Janette was looking nervous. She had experience taking care of her own home and herself, but this was her very first time taking care of somebody else's home.
"Uhmm. My name is Janette, Janette Janus. Nice to meet you all!"
Janette bowed, and her long black hair moved forward a bit, blocking her face for a second.
'She's cute.' Jyro's mind was suddenly attacked by intrusive thoughts as per usual, and his previously blue face turned red all of a sudden.
Nana was looking at Janette from on top of the stairs with a warm proud smile. She attributed Janette's good manners to her and Eric's job raising such a thoughtful young lady...
*Clap*
Berta clapped her hands in front of her chest and smiled.
"Well, this brings formalities to an end, thank you all for taking time from your busy days to give a warm welcome to this young lady. Now, let's get to work, shall we?"
As Berta finished her words the rest of the staff gave her a brief bow except for Mario, the head butler who only nodded.
As the crowd dispersed only Janette and Berta remained.
"Listen, we are going for provisions to town, we will be meeting Leona, she is a tailor so we can get your outfit sorted out and after running some errands you can train in the backyard with Jyro." "Lord Hendricks usually goes over there and gives him pointers, but don't expect this to be a daily occurrence, ok?" Berta said whilst she nodded every four or five words as if making mental notes of everything she just said.
After saying so, she grabbed Janete's hand and proceeded to walk towards the servant's door at the back.
This door connected the Mansion's kitchen with the outside, Berta got a hold of something that looked like a cart with her other hand and they went off...
Bellrain was a beautiful city, at least in the inner circle. Commerce was booming, and there were tons of people on the streets. Be it people enjoying a good conversation and a few drinks or guards ensuring the public's safety. It greatly contrasted with the dangers this world harbored.
"This is your first time in a place like this right, Janette?" Berta looked at Janette prepared to see her nervous because of the huge amount of people but Janette was unfazed by this. This amount of people wasn't really something that could intimidate her, after all this world was heavily underpopulated compared to the one she used to live in.
Of course, she couldn't just say something along the lines of... [Tis but a drop in the bucket of my hunger!] and even if Janette could, she just wasn't in the right place of mind to be joking around lately.
*MHHM* Berta cleared her throat and took out a piece of paper from one of the pockets on her dress.
"We will be getting a few things... We need a few dozen Lumina Stones, a lot of meat and vegetables. We also need to pay for the delivery of a few goods we will be receiving tomorrow. After that, we can go look for Leona."
After walking for a few minutes, they arrived at a dusty-looking store.
"Hey Richard, it's me, Berta. Is what we ordered ready?"
The store looked really unclean, a lot of rocks and ores were laying around on the ground, and dust would rise given any sudden movement of air.
"One moment!" At the back of the store, Janette could see a gigantic shadow moving around and a loud crash...
This titan of a shadow moved up to the front desk where Janette was looking at him with her mouth wide open.
"What!? Have you never seen a small person before?" The shadow said. He was a very old-looking man with a big and spiky beard... And yes he was almost as tall as Janette at 3'5"...
"Richard, this *little* girl right here is Janette, she will be working for Lord Hendricks from now on" Berta emphasized the word little when she presented Janette, as a mischievous expression occupied her face momentarily.
Janette could barely contain her laughter when Richard got on top of the front desk but was still smaller than Berta.
He looked at her irritated, Richard knew he had lost this one so he sighed and moved on...
*Sigh*
"...Yes. I have them right here." Richard hopped off the desk with a *Hup* and brought a black box from the back.
"Here, there are four dozens inside... You can check them right now if you want but I wouldn't recommend it." Richard said as he passed the box to Janette since it was easier for him.
"By the way kid, since it's your first time here you can have this. Take it as a welcome gift." Janette received a small piece of rock that was radiating a small amount of light from Richard's hands.
The moment the Lumina Shard touched her skin the small icon on her eyesight had a reaction that prompted a pop-up.
[I will test this later. No.]
Janette placed the box Richard gave him on the cart they have brought and looked at the shard in her hands once more.
After a few minutes of *small* talk, they said their goodbyes, only for Janette to go back for a moment and hugged Richard as if thanking him. And then. They left.
"You know what? Leona is not so far away from here, let's go and look for her before the other stuff, we will be carrying a lot more after we go to the market so let's get this done first." Berta was having the time of her life if you hadn't noticed yet...
Sudden pain in the head started to attack Janette's senses. She tried to push it to the back of her mind but it started to amplify by the minute...