Disclaimer: No Hero and Eclipse Hunter are the intellectual property of Yu Wo.

I suppose that this chapter is set before V3, since Gong Feng Xiang and Curtis Christopher aren't in it. This is also set after V2C2, which introduces Ah Ye's college friends.

The young master burst through the front door, looking quite panicked. Upon seeing me in the living room, his panic seemed to lessen to extreme anxiety.

The young master had arrived home from school approximately eight minutes earlier than usual. Expecting that I had several more minutes of time left, I was caught in the middle of vacuuming the corners of the full-length windows for dust and potential spider webs. I immediately turned off the vacuum cleaner. As the droning hum of the machine faded to silence, the young master blurted out, "My c-classmates asked me to go with t-them at the water park this weekend! What should I do?!"

I set down the vacuum cleaner and motioned towards the sofa. Once the young master had placed his satchel next to the sofa and taken a seat, I sat down as well. With the young master looking at me anxiously, I replied in a soothing tone, "There is no need to become so agitated. You greatly enjoyed the previous time you sang karaoke with your friends, correct?"

The young master nodded uneasily.

I pointed out, "That your friends are willing to ask to spend more time with you means that they greatly enjoy your company as well. Unlike singing, swimming does not require any knowledge of popular trends. You should be able to relax and have fun spending the day with your friends."

Far from appearing reassured, the young master looked even more nervous. After a brief pause, he hesitantly confessed, "I can't swim…"

This fact surprised me. Considering the young master's athleticism, it seemed astounding that he had never learned to swim. But taking into account the young master's unusual weight… It would not be surprising if he immediately sank to the bottom of a swimming pool.

The young master continued, "I don't even have anything to wear to go swimming."

"That is not a problem. If I remember correctly, X-Killer sells swimwear as well. If you have no pressing issues this evening, we can shop for something suitable."

The young master still looked downcast. "I already finished all of the assigned work last week, so I'm not busy. But…" His voice took a defeated tone. "If I can't swim, why should I even buy swimwear?"

"Young Master," I said firmly. "Being unable to swim is not such a large problem. Naturally, there will be people who are unable to swim. Most water parks should have several areas that are suitable for people of any level of swimming ability to play in."

At least, this is what I hoped. Many wealthy people kept private swimming pools. As a result, I had been trained in their upkeep. However, I was not as familiar with public water parks. I had never been to one, as vampires typically do not do much recreational swimming.

Nevertheless, the young master seemed to believe my words and cheered up considerably. "Really?"

I nodded. "You should call your friends to confirm your decision to go with them this weekend."

The young master smiled happily as he hopped off the sofa, saying, "O.K.! After that, we'll wait for the sun to start setting and head over to X-Killer."

He picked up his satchel and walked into the study to make the call. Seeing that, I stood up as well. I carefully placed the vacuum cleaner back into its storage space. I preferred to vacuum while the young master was at school, to avoid the harsh noise of the vacuum cleaner irritating the young master. I picked up a spray bottle and a rag to wipe the window panes instead.

A few minutes later, the young master stuck his head out from the study to ask, "Charles, can you drive?"

I feel like this topic has been discussed before? I was slightly puzzled by the young master's question, but I still promptly responded, "Charles is unable to drive motorcycles."

With his head tilted slightly, the young master asked again, "Can you drive other things besides motorcycles?"

I was still somewhat confused as I replied, "Charles can drive most passenger vehicles. Foreign cars are not an issue." I was unaware that the young master owned other vehicles besides his two motorcycles.

The young master suddenly looked a little embarrassed. "Um… If it isn't too much trouble, could you… Drive my classmates to the water park? There's going to be three of them and me. None of them can drive a car, and they don't have anyone else to drive them. If not, we'll just hire a taxi and pay the fare."

"It is no trouble at all. However, I should warn you that I do not have a driving license. This may cause some issues if we are stopped by the police."

