The Magic Thief Volume 1 Chapter 3 part1

The old man got up early as the morning sunlight shone down on the deep alley that the nest situated in. He opened the door of his room and entered the study.

The boy was leaning against the sofa and sleeping soundly by one side of the study.

The old man didn't awaken him. He quietly opened the door and went down stairs, standing in front of the door of Fabian's room.

In the nest, no door was locked, because everyone here was a specialist in unlocking. Locks were useless at all. Instead, they would induce these golden fingers to have a try on them.

The old man pushed the door and walked into the room. Different from the boy, Fabian had been an experienced thief for many years, so that he could be easily wakened by any unusual movements.

The old man was quite satisfied of this and looking at the suddenly wakening Fabian. He said with nodding, "get up and bring Ted here. We have to meet the boss."

"Why so early? " Fabian couldn't understand.

"Leave before they get up. I don't want to make a mess like that of yesterday." The old man replied.

"Got it." He then jumped off the bed and ran out of the room.

It was a long time until he returned, with a shirt in his hand.

"The carriage is waiting outside. Ted said the alley was so deep, that his carriage wouldn't get in." Fabian said.

"Get to wake up the boy." Told the old man.

Fabian sounded and went upstairs.

Waking the boy up was easy.

Fabian handed the shirt to the boy, and retreated to the window, looking outside. He didn't want to watch a boy changing clothes.

Looking down through the window, he saw the old man whispering to Ted who nodded repeatedly.

"I'm finished." The voice of the boy came from the back of him.

Fabian looked back and found the boy was very bright with new clothes. He should have been recovered from the chaos of yesterday.

"OK, let's go!" Fabian went first and led the way.

Outside the alley, the carriage was ready to leave.

Following the old man and Fabian, the boy got into the carriage.

The carriage slowly started out and moved out of the city gate in a short time.

After that, the carriage made its way not onto a wide road but a country lane.

The branches on both sides of the lane were constantly hammering on the carriage and the three people sitting inside didn't say any words.

The carriage moved slowly, making several ups and downs. There must be quite a lot of forks, as the boy felt the carriage turned many times.

The boy had lost his sense of direction. He prayed the driver not to get lost. Otherwise, it would very difficult for him to go back to the road.

The boy wondered why the boss lived in such a remote place. It would be very hard to get out for doing business. Just getting familiar with the way would take several months.

As the boy was sadly watching out of the window, the carriage finally made its way onto a neat boulevard.

In the distance was rows of emerald green fields. It was in spring, and the green crops grew well. The wheat swayed in the wind, looking like waves on the water. Beyond it was the rape field. The new rape looked like a thick, dark green carpet that spread across the fields, covering the fields thickly with wide leaves, without revealing any earth.

The unknown birds were flying happily in the sky, looking for their first meal in the day.

The carriage moved faster and faster along the boulevard. It was obviously a remote place. Not to mention carriages on the way, even people couldn't be seen.

More than a quarter later, the carriage finally came to a stop in front of a spacious and luxurious villa.

When the boy got off, the first sight caught into his eyes was whiteness.

Everything was as white as snow.

The ground was covered with white gravel and unusual white cobblestones, the trees and flowers in the garden grew in a flowerbed made of white clay bricks.

The tall iron fence surrounding the garden was painted in white.

As for the villa, not only the floor was made of white marble, but the nine pillars that could be hardly hold by two arms were carved from white jade. The walls were snow-white, and it was unknown whether they were lacquered in white, or built of white bricks.

The most obvious part in the whole building was the huge white dome.

The boy used to see such a kind of dome on top of a building. That was the cathedral of South Port.

The dome was beautiful but difficult to build, so it was extremely expensive. The rich men in South Port were all calculated merchants, and no one was willing to spend money on it.

Only these noblemen who did not usually visit South Port were interested in domes. It was said that there were several domed buildings in Thethnburg.

The boy guessed what a man it was who lived inside the house and was about to become his boss.

From the looks of it, it was very likely that his new boss was a big figure and an aristocrat of some sort.

The boy got a bit nervous. He tugged at his clothes and straightened up.

The old man pulled a long, bright yellow silk ribbon hung from the door. With a crisp ring, the door opened, and a middle-aged man with a straight face and a waiter bow tie came out.

"Mr. Pym, the master has been waiting in the study. But I guess you haven't had breakfast yet, the master has already instructed me to prepare for you. You should have breakfast at first, and then go to see the master. " As he spoke, the steward led them to the kitchen.

