277 On the Giant’s Shoulder 1 (1/2)
Under the same moonlight, dim lantern light shone in the silence. An old man clad in white gazed at the rows of thick books on the large bookshelves gravely. He looked to be around forty-years-old. He had lost almost all his hair. The remaining strands of graying hair were scattered messily. His white research coat was covered in dirt and dust. It probably had not been washed in a long time and had a strange sour smell. It was the smell of pickles and distiller’s grains that had gone bad. He looked like a beggar but when he was deep in thought as he focused on the books, his eyes looked bottomless.
”Charles,” he suddenly said. ”I always felt that I was successful only because I stand on a giant’s shoulder. What do you think?”
”Hmph!” The gold-haired youth snorted. ”Think that way if you want.”
”No, I was asking…” The old man jumped energetically and stomped strongly. His features were animated as if he wanted to tap dance happily. ”Would you like to become that giant?”
Under him, Charles carried the weird old man in humiliation. ”…Can I insult you?”
”Sure, it’s not like you can win against me.” The old guy named Newton stepped on his shoulders and whistled. He took an ancient book from the top of the sixth bookshelf. Overjoyed, he laughed. ”I finally found it! Charles, you’ve accomplished something great as a ‘mount.’ I’ll reward you on behalf of the Institute!”
”What the f*ck!” Charles’s features twisted. The sound of him grinding his teeth sounded like a knife rubbing against the pallet. He could barely keep himself from chopping this man into pieces.
There is always someone more talented than you or more annoying than you. Charles had roamed freely in Avalon for so many years as an annoying *sshole. He never thought there would be such a big trap waiting for him.
It was one thing to accidentally sign the work contract for the Royal Research Institute. Then he came to work excitedly and was kicked into the trap by this freaky old man.
On paper, he had become successful. He was now the personal secretary and lab assistant of the world’s first mechanical engineering master and dean of the Royal Research Institute. But when he came to work, all his coworkers looked at him with sympathy.
”Don’t think about catching up to me,” Newton had said. ”You mundanes are unable to understand geniuses, so just perform your duties and shine somewhere people can’t see. I don’t need you to toil in experiments or studies. After all, it’s the same whether you have a brain or not. Oh, as for your specific duties, just perform some tricks to entertain me and reduce my stress.”
So basically, Charles’ job was to be tormented by this old man. For example, to satisfy Newton’s wish to take a bath while looking down at Avalon’s beautiful scenery, Charles searched the entire city for workers and material to add a pool to the top level of the Institute.
Yes, it was a private pool. It also came with a set of fine wine and the best sommelier. When it was finally built, Charles had organized an opening ceremony. The world class sommelier had traveled leagues to attend. When he was reporting in a noble and gentle voice, that *sshole Newton…blew up the swimming pool before him!
”Okay, you’re not needed anymore. You can go now.”
Seeing everyone’s dumbfounded expressions, Newton had burst into laughter. He had wasted one-third of the entire Institute’s monthly budget like that! That was why people said a madman was not the scariest. The scariest was that after someone went mad, idiots would still give him money to play with. To all this, Charles could only say that those idiots had problems too!
Thankfully, after spending all of the Institute’s money for that month, the budget review department of Anglo’s First Division sent a very polite letter telling Newton that he had played around for six months and should get to work, otherwise they would be unable to reimburse his bills at all of Anglo’s brothels and personal clubs.
The letter was very polite because this *ss once had been the financial advisor of Anglo’s national bank for one month. He had played around for one month but solved problems the former advisor could not solve for decades.
Actually, he had finished the solution on his first day of work and spent the remaining twenty-nine days at the brothel and casino. If his secretary had not discovered this, he could have kept going for half a year!
Anyway, since the patience of his piggy bank was wearing thin, Newton thought with the lower half of his body and decided to pay some more attention to work so he could keep his VIP member status. And so Charles’s tortuous life began. Within a short few days, he began a battle of wits and courage with the cold man to keep his honorable job.
After holding the man like a mount for a few hours, Charles finally found what he wanted in the archive of documents piled into a mountain. He was extremely curious about this. What document was worthy enough for Newton to abandon the important secret demonstration he was about to begin and leave the entire research team hanging? It was in the top secret archive as well…
”What, you want to see?” Newton, who had been focused on reading, sensed Charles’ curiosity. After thinking, he nodded. ”I guess you’ve worked hard for this project and have the right to share this masterpiece with me.”
Charles was stunned. He did not expect this guy to be so generous. He hesitated but scooted closer. The pages of the old book had yellowed. Many pages were stuck together. Something seemed to have been spilled over the critical part and the words were blurry.
”Ah, my powerful knight, please take your dragon sword out of the sheath. I can wait no longer… Ah, what a majestic holy spear. I bow to your chivalry…Ah, ah, ah, ah…Come quickly, my wolf pup, abuse me…”