"Could I please inspect your left arm lad?"
Theodore's eyes shot over to his left hand and his heartbeat quickened.
Despite having his eyes closed, Duunim, who was facing Theodore seemed to notice these small details.
'Here it is again.' Theodore thought.
That sick feeling in his stomach he had tried so hard to forget had returned again almost instantly.
Along with it came the memories of what he had seen in his awful dream.
The zeal he had displayed dismissing the error notifications had been useless after all.
Once again reality stared at Theodore and once more did it flip everything upside down.
That feeling had to go. He needed it to.
He said nothing to Duunim. Instead, he simply rolled up the sleeve of his left arm and held it in front of Duunim so he could see it.
The artificial butler nodded and opened his eyes.
This time they brimmed with the topaz blue color of machine spirit mana!
His pupils started changing and moving as if lenses were being adjusted and the mana his eyes emitted started changing shape.
The mana at first seemed like ethereal topaz colored incense smoke that was coming from his eyes in rolling waves but it soon focused.
Narrowing into a long cloud it left his eyes and leapt towards Theodore and engulfed his arm.
The mana circulated Theodore's arm a few times and before it dissipated.
Duunim frowned and he used the technique once more.
Theodore was observing these changes with rapt attention. As a cultivator, he was naturally very sensitive to spiritual energy but this mana technique fascinated him immensely.
He watched the mana cover his arm but it felt no different than normally.
It disappeared like a cloud of smoke in a soft breeze before he looked back up at Duunim.
The mana had now vanished from Duunim's eyes. His expression betrayed his frustration and curiosity before it returned to that of a polite professional butler.
"Sorry lad, change of plans. This here is way beyond my ability to understand."
"Luckily I was simply sent here to invite you to meet someone that might. I apologize for indulging my unwarranted curiosity."
Theodore's mind started racing as soon as he heard that.
"Invite? Me? To meet with who? You mean to meet this employer of yours?"
Duunim turned his head again towards Theodore's room, briefly sighing and walked to the front door clearly intent on leaving Theodore's house.
"I won't force you to go this is simply an invitation. My employer's identity is a bit special so it is not very suitable to meet here."
"You can certainly choose not to go."
"If on the other hand, you want some answers, how about I go and wait in the car while you make yourself a little bit more presentable. "
Theodore hesitated.
He had no clue who his employer could be.
The fact that he was given a choice though, reassured him and he knew, that if he really wanted to figure anything out, he would have to go with the butler.
He made up his mind.
"I'll go with you. Give me ten minutes."
Duunim reached for the front door and was about to step through but just before he did, he stopped briefly.
"Don't forget to bring the obnoxious little red thing in your room."
Then he left closing the door behind him, leaving a bewildered Theodore behind.
"What?! Red thing!? In my room?"
He spun around and looked at the closed door of his room, feeling a little sense of unease.
What the hell else was there that he was unaware of?! And in his bedroom?!
He slowly opened the door and yet, he saw nothing out of the ordinary.
His bedroom had always been sparsely furnished. A simple bed stood in the center of the room and to its right was a closet containing all of Theodore's uniforms.
The closet door was firmly closed and the other side of the room only contained a utilitarian desk, a window, and a nightstand beside the left side of the bed.
The only item on the nightstand was a trophy he had gotten for attaining his scholarship.
"Down here, bud!"
Theodore startled, his eyes darting around the room in the hopes of finding the owner of the voice.
"Naw fool, over here, under the bed, on the left side."
Looking below his bed he saw a little red sphere no bigger than his hand.
It was floating slightly above the floor on a little cushion of red mana and was spinning slowly.
He knew what this was now!
This little red sphere was in fact, a part of the trophy that he had received for his scholarship award. He had kept it next to the bed and it was usually suspended in a magnetic field on the trophy's base.
He could no longer restrain his curiosity.
"How the hell did this thing fall underneath my bed?!"
"..."
"Really man? you're gonna do us like that? Humph! Screw you! First, you wake this little lord up in your sleep, then you fricking starve us of mana for three days and nights!!! Do you have any idea how hungry this little lord is right now? If we end up stunted its all gonna be your fault!!"
The little red sphere completely ignored Theodore's question.
It was rather far from done berating him and continued to pour out its grievances:
"To add insult to injury you even slapped this little lord from his throne in your sleep. What the hell?! What kind of barbarian are you?"
Theodore realized that it must be referring to the base of the trophy as his "throne" and wanted to slap his forehead in annoyance.
Now he knew what Duunim meant by obnoxious alright. He rolled his eyes and rephrased his question:
"What is this little "lord" doing under my bed? How come you never talked before and what is this about starving you?"
"Finally! You have begun to realize your transgressions!"
The sphere rejoiced, its voice sounding like a mighty emperor had inhaled helium and was currently berating an incompetent eunuch to celebratory music.
"Alas, there is still hope for you!
We thought we'd never see the day, good for you!Here we thought you went full barbarian on us!"
"Good grief, who the hell lives in conditions like this huh? Have you smelled your bed sheets? What the hell went wrong in your head? You treat everyone like this?!"
"…"
"Yeah, I am just gonna go ahead and throw you out of the window!" Theodore went to grab the obnoxious sphere with his hands.
After a pitiful attempt at evasion, he caught it.
"Stop! Stop! We are sorry! please don't become a criminal! Resist your inner urges you barbarian fool!"
The small sphere howled as Theodore held it in his hands ready to chuck it out of the window, whether the window was open or closed didn't matter to Theodore anymore.
Then he remembered Duunim's words earlier.
He sighed, ignoring the lambasting coming from the sphere who by now had begun to curse the prior eighteen generations of Theodore's awful barbarian ancestors.
He glanced at it and simply spoke through gritted teeth:
"Mr. Duunim is waiting for me outside. Tell me what the hell is going on and fast before you can leave my room through the window!"
At the mention of the waiting Mr. Duunim, the insults spewing forth instantly ground to a halt.
"This great lord is a newborn machine spirit! You woke us up when you had your awakening."
"..."