When the door opened completely, an older man with a newly made fox mask entered. His steps a little too wobbly for your liking. You stand from your seat on the steps and walk over to the little gathered group. Just in case. You also probably needed to talk to more people than just Sir Billiam, Karl, and the butler..

"Ello, me old friend!" The old man exclaims. His voice was a little bit high pitched.. not a pleasant sound mixed with the volume of his voice.

His right hand itches the side of his head and he nods to you all, letting his arm fall back down to his side. His face was completely covered by his mask so you couldn't tell what his expression was under it, but you could probably make a good guess that he was smiling.

"How you doin'?" The man yells louder. Karl grimaced, covering his ears while you winced and covered your own. Even Billiam seemed to already be going deaf, hissing in slight pain.

"Oh god it's an old person." Billiam stresses, a hand dramatically against his chest.

Billiam clears his throat, putting on a facade and greeting the man with a simple 'hello'.

"Excuse me, I am Oliver Arechtenshire Smichalist Cumbucket!" You, Karl, and Sir Billiam eye each other, silently asking if either one of you caught any of that.

"That's.. certainly a long name." You politely try to start a conversation. Oliver gleams at you, "Yes! My name has lasted for centuries, longer than most of my family." He states with his hands on his hips, although his demeanor changed when he realized what he just said. "My family.." He mumbles sadly and looks down at his feet. You look at Karl for help.

"Uh.. how's the.. uh mortgage?" He shrugs, you shake your head. Mentally facepalming. However.. the new conversation starter seemed to do the trick and distract poor Oliver.

"Oh! Now, I'm living in London!" Oliver starts, now looking between you and Karl, "And I don't know either of you so I will explain!" And he does just that, "Which means I've been to London! And I am not old!" He directs the last bit to Billiam who just shrugs it off. "I have a disease." He makes a 'hmph' sound.

"I'm sixty-three, but you can call me seven months." You nod, following along despite this whole conversation being quite awkward. "I like to swim! And partyyyy! And smoke." Karl nods slowly, "Uh-huh." He grins uncomfortably. "My aunt never likes Oliver smoking." He starts to rant. Karl though cuts him off by speaking up again. This causes Oliver to snap out of it and turn to Billiam once more who had been standing there silently watching the three of you.

"Anyway— How you been?!" Oliver shouts again. This time a little too close to Billiam who looked like he might snap.

"As all rich people are, he's been doing great." You answer for him, Oliver backed away from Billiam, turning to you and clapping his hands, "Wonderful! Absolutely splendid! I'm so happy to hear this, Billiam.— Sir Billiam? Was that it? Yeah." He looks over at the mentioned man happily. Oliver sounded overjoyed.

"Yes.. anyway.." Billiam continues, he gave you a very thankful look as he slowly distanced himself away from the older man.

"So to be clear, what is this- this mask?" Karl questions, trying to not interrupt Billiam yet failing to do so. "Wha.." He touches his face as his he forgot it was there, "..It's a masquerade party! It's-It's actually the depiction of a giraffe."

It seems despite his.. seven months? Sixty-three years?.. Of being alive, he did not seem to have learned about different animals.

"Oh it's a giraffe! Cool!" Karl goes along with it, an encouraging tone in his voice. "Best mask I've seen so far." You throw in there, both you and Karl earning grateful noises from the high-pitched man.

"Yeah, that's nice.. That's nice." Billiam seemed to be losing interest in this conversation already. It was starting to become easy to pick up on his social cues.

"Just a little colorblind.. and shape blind.." Oliver pouts as he lists the two issues. Karl and you both give him a sympathetic look. In all honesty, the man's life must be a tough one to live.

"That's the first thing I thought of when I saw your mask— a giraffe." Billiam assures, he finally indulges into the conversation. He seemed to have collected himself.

Oliver shouts in glee, cheerfully hopping around a bit. You're a little surprised he's able to do that at his age. Billiam seemed to be as well, considering how he slightly tilted his head in confusion at the man's actions. Karl on the other hand seemed just as excited as Oliver was, a big grin on his face as he watched the other.

