180. The Butler, Hiring

The Butler, Hiring is Chapter 180 of the Kuroshitsuji manga.
==Summary==
Baldroy scrutinizes the hidden weapons room and notes that it is filled with both antique swords and axes as well as the latest rifles and explosives. He grabs a dagger and cuts his finger on the blade which indicates that all weapons are ready for use. He takes a better look at the dagger and remembers his meeting with Sebastian in the cave.
In the cave, Baldroy took out a dagger when he heard someone with him—and was momentarily stunned when he saw Sebastian who set up a picnic and offered him a cup of tea. Baldroy charged at him and held the blade against Sebastian's throat. Sebastian nonchalantly asked whether Americans prefer coffee over tea, and Baldroy demanded to know who he was and who had hired him. Sebastian calmly told him that his employer is an Earl from Great Britain which greatly confused Baldroy, and Baldroy started to wonder if he was hallucination from starvation or if Sebastian was the Grim Reaper who had come for him.
Sebastian corrected him, saying that he was not a Grim Reaper but "merely a butler." Believing that Sebastian was mocking him, Baldroy who tightened his grip on him, but he could not bring himself to slash his throat as he did not have the strength left to kill him.
Sebastian told him to calm down and proposed that Baldroy should eat something first; he also remarked that scones would be better than a piece of uncooked meat cut from Terry. Baldroy let go of Sebastian and looked at the food. He noted that the sandwiches and scones could be poisoned; still, he wolfed down everything.
While Baldroy was eating, Sebastian informed him why he was here: He was searching for servants for his master's severely understaffed manor. However, because Phantomhive servants need to fulfill a special requirement, it was impossible to simply place newspaper adverts. Therefore, Sebastian had to go and scout servants in person. Baldroy told him that he had taken care of cows before, but never of rich people. Sebastian replied that he had sought him out because he had heard of an American private warrior who had fought in many battles and always returned alive. Baldroy would, among other duties, fulfill the duty of a bodyguard
Hearing all this, Baldroy became more suspicious of Sebastian. Why did he come all this way simply to recruit a bodyguard? And why was his "penguin suit" still untarnished?
Then, Sebastian told him that Baldroy surely fulfilled the master's "special requirement": Age, gender, race, background, and prior servants experiences did not matter; as a Phantomhive servants, one only had to be an expert at killing people. Baldroy was shocked at his words, and Sebastian checked his clock. Seeing that it was almost time for Ciel's tea, he packed everything and handed Baldroy an envelope, telling him to come to Great Britain if he wanted to take the offer, before he left.
Baldroy opened the envelope and took out a letter and a ticket from New York to England. He looked out of the cave and realized that he had to get out of this "hellhole" himself and thought that he had never realized that food was more important than money or weapons.
A loud sound and shaking brings Baldroy back to the present. He runs upstairs and sees the bloodied staircase. He thinks that Finnian and Mey-Rin must have been killed, but then Finnian walks into the entrance hall, holding a bloodied pillar and dragging a corpse with him. He says that they are having many "guests" today and that Ciel was already asleep. Baldroy notices an intruder, pulls away Finnian, and gets ready to shoot. However, before he can, the intruder drops dead which surprises Baldroy, and he is even more surprised when he notices that the "jittery maid" Mey-Rin was the one who shot him. She reported that she killed almost everyone outside, and Finnian said that he killed maybe three or four people.
Baldroy scolds him for not counting his victims as they need to keep track of who they killed in order to make sure that they killed everyone. Otherwise, they will only get themselves killed. Remembering that he heard at least five sets of footsteps before, Baldroy asks Mey-Rin and Finnian where Ciel's bedroom is and rushes there. They try to tell him that Sebastian was already there, but Baldroy does not hear them.
There are two intruders in front of Ciel's door, and Baldroy analyzes the situation and gets ready to fight although he knows the intruders have the upper hand.
==Characters in Order of Appearance==
*Baldroy
*Sebastian Michaelis 
*Finnian
*Mey-Rin
==Navigation==
it:Capitolo 180
ru:Глава 180
Category:Chapters
Category:Blue Revenge Arc