That Night

Daiki spent most of the time after he returned in the hotspring within the residents. No one bothered with him, other than to give a glance or two to make sure he was alive and awake.

Seated in the center of the bath, his eyes were closed and faced away from the main entrance. His legs were crossed and he was enduring the hot steam and heated water. "System… You don't do much right now, do you?"

'Ding' Need upgrades for further primary functions to unlock.

The young master brought the palm of his hand hard down against the water's surface. Only succeeding in making a large splash, his facial expression was that of a twitchy one. Anger, annoyance and impatience.

However the heat of the room allowed him to quickly calm down and return to his relaxing. The most he could do with this level of a system was train faster and learn faster. There was no way he would be able to gain more experience in order to upgrade it if he wanted to focus on his skills.

Yet he was teeming with renewed patience after the short outburst. His temper was under his control, he let out calming long slow breaths through his nose.

"How much more experience do you need?" He opened his eyes and stared at the water in front of him. He was speaking out loud, knowing no one was watching really. It wasn't very odd for him to fluidly speak to himself. He was able to talk to himself better than he was able to talk to anyone else.

'Ding' 465 Experience Points needed. Would you like quests for rewards?

Thinking for a few moments, he lulled his head back into the water and began to float casually within the steaming waters of the spring. "What's the catch?"

'Ding' There is no catch. The quests were put on standby…

"It was on standby…?" Daiki blinked a few times and stared at the ceiling of the room as he heard this, he couldn't believe what the system had just said. "You mean for the past Fourteen years, you've kept them on standby?"

'Ding' That is correct host. I didn't believe you were ready.

His mouth was left agape and his eyes closed partially as if he was transitioning into a glare towards the ceiling. It was a clear look of disbelief. He could have unlocked this feature since the beginning to help him get stronger, and yet the system itself thought he wasn't ready? His jaw began to tremble in anger before smirking to himself.

"Activate the quest system!" He'd shout, raising a hand only to cause himself to rapidly sink into the water. He quickly say up after being briefly submerged.

'Ding' Quest function has been reactivated. Please Standby for integration.

After sitting up, he listened to the voice of the system and nodded to himself before walking towards the edge of the bath. He was definitely feeling light headed, and the sudden changes in his vision were disorienting.

Once he reached the edge he climbed up and walked over to a stack of towels and dried himself off skillfully before wrapping himself up in a striped robe; tying it shut.

"Young Master," A voice erupted from the other side of the door. It was one of the younger servants. "Dinner is almost ready. Your evening robes have been prepared in your room." He then listened to her leaving, the soft pit-pat of her feet vanished after a few seconds.

Letting out a breath, he slowly slid the door opened and peered out. There was no one in the corridor. His eyes moving over to the basket by the door and seeing his robes in there, he raised a brow.

'Ding' The Quest function has been reintegrated into the host!

"Thank you," he said as he witnessed the appearance of a visual overlay appear within his left eye. There as a translucent cobalt blue square which had the word quest over it. The words were in white text.

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Quests

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Learn the name of the Monk in your Employ. 150 EXP

Supply the Monk with a new set of clothes. 100 EXP

Offer to get the Monk a new Quarterstaff. 100 EXP

Invite the Warrior Monk to dinner. 50 EXP

Share drinks with the Monk. 50 EXP

Invite the other servants for drinks. 50 EXP

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Staring at these quests in which he had been given, he didn't understand why all of them involved the Monk. In addition to this all of them together equaled around five hundred experience points which would easily him to increase the functions.

The question was still though, why the Monk? Sucking in his lower lip as he made his way to his bedroom for the night, he would drop the bathrobe outside the room once more. With the pocket door sliding closed behind him, he made his way over to his futon and sat down on its wooden frame.

There was a black kimono with white under robes and pants beneath it. He slipped them on without much problems and added his typical accessories. He didn't bother calling for the servants to help him. The last time he had gotten involved with them while getting dressed, he had been a delirious clumsy mess.

