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"Breaking news. There's been a report of another missing group of hikers consist of young women in the Northern province. They've last seen-"

The chauffeur turns off the radio and continues to drive in silence. Luckily the storm has not yet started when they finally arrive at the village as the car entering the medieval-looking wooden gate, passing the 20-meter tall and thick grey rock wall. The sight makes Noi's doe-eyes go wide the moment they passed the gate, making him to runs his gaze around at the unfamiliar place with fascination written all over his face. 

It's true what the chauffeur has said to him, the village is indeed beautiful. Those paintings back home can't even compare to the real sceneries in front of his eyes.

The combination of greeneries and medieval architectures of the buildings are so out of this world. All of the villagers' houses are almost identical, made of the same grey stone walls with the same darker shade roof tiles and dark brown-coloured wood. Noi thought It might be because they're using their own material that is laying around them as he spotted some of the big rocks and trees with the same colours before they're entering the village. 

The other fascinating things about the place are some of the villagers still use other un motor vehicles as their choice of transportation, although he can see some cars parked in the street. He saw a lot of them using bicycles, coaches, or even ride horses along the road. But there's something eerie about them that he can't help but notice.

The villagers look somehow paler than any normal people should. And since the place is near the ocean, it means the temperature in the village is much colder than usual. But oddly, the people in this village dare to wear thin clothes in such weather. He can easily notice the village seems to be dominated by young people as most of them ranged around their 20s to 30s and... he hasn't seen any single child since they've arrived in the area despite it's already around 5 pm, a time where the school should already end their lessons.

And also, Noi feels like their piercing eyes immediately turns towards him the moment the vehicle passed them. It as if they know an outsider has come to their village. The unsettling feelings make Noi decides to end his sightseeing session and just sit quietly while facing the front. He bit his lower lip nervously and tries to hide his irrational fear.

He doesn't understand why, but there's a little part the inside of him feels frightens. It might be because he's alone in a new environment. Or maybe because he's going to meet a very important client. His instinct tells him to just go back and to not ever come here again. But he doesn't want to ruin the family's long-life agreement just because him feeling a little bit uncomfortable with his surroundings.

Not long after, the road goes uphill and began to turn following the shape of the hill. Eventually, the car stopped in front of a victorian-style dark tall double-door metal gate. Noi lips parted, fascinate at how tall the front gate of the Blackburn Castle is. It easily reaches around 5 meters with half of the railings are covered by vines. The chauffeur rolls down the car window and lets out his head through it, signalling the security to open the door.

The security nods and opens the tall gate, creating a loud creaking sound as it indicates how worn out the hinges are. Once the gate is open wide enough, the car continues its journey inside. The road goes uphill again and it has taken another 15 minutes for them to go through the dense woods and finally see the building of the Blackburn estate. Noi gulps hard at how big imposing the building is. The chauffeur happily says, "Welcome to Blackburn Castle, Mr Anson."

Is it a castle? Noi honestly thinks it looks more like a fortress. But then again, what's the difference between a castle and a fortress, anyway?

His doe-eyes look at the dark building in awe. He never seen one this close or even know someone who lives in such a grand place. The three-storey estate is symmetrically made at the centre. There's a 5 storey tall tubular tower on the far corner on the left side of the building and another rectangular one-storey building on the right. The massive building is made out of dark grey stone walls with dark brown woods as their window and doors. The width of the castle can easily reach 1,000 acres or more. In front of the big double door, in the middle of the paved stone road of their entrance, there's a big circular fountain with a sculpture of a lady with a jug, letting out the water to the pool underneath it.

Overall, the castle looks more beautiful yet eerier than in his great-great-grandparents paintings. It looks cold and posh, making him feel so small in front of it. He begins to wonder how the Blackburn family who lives in this luxurious building is like. Are they a bunch of proud people? Or are they humble ones? He hoped they are the latter. Because Noi honestly not good at hiding his blunt and sassy attitude.

His small reverie is ended the moment the car stopped at the entrance. The chauffeur swiftly goes out to open the rear door for him. Noi timidly comes out of the vehicle and a man in a tailored suit greets him, "Good evening, Mr Anson. Welcome to Blackburn Castle."

The man then begins to look at Noi, paying attention to the painter from head to toe, slowly taking his time as his eyes roam to the painter's tall yet lean figure. Noi raised one of his thick brows as he feels slightly uncomfortable at how the man eyeing him, "Is something wrong?"

The man realized what he had done and politely bows to Noi, "Forgive me for staring too much, Mr Anson. It's just that you look very much different from your grandfather."

Noi's face relaxes, understand at the man's confusion, "Ah yes. I'm Bruce's step-son."

The man's eyes go slightly wide for a moment but nod politely, "I understand.  Excuse me for my rudeness. Let me introduce myself. My name is Hans and I am the head butler of the family. The master of the house is currently not available at the moment and will see you tomorrow morning. You may meet him at that time to discuss the details of your service. Now if you would like to follow me, I will take you to your room for you to rest."

Ok, rude. How can a master of the house didn't greet his own guest? Is Noi not important enough for dear Lord? But, whatever. As long as he can hit his body to the bed now, nothing matters. The 10 hours of travelling time really drain all of his energy.