The young master waved it off. "As long as you don't seem to be breaking any laws, they won't bother you too much. They're too busy to chase every traffic violation." He suddenly laughed. "Otherwise, Solitary Butterfly and I would have more speeding tickets than anyone in Sunset City."

I smiled at this as well, but then frowned slightly as I queried, "Your friends will not be uncomfortable riding with someone they have only met once?"

The young master shook his head. "They were the ones to suggest asking in the first place! I offered to drive, but they adamantly said no. They said my motorcycle driving was too crazy already, and didn't want to let me drive an even bigger vehicle."

Remembering my first ever Fearful Motorcycle Ride, I could not help but sympathize with them a little. "Young Master, should I rent a car or ask Mr. Kyle to borrow one?"

The young master thought for a moment before he replied, "Renting a car may be better. If Kyle- gē sent over a car, Abner might just prefer to admire the car than go swimming. Abner likes cars nearly as much as Elian-gē does."

I nodded in comprehension. "In that case, Charles will rent a more typical vehicle."

The young master beamed, "I'll call back and tell them that you agreed."

I parked the rented car near the building the young master's classmates were staying at. Then both the young master and I stepped out of the car and waited in front of the main entrance to the building. Thankfully, in addition to the mostly cloudy sky, there was a tall tree nearby that provided shade from the late morning sun. The large patch of shade allowed me to close the large umbrella I had brought for protection against the sun. Although having a heavy black umbrella out while it wasn't raining would seem suspicious, the old-fashioned clothing I normally wore was likely more suspicious than that.

Aren was the first person to show up at the designated meeting spot. He came out of the main entrance carrying a small waterproof duffel bag on his back. He nodded in greeting, and proceeded to wait silently along with us.

Leanna arrived only a few minutes later. She was dressed in a skirt and a comfortable-looking blouse— clothing that would be easy to change into and out of later. Like Aren, she also carried a bag. Once she reached the place we were waiting, she greeted, "Hello, Aren. Hello, Ah Ye." Then she turned to me and said, "Hello, Charles-gēge. Thank you for agreeing to drive us."

I smiled back at Leanna and replied, "It is no trouble at all. I am more than happy to accompany you."

At that moment, Abner came out of the entrance of the building holding several flat, brightly colored objects. He handed a purple foam kickboard to the young master to hold; passed Abner and Leanna two small, flat yellow objects; and kept the last red object to himself. Once this was all done, he looked at Abner and Leanna and said, "You two work on those." Then he began blowing up the red object.

Leanna and Abner finished blowing up the yellow inflatable armbands first. Abner was not even halfway through with inflating the red inner tube by that time. When Abner proceeded to hand an inflatable armband to the young master, who was still holding on to the kickboard, the young master looked at him in puzzlement.

Leanna also stepped forward to hand her inflatable armband to the young master and explained, "Since you said you couldn't swim, Abner brought out some old things he had to help you stay afloat."

The young master looked slightly surprised, but still accepted the armbands and thanked them.

Abner hurriedly closed the air valve on the inner tube and looked at me, his face nearly as red as the inner tube itself. He asked, "Does Charles-dàgē know how to swim as well?"

I hurriedly shook my head and said, "I am merely your driver. I had no intention of going swimming today."

Leanna looked at the umbrella in my hand and noted, "Charles-gēge certainly doesn't seem to be the type of person who likes getting wet."

To divert attention away from myself, I changed the topic. "Will Ah Ye be fine in the water park? What activities are suitable for a swimmer of his level?"

Considering it seriously, Abner replied, "The water park is obviously designed for children to have fun in it too, so there aren't a lot of areas that require people to be strong swimmers. Ah Ye's also pretty tall, so he'd be able to stand up in most of the pools anyway. The only ones he'd have to worry about are the wave pool, because the waves can knock people off their feet, and the Olympic-size pool they have for lap swimmers. That pool goes from one meter deep on one end to three meters on the other end."

