After I finished cleaning the office, viscount Nightshade requested to have a chat with me.
Since I was basically freeloading in her mansion, I complied without much thoughts.
Watching the viscount sit down on her comfortable chair behind her desk, I turned around to sit on the only other chair in the room. However. I noticed that it was already occupied by the heroine as I did so.
"Since when did you get here?" I asked.
In response, the heroine looked at the viscount with a pouty face.
Sighing, viscount Nightshade decided to answer my question in her stead.
"I got out and tossed her back into my office a few minutes ago. You were most likely too absorbed in cleaning that you didn't notice me doing that."
Nodding my head in understanding, I scanned around the office to find a place to sit down on, but to no avail.
Being denied the comfort of sitting, I sighed and stood next to the heroine, waiting for the viscount to begin the talk.
"So Theodore, how are you today?" The viscount asked.
"I was fine until your daughter dragged me inside your office." I answered truthfully.
As I examined the heroine for her reaction, she just stared back at me before giving a snort.
Paying our little interaction no mind, the viscount continued with the conversation. After several more questions, the topic shifted to my life before I came to the mansion.
I told her everything truthfully, except for Marcos' memories of course. To be honest, the last few days had been quite stressful for me. Having someone listening enthusiastically to my mundane life somehow made me feel better.
After listening to everything I had to say, the viscount commented while nodding. "I see... I'm interesting in this 'Raun' friend of yours. He seems really similar to my daughter."
'I wasn't wrong! Even viscount Nightshade thinks so too', I inwardly exclaimed.
Inevitably, topics about my daily life soon led to the discussion about my mother.
"Theodore, do you know about your mother's past...?"
"No."
Apart from the fact that she ran away from Marcos, mom didn't really tell me anything about her youth.
'Well, she's not reluctant to talk about it. It's more like I've never asked her.'
But now, with mom having gone missing, I needed as much information on her as possible if I wished to find her again. Thus, I asked the viscount.
"Can you please tell me about mom?"
"Sure. I'm just about to anyways. Karin, she was like a little sister to me; A mischievous one of course." The viscount's eyes suddenly became distant as she reminisced about the past.
'Well, I kind of expected something like this.'
After all, not anyone can make a noble take care of their child in their stead.
The viscount then began to tell stories about her and mother's (mis)adventures. I spent a large portion of the day listening to stories involving my mother and her antics.
I wasn't even surprised to find out that my mother had once beaten a golem to death with her bare hands. What surprised me more was that my mother's personality was almost the same as the heroine's when she was younger.
'...I can't ever imagine mom acting like this brat next to me.'
After finishing all the stories, viscount Nightshade's face then turned serious as she uttered her next words.
"Now onto the main reason why I called you here."
Seeing her serious expression, I gulped a mouthful of saliva in nervousness and meekly nodded.
"Y- Yes, I'm listening."
"I'll keep it short. Basically, I can be your guardian if you want to."
I widened my eyes in surprise at her words.
'Guardian!? C- Can a noble like her just become a guardian of a commoner just like that?'
However, upon recalling the kind of relationship mom and the viscount had, I soon calmed down and accepted the situation as it was.
'No need to panic. There's no reason to refuse her. And having the viscount as my guardian would benefit me greatly.'
As such, I gave her my answer.
"I want you to be my guardian."
Nodding, the viscount took out a document from under her desk as if she had expected my answer from the beginning.
"Sign this and you will be under my guardianship. You will gain the title of honorary noble as well."
I picked up a pen and signed the document.
Thus, I was now an honorary noble. While almost all commoners would kill just for the chance to join the ranks of nobility, I wasn't as excited as one would expect a commoner to be.
'That sucks, now I have less time to sleep.'
Being a noble meant that I had to waste my precious time on learning etiquettes and socializing instead of sleeping... and that I would inevitably have to butter up to some really disgusting bastards.
