Free Web NovelChapter 137: Chapter 137
Louis stomped toward’s Henri door and opened it, ready to berate the Alphas standing on the other side only to pause in surprise when he found it empty. He stepped out still at this, gently closing the door behind him, and walked to the end of either hallway to make sure they were both gone.
"Huh," He mused, more than surprised to find them both gone without him even having to lift a finger.
Louis only returned after making sure they were well and truly gone, returning to Henri’s side to find his friend lost in thought. He was half-lying on the bed with his legs hanging down and staring up blankly at the ceiling.
Louis doubted that he had ever seen Henri look like that, he always seemed to be aware of his surroundings and was always in control. He didn’t bring it up however because it would do no good to dwell on it.
"Ready to go for lunch?" He asked, leaning over him.
Henri blinked out of his daze and sat up, relieved that Louis didn’t bring up the matter of the two in front of his dorm. "Where’s Dio?" He frowned slightly, used to seeing the two together.
Louis sat on the ottoman at the foot of the bed, "He should be here any moment."
Henri did up the buttons on his dress shirt as Louis said this, getting up to pick up his waistcoat.
They did bump into Dio but it was when they were already out of the room, they met him going down the hallway. The three of them continued their journey to the cafeteria for lunch as the dining hall wouldn’t be open for use till dinner.
The three of them sat at a table, not quite expecting the others to join them so they weren’t surprised when they didn’t. Nael and Errol were always in their own little bubble most of the time, and even before Jacques showed up, Audie and Valentin also made a habit of going off on their own.
The conversation at their table was filled with Dio yawning and Louis trying to get him to eat more. Dio turned to Henri out of the blue, his black and green eyes brightening for the first time since lunch began.
"Henri, you know a thing or two about handling estate matters, don’t you?"
Henri blinked in surprise at this, he had been enjoying listening to them fill up the silence, not wanting to speak much himself. "I suppose I do..."
Dio shot to his feet at this and walked around the table to plop right beside Henri, "I’ll be by later to ask for your opinion on a few matters."
Henri looked to him in disbelief, "You brought the papers to school?"
"Well, they weren’t going to straighten themselves out if I left them at the manor." He shrugged helplessly.
Henri couldn’t argue this line of reasoning, "Fine." He agreed grudgingly. ’It was always one thing or the other with these two, if he wasn’t playing love counselor, he was relegated to a secretary, handling estate matters.
"Dio, your food is getting cold," Louis scolded lightly, calling him back to his seat.
Henri hadn’t been able to get any sleep in after separating from the rest earlier and he doubted he would be able to get any after lunch. ’Wasn’t this just wonderful?’
-*-
At dinner time, the group was complete again. They were all able to fill up a table as it seated eight and there were eight of them. With all of them together in such a confined space, having a peaceful dinner was out of the question.
Jacques had sat down in between Errol and Valentin, earning him dark scowls from Nael and Audie. Although both sat on the other side of the brothers, Jacques managed to snag and hold their attention, Nael and Audie weren’t pleased by this.
On the other side of the table, the remaining three were also in a conversation. Well, it was most Louis being the only one at the table to pay attention to the meal while Dio tried to talk shop with Henri.
"Why do I feel like you only remember you have an estate at mealtime?" Henri glowered at the dark-haired Alpha, he was just trying to enjoy his food.
Dio didn’t deny it but at least he stopped trying to talk about it, offering instead to cut the turkey for Henri. To which Henri agreed, relieved that they were finally having dinner-appropriate conversations.
Louis insisted on walking Henri back to his dorm room and for the first time, Henri didn’t protest this. He was well aware that he couldn’t just avoid his problems forever but he was very willing to try.
He had been expecting his room to be crowded on the day of resumption but instead, he ended up alone in the large room, Louis and Dio saying their goodbyes after dropping him off.
For the first time, he admitted to himself that he rather missed the loud company of his friends, and with nothing to do, he decided to tackle his luggage. He had intended to leave it until the very night before the first day of classes thinking he would be too busy to attend to them but now that he had taken to hiding away in his room and his friends no longer swarmed his room to bother him, he found that he had a lot of time on his hands.
The next day was Saturday and other than Dio bringing papers for him to sort out, he realized that he didn’t have much to do. Was this how monotonous and boring the first weekend in Year One was? Or did his meaning of monotonous and boring change over time?
He thought about going horse riding the next day and perked up, thinking he could use the opportunity to search out Tarquin, the senior was always willing to spend some time around horses. Only for his enthusiasm to deflate as he realized that he couldn’t see Tarquin anymore because the Alpha had graduated the year before.
He would still go horse riding anyway, he always rode alone, after all, it was nothing new. Talking about the horse riding club, he had been offered the position of president but had turned it down. He was not interested in taking a leadership position, he was merely there to ride horses and he made that clear.
Someone else was given the position instead, seeing as Seton’s lackeys ditched the club soon after he was dismissed from the academy. This left only Year One students in the club and thus one of them had to be picked for the position of president.
Tarquin was surprisingly fine with anyone taking after him, he would have preferred it to be Henri but he was certain that the Prince would turn down his offer. Seton’s lackeys were gone and they took their negative influence with them so he was no longer worried about the future of the club, confident that any one of the Year One club members could handle the running of the club.
After unpacking his luggage, Henri took a shower and settled into bed. Sleep mercifully came quickly and the rising sun woke him up the next morning. As he got ready for the day, he tried not to think how similar this was to the time he spent at home.
He just had a lot of time on his hand because classes were yet to begin, but by the time the session started off properly, he would be too busy juggling school work, club and other extracurricular activities to be bored. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
He should enjoy this breather he had, he did enjoy it, it was merely ruined by running into a ghost of his past and having to deal with Prince Alexander all at once. For now, he wished that he had something to occupy him, to take his thoughts off them.
He did get something to occupy him, after having breakfast with just Louis and Dio. Both Alphas followed him back to his dorm room which was a pleasant change, he would never plainly tell them but their presence was very welcome at a time like this.
His subtle smile fell off his face when Dio went off to drag in a big bag of files, pulling it into his dorm room and just dumping the pieces of paper on his thick carpet.
"What is that?" Henri asked fearfully although he more or less already knew.
Dio stood proudly with his hands on his waist, "Estate documentation. My useless caretakers knew how to spend money but didn’t care to do the filing, they didn’t even hire someone to get it done."
Louis’ brow furrowed at this, visibly troubled at the very mention of Dio’s previous caretakers. "I’m sure they did that on purpose." He grumbled, settling comfortably on Henri’s bed.
Just as Dio trailed after him as he cleaned and cooked, Louis did the same when it came to filing, he could never wrap his head around it.
Henri just stared blankly at the small mountain of disorganized files, "You didn’t even try to organize them?"
"It wasn’t from a lack of trying, I assure you." Dio defended.
Henri just sighed and stepped forward, scratching off his plans for a peaceful morning ride as he crouched low to get a proper look at the papers.
