Leading Clare back to my home, she slightly raised her eyebrow when she saw my house.

Taking out my key, I open the door to let her inside.

Stepping inside, she asks.

“Did my lady buy this house?”

I replied with a yes.

“And how did my lady get such funds?”

“I have an acquaintance; she knows about my noble identity but doesn’t know I’m a girl and which family I’m from.”

“Is she trustworthy?”

“Yes, she is a noble from the Lunslur family. Her name is Alice.”

I proceeded to tell Clare about how we met, which was through helping Alex catch some black knights from the Palning family. Then I told her the things preceding that, including the conspiracy about her brother targeting her life.

Hearing all that causes Clare to look troubled.

“But Lady Rita, it is almost guaranteed that he will tell about your identity. Are you sure that is safe?”

“I understand your worry; even though he would spill everything at the slightest provocation, he doesn’t know my name, and Alice already has it covered. Plus they can’t lay a hand on him, since he is a noble, which falls under the jurisdiction of the third night order.”

Out of the 7 knight orders in this kingdom, the third knight order mainly focuses on dealing with nobility since normal people, like the guards, are too afraid to touch them and let them do whatever they want. However, in reality, they focus on keeping the peace among the nobility and protecting commoners from their political scheming and whatnot since one or two commoners or even entire villages could let's just say, go missing if they were caught up in the crossfire.

Clare seems to accept my answer, so I proceed to show her around the house. I showed her the many rooms, like the bathroom, the messy office filled with books on the ground, the safe where I store my coins for her to use, the guest room that Clare will live in, etc.

Once I was done, I was reminded of something.

“Oh right, if something happens, run to the guild and ask for a receptionist named Iris; she is friends with Emma and has helped me out a lot. If that is not possible, go to the inn Alice is in to get her party’s help.”

For some reason, there was a weird taste in my mouth when I suggested going to Alex to get some help when she was in trouble. The worst thing that could happen is Clare falling for Alex…

A strange feeling welled up from the bottom of my stomach thinking about it. If that happens, I have to say goodbye to Alex then, which is a shame.

A maniacal smile was about to creep up on my face thinking about ways to get rid of Alex, but Clare suddenly smacked me on the head.

“Oww! Why did you just do that?”

Rubbing the top of my head where Clare just smacked me, she said.

“My lady, please. I must ask you to refrain from such disturbing thoughts.”

I remember Clare only smacking my head a handful of times back when I was a noble, telling me I was getting too riled up as a reason. It mostly happens whenever I see really strong-looking people brought inside my family manor, like elite members of knight orders or high-level adventurers, making me want to fight them.

Oh right, I forgot she could get a general grasp of my thoughts even with my mask on, and I did unintentionally let go of my mask for a bit. She must have sensed I was thinking something that could be defined as morally grey.

“Morally gray?”

Clare raised one of her eyebrows like she was questioning me in exasperation, then sighed and said.

“If that is all, I shall begin working.”

Nodding, I told her fine and that I would be leaving for a bite to go to the inn I was staying at, which still had a couple of books left in the room, and to get a refund on the extra days I paid in advance that I didn’t need anymore.

At the inn, I collected the last of the books inside the room into my backpack and checked if I left anything else behind, which there was none. Then I went downstairs to the innkeeper to check out.

I gave her the key to the room, and she refunded the days I didn’t need anymore.

I said thanks to the innkeeper lady and left to go home.

When I got back home, I opened the door and noticed that things were surprisingly spotless, even more so than when I first bought this house.

I could say Clare did a great job keeping things nice and tidy.

Hearing me come in, Clare, surprisingly wearing her maid outfit when I was a noble, came from the kitchen and greeted me.

“Greetings, Lady Rita. I have thoroughly cleaned and organized the house. I have also gone shopping, and now preparing dinner.”

It's kind of surprising that she did all this while I was gone for over an hour and a half. She is really that capable.

“I see, thank you. I’ll be in the office if you need me.”

I went to the office, which Clare had neatly organized. I saw the mess I’d made in the room for the last couple of days was organized and tidy except for the papers I was working on on the desk.

I put the books from my backpack on the bookshelves and sat at the desk to continue working on adding a limiter to the magical formula in the magical circle, which I’m almost done with.

I continued working on my magical formula until Clare knocked on the door. I put the pencil I was holding down and told her to come in.

Opening the door, she was holding a tray with a plate of beef stew, steamed vegetables, and bread.

“Apologies for the disturbance; I have brought my lady dinner. Please enjoy.”