Pausing my thoughts there, I turned my attention toward the viscount again and bowed.
"Thank you for everything, viscount."
"No need to be formal, just call me Irene."
"Of course, viscount."
November 7th, year 781 of the Imperial calendar
—BAM!
"WAKE UP, THEODORE!"
Waking up to yet another shout in the morning, I groaned in irritation as I glared at the heroine, who was grinning at my annoyance.
Her eyes, which were full of excitement and mischievousness, made me want to groan even more in frustration. However, I managed to somehow how keep my annoyance in.
'She's going to do this every morning, isn't she?' I thought as I watched the heroine running out of my room and patted myself on the back for having enough mental strength to not immediately kill myself.
Soon after, a maid came into my room and delivered breakfast to me.
As if she was stalking me, the heroine barged into my room again immediately after I finished my breakfast. She then grabbed my hand and shouted.
"Let's go! I'll give you a tour of our mansion!"
Not giving me time to say anything, she dragged me deeper into the mansion. Eventually, we arrived at the servants' quarters.
Why were we invading the servants' personal living space you as soon as we began the tour you might ask? Well...
"You need to get to know them of course! There's old Alfred, mom's butler. Oh, and that's Maria, the one who just brought breakfast for you!"
...According to the heroine, it was of utmost importance that I learn the name of every people working here. Yes, even the knights whose numbers were in the hundreds.
'I take it back, she was not a second Raun, she's worse, much worse.'
Her eccentricity knew no bound. I'd rather deal with her gloomy and overly serious self in the novel than this monstrosity. Even Raun didn't have this much energy and free time to do pointless things like this.
Pausing my thoughts there, I finally turned my attention toward the servants.
In contrast to the heroine's enthusiasm, every servants that crossed path with us were shaking uncontrollably. It had gotten so bad that one of them even passed out on the spot.
'I know the she's a noble and all but is running away from your employer's daughter the best way to handle th—'
Then, realization struck me.
'Of course my Eyes would scare people away...'
Having spent 2 days with the mother and daughter duo who were not affected by my Eyes, I forgot how normal people would react to the mere sight of me. Such thoughts depressed me, albeit slightly.
Well, the heroine didn't seem to think that I was only a bit sad though as she patted me on the shoulder and did her best to console me.
"Now now, don't be sad. I'm sure that they're just surprised by your... unique facial features."
'What? I'm not that ugly. My face is above average!'
But compared to the heroine's cute face that would definitely become irresistibly attractive in the future, of course I would look like garbage on the side of the road.
Thus, her consoling words just came off as teasing to me.
Unaware of my thoughts, the heroine ran off somewhere on her own, leaving me behind in the empty servants' quarter.
Having lost my only guide, I made my way around the mansion, alone. After all, I was going to live here for 2 years, might as well memorize each and every corners of it, especially when I'm planning to use the chaos the assassins would cause to hide, or even save the heroine for additional affection points if the situation allows.
'It seems that I have underestimated the sheer fucking size of this mansion.'
It was big, too big for my liking. I felt like I haven't explored half of the mansion even after 35 minutes of constant walking.
However, the sight of a garden interrupted my monotonous walking.
Lush green trees, colorful flowers, clear blue ponds, and suspiciously enough, there were a lot of thick bushes.
'This is the perfect hiding spot... why do I feel like this garden was specifically made by the heroine?'
However, I soon shook such thoughts from my mind and continued with another thought instead.
'If it's this place then I can hide from the heroine!'
Entering the garden, I soon saw massive trees beyond the walls of the garden. Curious, I climbed the highest tree in the garden to take a look.
"Isn't this... Ostual forest?" I muttered.
The trees I saw were part of a forest, not just any forest but the Ostual forest - the go-to destination for newbie adventurers in viscount Nightshade's territory.
The concentration and rank of monsters were perfect. Lower ranked monsters often stayed near the outskirts of the forest, while stronger ones lived in the depths. And the highest ranked monster ever recorded here was only a B- rank Wyvern so there wasn't a big risk of a dangerous monster horde.
