When Baxter and Blair wake up, they
see that they’re a different room with everything colored black and happy/sad
faces moving across almost every surface. The hotel splits apart as it separates
the two from each other.
“Lesson one,” the faces say, “You
must learn to be without the people you trust.”
“Baxter!” Blair yells out while
reaching out to him.
“I’ll be okay, princess! Just make
it through the test! I know you can do it!” Baxter yells out in response.
“You better pass it or I’m really
going to have to slap you when I see you again!”
A face near Baxter and one near
Blair rises up from the ground like a snake and swallows them as it transports
them to their test. Baxter finds himself in the library that’s empty and dark
with the man he saw last night standing above him on the second floor of the library.
All the man’s spiderlike eyes stare at him in complete concentration and blink
in unison. Baxter dusts himself off and stands attentive. The man walks back
and forth a couple of times as Baxter awaits his test.
“My name is Master Oro and I will
be your instructor for today.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Master
Oro. I am at your service,” Baxter says with a bow.
Oro continues to walk back in forth
in silence before saying, “It’s time to test your skills as a servant.”
He claps his hands as tables with
silverware come down from the ceiling along with cases of sculptures, beds,
and furniture.
“What will you have me do, master?”
“Clean it up.”
The sculptures, furniture, beds, tables,
silverware, and books in the library come to life and start dancing and flying around
the library. Baxter hurries and tries to catch and tidy up everything that’s flying
around. He uses different tricks like using the sheets to catch whatever is
flying and the table to block in the sculptures to try to be as efficient as
possible. He keeps moving and moving as fast as he can until Oro claps his
hands again and whatever Baxter hasn’t cleaned up goes back in its proper place.
Whatever doesn’t naturally belong in the library like the bed, sculptures, and
dinner tables go back up to the ceiling and disappear.
“You’re a good servant and a good
boy, Baxter. I’d even call you a man.”
“Thank you, Master Oro. I apologize
for not getting everything in order in time.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.
The test was meant to your ability to adapt to a challenging situation while
staying as organized as possible.”
“Thank you for your approval.”
“You’ve also passed your test when it
comes to serving your master though I must warn you about how close you are to
Princess Blair.”
“What of it?”
“A butler cannot marry a princess even
if they are of a royal line of butlers such as yours.”
“I wasn’t thinking about marrying
her.”
“Now you aren’t. Your parents have
told me your relationship with the princess, and it may hinder her from
marrying true royalty.”
“Excuse me for asking, but why does
it matter?”
“It’s a matter of tradition.”
“Sacred?”
“No.”
“Then it doesn’t matter.”
“I see your point. I was one of the
worst royals in the history of the world, but because I gave myself over to God
at the end of my life, I was given this second chance. The sacred should be
placed over man’s traditions if they conflict, however, this doesn’t no matter
how superficial it seems.”
“Are you sure I’m not actual
royalty? Let me check the files on my family to see.”
“I’ve read your family’s files every
time before one comes to train here. I am certain that your family isn’t true
royalty.”
“Let me take a look just to be
sure.”
“Trust me. I’m telling you the
truth. What reason do I have to deceive you?”
“I’m just going to make sure.
Princess Blair told me to not let other people tell me what to do and push me
around. I might be a butler, but I’m not a pushover.”
“…Go ahead.”
“Thank you, Master Oro.”
Baxter looks through his family’s
files starting from the beginning and finds that it isn’t royalty, however, one
of the members did marry someone who isn’t in their files. He searches the library
and cross-references many files until he finds there was a butler in his family
that was actually a prince who changed his name and appearance and ran away
from his family to be with a maid. Once his evidence has complied, Baxter gives
it to Oro who reviews it and is shocked.
“I forget sometimes that I’m not all-knowing
when it comes to these files. Thank you for the reminder, Baxter. I’ll take
this as a sign of God’s Will to bring two hearts together across man’s
tradition. We’ll have to rethink the way we do things especially when it comes to people falling in love. There doesn’t seem like there’s much for me to teach
you either than the reminder that life never ceases to teach you. You will even
be taught the same lesson multiple times and you will never stop learning. Be faithful
to God and to your masters.”
“Yes, Master Oro. Thank you for
your wisdom.”
