Ch 13 - I am a Professional.
"We are not in need of any additional help. It might seem like we are understaffed at the moment but that is only because the staff is on leave today."
The butler was as stiff as a board while he adjusted his spectacles with the palm of his hand. He stood as tall as Zoro with an even rigider posture. His short black hair was slicked back with not a strand out of place. He wore a black suit with golden markings on each side of his blazer. Emmy couldn't tell if they were in the shape of gourds or poop.
"I would only need to work for today then. I can leave as soon as night falls," Emmy rushed, not to be deterred as she kept her head bowed, "Please. Just give me the opportunity and I will show you that I am very good at what I do."
The butler sniffed and he eyed the girl before placing his hands behind his back. "Very well," he said, "Someone needs to clean the chandeliers anyways and the second butler in charge, who usually does it, hasn't returned from his errand yet. I might as well have you do it."
Emmy bowed. "Thank you very much."
"Follow me," he said as he turned on his heels and walked brusquely through the main hall of the mansion, "What is your name?"
"Monkey D. Emmy," Emmy said and she followed closely behind.
"The lady we serve is Kaya-sama," Klahadore explained, "She is ill so only Merry and I are to serve her directly. By no means should you ever be in contact with her."
Emmy tilted her head to the side. "Klahadore-san, I don't mean to be rude but...have you not been a butler long?"
Klahadore stopped right in his tracks and Emmy felt him tick. I've touched a nerve.
"What makes you say that, Emmy-chan?" Klahadore asked curtly.
"The standard practice is that when the lady or lord of the house is not feeling well," Emmy said softly, "We, as the staff, are not to call attention to it. We would not use the words 'ill' or 'sick', even amongst each other."
Klahadore adjusted his glasses and Emmy could feel his pressure rise. "It is true. I have only been a butler here for 3 years, Emmy-chan. Kaya-sama's father took me in 3 years ago. I was starving on the streets and he showed pity on me. I learned everything by watching Merry."
"I see," Emmy said and she smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry if I touched a sensitive topic for you. I didn't realize."
"That is quite alright," Klahadore recovered smoothly as he continued on his way, "If anything, this just shows what a professional you are. You must have served some very important people."
Emmy had to make a little effort to keep the smile on her face. "Ah," she said, "I served two different households before I came here."
Klahadore clucked his tongue. "At such a young age too and already working this much."
Emmy tilted her head to the side. There was no sincerity in him when he said that. His tone might have sounded sympathetic it but he didn't feel it. There was something slightly off with this butler. Before she could pry any deeper, she heard a loud crashing sound coming from outside.
The sudden rise in annoyance and malice from Klahadore made Emmy flinch and she took a step back just as he turned around to face her. He misinterpreted her reaction and he adjusted his spectacles. "Don't worry, Emmy-chan. I know who that could be and he is no danger to us. He's just a meddlesome fool."
He rushed off past Emmy, out towards the front door and Emmy hastily chased after him. What was that?, Emmy thought, Just now...I felt...bloodlust?
They ran around the corner from the courtyard, towards the back of the house and Klahadore slowed his pace to a leisurely walk when he spotted the source of the disturbance. Luffy stood with his back to them and the three children from the cliffs were there with him. The rubber boy was looking up at Usopp, who was sitting on top of a branch that grew right outside the bedroom window. Leaning out the window was a girl with shoulder length blonde hair and an even paler complexion than Emmy's. Nami and Zoro were splayed out on the grass, reeling from whatever the rubber boy had done to get them there.
"You, there!" Klahadore called out, "What are you doing?!"
The group turned to them and Usopp almost fell off the branch when he spotted Emmy next to the butler. "Wh-wh-what are you doing over there?!"
Klahadore raised an eyebrow and looked over at Emmy. "Are you friends with this boy?"
Emmy shook her head. "We just met when I arrived on the shores. He said he was a pirate."
Klahadore sniffed. "He's the town liar. It's best not to trust him."
He then turned back to Usopp and Luffy. "I do not appreciate you breaking in here without permission!"
"Who's he?" Luffy asked, leaning to his side so he can direct the question at Emmy.
"This is Klahadore-san, the head butler," Emmy replied.
That made Klahadore give Emmy his full attention and she felt his suspicions rise. "I thought you said you weren't friends with them?" he asked slowly.
"Not the boy in the tree," Emmy replied and bowed her head, "The rest of the group are my nakama. My brother is the one in the straw hat. I am working in order to support us."
