"Drip, drip, drip... clack!" Once the retro bamboo water fountain filled with water, it tipped up and down. Then the water flowed down the bamboo tube, repeating the cycle over and over...
The Shinomiya Main House was a cluster of Japanese-style buildings with a distinctly old-fashioned charm. Perhaps out of nostalgia, traces of age could be found everywhere throughout the complex, and the bamboo water fountain mentioned just now was one such example...
Gan'an Shinomiya stood in the corridor, both hands resting on his cane as he faced the courtyard. His narrowed eyes were fixed on the bobbing bamboo water fountain, and he seemed slightly lost in thought.
After a long while, he appeared to come back to himself.
"Heh heh, they say that when people grow old, they start spacing out without realizing it. Looks like I really can't refuse to admit I'm getting old. Heh, heh heh..."
As soon as Gan'an Shinomiya finished speaking, the middle-aged man standing behind him like a butler hurriedly said, "Master is joking again. At a time like this, Master is still—"
"Heh, heh heh..." Before the middle-aged butler could finish, Gan'an Shinomiya smiled and shook his head. "I really am getting old..." As he spoke, he waved a hand.
The gesture startled the butler behind him. Before he could say anything, however, another elderly man dressed as a butler arrived with four or five black-clad guards. The middle-aged butler had yet to understand what was happening when the guards blocked him from behind and moved to take him away. He immediately panicked.
"W-Wait, what are you doing? M-Master, what... what did I do wrong? Don't..."
Gan'an Shinomiya said nothing, but the elderly butler who had just arrived waved at the middle-aged butler and the others, signaling for the black-clad guards to hurry