It is 5pm on the next day, we dress up and wear formal clothes because of the occasion. I wear a striped shirt which was puffed at its cuffs and Abberon wear a black dress which we buy at a Fashion Shop for Nobles and by the time we finish getting ready it is 5:45 so we decide to make our way to the Duke's place of residence. I open a gate to the Mansion where the Duke is living, although the Duke has a territory separately he spends most of his time here in the Royal Capital due to the nature of his work.
What we see in front of us is a glorious looking mansion made out of white marble which had a lake on the backside of the mansion with the sunset reflecting on that water which is ever so slightly shimmering and a huge garden with the statue of Goddess Belladina present in the centre of it. We go near the gate and present our identities to the guards who were already informed about our arrival so after letting the Duke know about our arrival they let us in. As we entered through the gates a butler working for the Duke greeted us and took us to the meeting room where we are supposed to meet with the Duke.
After knocking on the door and hearing the Duke's reply the butler brought us in and closed the door and left. Inside we see a Blonde haired middle aged Duke, and beside him is his wife a beautiful brunette with the ends of hair curled up in frills, she has some keen senses. I almost blurted out seeing her gaze and their 12 year old Daughter Sera. The Duke smiled at us and welcomed us in while Sera was just staring at us blankly and the Duke's wife looked at us curiously up close and then nodded saying
"Ahh! Very good, very good indeed. You definitely were saved by some good people, both of them are 5th circle magicians, well this boy is closer to 6th circle. Also they both are free of any malicious intents."
Oh, even though she doesn't know that I am a 4th circle magician she is able to comprehend my power just from the aura I am leaking, I need to train more to stop the leaking of my aura or it might create problems against an intelligent opponent. Due to certain circumstances my power is way more than my actual cultivation but the actual events are a story for another day.
The Duke looked even happier and apologised regarding his wife checking our motivations but that is to be expected from the Royal family because we just happened to save a Duke when he faced a problem and the abilities which we possess are scary as well, if I was an enemy I can bring a massive amount of soldiers with me straight to the capital without even stopping and our combat abilities as well are not subpar. We paid it no mind and are guided by the Duke to the banquet hall where a large number of dishes are prepared for us.
We sit down as he thanks us again for saving him, his daughter and his guards. He then opened up a bottle of wine and toasted us. We have our food while we discuss about going and clearing all the dungeons aiming for Dungeon of Sunset, he is surprised because of our ambition but recovers soon because it is one of the goals of adventurer's but nevertheless he reminds us about the dangers but didn't try to stop us after looking at the determined face of Abberon.
He then asks a butler to get something and after around 10 minutes the butler showed up holding a tray with 2 pouches and a small chest. He hands us the two pouches each with each pouch containing some money, I don't even open to check it because that is rude to the Duke but then the Duke said something which urged us to check it in a hurry. He says that each pouch contained 10 Million Aurum, which almost made us do a spit take.
We immediately check the contents and say that we can't accept that much money but he urges us to take it saying that we will need them for our future. Then he handed us 2 tokens which had the crest of the Duke on it, stating that it can be used to access locations and services only to nobility, it is not actual nobility but something which have the possessor access the same amount of respect and accessibility when it is handed by the Duke.
To thank him, I take out a special storage bag I have prepared. It is made out of a behemoth lizard's leather and has a storage space of a 1000 Sq.Ft. and when he hears about it his jaw almost drops and he looks confused as he asked again
"1000 Sq.Ft.?"
"Yes"
He then hugs me and thank me, although he has enough money to buy a few storage objects but because Space-Time magician's are so rare these items are almost never found and if they are they cost a fortune. He thanked us again and after all the formalities were over we leave the Duke's Mansion and head back to the inn and decide to leave for the Kijin dungeon tomorrow morning after we disperse for the night in our specific room's and I embrace slumber after meditating.