Mike, Irina, and Montegue were walking back down the ground floor all the while Irina was talking about the various pictures that were hanging from the walls of the hallway and telling him who they were and what they meant. The odd thing was that the pictures had nothing to do with the Castleburn's and when Mike asked about that the only response that he got from her was that they were once famous people that they decided to remember. Seeing her not telling Mike just let her be and dropped it to let her continue with the explanations as they passed by them all.
When they finally reached the front door Irina had told Mike everything about most of the items as they were coming down and of course, Abbey stored the information as it might be useful for Mike at a later time.
The doors are opened once more and they all walk down the red carpet once more to the carriage that was waiting like before. The only different thing was that the servants were not standing there bowing as they probably had more important matters to attend to.
"Safe travels Micheal," Irina says as Mike climbs into the carriage after he tells the driver the name of the inn he was staying at
Montegue was not going with him this time and was just showing him to the door and making sure that he left the premises.
"Thank you once again, Mrs. Irina, for making me a contracted adventurer with your family," Mike says from within the carriage
"Oh right I almost forgot here is your payment fro the documents and here is our family crest," Irina says while taking out a sizable pouch and a token with an emblem of the Castleburn household on it
The emblem was a gold cup on a red background with the liquid inside the cup being dark in color. It was pretty simplistic but Mike liked it as he felt that their family emblem fitted their nature perfectly as they tended to drink blood.
Mike takes both items from her and Mike puts the money inside his system as there was now more space than before thanks to turning in the documents that he collected. Now, why did he not keep them to use against the mayor so he could take some steps to complete the quest regarding him? It was because the mayor seemed to have covered his tracks in that area quite well as Mike was not able to find anything that could be used against him when he skimmed through the items so that Abbey could process them and store them in her seemingly infinite memory.
Mike pocketed the emblem of the Castleburns and thinks of something else that he should do before he leaves this place. So he quickly stops the carriage driver from leaving which prompts him to stare at Mike with an angry expression as he just wanted to be done for the day as he kinda hated his job. Mike ignores the driver as he leaves the carriage and walks over to Irina who was standing there at the edge of the carpet preparing to wave goodbye to Mike but seeing him return confuses her.
"I forgot something as well," Mike says as he walks over to her
Confusion is evident on her face as she did not have a clue as to what Mike could forget that he needed to come over to her.
In a swift and flowing motion, Mike grabs Irina's hand and brings it up to her face before he kisses the top of her hand.
The action was so sudden that Irina froze up as this was a custom that was shared between nobility however do to her father being so overprotective of her no man had dared to touch her let alone kiss her hand.
"I forgot that," Mike says as he does a quick bow and moves back to the carriage
This time the carriage driver was completely shocked at what he had just seen as no human had ever touched his master's daughter and seeing this happen he could not help but turn pale at the thought of his master's rage once he learned what this human did while as a guest.
"Aren't we going to now?" Mike asks from within the carriage to the driver who was now busy processing what he had witnessed
"Erm... yes we are going now," The driver says as he flicks the reigns and the carriage starts moving once again
As the carriage starts moving Irina was still standing there on the carpet with her arm up in the air while she just watched it leave. She was feeling something that she did not understand as she had never felt before but it made her feel all tingling all over while she just watched Mike leave.
'Do I have something?' Irina thinks to herself as she puts down her arm and holds onto her other hand gingerly while reminiscing on what just happened, making her usually pale face slightly blush
"Miss your father is asking for you in his study," Montegue says from behind her
Montegue had also seen what had happened from the doorway between the two but him being the head butler he was trained to not let his emotions show that much, still when Mike acted as such he had also turned even paler than the driver did.
"Ah alright Montague," Irina says as she turns around and heads back to her manor
"So what do you think of him?" Irina asks Montegue as they enter the house
"He is weak but brave," Montegue says straight to the point
"Do you think he has room to improve?" Irina asks again
"Anyone can improve, it just depends on their limit and how much they wish to improve," Montegue answers as he opens the door to Mr. Castleburns study
'Then I guess I shall improve as well' Irina thinks as she walks inside the room
...
The ride back to the inn was pleasant as the road was relatively smooth so there were very few bumps as Mike was brought from the noble/wealthy area back to the inn in the commoner area.
As Mike left the carriage he tips the driver with two gold for his services which he gladly accepts from him as money is money and no one will turn that down. With that, the carriage leaves and Mike enters the bottom floor of the tavern.