Clare placed the plates of food on my desk by the corner, not getting in the way of what I was doing.

Looking at what I am working on, she asks.

“May I ask what exactly my lady is doing?”

Of course, she would be curious after seeing diagrams and books about magical circles on the desk when she was organizing the office.

“It’s a magical circle for a magical tool.”

“I see, then what is the purpose of these magical tools?”

“It’s a throwing knife that emits electricity without you having to be a mage. I got the idea from the new Adventurer Guild card the Adventurer Guild has implemented. With the help of Mable, a person who knows a lot about magical tools, I was able to make it. Now I’m fixing the problems with the first magical circles to the new ones.”

Clare was stunned for a moment hearing my words and said with concern.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“That is quite amazing my lady was able to do something like that, but I have my concerns.”

“Yes, you are right to be worried, but don’t worry; Mila is the older sister of a friend I met in Farsbarow. I trust her since I wouldn’t be able to make the magical tools without her, and I don’t sense any alternative motives from her. Also, I am aware that certain nobles are not too pleased about what I am doing if word gets out, but I only use them when I’m dungeon diving alone, and I could just say that the knives are artifacts, which should suffice.”

“I understand, but please be cautious, my lady.”

“I know; I’ll be careful.”

Working throughout the night, I eventually finished making the changes to the magical circles and went to bed.

The next day, I woke up and saw it was past noon. Rubbing my eyes and stretching, I didn’t stay in my comfortable bed for long today because I had just finished fixing the magical circles for the throwing knives last night and had to get them to Mila to let her look at them.

Walking to the drawer in my room to get my clothes, I saw a set of clothes neatly folded on top.

They didn’t look familiar; I think they were the new set of clothes I had ordered from Hutch that I didn’t get to open out of the packaging. I guess Clare had put them in the drawer and taken them out for me to put on when I was sleeping since I prefer putting on my clothes on my own.

Changing into them, they were slightly bigger than my old clothes, which was what I wanted. I went downstairs and saw Clare dusting some shelves in the living room.

Seeing me come down, she said.

“Good afternoon, did my lady have a restful sleep?”

“Yes, I did sleep well.”

“Good, I have made my lady lunch; please eat.”

Going to the table in the kitchen, Clare gave me a sandwich she made.

Standing behind me while I eat, she asks.

“Your hair is rather messy, my lady. May I comb it?”

I looked at her and said yes to her request, making her smile. She walked out of the kitchen and brought back a comb with her, then she proceeded to comb my hair, making me feel nostalgic.

Clare always combed my hair whenever I woke up, which was our usual routine before I ran away, even though I cut my hair, so I welcomed it.

After eating and Clare finished combing my hair, I told her I had places to be for the day and was diving into a dungeon, which would make me come home late.

Making my way to the door, I said goodbye to Clare, and she told me to be careful with a slightly worried look. Not to make her worry, I told her that I was a C-rank adventurer, meaning that I could handle myself, which made her even more worried for some reason.

Going to Mila’s bookstore, Mila let me in like usual.

I presented her with the new diagram of the magical circles I had modified, which included a limiter.

She looked at it and said.

“This should work. Do you want me to start working on it?”

“Yeah, and are you done with the knives I gave you to reengrave?”

Mila smiled and said yeah, then led me to the workbench where she was working on them while asking me.

“You look oddly different today. Did something good happen?”

She said it like there was something she was insinuating, which I don’t know what she is referring to.

“What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Giving me a disappointed look.

“No need to be embarrassed about it.”

I was still confused by what she meant as I switched out my non-engraved knives for engraved ones on the workbench.

When I was done switching them out, I thanked her for her hard work and asked Mila if she could engrave just three knives with the new magical circle to test them first.

“Sure thing, they’ll be ready in a few days. It’s good to have an excuse so we can catch up once in a while.”

Leaving Mila's shop, I headed straight for the Adventurer Guild and to the quest board to pick up a quest in the second stratum.

I’m planning to go to the third stratum today while completing a magical shard gathering quest on the way there for extra money since it won’t be too much trouble.

I want to explore the third stratum to see what it’s like because of the newer and stronger monsters that are going to spawn.

Going to the reception counters, I saw that Iris was not present today; I’m guessing she took a lunch break or something.

I didn’t give it too much thought, and I entered the quest at the reception counter and then headed to the dungeon.

At the dungeon, I skipped past the first stratum and went straight to the second stratum, using the 10th-floor boss bypass ring instead of fighting it.

