[ A/N:
Guess who starts school in less than a week? This guy! This means I will soon find a job, and with both school and a job once more taking up a lot of my time, I am unsure of how often I will upload.
Everything you are reading is not prewritten, as you can probably tell, and each chapter there is the risk I upload something then want to change it but can't; this makes me extra careful and I go over the chapter I'm reading several times both during and after the writing is done.
With that being said, I hope the story is to your liking so far. Any potential ideas for something to add, change, or take out of my story (which is technically an AU, so there is obviously freedom to do a lot) will be read and considered. Though I can't say it will actually be used, I love to see your feedback and ideas, and it may just spark an idea of my own.
I hope you all have a wonderful day/night, and I hope you enjoy the chapter. Until next time! ]
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Once the designed, wrought iron gate opened and we entered the mansion grounds, it was easy to tell that there hasn't been anyone here to take care of the place for a while. The lawns were uncut and wild, the bushes were invading parts of the winding pathways that went through the whole property, and the small river that ran under a mini bridge that was part of the pathway was uncleaned and mossy.
The only parts that looked conserved were the constructs dotted about, such as a marble gazebo, benches dotted about, smaller houses presumably meant for servants to stay, statues around the mansion, a fountain in front of the mansion entrance, and the mansion itself. The main component of most of the buildings was a cool grey-white stone that matched perfectly with the stark white marble of the statues and gazebo, including the mermaid statue atop the fountain.
While the mansion was mostly rectangular in shape, at each end were extensions of the building going towards the front gate, ending up with a rectangular u-shaped building. At the front door was a circular path connecting to three paths, the one we were on and two others leading in opposite directions parallel to the manor, that surrounded the dry fountain. Being two stories but reasonably sized overall, not counting the amount of space set aside for other rooms there would be 5 or 6 bedrooms, each one having a connected or adjacent bathroom and closet.
Now for something that was really bugging me, this is most definitely not cheap. Just the tax on the land alone must be ludicrous because of its location in a 'tourist city' and how much of it there is. On top of wages to those that would've been working here and the necessary costs over time, it would build up to be a hefty sum for the all but the richest of families.
"Wait, you're saying this whole place is ours? How do we even afford this and home? And what did you just do with the gate?" As almost everyone else couldn't keep their eyes from wandering every which way, I couldn't get these questions out of my mind and the image of Amelia opening the gate seemed to loop in my brain, so I could only hope that asking would give me an answer.
"To answer your first question, it's not quite ours, but a piece of Chrono family estate." Opening up the unlocked front doors, we were welcomed with a strikingly different sight than one would believe, as everything inside the building seemed to be as new as the day it was made. The entrance hall held a few racks for different articles of clothing, such as hats, coats, and shoes, as well as several furnished tables and an unsmudged flooring of dark wood.
Its ceiling reached all the way to the top of the building where a chandelier hung and lit the majority of the room by itself, highlighting the dark red carpeting that ran up the middle of the stairs which went halfway up to the next floor at the middle of the back wall, and continued up on both sides. The hallways could not be seen down from the position we were standing in at the entrance, but there were two; both directly in the middle of the balcony along the sides of the upper floor of the entrance hall.
"This originally was built by one of your great uncles to be a place for the family to meet during times of peace. Sadly he died during the final battle of the Great War fighting for the King of Vale." With so little noise outside of my mother's voice, everyone from our truck, minus the two guards who left to help with the luggage, was paying close attention to her. Hearing our family has been around since before the Great War greatly surprised the non-Chrono adults because many people died during those 10 years, and even before then it wasn't easy for a family to stay alive due to the dangers Remnant possessed. What had caught my attention wasn't exactly the history, though that part did intrigue me, but the fact she specifically said "for the King of Vale", though I guess I could be looking too hard into it.
"To answer your second question, we don't. We aren't charged for any of this because of the unique circumstances it was built under." Now taking us to the right and toward what I assumed to be the kitchen/dining room area, the hallways could be seen adorned with the red carpet that connected back to the main hall.
At equal distances were windows that went from an average adult's thigh to the same distance from the ceiling and about two shoulder widths wide, while the opposing wall's doors are in between two windows; even if there were only a few for the whole hallway, there were some tables placed symmetrically through the hall. Though the architecture and furnishings were something I wished to look at longer, the fact that we didn't have to pay for any of this confused me and the others far too much, as could be understood from their obviously apt attention. Though as Amelia continued onwards she didn't seem to care to elaborate.
