Chapter 8: Book:1 | Arc:2 | Ch:4

"So, when will we arrive..."

I realized I had never gotten their names. Seeing my less obvious predicament, the most being the snatcher, Grandpa pitched in.

"The young lady is Shanae Gladius. Her brother next to her is Bran Gladius. They are the children of Prem and Raymund Gladius. The bearers of the very item I require. We should arrive in an hour or so."

'Is a last name exclusive to nobles? We have one, might cause trouble. More research required.'

Tidbits like that were what was going to be necessary. I had read enough to know shit was going to go down if I involved myself with nobles. The question was whether I was going to be severely involved and on the front lines of some demonic war, OR, if I was going to be a supporting character that peacefully fades into the background.

'A library would be great. History is a good measure of whether the civilisation is fucked or not in the long term.'

My path of thought was interrupted by the most cliché thing that could happen. Screams and shouts broke the short silence as there were most likely bandits, demons or monsters outside.

'Really?'

I took a glance outside and saw them, only two problems were present. The first, was that there was all three. The second, was that the bandits did not look like bandits. More like cultists.

I frowned.

"This, might be troublesome."

The cultists wore dark brown robes with a white full face mask, the mask itself had a design on it. There was a brown circle around three triangles points inwards and a hexagon around it all.

The demons could arguably be rare monsters. Their appearance was similar to hellhounds but there were three key differences. The overwhelming one, was their color. All of them had white and brown replacing the expected black and red. The other two were their size and the amount of mana in them. The beasts were the size of household cats and had literally no mana in them.

Most would expect hellhounds, a magical beast of hell, to have at least some mana in them. I could be wrong, of course, this is a world that I don't know enough of.

'As soon as I get access to a library I need to study the continents situation, the intelligent races and the catalogued monsters. Otherwise I'm pretty much done for if I get stranded.'

I turned my sights to the monsters I saw. Bluntly, they were monkeys. Three armed monkeys with silver covering their head, legs and arms.

I would think it's stupid if I was reading about them. Sadly, I was not in a library. I idly thought about things as the fighting begun.

'Maybe languages too.'

The clang of metal against metal was deafening as the three-armed monkeys fought with the knights. I looked sideways for a second, glancing at the other resident's expressions.

Shanae and Bran looked worried but, not worried? Doubtful, calm otherwise.

Then there was Grandpa.

He was yawning.

My eyebrows raised.

'So it's not even worth worrying? Or too few will die that you don't even care. Well, he'll probably act if Seyra is about to die.'

I yawned.

'To watch the outcome or to ignore it... hmm.'

I bore a serious face as I pondered. It took me a while before I decided not to.

Thus, I went to sleep.

The carriage stopping jolted me awake. I rubbed my sleepiness away from my eyes and yawned. The two nobles were already out and Grandpa picked me up and brought me out. I was still drowsy but I did my best to stay awake. We'd no doubt talk about our future and what we'll do before the school.

I stretched my arms up before focusing on staying upright.

The mansion before us could be described as grand. There was a large garden behind us and the carriage had delivered us to the doors rather than the gates. 

The structures seemed to built of mostly stone and some kind of fancy white wood. I was even able to feel mana from the wood, that woke me up. The doors were lined with silver and the handles bronze.

'I'm glad I slept. I'm too lazy to pay attention to details of a fight that doesn't worry Grandpa.'

I yawned once more and with my child level of drowsiness I fell asleep.

"...and so to finalize this we'll all sign the contract with drops of our blood."

"Yes."

Needless to say, waking up to hear I'd to sign a contract with my blood... was extremely disturbing. Before I said anything, I checked for Seyra's presence. When I confirmed she wasn't there, I spoke up.

"So why do I need to sign a blood contract?"

I said.

All eyes snapped towards me. Grandpa was the first to speak.

"Well, do you want the long or the short version of the contract."

"Short version."

"Basically, I teach his children-"

Grandpa pointed at the person across from me. Grey-haired, blue-eyed, a ton of mana inside him.

I paused.

His eyes weren't just blue. It looked like there was water in his eyes. a rippling pond.

'Is that a trend here or is it something to do with the mist-like mana?'

"-and protect them while he gives us three things in exchange. The first, is that I get the item I need. The second, you and Seyra are guaranteed school slots in the most prestigious one they could find. The academy you'll have to do the test and get in with your own knowledge. The third, and arguable the best, is that we can stay here and use a certain amount of resources for your and Seyra's growth. The resources you get will only be for where you are, no more."

"That's pretty unfair for them isn't it?"

"Of course it isn't, I am one of the best teachers in the world, if not the best. If anything, I'm only doing this because of the two problems I have and that they have the item I need."