"Micheal where were you!" A loud voice rings out as soon as Mike walks on in
"I was busy Dike I bought myself some equipment and met a friend of mine while out alright," Mike says as soon as he sits down at the table that Dike was at while Orion sits at the table and starts eyeing the food that was on Dikes plate
"Still you have been gone for hours I thought that you were kidnapped again!" Dike says as he bites into his meal of roasted ham, salad, and boiled eggs
Mike's stomach grumbles at the smell as he completely forgot to eat anything past breakfast this morning so he called over a barmaid to bring over so food for himself to enjoy and a plate of ham for Orion to enjoy as well.
"So how did you get that armor?" Dike asks
"Traded for it"
"Ha! Like a dwarf would trade their work to you" Mike starts laughing at Mike's answer
"I am serious I traded for it," Mike says again
"Look Micheal if you want to tell a lie for stealing something I don't mind at alright everyone has stolen something before I myself don't particularly care if you steal just know that if you are caught I am not getting involved you got that?" Dike says completely dumbfounding Mike
"Um... okay I will keep that in mind in the future"
"Oh and also don't steal something that is mine I swear on the gods that you will be in for a beating before you even know it," Dike answers in full seriousness
"I got it I never was planning to steal from you," Mike answers
"Good to know but just telling what happens if you were planning to," Dike says as he takes a bite out of his ham
"..."
Mike's food is brought over to him and Orion happily jumps up at the barmaid to get his food.
"Down Orion," Mike says, and instantly Orion who was just jumping on the barmaid about to knock her over sits down obediently
"Sorry for that," Mike says as he takes out his newfound wealth and hands her a gold coin as a form of apology
She takes it and hands Mike a plate of the same food that Dike had as well as a plate with just ham on it which Mike places on the floor for Orion.
"You named that little devil Orion huh?" Dike asks between bites of his meal
"Yeah I think it suits him," Mike answers as he starts eating as well
"Well I got to say whatever you have been doing for training him has worked wonders on him as that little bugger would not listen to me no matter what I said," Dike mentions
"I didn't do anything though I thought you did some training?" Mike asks confused as he had done no training with Orion ever since he got back
"Nope training that little guy would be harder than finding a level 3 spell in a bookstore," Dike mentions
'Abbey got any ideas' Mike asks
"Yeah all your pets will follow your orders to the letter and would even give up their lives for you," Abbey answers
'...'
That was an interesting answer but Mike did not want to force his pets to do anything as extreme as laying down their lives for him.
"You can change it so that they only follow command words," Abbey replies as she reads his concerns
'That would be perfect so can you do that for me please?' Mike asks
"Done"
'Thanks'
Mike goes back to eating his meal but he starts hearing some sounds of sloppy eating coming from underneath the table. Mike looks under the table and sees that Orion was digging in as well and was enjoying the food.
'Can you eat any louder?' Mike thinks to himself as he sees what is going on under the table
"Jeez guess he was hungry as well," Dike comments
"Yeah," Mike says as he goes back to eating
Everyone finishes their meal and they all head upstairs while Dike pays for the meal. They each enter their respective room and Mike sits on his bed while Orion hops on the bed and lays down.
'Guess I can do a few things for now' Mike thinks
He pulls up his system inventory before taking out the mana crystal that he had taken from the magic formation in the underground area.
'Abbey if I absorb this will the mana be taken by the system?' Mike asks as he takes a look at it
"It won't the system is only able to absorb mana from the air and it will not affect the mana in the crystal so you don't need to worry about it," Abbey replies
'Perfect then how do I absorb it?'
"Just meditate while holding onto it and the man will enter your body naturally"
'Alright let's do this' Mike thinks as he starts meditating
The crystal in his hand starts glowing faintly and as it does it starts shrinking ever so slightly at a speed invisible to the naked eye as it does so. Orion seeing Mike meditating gets off the bed but also feels the natural mana in the air moving towards Mike with the highest concentration of it coming from the crystal. Orion cocks his head to the left and decides to try and mimic what Mike was doing.
Orion sits and closes his eyes while trying his best to absorb the mana in the air but with Mike sucking the room dry Orion is forced to give up and try a different approach. He walks over to Mike and starts licking the crystal in an attempt to absorb the mana inside but that does not work so instead he places his snout on the crystal and tries to absorb mana like Mike is doing. Nothing happens at first but soon the crystal in Mike's hand starts shrinking even more than before as Orion starts absorbing the mana inside.
That is how Orion started to meditate with Mike.