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#200. Maintenance (2)
Philip entered the mansion with Ayla.
The morning routine had begun, and children were running around busily in the spacious lobby.
“All the basic housework is done by shifts. Cleaning, laundry, meal preparation, grocery shopping, etc.”
“Everyone is so quick-witted.”
“Um… I guess it’s because everyone has been living in a mansion for a long time?”
Philip asked, feeling the lively air that filled the mansion.
“Did you say there were 26 people in total?”
“No, 24 people.”
“I guess I misunderstood.”
“No, originally there were 26 people. That’s because 2 people left.”
He said that he had kicked out two of his disciples through voting.
They were like the confidants of the deceased Bin Jin, and it was said that they were chosen to reduce the risk of running the mansion in the future.
“If you’re a disciple, you’re the strongest in the mansion. I don’t think you’d want to leave just like that.”
“No, there is someone else who is the strongest in the mansion.”
Philip tilted his head.
“Who is that?”
“me.”
“you?”
“Yeah. I’m the strongest. That’s why I used magic to chase away the two who refused to leave.”
Philip looked into Ayla’s unwavering eyes and thought it was unexpected.
From what I heard from Ray, he definitely had an indecisive and low confidence personality.
‘Well, maybe I changed after meeting Ray.’
Philip continued asking questions, not thinking it was a big deal.
“Are there any difficulties related to running a mansion?”
“Well, managing money is a bit overwhelming. There’s money Ray gave us to use as a budget, and we also have public funds that we’ve saved separately. But no one has ever been in charge of such a large sum of money.”
“Show me the ledger later. I have a very good eye for money.”
you…?
The moment Ayla looked at her with a suspicious look, a boy appeared from the hallway on the right.
The boy approached a display case in one corner of the lobby, bowed, and said.
“Did you sleep well, brother?”
The thing that greeted the boy was not a person, but an object, a thick book.
Philip was greatly embarrassed when he saw the red cover and gold title.
“Why is that there…?”
Unless I’m seeing things wrong, that was definitely the Cromwell dictionary Ray used to beat up kids on the street.
The boy took out his brush.
He continued to speak to the book politely, dusting it off and applying preservation varnish to its cover.
“Brother, is it okay for me to use this level of brush strokes?”
“Your skin looks like it got really damaged last night.”
“I also train every day to become strong like my brother.”
Philip, who was watching the scene, asked Ayla while twirling his finger next to his head.
“Are you a friend who has lost his mind? He keeps talking to the book.”
“He’s my brother.”
“What I’m saying is, he seems like a guy with an incredibly smart head.”
Ayla looked at Philip in confusion for a moment, then giggled softly.
“It’s okay. Everyone in the mansion knows that my brother is special.”
“Oh, really? That’s good.”
“But I think it’s a bit harsh to say that you turned away.”
“No! That’s not what I mean!”
Ayla, laughing again, explained the afternoon routine at the mansion.
“After everyone finishes their morning tasks, we take magic classes in the afternoon. I teach the theory, and my brother teaches the practical skills. My brother and I are the most skilled in the mansion, so there’s no disagreement. We’re only in charge until Ray comes back.”
Philip shook his head inwardly.
I think he’ll continue to be in charge even after Ray returns.
Instead of just blurting out my thoughts, I asked about other things I was curious about.
“I think it might be difficult for the two of you to teach all of the remaining 22 students. How did you divide the class levels?”
“There is no classification.”
“huh?”
“For convenience, we divided them into classes A and B, but we didn’t divide them by ability. Each class has students with and without rings.”
“Uh… why do you have to? Then it’ll be hard to teach.”
“If we divide them into grades, we might end up having negative feelings towards each other. Who is better? Who is worse? We’ll constantly compare ourselves. I don’t like that.”
Ayla’s attitude was firm.
Philip thought it was a very inefficient policy.
“… … .”
Soon, it was decided to move on without raising any objections.