Noi quietly nods and follows Hans, along with a maid trailing behind them while carrying his duffel bag. Without him caring to look around the interior, the head butler leads them to the second floor and turns right, passing multiple doors in the long hallway. Then they turn to another right and meets another shorter hall. Hans stopped at the last door of the hall and turns to Noi, "This is the room where you will be staying, Mr Anson. For information, if you ever get lost, Just inform the servants at the house what your name is and that you're staying at the east wing inside the main building. They will gladly help you to find your way."

Noi nods nonchalantly, not feeling any slight oddness at the request and was about to go into the room when Hans' voice speaks again, "And please do not go out of your bedroom at midnight time, Mr Anson."

The painter turns his gaze to the head butler and raises one of his brows, "And why is that?"

Hans takes a pause for a moment, then replies with a still polite tone, "Just that the maids will not be around to assist you if you ever get lost. After all, this castle is very big and maze-like. It is not advisable for people who don't know the way to go out and explore at night."

Noi nonchalantly nods again to the butler. It's not like he wants to go out of his room anytime soon anyway. The painter is too tired to even do anything and just want to lay himself on the bed. His affirmation gesture earns the head butler's smile, a strained one, at him, "Dinner will be served at 7 pm. Someone will come here to serve you. I hope you will have a pleasant stay with us, Mr Anson." Hans politely bows at the painter.

Noi bows back as he tries not to show any weird expression to the others and immediately goes into the bedroom once the maid gave his luggage back. When he's already at the other side of the door, the painter frowns and mutter to himself, "Why do I feel that Hans and some of the others are looking at me so weirdly? Is it because I'm Asian?"

That couldn't be it, right? He doesn't want to believe people around this area is racist or something. But... no no no they are not!

Noi let out a sigh, "Now, I feel like I'm the racist one." he shakes his head and goes further into the bedroom. He doesn't even bother to look around and just threw his super tired lean body onto the soft mattress of the king-sized bed. His eyes immediately closed as his consciousness easily slips out into the dreamland.

.

.

.

He hears a ringtone and a vibration from his jeans pocket, bringing his consciousness back from the dreamland. Noi groans as he pulls out the little device and slides the green button without even looking at the ID while still laying on his stomach, "Hello?"

"Awh! My little Noi! Have you arrived at the house safely?" A woman's voice asks him. The painter groans again at the nickname, "Ma, I'm not little anymore. I'm almost 6ft for f... God's sake."

"Ha! You almost cursed at your own Ma, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"No, I'm not, Ma."

"Then what's with the ff sound, hmm?"

Noi let out a sigh as he chuckles softly and change his position to sit on the bed, "Okay okay. I apologize. I had just woken up from a nap so my brain is not functioning properly."

"Hmm, I see. Ok, I forgive you since your Ma is a good person." She laughs at her own joke, making Noi roll his eyes. She then continues, "Al is sulking because you didn't call him as you promised." then Allan's familiar faint sound trailing behind the statement, yelling 'I'm sulking' from the other side, making Noi laughs and utters his apology to his 'sulking' big brother.

The woman chuckles at both sons' cute interaction and then utter another question to Noi, "So, have you met with Sir Balan, yet? How was he? Is he handsome?"

"What's with the last question? Are you looking for another man to be kept?" Noi teases.

Ma playfully replies with a scoff, "Having your Pa in my life is already hard enough. I don't need another one for the nagging. I'm just curious because your grandpa told me the previous head was a dead-gorgeous man."

Even though they had been working for Blackburn for hundreds of years, none of them except the assigned painter had ever seen the head of the family on any generations. There's not even a single photo of them on the internet. Yet, their names are so famous around the country. Well, maybe because the history of their name, or more like the title, is the only thing that makes the family, especially the head, to be well-known. 

Agnarr XIV Balan Ragnvaldr-Brigh Blackburn

The head of the Blackburn always has the name Agnarr before their own, as it is a title given from the preceding king to their ancestor which means brave warrior. Their predecessor must've been a heroic knight to the king before, to be given a name. And the roman number indicates that the fourteenth generation of the family is still currently holding the name.

Odd? Yes. But uncommon? Not really.

So many kings had done the same anyway, using the same name repeatedly and add a roman number behind the name. It's just that he feels kinda odd to know a family that still do this and the name successfully passed on to 14 generations. Impressive.

"Well too bad I haven't seen him because he's not available at the moment. The butler said he'll meet me in the morning. So now I'm just chilling around while waiting for dinnertime." He says and glances at the clock on the nightstand. And indeed, it is almost time for dinner as his tummy also starts to rumble, asking to be fed.

As if on cue, soft knocks can be heard from the door and easily earns his attention. Noi perks up and quickly say, "Ma, gotta go. Dinner is here."

His mother chuckles at how her son who is unable to resist food, "Ok. Call me when you need me, little one."

Noi hums as he just ignores the nickname for now because he's just too hungry to be bothered. As he ended the call, he throws his phone to bed and walks to open the door.

A maid has stood in front of the door with a cart and a stainless food cover on top of it. She then smiles awkwardly and bows politely before hurriedly go in and leave the cart inside and quickly walks outside without uttering any single word to him.

In no time, the maid is already gone out of sight before he can relay his gratitude back. Noi frowns as this is already the nth time people in this house acted weird around him. Indeed they are still polite to him, but he notices how all of the maids don't seem to dare to look back to him, except Hans, the head butler.

"Is it just a custom to not look someone back or something?" He mutters to himself again. But eventually, he just shrugs it off since food is currently the most important thing in his mind right now.

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Thank you for reading my work!

I sincerely hope you enjoy my writing :)