I do not own Black Butler

Chapter 22: Same Game, Different Round

Helix- London, England 1888

"I'm sure there was a better way to see who Agni was working for and not follow him into the cold snowy night," I muttered as our little found ourselves near the gate of an estate of a wealthy individual.

Of course my comment went ignored by everyone as Agni entered the estate's grounds.

"This estate belongs to Harold West Jebb. He imports a wide range of goods from India," Ciel said as everyone, but me, peeked around the edge of the stone wall that enclosed to estate to watch Agni. "He also own various stores, coffeehouses and alike. I've met him once. He is disgustingly obsessed with his social status."

"A six letter word for a reason to commit a crime," I muttered as everyone looked at me in confusion. "Motive. Wanting a better social status is a motive for the crime."

Still no one got what I was trying to say.

"Has anyone done crossword puzzles or has the term not become common knowledge yet?" I asked with a sigh.

"People at one of his businesses have been found trussed up and hung upside down," Sebastian said, throwing my theory out of a window. "Mister West happened to be away at the time, however. So fortunately for him, he managed to escape unharmed."

Or not. My theory was still in play, if the butler had even bothered to understand what I meant by motive. Seemingly, West had just set himself up to be the main suspect in that mess because I smelled a set up.

"My, isn't he lucky," Lau said and I wanted to slap him upside the head. He really was oblivious to the real world and people's understand of the real world.

"Shall we have a look?" Ciel asked.

"Indeed," Sebastian said as he picked Ciel up in one arm before leaping over the wall.

"Well, I guess we use the gate," I said to Lau as we took the long way onto the estate. I could have used the crystal, but someone needed to keep an eye on the dopey fool.

We met up with the Earl and the butler standing outside an open door that led to a sitting room where Agni sat on a sofa focusing his attention on a man, who I assumed was West, that was pacing around room.

"Why not relax with a nice scotch; an excellent one from Justerini and Brooks. They hold the royal warrant you know." West said as he attempted to hand the Indian butler a glass of the scotch, but Agni refused to take it. "Our plan has been perfect so far. You have done well for me Agni."

There was the confession I'd waiting for. If only tape recorders existed in this time and accepted in court, then this case would be over as soon as the words left the fool's mouth. Though, that would be a little too easy, especially when it was clear that this was not going to go my way.

"I think we've done all that we need to do," West said as he set the glass down on his desk and picked up a newspaper instead. "Stringing anyone else won't be necessary."

West through the paper on the couch.

"With that blessed hand of yours, the royal warrant may as already be in my pocket."

"A royal warrant. That's what this is?" Ciel muttered.

"Definitely have motive," I said with a sigh as I leaned against a door frame. "Though why Agni is involved is still not all clear."

"If I carry out the plan, as promised, then Mina…" Agni said.

I didn't get to hear the rest because Soma choose that moment to burst into the room.

"Where's Mina?!" the prince demanded.

"What the…?" West said surprised to see the prince.

"My Prince," Agni said as he stood up and I started to softly bang my head against the nearest wall. Next to me I heard Ciel gasp and I looked over in time to see Sebastian holding the Earl back.

"West is almost certain to recognize us, my lord. We must stay back," the butler whispered.

"But he doesn't know me and I promised him he would regret doing something stupid." I muttered as I glared at the fool in question

Soma stepped forward and grabbed the collar of Agni's shirt with both hands. "What is this?! You have known where Mina was along, Agni?!"

"I see," West said as he came out of his shock. "This intrusive young man is your master."

Soma pushed Agni away from himself, before turning towards West.

"Are you the man who took Mina away?!" Soma asked before turning to face Agni again. "Get him! Do you hear me?!"

"What are you waiting for?!" Soma shouted when he noticed Agni's hesitation.

I sighed as I tried to quickly come up with a plan to keep the fool from exposing all of us.

"Let's grab that idiot prince and get out of here, right now," Ciel muttered.