"We seemed to have not gotten the memo with the animal masks." Karl nudges you with his elbow, comparing both of your masks to Oliver's and Billiam's. The latter's looked like a normal mask but you just didn't bother to ask what he meant.

Oliver stutters for a good twenty seconds before he finally is able to form a coherent sentence, "Anyway- where's the other peoples?" Oliver looked around curiously, noticing the lack of guests. Karl shrugs in response even though the question wasn't directed to him.

"Ah, yes. That's what I want to know as well. I don't want to look at you anymore." Sir Billiam responds with his expression repulsed, hands crossed behind his back and posture straight. "That's a little straightforward." You mumble to yourself, although Sir Billiam seemed to have heard it. He tilts his head toward you slightly so he makes sure you hear him, his voice low, "How else will you get people to leave you alone?" Is his final response before he straightens again.

"Is he not rich?" Karl asks, looking over at Sir Billiam who goes into a brief silence, hands moving as if weighing different objects, "Ehhhhh..." You look at Oliver when he starts making upset noises to himself.

"Oh.." Karl says lowly. "Yeah.." Billiam sighs, "He's only a multi-millionaire. Barely rich." Karl makes a small affirming hum, agreeing with the man's words. At this point you were going to go crazy. A multi-millionaire is really rich. Despite not being as rich as Sir Billiam, it's still a very wealthy title to own.

"He streams on twitch." Billiam nods affirmatively at Karl's assumption, "Yes.. it's the upper-middle class. Y'know? It's a technicality."

You notice Karl frantically look between the door and then at Billiam. "Psst. Excuse me, Billiam." He whispers, you can't hear much of their conversation after Karl pulls him aside for a moment. Although, he did motion to the wide-open door.

"What's your name again?" You're able to hear Billiam speak to Karl. The latter responding with his name and Billiam nodding with a small 'Okay', actually attempting to remember it. He then looks over at you, "And what was yours?" He asks, voice returning to normal instead of a hushed murmur. "Y/n." He nods contently with the new information, "Lovely." He then takes a few steps forward when he looks up suddenly.

That's when you watch a man stroll inside with confident strides towards Sir Billiam. His footsteps hitting the floor loudly, turning soft once his dress shoes hit the red carpet.

"Hello, who is this?" Billiam questions the new unknown man. "Why hello." The man greets politely, his voice having a bit of a posh accent to it, "It is I, Lord Sebastian."

Sir Billiam's lips upturned into a pleased yet thin smile, "Oh, hello Lord Sebastian. Welcome to my humble estate." He says kindly, he must've been pretty happy to hearing the man say his title.

"Ahem! Suck up." Karl fake coughs and mutters under his breath, snickering. He quickly goes quiet though at the side-eyed glare he receives from Sir Billiam.

"Well.. your help looks a lot different from the last time I was here." He gestures to Karl. You huff a laugh.

What is this now? The second time he's been assumed as a.. how did Sir Billiam put it? Commoner?

Sir Billiam laughs and strolls forward, "This is not a butler," He gestures to Karl with his left hand, "He's a.." His voice lowers into a whisper, "Minecraft streamer." He accentuates.

Lord Sebastian straightens, a surprised noise leaving his mouth. "Ooh! Very wealthy! I see, I see!" Karl nods excitedly, happy that Sebastian had caught on, "Yes!"

"It's because of all the prime subs that people can actually do for free if they click the subscribe button!" Karl states happily, "True!" Billiam adds. You just nod, agreeing with the other two.

"Nice to meet you, nice to meet you!" Sebastian bows to him. He does the same to you when he finally notices your presence. Although, he's a bit more formal with you, grabbing your hand and kissing your knuckles. You smile at him, him doing the same to you as he straightened up.

"It's a very lucrative business." You look over at Billiam whose shoulders were very tense as he spoke. Although, you couldn't fathom why. You thought he liked the man, he had a title after all.

