The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess-Chapter 42: Alvíss’s First Project

Morning arrived, and most of the residents of the Ardent mansion remained none the wiser to the events of the previous night.

All traces of the fight had been completely erased by Adrian, just as his lady had ordered.

Today was supposed to be the day the academy started, the servants were too busy preparing to notice a missing maid.

Though, it was the Academy’s first day, Renelle had a task to complete before that...

Talking with her father, who was still alive in this timeline.

This left Adrian with enough time to handle one last thing.

"Where are we going?" Conan , who had been forced out of bed earlier than he’d like, asked.

Adrian was silent for a while as they walked out the mansion’s gates with a small smile on his face.

Noctis lay quietly on his head, knowing exactly the reason why his contractor was smiling.

The idiot had been smiling every other second, probably recalling the kiss his lady gave him the previous night.

Noctis internally sighed, when it asked to be entertained, it didn’t expect to be presented with the antics of an obsessed fool.

It so very much wanted to face palm fight now.

Fortunately, Adrian soon wiped the smile off his face as he asked without turning back.

"What’s your dream, Conan?"

It was a question the kid was completely unprepared for, after all, it was something he had never expected the scary butler to ask.

Still, Conan only needed a while to think about it before he answered, "a better life, for Isla."

"What about you?" Adrian asked again.

"I don’t care what happens to me," Conan responded with a serious expression on his face, "as long as Isla is safe and happy."

"I see," Adrian nodded.

Conan’s answer was more or less what he expected, which means he shouldn’t have much trouble accepting what he was about to offer him.

"Then would you like to get stronger, to protect Isla?" He asked. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Of course," Conan answered without the least bit of hesitation.

He was tired of getting bullied all the time, tired of having to run around with Isla just so slave traders wouldn’t spot them, and although they had a temporary home right now, he knew it would disappear in a heartbeat if he didn’t prove to be useful.

Adrian chuckled at the fast response, which was exactly what he expected.

Conan and Isla weren’t siblings, a fact that would be obvious once one saw them standing next to each other.

They had belonged to the same orphanage once, that is, until Conan heard one of the caretakers arranging to sell Isla to a slave trader.

At that point, they had become close enough for him not to ignore, so he did the only thing he could think of...

Take her and runaway.

Now, there were times when he regretted that decision, wondering if she’d had been better off with the slave trader.

After all, there was a chance that she might’ve found a home, one with enough food to never let her sleep hungry again.

But those thoughts were quickly discarded as he reminded himself that this was a lot better than being a slave.

And a slave, hoping for a kind master, was nothing more than a fairytale.

"We’re here," Adrian said as he stopped, causing Conan to also stop and notice that they were now in the Capital’s marketplace.

In front of them was a shop with a pretty interesting sign,

{FUCK OFF IF YOU HAVEN’T GOT ANY SPECIAL MATERIAL.}

Below it, another sign clearly said it was closed, but Adrian didn’t bother reading it.

Instead, he pushed the door open, the bell above alerting the old man within as he immediately spoke up, "can’t you fucking read? The sign clearly says cl—"

Alvíss stopped talking as he spotted Adrian walking in before sighing and stepping up to the counter.

"What do you want?" He asked in a grumpy tone.

Ever since he signed a contract with this kid the previous day, he had hardly gotten any sleep as he felt an uncomfortable feeling close to his heart.

And after a bit of digging, he found out exactly what the kid had done.

What he had signed was basically a contract with a slave binding, if he tried breaking it, he’d immediately die, the kid on the other hand, would face no consequence.

So saying he wasn’t happy, wouldn’t be an understatement.

"I brought you a gift," Adrian simply said, ignoring the look on the old man’s face.

Alvíss’ brow twitched, as he heard the kid’s words, "I don’t want any—"

"And a project," Adrian interrupted.

That made him pause and his eyes slowly shifted from Adrian to the boy standing behind him.

Conan stiffened the moment that gaze landed on him. The old man’s gaze felt heavy, like he was being weighed, measured, and dissected all at once.

Alvíss narrowed his eyes, sensing nothing special about the new kid, so he asked, "Him?"

"Correct," Adrian nodded with a smile.

"There’s nothing special about the kid," The old man said bluntly, without caring whether or not Conan was standing there.

"Exactly," Adrian confirmed, dealing another invisible blow to the kid, "but that’s what makes him special, after all, he’s a blank slate."

Alvíss thought of his words for a while, before the realization suddenly dawned on him, "by blank slate you mean —"

"Correct," Adrian affirmed, "the kid cannot bond with spirits."

Both the old man and Conan’s eyes went wide, but for completely different reasons.

Alvíss had finally understood why Adrian called Conan a project, and Conan was wondering how Adrian knew of that, since he didn’t remember telling anyone about this, not even Isla.

But he didn’t need to tell anyone for Adrian to know, after all, he had knowledge from the manhwa.

According to Isla’s backstory, before his death, Conan had tried contracting a spirit whilst he and Isla were captured, and although many had answered, he couldn’t bond with a single one.

It was an idea that the author thought was too tedious since he’d have to introduce a new power system just to make a single character useful.

This was one of the reasons Conan had been scrapped and used only in Isla’s backstory.

"Interesting..." Alvíss muttered, his eyes narrowing as he moved away from the counter and towards Conan slowly circling him.

The old man suddenly stopped in front of him and reached out. Before Conan could react, a cold, metallic device was pressed against his chest.

Click.

"Nothing," he muttered.

He then moved the device to Conan’s arm and the same sound was released again.

Click.

"Still nothing."

His expression slowly changed and he looked up at Conan and said, "you truly have zero compatibility with any spirit of any element, even though your body holds mana."

A wide, almost unhinged grin spread across his face.

"Hah..." he let out, a low chuckle escaping him, "this is... fascinating."

"I could open you up and find out wh—"

His rant was suddenly interrupted by Adrian, "you are not to harm him."

That was clearly an order as Alvíss could feel the leash around his heart, registering it and tightening a bit.

"T-then..."

"I believe you’ll get far more satisfactory results if you try making him a magitech mage instead," Adrian said as he looked at the old man.

It was an idea he would eventually come up with, though he never had the chance to test it out, since the only fitting vessel was already dead, so he moved on to living weapons.

But now, now he could finally work on that.

"I see," Alvíss muttered as he placed a hand on his chin, "since he cannot bond with a spirit, then he should be compatible with that...."

He rambled on, coming up with ways to turn the kid into a satisfactory project, one that would be fitting to be known as the creation of Alvíss the great.

Adrian turned to Conan and said, "if you want to turn back, now’s the time."

"What will he do to me?" Conan asked, glancing at the old man before turning to Adrian again.

"Make you stronger," he simply responded.

"Then I won’t be turning back," the kid responded with a determined look on his face.

One that he’d probably lose when Adrian told him about what he’d risk losing.

"There will be pain," he started calmly, "more than you’ve ever experienced."

The kid silently listened, prompting Adrian to continue.

"You may lose parts of yourself," he added, his gaze steady, "physically... and possibly mentally."

Conan, was now having second thoughts, and he could see that, so he finished.

"But," Adrian continued, "you will gain power, enough to protect Isla."

There was a moment of silence between the two as Conan calmly thought of the offer.

"I’ll do it," he said after thinking for a while.

"Good," Adrian said, "the Academy’s public entrance examination starts in a week, ensure you’re strong enough to make it in."

"Hmm," Conan nodded, before the two finally turned to the old man that was done rambling.

"Well then," Alvíss cracked his knuckles, "let’s get started."