"Yeah, but nothing is that simple, unfortunately," I said with a sigh. "Or it would have been done already."

"Miss Helix is right. Besides, West will recognize you as soon as you walk in," Lau said as he restated the warning that Sebastian had said moments before.

Maybe the fool had a little bit of brains left in his head than I had been giving him credit for.

The moment Sebastian said "I'll take care of it," a pit of dread settled filled my stomach. The butler seemed to think that he was smarter than he actually was at times, actually it was all the time.

"Well Agni, are you going to take care of this brat for me?" West asked as I tried to come up with a contingency plan. the only thing I could come up with was to use a spell to blind the two adversaries before forcefully dragging Soma out of the room by his shirt collar.

"This brat?" Soma asked already confused as Agni clenched his fists in distress.

"Well?" West asked as he grinned widely. It was he knew he had the upper hand in that matter.

"Agni?" Soma asked as Agni moved to strike the prince. It was obvious that Soma didn't understand that Agni was not on his side any longer and that the idiot needed to move to live to see another day.

Sebastian ended up blocking the strike while...wearing a...deer head?

"Deer?" Agni muttered as he tried to comprehend what the heck was going on.

"A deer man? What's going on here?!" West shouted as he appeared to be having a conniption.

"Yes, thank you for stating the obvious. I am a deer," Sebastian said with a bow as I struggled to hold in my laughter. "I have come for the prince."

"He's a foreign spy," West said, recovering from his initial shock. "Get Him!"

"Hmm?" Sebastian said not taking the threat very seriously. "No. I am simply one hell of a deer…"

"Kill him!" West shouted when Agni hesitated. "Do something or our agreement is over! Now!"

Agreement, now that was what West had used to gain control of the bodyguard to gain the upper hand.

"Since I was reborn, I have had only one god and master," Agni muttered as he clenched his fist and bloody tears fell from his eyes. "I vowed that I would never swing my fist for anyone, but him. I am guilty of betraying that vow. Please forgive me."

"Don't do it," Soma begged as Sebastian straightened up from his vow and pulled his gloves further up his hand. "Agni."

Agni took the wrapping off of his hand as it began to glow purple and his eyes turned white. then he lunged at Sebastian, but missed. the floor was the first casualty among the items in West's manor in the fight as Sebastian dodged Agni's every move.

West screamed as his possessions were destroyed due to his orders. "The crystal glasses I bought at Thomas Gordon do you know how much…!"

I quietly laughed as Ciel, Lau and I watched the commotion.

"Oh, oh sounds like trouble. Perhaps we should leave now," Lau said before picking Ciel up off the ground. "Come my lord, it's time to go."

"Hey, we're drawing too much attention! Grab the kid and get out of here!" Ciel shouted before Lau carried him away.

I heard Sebastian reply as I followed after Lau and Ciel.

It took about a half an hour before we were at the townhouse in one of the sitting rooms. Soma, Ciel and Lau were all sitting around the table as I casually leaned against the way trying to determine how I was going to fillet the prince for breaking his promise to not overreact.

"With that kind of punch, this fellow is no ordinary human being," Lau said as Sebastian served tea to them.

I snorted as I started to come out of my scheming. "You just came to the conclusion that all of us knew since the duel this morning. Moron."

I heard Sebastian chuckle as he gathered the cream and sugar to go with the tea.

"It's a mental technique he uses call semde. When he gets like that, no one can touch him," Soma clarified.

"Never heard of it," Ciel said before taking a sip of his tea.

"I imagine that it is some type of trance," Sebastian said with confidence. Apparently he did a bit of studying while tailing Soma's bodyguard. "Agni has absolute faith in his master. Consequently, from that faith, he's able to produce super human powers. his skills are born of something we can never understand, the power of complete love and trust in another person."

"If you fail to open yourself up to it then, it is something that you can never understand," I muttered under my breath as I began to play with one of my knives just for something to do.

