It began raining on the drive home. Up ahead, a car and a truck had collided in a traffic accident. It was not very serious, and the two drivers were negotiating in the rain.
With the road temporarily blocked, Kallen stopped to wait and rolled down his window. A few raindrops drifted inside, bringing a cool, refreshing chill into the car.
"We're still a little weak," Kallen said.
"Young master, your progress has already been astonishing."
"It's not enough."
"Young master..."
Kallen raised a hand. "It's all right. I'm just letting my thoughts wander. No need to console me."
"Yes, young master. Actually, I feel much the same. If I could become stronger, stronger still, you would have more room to maneuver when handling things."
"Yes, that's true. If you'd been a stronger version of yourself when we first met, I might not have escaped Miss Molly's mouth. She probably would have bitten my soul to pieces and swallowed it."
"By that reasoning, young master, if I'd been very weak back then, Master Dis might not have thought me worth his attention."
"So we met at just the right time."
"It was fate's arrangement, and your will."
"I still remember meeting you for the first time, in Miss Molly's house. I was sitting beside the bed, and you appeared before me. Oh, right, Mrs. Hughes was about to kill me at the time."
"Actually, I arrived quite early that day. I'd already been standing at the courtyard gate for a while."
"You should have come upstairs sooner. Mrs. Hughes really frightened me back then. But do you know what my first reaction was when I saw you?"
"I don't."
"I thought your outfit was so... [flamboyant]."
Kallen used his original language for the word "flamboyant," because, at that moment, he