After introducing me to all her friends(gym equipment), the clock that was attached to the wall made a loud ring. The minute hand was on twelve while the hour hand on seven.

"Oh, it should be time for dinner now. Let's go." Rachel said, all the while dragging me back out the doors and up the stairs.

Once we were at the ground floor, she brought me over to a room with large double doors. The two doors were already opened wide.

"You know proper dining etiquette right?" She asked me right before we went into the room.

If it was just dining etiquette, it was pretty similar to my previous world so I figured I should be fine.

I gave her a silent nod and she let go of my arm while signaling me to follow suit.

As we were about to walk in, I saw a line of maids and butlers coming from the other side of the hallway. They were holding plates with metal cloches over them.

"What are you waiting for? Come on." She grabbed my arm again and pulled me into the room.

Upon entering the room, I was awed by how nice and cozy it looked. At the very back was a large window that displayed the beauty of the outside garden. To the right side was a nicely lit fireplace even though it was summer time. That's strange, I didn't seem to be able to feel any heat coming from the fire.

At the long table, there were four people waiting for us. One of them was a senile old man while another was just a little girl that looked a couple years younger than us. There was also a gorgeous blonde haired woman.

The woman and the little girl were seated to the right near the fireplace while the old man was on the left. Sitting in between the two sides at the far back was a man in his 40s. There weren't any distinct features beside his rather large physique. He was probably double my height if he fully stood up. Judging from the fact that he was sitting at the end of the table, he was probably the owner of the mansion, in other words, Rachel's father.

"So you are Daniel I presume." The man said with a welcoming smile.

Just as I was about to introduce myself, Rachel stepped in to introduce them to me.

"The one that greeted you was my father. The old man over there is my grandfather. The woman is Isabelle. And she's Jane." She said pointing at the little girl.

"Old man huh. Haha, I guess I am about that age aren't I?" Said the grandfather.

"Everyone, this is Daniel and I invited him to stay with us for the summer." Rachel said, ignoring her grandfather's rambling.

"Alright, alright. Sit down and we'll talk over dinner. It looks like you have grown since the last I saw you." Chuckled the father.

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Rachel went and sat down next to the old man and she eyed me as if telling me to sit next to her.

After taking a seat, I made direct eye contact with the woman who gave me a smile. Opposite of me was the little girl. She pretended to not see me when I looked at her.

Shortly after, the line of butlers and maids I saw from outside the dining hall came in.

A maid came up to our side of the table and set up the tableware for everyone. She then went to the side to bow and stayed there standing. The same went for all the other butlers and maids. They came and placed the dishes on the table and removed the cloches that covered them before standing away to the side.

Finally, there was only Mr.Dean left. He came up to each and everyone of us placing a glass of some mystery beverage on the table. Once he did that, he went to the side and signaled all the other servants to leave. He stayed standing at the side as all the other servants left the room.

"Let us all give a small toast to our guest who will be staying with us for a while, Daniel." The man said while lifting his glass up. Everyone else placed their hands on their own glass so I got myself ready to toast as well.

After hitting the cups together, I saw everyone else taking a small gulp out of their cup so I followed suit.

It was sweet, really sweet. The aftertaste left my mouth slightly bitter. Was this some sort of alcoholic beverage?

"Oho, this your first time having ale?" The grandfather gave a joyful laugh.

So it was ale. It tasted pretty good.

I looked at the food on the table. They all looked amazing and some were even garnished. These were all definitely made in the hands of a great chef.

"All right, enough waiting. I am sure everyone is hungry. Let's eat." The father said.

—3 hours later—

I was currently back in the guest room laying on the bed. I didn't really need sleep but I was busy contemplating over what we discussed during dinner.

Rachel's father, Ross was the Duke which made the blonde woman, Isabelle, the duchess. Judging from the way Rachel addressed her, she didn't seem to be her mother. From what I heard over their conversations, Rachel apparently has a brother that is currently working at The Wizard's Tower.

Rachel's father told me to address him as Mister Ross instead of Duke Ross or Your Grace which were much more formal. Apparently, they had a private portal and Rachel had decided to use that to get to my home village. I felt like she was missing a couple brain cells since there weren't any portals in my village and the closest one would be at that Holy Church branch. Despite that, Mister Ross assured me that it would be fine since they had an advanced portal or whatever that meant. From what he described, the portal allowed us to travel anywhere as long as there was a location in mind.

For a father, he struck me as a rather outgoing and nice man. I was able to get along with their family pretty well.

The time was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon just after lunch so there really wasn't any rush.

After thinking it over, I got up and sat on the bed in a lotus position. Since I didn't exactly need sleep, I decided to work on my Mana Circulation that was close to passing level 9.

—2 hours later—

I heard a disturbing clicking of footsteps from above that awoke me from my meditative state. What was going on? The clock read that it was midnight which was quite the ominous time for some sort of event to occur. I didn't exactly have anything to do and I could circulate my mana perfectly fine with distractions but there was something about the footsteps from above that annoyed me.

From what I knew, there should be no third floor and the attic should be a storage area. It didn't make sense for someone to be loitering around in the attic at midnight. The footsteps were very quiet, but for someone like me who was used to the sound of the quiet night, I could hear it as sound as day. Since the clicking was so quiet, the only conclusion I could draw was that someone or something was on the roof.

Sitting on my bed wasn't going to change anything so I got off the bed and opened the windows.

It wasn't raining either and my guts told me that there was definitely something going on.