These characteristics made this forest one of the best place to start out at as beginner adventurers.
Furthermore, the forest was big... maybe a bit too big; It took up 30% of viscount Nightshade's already big territory.
For the viscount, the forest was a major source of both income and headaches. She had to spend the precious manpower she would otherwise spend on patrolling the border scouting the forest for any potential high ranking monsters since many parts of the forest were still not explored.
Unlike what viscount Nightshade may have felt about the forest, I think that it was very beneficial for me. It was the perfect location to test out my skills after the coming of age ceremony which takes place on the second day of each year.
Leaving the problem of sneaking out of the mansion to my future self, I exited the garden and made my way towards my room. After spending a large portion of my energy climbing that tree. I just wanted to get a good sleep before the heroine bothers me again.
'I swear if she bothers me again I'll literally kill myse—'
Of course, I had to jinx myself. As I was only a few steps away from my room, a pair of hands suddenly covered my eyes.
'On second thoughts, I won't kill myself merely because of this.'
It was obvious whose hands these were. Wanting to avoid useless conversations with the heroine, I quietly stood in place, bracing myself for whatever childish pranks she was trying to pull.
Seeing my lack of reaction, the heroine clicked her tongue audibly.
"You're no fun. At least show some sort of reaction!"
Just as I thought she would leave me alone, she removed her hands from my eyes and moved to my front. My gaze then slowly moved down from her smug face to around her hands, which were holding a rectangular box.
Sensing my gaze, she spoke.
"Theodore, I asked mom. It turned out that people ran away because of your Magic eyes, so don't be sad. Your unsightly face had nothing to do with it!" She exclaimed while grinning slyly.
"..."
"It would be troublesome if my accomplice scared everyone away before I even get the chance to prank them. As such, this lady here had racked her brain and came up with a brilliant solution to your problem!"
Ignoring her proud voice, I slowly took the box away from her hands and opened it without expecting much.
'A pair of sunglasses!?' I widened my eyes in surprise upon seeing the contents of it.
My surprise then turned into anger; Not at her, nor at the content of the box, but at myself.
'HOW THE FUCK DID I NOT THINK OF THIS BEFORE?'
Was I more stupid than this kid right here? No, I refuse to acknowledge it! I had nearly 100 years worth of memories, how in the world did this 10-year-old brat think of this before I did?
I looked at the heroine with my mouth hung open in disbelief.
Enjoying my reaction, she got into a gut pose and puffed her non-existent chest in pride.
Despite my silent ranting, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't grateful. I was not shameless enough to not thank the person that solved my problems for me. And thus, I expressed my gratitude for her.
...I regretted doing so almost immediately though.
"Thanks a lot. I still can't believe I hadn't thought of this earlier."
"Of course, I'm glad you now know which one of us is smarter than the other!" She said in a teasing tone before smiling brightly. It seemed like she genuinely enjoyed being complimented by me.
Putting aside the fact that she would become a heroine in the near future, I would have fallen for her charming smile if she was half as annoying.
Brushing off the urge to strangle her to death, I immediately put on the pair of sunglasses.
My tour of the mansion then restarted.
We barged into the servants' quarters again, all of them flinching upon hearing the loud noise of the heroine kicking the door open.
Thankfully, the sunglasses worked, somewhat.
The servants were still less than willing to go anywhere close to me, but they at least properly greeted me without pissing their pants in the process, which was a huge improvement.
Although I was satisfied with the change in attitude, the heroine wasn't. Thus, after humphing and giving the servants a death glare, she led me to the next destination - the training grounds.
What greeted me was the sight of knights and mages alike running around the training ground, sweating heavily. Surprisingly, the mages of the Nightshade territory had to go through the same training regiment as the knights.