"But this betrayal! Why did he do it?!" Soma shouted as he threw his arms into the air in confusion.

I frowned. If Sebastian was right about the source of Agni's power then how could he still be able to use that power when he betrayed his master?

"Why do the people closest to me always have to leave?!" the prince shouted as he stood up and sent the tea set flying across the room.

I cringed at the sound of the china breaking as it hit the floor and created a massive mess. I was not going to be the one cleaning that up.

"Oh, just look at the Haviland Tea set I ordered. So well suited for my master," Sebastian said as he surveyed the damage. "Children. It seems that this one in particular will require some personal disciplining."

"Oh now you want to do something about the fool," I snapped earning gasps from Lau and Ciel. "He's been a pain since the moment he showed up here, yet no one wanted to kick the nuisance out."

I stormed off, fed up with the games the butler was playing. He truly didn't care about the lives or emotional health of anyone involved in his little game except that of his contract. He just enjoyed toying with people and I was going to put an end to his most recent game. The brat was getting dealt with that night, if I had anything to say about it.

I waited till I was sure the fool was asleep before putting my plan into action. Though as I approached the room, I noticed that I wasn't the only one who had the same idea.

"Well, well, finally decided that you have had enough of his attitude, Sebastian?" I asked as I approached the closed door of the room that Soma was staying in and noticed Sebastian standing in the shadows next to it.

I earned a glare from the butler.

"What do you want, Miss Helix," He asked with a sigh.

"What do you think I'm here for?" I restored with a smirk.

If the butler rolled his eyes, I'm sure he would have the moment that he realized that I was up to no do. Even with my wounds, I was limited on what I could do, the adrenaline flowing through my system made me feel like I could do anything.

A dog barked in the distance as I reached to open the door.

"I do have a threat to make good on after all," I said before I entered the room.

The butler didn't answer as I got into position for my opening act. With a sharp yank, I pulled the sheet out from around Soma, causing the prince to fall to the floor in the process.

"You careless pig!" Soma shouted.

"Really? Me a careless pig. The only one here that should be caused that is you," I said with a wicked grin as Soma gasped the moment he noticed me in the room. "You have been taking in our hospitality without so much as a thanks and yet you still want more than what we have been offering you. When I made you promise to not react foolishly to bad news, you did anyway. In layman's terms you are a nuisance."

"You are a helpless child who can do nothing without Agni at his side, but now your pillar of strength has left you," Sebastian said as he entered into the room with his eyes glowing fuchsia.

Why did he have to interrupt my little game? I thought he was going to stay out of it after my warning.

"The pillar of strength that gave you the courage needed to face the world and the muscle to ensure that your needs tower above everyone else's is gone and you are own your own to face reality for once," I said as I glared at the butler. "He was clearly one of the few that looked past your flaws and cared about you, if the way you act towards others is any indication."

"You're right," Soma said dejectedly. " I have lost everyone now. Everyone who mattered to me."

"Lost?" Sebastian chuckled clearly not taking my hint. "You're more of a child than I thought. You haven't lost anything, prince. Don't you understand? You cannot have lost what you never had to begin with. Satus from your parents. Never before in your life has anything actually belonged to you. Isn't that right?"

"It's not," He denied.

"But it is," I said. "Everything you had you were given and you had to earn none of it through hard work and determination."

"Some part of you must have known the truth about Agni. But you were too much of a coward to face the truth, weren't you?" Sebastian asked egg the teen on.

I sighed as I leaned against a wall and cleaned under my nails with a pocket knife. The butler was clearly not going to back down. He could steal my show now, but I was going to make him pay for it later. After all, revenge gets sweeter with time, well a week's worth of time anyway.

"You're wrong!" Soma repeated several times as he tried to reach the door that I closed in his face with my powers.

"You know I'm not wrong. You're finally seeking the truth and now you want to play the tragic hero. What a hopelessly pathetic brat you are."