Once he was dressed had stretched softly, cracking his back and rolling his wrists. He walked over to the bedroom door and stared down at the shadow on the other side of the door. "Who's there?"

"Takamori-dono," It was Rei Seo, he immediately recognized her voice.

"Oh… Right. Forgive me, but w-what's your name?" Moistening his lips slightly, he listened intently to get the answer out of the monk. There was a brief pause before she answered.

Rei Seo had just noticed that he talked a bit more fluently with her than before. It was as if it was because he couldn't see her. Could it be he was afraid because he could see the other person?

Squinting her eyes, "My name is Rei Seo," she said as she bowed lightly to the door in front of her. In her hands was his sheathed swords which he had left on the way to the bedroom. "I'm here to deliver your swords."

'Ding' Quest Complete. 150 EXP

"Ah… Pl-please come in-in." Opening the door, he would step aside.

'Ding' Hidden Quest complete, Invite someone into your room. 50 EXP

Blinking a few times as this quest was completed, he was astonished at the fact that there were hidden quests. Now he was able to get a total of 550 experience points if he completed all of the quests given to him. There was no way of telling how many new hidden quests there would be. For some reason he began beaming with happiness.

Rei Seo gave his face a glance before raising a brow as she walked into the room and placed his weapons on their display. She then turned to her new master, gave a light bow and went to leave the room.

"Wa-wait!" He reached forward to stop her from moving passed him, his hand brushing against her shoulder and touching her exposed collarbone.

Rei's face turned a bright red and she immediately turned her head in attention. Her entire body becoming tense as she felt his touch. What was this sudden boldness?

'Ding' Hidden Quest complete, Physically get a servants attention. 25 EXP

She watched as his face morphed into a wide smile, it was as if he had suddenly become excited and she couldn't at all tell what was going on here. Wasn't he supposed to be a meek tall man? Or did he simply think she was a man, and that he finally found a friend? She didn't know what to think?

"Wha-what is it, Takamori-dono?" She stuttered slightly, not used to being touched like this. Then that's when she noticed his jaw trembling as if he was trying to force himself to communicate. This made her smile blankly, waiting for what he had to say.

The suspense was too much, his chest was beating loudly and visibly. "Wo-would you join me for d-di-dinner?" He asked, his entire body gaining a tingling feeling from all the stress that came from simply asking of this.

'Ding' Quest complete. 50 EXP

Blinking in disbelief at his question, she slowly nodded. "Is that all, Takamori-dono?" She asked curiously as she kept her eyes narrowed on him, her tongue moistening her lips slightly. She was just about ready to go get a drink.

"I'd eh…I'd…" His confidence felt like it was failing, but it was budding up every time he thought about getting a better system. The very rewards he could gain in his mind was endless. "I'd like to get you some new clothes. Blue and white, like the rest of the inner servants… And a new quarter staff." He looked at the weapon which was diagonally set on her back.

'Ding' Quest Complete. 100 EXP

'Ding' Quest complete. 100 EXP

'Ding' System Upgrading.

'Ding' System Upgrade complete. Integrating into host now.

Within moments various new interfaces began to appear. There was a mini-map with a built in compass in the corner of his left eye and a clock, just above the quest screen. In his right eye however there were various tabs that looked like they were for a file system. One of them was labelled inventory, apparently he could put items into it. There were others such as equipment, skills and the last one was System Hub Settings.

Opening the systems settings he noticed he could change the opacity of the items which he could see, in addition to organizing where they were. He could change the color of the hub, as well as the dots in the mini-map to show what they meant. He could literally choose a color that represented a single person to keep watch on them. He thought about color coding his servants, but didn't do it right away. All of the controls for these seemed to be simple thoughts or verbal commands.

Watching his eyes wander around, Rei frowned lightly. Was he dreaming with his eyes open?

Noticing her frowning, Daiki came back to reality and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry," was the only word he said before removing his hand from her shoulder. He sniffed the air slightly and raised a brow, looking at her. "Did you take a bath yet?"

