Project VERLICE

Chapter 6. Just The Start

Victorian Ambience
By: Autumn Cozy

I actually enjoyed this ambience a lot

~-~

March 3rd, 1763

"I thought you said to wait at the library for you? Why did the plans change?"
"Because I was lazy and didn't want to walk in the rain."

Hugo smiled nervously, hoping he'd be able to help her. "What are we starting off with today?" Lydia was waiting at her desk with her quill in her hand. "I was thinking about writing. It will help you with learning how to read as well once we move onto that lesson later on." Lydia hummed with a nod, turning her attention to the paper once Hugo sat down beside her. "Now.. let us begin..." Hugo took out his own quill and started to instruct Lydia on what each certain letter was used for in words and the pronunciation.

Verlice's Secret Garden

Hugo, Haytham, and Judas were now walking back to the manor. Hugo walked ahead of the two with his head down. Haytham and Judas stayed beside each other. The grip of the open book tightened in Hugo's grip as he kept reading. Haytham decided to break the silence. Not like Hugo would acknowledge him at the moment. "So, this is kind of at a bad time, but I have a question." Judas side eyed Haytham. "Please share." Haytham sighed. "So you know how we celebrated Hedwig's birthday just a few days ago?" Judas raised a brow, trying to see Haytham's point.

"What about it?"
"It got me thinking: how old are we? Do we just stop when we die or do we keep counting?"
"I'm not sure, Haytham."

This was an odd question at its finest. But Judas had some type of answer. The age you die, you stay the same. Your appearance, your maturity, your everything stays the same. But the appearance part didn't exactly matter since they were encased in... yeah...

"Oh my God! That would make me.. 280 years old!" Haytham's eyes were wide but a smile was on his face. Has time really passed by that quickly? Hugo had tuned into the conversation at this point. He stopped walking and quickly did the math in his head. "Well then, that would make me 277 years old, wouldn't it?" Haytham laughed and slightly pointed at Hugo. "I'm older than you?! That's crazy!" Judas didn't make a reaction. He seemed to be doing the math inside his head himself. "I'm at least 300 and some years old from what I could count." Haytham clicked his tongue. "Isn't that obvious? You were the first one here after all. Of course you'd be the oldest." Hugo smiled unknowingly before going back to his reading.

March 3rd, 1763
(Bits of this was requested by a friend)

Hugo's feet were propped up against the wall, his back turned to Lydia. "Did you finish yet?" He asked, rubbing his neck. "I think so..." He slowly turned around to see Lydia checking if her spelling was correct. "You didn't cheat, did you?" She shook her head and moved the paper towards Hugo so that he could read it. His eyes carefully went over the practice letter and he smiled. "You got everything correct. However, you still need to work on where your periods go." Lydia quietly thanked Hugo before he flipped the page over and wrote down a simple word. Hugo himself, when he started to learn how to read and write, had trouble with this one single word.

Eyes.

He turned the page to Lydia who read over it with furrowed brows. "What does this say?" He asked her with hope in his tone. He waited patiently for her to try and figure it out. It honestly amazed Lydia on how Hugo could have so much patience. "E-yes?" Hugo frowned in confusion. Did he hear her right? "Can you repeat that please?" He put his quill away so that the excess ink didn't spill over the paper. "E-yes?" Hugo paused with his movements. He started smiling a bit, glancing up at Lydia before looking back down at the paper. "What does this say?" He asked again, quickly bringing up his hand to his mouth to stop himself from laughing. He even lowered his head down slightly so that she couldn't see that he was laughing. "What does e-y-e-s spell?" He looked up at Lydia who looked completely confused. "E-yes?"

Hugo couldn't take it anymore. He started laughing a little bit. And when he tried to contain himself, he burst out laughing again. "Okay.. what does y-e-s spell?" Lydia's eyes lit up. It was obvious she knew the answer. "Yes." She answered. "W-what does e-y-e-s spell?" Lydia's eyebrows furrowed again. "E-yes?" At this point Hugo's head was down and his hand was balled up in a fist, slamming against Lydia's desk because he was laughing so hard. He looked back up at Lydia. His face was extremely red from his laugh attack. "Why are you laughing? Wha- what did I do?" Hugo waved her off in a 'don't worry about it' manner and tried to compose himself again. It semi-worked this time. "What does-" He broke out chuckling before continuing. "Try again. What does y-e-s spell?" He wanted to see if Lydia could see where he was pointing at by using 'yes' and 'eyes'. It helped him when he was younger anyways - comparing words to other words.

Lydia deadpanned at Hugo before saying her answer with gritted teeth. "Yes." Hugo smiled, hoping she would get it right this time. "What does e-y-e-s spell?" Lydia glared Hugo in the eyes. But she was super confused. Maybe 'e-yes' wasn't the answer. She really didn't know the answer at this point. Out of instinct, she yelped out an answer. "Eee's?"

Hugo couldn't take it anymore.

He jumped out of his seat and started wheezing on the floor. Tears had formed in his eyes he was laughing so hard. He felt terrible for laughing at Lydia, but he couldn't help himself. "Ei-yes?" Lydia shouted out another answer, but it caused Hugo to wheeze even harder. "I can't breathe!" He wheezed out. He put a hand on his chest, feeling his heart pump extremely fast.

How was he gonna do this while containing himself?