"I see," Klahadore said and he turned back towards Usopp, even though Emmy could still feel the doubt he had towards her, "Emmy-chan, I would advise you and your friends not to associate yourself with that boy. He is nothing but the son of a filthy pirate."
The tension in the air increased exponentially and Emmy looked nervously between Usopp and Luffy. Both of their expressions had darkened, Usopp most of all.
"Filthy?" he whispered.
Klahadore adjusted his spectacles. "I feel for you. You must truly hate your great idiot of a father for abandoning his family and village because of his lust for treasure."
"Don't you dare," Usopp roared as he leapt off the branch towards Klahadore, tackling him to the ground and giving him a hard punch across his face, "Don't you dare insult my father any more!"
Emmy winced mostly out of reaction as she felt pressure on her own cheek and she quickly moved several steps away from the butler to avoid feeling any more of it.
"Captain!" the three children cried out in alarm.
Usopp got to his feet and he glared at the butler, who shakily sat up and adjusted his spectacles.
"S-see! You immediately resort to violence!" Klahadore said accusingly, "Like father, like son."
"SHUT UP!" Usopp snapped, "I'm proud that my father is a pirate! I'm proud that he's a brave warrior of the sea! You're right. I am an exaggerator but I'll never lie about my pride to be related by blood to a pirate. I'm the son of a pirate!"
"Hmph. That's quite a twisted way of putting things," the butler sniffed. He got up to his feet and dusted off his suit and pants. "You're the undeniable proof of his savage blood. You run around spouting lies and act violent whenever you're angry. And to top it off, you cozy up to the lady of this house so you can get her fortune."
"What?! I only-" Usopp started to say.
"The fact that your father is a pirate is proof in and of itself that you'd hatch such a scheme!" Klahadore shouted.
Emmy tilted her head to the side. Even though she was far away to avoid sensing the pain from the butler, she could still feel very subtly a flash of glee within him. He was enjoying this. He was enjoying the torment he was inflicting on Usopp.
Usopp lunged forward and grabbed Klahadore by the collar, pulling his fist back. "Damn it! You still won't let up?!"
"Please stop, Usopp-san!" the girl from the bedroom called out.
Emmy looked over at her. She was her nightdress with a light shawl draped over her dainty shoulders. She didn't have any airs about her but her whole delicate frame and demeanor showed to Emmy that she was a person who needed to be taken care of. That must be Kaya-sama.
"Klahadore isn't a bad person! He's just trying too hard to do what's best for me!" Kaya pleaded to Usopp.
Usopp gritted his teeth but his grip loosened from the butler's shirt. Klahadore noticed this and he slapped Usopp's hand away. "Leave this place," he said sternly, "Never come to this mansion again."
Usopp dropped his hand to his side. "Yeah. No need to tell me. I'll never come back here again!" he yelled and stormed off past Klahadore and Emmy.
His three followers ran up towards the butler. "Our captain is not that kind of guy!" one of them declared.
"Yeah! Stupid-head!" another one shouted.
"STUPID HEAD!" Luffy added.
"Why are you chiming in?" Zoro asked as he grabbed Luffy from behind so that the rubber man couldn't charge at the butler.
Klahadore glared at them. "All of you, leave at once!" he demanded.
Emmy stood up a little straighter at the authoritative tone and her nervous eyes instinctively moved to find her brother.
As soon as their eyes met, Luffy stilled and stopped struggling against Zoro's grip. Then he tilted his hat over his eyes. "Fine. We're leaving," he said, "Emmy. You too. You're not working here. Not for him."
Emmy bowed her head and she smiled apologetically at Klahadore. "I'm sorry, Klahadore-san but consider my application withdrawn. It seem the management here is not up to standards."
"What? You-" Klahadore started to say but Emmy was already running towards her brother, who was grinning back at her.
She smiled politely at the girl in the bedroom. "I hope you feel better, Kaya-sama. Please get some rest."
Kaya blinked back at her. "Who are you...and how did you know that I'm sick?"
Emmy turned and bowed her head to Klahadore. "Klahadore-san, this is why we don't bring attention to our master's physical well-being. We keep their private matters private and we don't interfere with them either."
She looked back up at Kaya. "Usopp-san is a good friend to you, Kaya-sama. I hope you realize that and I hope you realize that as the lady of the house, you have the final word on who you can and cannot be friends with. You're free to do whatever you want."
"Well said," Zoro grunted.
Luffy grabbed Emmy's hand and he gently pulled it towards him to get her attention. "Let's go, Emmy."