The boy looked around the completely unfamiliar place all the way.

It was luxurious and elegant, and the master evidently did not want to show off, so there was no fancy upholstery and exquisite furnitures like those in the houses of most rich men in South Port.

But the whole building itself was a masterpiece.

In the eyes of the boy, the whole building was like the precious works of art that came from the far shore across ocean. According to Mr. Madild, only the eastern people know art. They could draw beautiful, unforgettable art treasures with simple lines.

They went into kitchen. It was as same as those of other richmen. Several maids were busy working, and a delicious smell of food permeated in the air. There was a long table in the middle, on which sliced meat, duff and clean vegetables were put.

The steward told the maids to cleared up an open space at the corner of the table.

Around that corner sat the old man, Fabia, and the boy.

The maids took the dished out of the steaming steamer.

"I don't know when you'll be here, so I've told them to get the food ready. It's hot in the steamer. It may taste not as good as the fresh food, but I think it's a worthy loss rather than making the master wait too long." the steward said.

Fabian had not any dissatisfaction when the first dish was served. It was a golden baked tuna covered with onions and peppers. In addition, there were a portion of mushroom grilled quail for everyone, as well as his favorite ham and egg. It was no inferior to the celebratory dinner he'd been given on the day he got out of prison.

Fabian enjoyed it and was fully satisfied.

The boy was obviously too nervous to have appetite for such a delectable meal that he didn't have the chance to eat. He ate a little with a flourish and left the rest to Fabian.

After breakfast, the steward took them to the study. The study was on the second floor, which was connected to the first floor by a spiral red wooden ladder. There were two huge pictures on each side of the study door. The pictures depicted the battle between the Angel of Dawn and Night Demon. On the left was the Night Demon on a moon chariot defeated the Angel of Dawn and banished the angel to the west. On the right was the Angel of Dawn launched a counterattack at dawn and the Great Angel of Light driving the sun chariot tore the Night Demon legion into pieces.

When working in the shop, the boy's favorite was the art that came from the east. Those beautiful paintings had fascinated the boy many many times. and now the boy got the same feeling in front of the two pictures.

As he was immersed in the pictures, the door of the study opened.

The boy followed the old man into the study.

The room was extremely spacious. What shocked the boy was that by the three walls were piles of all sorts of books. A ladder was on the corner.

The bookshelves was big, up to the roof, so it was impossible to reach the top unless with a ladder.

Apart from those tall bookshelves, the most notable thing was the only side that no shelf was placed.

To get in more light, the side was installed a whole piece of glass

The boy had never seen such a large piece of glass. Franco didn't produce glass. Although there were one or two glass workshops, it was impossible to make any glass like that.

Such glass could exclusively be made in Eley and special customized.

However, since glass was quite fragile, transporting such a large piece of glass would be more difficult. The boy even couldn't imagine how much money he would have to pay to merchant for transporting. Without any doubt, it would be much more expensive than the china he had broken.

The boy became more definite that this new boss was an illustrious nobleman.

"This is the glass that the Chief Consul of Eley had given to Palo Cathedral for decorating the tall windows. Because the glass was easily to get broken during transport, so they produced 50 pieces more. Fortunately, there were still more than 20 pieces left in the cathedral when it was completed, so I bought them, because I happened to wanna build a wall like this."

An aged voice sounded from the up, right side of the boy's back just when he was astonished by the window.

Everyone turned back, and got into sight a white-haired, skinny elder man who was climbing down slowly by holding another ladder. Under his arm was two thick books.

The boy watched the elder man carefully, and guessed he was the new boss of his.

Because of the passage of time, the elder man had a wrinkled face and white hair, white hair far more than black hair. A pair of wide gold-rimmed glasses covered his cheekbone. The elder man's hands were thin and dry, full of thick calluses. If only looking at his face and hands, the boy would definitely not take he as a rich man.

In his memory, his former boss, a rich man, would never be as skinny as a branch that had been stripped of its water.

Rich men always knew how to keep healthy, more or less. They would not have such a weather-beaten appearance, even with so many wrinkles on face.

However, the clothes revealed the elder man was quite rich. Like the arrangement of the room, his clothes were definitely superior in quality, fine-worked, simple in style but tasteful, all shipped from Eley. Just the crocodile belt was priceless.

Chapter end