Karl gave Lord Sebastian a piece of gold, who marveled at him, pleasantly surprised. Oliver begged for some too, to which Karl gave some to him as well. Causing you to slip the man some as well.

"I was just giving Billiam some gold here earlier." Karl said confidently, obviously trying to impress everyone. "What are you on about?" You lean over to him, whispering. He just simply grins at you. "If we impress these guys, maybe we'll make a good impression. Maybe Billiam will give us more gold, y'know?" He nudged you with his elbow.

"..That's not how I remember it but very well." Billiam spoke and started to walk off, "Also, it's Sir Billiam." He corrects Karl's earlier words.

You follow him down the short hallway without him needing to say anything. Although, he had to speak up moments later since he noticed everyone else didn't follow him. Karl, Oliver, and Sebastian still stood near the front door.

"Alright everyone. Come to a slightly larger room." He motions to follow him past the double doors into the ballroom and bar.

Karl laughs as he jogs over to catch up to you and Sir Billiam's paces.

Oliver and Sebastian simply walk their way over, albeit a lot slower than Karl.

"And thus we shall!" Oliver cheers as you all enter the larger room.

"Is this everybody?" You ask, looking around at the small group. Billiam spares you a glance at your question.

"Uh- no. I think there are others," He pondered, looking slightly unsure of himself as he looked at all of you, "I have at least three friends.. allegedly.." You laugh quietly at the last part of his words.

Unfortunately that sentence was a little too relatable. You look at Karl as you think. He just waves at you excitedly, even though he's standing right next to you.

You wave back at him anyway.

"Okay.. that's good." Karl nervously chuckles, scratching his head as he glanced around the room.

Oliver makes some random noises as you all conversed, ones you'd compare to sounds a baby would make.

"Oh!" Karl yells, startling you slightly as your ear rings from the shout in your ear.

You give him a frustrated look, him giving you an apologetic smile in return. He then pointed towards the still open double doors at the approaching man visible at the front door.

All of you followed the direction his finger pointed to, some of you surprised that another person had already arrived so quick. Everyone instantly started chatting up again, wondering who was suddenly coming into the house.

Sir Billiam enters your view, exiting through the double doors as he cleared his throat and brushed his hands on his pants, ready to greet the new man.

"Over here! Hello?" Karl shouts and waves his arms, his voice echoing off the manor's walls. "Hey!" You yell and wave, joining in on Karl's antics.

"Hello, sir! Who is this?" Sir Billiam peers at the man curiously, "I cannot tell who it is under the mask."

"H-hello?" The man looked at you all curiously, his gaze lingering on Karl for a beat too long. You all greet him in return with simple 'hello's' as well.

"Uh- I'm James." Billiam smiled in recognition, "Ah! James! It's good to see you again!" James nodded, as if to say it was good to see him too.

"My old friend!" Billiam grinned, "How's the business?" He started. Tone interested and hands clasped behind his back as he looked at the other man for a response. It stayed silent for a good few seconds, "It-.." James shook his head, unable to find the right words.

"Hows the wife?" Billiam changed the topic, his smile now awkward. "D-divorced." You grimace as Karl lets out a quiet surprised laugh. He shifted from one foot to the other, clearly uncomfortable in the current atmosphere.

"Hows the family?" Billiam once more asked, his smile strained and barely a smile anymore. You huff at him still attempting to converse with his friend. James seemed to be in a rough time of his life.

"Gone." He answered quick, no hesitation this time. His face was twisted sadly, pain evident on his face from all the asked questions.

It was another moment of silence, quiet sounds from everyone slipping from time to time. "James?" Karl asked, unable to look at the other man's expression because of the mask.

"..It's hard to talk to you." Billiam stressed, a slight huff of laughter escaping him at the end of his sentence. It slightly lightened the mood, causing Karl to laugh aloud. You snicker, although a bit quieter and less obvious.

"It is very difficult to talk to you, James." Said man simply patted his friends shoulder, leaning towards his ear to ask a question, you heard him say something about alcohol. Ah, a coping mechanism. A bad one at that. Your lips downturn, feeling bad for him.

