Good morning, ma'am," I said to Odel, the matronly old woman who took care of the Obdorn baron's local house in Ivarnel.
Once I had started walking to and from school, I sometimes went back with Felton and Felris to their place to study or hang out. Odel and her husband, Gusius—the family butler, who went by Gus—were always kind and welcoming. Despite the household having significantly less wealth than Somnial's, the food was always delicious, and the married couple kept the place tidy and comfortable. I had even spent the night a few times, and had grown pretty comfortable there.
"Good morning, dearie," Odel replied with a warm smile. "All ready for the journey?"
"Yup." I grinned, turning back to Byron, who was unloading our carriage, handing my things to Gus. He loaded them right back up into a second, slightly older carriage.
Somnial's head butler turned to me. "Are you sure you don't want an attendant to go with you, master Tovar?"
I shook my head. "That's not necessary, Byron. Gus and Odel will take great care of me."
"As you wish," he said with a small bow. "Then we will see you at the end of your break when you return."
I waved after the carriage as it trundled away, turning when a noise from behind drew my attention back.
"Tovar!" Felris exclaimed, bursting out of the house with Felton in tow. "Are you ready to see Obdorn?"
"Sure am."
It would take a handful of days to reach the barony from Ivarnel, and then again to return. That was a significant chunk of our break just in traveling, but traveling could be fun as well. We'd still have a little over two weeks in Obdorn to rest, play, and—more importantly—check out the dungeon I had been interested in since I first heard about it.
I felt a little guilty about not heading back to Redding for the break, but it was much farther, and summer in Redding promised little more than weeding the fields and babysitting. The opportunity to check out a dungeon was just too promising to resist.
There was a harvest season break after the next term, but it wasn't as long as the summer and winter breaks, and the distance to and from Redding meant I wouldn't be able to make the trip to help when it would really make a difference. I knew the village would come together and make it work, and promised myself I'd go back for the longer winter break, even though there was little to do over winter aside from spend time together. Maybe I could do some hunting and help my family that way.
"Is that a sword?" Felton asked, sneaking a peak at my luggage.
"Yeah," I answered. I wasn't planning on going into a dungeon without a weapon of my own, even if we would have guards with us. "I train with it in the morning."
"Oh, right, you mentioned that when you stayed over."
"I'm sure we have swords at home," Felris chimed in.
I shrugged. If I was going to use it for self-defense, I'd rather have a weapon I was familiar with. I was used to the weight of this one, and finally felt like I was internalizing some of Byron's lessons, though my skill hadn't changed to reflect that.
Tovar, son of Hildan and Berrel▾
Level: 2
Body: 11 | Mind: 10 | Will: 8
Skills: [Mana Manipulation 1] [Metasurvival] [Swordsmanship 1]
All my studying over the past school term, and specifically my work memorizing the two spells I was working on, had raised my Mind to ten, which was the largest jump in my stats. Despite the serious sword training I did every morning with Byron, I wasn't doing that much else for physical fitness, so my Body had only grown by one, and similarly, my Will had only grown by one from [Mana Manipulation] practice. I knew it would catch up when our class moved on to infusion training so I could start actually casting [Create Water] and [Create Light].
Whispering secrets late at night during one sleepover, I had learned Felton's stats, giving me a basis of comparison for others my age. I wasn't really that much ahead of the curve; in fact, Felton's Mind stat was actually higher than mine, at eleven. Given how fast he picked up what Earth math I had taught him, it wasn't that surprising. He had been tutored all his youth, and education was good for the brain. He could also recite all sorts of facts and details about Argadia and how it operated with ease, as well as knowing a ton of key people and their relationships. My early Mind advancement had come mostly from focus training.
On the other hand, his Will was only at the base three needed for academy attendance, and wouldn't go up at all until our class learned how to cast. His Body was at four, which was the thing that I badgered him the most about, since in a lot of ways it was the easiest to train.
"If you've got swords at home, you can join me in my practice," I said, nudging Felton, who rolled his eyes.
"I'm going to be a mage, I don't need Body," he grumbled to himself.
"All right, children, let's get a move on," Odel interrupted, clapping her hands. Despite being in service to the family, she acted like a motherly figure to the baron's heirs more so than a maid, and spoke more casually than the staff at Somnial's manor. She treated me the same, as well, which quite frankly I preferred to always being referred to as "master Tovar," like Byron and the rest of the staff at the manor did.
Within a few minutes, we had the rest of the luggage packed up in the carriage. Gus sat up front, as he would be doing the driving, and the four of us were in the back, Odel settling in with some knitting needles and yarn.
"Hup!" Gus declared, setting the horses into motion, and the carriage carrying the five of us set off.
* * *
Obdorn was a picturesque territory, with a lively village that seemed to be full of healthy and happy people. The baron's manor, on a hill next to the village, was a stately mansion with well-kept grounds.
I stepped out of the carriage, stretched, and rubbed my behind. As nice as everything looked, it was hard to focus on much else aside from the relief of getting out of that carriage. The journey had been fun, for the most part, but my ass hurt.
Looking up, I saw Felton and Felris getting smothered with attention from hands down the most beautiful woman I had seen in my second life.
Yup, good genes.
"Mom, stop," Felton said, glancing at me watching them, though it was a halfhearted protestation. Felris just hugged her tight, a huge smile on her face.