Soma fell to the ground sobbing. "They said they would be with me forever."

I laughed as I moved away from the wall towards the brat. "Consider all of this as a wake up call. Promises get broken all the time here in the real world, but you of course won't know that since you've been sheltered for so long. When someone gets nothing out of a deal they tend to break their word and leave."

"That is something most three year olds understand," Sebastian said cruelly as he added to my remark. "Time to face the facts, nobody ever loved you."

Well that went far beyond the point that I was trying to make. I was going to just kick the fool out of the townhouse, if he didn't run out of there first.

"That's enough of that," Ciel said reining in his butler as I noticed the earl standing in the shadowy open doorway that I had closed just moments earlier.

"Master?" Sebastian asked.

"About time you showed up," I muttered.

"Who knows, I could easily have ended up the same as him, if it hadn't been for that month," Ciel said casually.

"What are you talking about?" Soma asked as he looked at Ciel in confusion.

"My family," Ciel started. "They were killed and my home was burned down. I was treated worse than you would treat any animal. I was helpless, just a child, but I came back to make the people, who did all that to me, suffer the same humiliation. And I will find them. My parents were killed for a reason. If I remain the family head and make myself a nuisance to the people who hurt them, they'll target me. That's what I'm waiting for. Some day they'll come to to take my life too."

I sighed as all the pieces of started to come together for me and I found myself staring at a clear image of Ciel's life. He had been desperate and craving revenge when he met Sebastian, no doubt after the earl had been tourchered. In fact, Ciel's desperation is probably what drew Sebastian to him. The deal that had been struck was all about revenge. It was a sad existence for a boy that young to know that he was shortly going to die, but it had been his choice. There was nothing I could do to change that nor the consequences that were coming his way because of that choice.

"But why? Why do it?" Soma said not seeing the connection that I did.

"Because the alternative is grief and melancholy. If I stand still, then I might as well be dead with them. But I'm alive and still standing, moving on my own two feet," Ciel clarified. "I'm going to die someday and I'd rather go without regrets. I'm not going to pretend that I'm doing anything noble, this is no grand revenge."

I snorted in laughter. From my perspective, it was a grand revenge since he made a deal with the demon to get it.

"It's just a game. I'm waiting to see who wins. However far I've fallen, as long as their is so much as a thread left, I'll use it to climb. I'll take hold of it and refuse to give up. I'm still human, I can do that much," Ciel finished clearly not having noticed my laughter.

Soma gasped as he stared at the earl in shock.

"But every person must decide on his own whether or not to grab it. Enough of this idle talk. Sebastian, Helix, we need to talk about West now," Ciel said as he started to leave the room. "Come."

"I'm not a dog, but it's nice you decided to include me for once," I muttered. "Though I thought you were trying to keep me from doing anything until I was healed."

"Yes that was the plan," Sebastian said to Ciel as he glared at me. "Thank you for reminding me to have a look at your wounds before you retire this evening, Miss Helix."

"If I don't decide to go back to the office to catch a few z's you mean," I retorted as I scowled at both of them while following them down the hallway.

"Shut up you two," Ciel said with a sigh.

"Yes, young master," Sebastian replies as I rolled my eyes.

"Ciel!" Soma shouted causing our little group to stop and turn to face the troublesome prince.

"I am seventeen, but you are right. Compared to you, I am still only a child. I'm nothing more than a spoiled brat," the prince admitted as tears started to run down his check. "I know there was something that had bothering Agni. But I did not bother to ask, did I? Now I want to know. I want to see them in persona and ask why they left me. I'm begging you. Let me come!"

"You say you want to know the truth, but the last time you threw a tantrum when the truth was pointed out to you. How do I know you are not going to that again? Until I get that guarantee, I don't want to even hear of you tagging along," I hissed.

"No," Ciel said answering the prince's request. "You're a naive idiot. I don't want to chaperon you. Of course, it's not like I'm going to go through the trouble of locking you in here."

