I decided to visit the farm where my mother grew up. It was only about a 5 minute walk from the village so it was safe enough. As I got closer, I can see fields upon fields of all vegetables. I assume these fields are what feeds our village. No, there is too much being grown here. This food probably feeds several villages worth of people. A man with slightly graying black hair was out working the fields. I approached him. Without looking away from tending the field he talks.
“Might I ask why a little boy like yourself would venture to my farm?”
“My mother grew up here I was just visiting.”
The man lays his sickle down, he was cutting wheat with it. He turns towards me offering a handshake while speaking.
“Oh, I must be your grandpa then, my name is Grey.”
I give him mine and we head inside his modest home while talking more.
“So why now? After almost 7 years, why do you decide to visit?” Grey asks.
While I could have told him the truth, I decided to test him with capable liar.
“Well most kids don't leave the village until around this age and I was afraid of getting attacked by monsters.”
Judging by his face he could see right through my lies... This man has something different about him.
“I know that's a lie, not only can I tell by your face but you could have also come visit with your mother the few dozen times she visited.”
I feel dumbfounded. I don't remember Elise ever coming here to visit. We don't really talk much but now that I think about it, she did ask me a few times while I was training or reading and I blew her off. He could get a read on my face of what I was thinking.
“I guess you just now remember her asking. What were you doing that was so important you couldn't visit family?”
I decide not to lie. “I was training...”
He looked slightly disappointed by my answer.
“Well if you don't have time to visit me, at least have the time to learn the names of the maids and butlers at your house.”
I looked at him shocked. Thinking now, I don't remember a single one of their names. I can't remember many of the conversations I've had with them or my parents up until now... I've been so worried about training, I didn't bother to live like a normal person at all. Thinking that living is tedious is just not a good way to live.
Grey softly smiles as he almost reads my mind through the facial expressions I'm making.
“As long as you get it now. Oh and before you leave take this.”
He hands me a necklace with a cross on it. After inspecting it, I can see it has very weak protection magic enchanted on it but that's not why he gave it to me.
“Something to remember your grandmother by since you've never met her.”
I clutch it in my hands. I've never felt so ashamed in my entire life. I need to start caring more about other things besides training. I need to be a better person.
I've spent the last few days learning everyone who lives in our houses names and their appearances. We have 5 maids all ranging in age from 15 to almost 50. Starting with the youngest and working my way up is Kora. She's actually related to my mother, they're cousins making her a relation to me through my mother. She loves her job here since she gets to live in a giant house, even if she has to clean it. Hard to explain how she looks... Reddish hair, similar to mine and my mothers, slightly shorter than an average women her age... No apparent scars or anything like that either.
The next 2 are twins... How did I not notice before?! I must have thought they were only one person. They are named Ashley and Kattie. Ashley loves cooking and she makes all the food for the house by herself. I think she is pretty, it is hard to tell. Blonde hair... I'm really bad at caring what people look like. Same with names, it had taken me a considerable time and effort to learn their names.
Kattie has a slight almost unnoticeable scar below her lip. It is a distinguishing feature I could use to tell them apart. Kattie was one of the adventurers that with in my mother Elise's group. I probably learned the white mage class from her. She reads books in her spare time and dislikes housework. Often getting scolded by the older maids who catch her snoozing in different locations throughout the day. Even though she has bard and white mage as her classes, she is still in surprisingly good shape. Through constant travel during adventuring she has built up a physique. Often needing to help with more of the laborious tasks around the house.
The second oldest maid was named Beatrice. From her eyes I could tell she still holds a grudge against my family. I think she might have been related to the wet nurse my mother killed. Perhaps she just doesn't like serving people... I'm not sure. She isn't very pretty, at the same time she isn't ugly... I'll put more effort into fixing the broken relationship between her and my family... I need to be more caring to her children.
Lastly is Donna the oldest of the maids and also the head maid. She has a very kind face to her. A soft beauty peaks through the crows feet on her face. She must have been a real beauty in her younger days that is somewhat faded now. Always holding a smile and from talking with her, I found out she's actually a druid. That's probably where I learned it from. The very few mage classes I have are from the staff around here. It isn't like mages are rare or anything, it is just the size of the village is so small I haven't been able to learn many of them. They are more rare then strength or dexterity based classes though. Donna is the only one who doesn't wear a maids outfit, instead wearing her robe that makes her stand out far more. She is also the only doctor in the village and often leaves to make house visits to the few dozen other occupants of this tiny village.
I met with the 3 butlers, all 3 are brothers. Thomas, Timothy and Theodore… Not very creative names but they all seemed nice enough. Thomas was an inventor, who often liked to tinker with items. I would say the best way to describe him is covered in self inflicted injures from experiments. All 3 brothers have the same height, build and hair color so finding other distinguishing things about them is important. He's actually well known for the few improvements he's made to some of the local businesses.
