Chapter 5: 2.2 – The Nightshade mansion II

After cleaning the office, viscount Nightshade requested to have a chat with me. As I was basically freeloading in her mansion, I complied with her request.

Watching the viscount sit down on her comfortable chair behind her desk, I turned around, only to find the only other chair in the room occupied by the heroine. Apparently, I was so absorbed in cleaning that I didn't notice the viscount going out of the room, grabbing the heroine by the collar of her shirt and tossing her inside the office.

Being denied the comfort of sitting, I stood next to the heroine, waiting for the viscount to take the initiative.

"So, Theodore, how are you today?" The viscount asked.

"I was fine until your daughter dragged me inside your office" I answered truthfully. As I examined the heroine for her reaction, she just stared back at me before giving a snort.

Paying our interaction now mind, viscount Nightshade continued the conversation. After several more questions, the topic shifted to my life before I came to the mansion. I told her everything about my life, except for Marcos' memories of course. To be honest, the last few days had been quite stressful for me. Having someone listening enthusiastically to my mundane life somehow made me feel better. When I got around to telling her about Raun, the viscount commented that he sounded really similar to her daughter.

See, I wasn't wrong!, I exclaimed to absolutely no one.

Inevitably, topics about my daily life lead to the discussion about my mother.

Viscount Nightshade dropped a bombshell on me. Apparently, my mother and the viscount were best friends, with the viscount seeing her as a mischievous little sister. 

I wasn't that surprised. After all, not anyone can make a noble take care of their child in their stead.

Now that I think about it, mother never really told me anything about her past, I thought.

Grasping the chance to find out more about mother, I pleaded the viscount to tell me about my mother's past. Chuckling, she agreed to my request. She then began to tell stories about hers and mother's (mis)adventures. We spend a large portion of the day listening to stories involving my mother and her antics.

Well, I wasn't even surprised to find out that my mother had once beaten a golem to death with her bare hands. What surprised me more was that my mother's personality was almost the same as the heroine's when she was younger. I never expected my kind and caring mother to had once been similar to the little brat sitting next to me.

Finishing all the stories, Viscount Nightshade moved onto the main topic, my guardianship. She had already prepared the required document to register as my guardian. Well, I saw no needs to refuse. After signing the document, I became an honorary noble. Almost all commoners would kill just for the chance to join the ranks of nobility. Well, I did not feel all that enthusiastic though since being a noble meant that I had to waste my precious time on learning etiquettes and socializing instead of sleeping.

It was already nighttime when we finished with the paperwork. Viscount Nightshade invited me to dinner which I accepted since I was now a noble. I had to get used to extravagant meals one way or another. Besides, I knew next to no table etiquettes. This would be a good chance to learn it.

After finishing dinner and cramming every bit of information on mannerism, I went to my room. I was exhausted and fell asleep immediately after leaving myself to the warm embrace of the blanket. Thus, my first proper day at the Nightshade mansion ended.

---

November 7^th, year 781 of the Imperial calendar

—BAM!

"WAKE UP, THEODORE!"

I was subjected to yet another shout in the morning. There she was, the heroine, grinning as I woke up in annoyance. Her eyes were full of excitement and mischievousness, which made me groan in frustration.

She's going to do this every morning, isn't she? I thought as I got out of the bed and started walking towards the bathroom adjacent to my room, patting myself on the back for having enough mental strength to not immediately kill myself.

As soon as I finished breakfast in my bed, the heroine barged into my room, grabbed my hand and dragged me around the mansion.

Did she install a camera in my room or something? Her timing is just too perfect. As I was having such horrifying thoughts, we arrived at the servants' quarters.

Why were we invading the servants' personal living space you as soon as we began the tour you might ask? Well, according to the heroine, it is of utmost importance that I learn the name of every people working here, yes, even the knights whose numbers were in the hundreds.

I take it back, she was not a second Raun, she's worse, much worse.

Her eccentricity knows no ends, I thought. I'd rather deal with her gloomy and overly serious self in the novel than this monstrosity. Even Raun didn't have this much energy and free time to do things like this.

As soon as the servants caught sight of us though, they started shaking uncontrollably before running away.

I know the she's a noble and all but is running away from your employer's daughter the best way to handle things? Then, realization struck me. It was I who scared them away. Having spent 2 days with the mother and daughter duo who were not affected by my eyes, I forgot how normal people would react to the mere sight of me. Such thoughts depressed me, albeit slightly.

