thanked him courteously.

“If you have any questions, you can always give me a call.”

“I give my utmost thanks.”

At night, the young master came back home from his classes. While I was helping him change into leisure wear I told him that there were at least thirty monitoring devices in the house. This number had really surprised me. One has to know, this apartment wasn’t big. Except for the toilet and the bathroom, there were monitoring devices in all the rooms. The secret workroom alone held eight of them.

As expected, the young master had known about them.

He indifferently replied with a shrug, “I know, my brother is very worried about me. It’s not just the monitoring devices. Quite a few of the neighbors were actually sent by my brother to protect me.”

I was a little doubtful and asked, “However, the night I met Young Master, Young Master had run into trouble, but no one had appeared to protect you.”

The young master started grinning. “I had thrown them off. If I don’t want them following me, no one among them can follow me.”

Young Master An Xiang Ye’s tone was a little proud at this moment. Till now, this was the only time that I could see some aura befitting a child from a rich and powerful family.

Since the young master did not mind the monitoring devices, then as a butler, I did not have any right to interfere. I asked, “Young Master, what would you like to eat for dinner?”

After thinking for a moment, the young master replied, “Hamburgers, lots and lots of hamburgers.”

“Do you want Charles to personally make them or do you want to call for delivery?”

The young master asked, full of curiosity, “You know how to cook?”

I gave a modest smile in return. “Charles is a butler, Young Master. Though I cannot compare with top chefs, simple dishes are no problem for me.”

The young master smiled as he said, “Then I want to eat your cooking, and I want a lot of French fries too.”

Seems like the young master greatly enjoys junk food. This part of him is also like a young man.

“Will you be needing a drink?”

“Milk,” was the young master’s reply without any hesitation.

This part doesn’t seem like a young man.

Following that conversation, I went to the nearby supermarket to buy the ingredients needed for dinner.

When I returned home, the young master was obediently writing a report, an act extremely unlike a young man. Moreover, he was writing it by hand, and the words were so neat that they looked like they had been typed on the computer. In the few times I helped the young master refill his glass of milk, I saw the report expand from one page, to two pages, five pages… By the end, it was almost half the thickness of a book.

However, I had not seen the young master refer to any resources.

“Young Master, what are you writing?” I asked, a little curious.

Even though the butler’s code of conduct states that a butler should not ask their employer anything unrelated to their job as a butler, my father had also said before that “The butler’s code of conduct is dead, but the employer is alive.” If the employer likes to chat, then, as a competent butler, one should learn to chat with the employer.

I believe that Young Master An Xiang Ye is the type of employer who belongs in the category of liking to chat.

The young master lifted his head up and answered, “The history and future trends of the development of combat weapons.”

It was at this point that I suddenly realized that I did not actually know what major the young master was studying and hurriedly asked him.

“Combat major!” The young master said as though it was to be expected.

I looked at the young master’s slender and slim figure. He simply did not look like someone who was good at fighting. However, no matter what the subject is, it is always divided into the practical type and the theory type. Perhaps the young master is the theory type!

I thought for a moment, and then asked, “Is it the university nearby?”

“Yeah.”

As expected, he is a theory type. Generally speaking, true combat experts mostly come from combat schools. Combat schools look for neither age nor educational backgrounds, but rather one’s skill and physique. As long as one’s physical fitness is good enough, they should be able to get in.

In contrast, universities still have to look at one’s educational and liberal arts background and so on. Thus, the combat majors in universities are mostly just afterthoughts.