[Butlers Code]
This phrase didn't mean anything in particular to him, well... not until the runes carved themselves out again:
[Honour the Butlers Code ~ The Last Dinner]
"Honour the Butlers Code?"
Besides not knowing what the hell that was, asking him to honour it only served to plunge him deeper in confusion. How would he do that exactly?
Leo strictly gazed at food on the table and with a swift motion, wiped the sweat off his forehead. His nostrils still flared at the scent of food as he wandered nearby.
'Somethings up with the food. But if I take anything, it's gonna come for me again.'
A code was the sort of thing you followed by your own will, something like an unspoken rule or a self imposed life-long challenge; that sort of thing, just like how knights are supposed to have honour – but really it's just a formality, part of the 'knights code'.
The Royal Butler had his own code so to speak, though, it would be more apt to call it the boundaries of his job instead of a strict iron code like the ones mercenaries and knights vowed to obey before throwing their lives to the field.
After all, he was serving the most powerful of the empire. No doubt there'd be some rules that just couldn't be broken.
He could only conjure up one idea as to what sort of code a draconic butler might follow, some sort of 'confidentiality pact'. But that didn't relate to anything that could help him here.
So what if it tries to keep this dungeon hidden? To Leo, that just meant reassurance that it's an enemy, if anything. But that was just a theory, of course.
'Code... code...?'
Trying to make sense of it, he could only use the context around him to guess:
'I don't like how it's saying it's the last dinner. That either means it's the final battle or –'
His eyes lit up as the obvious just surged through his brain. A constant scratching and crackling sound permeating the walls was slightly fogging his mind, but now, it was all too obvious as his mind went back in.
'Dinner!'
A prickling feeling rose up through his legs as his knees stayed locked up.
'That's it, that's why there's only two plates with food.'
And with a huff of his chest, he tied up his theory as if he'd just re invented magic:
'That's why its eyes changed colour when when I went for the different plates!'
The runes reacted to his inner monologue, spiralling out of control as they excitedly ran laps around the whole room, nothing but cryptic wiritngs could be seen – with the occasional glimpses into the snowy painting.
They pointed through the room, coercing him to sit at the bottom of the table.
[Share the butlers code ~ The Last Dinner]
So much sweat had built up on his body it nearly threatened to wash the whole room away as he tip toed his way around; looking back occasionally, watching for the skeletons movements as he went to sit down at the other end.
Everything in the room was coated in an alabaster aura as the moonlight and torching lanterns mixed their essence together. But that was not the case for exactly one spot in the whole room, excluding the one that Leo stood on.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Everything else was constructed of refined marble and looked like it had been polished by a thousand hands, each adding their own opinion to it.
Comparatively, the chair at the bottom of the table was made of wood, not marble, and it was significantly smaller than any of ones at the other tables, the food in front of it was smaller, and so was the silverware. Even the glass was smaller, and it did not contain wine. It was water in its purest form.
As he sat down the wooden planks making it up creaked, giving Leo the sensation that it might just break under his weight. His hands stuck to the fabric draped over the table, and his sword rested against the ridges of the stone, but his eyes glued to the skeleton nonetheless.
In the same frame, the runes wrapped around the veils, punching them in as they returned to their owner. Sitting in front of him, another string of words appeared:
[Obtain the key, complete the Bulters Code]
After dispersing into thin air, the skeletons' eyes started glowing. Leo kept a steady hand on the sword for any sudden movements, ready to pounce on the threat.
This time, however, its eyes grew big with a verdant radiance, just as he'd predicted.
'Okay... now what?'
Everything was set up in place. The rest would be a simple conversation between two people – well, one undead and a person.
The skeleton didn't bother looking around and instead walked back to its seat in a controlled fashion. Its seat and surrounding gourmet grander and richer than what presented up in front of Leo.
Meanwhile, the scratching sound that once bugged Leo's head had now picked up pace significantly. He could almost feel the room vibrating, and the worst part of it all was that the sound came right from the wooden door. The same one he was supposed to escape through!
Leo didn't bother acknowledging it, thinking it was just an indicator that he was doing something right.
The skeleton picked started dicing up the steak laid out, little by little, with its left hand placing the pieces of curated meat through its hollow bones. With every attempt, the back of its mouth went exposed, revealing the hook where the key was secured to.
Without even having touched the food, Leo tried standing up when its mouth opened, in hopes catching it at a standstill and gaining the key earlier. But that wouldn't work one bit.
As soon as he took off, its calcium jaw snapped shut, and its eyes faded.
'Looks like I need to eat too then...
He sat back down, there wasn't much to complain about, free food was free food. And he sure as hell wasn't letting the opportunity go.
'Well, don't mind me.'
Ignoring the growing growls and scratching behind the door, he picked up the fork and started dicing at the tiny stake, singing its aroma to him.
The cuts were brutish, and the fibre ripped right off just to end up lining his stomach. The aroma punctured through his lungs, intoxicating him as a rush of flavour spiked around his cheeks.
'Mmm!'
Leo's ears pointed up, and his fingers curled in ecstacy. With the first bite taken, he greedily inhaled the thing hole, occasionally washing his stuffed mouth with the river of water sparkling around his glass.
The flavour was otherworldly, the spices sprinkled around his body, rejuvenating his flesh beyond what he'd ever achieved.
The scratching and growling got louder at the other end, the skeleton nearly finished with its meals unbothered by it, and so was Leo as a piece of the steak stuck to his throat.
Cough.
A muffled cough ran the room, Leo was slightly choking from his hurried eating. He was fine though. Just the next moment, he puffed his chest out and spat the rest of the food out, dicing into smaller pieces and inhaling the whole plate until nothing else was left.
Leo looked up to the ceiling, satisfied with the encounter as his hand laid on not the sword, but his head.
At the same time, as he looked back down with his mouth open, the skeleton was finishing up its meal also – placing his utensils down fashionably.
Its eyes turned a bright white and its mouth opened wide. Then the runes made their appearance:
[Butlers Code ~ Honoured to the last]
"Huff, well, that's done now, isn't it?"
He got up from his seat, forgetting his sword as he walloped the ground with his feet.
But before he could even get halfway through the table, the growling got so bad behind that door that he couldn't ignore it anymore.
Just in the next second, the unimaginable happened. The dial on his hand rose once more – shifting its pattern to his knuckles once more. Five lights lit up, out of six.
Crash!
A woolly arm the size of Leo brush through the wooden door, exploding the nails and metalwork right off. In the next second, the whole door flung off – sending out a rush of dust into the hall he stood. And with another loud crash, before Leo could even think about what had just happened, a vortex of marble and metal swung on the floor, hitting the roundtables around as the food went everywhere.
The only thing visible through this miserable fog was the skeleton and its open mouth, but what he did not expect was the warm red glow coming from its mouth.
"No!"
The key exploded!
Its jaw clenched down tight. It stood up looking at the source of the dust, unamused by the event.
But what Leo would see next would certainly terrify even the unwavering butler:
[Puppet Master]
[311,920,027 -> 260,000,023]