The young master asked in confirmation, "So it'll be O.K. as long as I stay away from those two places?"

"Yup."

At this point, the young master looked slightly mystified, "If I can stand up in most of the areas and if I avoid the Olympic-size and wave pool, why do I need flotation devices?"

"In case you fall into the pools you're supposed to avoid!" After he finished speaking, Abner resumed his efforts to inflate the inner tube.

Leanna checked her watch and frowned. Addressing the group, she said, "We probably should go before the lines to the slides grow too long. Abner, you can finish blowing that up in the car."

I gestured in the direction of the car. "This way please."

I opened the trunk of the car for Leanna and Abner to put their bags in. The young master's own bag, containing his towel, swim shorts, goggles, and a change of clothing were already in the trunk. The young master also placed the inflatable armbands and the purple kickboard into his bag.

Naturally, I sat in the driver's seat of the car. No one seemed to dispute the young master occupying the front seat, presumably because as "brothers," this was considered to be both my car and his. Everyone else sat in the backseat. Leanna and Abner both took window seats, while Aren sat in the middle.

The water park was some distance away, explaining the need for the students to drive rather than walk there. Being a weekend, the roads were not as congested as they would be on a weekday, and the ride was fairly smooth.

"Ah Ye. Here. Take this."

That was Leanna's voice from the backseat. She reached across to the front seat, holding something in her hand. Once the young master had accepted the object, Leanna explained, "Your hair is fairly long, so it'll be more convenient to keep it tied back as you swim."

The young master replied, "Thanks. Don't you usually keep these as spares for Judy and Ingrid? Are they planning on coming later?"

"They already had plans for this morning, so they'll come along later in the afternoon."

At this, I was suddenly reminded of something. "Ah Ye, did you bring along your cell phone today?"

The young master nodded and answered, "It's in my bag, along with everything else."

"When you wish for me to pick you up, please give my cell phone a call."

The tall slides of the water park came into view, and I circled around to find the entrance to the parking lot and to the park. The main entrance to the water park had a long curb in front of it, presumably for visitors who only intended to park for long enough to drop others off. Although the water park was surrounded by a tall fence on all sides, the main entrance was very wide and much of the inside of the park could be seen through the turnstiles. There were already many people in swimsuits walking around and playing in the water. A large number of these people were children, reaffirming Abner's assessment that the park was meant to be safe for people of all ages.

The passengers dismounted and unloaded the trunk. I reminded them to stay safe and they waved me off as I drove away.

It was already several hours past the time I usually retired to my metal cabinet, so I returned home to sleep.

I awoke at four in the evening, as usual. A quick check of my cell phone reassured me that I had not inadvertently missed the young master's call as I slept.

As I freshened up and washed my face, I considered whether or not to go shopping as I normally did. Buying groceries and travelling to and from the market took approximately one hour. If I was at the market when the young master called, it could potentially cause me to be late in picking up the young master and his classmates. I decided to stay at home.

I pulled out the vacuum cleaner to resume cleaning the windows in the living room, since there was not much else to do. This task was finished quickly, as there was not much dust on window frames at all. I vacuumed the rest of the living room, changed the young master's bedding, fluffed the pillows, cleared the lime deposits on all of the water faucets, polished the dining table, ironed both the young master's clothing and my own suits, washed the welcome mat, mopped the kitchen and bathroom floors, restocked the hand soap dispensers, and drank a bag of blood for breakfast.

I was scrubbing the shower stall in the young master's bathroom, marveling once again at how he never seemed to leave a single strand of hair on the drain, when the cell phone sounded in my pocket. Naturally, I immediately picked up.

"Charles speaking."

"It's Ah Ye."

Splashing noises and the happy, giggly screams of children could be heard in the background.

"I thought I would call early since you're probably only returning from the marketplace. We'll be done in around half an hour. Is that O.K. for you to pick us up?"

As the young master finished speaking, a faint whistle and a guff shout for someone to slow down was also transmitted over the phone.