"Oh! Yes, we have alcohol." Billiam quickly confirms, snapping his fingers and looking around the room, "Butler! BUTLER!" He hollers as James asks where the butler is, he sounded noticeably impatient.

The butler jumps down from the second floor, suddenly appearing in the middle of the room and startling everyone. All of you except for James and Billiam let out yelps of surprise at the butler's sudden appearance. You're surprised he didn't break anything.

James is quickly handed a glass of wine by the finely dressed servant.

"Hey, that one was a little bit quicker!" Karl says impressed. "It really was, wasn't it?" You add, also impressed with the man's quick timing.

"That- that was decent butler," Billiam praises, "You get food this week, I take back your earlier punishment." The butler nods happily.

"Alright butler, get out of here. I don't want to see you." The rich man in front of you sounded more calm than his usual yelling towards him. He seemed a bit more relaxed, less embarrassed of the butler now with his decent timing. You suspect Billiam is quickly embarrassed when his butler is late or anything of the sort when he has friends around. Or whenever he's hosting something.

The butler quickly runs up the stairs, leaving with a slightly visible smile, obviously proud of himself.

You smile as well, to yourself mainly. But it's nice to see the poor guy happy.

James takes a loud sip of wine, a hum of satisfaction escaping him.

"I-I like your clearly built body." Karl compliments James, stuttering a bit. He looked slightly flustered and they stood a little too close together. You grin and Karl notices the look on your face, glaring at you a little bit and making a 'shoo' motion with his hand. You put your hands up in mock surrender, but his attention is already back onto James.

You can hear them talking behind you as you turn your back to leave them alone and walk away. Instead, you move to stand next to Billiam. Oliver and Sebastian were deep in conversation about something a little away from you so that left the rich man and you to stand by yourselves.

Billiam lets out a sigh, tilting his head slightly to look at you and gestures to the book still in your arms. "You haven't gotten a chance to read your book yet, no?" You look at him, "Unfortunately no. We've been talking with people for quite a while." Billiam nods, "Perhaps you could join me later tonight in the library. I need to catch up on some of my own reading anyway." You nod, accepting his offer.

"Do you know how many more people are coming?" You pick at your nails, getting a little bored of just standing here and meeting people.

He shakes his head, "Not quite. I invited a few people, but not some I'm familiar with. You and.. Carol? Car— Karl? For instance." He stumbles on your friend's name. You chuckle and nod when he looks to you for confirmation as he pronounces Karl's name.

"I've been meaning to ask, is it Karl with a C or a K or.. what?" The rich man asks with a curious expression, a question he's had on his mind for a while.

"With a K." You shrug, "His name is simple, but you never know which letter it is unless it's written out." Billiam nods, agreeing with you. "I find things easier when it's on paper. It just makes it a lot less complex."

You open your mouth to speak again when Karl interrupts you unintentionally.

A glass shattering on the floor causes everyone to look at the source of the noise. Karl winces, staring at the now broken wine glass on the floor.

"..Oops..?" He shrugs, glancing around at the people staring at him. You let out an exasperated sigh, as does Billiam.

"It's fine," Billiam waves a hand at him, "The butler will handle this," Billiam clears his throat, hand at his mouth yet he lowers it back to his side when he yells, "Butler!" The butler appears quicker than the last time which you didn't think was even possible, "There is trash on the floor!" Billiam points to the glistening broken glass shards. The butler gets to it and cleans the glass up quickly, making sure there was no longer any glass left on the ground. And without anyone having to say anything this time, the butler left with the shattered pieces of the wine glass.

"Now that was good service. Just instantly gone. Don't have to look at him. It's like he wasn't even there." There are noises of everyone in the room agreeing.

You look over at Karl, sighing when you already see what he's up to. He's a little too careless for your liking.

"This piano is gorgeous." Karl states, leaning over the opened bit of the piano, where the keys were peaking out.

"Oh god." You mumble, rubbing your hands down your face. You hear a light chuckle, now able to tell it was from Billiam.

