"Nice," Jacob gave a thumbs up as Kaxa fiercely swung his sword to the left in order to successfully parry the swing of a squire.

The courtyard was full of Knights and knight-to-bes, all of whom are not wearing armor so it's clear as day that all of them are downright bulky, which when compared to Jacob's thin but ultimately unfit frame is... rather saddening. Sure, Jacob's shoulders were broad thanks to natural development, and he also certainly towered over everyone here but in the end, the fact that he's basically wiry compared to even the youngest squire is very mind opening and he vowed that his muscles will be well developed by the end of the next month.

This should happen since he's gonna start working on his farm and he's sure that right as long as he doesn't ask for help, he's gonna be toned by the end of next month!

Yep! That sounds like a good idea, and he's gonna do it. He's not gonna hire anyone to help him with the fields, buy or make anything that can remotely make his farming life easier and he's also not gonna ask the villagers for help in the first two months that he's gonna work on his farm! And he's gonna do it all under the guise of being "authentic," or something along those lines.

"Master," Jacob flinched at the sudden intrusion of Alexi and he faced her to see the perpetually calm expression he had seen her wearing ever since he met her earlier this morning.

"Yes?" He asked.

"I do believe it is time for you to go out into town and see what kind of things you will need to buy for your farm." She said, pulling out a pocket watch from her large black and white dress.

"Did you have the list?" Jacob asked as he stood up from the bench.

"Yes," Alexi replied, walking forward and fixing the collar of his shirt, her hands trailed outwards and pulled the mouth of his hood, fixing it in place, "you should take better care of your state of dress, it is unbefitting of a mage to look like this," her hands went down and tied his robe together, locking the two hooks in place and then pulling the opening together so that it blocks the rest of Jacob's body, "you look like a rogue rather than a proper spell caster,"

"Thanks," Jacob thanked as he tugged on his hood instinctually, pulling it downwards and blocking the glare of the sun, "you're a good maid Alexi, don't let Xecania's words get to you,"

"I don't," she replied, turning around and making Jacob face her back, "others have always said that I have potential, and I have worked hard in order to fulfill their expectations, and I do believe I have succeeded,"

He smiled and followed after his maid, good for her for being so optimistic and positive.

"I'm glad, honestly, I thought you'd let it get to you or something," Jacob finished with a laugh.

"Mhmm." Alexis hummed.

Walking out of the courtyard and out into the streets, the two made their way back to the Duke's mansion and it was here that they both went their separate ways, with Jacob having the need to tell Asya that he doesn't need to be helped when it comes to both preparing his bath and dressing up afterward. Alexis reluctantly nodded before leaving on her own back to the maids' quarters.

As for Jacob, he made his way back to his room without any interruptions and when he got there, he immediately went into filling up a tub full of hot water and preparing his clothes while he was waiting for the thing to fill up, it was a quick and easy process that he's used to at this point and because of that, things went fast and by the 10th minute, he was lying down inside the tub full of hot water with a towel on his face, with the tub being made of both wood and concrete, he was definitely feeling a bit uncomfortable and as he relaxed, he murmured, "I fucking wish Horos would spread the word of creating tubs out of bronze,"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Because sure, the wood is definitely high quality and smooth to the touch but in the end, it's still wood and certainly not porcelain, melding stone into it didn't help with things either because even if it had been affected by a spell, the damn thing will still feel like, well, stone.

Copper or any other metal couldn't really be used for anything water related because they easily rusted but bronze is practically perfect for the damn thing, all people really have to do in order to do maintenance on it is to occasionally scrub it.

Whatever, the feeling of discomfort aside, the bath ended up being refreshing and Jacob was soon fixing his clothes while eyeing himself in the mirror, he left for the maids' quarters when he thought he looked presentable enough, and when he arrived, he thought that the place certainly looked... rather nice compared to what he expected when Alexis told him about the place, though when she described that it was like a small little town full of tiny, square shacks where the maids stayed, she certainly wasn't lying.

The place was like a tiny village where middle aged women wearing the same black and white dress ran around talking to each other.

All of them turned to face Jacob the moment that he stepped onto the small path that ran across the entire place, "hello," Jacob introduced himself with a wave, "I'm looking for Alexis?"

They all turned to look at each other, with some murmuring to one another but most went back to looking at Jacob, then to the oldest looking maid in the vicinity. She was an ancient thing, with wrinkled skin around the eyes and gray hair, despite that, her energetic strides betrayed her age as she walked forward and bowed at Jacob with grace, "If you can follow me, great mage,"

"Cool," Jacob said with pursed lips as he followed after the maid.

"Thanks for the help!" Jacob waved to the maid in thanks as she walked away from him and the shack without saying anything more, she had been silent the entire time actually, and Jacob guessed that it was either because that's just how she is or it's because she's gotten old. And it's not like she hates Alexis too right? Xecania was a special case, Jacob learned that when she and Alexis went to see the knights training and saw them being friendly with her.

He knocked on the door and waited for the girl on the other side to open it and as he stood there, he tapped his foot rhythmically while looking around, there were maids staring at him from the distance but he ignored that to stare at the brickwork in front of him, the house wasn't painted, revealing the lines between the red bricks, a single swinging wooden window was placed in the building's front alongside a door with the same premise, just larger.

A few seconds later and the door opened to reveal a fully dressed Alexis wearing her maids' outfit, her hair is still wet and she looked like she hadn't prepared at all, and noticing this, the first thing that Jacob did is apologize, "sorry,"

"It's fine," Alexis said as she grabbed something from inside the house- which is a towel apparently, and started wiping her hair, "I assure you that I finished quite a while ago and have only been drying my hair,"

"It's fine to take your time," Jacob said, standing there without budging even as Alexis narrowed her brown eyes at him, "I'm serious," he added.

She went silent and... "thank you," ... bowed at him, "can I close this door while I prepare?"

"I'm not into doing that, don't worry." nor was he into her really, she had a pretty face but a young him had been reprimanded about having feelings for maids rather harshly, since then he's learned not to do it and simply treat them as professional caretakers and cleaners that they hire in order to not bother with the tedious stuff.

She bowed again and closed the door in front of him. Another wave of waiting later and Jacob found himself leaning against the wall, he closed his eyes, thinking; what the hell is he planning on buying when it comes to farming gear? From what Xecania told him, 14 Gold is a lot for a farm, that much can buy him a lot of things, from animals to actual farming "machines" that can automatically till the land but he's not planning on buying any of that yet.

So what should he buy?

Humming, he opened his eyes and checked the list, there, he started reading through the thing, 'well a few things come to mind,' he thought as he kept reading, 'Automatic sprinklers sound like something that'll make things quicker, so some of those I guess?'

Reading on, Jacob started categorizing his stuff, from items that he should prioritize the least to things that he should buy later.