I replied, "It is no problem. Please do not worry about coming out to meet the car on time. Take your time to have fun."

"O.K. See you soon, Charles!" the young master said cheerfully before ending the call.

Half an hour… It would also take some time to drive to the water park, so I probably would only have just enough time to finish scrubbing this shower before having to leave.

Arriving early and seeing neither the young master nor his classmates waiting by the main entrance, I decided to park the car and personally wait in front of the entrance for their arrival.

After carefully scanning the premises, I finally spotted the young master. His silvery hair was still tied back with the hair tie Leanna had lent him, and he held both the kickboard and the inner tube under one arm. He was standing beside the Olympic-size swimming pool. From the way his classmates were standing in the water, it was clear that they were currently on the shallow end of the pool.

The young master began walking alongside the pool, away from his classmates. Once he reached the halfway point between both ends of the pool, he turned around, faced his classmates, and shouted, "Ready? One! Two! Three! Go!"

The other five swimmers took off, racing to reach the other end first.

Following that, the young master glanced down at an object in his hand, and then continued walking alongside the pool, towards the deep end. Once there, he stood still and continuously checked what was likely to be a stopwatch in his hand.

Watching the young master's figure standing beside the poolside, I could not help but wonder if he was cold from being out of the water.

When the young master's friends had swum nearly halfway across the pool, the young master suddenly seemed distracted by something else. He kept looking at a nearby child who was also playing in the Olympic-size pool, and watched his head bob for a few moments.

Then the young master suddenly threw the inner tube over the child's head. It accurately slipped over his head, and the child seemed to make an attempt to grab onto it. The inner tube slid out of his grasp.

Seeing that the child's attempt had failed, the young master directly jumped into the pool, inflatable armbands, stopwatch, kickboard, and all.

That end is three meters deep… And the young master cannot swim.

Discarding the unwieldy, un-aerodynamic umbrella, I dashed towards the young master as fast as I could without using glide steps. There was a vague shout of something like, "STOP!" from behind me, which was presumably because I had not paid admission to the water park. I ignored the cry.

… I saw the child's head resurface, his upper body now supported by a purple kickboard and yellow inflatable armbands.

… The young master's classmates had noticed what had happened, and were frantically trying to make it to the other end to aid their friend.

… There was a sudden lack of friction beneath my feet, and I suddenly faced the blue sky before plunging into cool waters. The shock of it knocked the breath out of me.

My natural buoyancy began to carry me up, and I scrabbled in that direction, desperately needing air. A dark figure suddenly dived in, sending a plume of bubbles through the water. The person grabbed me and hoisted me up to the surface, where I flopped on to one of the lane dividers. This person, a tanned life guard, began scolding me.

"It's unsafe to be running on the pool deck! When you hear a lifeguard yell, 'STOP!' please pay attention!"

As I was still coughing, the lifeguard looked at me with concern. "Can you get out of the pool on your own?"

I ignored her question and responded, "Could you please check if my younger brother is fine? He jumped into the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim." I then pointed to the end of the pool where the young master was somehow holding on to the wall, and reaching towards the child he had rescued earlier. The child was bobbing up and down while clutching to the kickboard, but seemed to be relatively unharmed and his head was out of the water.

The lifeguard's face showed no signs of alarm, as everything on that end of the pool seemed fine, but nonetheless, she turned and told me, "After you climb out, go to the first aid station near the entrance to check that you don't have a concussion," before swimming over to check on the situation.

Letting go of the lane line, I managed to paddle my way across the short distance that separated me from the wall of the pool. As I hauled myself up, I saw Ingrid pushing the child ashore and Judy helping to pull the child out of the pool. Abner was retrieving his red inner tube floating in the water. Aren and Leanna were checking on the young master.

Walking quickly over to them and taking care not to fall in again, I seemed to surprise the group, especially the young master, who was in the middle of talking to the lifeguard. "Charles… Charles- gē! Why are you here so early? And why are you so wet?"

