Kip sat before his desk, with multiple stacks of papers like towers on his desk. The decorum of said room was lackluster to say the least, with the only decoration in said room being the painting of himself and Joan Wolfheart. He looked up to it with a drop of his shoulders and a sigh, before taking in a breath to concentrate.
Immediately, with mana circulating through his body and mind, he got to work. With the mana flowing and reinforcing his mind with insane amounts of power, the world seemed to slow down to a crawl. The sounds of the world grew sluggish until it was nearly impossible to recognize them. He dropped his pencil to get a measure of how quick his mind had gotten by timing its fall in his mind. Counting the seconds for the pen to hit the desk, it took nearly a minute. Satisfied, he took the pen before it got a chance to either bounce or fall over, his hand made its slow journey to catch it, while his other hand went over to the mountain of papers he had to sort through.
He read the paper while it was being pulled out of its envelope, spent some time thinking about his own problems and about his daughter, and slowly wrote down what was needed of him. For this was one of the major avenues of money that his household and city had, in addition to monsters and beasts. His technique of speeding up the mind to this level isn't unheard of, adventurers can use it too if they train for it, but Kip was one of the few who could use it like this. It sounds like an extremely powerful ability to master, yet the drawbacks were just as powerful as its peaks.
For one, it was only your mind that sped up and nothing else. Your body still moved as your body ever could, and for those that just learned to use this ability, it could be extremely disorienting even to experts. Having so much internal time to decide what to do could also be detrimental to those with less patience. This doesn't mean those that are already impatient, but one did need godly levels of patience to avoid insanity or other mental damage that would build up with use - even he suffered with its use, despite his mastery.
Half of the papers, envelopes and documents had been answered, solved, or discussed in what could only be described as machine perfect precision. It was even greater than that, for Kip could think for literal hours in a second. And as he read through an offer made by a merchant near the capital city, he started to think again. Fantasize, even, about his family.
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Oh, how he grieved about the love of his life. How unfair it was for her to die with an infant Diana in her hands. And, remembering, how much emotion he had felt at that time. He was struck by grief like no other, watching the life of his love leave this world. Happiness at the sight of the infant named Diana in her arms, as their child opened her mouth to smile. Rage at the doctors, wizards, sorcerers and everything and everyone that could've caused this to happen with their possible incompetence. But taking an hour to think it through while a second passed, he couldn't truly blame them. There wasn't even any gods to blame, as those had been killed and exiled a thousand years prior. He could only watch as the light in his wife, his love, his everything, slowly grow dim. And the light in his smiling daughters freshly opened eyes slowly light up like the morning sun.
Kip watched his eyelids slowly open again, having unknowingly closed them for three whole seconds of real time. The memories of Joan would always be with him, and he would be the best father he could be for Diana.
He refocused on the letter again, reading through it once more. A noble with a focus on merchandise and other crafted goods, with the name of John Fox Junior, wished to collaborate with the Wolfheart family to manufacture and sell various merchandise using Vita and Diana as a focus for said merchandise. It would seem that John had been present in the tournament and was so caught up in the action that he managed to stand up, much to the worry of his assistants. It took a moment for him to remember the Fox family. A family known for their good work ethic and for never breaking a contract once made. The only oddity with the family is that every member of the core family suffered a physical condition or two. Kip remembered a drama made funded by John Fox Senior, where the whole point was to overcome one's limitations. In this case, early onset male pattern baldness at the age of nineteen.
He internally chuckled at that memory, and how Joan had giggled through a lot of it. And proceeded to spend another internal hour thinking about her. He had to focus. Yes, he would allow John Fox Junior to make merchandise using his only daughter likeness. On the condition that Diana is portrayed in a positive light. He didn't care much about how Vita was depicted. Thinking about Vita, Kip noticed the door handle having moved downwards.
Ah, it must either be one of the servants bringing him more papers to answer to or a maid bringing him some refreshments. So, with great focus, his perceived time slowly caught up to reality once more. The door handle, once so painfully slow, shot down and in came - "Diana?" He muttered, more to himself than to Diana. She waltzed in with such youthful glee, she actually skipped in with a big smile on her face and her hair in braids. She moved up to his desk, careful to not push anything around, and planted her elbows down with a smile that made one of his own to appear.