I was very tempted to throw one of my knives at the earl's head. I know that I had taught him that someone like Soma was a liability that was too dangerous to exist in a fight and yet he was practically inviting the prince to tag along! The fool was going to cause more trouble than he already had before the end of this, that was a guarantee.

"Thank you," Soma said as he ran up and hugged Ciel from behind.

"Get off!" Ciel shouted.

Soma reluctantly let go.

"I'm sorry I lost my temper earlier and destroyed your tea set. Please, forgive me," Soma said before hiding behind Ciel when he noticed the butler standing right behind him. "Oh yeah, you too. I'm very sorry."

I sighed as I began to walk away from the group and head for a sitting room. There were no apologies coming to me, there never was any.

A few minutes later, Sebastian was pouring more tea as everyone took their same places in the same room that we'd all been in hours before when Soma had thrown his tantrum. The only difference was that this time I was seated at the table with the earl, Lau and Soma.

"I did not realize West was after a royal warrant. Though given his obsession with status, it does make sense," Ciel said as he started at everyone around the table.

"An obvious motive, but he has been very clever in covering his tracks," I said as Sebastian placed a cup of tea in front of me. "Of course, he's relying on the stupidity of other to get away with his crimes."

"Indeed," Sebastian replied as he placed a cup and saucer in front of Lau and Ciel.

"I was wondering. What exactly is a royal warrant?" Soma asked as he flinched away from Sebastian in fear. The butler smirked at the reaction as he placed a cup of tea in front of the prince.

"It is an endorsement bestowed by the royal family upon their favorite vendors. Royal warrant holders are official purveyors to the crown," Lau calmly explained.

"Yes indeed," Sebastian said as he moved to sand behind Ciel. "And in one week a curry exhibition will be held in the Crystal Palace. I am told, it should be quite the event."

"Curry?" Soma whispered.

"What's more," Sebastian added. "From what I've heard, her majesty, who is widely known to be a lover of curry, will be in attendance that day."

"The day that West will really want to show off to gain an increased status among the nobles," I muttered as I took a sip of my tea while wishing that the English served coffee instead of tea. I was really starting to miss my daily dose of coffee.

"Nothing more than a rumor. Ever since her husband, Prince Albert, passed away, her majesty rarely condescends to make any public appearances," Ciel said as he dismissed Sebastian's comment.

"What do the curry exhibition and the recent string of crimes have to do with each other?" Soma asked as he was still trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together.

"The connection is the curry. It's the specialty at West's coffeehouse," Ciel explained. "If he obtains a royal warrant for his curry, his sales are sure to increase dramatically. My guess is, he was using Agni to target specific men. They were his competition for the curry exhibition. When he hanged the men, he included notes that were insulting to the English. That was done to make it seem as if the attacks were carried out by a bitter Indian. Likely, Mina was West's bait. She's probably the only reason Agni got involved."

Sebastian handed the earl one of the notes from the crime scene as I sighed while pinching the bridge of my nose. As soon as this case was over, I needed to pay Scotland Yard a little visit to smarten them up. If they were letting this slide, then I hated to think what the organization was getting away with that the Yard was not noticing.

"I'm guessing he did it all for you," Ciel said as he slid the note towards Soma. "You worship Kali, a goddess who is depicted with her tongue sticking out. Agni worships you as his god along with Kali. The connection seems obvious."

Slowly, Soma picked the letter up and began to study its contents.

"He clearly signed those letters as a way of apologizing to you," Ciel finished.

"He may have indeed left, but everything he does is still for you. He's a fine butler," Sebastian added as I stared at the butler a little taken back.

"That's odd. I could have just sworn that a compliment fell from your lips," I said before taking a sip of tea. "But that is impossible, seeing how you never compliment anyone for anything. Coming from you, even saying that as a way to comfort someone, sounds odd."

Sebastian glared at me.

