p data-p-id="8cface52d3a846a606e2d2f65f6b9156"Ciel sat up and rubbed his eyes as the curtains were flung open. Stretching, he looked at the sunlight now streaming in from the windows, and saw a slim figure clad in black. Looking to his right on the table was his eyepatch, his ring, and a tray with a teacup and envelope with a letter opener. Yawning, he swung his legs round and put his feet on the floor, still half-asleep sitting upright. He had had a pretty rough night's /"Now, now, Master. We don't want your guests to be greeted by a walking corpse, now do we?" A slick voice said from behind him, along with the sound of the curtains being hung back and /Ciel shot a glance to his side, and scrunched his brow at the /"A zemombie?/em I am not, and never will be, one of those foul beasts." He said with a disgusted look, remembering the memories of being on a ship emsurrounded /emby the damn things. That was not a pleasant night, /"Anyway, who do you think you are calling a 'walking corpse'? That's rather vulgar seeing as you've only emjust/em returned." Smiling, he sipped from the teacup as the man in black did up Ciel's buttons and laced his shoes. "At least wait a few days before you begin insulting me again..." He placed the cup on the tray and watched the /"emHeh.../em Well I'm back now, aren't I, Master? And I certainly don't plan on leaving like that anytime soon." Came the /The room was now fully illuminated and the shining beauty of the silverware and candlesticks became the highlight of the chamber, accompanying the gold and crimson stitching of the curtains. The smell of freshly made tea now filled the air, and Ciel found it more than pleasing to wake up to this lovely aroma. He knew he would enjoy having the butler around and knew his daily routine would be far easier with an extra pair of hands. At least now it was less stressful for him. Since his companion had left, the most horrible dreams had haunted the Earl. He sometimes even found it difficult to rest and relax, and it didn't help that he had to deal with the emmassive /emchange of cooking style. Bard seemed to be sticking with the 'burn it to a crisp' sort of motif. Getting the first-class gourmet of the butler again was a huge weight off of his /Ciel sighed slightly out of relief thinking of how calm the mansion would be now that his demon was back. His contract symbol shone a bright pink, as /Standing up, the man tied the eyepatch around Ciel's right eye, and slid the dazzling blue ring onto his Master's left thumb. He took the tray and began to walk out of the master bedroom, his waistcoat swishing behind him, after handing the note and letter opener to /"Oh, and Sebastian? Brew up some more of that tea, will you? It was delightful..." The Earl Phantomhive trailed off as he slit the top of the envelope and began /The demon butler stood at the door, looked behind his shoulder, and paused briefly. He smiled, his dark red eyes shone slightly and his teeth gleamed, as he said:br /"Yes, my Lord..."br /_/p
p data-p-id="587e4d60248614326a71cc3832d0c131"The main hall was sparkling like new when the butler had finished cleaning up the mess the servants had left it in. Ciel almost had to cover his eye at the reflection the chandelier was giving off, and the rainbow projections, yet after having been explained to many times about, still confused and amazed Finny. The poor boy couldn't help but be curious and chase the pretty lights, almost knocking over the clumsy maid, Mey-rin. She had been polishing the silverware of the hall, yet unfortunately her glasses had failed her again. It turned out she had used shoe polish on the ornaments and /Ciel picked up the knife and looked down at the black substance on his hand with an astonished look, then gave a sigh and held out his hand for the butler, who stood next to him, to clean his hand with a /Luckily the Earl's butler didn't even need to be told, and within in the blink of an eye restored the hall to a sparkling new just as it was before he left. Mey-rin hadn't even noticed her slip up until she was given a talk from Sebastian about being more careful next time, especially since the Earl would most certainly emnot /embe pleased if this were to happen while he was hosting guests, let alone at /She nodded her head slowly and looked down turning a bright red from messing up again in front of Sebastian. She always had the hots for him. She became an even darker shade when she tried not to show this, though, since Sebastian had taken her out of sight and earshot from everyone else. Ciel decided to ignore the maid's obvious fancy towards his butler and continued tucking into his English breakfast and reading the daily newspaper. Soon enough his butler was back at his side while he dined, and he placed the newly brewed tea in front of Ciel. For a thirteen year old, he had an amazingly varied /Of course that was expected from a child of his class though, and seeing as he was always at meetings and events, it would be