“Oh, don’t thank me yet. Princess Blair
is still going through her training and needs you for the last part.”
“I will be there for her. Just send
me right over.”
“Of course, but I must apologize in
advance for what I’m about to do to you.”
“What are you-”
As Oro touches Baxter, his body contorts
as he turns into a monster.
“You will not be in control of
yourself, but you will not do anything too rash. Trust in your princess that
she will do the right thing.”
As Baxter was starting his test,
Blair was stomping on the many happy/sad faces in a ballroom.
“You better not be harming my Baxter!
I’ll beat you up!”
The woman with spiderlike eyes that
Blair saw yesterday comes into the room via the two largest doors.
“Calm yourself, Princess Blair.
Your anger and lack of self-control is your greatest weakness.”
“Mmmm.”
“My name is Mistress Argenta, and I will be your instructor for today.”
Blair reluctantly curtseys for the
sake of the test and says, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mistress Argenta.”
Argenta walks back and forth in
silence for a while as Blair begins to lose her patience and is about to complain,
but then remembers what Argenta just said, so she controls herself and waits
for Argenta to speak. A shadow walks out from behind Argenta and it reveals
itself to be Phillip.
“Hello, Princess Blair.”
“Hello, Prince Phillip.”
“Where’s your servant boy? You seem
so lonely without him.”
“He’s taking his own test. I’m sure
he’ll pass it.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure.
Servants aren’t as competent as us royals. Even though your servant may be a
royal servant, he still isn’t much.”
“I…disagree. He’s more special than
you know. I just know that he’ll succeed.”
“Oh? We’ll know if your crush will
succeed soon enough.”
The shadow of Phillip disappears
back into Argenta. Blair takes a breath of relief before Phillip appears in
front of her in the blink of an eye with a wide grin. She manages to hold her composure
by holding onto her skirt and imagines holding onto Baxter’s hand. Phillip
walks around Blair a couple of times then stops in front of her.
“I almost had you. Maybe you aren’t
as volatile as I thought,” Phillip says before disappearing back into the
ground.
Blair holds her ground in case of
more surprises. She hears the sound of something hitting the ceiling until it
breaks through. This thing happens to be Baxter transformed as a monster. His
face and eyes are elongated, his body, legs, and arms are skinnier, and he has
a strange smile on his face.
“Baxter…What happened to you?!”
“Nothing special. My eyes have just
been opened is all,” Baxter says in a possessed voice.
“What do you mean?”
Baxter walks on all fours as he
approaches Blair.
“My eyes have opened to your abuse.
To your lack of love.”
“What?”
“Isn’t it obvious? All your abuse.
All the times you hit me over and over again. You take pleasure in that. You
take your frustrations out on me because you can’t stand when I’m right.”
“That’s not-”
Baxter lunges forward and almost
hits Blair and smashes the ground behind her with his long arms.
“It is true.”
“…Okay. You’re right. It is true
that I get jealous of you when you’re right, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love
you. I’m still trying to control myself and I regret every single time I hit
you or cause you any kind of pain. I promise to be better because…because I love
you, Baxter.”
Blair kisses Baxter’s face, which turns
him back to normal.
“Huh? What happened?” Baxter says
as Blair hugs him, “Princess? I didn’t hurt you or anything, did I?”
“No, you didn’t.”
A celebration is held for the two
with everyone there including Leighton, Lynette, Phillip, his dad, Oro, and Argenta.
Meanwhile, a letter is sent by Oro and Argenta to their parents to inform them
of Baxter’s true royal family history and to not let the traditions of men be
valued over the bond that God has formed between the two. After resting for the
day, they leave the town via horse-drawn carriage that Baxter is driving with
their luggage.
“So, what do you think our parents
are going to say?” Baxter asks.
“About what?” Blair says.
“About my discovery of my family’s
royal history.”
“I don’t care what they say as long
as we’re together and you better not care either.”
“Yes, princess.”
Blair holds Baxter’s hand and puts
her head on his shoulder.
“Please don’t just call me
princess. Call me Blair or something better.”
“Hmmm. Yes, my love.”
Baxter and Blair kiss as they ride back
to their home with lessons learned and their love finally made official not by
any law of man, but by the Will of God.
The End
No comments:
Post a Comment