Well, the heroine didn't seem to think that I was only a bit sad though as she patted me on the shoulder and did her best to console me, which just sounded like teasing to be honest. Then, she ran off somewhere on her own, leaving me behind in the empty servants' quarter.

Having lost my only guide, I made my way around the mansion, alone. After all, I was going to live here for 2 years, might as well memorize each and every corners of it, especially when I'm planning to use the chaos the assassins would cause to hide, or even save the heroine for additional affection points if the situation allows.

---

I underestimated the size of this mansion. It was big, too big for my liking. I felt like I haven't gone through half of the mansion even after 30 minutes of constant walking.

The sight of a garden interrupted my monotonous walking. Lush green trees, colorful flowers, and clear blue ponds. I never knew such a mesmerising place existed here. Perhaps suspiciously though, there were a lot of hiding spots. The bushes were so thick that I would not even be surprised if a tribe of wood ents lived there. 

If it's this place then I can hide from the heroine!

I saw massive trees beyond the walls surrounding the garden were. Curious, I climbed the highest tree in the garden to take a look.

The trees were part of a forest, not just any forest but the Ostual forest, the go-to destination for adventurers in viscount Nightshade's territory. The concentration and rank of monsters were perfect. Lower ranked monsters often stayed near the outskirts of the forest, while stronger ones lived in the depths. The highest ranked monster ever recorded here was only a B- rank Wyvern.

These characteristics made this forest one of the best place to start out at as beginner adventurers.

Furthermore, the forest was big, too big, even. It took up 30% of viscount Nightshade's already big territory. For the viscount, the forest was a major source of headaches. She had to spend the precious manpower she would otherwise spend on patrolling the border scouting the forest for any potential high ranking monsters as many parts of the forest were still not explored.

Unlike viscount Nightshade, the forest was very beneficial for me. It was the perfect location to test out my skills after the coming of age ceremony which takes place on the second day of each year.

Leaving the problem of sneaking out of the mansion to my future self, I exited the garden and made my way towards my room. After spending a large portion of my energy climbing that tree. I just wanted to get a good sleep before the heroine bothers me again.

Well, I jinxed myself pretty badly. As I was only a few steps away from my room, a pair of hands suddenly covered my eyes. I sighed as it was obvious whose hands these were. Wanting to save my energy to deal with the heroine instead of wasting it on useless talking, I just quietly stood in place, preparing for whatever pranks the heroine was trying to pull.

Seeing my lack of reaction, the heroine clicked her tongue audibly. Just as I thought she would leave me alone, she removed her hands from my eyes and moved to my front. I noticed that she was holding onto a black rectangular box.

"Theodore, I asked mom. It turned out that people ran away because of your Magic eyes, your unsightly face had nothing to do with it!" She exclaimed while grinning slyly.

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"It would be troublesome if my accomplice scared everyone away before I even get the chance to prank them. As such, this lady here had racked her brain and came up with a brilliant solution to your problem!" 

She seemed proud of herself. I took the box from her hands and opened it without expecting much. Inside were... a pair of sunglasses.

I was fuming, not at her, nor the content of the box, but with myself. How the fuck did I not think of this before? Was I more stupid than this kid right here? No, I refuse to acknowledge it! I had nearly 100 years worth of memories, how the fuck did this 10-year-old brat think of this before I did?

I looked at the heroine, my mouth hung open in disbelief. Enjoying my reaction, she got into a gut pose and puffed her non-existent chest.

Despite my silent ranting, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't grateful. I was not shameless enough to not thank the person that solved my problems for me. And thus, I expressed my gratitude for her. I regretted doing so almost immediately though.

"Thanks a lot. I still can't believe I hadn't thought of this earlier."

"Of course, I'm glad you now know which one of us is smarter than the other!" She said in a teasing tone before smiling brightly. It seemed like she genuinely enjoyed being complimented by me.

Putting aside the fact that she would become a heroine in the near future, I would have fallen for her charming smile if she was half as annoying.

Brushing off the urge to strangle her to death, I immediately put on the pair of sunglasses.

It's going to take a while to get used to this level of dimness, I thought.

---

My tour of the mansion then restarted.

We barged into the servants' quarters again, all of them flinching upon hearing the loud noise of the heroine kicking the door open. 

