Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1262 - 48: Visitors

Chapter 1262: Chapter 48: Visitors

"Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch," another morning had begun, and Pannis, as always, perched atop the metal fence in front of No. 6 Fox Street. He was wrestling fiercely with a pasfruit in his hand while occasionally shaking his head, letting the tiny pom-pom on top of his nightcap sway in the wind. A white fox sat on his shoulder, twisting its head to fixate on the dangling pom-pom in the air, reaching out with its paws now and then to scratch at it. However, each time the fox reached out, Pannis deftly avoided its paws with a well-timed head shake. Undeterred, the little creature kept trying, as if it had found a fascinating new toy, happily purring, clearly in a good mood.

"Scarf, I think you’ve been picking up bad habits from the cats nearby these past few days." Although the young ladies had named the little fox Jessica, Pannis persisted in using nicknames like ’Scarf’ and ’Fox’. This had sparked many a fierce tussle between them. The clever little fox loved to roughhouse with Pannis because, when playing with the girls at home, especially the children, it always had to be careful not to hurt them by accident. Only with Pannis could it bite and claw without holding back. Whether Pannis liked this kind of play was not something the little one considered. But today, the fox had found a new toy and couldn’t care less about Pannis’s nicknames, simply listening to him ramble on, "You’re a fox, you know. If you have to learn, learn from the dogs, chewing on bones, guarding the door; how nice that would be. Why insist on learning from those cats? Even picking up their habit of playing with balls of yarn. Look at you, eating and sleeping all day, then climbing trees to bask in the sun with not a care in the world. It’s truly enviable—no, I mean, it’s infuriating."

The little fox couldn’t even be bothered to howl, just casting a disdainful glance at Pannis and smacking his face a few times with its fluffy tail in reprimand, its attention still focused on the nightcap’s pom-pom, batting at it joyfully.

"Sigh," Pannis sighed, giving up on educating Jessica the little fox about her racial traits. He pulled out another pasfruit, split it in half, stuffed one half into the fox’s mouth, and then began to chew on the other half. Looking down, he said, "And you, do you really plan to keep standing here? You’ve been here for half an hour now. Aren’t you tired? I’ve noticed three of your leg muscles starting to tense up excessively—a sign of fatigue. Don’t you want to rest a bit, or perhaps come in and sit in the living room for a while?"

Pannis’s conversation was obviously not directed at the fox on his shoulder, but at a person in the street below. It was early dawn, and not long after Pannis had settled in his favorite spot, a carriage, dewy from the morning’s mist, slowly approached from afar. The dual-horse carriage looked clean and modest, with only some beautiful patterns for decoration on its black exterior, unlike the carriages of the wealthy, which were often adorned with all kinds of fancy, expensive trinkets. But any real connoisseur could tell at a glance that its material was the Mountain Country’s most prized mountain core wood. Crafted from this wood, the carriage was warm in the winter, breathable in the summer, and constantly exuded the distinctive aroma of mountain core wood, which could last for decades. Because of these properties, mountain core wood was sought after by all nobles and the wealthy. However, given the Mountain Country’s strict control over its production, most people could only afford a few pieces to craft small furniture items, with few having the grandeur to construct spacious carriages from it. The patterns on the carriage were no ordinary ones either—if Vivian were here, she’d probably recognize at first glance that they were the work of pure Forest Mages. Those idle Elves had fused Magic Arrays with artistic carvings, making the pretty patterns actually functional Magic Arrays, each providing protection, shock absorption, and temperature control, ensuring the best safety for the passengers inside.

After the carriage pulled to a stop, the coachman quickly jumped down and opened the door. The passenger, dressed in black formal wear with a top hat, a neat family emblem on his chest, and tidily groomed salt-and-pepper hair stepped out. He wore a monocle over his right eye and carried a gentleman’s cane on his arm. He looked every bit a dignified and polite elderly nobleman. The gentleman stepped down, looking up to nod at the peculiarly behaving Pannis, seemingly unfazed by the sight of him squatting on the fence, as calm as if Pannis were a normal person sitting on a bench resting on the street.

Although the gentleman nodded in greeting, he remained quiet, not uttering a word, nor did he ring the doorbell. Instead, he glanced at his timepiece and, taking a blank envelope from the coachman, stood respectfully outside the gate, waiting for the appropriate moment to visit. Clearly understanding decorum, he knew he had arrived too early to disturb the rest of the household and preferred to wait on the street in silence. Even with someone chattering away to a fox above him, he refrained from looking up carelessly to avoid bothering anyone. Only when Pannis addressed him did the old man lift his head to reveal a standard noble smile, saying softly in a very light voice, "No need, thank you, sir. I’ll just stand here until the ladies come out, so as not to disturb their rest."

"Hmm, then I don’t understand," Pannis said, stroking the fox’s tail. "If you could have waited for them to wake up, why did you bother coming so early?"

"I know Miss Catherine has been quite busy lately, and I was worried that if I came later, she might be out on errands and I wouldn’t be able to deliver the message in person in a timely manner, which could delay my master’s plans," the old gentleman said respectfully. "That’s why I made a special effort to come early, to ensure I could see Miss Catherine."

"Hmm, alright then," Pannis, rubbing his chin and nodding, said, "I get it. It seems Snape must indeed be in the City of Knowledge at the moment. Is he just arriving now, or has he been waiting for Catherine to return?"

"My master has only just arrived not long ago," the old gentleman replied. "Do you recognize my master’s Emblem?"

"Not exactly, but to have a butler like you, who has more of a noble air than most nobles, and can use a carriage to express understated luxury to the fullest, as well as knowing Catherine, I’m afraid there might not be a second one like him in the City of Knowledge," Pannis said, squatting on the fence and propping his chin on his hand. "The most crucial point is, the person who is so urgent he comes by carriage early in the morning to wait at the door, the only one I can think of is Snape."

However, just a few dozen seconds later, Pannis’s expression fell, and he said with a woeful face, "Alright, I was wrong. It turns out there are others who would do the same."

Another carriage appeared at the end of Fox Street in the light of the dawn.