I wanted to save my strength to fight the Owlbear again since I have a new play… I mean, a new opponent to fight with. I don’t want my skills to dull since I haven’t fought anything for the last few days, and I want to train myself comparably to my original strength in a past life, since past me could definitely kill the Owlbear easily even without all the augmentations and enhancements done to my past life’s body.

When I was on the 19th floor, I visited the village because I wanted to see how Maria's business was going since I was already here before I went to the third stratum.

At the village, I saw a long line of adventurers, and I became curious about why there was a line, so I followed the line to the front to see what was going on.

Following the line, I got a vague feeling I knew where it was heading, and when I saw Maria exchanging bottles of potions for some coins, I figured that it was her.

When she saw me walking toward her, she waved at me with a smile and told me to come to her.

I wasn’t too fond of the people in line looking at me wondering who I was, but I guess it shouldn’t matter too much since someone like me shouldn’t be this deep in the dungeon in the first place. Of course, I would stand out.

“Hi there, Nyx, what are you doing here?”

“Good, I’m planning to explore the 3rd stratum. I wanted to check out how well your business is doing on the way there. How about you?”

“Great, we have been selling a lot of potions and getting a lot of requests. We’ve even managed to take down the owlbear yesterday on our own. Thank you again for helping us and especially for introducing me to Mila. The book I bought from her is really amazing and has a lot of valuable information on alchemy.”

She whispers the last part, which I’m guessing is the Book of Magnis or something since I remember that book is extremely rare and valuable.

“I’m even thinking of buying a house with how much I’m making.”

“I could see that you've been busy. I’m curious what kind of house you're looking for.”

For some reason, she got really excited by that question and said.

“A big one with many rooms for our future children; it must have a really big bedroom with a big bed for nighttime activities, and—”

Maria placed her hands on her cheeks and began to squirm around like someone madly in love while beginning to say increasingly indecent things to me, which I’m still a kid, by the way.

The adventurers waiting at the front of the line were giving her really weird looks hearing all that. I walked into that one all right, and I’m regretting it. I better stop this before she says something too obscene because I am feeling my face twitching from every word she is spewing out.

“How about everyone else? Where is everyone?”

Interrupting her rambling, I thankfully managed to stop her.

“Oh, I believe they are coming back from the third stratum right about—now, there they are right now.”

Maria pointed her finger, and I turned to look in that direction to see Alex, Wendy, Chelsie, Alice, and…

Blinking my eyes, I was confused. I could have sworn I saw Lucia; instead, I saw a puff of smoke. When I asked if they also just saw Lucia disappear in a puff of smoke, Alex cut me off and said I was imagining things.

“Umm… okay?”

They seem surprised to see me, especially Alex and Wendy.

With a wry smile, Alex said hi, while Wendy had her tail tucked between her legs and ears down, which I guess is the new norm for those two.

I said hi back and told them I was just visiting and was going to explore the third stratum.

When I was about to leave, Maria told me to wait a bit and proceed to go back into her house.

A minute later she came back with 4 potions in hand.

“Here, have these.”

Receiving the potions, I asked what they were because I only recognized 2 of them to be regeneration potions of some kind but not the other two.

“These 2 are strengthening potions, and these 2 are regeneration potions. They will help you with the Owlbear fight.”

Then she came close to me and whispered in my ear so no one could hear and say.

“Their potions from the Book of Magnus I made. The strengthening potion can double a person's strength and lasts up to 12 hours but has the drawback of straining the body after the effects are gone, which is why it also recommends making a regeneration potion from the book to counteract its drawback.”

Now not whispering, Maria said

“Please accept them; I still have to pay you back for all your help.”

Seeing she wouldn’t take no for an answer, I said thanks.

After thanking Maria for giving me the potions and saying goodbye to everyone, I made my way to the door to the boss room of the second stratum.

Standing at the front of the door, I held the strengthening potion in my hand. I wonder what it is like drinking it. Probably nasty, but I’m more curious about what it feels like to get strengthened. Is it like having Ori energy flow through your body? Since Ori energy also strengthens your body, probably not.

Uncorking the corks of one strengthening and regeneration potion, I drank it each in one gulp. The strengthening potion wasn’t as bad as I thought because it tasted like really bad medicine, while the regeneration potion tasted marginally better.

After a few seconds, I suddenly felt my body go hot, filled with energy, and the urge to fight something began to fill my mind. Unbeknownst to me, the corners of my mouth turn upward into a smile.

Looking at the doors to the 20th-floor boss, I enter the boss room with small giggles leaking out of my mouth.

This is going to be fun.