The Grand Mistress

The grab was too sudden that Hawk shrieked terribly but before he could raise a commotion, the man behind him spoke.

"Young master it is I!" It was the voice of his butler and when Hawk turned to look at such a person, he was relieved immediately. ​​

"Butler Gah you scared me to hell!" Hawk chided him immediately.

"You were the one who scared me to hell, where the heck had you been?" It was his butler's turn to reprimand him. He then bent slightly to make his face closer to the young boy and with a constrained voice he reminded, "Also didn't I tell you to call me 'papa'?"

"And yet you called me young master," The boy noted. To hide Hawk's identity, his butler was to act as his father and of course no father would call their own son a young master so they had agreed that such formalities should be suspended then. "You are supposed to call me Spin,"

"Okay young Spin. Where had you been all afternoon? I had looked for you everywhere!" His butler started his reprimands then. He had imposed a curfew on the young Monsanto and he was supposed to be home already a few hours ago and he was thus very worried when the boy didn't show up on their cottage. "You have a curfew remember?"

"I'm sorry papa," Hawk apologized in an instant. "But today there was a village festival and a friend invited me over that I can't say no."

"Which friend? Those people?" Butler Gah pointed to the girl and his father who was heading toward the mansion. They were of considerable distance already away from Hawk so they didn't hear him shrieked earlier.

"Yes. They were kind enough to invite me over to a family affair," Hawk explained and pressed on, trying to make an impression to his butler that he was the one that had been invited which was rather true, scrapping the part where he annoyingly followed the girl to the festival.

"But Spin you should have asked permission first before going to such occasions. Besides, aren't festivals too crowded? Those places are not meant for a Monsanto like you," His Butler added to what Hawk calls as his litanies.

Ever since they came to Somerset village, Butler Gah had always been full of 'things to say' and his mouth never ran dry of it. Hawk who was not accustomed to all advice and teachings had been thoroughly annoyed by it but had endured all of them because he had no choice at the moment. He had to stick with Butler Gah no matter what.

"Papa I am not a little kid anymore. I know my way around the village already and besides we had been here for many months already and had seen no threats, not even a single one. It seemed that those who had been trying to catch us had already missed us and would never ever once think we would end up in such a remote village," Hawk begged to disagree with his butler's words.

"There's nothing wrong with being careful," Butler Gah answered him. "We can't take risk especially that it is your life at stake,"

"I understand," Hawk was kind of exhausted to argue anymore and besides Butler Gah had a strong point so he dare not defy him anymore. "I'm sorry,"

"Come one now young boy," His butler took his little hands on his then started walking home. "It's late already and I still have to cook us some dinner."

Soon, the two were walking down the road home. Since Butler Gah was a big man, Hawk had a hard time coping up with him and they walked in a way that Hawk was being dragged by. Also, Hawk kept looking back at the mansion, hoping he could have one last glimpse of the girl.

"It seemed like the father and daughter tandem got your interest," Butler Gah commented because he was very aware of Hawk's curiosity over the people who invited him to the festival.

"You saw them?" Hawk raised his head to ask.

"Of course I did. I saw the man dropping you off in the corner before he and the girl he was with went on their way," Butler Gah narrated.

"Do you perhaps recognize them? Was the castle-like mansion we saw earlier belongs to them?" Hawk flooded his butler with too many questions and yet instead of brushing them off away, he answered all of it patiently. Butler Gah, although strict and tight when it comes to disciplining him, was the most patient man Hawk had met in his entire young life.

"As for your first questions, yes I think I recognize them, they are the Han's. They own most of the farms here in Somerset and speaking about the mansion, yes they live there," He tried too much to give the boy some definite answer because if not, he knew he'll seek for it somewhere else.

"The Hans? When you speak of them you meant the Han's in Han's Scintillait right?" Hawk's confirmed. He knew of the Han's family as they were some of the intriguing elites in the capital.

"Yes it's them. If I'm not mistaken the man you met was Mauro Han, the only son and heir to Han's Scintilait and the girl was the Han's heiress, his only daughter and successor." Butler Gah told him. He was sure it was Mauro who dropped Hawk in the corner street earlier because he had seen his face and instantly recognized him. He was a bit shocked to have seen him here in such a remote village because he thought being CEO of Han's Scintillait took most of his time.

"The Han's heiress?" Hawk was amazed when he learned of the fact as he certainly did not expect that such a boyish girl was in reality an heiress in her own right more so Han. "So she's an heiress,"

"Indeed Spin, she is," Butler Gah took notice of the boy's surging interest over the girl and he was amused by it. It seemed that his young master found someone who can tame him, hopefully it wasn't as bad as he thought.