Chapter 17

Claude crouched as low as he could as he approached that part of the roof like a cat.

Their voices cleared as he approached. Arbeit and Christina sounded like they were arguing, and the latter sounded quite mad. Arbeit, on the other hand, spoke in a gentle tone. It even sounded like he was begging.

What were they arguing about?

“…You said three months, but it’s been half a year and I’m still in this cruddy attic! Where’s my suite?! You always said you’d get me a suite! You always forget after you get off my bed! I warn you, Arbeit, if you don’t get me a suite by this month’s end, don’t even think about getting into my bed again! I’ll even tell your father you promised me a suite to trick me into sleeping with you! We’ll see who has more to lose then!”

“My beloved Christina, my dearest, I’ve never lied to you. Didn’t I say that, as long as there is a free room somewhere downstairs, you can move in? I can’t possibly chase the tenants away, though, right? Come on, be nice and let’s stop arguing. I’ll make sure you get your suite as soon as possible. I swear–”

“–Swear my ass! Wasn’t Mister Leklin from the second floor going to move out? People moved into his vacant room in three days! Did you even try to get it for me? I was even happily anticipating my move! I only found out I wasn’t getting it when the new tenant, Madam Alika, came to give me desserts! How do you explain that?!”

“Sigh. That wasn’t my fault. I told my parents to not rent a suite out because I had a friend who wanted to rent it. Mister Leklin didn’t cancel his contract, however, he transferred it to his cousin instead. I can’t do anything about that. And after she moved in, my mother signed a proper contract with her and even upped the rent. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“You always come up with all sorts of excuses! I’ve been too blind until now! You’re completely unreliable! You couldn’t even get me a suite!

“Summer’s just two months away and the attic will be boiling. There’s only one toilet bowl here and no bathtub. I have to go to the corridor on the second floor just to wash my face! People get water from there to mop the floor, and I’m using it to wash my face! I’ve had enough!

“I will only give you two more months. If I’m still living here then, I will spill everything I know! At worst, I’ll leave this stupid town. There’s lots of places in the kingdom I can move, but when I do, I’ll leave you with a ruined reputation!”

“I promise! I promise! I’ll get you a suite in two months. Even if there aren’t any empty rooms here, I will rent one in town for you.”

“You make it sound so easy. Do you think the rooms in town as good as these are empty? Rooms with clean toilets and running water are always occupied! You promise me all sorts of things just to get into my bed and forget everything after you pull up your pants. If you don’t get me a good room, I’ll spill

The hookup didn’t matter to Claude, so he quickly forgot about it as he concentrated on decoding the cookbook’s secrets. The study was empty, and the carriages had left, so he could finally get his hands on the Hez dictionary. He could decode at least two pages of the book.

He climbed down the stairs barefoot. Though he had lightened his steps, the stairs still creaked slightly.

Fortunately, Morssen had drunk a little too much and was more than worn out. He was already asleep. As for his mother, she had been working the whole night and had also gone to dreamland.

Arbeit wasn’t on the first floor, obviously, so no one could stop Claude as he opened his bedroom door and went downstairs. He filled his lamp with oil, retrieved the dictionary, and snuck back to his room like a burglar in his own house.

He shut the door and lit the lamp before stuffing his blanket under his door. The worst of the light was thus stoppered, and he didn’t have to fear being discovered too easily.

He prepared to open the dictionary, but stopped as a thought suddenly occurred to him. He had only gone through ten pages properly before blacking out last time, roughly half an hour. If he really took to decoding the book, he might get a single page done in the same time at most if things went well. Also, though he felt normal after bathing in the moonlight, he couldn’t be sure how much of his energy he’d actually recovered.

He’d learned his lesson the hard way, and he had no interest in learning it again. He was also certain mental power could not be recovered that quickly.

He paced around in his attic room for a while before inspiration finally came to him and he slapped himself for his silliness. There was no need for him to decode the text directly from the cookbook. Couldn’t he just copy the text on another piece of paper? Each page only had a few rows of words, so he could finish copying it in ten or so minutes. He should have enough mental power for that.

Thus, he started copying the words one one, page by page. He took a short intermission between each page to conduct a short bathing session on the roof before moving on to the next.

It took him several hours to begin to feel his fatigue this time, and bathing in the moon had stopped relieving it. He put his stuff away, put out his lamp, and went to sleep.