"And to answer your final question, it's a bit of a Chrono family secret. Only those of the Chrono lineage can freely lock and unlock any entrances and exits to family estates." As she said this, she opened the doors to a grand dining room with several connecting doors going who knows where. The long table in the center had enough seats for everyone that came along on this trip and then some, with several decorations, whether functional or not is yet to be seen. Behind the two chairs at one of the ends of the table was a fireplace, clean of any signs a fire could have ever been set in it, and on the ceiling were a few small chandeliers to light up the room. And though Ivy had been mostly focused on the actual building around her, she most definitely heard the plural on the last word.
"Mrs. Chrono, if you don't mind me asking a potentially dumb question, how many of these estates are there?" Amelia began visibly pondering this question whilst resting her head on her open hand. After a few moments of her having closed her eyes to think, they popped open as she ruefully smiles.
"I know there were a few in each major kingdom and one in Menagerie, but with how… unique some of the family members and their situations have been, I don't know how many are still around." At this point, I'm not even sure I know anything about my family anymore. We apparently are a long-standing family that has multiple mansions around the world, and from what I can tell any important one uses the same type of lock as the gate here had, which is something I can only assume to be some sort of DNA scanner or something.
"Well, regardless of how many are left standing, that is not what we are here to do." Maxwell says this and stands in front of the group, grabbing the attention of all whose heads were swimming in their own thoughts. "There are enough rooms in the main building for us, and though they are for the servants of these estates the other buildings do not slack when it comes to comfort. Amelia and I will take the Master Bedroom, which is on the upper floor directly above us. Laela and Deagan you will share one of the guest rooms adjacent to Cromwell's room; this will be on the upper floor, on the same half of the building as us but on the opposing side. The children can choose between the shared bedroom adjacent to the Master Bedroom or a regular guest bedroom."
*Ding*
{What's the difference between the shared bedroom and guest room?}
"The shared rooms are two rooms directly connected from the inside, separated by their own door in the middle of the two, and both are the size of the other guest rooms. All of the beds in the estate are king-sized, so regardless of what room you choose there will be plenty if you want to still share a bed. I decided to give you three the choice as you are all becoming more aware of your feelings." Seeing the girls' faces begin to redden as they look in different directions, though both away from me, while I can feel my own ears heat up a smidge, it made me stop thinking about anything related to the Chrono family I had been thinking about, and instead made me more conscious of myself and the two standing on either side of me. It didn't help that I could hear the giggling coming from Laela and Amelia, but I ignored it in favor of calming myself down.
It seemed mostly silently agreed on between the three of us, but we chose to go with the shared room simply because we could; there was very little chance we would choose to sleep in separate beds unless one or more of us become emotionally averse to another, such as angry or embarrassed.
Stepping into our room, it was noticeably bright compared to the rest of the decor, in the sense that it was a warm palette of caramel brown, mimosa yellow, and a more pinkish red. It wasn't a heavily filled room, but it had the important parts. In the middle of the wall to the right of the entrance door was a king-size bed with a canopy, and to either of its sides sat a matching nightstand.
Along the wall directly across the door was a ledge window, which sticks out a little more than the rest of the wall in a semi-circular shape, and in that area was a table with 4 chairs. Along the edge of the window was a cushioned, built-in bench, and pull-out drawers spaced evenly underneath the bench. Next to the window section, closer to the bed and nightstand, was a bookshelf that currently was empty, and on the other side was a finely carved desk.
On the wall opposite the bed were a few doors. The first door, closest to the wall with the window, would lead into the adjacent guest room, which was identical to the one we were currently in, and the second door, closest to the wall with the entry door, would lead to a shared, full walk-in closet with more than enough space for 4 people's worth of clothes and a door-sized mirror. The final door, in between the other two doors, led to the bathroom, which was similarly connected on both sides, but since none of us currently planned to use the other room the girls locked it in advance to keep it that way.
Now, with the day finally winding down, and a relatively uneventful dinner compared to the information I learned today and the lack of energy I was feeling, we were now lying in bed, getting comfortable for the temporary stay we would have here. Though at first, it was just a touch embarrassing for us because of what my father said earlier, it soon settled into the same feeling that it has been all these years - comforting. With them by my side and in a very comfortable bed, I found myself unable to resist sleep as well as I normally could, and I soon fell asleep. Tomorrow would be my first day here, and to make the most of it I would need my energy.