"My, my," Lau said as he started to clap his hands. "I do love a happy ending. It looks like everything is wrapped up, no need to get more involved. I'm sure the Yard can handle the rest."

"Wait, No!" Soma shouted as he stood up and slammed the not on to the table.

I sighed. Here we go again.

"There's Agni and Mina. What will happen to them?" Soma asked as I looked at him a bit surprised.

No, temper tantrum. I guess the fool is finally learning a few new tricks.

Lau started laughing at Soma's comment, though I couldn't find anything funny with the statement.

"We know the criminal underworld is not involved in this, which means it has nothing to do with us," Ciel said. I could sense a but in his statement that was going to change up the game.

"You're right...this is my problem," Soma said dejectedly as he crumpled up the note. "I need to be strong and handle it on my own."

"That's the right attitude and affords me the liberty to look after my own agenda," Ciel said causing Soma to gasp.

I smirked. That was a good play on Ciel's part to have the prince realize he needed to go off on his own and then reveal the but.

"I was called into the city during winter for this idiotic case," Ciel said as Soma sat back down in his chair. "I think I deserve to be compensated for the inconvenience don't you?"

I rolled my eyes. If I was compensated for every inconvenience I'd endured on the job then I would be rich.

"Thanks to West's nefarious activities, the competition at the curry exhibition this year will be considerably slimmer than it normally would be. So perhaps the Phantomhive company should enter it's own curry," Ciel said as he began to outline his plan. A craftier plan than an actual all out brawl against Agni, for once. "We would only have to beat West. Then the royal warrant would fall into our hands. I was already considering expanding into the food industry anyway. Winning a royal warrant for our curry would generate some buzz, it would be an excellent way to get started."

"But you only have a week before the contest," Lau said sleepily. "Can you find an adequate chef and gather the equipment in time?"

"I don't think that will be necessary," Ciel said as he looked up at Sebastian. "Isn't that right, Sebastian?"

"If I couldn't make a good curry for my master, then what kind of butler would I be?" the demon asked.

I groaned. We were all in for a long week until someone figured out a decent recipe that wouldn't result in people getting poisoned.

"Impossible," Soma countered. "There is no way you can win. They have Agni cooking for them and his hand was blessed by the goddess Kali."

"And how does that matter in a contest of skill in cooking?" I asked as I glared at the prince, causing him to shrink away from me.

"Ciel, your maid is scary," Soma stuttered.

"I am willing to admit that Agni is a remarkable fighter, but Helix is right. This is a cooking competition not combat," Ciel said, clearly as confused as I was about Soma's words.

"That is what I am saying," Soma explained. "None of you have even glimpsed Agni's true power yet. You don't know real curry, no?"

I had a feeling my headache was only going to get worse. An excellent warrior who was a better chef than a fighter? If that were true it was going make the competition that much worse on the stage at the exhibition to the point where I might want to be somewhere else that day.

"What is real curry?" Ciel asked.

"The key to curry is a mixture of spices. The possibilities are infinite," Soma explained. "Choosing the right one is a very difficult task. It is like trying to find one truth in a vast universe, but Agni can do it. He can bring worlds out of nothing ness. His power is on the same plane as the gods. That is why he is known as the godly right hand of Kali. Never in my life have I tasted a bowl of curry that could even begin to compare to his."

I frowned. So West truely after Agni's strength, but his cooking skills. I was starting to suspect that there was blackmail at play. But what? What was West using that could force Agni to bow to the will of that fool?

"How interesting. Agni's true power is creating the curry of Kali," Lau said before he started laughing at his own pun, one that no one else found funny in the slightest.

"No, it is ironic and strange at the same time," I muttered. What I didn't say out loud was that if the circumstances were different, and he hadn't annoyed me, Agni would make a good aly for the upcoming firestorm that would ignite when the true fight with the organization began over the fate of that portion of history.

"Well, what do you think?" Ciel asked Sebastian, breaking the momentary silence.

