"Whatever, I guess I just deal with it as it goes."
After putting away his clothes in the drawer, he put the female stuff in the suitcase before looking for a corner in the room.
As Alex began looking around, he was a little stunned by how big the room was.
Even though he was on the first floor, he could see the houses of the city in the distance, with the castle wall right below him.
It had been snowing outside for a bit, and a cold breeze hit him in the face when he opened the window.
Closing it, he turned back inside, continuing to explore the massive bedroom he was in.
There was a bed big enough to fit six people side by side, with enough space for their arms to wrap around rather than be squished together.
The bed itself is also extremely fancy, made of some expensive wood that has a mysterious pattern to it.
Besides the bed, the wall had four different drawers and two wardrobes for him to put his jacket on.
There was also a full-body mirror next to it, with a desk and chair on the other side of the wall.
"Crap. I don't have any winter clothes..." Alex suddenly realized that he had always lived somewhere that had never snowed.
"I probably need to ask for it."
After looking for a bit, Alex finally found a perfect spot to put his suitcase in.
It was a corner next to the wardrobe that hid the suitcase from plain sight, yet not weird enough to cause someone to wonder when they saw it.
After finishing exploring, Alex finally headed out of the room, only to find Sophia and Mary had been waiting outside next to the maids.
"What took you so long?" Sophia curiously asked.
"Just putting my clothes away. Anyway, let's go to the living room where Amelia was talking.
Miss——Ahem, Luqing, can you guide us there?"
Alex changed his wording at the last second as he could see Luqing's face changing for a second when he addressed her as Miss.
"Of course, Mr.Alex."
As the three of them followed Luqing down the hall, he was once again shocked by how long it took to walk to the other side of the house.
As they finally arrived in the living room Amelia had mentioned, it almost felt like walking through a maze.
"Oh, would you look at that? Speaking of the devil, our grandkids are here."
Fredrick was sitting in his seat, drinking some sort of tea, as Ava sat next to him.
"Don't call our grandkids like that," Ava argued, looking a little angry at Fredrick's words.
"It's just a saying... Ahem, how do you three feel about this place?" Fredrick asked as he turned his attention to the three.
"The place is very big! It looks very fancy, too! It's a lot bigger than the one in the capital."
Mary excitedly replied as all three of them took a seat on the other sofa on Ava's right.
"Of course, it has to be big. This place used to house over a hundred people——"
Before Fredrick could finish, he suddenly started coughing a little before finishing up.
"But now it just feels awfully empty... Only me and your grandma are the only ones left in this house."
"What happened?" Sophia asked curiously, looking a little intrigued by Fredrick's nostalgic face.
"They all——"
"Fredrick! Do we really have to talk about this kind of stuff as soon as we meet our grandkid?"
Ava interrupted, looking a little unhappy at the topic's direction.
"It's better for them to know it now. I don't want to see them trying to scramble for a cure.
Their mom probably hid this from them. I'm not going to sugarcoat something we all faced."
Ava fell into silence, not speaking up as Fredrick turned his attention back to the three.
"What cure?" Alex asked, looking a little intrigued.
"Do you guys know family bloodline is cursed with having mostly female, right?"
All three of them nodded in agreement, as they just heard it from Amelia earlier.
"Another thing about our bloodline is that no one had ever lived past the age of 100."
As soon as Fredrick mentioned it, all three of the kids were a little stunned by the information.
"But how about our great great great grandma?" Mary pointed out.
"She's an outlier. She had broken the curse herself, but none of us had ever broken it."
"So we have to reach Grand Archmage by the age of 100?" Alex asked, his heart racing after hearing the deadline.
"Not exact. Just Archmage is enough... But there hasn't been an archmage in our family for centuries now."
All three of the kids could feel the pressure, as Archmage was still a level 8 mage, which was still way beyond what they had ever dreamed of.
"Grandpa... Can I ask how old are you?" Sophia curiously asked as she began to realize something.
"Me? I have two more years before I'm going to kick the bucket."
Hearing a man who was about to die saying it out loud so casually, the three of them didn't know how to react.
They weren't on the verge of tears for someone that they had only met twice.
Yet, they still feel sad, knowing that their grandpa was about to be gone when they just met him.
"Hey, don't be sad like this. I still have two more years left in me. That's enough for me to pass everything to you, Alex."
"Me?"
"Yes, you. You're the only one that I can pass this Duke title without losing it to a random Count."
As the room fell into silence, Alex hesitated, thinking back to what he had said to Amelia earlier.
"Grandpa, I don't want this Duke title. Can you give it to my mom or auntie instead?"
Alex finally decided to pursue his request, as he didn't want to inherit something so big in less than two years.
"You sure? Being a Duke means you have the resources of an entire city to help you become an Archmage."
Fredrick's temptation made Alex swing a little, but he still shook his head.
"I don't need it. Mom and Auntie Amelia need it more than me." Alex argued.
Suddenly, Fredrick and Ava let out a chuckle before looking back at him, which confused Alex a bit.
"Look, I was right. I knew he was going to say to give it to someone else." Ava smiled.
"You won... Ahem, Alex, are you sure you want to give it up? Once you say so, you can't change it."
With a nod, Fredrick took Alex's word as confirmation.
"Very well. But unfortunately, you have to tell the Guardian about this. Not me."
"The Guardian?" Sophia curiously asked this time.
"Our great ancestor... The only Grand Archmage of our family."
All three immediately realized Fredrick was talking about the great great great grandma that Amelia mentioned earlier.
"I'll tell her that when I meet her... Grandpa, can I ask how old mom is?"
Alex curiously asked, realizing why Katherine had never told them her age on every birthday they had celebrated.
"She's... Ava, do you remember how old she is again?"
"Kate is 30 years old right now... But her birthday is coming up in February."
Hearing Ava's answer, all three of the kids were relieved, knowing they still had plenty of time with her.
"Ahem, enough of this talk. There's no need to worry about any of this any time soon.
How was your guy's school experience so far? Did you guys make any friends in school?"
Ava forcefully changed the topic, not letting Fredrick talk about it any further.
"It's great! Sophia and I made a lot of friends in school!" Mary excitedly replied.
"That's good to hear... What do you guys want to do over the winter break?"
"We still have to finish our winter break homework first." Sophia interrupted Mary from replying.
"Oh, really. What kind of homework is it?" Ava asked, looking a little intrigued.
"It's a multiple choice knowledge test and an experiment we have to complete."
"Ooo, what kind of experiment is it?"
"We need to come up with a unique way of using a spell. Like fire element and stone element combined to make a fireball."
"Aren't you guys only mage level one, right? That seems a little hard for a beginner." Fredrick suddenly chimed in.
"Yeah, but it's extra credits, so it's more of an optional winter break homework," Sophia explained.
"I see... Well, if you guys need help, we are more than happy to do so——"
As soon as Ava finished talking, the door to the living room swung open.
"Mom!"
The three of them excitedly ran over to Katherine before being pushed back by her.
"Don't hug me yet. I need to take a shower first... Fredrick, I did the thing you wanted."
Katherine stated, her warm face disappearing as soon as she turned towards him.