"Young lord Eldric, I will be taking care of your needs as your personal maid from now. Should you have me." Epine said respectfully.
Eldric was about to decline her servant ship. He was not used to people following him around, so such an assortment was bound to be uncomfortable for him.
But he caught himself in the middle of it.
'I require someone to lead me, I still can't remember everything about my past.' he paused for a second, looking at the massive hall. 'And that's forgoing the massive size of the Armsworth estate.'
Eldric smiled at Epine and assured her. "Of course, I'd have you, Epine."
The maid's raven black hair dropped as she bowed down to her lord. The equally dark eyes glinted for a brief second, "Thank you, Young master Eldric."
Eldric had the urge to tell her to forgo the formalities, but even as little he knew about where he is, he was sure that would not work.
If this place resembled the medieval times of Europe going by the technological advancements, or lack thereof, formalities were the trademark of nobility.
And he was apparently the son of a great household.
No matter personal or not, a maid wouldn't dare call her master informally. That was, even more, the case in public.
Eldric's response was to hum and nod.
Such irrelevant issues were not an immediate concern for the current him.
"Epine. We do have a library, don't we?" gestured Eldric at his personal maid. She just nodded without answering back but was still surprised by the nature of his question.
It was not the first thing she expected her young master to say.
Normally, high nobles would not personally go to libraries and read there. Instead, they would have the books directly delivered to them to their chambers by the servants.
"Good. Let's head there, shall we?'' he directed, not even waiting for a response as he went along.
Eldric and Epine walked toe to toe towards the library. That wouldn't fly under the usual circumstances; this was a special case.
That was the most uncompromising choice the two of them agreed upon.
Epine wanted to carry him first when she saw his slight limp, expressing all sorts of reasons; reasons that sounded extremely overblown to Eldric: he could sprain his ankle or even get exhausted.
'Man. The maids in here are pretty hardcore.' weirdly hypothesised Eldric.
He naturally refused that suggestion, he was a child only in body— he already experienced enough humiliation for this day.
And so came the current situation.
Epine would oftentimes take subtle glances at her young master, worry is hidden behind that perfect poker face.
Eldric was once again left impressed by the sheer size of the Armsworth estate. The marble floor extended for as long as his eye could see, the corridor was the size of multiple football fields, and entirely covered by a red carpet.
On each side were multiples doors leading to different rooms.
Whenever Eldric would pass by each door, he would try to look inside, as some of them were unlocked and opened. He saw all kinds of rooms: there were ballrooms, normal chambers, and even 'small' libraries.
Epine almost laughed out loud when little Eldric asked her if they arrived there, looking at one particular 'small' library.
Eldric was slightly embarrassed by his mistake, but he just shrugged it off in the end. There was nothing he could do, and how could anyone blame him for assuming the frankly massive room with bookshelves as tall as its ceiling was just a simple book storage room.
Heck; he didn't even know such a room could even exist prior.
All similar thoughts were automatically erased when they arrived at the Armsworth library.
Unlike the other rooms, the entrance to the actual library had two large wooden doors decorated with red and gold lines on the edges, and the Armsworth emblem deep carved into each one individually.
A small snicker was heard from Epine's side, taking in his stunned look. Eldric turned to his left, only to find the usual flat-lined expression of the maid.
She looked confusedly at him when he questioningly stared back at her.
Epine can be quite shameless, it seems.
Eldric coughed and gestured to the massive doors with his hand," THIS is the library, right?"
The maid nodded and went ahead of Eldric to open the door, lest she starts laughing again.
Her young master could be so cute sometimes.
Eldric naturally had no way of knowing her inner thoughts, so he just unassumingly entered the massive library after her.
What greeted his sights was a frankly gargantuan three-story circular library that could rival even the largest of libraries he had seen on the internet.
There were books as far as the eye could see.
The ground floor had the least books, allowing the passage of readers in the aisles between the bookshelves. Yet, even that would have been an exquisite library in and of itself.
Wide stairs lead upwards, the walls on the second and third floors were entirely made of bookshelves filled to the brim with books.
On the ceiling was an even bigger luminaire than the hall Eldric was in. It reached the second floor. You could easily notice the details on it from the third floor.
Eldric was no bookworm or huge literature nerd, but as someone with a lot of time, he naturally spent the majority of it entertaining himself.
Books just happened to be one of the methods he leaned on the most.
'Just how rich is my family? From the estate to this huge library?' gulped Eldric.
He knew how nobility worked in his previous life— seeing is believing, as they say.
"Young master, can I get your reading list?" inquired Epine.
Eldric felt a bit suspicious at that question, a personal maid might she be, but she still answered to his father at the end of the day. But there was nothing he could do about it, he needed information.
The sooner, the better.
'I'm not doing anything weird anyway.' He added.
"Sure." He nodded casually.
"Just bring me books about history," affirmed Eldric.
*Swoosh*
A stack of books, almost immediately, landed on the table he was in.
'Hopefully, I would get some answers by the end of this reading session.' he thought, shaking his head.
He looked at Epine strangely, but continued listing on some other categories nonetheless.
The books kept rolling in until the table could no longer hold any more. Some books even threatened to fall.
"Young master, are you sure about this?'' Epine asked when she looked at the monumental amount of books lined up.
Eldric for his part did nothing but nod.
No longer would he be constantly walking on eggshells by the end of this day; that was his goal.