Silly, Im Not The Villain!

Chapter Eleven: And For That I Thank You

Hope woke up earlier than Elias. She looked down to see her young master sleeping soundly on her lap. After he fell asleep during the day she laid his head down on her lap, draped a blanket over him and ran her fingers through his hair to make him as comfortable as he could be. It was now evening and they were now already out of the capital, soon it will be time for them to eat the food prepared for their journey. She looks out the window and enjoys the sun set outside for about thirty minutes before her young master woke up from their sleep.

He moved himself slightly up then dropped his head back down on her lap. He then turned his body so that he was laying on his back and stretched his arms, he attempted to stretched his legs and feet which no longer had his shoes on them but hit the side of carriage so instead he stretched his legs and feet up in the air, then abruptly dropped his legs. He relaxed himself in his position before opening his eyes and blinking away most of his sleepiness.

Hope watched this entire ritual happen with great interest, having never seen her young master do this before but she thought it cute nonetheless, almost like watching a cute baby chick do it’s morning routine of shaking it's stiffness away.

She smiled warmly at him and asked “Did you sleep well young master?” it took a moment to process that she was referring him. “Hm.” he responded with a small and charming smile. “Would you like to eat now?” she asked while petting his hair and Alex sits up and smiles at her with an expectant look on his face, she smiles at this cute reaction and presents the food in front of him to eat. He looks at it with delight but then looks at Hope, “What about you?” she is taken aback by this as Elias never asked about her meals, she was his personal maid, there was no need for him to worry about such things. “I will eat later young master.” She said after a while. “You can eat with me now.” They go silent for a while as Hope processes this. “No that would be highly inappropriate!” her eye brows slightly furrowed to show her disapproval. “No one is here to see it.” He reasons, “Even so it isn’t right for me, your personal maid, to eat with you, my master.” She argues back. Alex decides to take a risk and says “But your not just my maid.”

This catches her of guard as she never expected him to say something like that. Ever. The two had a close bond, on multiple occasions Elias opened up to her and she did the same with him and naturally they became very close to one another, but never did she expect for him to so casually admit they were close and without a hint of embarrassment evident on his face or body language. No matter how cruel he had been she always saw Elias as a child with a bad upbringing and wanted to be an older sister figure to him that would guide him to the right path before it was too late. She felt touched that Elias (actually Alex) too thought they were close, this would probably the happiest she would be by his side she thought as she burned this moment into her brain. She notices the younger boy start to squirm under her stare so she quickly regains her composure and says “Alright master lets eat together.”

Alex breathes a sigh of relief that Hope doesn’t fail to notice. ‘He must have thought that I didn’t think we were close, or worse that I don’t like him!’ she silently concluded, 'I should work hard to make sure it doesn’t seem like I disliked him.' She really didn’t dislike him at all, only his past actions, but she herself was no better.

Alex patiently waited for her to get her food out and when she was done he dug into his food. Hope began eating after Elias took his first bite. The two ate in a comfortable silence and when they were done Hope put everything away for the night.

Alex wanted to know more about Elias, but alas the story was about the protagonist, her life and her relationships, and Elias was definitely not the protagonist, but he was a love interest (surprisingly) so there was plenty of him in the story but not nearly as much as the other love interests, so the next best thing is to ask about him. But there are some obvious problems with that, them being: one, Elias has no actual friends to ask about himself, sure he had connections, bad ones that he had to cut off, but not friends and two, his motives would be questioned and that would raise suspicion about him. Luckily there were convenient solutions to them… ish. Elias doesn’t have any friends but he did have a personal maid, who likely has been bye his side for a long time… ok not many want to be close to him for any period of time and considering his personality he probably fired his past personal maid after a few small mistakes so that’s a bit of a stretch but still, he has a personal maid and that’s all that matters (here’s hoping she's been by his side for a while). And even better because she is a maid he doesn’t have to explain anything to her or he could give her a crappy excuse, whatever works.

He glanced over to her and they make eye contact making Elias immediately avert his gaze. Hope seems to misunderstand what he wanted “Young master, if you wish to rest more, feel free to rest your head on my lap, your head is Light so it really isn’t a problem.” She says with a smile. He looks at her for a moment and decides to ignore that last part and just lay his head on her lap.