"—up, wake up young master!"
I pried my eyelids open as someone shook me up. Mia, the head maid, was standing over me and talking.
"Please get ready young master, we have somewhere to go."
Still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I went to the bathroom as Mia got my clothes ready. I was beginning to process what was happening when I heard footsteps rushing in front of the door and throughout the manor.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"I'll tell you in a bit, young master, but we must be on our way now. We should hurry," Mia responded.
I didn't expect her to tell me much, but I still couldn't help, but get disappointed. I quickly dressed, even if it was a bit uncomfortable under Mia's watchful eyes, but again, I was technically a little over a year old.
After getting ready, we quickly moved out into a prepared carriage and moved to an unknown location.
"Where are we going and what's happening?" I asked again.
"Well, young master, it seems that your little sisters will be coming along any day, or second now, so we are moving to one of the top medical institutions in the country. Your father also wanted you along for your sisters' birth, so they prepared a place near the facility for you."
Wait, hold up, I had expected the birth to be nearing, but not this soon. This wasn't the thing that surprised me most, however.
"Sisters? Not sister?"
"Oh, have you not heard, young master? Last week, the doctor discovered that your mother has twin baby girls."
"I guess they forgot to tell me."
I was a little disappointed I hadn't been told, but they also probably didn't expect me to know or understand what having siblings would be like. And they might have thought that it would be too much for me to understand.
---
A short time later, we had already gone through the teleportation gate and were heading to the temporary housing next to the hospital where my sisters would be delivered.
The city we were in was named, Dian, and was the scientific and medical capital of the kingdom, under direct control of the royal family. Not only was it a center for some of the brightest academic minds in the kingdom, and even the continent, but it was the second most populated city right after the royal capital.
Compared to America, Dian would be the equivalent of Boston or LA. I could also tell that just by looking around, the people here weren't your average Joe's. Whereas most places had average cultivations of a (Dark-Orange) core, most people in Dian had a (Bright-Sienna) or even higher.
It wasn't uncommon to see Gold cores; you could even glimpse the occasional Yellow core. I even saw a (Dark-Lime) core walking around, no weaker than my mother. The lime core I saw was a part of the city guard and from the uniform a high-ranking one.
The city being so big, the journey from the portal to our residence was not short, taking around 20-30 minutes. It would have been longer due to traffic, but being a noble had its perks.
We arrived before our temporary stay, a 3-story townhouse in the residential part of town closest to the grand hospital. Nobles could afford to be quite lavish. The house was big, but also seemed very homely with all its decor and inviting look.
The receiving room alone was as big as the apartment my family used to live in. Coming inside, the smell of fresh flowers and scented candles rushed into your nose, giving your olfactory nerve a full body massage.
The inside was as lavish as the outside, decorated with great wooden furniture of the highest quality, inlined with gold and silver. The grand piano in the living room even had gems embedded in the side.
As I stared in awe, Mia explained to me.
"We will be staying here for one or two weeks depending on when your mother goes into labor. It is expected to be this week so you won't have to wait long. After the babies are delivered, your mother will stay in the hospital for a day before moving here and resting for a week before going back home.
Until that time, you can do whatever you want here young master. For the most part, the house will be empty except for you and me. Your father will only be coming back here to sleep and will otherwise be at the hospital or attending to other matters.
In an hour your father should be coming to pick you up to visit your mother."
This was certainly great for me. I had a lot more freedom here than at home, and I could do whatever I wanted! But as I thought about it more, I realized,
'There's nothing to do by myself!'
I wouldn't be able to practice magic in such a large city and I wouldn't be able to go out by myself. I still looked like a baby even with my advanced growth. I would have to wait for a while before I could freely go out by myself.
There was still an hour to kill before my father picked me up so I started to explore around the house a bit more. The first floor had all the general rooms such as a dining room, or to be more exact, a dining hall, a living room that also doubled as a ballroom, and the kitchens and storage areas.
The second floor included all the living spaces as well as the offices and guest rooms. Of course, decorated quite lavishly as well. The third floor was the thing that caught my attention as it had quite possibly, the biggest book collection I had possibly seen.
There were so many books it was comparable to a public library. Aside from more storage and guest rooms, there was only the library on the third floor. The books stretched from floor to ceiling, where the roof had been specifically raised to accommodate the amount of books there were.
