Chapter 30 - Lukas

The day went peacefully, too peaceful for her liking, so went to the butler.

"Give me some work," Reya said.

The butler gave her a sweet grin. "You are our dear guest, my lady. I can't impose of you to," he said.

"No. Give me some work. I don't want to impose on this house owner," she said.

The butler started sweating. "Little Lady, I don't have any appropriate job for you," he said.

"Then shall I clean, I am good at sweeping and cooking," she insisted.

He started sweating even more. After a while, he sighed and nodded his head.

"You could help me cut some vegetable," he said.

"Good, I am a master slicer," Reya said and walked with him.

The kitchen was not that grand, but it looked very clean and pristine.

"Here, peel these," he handed her a pot of potatoes soaking in water. After a quick rise she started pealing them one by one.

It was too quiet so she started chatting with him.

"Mister, you never told us your full name," she said.

"Oh, forgive me, Its Lukas Killian," he said with a soft smile.

"Nice to meet you, Lukas. You know something, you are the only person who makes our stay tolerable," she whispered.

"Oh you shouldn't say so. My young master has a very kind soul," he said, turning back from the stove.

With a small scoff, she went back to her potato pealing job. 'Hump, Kind soul, more likely devil soul,' she thought to herself.

"Are the potatoes done?" he said, bringing a small chopping board.

"Hmm, almost. Just two left," Reya said and started chopping them.

After a moment of silence she whispered the question she was extremely curious about.

"So Lukas, this house, how did it survive the earthquake. Like almost all the sky scrapers came down, but this place does not even have a crack," Reya said, looking up from her chopping board.

Lukas picked up a wok and started adding oil inside. "Hmm, it's because my young master is very brilliant. He anticipated everything when he built this place. Even land stability and seismic activities were analysed before we chose this place," he said.

"What? Who is that meticulous?" she scoffed.

"My master is. He likes thinks to have the less probability of damage. As his exact words 'Less probability More durability,'" he mimicked his voice.

Reya chuckled softly. "I guess he is a nightmare to please when it comes to his food as well," she whispered.

He added the chopped vegetables inside the small wok. "No, surprisingly not. He would eat anything, but there has to be peanut butter for every meal," he said with a grin.

She chopped the potatoes evenly. "Man, how can a person eat so much of it," she whispered.

"There is a funny story to it, actually. My young master when he was born, he was allergic to peanuts. But our young lady loved peanuts so much; she would eat roasted peanuts every day. Clive used to watch her with envy. After he turned eight, he found a way to cure himself. And from then on he has been a peanut butter addict." He said with a chuckle.

"What? I thought he worked in NASA. Is he a doctor as well?" ii whispered in awe.

He turned back from the stove and smirked. "My young master, well he is very peculiar. He can do anything he put his heart to. When he was five years old, he wanted to be an artist, so painted a lot. Let me tell you his painting sold for millions."

"What happened then? He didn't paint?" she whispered.

"No, he got bored with it and started theoretical research on allergies. Well, you know how it went," he said with a proud look.

"Hmm, I guess he is a little awesome. I still hate his guts though," she said and chopped another potato.

"Chopped?" he turned back and asked.

"Hmm done, shall I cut the onions?" she passed the chopping board full of potatoes to him.

"Yeah, cubes please," he said with a beaming smile.

Reya noticed he smiled dazzlingly whenever he talked about Clive; he must have been very loved by this family.

She picked up a giant onion and started pealing it. "Lukas, I am curious though. I didn't see Mr and Mrs. Kooper anywhere," she said.

There was just silent sizzling of vegetable. She gazed up at Lukas. His smile had disappeared and in its place was a deep frown.

'Shit, did I ask smoothing that should not have?' she thought, biting her lips anxiously.

"I am sorry Lukas, I should not have asked. Pease ignore it," she whispered.

"No. No, it's just... it's painful even after so many years," he whispered. "Mr and Mrs. Kooper were kind masters but god took them away too soon..... Young master was just five. He was practically raised my Mark," he said with a sigh.

"Hmm, Mark, ahem, Mr.Kooper is forty-seven years old and Clive is just eighteen. So he is like a father figure to him huh," she whispered.

Even then she found it very weird. There was an age gap of twenty-seven years between them. 'Wow, Mr and Mrs. Kooper were going strong even during their old age,' she thought with a chuckle.