"Fascinating, indeed," Sebastian said with a smirk that made me want to sink lower in my chair. "Sounds like a challenge."

Without a word, I left the planning and the room intent on heading back to my room to cast another healing spell on my wounds. I was not going to sit around waiting for my injuries to heal when I had other things that I needed to deal with. One of them was ferreting out the remainder of the Organization's forces and destroying them before they could severely damage the time I was in. The only issue was that I didn't get the chance to use my powers to cast that spell before Sebastian bared into the room.

"Miss Helix," he said as he walked into the room like he owned the place.

I swore under my breath and threw a dagger at his head out of reflex. Couldn't the fool take a hint and quit trying to piss me off by playing pointless games?

The butler easily caught the blade between his index and pointer fingers.

"Save your weapons for a real threat," Sebastian said with a grin as he extended his hand to give the weapon back to me.

"To me, you are a possible threat," I said as I snacthed the knife out from between his fingers before placing it within its sheath. "Now. What are you doing here?!"

"I need to tend to your wounds," he said with a bow.

"As I said before, I do not need your help!" I shouted. "Besides, don't you have some curry to make, or something."

Sebastian started to mutter something in a language I didn't recognize and I began to mentally cuss him out when the world started to go black.

"I see I still have a trick that will work on you when you won't let me help you," I heard him say before I passed out.

The sound of birds chirping, woke me up and through the position of the beams of light, coming through the curtains, I deduced that it was morning. Cursing under my breath, I kicked off the covers to find myself still dressed in yesterday's clothes. The only difference that I noted was that the wrappings on my wounds had been changed. I was some what glad he hadn't decided to do anything else while I was out of it, but I was still not amused by the butler's games.

Quickly, I changed into a clean maid's uniform and marched down to the kitchen intent on killing the butler. I was not going to let him get away with the stunt he had pulled.

"What the heck!" I shouted as I burst into the room, barely noting the rows of post filled with curry.

"Ah, good morning, Miss Helix," Sebastian said calmly as he looked up from the pot he was stirring to look me in the eye.

"You so crossed the line last night, demon," I said as I gathered my energy into a spell that would at the very least knock him across the room, if it didn't knock him out for a couple of hours.

"You made all of these curries yourself?" Soma asked as he walked into the kitchen amazed at the verity he saw.

I scowled as I let my focus dissipate, but not my anger. Why in the world did the Indian have to walk into the room at that precise moment when I was about to take the butler down a few pegs?

"Yes," Sebastian said with a smirk that made me want to beat him up all the more. "You're the only one on the estate who has ever tasted Agni's curry before."

The butler then proceeded to turn his back to me as he began to dish out a bit of curry into a bowl from one of the pots closest to the demon. The butler truly had to not see me as even a mild threat to turn his back to me like that.

"I would like you to perform a taste test for me," Sebastian dais as he handed Soma the bowl of curry. "Which one should we use to defeat your butler?"

"Yes…" Soma said hesitantly, like he wasn't sure that he truly wanted Sebastian to beat Agni. "Okay, I will. If I can repay your kindness by eating curry, I'll eat as much as you want me to."

"Thank you, I appreciate it," Sebastian said.

At that point I was quite sure that there was something wrong with the butler if he was being nice to others.

"I'll deal with you later," I hissed at Sebastian while Soma was distracted, before storming off towards the gardens.

I ended up taking my anger out on several practice dummies I had set up in a deserted portion of the garden trying to sharpen my skills with my sword to give me an edge when I finally dealt with the butler. I did that for the better part of the week all while planning how I was going to get even. My best bet was to set a trap and not face the demon in open combat. But, where was the fun in winning if it didn't end in me beating the show off in a duel?

At the end of the week, I found myself dressed in the best clothes that I had that fit that time period and standing in front of the stage next to Ciel and Lau at the Crystal Palace after putting up a two hour struggle trying to not attend.