Well, the sunglasses worked, somewhat. The servants were still less than willing to go anywhere close to me but they properly greeted me this time, which was a huge improvement. Well, the heroine didn't seem to like the fact that no one was actively trying to start a conversation with me. Thus, after humphing and giving the servants a death glare, she lead me to the next destination, the training grounds.

What greeted me was the sight of knights and mages alike running around the training ground, sweating heavily. Surprisingly, the mages of the Nightshade territory had to go through the same training regiment as the knights.

I scoffed at them. They were training hard, some of them even trained until they vomit all over the ground. Such were the fate of the nobodies. Luckily for me, I could get strong even without training half as hard as they did since I could always get stronger than them easily thanks to my extensive knowledge of this world's cheat items.

I followed the heroine to a circular building. Apparently, it was called a 'Gravity room'. Gravity rooms, like their name would suggests, allowed people to train under altered gravity. Well, the heroine apparently thought that I was a country bumpkin and didn't know what the room was used for though. And I saw no need to correct the misunderstanding. 

She wanted to demonstrate the room to me by having me directly experiencing it. The heroine fiddled with the control panel, setting the gravity at 4g. She opened the door to the Gravity room before pulling me inside with her and slamming the door shut.

As soon as the door closed, the gravitational force began to intensify. In contrast to me who was hugging the floor immediately after the room activates, the heroine was standing there without breaking a sweat, teasing me for not being able to handle a 'measly' 4g of gravity.

Well, let's see who would laugh after I get my hand on [Boots of lightness]. I thought as I vowed to be the one laughing at her instead when I acquire the item that can alter the weight of the wearer. With this item, even the maximum setting, 20g, would be trivial.

Leaving that aside for future me, I was surprised to find out the the heroine apparently used this room to train ever since she was 5. 

Not being able to get out of the room by myself, I reluctantly asked the heroine to help me get out. She did so by princess carrying me, reminding me of how I instantly fell down to the floor as she did so. 

After spending several more hours touring even more of the mansion, we arrived at out final destination, the kitchen.

---

In the mansion's kitchen, the head chef was instructing a little boy ten years of age, me, on how to operate cooking instruments. Why was I, a honorary noble with no relations to any of the kitchen staffs learning how to use cooking equipments you might ask? Well, as some might have guessed, it was the heroine's fault yet again.

As soon as we got to the kitchen, the heroine challenged me to a cooking battle. 

"The loser owes the winner a favor!" She claimed.

Tempted by the prospect of demanding her to leave me out of her pranks if I won, I readily consented to her little competition.

Thinking back, that was really stupid of me. I had never touched any cooking equipments before, let alone prepare meals. Furthermore, judging by the overly friendly way the kitchen staffs talked with the heroine, she was definitely no stranger to the kitchen.

I had been fooled, I thought while failing to keep the corner of my mouth from twitching.

The heroine smirked when she noticed my displeasure.

This was definitely her trap, that sly kid. I thought, before focusing on learning the bare basics of operating cooking equipments. It was too late to back out of the challenge. As such, the only thing I could do was to try my best.

---

Looking at the monstrosity I created, I couldn't help but grimace at my future. 

Well, at least it's edible, or so I thought.

I prayed that the heroine was not proficient at cooking and was just overly friendly with everyone in this mansion. However, god didn't respond to my prayers.

Looking at the heroine's cooking, I couldn't help but to curse my past self for being tempted by her challenge.

What she made was a strawberry cake. I wouldn't eat sweet things normally. I prefer something bitter or sour. However, that cake, it looked so damn good!

Noticing me salivating at her cake, the heroine smirked before giving me a slice. I had to admit, I was in pure bliss for a good 2 minutes after finishing the slice. 

It was obvious who the winner was. Even if I wanted to refute, that taste of heaven from before didn't allow my heart to do so. And thus, I admitted my defeat.

The heroine smiled triumphantly before revealing the content of her demand.

"To be honest, your cooking sucked!" She said.

"Thus, this lady will generously use the favor to make you attend cooking lessons here!" She exclaimed righteously, as if she had just done me a great favor. To fair, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I was glad that she didn't ask me to do anything weirder.

---

I spent the last 2 months staying in the Nightshade mansion, learning how to cook along with the viscount's daughter. However, there were no cooking lessons today, as it was the day before the coming of age ceremony.

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