a bit odd to have an Earl turning his nose up at the selection of food. That didn't mean he couldn't have favourite foods, though, and soon he understood why his chocolate range was popular from his company's produce. Yes, he had a healthy and balanced diet, but he couldn't help but indulge himself every now and then with one of the bizarre chocolates his company produced. Having foreign acquaintances with new flavours and ingredients had its perks...br /"Is there anything of importance to us in that envelope, Master?" Sebastian said as he gathered up the plates as soon as Ciel was /"Yes, in fact there is." Ciel said dabbing his mouth with his napkin. "It's a letter from the Queen."br /Finny, who was still chasing the chandelier reflections, overheard /"And what did she say, Ciel? What would she need from you?" He asked, bringing his finger up to the side of his mouth as it formed the shape of an 'O'.br /Ciel looked over at Finny, and gave him a look that screamed "get back to work". The servant soon picked up on Ciel's silent tone and got back to his given task, despite not being the smartest teacup in the orchestra.*br /The Earl looked down at the letter and sighed. He answered Finny's question with:br /"She wants me to track down another serial killer."br /The room went silent-at least even emmore/em silent than it was, asides from the sound of the servants at work-and only after a few moments was the silence broken by the /"Could you expand on that, Master? She emdoes/em know you weren't able to do any assignments for her at the moment, correct?"br /"Have you not been reading the newspapers?" He tapped the newspaper next to his tray. "And yes, Sebastian, that is true, but I have you back now. So now I emcan /emget back to being the guard dog." He said grinning at the butler while placing his empty cup /"We start today," he said finally as he stood up quickly and motioned for the butler to follow him. Sebastian had already finished cleaning up and left the other servants to it, once again placing the mansion in their hands. Hopefully no chaos would ensue while they were /"And what about the guests? Shall I contact them and cancel the meeting?" He caught up with the pacing Ciel easily, and the Earl put out his arms for Sebastian to put on his coat for /"Yes, and tell them I won't be available for at least a few more days; we have a emmurder case /emto solve, Sebastian!"br /A carriage was already outside for them, seeing as the Phantomhive Estate had its own private transport service. They were already at the grand doors of the mansion before Ciel had even grabbed his cane and tophat. Once again, that was left for the butler to sort out, as well as the contact list. It would only take the demon butler a few minutes at most...br /Ciel let his butler contact his would-be-guests, walked to the carriage that awaited and spoke to the driver, who nodded and said they would be off as soon as they climbed in. When he was done, Sebastian watched his Master and pulled his white gloves tighter with his mouth, then followed Ciel into the carriage, shutting the door behind him. The driver cracked the reins and soon enough Master and Butler were off on another journey by the Queen's bidding, through the countryside of /Ciel stared thoughtfully out of the window while holding the skull of his cane in front of him, and didn't say much until:br /"Where to now, my Lord? You seem to do a very good job of not emtelling/em people what you plan on doing before doing it..." He smiled slightly but covered his mouth with his gloved hand, and looked opposite to /He initially got a stare from the Earl, but eventually he got a proper-and more /"The Undertaker's, of course. Where better to go when a string if murders has broken out in London, and emwho/em better to ask if not the man who sees the bodies emthemselves/em?" He laughed slightly, but on a more serious note got back to thinking and staring out the /Sebastian just smiled, and he too looked out of the window./p
p data-p-id="587e4d60248614326a71cc3832d0c131"The main hall was sparkling like new when the butler had finished cleaning up the mess the servants had left it in. Ciel almost had to cover his eye at the reflection the chandelier was giving off, and the rainbow projections, yet after having been explained to many times about, still confused and amazed Finny. The poor boy couldn't help but be curious and chase the pretty lights, almost knocking over the clumsy maid, Mey-rin. She had been polishing the silverware of the hall, yet unfortunately her glasses had failed her again. It turned out she had used shoe polish on the ornaments and /Ciel picked up the knife and looked down at the black substance on his hand with an astonished look, then gave a sigh and held out his hand for the butler, who stood next to him, to clean his hand with a /Luckily the Earl's butler didn't even need to be told, and within in the blink of an eye restored the hall to a sparkling new just as it was before