"Good morning," Jacob waved to the Lezatian family as he entered the large dining hall everyone was eating in, food was currently being served by the maids and as a start, the appetizer is a large basket of fried long-bread wrapped in crumbs. The rest of the Duke's family was already seated and all of them turned to nod at him respectfully as he made his way to his seat, which is now right next to Xecania.

She gave him a smile as he pulled on the chair and made himself comfortable, "Good morning Jacob, did you have fun yesterday?"

"I did," he replied as he grabbed two pieces of bread for himself and took a bite, "you were right about recommending those dating spots-" which he didn't really use much save for the carnival, the cliffside, and the restaurant that the date finished in, "- and I think Asya enjoyed herself too,"

"Glad that I could help," she replied as she took a bite out of her own bread, there were around 5 of them on her plate and Jacob can only guess where all that food goes inside her body, "I've seen her before," Xecania commented, furthering the conversation- which the rest of her family is oddly interested about. Jacob noticed Xecania eye her father with the corner of her eye before she spoke again, "She likes books too doesn't she?"

Jacob nodded, "very much like the two of us yep," he lied, he wasn't actually fond of books back in his old world nor this one, he did read occasionally, yes, but he was more of a physical type of guy that prefers drawn pictures instead of words, "I think you'll get along well with her,"

"I am of that opinion as well," Xecania replied.

Their small conversation ended when the Duke coughed into his fist and all attention was suddenly on him, right next to him, the house's oldest butler stood stoically, "I've just been informed that breakfast is now ready," says the Duke, turning to everyone, "so, children, if you would like to grab a few more of the bread, then please, be my guest and do so before it gets taken away from the table,"

Everyone including Jacob and Xecania held their hands out into the basket and took bread for themselves. Jacob personally, just grabbed another two and didn't really care about what the rest took. When everyone was done, Duke Lezatian nodded to the aged maid standing right next to him, and without any more prompting, she moved fluidly and took the basket of bread away from the center of the table.

Breakfast was quickly served and it was simple all things considered, stewed meat paired with bread, bowls were handed alongside the utensils and as everyone silently ate, Jacob couldn't but feel someone from his right staring at him, turning his head to face it, he caught the Duke's oldest son just in time turning his head away from him, the guy was red from neck to ear and Jacob wondered why- before he realized that this must be the guy that Asya said wanted to marry into her town.

Well, he knew that much already but kind of forgot about it at some point. Well, he's reminded now as well as pretty concerned about how everything is developing but since he can't really do anything about it, Jacob just focused on eating while thinking about asking Xecania for any advice later on, they both already agreed that they'd be meeting in the library for the entire duration that Jacob is staying here.

When dinner was done, the Duke took that as a time to make a sudden announcement and as everyone is waiting for him to do so, he faced Jacob and asked, "Did you like the food?"

Having no other choice but to nod and agree, Jacob did so, well, it's not like he's lying about it so no loss there. "Yeah." He added at the end of the gesture, "It tasted good,"

"Would you, say, like to eat it every day if you have the chance?" Now Jacob was suspicious, where the hell is the Duke taking all this to?

Stolen novel; please report.

Again, he nodded just to be polite, and the Duke- which Jacob never expected to ever act this way, he thought of him as more of a "muscle head" kind of guy but he guessed that years of running a territory would change someone, - smiled at him and said, "that's great! Because the maid who prepared this stew wanted to go with you,"

"What?" His words were mirrored by everyone sitting at the table.

"Father," Xecania stared at the Duke with a confused expression and narrowed eyes, all the while lightly shaking her head in disappointment at him.

"Now, now, I know this all seems suspicious," it is, Jacob voiced internally, "but I assure you all that there isn't any trickery going on here," explained the Duke, "circumstances have simply happened and because of that, a maid came up to me when I was preparing Jacob's gifts and said that if the young lord hasn't hired a maid yet, she would like to volunteer."

"But I'm not a lord?" Jacob said, much to the agreement of everyone on the table.

"Please, being humble is good but doing it too much often detracts from the entire point," retorted the Duke, "the King would happily give you a noble title and land to lord over if you were to go to the capital and display your spells and power,"

"Is that how everything works here?" Jacob asked Xecania, getting silence in return. She was still too busy glaring at her father. Jacob turned away from her to respond to the Duke, who looked oblivious to all the glares people were shooting at him.

"No, of course not." The Heiress answered when Jacob was just about to reply.

"It was a simply jest, of course," says the Duke, "though I wouldn't doubt that Jacob is capable of earning such title, given that he is not only a [Mage] but also a powerful one at such a young age,"

"Thanks?" Jacob replied, "But back to the maid, why?" He asked.

"Surely someone like you wouldn't want to do all the work inside the house?" Duke Lezatian countered, "It would be unbecoming of a man as well as someone of higher birth to do that,"

"Well a maid or two wouldn't hurt but-" he wanted to say that he was planning on hiring them back in the village but he was already cut off by the Duke.

"That's great! Then you'd be happy to have her correct?" Duke Lezatian questioned.

Jacob frowned, how can he say no to this? Not only is the man of the house offering him "aid", he is also being friendly about it and it's not like Jacob has any past transgressions to base his denial off of so left with no other choice once again, Jacob politely accepted the offer as to not seem like a bad and thankless person, "yes." He answered, "How can I say no to help?"

"Indeed!" The Duke happily replied, "Now, I know that she may seem young," which in other terms, is a bad thing if you want someone to take care of her house, because young people are often seen as... inexperienced when it comes to cleaning and thus, maids are often preferred to be taken from a percent of the population that should have an experience when it comes to taking care of homes, a.k.a older, married women who are in need of jobs, "but I assure you that she is quite capable as a maid, in fact, she's the one who cooked that stew just now."

"Dad, that was just a stew," retorted Xecania, taking Jacob's words out of his mouth. "How hard can cooking it be?"

The Heiress stopped talking when the Duke sent a glare her way and when Jacob tilted his head slightly to look at her, she had her head lowered, "like I have said," the Duke continued as if nothing just happened, "the girl is unmarried, young, and may seem inexperienced but I assure you that she is quite capable when it comes to household chores as well as very hard working,"

"Why are those all the points that you're trying to emphasize?" Jacob asked, wondering why the hell the Duke would advertise the maid as a sex slave, there are genuine laws back in the modern world that should prevent the rape of maids- especially official ones, - and he's pretty sure that they exist here as well, also, getting yelled at by his father for trying to kiss a maid when he was young told him everything he needed to know about their proper treatment as well- so really, Jacob didn't feel anything from the Duke's words, no matter how hard he's advertising her "good" points to him.

"I get it, just say that she's hard working," he said aggressively.

"I suppose you're right, I should've just gotten to the point," the Duke said, "forgive me,"

"Well, I already did so don't worry about it," Jacob replied, "I still do hope to meet her soon, though."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, I'll send her to the library after breakfast, and by that point, she would be your personal maid even when she's inside this house," the Duke explained and Jacob only nodded.