The room was arranged circularly with bookshelves as walls and a balcony halfway up to allow access to the higher books. There was another similarly circular bookshelf in the middle of the room, not quite as tall as the walls to allow for some natural light to come through the windows dotted around and the skylight.
This bookshelf was hollow on the inside and contained not only more books but what seemed to be an index of all the books. I assumed that this was where the librarian would be if there was one.
The roof of the library was a clear glass dome allowing for the sun to beam through and I was sure would be great for star gazing at night. Not even the manor back home had this big of a library.
I walked around looking at some of the book titles and seeing if any caught my eye.
'A Composer's Tale, The Romance of Howard and Rosie, The Battle of Camins, blah, blah, blah.'
These were all the regular fiction books you could find anywhere, and none of them caught my eye. I soon got bored of walking around and decided to go up to the wrap-around balcony to see if anything was interesting.
I climbed up the stairs which proved to be quite a challenge. These stairs were especially deep and tall making me have to battle my way up. I soon reached the top, out of breath and fighting for my life as I lay down and looked around.
For whatever reason I had forgotten the existence of magic after entering the library and hadn't used it to help me up. Recovering for a moment, I got back up and returned to exploring.
The books weren't much different up here but it did prove to have some potential for great reading spots. There were enclaves dotted around in the bookshelf overlooking the roof and city which with some padding could be great napping or reading spots.
Exploring more established how truly beautiful this library was. It had everything a book lover like me could ask for. As I got around to the back of the library, or was it the front? Anyways, on the side opposite the entrance, I saw stairs leading up to a part of the glass dome that had been covered up by the bookshelf in the middle.
As I walked up the stairs and came closer, I realized that the stairs didn't just lead to a part of the glass dome roof, but to double glass doors opening to the roof.
I had previously thought that the library roof connected to the front edge of the building, but there was a little gap between the doors and the edge of the roof. I slowly opened up the doors and walked through.
Walking through, I could feel a light summer breeze blowing past refreshing my body and soul. The roof had a small metal guardrail at the front face of the building but was otherwise connected to the other buildings next to it.
As I walked forward to the rail, I overlooked the skyline of the city and all the buildings within. The sun was directly overhead, like a crown flying above the land. We had left the house only a little after dawn, so by now it was noon.
After taking in the view for some time, I returned to exploration, this time of the roof. I decided to go around the left side of the roof first as no buildings connected to that side. There was an alleyway there to allow for easier movement around the city and rain gutters.
There was nothing special around the left side of the dome with only some ventilations and chimneys. The back was a bit more interesting as there was another building there, giving more roof space.
The right side of the dome was the most interesting, however, as it had a greenhouse and a multitude of plants growing out and about. There was even a big patch of soil next to the greenhouse with free growth of plants.
The greenery even stretched to the roof of the building to our right. All the houses on this block had flat roofs so there was no shortage of space. I wasn't much of a biology or plant guy in my past life, but even I could tell that the plants grown here weren't ordinary.
They were all of vibrant, rich colors, which was still realistic, but the real kicker was that all of these plants grew in absurd ways, going from side to side or diagonally even, and looping in on themselves, the whole place was an overgrown mess.
A more in-depth look with mana eyes also told me that these plants were full of magic and some had mana cores. This was new as through my time in the forest, I had seen many plants giving off magic either absorbed through the air or ground, but I had never seen a plant with a mana core.
The closest thing I knew of was the dryad, but the was more of a plant monster, which none of these were. I saw plants with cores ranging from red to orange hanging about, but no higher.
I hadn't gone inside the greenhouse yet, so I couldn't say for sure that there weren't any higher cores, but it would be very surprising to see plants with that high of a core level that weren't monsters or beasts.
After looking at everything else, I started to the greenhouse, and even before I got there, I saw that all the plants inside had a core of at the very least, the (Dark-Orange) color. Just as I set foot on the steps to the greenhouse, I heard a carriage pulling up in front of the house.
My father had come to pick me up. I had entirely forgotten and lost track of time while exploring. It looked like exploration of the greenhouse would have to wait until I got back. Already, I could hear Mia calling out for me, so I made my way down.