he left. Mey-rin hadn't even noticed her slip up until she was given a talk from Sebastian about being more careful next time, especially since the Earl would most certainly emnot /embe pleased if this were to happen while he was hosting guests, let alone at /She nodded her head slowly and looked down turning a bright red from messing up again in front of Sebastian. She always had the hots for him. She became an even darker shade when she tried not to show this, though, since Sebastian had taken her out of sight and earshot from everyone else. Ciel decided to ignore the maid's obvious fancy towards his butler and continued tucking into his English breakfast and reading the daily newspaper. Soon enough his butler was back at his side while he dined, and he placed the newly brewed tea in front of Ciel. For a thirteen year old, he had an amazingly varied /Of course that was expected from a child of his class though, and seeing as he was always at meetings and events, it would be a bit odd to have an Earl turning his nose up at the selection of food. That didn't mean he couldn't have favourite foods, though, and soon he understood why his chocolate range was popular from his company's produce. Yes, he had a healthy and balanced diet, but he couldn't help but indulge himself every now and then with one of the bizarre chocolates his company produced. Having foreign acquaintances with new flavours and ingredients had its perks...br /"Is there anything of importance to us in that envelope, Master?" Sebastian said as he gathered up the plates as soon as Ciel was /"Yes, in fact there is." Ciel said dabbing his mouth with his napkin. "It's a letter from the Queen."br /Finny, who was still chasing the chandelier reflections, overheard /"And what did she say, Ciel? What would she need from you?" He asked, bringing his finger up to the side of his mouth as it formed the shape of an 'O'.br /Ciel looked over at Finny, and gave him a look that screamed "get back to work". The servant soon picked up on Ciel's silent tone and got back to his given task, despite not being the smartest teacup in the orchestra.*br /The Earl looked down at the letter and sighed. He answered Finny's question with:br /"She wants me to track down another serial killer."br /The room went silent-at least even emmore/em silent than it was, asides from the sound of the servants at work-and only after a few moments was the silence broken by the /"Could you expand on that, Master? She emdoes/em know you weren't able to do any assignments for her at the moment, correct?"br /"Have you not been reading the newspapers?" He tapped the newspaper next to his tray. "And yes, Sebastian, that is true, but I have you back now. So now I emcan /emget back to being the guard dog." He said grinning at the butler while placing his empty cup /"We start today," he said finally as he stood up quickly and motioned for the butler to follow him. Sebastian had already finished cleaning up and left the other servants to it, once again placing the mansion in their hands. Hopefully no chaos would ensue while they were /"And what about the guests? Shall I contact them and cancel the meeting?" He caught up with the pacing Ciel easily, and the Earl put out his arms for Sebastian to put on his coat for /"Yes, and tell them I won't be available for at least a few more days; we have a emmurder case /emto solve, Sebastian!"br /A carriage was already outside for them, seeing as the Phantomhive Estate had its own private transport service. They were already at the grand doors of the mansion before Ciel had even grabbed his cane and tophat. Once again, that was left for the butler to sort out, as well as the contact list. It would only take the demon butler a few minutes at most...br /Ciel let his butler contact his would-be-guests, walked to the carriage that awaited and spoke to the driver, who nodded and said they would be off as soon as they climbed in. When he was done, Sebastian watched his Master and pulled his white gloves tighter with his mouth, then followed Ciel into the carriage, shutting the door behind him. The driver cracked the reins and soon enough Master and Butler were off on another journey by the Queen's bidding, through the countryside of /Ciel stared thoughtfully out of the window while holding the skull of his cane in front of him, and didn't say much until:br /"Where to now, my Lord? You seem to do a very good job of not emtelling/em people what you plan on doing before doing it..." He smiled slightly but covered his mouth with his gloved hand, and looked opposite to /He initially got a stare from the Earl, but eventually he got a proper-and more /"The Undertaker's, of course. Where better to go when a string if murders has broken out in London, and emwho/em better to ask if not the man who sees the bodies emthemselves/em?" He laughed slightly, but on a more serious note got back to thinking and staring out the /Sebastian just smiled, and he too looked out of the window./p