Chapter 25 Back in town

A month had passed since the dungeon break incident in Marchelle town.

Currently, Nicholas and his team have already returned to the city of Curtana. They decided to return after they successfully reached level 20 in two weeks and a half after continuous dungeon exploration after the dungeon break.

Maria POV

Morning inside the Curtana Mansion

I am currently continuing my maid duties inside the mansion. It has been more than two weeks have passed since we returned to Curtana, and since Master decided to discontinue going to the dungeons in the meantime, let us choose what path we should take.

Today would be the deadline for our time to make a decision. He gave us plenty of time to decide, but we as a team also needed to move forward eventually, so we have to give him our choice.

Before promoting to the second level, I have been relegated back to my maidly duties since we will not go into the dungeons in the meantime. My daily tasks for the day were almost finished, from cleaning the ornaments and decoration west wing on the second floor of the mansion to cleaning his master's room right after.

My day doesn't end there; I then have to settle some documents and tasks that my master gives me. It was mostly helping him relay information or check the product quantity and quality. Today's document was regarding the establishment of a new cosmetic shop for her young master and the mistress.

The implementation of my master's business was going relatively well. Some nobles have already pre-ordered products in advance, and some merchants also approached the mistress to conduct trade agreements and distribution rights.

No concrete agreements have been settled between the merchant and the mistress as of now, but the young master said it was okay to give some distribution rights to the merchant. 

However, these distribution rights need to be renewed annually, and they will only receive a few selected beauty products according to the mistress's discretion to prevent merchants from taking advantage of them.

My master is really a genius; he has been able to establish a thriving business at such an age. Some might say he is lazy and only reads books all day. But I know he is really adept at time management, so he has plenty of time to laze around.

--

This was only Maria's wishful thinking; she already realized that ever since she was hired by her young master, she has been training her to handle the time-consuming tasks he has or plans to have.

Even though it is a bit troublesome, she was pretty content with this since she was able to spend more time with her young master, unlike that dumb knight.

A slight smile appeared on her flushed face, thinking of the time she was able to be alone with her young master.

--

I quickly returned to my usual appearance of a prim and proper maid, since I needed to quick finish wiping the ornaments so I could spend time with my young master.

After finishing my task on the second floor of the mansion, I immediately went to my young master's room to proceed with her next task.

*Knock**Knock*

Maria: "Master, this is Maria. Can I come in?"

Nicholas: "Sure, come on in."

Maria: "I brought some tea and snacks for you."

Nicholas: "Sure, place them here besides the table."

I then entered the master's room and saw him on the edge of the room. He was sitting on a chair with a table in front of him, looking like a makeshift office. On the tables were paperwork most for him, but some that are separated are most likely for her.

I then placed the tea set and some snacks besides the table, which is another smaller round table, especially for snacks.

Nicholas: "You came at the right time; please give these papers to mom. And please double check and tally the new raw material that arrived today."

Maria: "Yes, Master. But before that.. I have decided what to do."

Nicholas looked at Maria after she said those words.

Nicholas: "Mhmm, wanna tell me about it?"

Then I took a stool from the bedroom and placed it on his table to talk about her decision.

Clarice POV

The sun has barely peeked

I tend to always wake up early to do morning exercises; it has been an ingrained routine for me since childhood since my dad worked for the Curtana mansion as a knight.

Clarice: "Is *yawn* morning already?"

I rubbed her tired eyes as she rose from her bed. I opened my eyes and looked out my window, seeing the sun peeking a little bit.

I then slowly got out of bed to do my daily static stretching routine. 

*stretch**stretch*

I stretched my arms upwards and then downwards to reach my toes. After that, I sat on the floor to do some more stretching moves. After stretching and loosening up my body, I reach into my wardrobe to change into my training clothes.

I tend to start my day with a run to warm my body up, so I usually run from our house until I reach the mansion's vicinity. Then proceed to do another round of dynamic stretching for a certain amount of time before starting my usual workout routine.

---

As she was training, she started to reminisce about the past.

Her knightly training started when she pestered her dad daily, wanting to be like him. She was proud of him. So she also wants to be a proud and dashing knight to protect everyone from harm when she grows up.