Hearing the question, Rei's eyes widened and she shook her head slowly. Was he able to smell her scent just by taking a few whiffs of the air? What powerful senses…

"I see… Be sure to do so," It sounded as if he was giving her a friendly reminder. Though he probably just didn't want his only 'male' friend to be smelly from working out and sweating.

"Then we should get to the dining hall," she suggested since she knew that the boar which they hunted was going to be used for dinner tonight.

She was rather excited, considering the fact that even though he didn't talk much, he was capable of arranging interesting recipes into a book for the manor's cooking staff. Apparently he was having them use various spices and herbs typically used for medicine! It was quite an interesting revolution in the cooking industry.

Nodding at the order, the two of them would leave the room and head towards the dining hall. Though as the were entering a densely populated part of the house, Daiki grasped the back of the Monk's robes and kept his eyes to the ground.

Rei's mouth puckered softly as she felt as if she was leading a blindman through a maze of people. It was definitely a strange feeling, especially since she knew he was not blind.

'Ding' Keep your head up, stop watching the floor!

Hearing the system, he'd let out a silent sigh and raised his head to look forward. He was surrounded by women, girls of all sizes. All their eyes were on him, like harpoons waiting to strike a whale as soon as it rises to the surface.

His grip on the monk's robe loosened slightly, yet he brought himself even closer.

Rei glanced over her shoulder towards the man, rather surprised to his sudden closeness. If only he knew she wasn't a guy, he wouldn't be this close. Yet she didn't seem to mind. Instead she simply smiled at him with all her might.

It almost felt as if his heart was going to burst out of his chest like a rocket. The smile she gave was overtly pretty and almost threatened to make him go insane. It made him feel weird though, how could a boy make him feel this way? He wasn't understanding at all of his own feelings right now.

…

About an hour later they were situated in the dinning hall with the senior staff of the manor. All of them were women ranging from the ages of eighteen all the way to twenty-two. All of them had their quirks about them, even different body types.

Seated at the end of the table, his gaze fell upon his new servant. Out of everyone, he was just watching them. It was something that was calming to him, since he felt everyone elses eyes on him.

Though despite all this it seemed Rei's attention was more on the doors to the kitchen. Her mouth was watering as she could smell the aftermath of the heat's job to cook the meat and its seasonings.

Then her eyes immediately narrowed as they brought out the boar stuffed with vegetables and various beans. Her stomach growled angrily like a beast that was ready to pounce.

When the food had come out, his eyes didn't move from Rei as he observed her. Many of the women at the table were observing to the two of them. It seemed that their lord had an interest in this one?

Most of the women could see that Rei was not a boy, but even so, they wouldn't give it away as they saw how much interest he held in her regard.

Though the fact that he was staring was rather impolite and creepy, one of the twins from another branch of the family who were working as servants, knocked on the table. "Hey, hey! Cousin Daiki-dono!" They sounded in unison, which caused him to look over at them, but his eyes were looking above their heads per usual.

"Hm..?" Lulling his head to the side, he raised a brow to their summons.

"Are you into Monks are something? You've been staring at Rei-Rei for a long time." The one with a standard cute bob cut pointed out, her name was Rim.

"Yeah! Yeah, do you!?" The other one with her hair drawn in ornament decorated pig tails asked with a whiny tone. This one was named Min, oddly enough not named Rom or Ram.

It was as if the whole room was deprived of air, as all of the women almost choked on their own saliva. They didn't know how to process this, nor who to look at. Should they look at the twins with a scolding for questioning their master, or look to their master for an answer to the query.

Rei on the other hand was completely distracted by the large boar which was now situated in the center of the table. It was massive and cut most definitely feed everyone at the table more than twice over.

Daiki's eyes moved right back over to Rei Seo after being asked this question and stroked his bald chin. Was he into this person? He then shrugged lightly, not even speaking his answer, but at the same time not really giving one either.