The lifeguard glanced at me and then replied to the young master, "Your big brother fell into the pool. The kid you helped out seems to be fine too."

At the mention of himself, the child's attention was redirected. He stopped watching Judy and Ingrid, who were catching their breath after sprinting the length of the fifty meter pool. The child walked up to the young master and pulled off the loosely-fitting inflatable armbands he was wearing. He placed them on to the kickboard and offered them back to the young master. "Thank you for helping me, mister. You can have your things back now."

The young master smiled back as he accepted them and replied, "You're welcome. You were practicing treading water just now, right? You seemed to be pretty good at it. You'd been going for over two minutes."

The child beamed, "I've been able to go for two minutes for a long time now. I wanted to see how much longer I could tread water for. But when I got tired… The wall was too far away to grab."

The lifeguard frowned at this and asked, "Your parents weren't watching you?"

At this, the child looked slightly embarrassed and admitted, "I'm a strong swimmer, so they usually say it's O.K. for me to go alone."

"I'll still have to take you to the first aid station to check if you're O.K. And I know you won't like this, but… I'll also have to tell your parents what happened to make sure you stay safe next time too," the lifeguard said, seemingly genuinely sorry about this.

Before she left with the child to the first aid station, the lifeguard looked at the young master and then at me and queried, "Do the two of you need to go to the first aid station as well?"

The young master shook his head and I replied politely, "There is no need. The shock of hitting the water had just left me dazed for a moment. My head never hit the floor, so it was nothing as severe as a concussion."

Once the lifeguard left, the young master faced Abner and Leanna and apologized, "I'm sorry. Leanna. Abner. I dropped your stopwatch and hair tie into the pool."

Leanna smiled and told the young master, "A hair tie is no big deal," while Abner dived into the pool. He climbed back out, holding the stopwatch in his hand. Grinning broadly, he stated, "The stopwatch is completely waterproof. Otherwise, I wouldn't have dared to bring it to go swimming. If you had dropped it onto the pool deck before jumping in, it definitely would have been damaged! This way is much better."

It was Judy who finally brought up the oddity in the present situation once more. "Why is Charles-gē here?"

The young master suddenly seemed to realize what my presence indicated. "Ah! We should hurry and change! Charles- gē was supposed to pick us up to go home. Although…" The young master shot a somewhat helpless look at me. "I told him to come in half an hour, and only fifteen minutes have passed since I called."

Leanna responded, "Don't worry. It will take at least ten minutes for us to shower and change." She turned to me and gave an apology, "We'll have to make you wait for a bit longer."

I nodded understandingly. "It is no problem. I will be waiting in the car."

As the group of six walked towards the rented locker area to retrieve their things, I noticed an angry security guard walking briskly towards me. Hoping that the contents of my wallet had not been completely soaked, I tried to see if I had enough to pay for the entry ticket fee.

A/N: If Charles's involvement in Ah Ye's social life seems rather forced, that's because it is. How was I supposed to get a stay-at-home person like Charles to go outside?

The only way I could think of was to make Charles drive everyone over… Even though I was yelling at them to just take the bus to the water park. Wouldn't that have been so much more convenient? (Stranger people than Ah Ye in yellow floaties have been on buses.)

There are also other problems, like how Charles normally shouldn't be out in broad daylight, what lifeguard protocol is, the speech patterns of Ah Ye's friends, and whether it is more effective to use a duster or a vacuum cleaner to clean windows. In other words, a chapter with such huge plot holes shouldn't exist, except for the fact that for several months now, I've wanted Ah Ye to go swimming somehow. And so, this extremely contrived situation was born.

(As for how Ah Ye managed not to stay stuck at the bottom of a pool: He just jumped off the bottom and grabbed the edge of the pool.)

This chapter is about 4.4k words, which is unimaginable for a chapter that involves no plot. Congratulations if you made it through.