Next, he went to a service agency to hire a mortal woman in her thirties named Catherine who will cook and clean around the house.

-I need to get acquainted with Damocles for at least two handed basic sword art. Then I will go outside the city to try my luck.- He thought and planned.

.

Inside his villa, he had Catherine settle in one of the rooms.

“Catherine, I need you to go buy groceries in the evening. You will permanently live here for at least a year. You may clean the villa once a week but my room and living room has to be cleaned daily. Cook meals five times a day, two times the average person’s eating capacity. You have to take care of all of my other daily necessities.” Castiel explained to Catherine patiently. He was going to drastically increase his daily cultivation limit so he imagined he would need a lot of energy to keep up.

“As you wish, Lord. May I have permission to go out for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the night everyday?” Catherine requested.

“Drop the formalities. Call me young master if you are not comfortable calling me by name. Going out? Is that a deal breaker?” He didn’t really care if she went out of 4 hours a day but he needed to be sure it was not for nefarious reasons.

“Yes, quite. I need to get my kids ready for school and prepare dinner for them.” Catherine pleaded.

“Well, I will take your word for it. I have just one rule for you. Do not divulge my information to anybody. You don’t want to know what extremes I will go to to remain private.” Castiel looked at her with a deadpan expression. He did not try to threaten her with aura or sword skills. He hired her because she was a smart woman.

“You can trust me young master. I have been working as a live-in maid for the last ten years. I know when to keep my mouth shut. You can also be absolutely sure that I will never peek at you when you are in cultivation. I will set up a bell system. You will hear a ring when I want to talk to you about anything important, for example when your meal is ready.” She bowed slightly in gratitude and laid out her own plans graciously.

Maybe because of the kids, even though Catherine was only in her early thirties, she had a motherly demeanor. She already had a few strands of grey hair. She had calm black eyes with a few brown striations. Indicating low level earth affinity and almost no other elemental affinity. -She has the same predicament as me, I guess she doesn’t have enough resources to cultivate on her own.- He thought.

“Much appreciated. I am going to cultivate now. Another thing, don’t try to handle things beyond your ability. If I ever give you a task that you know you cannot handle, inform me.” He warned her slightly and exited her room.

.

Before he started cultivating, he memorized all the contents of the basic compendium of beasts and herbs. He had seen quite a lot of what is explained in the compendium in real life when he was on the run with his mother from the organization.

He did not want to cultivate mana for now. He was itching to get acquainted with Damocles. He practiced the two handed basic sword art with Damocles. It was exhilarating to practice with it. He could feel the air slice apart with each swing. With the last basic katana, there was always some resistance whenever he wanted to go beyond his fastest sword swing, be it muscle fatigue or air resistance. With Damocles, he could legitimately feel his swings were noticeably faster.

-It cuts through air quite similarly to how Leo cut through the fire sparrow sword that day. It cannot be just because it is sharp. There has to be a principle governing it. I hope I am able to understand it one day.- He murmured while practicing. The biggest advantage he noticed was almost no sound with his swings because of no air drag.

He only needed to practice for about half an hour before he felt no improvement anymore. Two years of basic sword art practice had already put his proficiency beyond the limit of the art itself. But he kept continuing to practice. He was enjoying it too much to stop. He only felt time pass by when the sun started setting. As soon as he stopped practice, immense fatigue started to set in. He only had two meals today for almost six hours of exhaustive sword practice, this was bound to happen.

When he went inside, he saw that the meal was already laid out on the dining table in the living room and a little cold. Catherine was sitting at one of the chairs staring into space. As soon as she saw her young master come inside, she immediately stood up.

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“If dinner was ready, why didn’t you call me?” He asked her in annoyance.

“I did ring the bell quite a few times, young master.” Catherine panicked and answered.

“Apologies. I will try so that it won’t happen again.” He felt guilty when he saw her panic for his own mistake. -I cannot become so oblivious to my surroundings again.- He steeled himself mentally. He took a quick bath and freshened up.

“It’s night already. You need to go out right?” He asked Catherine as he started eating his dinner. Today the dinner was lamb roast and potato wedges.

“Yes, young master. May I?” Catherine had her head down. She was still standing at the exact same spot.