Since his dad cannot resist her cute request, he asked permission from the count about this matter. Surprisingly, the count agreed to allow her to train on the knight's training ground. The count also encouraged the other knights to bring their kids to train even at a young age. This is because Nicholas has been frequenting the training ground at that time. It was the count's plan to let Nicholas mingle and build relationships with the kids in Curtana.

The day after her dad agreed to let her train, she was so excited that they arrived a bit earlier than usual when his father did his duties. So, her father decided to train her a bit to show her the ropes of getting stronger. His dad's training is a bit rough for a young girl; this includes weight training with an obstacle course to increase her coordination and basic martial arts training to introduce her to combat.

Soon enough, she got roughed up even before people started arriving, but as soon as people started arriving, her dad left since he also had his duties to perform. After some time, other kids also started arriving to learn how to train. But with her sweaty and dirty face early in the morning, a lot of kids avoided her.

Looking at her surroundings, she was a bit embarrassed but chose to ignore it since she came here to train and get stronger. She swallowed her shame, went to get a short wooden sword for her to carry, and went to a corner to observe the other people who train swords.

She often saw his dad use skills when training in the backyard of their house; she thought it was amazing. To be honest, it was one of her reasons why she wants to become a knight. So after getting the wooden sword in one of the racks, she went into the corner and tried copying her dad's movement.

She tried and tried...

It didn't work; maybe if she tried to practice a lot, it would work.

It still didn't…

So, she started to watch other people train; she heard people saying skill names. She thought maybe if she started shouting the skill name while doing it, it would work. It didn't…

But she didn't stop trying and trying and trying...

Not until a person came up to her and told her to stop. She was startled as she turned her head toward the person speaking to her. She saw a cute and handsome boy wearing a fancy dress.

The first thought in her head was… "A PRINCE."

-----

Coming out of my reminiscent daze, I continued my workout routine. Well, it was a really embarrassing time for me. My appearance at that time was that of a short-haired, sweaty, and dirty girl. But he still approached and talked to me; it was the start of their wonderful relationship.

I continued to train until noon, when a maid approached me, telling me to come to the master's quarter for my decision.

------

Nicholas Alexander Curtana

Level: 20

Age:10

Stage: 1

Element: [Earth Lv.1]

STR – 100 (+110)

DEX – 100 (+125)

INT – 112 (+185)

VIT – 90 (+140)

AGI – 90 (+90)

Power Level – 34980

Equipment: [Battle Hunter's Set] [Dessert Dweller Daggers] [Vitality Enhancer Gloves] [Dexterity Enhancer Boots] [Phantom Phoenix Amulet]

Skills: [Scan Lv.7] [Sands Embrace Lv.3] [Earth Manipulation Lv.6] [Dagger Throw Lv.6] [Dust gale Lv.3] [Earth Clone Lv.4] [Earth Wall Lv.6]

Maria

Level: 20

Age:10

Stage: 1

Element: [Wind Lv.1]

STR: 110 (+8)

DEX: 100 (+5)

INT: 98 (+60)

VIT: 92 (+10)

AGI: 125 (+2)

Power Level – 18830

Equipment: [Wind Walker's Set] [Wind Caster Grimoire] [Silver Brawler's Ring] [Intelligence Enhancer Gloves] [Agility Enhancer Boots]

Skills: [Gale Blade Lv.5] [Wind Arrows Lv.5] [Wind Barrier Lv.5] [Healing Breeze Lv.5] [Wind Siphon Lv.4] [Wind punch Lv.2]

Clarice Clairton

Level: 20

Age:10

Stage: 1

Element: [Fire Lv.1]

STR: 119 (+30)

DEX: 130 (+20)

INT: 75 (+20)

VIT: 125 (+5)

AGI: 80 (+5)

Power Level – 17720

Equipment: [Broad Defender's Set] [Grand Warrior's Gladius] [Silver Brawler's Necklace] [Dexterity Enhancer Gloves] [Dexterity Enhancer Boots] [Great Throwing Shield]

Skills: [Blade Dance Lv.5] [Blade Waltz Lv.5] [Fire Mimic Lv.3] [Death Garden of Death Lv.3] [Wild Slash Lv.3] [Shield Bash Lv.4] [Shield Throw Lv.3] [Flame Slash Lv.4]