'How absurd... training hard like that even though you're destined to be a mere extra that wouldn't even be mentioned in the future.'
Being there just to show how strong and perfect the protagonist was, such was the fate of the nobodies.
Luckily for me, I could get strong even without training half as hard as they did since I could always get more powerful than them easily thanks to my extensive knowledge of this world's cheat items.
Pausing my thoughts there, I followed the heroine to a circular building.
"This is the Gravity room!" She exclaimed as soon as we reached the building.
Gravity rooms, like their name would suggests, allowed people to train under altered gravity.
Well, the heroine apparently thought that I was a country bumpkin and didn't know what the room was used for though. And I saw no need to correct the misunderstanding.
She wanted to demonstrate the room to me by having me directly experiencing it. She fiddled with the control panel and set the gravity to 4g. She then opened the door to the Gravity room before pulling me inside with her and slamming the door shut.
As soon as the door closed, the gravitational force began to intensify.
In contrast to me who was hugging the floor immediately after the room activates, the heroine was standing there without breaking a sweat, teasing me for not being able to handle a 'measly' 4g of gravity.
'Let's see who would laugh after I get my hand on [Boots of lightness]!'
I thought as I vowed to be the one teasing her instead when I acquire the item that can alter the weight of the wearer. With this item, even the maximum setting - 20g would be trivial.
Leaving that aside for the future me, I shouted.
"E- Enough! I get how it works now! Deactivate the room."
"Awww... so soon? You're even weaker than me 5 years ago. I could even endure 5g for half an hour at that age."
Although I was surprised to find out the the heroine apparently used this room to train ever since she was 5, getting her to deactivate the room was more important at the moment.
After a few more minutes of me begging, the heroine finally deactivated the room and led me back into the mansion.
We then arrived at our final destination - the kitchen.
In the mansion's kitchen, the head chef was instructing a little boy ten years of age - me, on how to operate cooking instruments.
Why was I, a honorary noble learning how to use cooking equipment you might ask? As some might have guessed, it was the heroine's fault yet again.
As soon as we got to the kitchen, the heroine challenged me to a cooking battle.
"The loser owes the winner a favor!" She claimed.
Tempted by the prospect of demanding her to leave me out of her pranks if I won, I readily consented to her little competition.
Thinking back, that was really stupid of me. I had never touched any cooking equipment before, let alone prepare meals. Furthermore, judging by the overly friendly way the kitchen staffs talked with the heroine, she was definitely no stranger to the kitchen.
'I have been fooled, bamboozled even.' I thought while failing to keep the corner of my mouth from twitching.
The heroine smirked when she noticed my displeasure.
It was too late to back out of the challenge now. As such, the only thing I could do was to try my best.
...
Looking at the monstrosity I created, I couldn't help but grimace at my future.
'At least it's edible', or so I thought until the head chef used Fire magic to raze my cooking into nothingness.
Seeing this, I prayed that the heroine was as bad as cooking as I was. However, Goddess Lumaria didn't respond to my prayers.
Looking at the heroine's cooking, I couldn't help but to curse my past self for being tempted by her challenge.
What she made was a strawberry cake. I wouldn't eat sweet things normally. I prefer something bitter or sour. However, that cake, it looked so damn good!
Noticing me salivating at her cake, the heroine smirked before giving me a slice.
"Is it good?" She twirled her hair as she stared at me swallowing the slice.
Though reluctant, I had to nod my head in affirmation as I was in pure bliss for a good 2 minutes after finishing the slice.
It was obvious who the winner was. Even if I wanted to refute, that taste of heaven from before didn't allow my heart to do so. And thus, I admitted my defeat.
The heroine smiled triumphantly before revealing the content of her demand.
"To be honest, your cooking sucked!" She said.
"..."
"Thus, this lady will generously use the favor to make you attend cooking lessons here!" She exclaimed righteously, as if she had just done me a great favor.
'...At least she didn't make me do something weirder.'