“Let’s discuss a better working arrangement. Cook for two meals at night, so that I don’t have to worry about breakfast. You can leave at night after dinner and return in the morning after getting your kids ready for school. How does that… ?” He was mesmerized by the lamb roast before he could complete his sentence. It tasted ridiculously better than what he ever made in the last four years.

“This is fantastic. Why do you work as a maid? You should be working in restaurants.” Castiel complimented while gorging down the lamb.

“...” Catherine didn’t reply.

“That’s fine. You don’t need to tell me. Keep making the food like this and I am doubling your salary this instant. So the plan, how do you like it?” He saw that Catherine had some difficulties, and changed the topic.

“That is very generous of you, young master. I will take you up on that offer.” Catherine did not say much else and just stood there like a statue.

“Going forward I don’t want you to stand there while I am eating. Do something else or eat with me. Take the leftovers with you today, I imagine that should be enough for your family. You can leave immediately after you are done with the dishes. You don’t need to notify me.” He finished his plate and offered her the remaining food.

After washing his hands, he went back to his hour and cultivated for two hours. He was not in any hurry to remove all the impurities in his mana. He knew he would stay in the qi-gathering and bone formation stage for years, possibly decades because he had already decided to not form his golden core until he unblocks all his mana channels.

The next morning, after he woke up, he stretched his body according to the Fundamentals of Man for a few minutes. He had formulated a plan in his mind for his sword practice for the foreseeable future. He didn’t know if it would be efficient or even useful but he was confident this was the best path.

First he was going to practice quick draw and quick sheath with as little power input and mana as possible. This was to reduce muscle fatigue with each draw so that he can practice for longer. And he did just that. He went to the lawn, took his stance, closed his eyes, and just practiced quick draw and quick sheath.

One explosive release of mana to quickly draw his katana, retract the sword before anyone notices, breathe in, breathe out.

Quick draw

Quick sheath

Breathe in

Breathe out

Like clockwork.

He had barely practiced for an hour when overwhelming fatigue started to set in. He could barely move his arms enough for a normal swing of the sword. He went inside with his right arm limp on his side. It was vibrating at an extreme frequency. He went straight to his room, sat cross-legged on his bed, took a padmasana pose, and started cultivating Fundamentals of God. he was hoping mana cultivation will expedite the process of healing his muscle fatigue.

He had been cultivating for maybe half an hour when he heard clutter in the kitchen. Catherine had just come in and was preparing his breakfast. He stopped his cultivation and went for a bath. He prepared a bubble bath and just laid in the tub until he heard Catherine ring the bell.

He wrapped himself up in a bathrobe and went to the living room.

“Good morning young master. Today, I made pork soup served with bread. I cooked enough for you to have it now and again at 10 AM if you so wish.” He saw Catherine standing by the dining table with the breakfast already served. He already smelled the food just as he entered the living room.

“Smells delicious. Have you had breakfast?” Caterine had already pulled up a chair for him. He just sat and started gorging down on the food. He was famished with all the exercise.

“No young master. I will have it after you are done.” Caterine replied.

“Come, sit. Serve yourself. You are eating with me. That is an order.” He did not like Catherine just standing there while he eats. Catherine obeyed reluctantly. Castiel watched as she served herself the food. It was akin to dancing. She elegantly ate her breakfast with fork and spoon, quite contrary to how Castiel was gorging down on his food.

-She must have been a nobility or trained in noble etiquette at one point in her life. Her past is none of my business though.- Castiel thought. He went straight back to his room after breakfast to cultivate again.

He did observe a slight influence on lessening his mana fatigue due to mana cultivation. He could feel fully relaxed again only after 3 PM. -I did not take into account removing extreme muscle fatigue will take so long. I assumed it would take me two to three days to remove the sound my katana makes while scraping its sheath when I use quick draw and quick sheath. But as of now, this is going to take more than ten days.- he thought.

For the next few days, he practiced skills for two hours and mana cultivation in the remaining hours every day. By day 7, he was able to practice quick draw and quick sheath for one and a half hours at a time. He had drastically reduced the sound with each quick draw. He still felt like he needed more practice with quick sheath for people to not notice it when he uses the skill. He was also able to more freely manipulate the amount of mana he used with each skill.