Their mother's thick, dark curls shone in the summer sun, and emerald green eyes just like her two kids looked up and noticed me, granting me a dazzling smile. She wore an elegant green gown which matched her eyes, with an impressive décolletage.
"You must be Tovar," the man next to her said.
I blinked, only noticing him when he spoke, and put on my game face. Don't need to make a bad first impression ogling his wife.
"Yes sir," I said, giving the appropriate bow I had learned in etiquette class.
Felton pulled himself from his mother's embrace to introduce me. "Tovar, this is my father, Rikton, baron of Obdorn, and my mother, Trisellia."
"Pleased to meet you, sir, ma'am,"
"No need for all that," Rikton said with an easy smile. He was a handsome, stately man, whose physique only further made me think that Felton was much too scrawny and needed to work on his Body. Look at your genetic potential, dude! "You can just call us by our names."
I nodded, though I would probably still stick to 'sir' and 'ma'am'.
Behind my friends' parents was another child with a similar face and familiar eyes, a second son with dark hair like his mother, maybe six years old, give or take a year. "And this is Felris and Felton's younger brother, my second son, Fellius."
Fellius squawked as Felris scooped him up, giving him an energetic hug despite his protestations. "Look how big you've grown!"
"Thank you for being such good friends with my sweet Felton," Trisellia said, stroking his hair with love.
"Mom," Felton hissed, ducking his head.
I suppressed a chuckle. "Of course. He's helped me plenty as well."
Glancing over, I caught Rikton studying me, but he immediately switched back to a smile when I turned to him. I knew Felton had sent a letter back home detailing some of the math I had taught him, though I had asked him to say we learned it from a book. I hadn't proofread it or anything, though, and I suspected Felton didn't entirely hide the truth convincingly, if at all, but I wasn't really worried about it.
Plus, there was the whole "sponsored by the sage" element. He could be interested in either thing, or simply curious about the boy who had befriended his eldest children, in general.
"I'm told you were interested in seeing the local dungeon?" he asked me, and I nodded excitedly. "Trying to raise your Will?"
I was a bit surprised at the directness of the question, but I supposed that was what he had used it for with his kids. It's not like I had any obvious other reasons to see it, as another eleven year old.
"Ah, uh, that would be nice," I answered. I wasn't sure, with my Will at eight, that I'd be able to passively gain more Will just by being inside of it. Although if I could sit and engage in my breathing exercises for long enough, I might squeeze out another stat point.
"Well, first, lets get you fed and cleaned up from your travels," Trisellia said, shepherding us into the manor as Odel and Gus started unpacking our luggage.
We ate a nice, though fairly modest dinner. Obdorn didn't have the same kind of traffic as Ivarnel, and so had significantly less imported foods. Living in the capital was spoiling me, but once I updated my expectations and compared the meal to what I had grown up on, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Argadia could definitely use a spice trade, though, I thought as I finished up.
After eating, we took turns washing up, and I was shown to a guest room. We had arrived to Obdorn pretty late in the day, so it was already getting dark by the time I was settled in.
Getting comfortable on the guest bed, I mentally recited my spells, just like I did every night to make sure they stuck. Somnial had given me permission to bring the grimoires with me, but I didn't want the responsibility. They were too valuable, even if they were the cheapest in value of his books.
I had them memorized already, anyway. I wasn't particularly worried about introducing mistakes. At ten Mind, my memory was pretty good now, and so long as I went through them each day I should be fine. It would definitely be easier once I was actually casting them, though.
Memorizing a spell wasn't that different from learning the words to a song, and while I had somewhat forgotten plenty of songs from my first life, I knew it was totally possible to have tons of them memorized. Like a song, though, it was easiest to actually sing the song to recite the lyrics, as opposed to being able to transcribe them as text from memory. I figured performing the spells would be like that and help create stronger associations, but for the moment I simply had them memorized as text, like a well-practiced speech.
It was a little unfortunate that I was taking weeks off of studying a new spell, but at the very least, I had to keep up with my established studies.
After reciting each spell to myself, I switched over to practicing some meditation. I could fairly quickly enter a meditative state after so much time practicing, but I definitely noticed that the longer I went not practicing, the slower I was at doing so. I didn't want to waste this life spending hours a day meditating—at least, not now that I had access to study materials for spells—but it was still valuable to spend a little time every day centering myself.
My eyes fluttered open and I let out a breath, finishing my meditation, and I flopped back into the bed I was sitting on.
I hope we can check the dungeon out tomorrow, but Rikton and Trisellia probably want to spend some time with their kids now that Felton and Felris are home. It'll probably have to wait a day or two. Wonder what I should do tomorrow. Maybe I'll check out the village.
I had my small pouch of raab with me, so I could do some shopping if I found anything interesting. Doubt it, though. What would Obdorn have that I couldn't find in Ivarnel? Somnial, by way of Byron and his staff, provided me with everything I needed there, which apparently extended to my own wants on top of my base needs. Whenever I went shopping with Byron, any attempts at making my own purchases were stymied. The Great Sage provides, I thought with a chuckle.
Odel and Gus hadn't let me pay for anything on the trip to Obdorn, either. As a result, I still had two hundred raab on me from when I sold the goblin swords. It wasn't much, in the grand scheme of things, and I didn't really need anything, but maybe with the local dungeon there would be something cool I could buy that I could use.
Guess I'll find out tomorrow, I thought as I got under the covers and closed my eyes.