My eyes narrowed.

"One of those problems is me isn't it."

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"Of course. Now I can just leave you alone and someone else can take care of you."

My mouth twitched.

'He's blunter than a sledgehammer.'

"What's the other then?"

"Seyra."

I glared at him.

"What, I can't protect her forever. Her being here makes it easier for me to act."

My expression softened a little. Then it tensed.

"Act? What would cause you to do that?"

"None of your business."

My eye twitched.

"Let's just get this over with."

I looked over at the new speaker. It was the other old man. I nodded and sat quietly. I needed to back off and learn more for now.

'Living here will be good at least. Should anyway. I'll tolerate it if I can find a library.'

The old men talked for a while longer before it was time to sign the contract. It was surprisingly simple, bloody fingerprint, boom, it's done. I was surprised, I had thought there'd be some flashy stuff or the contract would burn up but nothing of the sort happened.

"Now then, Mia and Chris come in."

The door opened and revealed a middle-aged woman and man in maid and butler clothes respectively.

"They are the head maid and butler here, if Sir... now that I think about it we never got your name."

Grandpa nodded.

"You may call me Hono."

'Fire. In Japanese. Of course.'

I gave up on understanding his naming sense. I got up and walked over to head maid and reached up. She then bent her knees down a bit and picked me up.

"Well, shall we begin our tour?"

I nodded. Her voice was clearer than a clean bell. It could be said to be the most outstanding part of her since she was quite average. Then I saw her eyes. They were filled with storm clouds and lightning rumbled within, they were calm now but I feared making this woman angry.

Mia, the head maid, opened the door and we began our tour.

"To start with, the room we were just in is the room for meeting important guests like other nobles or esteemed persons."

Then we walked down towards the left. The whole tour was slow to my tastes but it was extremely useful.

The mansion was shaped like you'd expect when you see a mansion, a large entrance with double doors that led into a grand room with two spiral staircases.

'One wasn't enough I guess.'

Leading out to the left and right, I'd learned, was the male servant quarters to the immediate right from the left and the library to the immediate left on the right. 

Confusing, yes. Basically if you were to enter the left door, it'd be the next set of doors on the right. If you were to enter the right door, it'd be the next set of doors on the left! Simple, right?

Anyways, further down the hall to the right was the following: the female servant quarters, the kitchen entrance, the laundry area and the room I was in while talking to the old men. Down the hall of the left was the library, the study, a room for guests, the room for the head maid and the room for the head butler.

At then end of both halls were a turn away from the front of the mansion that led to another three paths. Away from the mansion, would be a separate building, the armory, which contained all their weaponry and stuffs was to the left of the mansion. The greenhouse and a tower were connected to a y-shaped road to the right of the mansion. The center of the mansion was the dining hall with at least 20 seats. At the back of the mansion was a long hallway with a door in the middle. Out of that door was a huge garden around an even bigger training ground. It looked weird.

Then we went upstairs.

The hallways were in a 'u' shape with the middle of it being after entering the door at the top of the fancy stairs.

"And this, is the Master and Lady's room. To the left is Young Lady Shanae's room and the right is Young Master Bran's."

We went left and past Shanae's room and stopped only after passing two more rooms.

"This one has been arranged for you and you will have a personal maid during your time here."

The door creaked as we entered. It opened to show a room that I had to say, was somehow both horrible and awesome at the same time.

The horrible part was that there was a crib, a dresser with nothing but airy dresses and skirts, no paintings. No bed, non-practical clothes, nothing to blankly stare at when I'm bored of everything else.

The good part was that the only window was a circular one with a shelf-like area that'd be perfect for sleeping on. Oh, there was a bookshelf too.

'Probably just kids books.'

Despite my best efforts, I wasn't able to read yet.

It sucked.

It was a huge detriment given that I needed to READ the spell to know how to cast it. I also couldn't go into depth with it. Which also sucked. That said, I was able to sense mana pretty well at the time.

'Theoretically if I were to see a spell enough times I could learn to use it. The question is how difficult it'll be. Well, I'll cross that bridge when it comes to it.'

Around the room were multiple toys and other things as well, like a wooden pony that goes back and forth... I swore never to use that. The toys were mostly soft ones but there was a single weird one. It was an orb, crystal clear and almost invisible instead of translucent. I had no idea what that was going to be used for but I was curious.

'This room is perfect. The things I lack are knowledge, mana and experience. The most important to least important in that order. I can work on the first two while I have another 10 years to work on experience, after growing up.'

The head maid put me down while I was thinking. When I came out of my trance, I found myself on the wooden pony... with the head maid staring at me with a smile.

'Goddamnit.'

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