Cleaning

"I'm back mom!" I said as soon as I opened the door with a small bang.

Before I could see what was on the other side, two warm arms wrapped around me, locking me in a protective embrace.

Understanding the situation, I hugged mom back and slowly patted her back assuringly.

"I'm fine mum. Don't worry." I pacified her in a soothing voice, I knew she would be worried sick about me, but I never thought it would be this bad.

"Are you injured anywhere?" She asked me as she inspected my body.

"Heh, no mom, just some minor bruises here and there." I answered her query with a small chuckle.

After some good few minutes of pacifying, she calmed down.

"Hmm good. Don't change your clothes yet, we've got some work to do." She said after getting back to her normal self.

"Work? Oh yea. Shall we do it right now?" I asked as I realised what she was hinting at.

"Yup, go fill up the barrels, I'll bring some waste clothes." She said, getting herself into 'Hell-mode'.

"Your wish is my command, your majesty." I made a formal salute to her and ran down the stairs, as a giggle reached my ears.

Even though I was a bit tired from all the running around the forest, I was eager to help out mom in any way possible.

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On the ground floor, there was just the reception table, the trolley with the crate full of glass vials filled with pink liquid, and the bag with a pair of antlers tied to it.

First of all, I went to the kitchen and started filling one of the barrels with water. After filling half of it, which was approximately ten liters, I brought it to the now empty hall and put it in the middle.

"Phew…,"

Then I went back to the kitchen and filled another half barrel and brought it near the first barrel.

After that, I swiped the sweat forming on my forehead and went to set the trolley and bag aside. 

While I was on my way, mom came down from the stairs with a bunch of torn clothes in her hands.

"Oh my…" She exclaimed all of a sudden.

"What happened mom?" I immediately asked.

"Those, those antlers. Keep 'em at one side, we'll put it on the wall." She answered after a moment of deliberation.

"Sure," I replied, I was planning to sell it for some money. But since that money was going into the eatery too, why not just use the material as a whole? I was ashamed of myself for not thinking of this.

Not thinking much of it, I put them behind the reception desk and went on to pull the trolley to the backyard.

After an hour, I was on a ladder, cleaning the wall with a wet cloth, while a dry cloth hung on my shoulder. After wiping off the dust with the wet cloth, I pulled the dry cloth up and started drying the wet wall.

While I was doing the walls, mom was cleaning the tables in the backyard.

In another three hours, we were both done with our work and laid on the soft grass in the backyard.

"That was tiring," Mom said as she wiped the sweat forming on her forehead.

"Yeah, but also satisfying." I commented with a satisfied smile. In five hours, we had completely cleaned every single nook and cranny of the whole floor.

"Hey mom. I got an offer to carry stuff for a few people. They said they'll pay good money. I think it's fishy. What do you think?" I presented my thoughts to one of the two people I trust in this world.

"Hmm, what about you? Do you want to accept?" She asked back.

"I don't really know…" I answered as I gazed at the clear sky above.

"Then just think about it. Only do what you want, Ryan. There's no other way around it." Mom said somewhat strictly.

"If you say so, mom."

"By the way, where's Dia?" She asked all of a sudden.

"Oh? She's right here. Come out Dia." I said, sitting right up, with the last sentence being directed at the cute black snake inside me.

[Coming~!] Dia appeared in front of me with her trademark cute shout, but instead of her usual pouncing on me, this time she jumped straight towards mom.

"Oh my.." Mom exclaimed as she catched the cute little snake, who was not so little anymore. Just in a few days, Dia almost got to half of her original size, though her scales didn't change much.

"Heh." I subconsciously chuckled at Dia's antics.

"Did you keep your promise, cutie?" Mom asked Dia as she stroked her little head.

"Ssss sssss sss." (I kept my promise, Grandmaster!) Dia hissed while nodding.

"Good, I can see that you did a splendid job." Mom answered Dia's nod with a smile.

'Such scary sync!' I thought, dumbfounded at the level of sync these two people in front of me showed.

"Ok then mom, I also need to go and get some pocket change." I said to the two as I stood up and dusted the dirt off my clothes, followed by mom.

"Drink something first, I'm gonna make some lemonade." She said and went inside.

"Mom is the best mom ever!" I said punching the air above my head, and followed after her.

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'What's the time again?' I asked in my head.

[Mid 6th quadrant.] Codex replied in a heartbeat.

I nodded and focused on the trolley in front of me.

Quadrant was a measure of time in Velpia. Similar to Earth, Velpia had a twenty-four hour day-night cycle, but instead of using 24 hours, a day on Velpia was divided into 8 quadrants.

Each quadrant represents 3 hours, since three hours were a huge time period, one quadrant was further divided into three parts—early, mid, and late—representing three hours forming a quadrant.

Codex was now using this measure of time to make me accustomed to it.

Currently, I was back in the market district, selling the next batch of potions.

"Sigh.."

As for the situation with Kai's offer, that still weighed on my mind.