"Ah," Emmy said giving another kind nod to the lady in the window before following her brother, the navigator, and the swordsman towards the exit. As they passed by the butler, Emmy felt a chill run down her spine. The butler was trying very hard to resist the urge to kill them. She held Luffy's hand just a bit tighter until they were outside the estate grounds.
They wordlessly let the children take the lead and they followed them to the outskirts of the village where it was nothing but open fields and trees. The children sat down along a fence that lined the dirt road. As soon as they got settled, Emmy dropped her hold on Luffy's hand and she bowed apologetically to the group.
"I'm sorry," she sighed, "I didn't end up helping out in anyway at all."
She felt a large hand on the back of her head and she looked up to see Zoro frowning down at her. "It's not your fault that the butler is a jerk," Zoro said, "Right, Luffy?"
"Ah," Luffy said as he placed his hands behind his head. "I wonder where Usopp is."
"Captain usually goes to the south shore when he's upset," one of the kids said.
"I'll go find him then," Luffy grinned and he looked over at the swordsman, "Zoro?"
"Ah. I'll stay here with Emmy and Nami," Zoro said with a nod. Nami looked curiously between the two.
Zoro caught the navigator's eyes and he muttered to her under his breath so the kids wouldn't hear, "There's something off with that butler."
Emmy walked towards the children, who were sitting in a semi-circle with their backs to the fence. They had pulled out a deck of cards and one of them was starting to shuffle the deck. She knelt in front of them, closing the circle, and she smiled. "My name is Monkey D. Emmy. You three were at the cliffs with Usopp-san before, yes?"
The children nodded. "That's our captain. We are the Usopp Pirates!" one of them exclaimed.
"I see," Emmy said, "So did you follow him into the mansion to speak to Kaya-sama?"
"Actually, no," Nami replied with slight annoyance as she hoisted herself up to sit on top of the fence, "They came running into the restaurant a while after you left. They thought we had eaten Usopp."
Emmy blinked. "Eaten...Usopp-san?"
One of the child started to blush. "It was an honest mistake, okay?! Luffy-san's belly was huge and Captain Usopp was gone! What were we supposed to think?"
"That we were eating at a restaurant!" Nami snapped back.
Emmy giggled. "You three must really care about Usopp-san then."
All three children nodded earnestly. Emmy sighed. She could feel them worrying about Usopp and they were also feeling a bit helpless, just like her. She reached over and picked up the deck of cards. "Would you like me to show you a magic trick?"
"Eh?" the children asked as she shuffled the cards with just one hand.
Emmy kept the soft smile on her face and with a flick of her wrist, she held the Ace of Hearts in between her index and middle finger while holding to the rest of the deck in her palm. "I'm quite good," she said.
"Whoaaaaah! How did you do that?!" the children gasped, their concerns and worries overtaken by surprise and wonder. Even Nami leaned in a bit closer and squinted her eyes at Emmy.
"How did you do that?" Nami asked.
Emmy kept her smile on her face but the navigator saw a look of sadness flash past her eyes. "I used to play cards with one of the ladies I served," she replied, "And she loved magic tricks."
Then the sadness was gone with the next blink and Emmy moved her gaze to the children. She held out the deck to them with the back facing up. "Now...pick a card," she said cheerfully, "Any card!"
She showed them a couple of sleight of hand tricks and then they settled into a game of cards. One of the children wandered off but his remaining two friends assured the grown-ups that he'll be back. Apparently, he always had a tendency to go off by himself, only to come screaming back when he spots something that freaked him out.
It only took three more rounds of cards for that assumption to be confirmed.
"AAAAHHHH! BAD NEWS!" the child called Onion screamed as he raced down the road towards Emmy, Zoro, Nami, and his two friends, "A weird guy is walking backgrounds this way!"
"Liar," his two friends remarked in unison, not even bothering to look up from their cards.
Onion stamped his foot and pointed in the direction that he came from. "It's the truth! Just look."
Emmy lowered her cards and followed his eyeline.
"Ah! He's right! There's a weird guy!" Onion's two friends cried out.
The man was close enough to be within earshot and he turned to them, revealing wide, thin lips and heart shaped sunglasses. His long, cylindrical goatee was wrapped in a red and black striped fabric. "Oy!" he snapped, "Who's calling me a weird guy? I am not a weird."
The three grownups blinked at him. "Seems pretty weird to me," Nami stated.
"Don't be stupid," he scoffed, "I'm just an ordinary hypnotist passing through."
