Chapter 87 - MORNING WITH ASTRID

"GOOD morning, Master," greeted by a slightly robotic sounding voice.  "It's time to wake up."

Astrid reluctantly opened his eyes.  What he first saw was a small cat that looked like a Russian blue cat.  And yes, that voice just now was from this cat.  It was the housekeeping robot that he and Reas bought the day before yesterday.

How could a robotic cat be a housekeeper you say?  Well, you simply had to connect it to all the electronic cleaning gadgets and it would control it.  You could also connect it to the security system of your place and it would issue an alarm if there's someone trespassing.  That's not all, it would also automatically call the hospital when it found its master to be in a serious health emergency.

He picked this model, not only for its cuteness, but also because it's not that complicated to operate.  And he really didn't want to use the humanoid version.  It just felt weird for him for no reason.  Maybe because they looked all too human.  Having them as a housekeeper would make it feel like he had a human slave.  Which he'd rather not have.

Astrid covered his face with a pillow.  "Let me sleep for a few more minutes."

"But Master, you told me to wake you up exactly at this time.  So, please, wake up.  Or else Xiao Lan will be force to turn on the fire alarm."

Hearing that, Astrid hurriedly sat up.  Then he glanced at the cat sitting comfortably on the side of his bed.  Maybe he shouldn't have told that to Xiao Lan. Then he could have slept more.  Who would have thought that this cat would be too particular with time?

Yes, Xiao Lan was the name he gave to the cat.  It translated to 'little blue' from the language of the country he was born in in his past life.  It's not the most creative of names but it's the name the first came to his mind.  So, he just went with it.

He reluctantly stood up and yawned at the same time.

"Where's my brother?" he asked, seeing that Reas had already folded the mattress the other had been sleeping on.

"Master's brother went out to take a run."

Astrid nodded and went out of the room to make breakfast.  Xiao Lan following behind him.  He took out ingredients from his small pantry and started cooking.  He planned to make a simple congee, fried dumplings, and scallion pancakes.

While cooking, he thought of the reason why he asked Xiao Lan to wake him up this early.  It's nothing special really.  He and Reas were just planning to familiarize themselves with the area around of Redwood Academy.  Which, of course, included the neighborhood where the building of his apartment was located.  Then tomorrow, they'd do the same to the area around the Imperial Military Academy.

They only had about a month before school formally started.  And a week before that, they both had to go to their respective school to get through the registration.  So, it's important that they became familiar with their new environment.

While the rice was steeping, he took out the dumplings that he made last night and started frying them.

It had been three days since that incident at the mall.  So far, that incident hadn't had any negative impact on them.  The only prominent thing that resulted from that was him trending on [Cyberspace].  He even entered the top 50 trending hot topic list.  Which was already a huge feat for someone who's technically just an ordinary citizen.

Astrid actually didn't expect for something like that to happen.  Who would have even thought that a clip of that incident would spread like wildfire through [Cyberspace]?  Judging from the comments, he learned that someone was doing a live broadcast during that incident and they captured the whole thing with his Terminal.  Their viewers then cut off that clip of Astrid.

What amazed him more was the fact that there weren't that much negative opinions about him.  Being an actor in his last life who started at the very bottom, he experienced firsthand how toxic any online communities could be.  People always had something negative to say about everything.  No matter how you looked or how kind you were, there would still be people who would hate you simply because you existed.

Normally, for someone who hadn't made his name yet, having this kind of attention was a natural attraction for sunspots to gather.  So, when he saw that he was trending, he kind of expected that it would be filled with negative comments attacking him.  That's why seeing that the trend was mostly positive, it truly surprised him.

Something like this could only be possible if someone was purposely leading the trend on that positive direction.  The only one he could think of right now that had the means to do that and also had a reason for it was Cassius Grimaldi.

Reading the comments, he saw that not one ever mentioned about Nicol Grimaldi.  Which meant that Cassius Grimaldi had already ordered someone to not let anything that might connect Nicol to the hostage taking incident appear on [Cyberspace].  It was also most likely him who control the trend on the topic about him.  Probably because of the help he and Reas gave to Nicol.

He was not sure why Cassius did that instead of just deleting the topics about him altogether.  Though, honestly speaking, he preferred his approach.  It's good to have his face be introduce to the public.  Who knows, maybe someone would be scouting him soon.  After all, his appearance was considered 'beautiful' in this era.

Astrid finished making breakfast.  And as he put each dish on the table, he heard the sound of the door opening.  He raised his head and saw Reas walking in.

"So, that's why I smelled something delicious."

He smiled when he heard Reas say that.  "Come, let's have breakfast."