You flinch at Karl's loud scream. You hear gasps around the room as your companion gets stuck in the piano. Billiam simply cracks his knuckles, giving you a mischievous smile as he takes a few steps forward and sits down on the bench in front of the piano where your friend was currently trapped.

Karl looks at him, almost begging to not do what everyone knew he was thinking.

Billiam ignored the look, starting to hit the keys. "Da da da da da da!" He jokingly sings.

Karl looked uncomfortable at the keys hitting different parts of his body. He didn't seem pained though so you supposed it was okay.

Despite that, you walk over to the piano as Billiam stops playing and you help your friend out of the piano.

"What have I walked into here?" A woman's voice suddenly exclaims with a smile on her face.

Everyone turns towards the source of the voice, realizing a woman had walked into the manor. Also dressed for the masquerade.

"Why hello!" Sir Billiam greets, bowing to her as she curtsies.

Karl looked at her and nudged you, "She's so pretty." He states, you nod in agreement. She looked more than pretty though. She looked absolutely ravishing. The light blue and white dress and masquerade mask really complimented her features. Including her hair, eyes, and skin. Very stunning.

"Hello, Sir Billiam!" The woman says happily, clapping her hands together, delighted. "It is so great to see you! It is I, Lyaria!" She says, introducing herself.

"Ah, Lyaria! So great to see you!" Billiam smiles at the woman with his hands behind his back politely.

"I was delighted to hear from you and receive your message!" She looks around the room at the group. Giving a smile to everyone within the vicinity.

"Ah, yes of course! Welcome to our masquerade." He gestures to the now bigger group of people.

Lyaria gives compliments to the front, you could hear her talk about the fountain and how nice of an addition it was. Apparently she's been here before, with her saying that the fountain was a nice touch than when she was here last time.

"..Should you need introductions, don't be afraid to mingle with them. They don't bite." Billiam chuckles, "At least, they have yet to do so."

She laughed, a nice sound that echoed off the walls in the room. "Trust me, that won't be a problem. I'm quite a sociable person. But oh don't you already know so, hmm?" She gives her friend a cheeky smile.

"Perhaps." Is all Billiam says, as relaxed as he could sound.

"Oh, and who are you?" She exclaims, now standing in front of you and Karl. She looked to Karl first though.

"I'm Karl, Lyaria!" He proudly states, jabbing a thumb at his chest.

"Karl? What a particular name!" She taps her finger against her chin.

"He streams Minecraft YouTube." Billiam leans over and whispers to her, obviously too loudly since everyone could hear him.

Lyaria makes a small distressed noise before Billiam mentions Karl being wealthy. She then makes noises of approval.

"And who may you be, dear?" She looks over at you, a gentle smile on her face.

"Y/n." You curtsy to her. She giggles and takes your hands in hers.

"You look absolutely beautiful!" She says, looking at your face, attire, and mask all at once. "I can just tell we shall be good be friends!" She happily exclaims.

"It's very nice to meet you both." She says finally and smiles, letting go of your hands and causing them to fall back to your sides. You smile back. God, she was too perfect.

"You as well." You say, Karl starts speaking right after you.

"Lyaria, you give me vibes of someone I would compete for the love of and get third place in." You shoot him a look.

"You'd be lucky to even get third." You quietly scoff, he gives you a playful nudge, pouting at you.

Lyaria is speechless, choking on her words as she tried to think of what to say to that. Billiam, however, spoke for her. "What a specific example!" A short breathy laugh leaves him.

"Anyway.." Karl trails off, red dusting his cheeks from slight embarrassment.

"I'm glad to see we're all havin' a good time." Billiam says, wandering around the group a little bit.

"Oh god!" Karl suddenly shouts, causing you and everyone else grouped around to jump. You all turn to see what he was looking at, now seeing a barely dressed man at the door with a red mask on. Most likely a commoner. You've met 'commoners' before and they were nothing like this one by a long shot. This one is just a bad example. Basically naked and having a slight sense of entitlement as he strutted into the estate.