One week had passed since Carl was healed from the explosion which took a huge toll on his body. During those past week, a lot of things happened in the Silversword castle- particularly in the western part of the castle.
"Young master, will you not join the family breakfast again this time?" An old man wearing a butler uniform stood beside Carl, who was drowning himself in a book since dawn.
"No, George. I'm busy." Carl replied in a stern voice.
"I see. Then, I shall take my leave and report to the lord that your seat will be vacant yet again." The old man headed toward the door.
Carl, who did not bother looking up just seconds ago, slammed his book on the desk and stood up.
"Fine. I will go with you. It's just a breakfast anyway." Carl said with a nonchalant tone and stared right at the old butler's face. The old man watched Carl acting on his guilt with a gentle smile and clapped his hands thrice.
Three maids immediately entered the room with a bunch of attires on their hands. Carl watched them display those attires in front of him with great confusion. He got to admit, he did not understand why he needed so much attire just to have breakfast with his family.
"I believe you already took a bath, young master. So we will start dressing you up right away."
"No, I haven't took a bath." Carl replied, and all at once, the old butler and all the three maids stared at him with disconcerted eyes. Carl continued, almost muttering to himself, "...Yet?"
"Prepare a bath right away! What has butler Glenn been doing all this time?!" The room became utter chaos. The maids and other attendants ran in and out of Carl's room preparing his bath. George, who was ordering them from the side, took a heavy sigh and bowed before Carl.
"As the head butler of this house, I am truly sorry for the poor service one of my subordinates had shown you. I promise butler Glenn will be summoned at once and reprimanded for his underperformance as a but-."
"You don't have to do that," Carl cut him off. "I sent butler Glenn on errand last night, so there was no one to look after me. I believe you wouldn't blame Glenn for this."
George immediately locked eyes with Carl. He had been looking after Carl since he was a baby and knew him better than any other workers in the castle. But ever since he was healed from his injuries of the explosion, George sometimes found Carl to be slightly different from what he used to be.
'He must have finally hit the age of maturity,' George thought to himself. There was no way he could have explained it otherwise. Since Carl, his young master, could never speak up for himself not to mention for others like how he just did for Glenn.
"The bath is ready, young master." A woman in her twenties said that to Carl and all the other maids and attendants left the room.
"I'll be going as well," said Carl to George and he left the room.
*
Carl watched his reflection portrayed in the mirror as he soon as he entered the bathroom. From the first time he saw his new reflection, this was something which he enjoyed doing every time a mirror was on his sight.
"No matter how much I look at it, it really is not bad at all."
Pitch black hair and glittering red eyes. It was a beautiful feature which even in the eyes of Carl, who did not care much about looks, was a masterpiece of its own. However, as Carl continued to shift his eyes downward to his body, the proud look of his eyes dulled down a bit.
"Tch. He's way too thin."
The physique of Carl Silversword looked like that of a nutrient-deficient boy who only afford to eat one meal a day. It was the exact opposite of Carl's previous body which used to be a sturdy build capable of handling a blow even from dragons.
'Well, does not matter as long as I can continue living like this.'
Carl took his eyes off the mirror and got into the tub of warm water. Once he felt relaxed enough, he thought of the things that happened after he woke up as Carl Silversword.
One week. From the day he was healed from the explosion, Carl had been digging into the memories of the previous owner of his body along with several history books of the kingdom he currently resided to.
From what he could find out, he currently was a citizen of Rodia kingdom which by the way, was a kingdom that did not exist in his previous life. He almost mistook this as a fact that he might be in a completely different world. But after seeing the names of the other kingdoms and empires, he knew this was indeed the same world and that more than three-hundred years had passed since the death of Dean Slain, his previous self.
According to the memories of the original Carl, magic was extremely dominant in Rodia kingdom. This was because magicians played a huge role in the founding of the kingdom along with Galashiels, the first king. A magic tower was immediately built during the first king's reign and as time goes on, several magician guilds were formed under the authority of the tower.
However, there were several people among the citizens who could not handle mana, which Carl was a part of. Their numbers greatly surpassed that of those who could handle mana and due to this, every magicians were held in high esteem.
'This was why he tried to train himself in isolation. Rather pitiful.'
Carl thought of the original owner of his body who went to the western woods in the hope that it would help him in handling mana. But Carl, or rather Dean, knew it would not work even if he were to train himself in isolation for a million years.
This was because people were not able to handle mana just because they trained themselves harder than any other. It was more of an inborn talent passed down through generations after generations, and Carl was just one of the many unfortunate ones who was not born with those talents.
Carl stood up from the tub and wrapped himself in a bathrobe. To his surprise, three maids along with the butler George were waiting for him as soon as he stepped out of the bathroom.
"Shall we start dressing you now, young master?" George asked.
Carl nodded and the three maids approached Carl with a decent looking attire and started dressing him up. After thirty long minutes, Carl looked at himself in the mirror and felt quite satisfied. He then faced toward George.
"Shall we go now?" George bowed his head and the two of them headed out of the room.
A long corridor stretched out in front of Carl as he walked behind George, who was guiding him to the dining room. Along their way, they walked passed several workers of the castle and all of them brightly smiled at Carl as they bowed their heads. They all seemed like they were truly happy that their young master had finally awoken from his slumber.
But Carl knew otherwise.
From the memories of the original Carl, there were several incidents where the workers of the Silversword castle blatantly looked down on their young master- all while plastering their face with a gentle smile. Carl did not like it when he first knew about this, but he did not bother to reprimand them for it either.
'It's a price I have to pay for waking up as a worthless person.'
Carl knew taking action against them was the same as asking for attention in the Silversword castle. And that would be going against his plan of living his life as a normal person. Therefore, Carl would rather choose to be looked down upon than destroying his carefully planned normal life.
He knew if a person has too much attention focused on them, then people who tried to control them on the disguise of expectations would followed suit. Carl experienced all of those in his previous life, and he decided to try his best not to make it happen again in this new life. This was why every time a worker smiled diligently to him, he returned it back with a more gracious and brighter smile than any of the workers had shown him.
"Have you noticed, young master? You are very loved in this castle. That's why every workers here are very happy to see you alive and in a good shape." George informed Carl with a tender look on his face.
"I see. That's great to hear." Carl replied with a soft smile, but within seconds returned back to his nonchalant self.
George inspected Carl when the latter changed his expression so quickly in the blink of an eye. To an outsider, this may seem oblivious. However, for George, it was like watching a puppy suddenly turned into that of a vicious snake.
'It seems the explosion really affected his behaviour after all.'
Whether this was a good news for him or not was yet to be known. George, who had years of experience as a butler, promptly knew he could not take Carl as lightly as he used to in the past. So he cautiously bowed his head.
"We have arrived, young master."
"Thank you for guiding me here, George."
George watched the person who was brightly smiling before him. To a normal person, this was a smile of gratitude with no particular meanings behind. But for George who happened to capture the new side of his young master, Carl's smile almost sent him into a state of confusion. It was because of a small detail he noticed in his young master's face.
'His eyes were not smiling.'