“You are most welcome.” Alcuin didn't think there would ever be a time where pleasing others didn't please him in turn. It was too ingrained, too finely etched into his spirit to ever turn his back on it now. If his company didn't find him pleasing it meant that he had failed to fulfill his purpose and failure was so very rarely an option. “It's the least I could do for your help,” he reached into his pocket to pay the shopkeeper for his apples, which turned out to be suspiciously cheaper than he had anticipated. “and for the entertainment.”
“Hmm. Master Derek is handsome enough, I suppose.” A diplomatic response for their rather tenuous interactions, to be sure. Derek might as well have been a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside of an enigma for all he had managed to discover about him thus far. His slaves seemed to love and adore him, but he wasn't so certain their relations would ever thaw over time. In fact, he was reasonably certain that if it were ever decided that he needed to be sold it would likely be him that carried it out. “Master Derek in particular does not strike me as the type to enjoy his property being encroached upon, no, though I must admit I am surprised to hear to that he was so – permissive.”