On the path gilded with gray stones, right in front of the new servants' temporary residence, a group of servants stood in order, behind two old servants.
Under the command of the two old servants, the new servants reigned them-selfs and chose to obediently wait for the manager.
... a few minutes later!
A man in his thirties, brown hair dressed in black too, like the other managers they saw earlier, slowly approached them.
with a short bow, the two old servants greeted the new manager "good morrow, Mr. Colton!"
"Hehe, no need for courtesy, hello, and welcome everyone to the Aidass Manor!" greeted back Colton in a cheerful tone, a genuine smile on his face.
"Hello! Mr. Colton"
Echoed back the servants in unison.
"Well, let me properly introduce my self, I'm manager Colton, and for those among you who are not aware of the specifics, I'm a low-rank manager" introduced Colton himself and elaborated about his rank.
Marik and the other servants were a bit shocked, they didn't know a manager like them servants has a rank too, prior to this, for them, it's just manager.
"Hehe, be it a servant or a manager, both have ranks, and for managers accumulating loyalty points is not enough to rank-up, you need strength to deal with the responsibility and worthy of the power that comes with the rank-up!" looking at the astounded servants, Colton elaborated more with a chuckle.
This only added to their shock, what is he talking about? strength and loyalty points! where did this come from?
"You don't need to concern your selves with this, but you need to understand the difference between the managers, I chose the path of Aura and I'm currently a 5th step practitioner, to become a middle-rank manager I need to reach the 8th step! and 11th step for the high-rank manager!" Colton explained slowly and clearly.
amidst the dazed servants, Marik spoke "Mr. Colton, are managers allowed to see Aura training manuals? and what the deal with loyalty points?"
"mm! good questions! for your first question, the answer is yes and no! and the second one I will get to that point later!" answered Colton ambiguously with a smile.
Marik was bewildered! what do you mean by yes and no! just answer the d*mn question! why the need to be perplexing?
Enjoying Marik's constipated look, Colton explained: "yes! managers are allowed to choose an Aura manual, and NO!, managers don't have the permission to browse these kinds of books by 'default', and the same applies to servants"
"Does that mean we get to learn how to ignite our Aura!?" asked one excited servant, voicing out what Marik and the others have in mind.
"Hehe, again yes and no!" said Colton laughingly, he sure is having a good time playing with these youngsters, this is not the first time doing it, every time the manor receive a new batch of servants he volunteers to take on the job of showing these new youngsters the ropes.
Marik is already getting annoyed with his attitude, instead of waiting for an explanation he mulled over it in his head, should be the loyalty points he talked about earlier! and seemed logical and strange at the same time considering the monarchy system ruling the kingdom; logical for Marik because he came from Earth, you work hard and excel you're rewarded! yet for the nobles in a traditional monarchy system to give the commoners a chance, that clashes a bit with his beliefs about nobles and the status stratification in a monarchy.
"Does Mr. Colton means that if we work hard, we have a chance in acquiring an aura manual or anything we need as long as our hard work is enough for the transaction, and I guess the loyalty points are the quantification of our work and contribution to the family!" Marik pointed out his opinion, it was nothing great in Marik's perspective, but for the other servants with their common background, that was nonsense, what are you talking about? we are servants! we are here to work and that it! the servants were shocked and scared to death at the same time, he's dead! to think he had a great future!
unlike the new servants, the two old servants, and Colton didn't show any exaggerated expression on their faces but inside they were amazed.
"Calm down, what he said is right! but tell me! how did you know that? or maybe someone already told you?" Colton calmed the nervous servants and looked toward Marik to see why would a new servant speak the way Marik did.
Marik in the other hand is already aware of why the other servants reacted that why, but that the only logical explanation he could think of, while the other servants didn't think deep into it, we are allowed to train in Aura, there must be a special manual for the servants, that could even be rigged to make sure they don't betray the family! that just common sense!
"Well, Mr. Colton practically said it all, I just had to connect the dots!" answered Marik in a calm tone, showing no fear or panic over saying something taboo.
"And you don't find what you said wrong or weird!" asked Colton with interest.
"Yes, a bit strange to be honest, it's not common for a noble family to be this generous with commoners, but that is the only logical explanation I could come up with!" replayed Marik with a bit of uncertainty.
Seconds passed, Colton kept looking at Marik, in deep thoughts 'it could be the thing from twenty years ago still affecting the mindset of commoners!'.
"Anyway, I need you all to listen to me clearly, everything you do from now on will affect your loyalty points and subsequently affect your future in the family. how do you gain loyalty points? first, doing your job, the one allocated to you will gain you a fixed amount of points that depends on your rank, and the other way completing missions! you may wonder how that works since we already have work to do? simple, whenever you get free time you can visit the mission hall, brows the tasks listed in the hall, either through luck or effort, try taking on one of the tasks that you think you have the strength or the means to accomplish!" explained Colton slowly and as simply as possible.
This took the servants by surprise, especially the missions, it felt like adventurers to them.
"Is there any kind of penalty in case we failed the mission?" asked Bob with apprehension, signs of confusion and amazement still on his face.
"No, there is no such thing as a penalty. to be clear, the missions are not filed under a specific individual, you don't accept the mission. if you think you have a chance at the mission, do it. but others can go at it too!" further explained Colton.
As if he remembered something, Colton added "oh yeah! excelling at the job you are assigned to is another way to gain loyalty points!".
Hearing what he said, all the servants looked Marik's way.
Colton was confused but didn't ask for an explanation of their behavior.
"Now we are done with loyalty points, I'll be sending you to where you were assigned and before that, I will show you the Mission hall since it's not far from here, and about how loyalty points are spent and used you'll slowly come to understand that in the future."
pointed out Colton then turned and followed the gray stoned path while gesturing for the servants to follow him.
Treading on the gray stoned path, Colton explained more on the mission hall, which shows its importance.
Marik now understands that the mission hall is a building of two floors, the first floor is mainly where the servants of the different ranks go, while the second floor is for the managers, that doesn't mean servants are not allowed in the second floor it's just the missions in the second floor are so hard they may even lead to death.
Colton talked about the types of missions you will see on the second floor and the majority of them are about collecting intelligence, the top-secret kind of information that requires infiltration and spying where getting caught means certain death.
'this hall of missions seems to be a fun place worth visiting, that may spice up life in this world!" thought Marik with a zealous smile burnishing his face.