Timothy was also an adventurer my mother traveled with for a short time. It turns out the he was a scout and a freelancer. So that's where I learned those 2 from. It seems like quite a few of the people in this house were adventurers at one point. Timothy took a blow from a hobgoblins mace in the leg. This ruined his career around the same time my mother had gotten married. He talks about her a lot. When I talk with him I get the feeling that he was in love with her at one point but it wasn't reciprocated. He normally walks with a limp and sometimes carries a walking stick with him. His wound is in a place that can't be healed with normal healing magic unfortunately.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The last and oldest brother was Theodore. He was a well respected librarian at the magic school in Shienta, the city to the east. Until someone caught the library on fire while practicing magic. He was blamed for their actions. He picked 2 support magic classes which is extremely rare. This is where I learned time mage and warden from. With learning they have to be actively practicing for me to learn them. Each person was using each of their classes almost unknowingly except for Theodore. He was using them passively to continue to level them up. Casting haste on himself to make tasks go by faster or a warden shield to protect himself when doing something dangerous. Classes can be used in everyday life in this way.
There are 2 children living with us as well. A boy around my age named Lance. He's actually the son of wet nurse who's name I found out was Rosie. She might have died because of my grandmothers death. It seems like Lance was too young to fully understand what happened. When he was old enough to understand everyone else told him a lie that his mother left to go on an adventure. Beatrice has been taking care of him since. It turns out even though he was still so young I might have picked up some classes from him. If I had to describe him in one word, that word would be energetic. Often bothering me while I was training to also train, then getting bored halfway through and running off. Beatrice forbade him from sparring with me so I have no combat experience in a body this small yet.
There is also a 10 year old girl named Trice. She's living in the house training to be a maid. She's Beatrice's daughter and she's very small for her age. Smaller then someone over 3 years younger than her. When Trice turned 10, I knew enough about her to get her a few tools for gardening. Which was a hobby of hers. Trice smiled the biggest when she seen my gift. It made Beatrice happy as well.
Title Gardener- Able to grow plants and herbs faster and with more effect (stacks with farmer)
I've kept working at the blacksmiths. While doing so I was still training in the morning for a few hours. The blacksmith I work for is named Duece. Back in the day he was a rival of my fathers. I would say he is a very dirty man, often covered in soot from the forges fire. He has a straggly beard and is one of the few truly strong people in this village.
I've started to talk more with my mother. She doesn't really act coldly towards me. Sometimes while we talk I'll get a smile out of her. We talk about blacksmithing the most. The one thing I know about my mother is she is beautiful. At the same time her temper often gets her into trouble with other people. One of the reasons she had to quit being an adventurer is she got into a fight with the leader of the adventurers guild in Merideth, the capital of this country. We also talk about her days as an adventurer and her father who she respects more than anyone else.
It seems Grey was actually an extremely important adventurer when he was younger. Even being in the party that managed to kill a dragon threatening a city to the north of the capital. Talks with my father are far more boring. He's always busy with the financial problems of the village. Even with that, it's very easy to get him to laugh at even the dumbest of jokes. I can tell he is a kindhearted person now. He just gets so easily embarrassed by his clumsiness that he doesn't know how to speak to other people when he trips or falls or drops and breaks something.
He's truly sincere about his love for Elise. When I mention her missing the work at the blacksmiths it seems he gets somewhat angry. I normally drop the topic by then. Perhaps there was a love triangle between the 3 of them? Duece is hiding a muscular and tanned body underneath that layer of dirt... I don't think so, I've never seen my mother show any signs of affection for him... Perhaps it is just my father just being paranoid? It's getting very close to my 7th birthday I think while I go to sleep.
Title Inventor- Able to see potential inventions easier
Job learned Tinkerer- Able to make improvements onto other jobs with the jobs you have
Job learned Engineer
Job learned Enchanter
Job learned Librarian - Able to more easily find books you need, slightly faster reading speed
"Wow! Thank you Thomas!" I thought to myself when I woke up. I got a job I didn't even know about. It seems like a very strong job. Thinking about all the modifications I could do to my gear once I level it up a bit makes me happy.
I wonder if there is a limit to the amount of modifications I could make to something. Could I make a crossbow with woodworking and automaton creation so that it can take simple commands. Also with engineering so that it self loads bolts. Also enchant with some type of magic… The modifications could make a seemingly useless weapon into something truly powerful. I could also sell heavily modified weapons for more than what I would buy them for. It seems brokenly overpowered if so.
I head to Thomas to talk to him about it. He says at low levels it can only do 2 modifications. As tinkerers level increases, you can add more as well as increasing the effectiveness. So it isn't brokenly strong to start but as I continue to use it, it will slowly get stronger. That is good to know.
“But don't you already have 3 jobs? It wouldn't be possible to do all of those things since it takes more jobs than what people can learn. Since you're already a blacksmith you can't possibly do half of those combinations, let alone all of them.”
Most people, including the staff at the manor don't know that I can use more than 2 classes and 3 jobs. When I first told Geoffrey about my class master of learning he warned me I shouldn't tell many people. Most people fear things they don't understand. I might even get kidnapped because of this. I avoid telling him for now with a lie.
“I was just asking a theoretical question.”