"H-Hypnotist?" the children gasped.
"I don't think hypnotists are ordinary," Emmy commented with a frown.
"Show us something!" the children pleaded, "Do something!"
"What?" the hypnotist growled, "Don't be dumb! Why would I want to show my powers to a bunch of strangers?!"
Before Emmy could even nod in agreement, he had his hand out with a chakram dangling from a string.
"Alright. Watch this ring closely," he said to the children.
"Wait...so you are going to do it?" Zoro asked as a sweat dropped down his, Emmy, and Nami's heads.
Emmy folded her hand of cards and she looked up at Zoro and Nami. "What do you guys think?" Emmy asked.
"Weird," Zoro and Nami said in unison.
"You'll feel sleepy at the count of 'one, two, Jango!'" the hypnotist instructed as the chakram began to swing back and forth, "Alright, here we go...One...two...Jango!"
Instantly, the three kids fell onto their backs and began to snore very loudly. The hypnotist himself did the same thing. A vein throbbed in the back of the swordsman's head.
"Oy! What's with this guy?" Zoro seethed.
"Amazing!" Emmy marvelled, "He really did hypnotise them."
"It's no different than you putting the mayor to sleep!" Nami snapped and Emmy stuck her tongue out sheepishly.
"I guess you're right," she said and then she let out a little gasp, "Does that make me weird too?"
"No," Zoro said.
"Yes," Nami said at the same time, "But you're not as weird as that guy."
Emmy smiled. "Okay."
Emmy walked up and tapped the sleeping hypnotist's shoulder. "Excuse me, sir. You shouldn't sleep here. You'll catch a cold. Excuse me? Sir?"
The hypnotist stirred and then he stopped. With his sunglasses over his eyes, Emmy couldn't tell if he was staring up at her or if he had gone back to sleep. Then he jerked into a seated position which startled Emmy and she leapt back in fright.
"Kya!' she gasped as the man got up to his feet.
"I'm up!," he announced and angled his head to place his hand over his hat, "I'm awake. Ah! And I'm late."
He moonwalked down the dirt road again, posing with his chin down. Emmy, Nami, and Zoro wordlessly watch him head towards the south side of the island. Then all three's eyes moved to the sleeping children.
"Okay...That was weird….but...we should wake up the kids now too," Nami said. She jumped up from her seat and nudged the swordsman with her foot. Zoro grunted but got up from his napping position.
They each took a kid and woke them up in their own way.
Thwack! Bonk!
Zoro and Nami each smacked their kid hard on the forehead, Nami with her palm and Zoro with the hilt of his katana. Emmy, on the other hand, took a more delicate approach. She pinched Carrot's nose and covered his mouth with her other hand.
Carrot started to turn purple in the face and then his eyes flew open. Immediately, Emmy released her hold and he sat right up. "PWAHHHHHH!" Carrot gasped.
Emmy felt the surprise from everyone around her and she smiled back at her audience. "That's the fastest way to wake Luffy up without him punching you away," she said.
"What a weird sibling dynamic," Nami murmured to Zoro.
"Speaking of Luffy," Zoro grunted, "Don't you think they've been gone for a very long time?"
"Captain had gotten quite a shock today," Onion stated, "He must've needed a longer time than usual to get over it."
"AHHHH!" Pepper screamed, leaping to his feet and pointing towards the horizon, "Captain is coming!"
"Huh?" the three adults turned to look down the road and saw that indeed, Usopp was sprinting at them and he was going full throttle. He was kicking up so much dust in the air that the cloud was bigger than him.
"Captain!" the children cheered.
"Why isn't Luffy with him?" Zoro asked.
"Hey, Usopp! Where's Luffy?" Nami called out as Usopp approached them, "Wasn't he at the shore with- Eh?!"
Usopp ran straight through the group without even pausing in his step as if they weren't there. Just as quick as he came, he was gone again.
"Is he still mad about his dad being insulted?" Nami wondered and Emmy's eye widened.
Usopp had brushed right past her so she felt his mood as clear as day.
"No...He's panicking!" Emmy cried, "Something has him freaked out."
She turned to face the direction he came from. "Do you think something happened to Luffy?!"
"Oy! Where is the place your captain likes to go to?" Zoro demanded from the kids, "Show us now!"
The kids huddled together excitedly. "Doesn't this smell like an incident?" Onion asked.
His two friends nodded. "It sounds like a job for the Usopp Pirates!" they cheered in unison.
"We get it! Now just show us where it is!" Zoro snapped.