Ray delegated all educational authority over the mansion’s children to Ayla.
‘As if you gave me economic power.’
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So, my thoughts were that Ayla’s educational policy needed to be respected anyway.
“Follow me, I’ll show you around the mansion.”
Philip followed Ayla, who was smiling.
*
One day, two days, a week, ten days.
Time flies and we’ve reached the last page of the calendar.
The December wind was bitter and sharp, but the children in the mansion did not feel as cold as they did last year.
Rather, perhaps it is thanks to each other’s warmth.
After work and classes, I could run around in the snow-covered front yard of the mansion, full of dynamic energy.
“Die!”
Wedge! Pfft!
thud!
Philip was hit by a snowball thrown by Ain and fell down in a heap.
“Hahahahaha!”
Despite the bruises and the stinging pain on his eyelids, Philip looked up at the sky and smiled broadly.
It was snowing.
Snowflakes of a dark color.
Although it was clear that it would have some bad influence like black rain, the fluttering snowflakes had a magical power that made the children’s hearts tickle unbearably.
“Die, you evil wizards!”
“You’re the evil one! You piece of shit!”
“Woof, woof!”
The front yard was bustling.
Of course, not all of the children in the mansion participated in the snowball fight.
There were also those who were introverted or concerned about their health, Ayla being a prime example.
“Guys, come in. It’s been three hours already. If you get exposed to too much cold wind, you might catch a cold─.”
Phew──!
That is, until I got hit square in the face with a snowball.
The girl’s cold face was revealed along with the falling snowballs.
Whioooo──!
A blizzard rages around the girl.
Hundreds of snowballs formed inside and fired in all directions like machine guns.
“Run away!”
“Aila is going berserk!”
“Ain! Stop your sister!”
“If we fight, I lose!”
It was a peaceful and busy day.
The children of the mansion quickly adapted to their daily lives without Binjin.
Philip’s work of identifying the business and determining which areas to address also went smoothly.
But everyone felt empty.
The absence of a person rather strongly proves his or her presence.
Third floor terrace of the mansion.
Ain, Philip, and Ayla talked while looking at the fluttering snowflakes.
“Brother General Affairs, when is Brother Ray coming back?”
“It’s almost time to come back.”
“Yeah. Philip’s right. Ray said he’d be back in two weeks at the latest.”
I wonder if something happened to Ray and he can’t come back.
There was no such talk.
It wasn’t so much because of anxiety as because I couldn’t imagine Ray being blocked by something and unable to move forward.
but.
“Brother, I miss you.”
“I know.”
“… … .”
It was an undeniable fact that the hole in my heart was growing bigger.
It was a similar feeling felt by all the other children who were able to escape Binjin’s clutches and live a different life thanks to Ray.
A few more days passed like that.
“come!”
A child who was listening to the class looked out the window and shouted loudly.
A bus was coming through the gate and into the house.
“Aila, why don’t you stop class for a moment and go out─”
Ayla, who had been standing in front of the blackboard, had already disappeared through the wide open door.
The children followed Ayla out of the mansion.
Ddddddd, squeak─
The bus stopped in front of the mansion.
The windows were tinted so I couldn’t see inside.
For a while, no one got off the train, probably because they were packing their luggage.
The children’s emotions are increasingly heightened.
Then finally.
Pushii──
The door opened and someone appeared.
“uh…?”
“huh…?”
The children were very embarrassed when they saw the bearded, grim-looking man.
The man also looked very embarrassed at the sight of the children gathered around him.
Ayla muttered in a confused voice.
“As far as I remember, the only people who left on the bus were Ray, Veronica, and the driver… ”
No matter how I looked at it, it didn’t seem like the old gentleman I had seen before.
Philip said confidently, adjusting the bridge of his glasses with his fingers.
“Ray came back much more mature. The ruins must have been an amazing place.”
Ayla asked back, dumbfounded.
“Is that Ray?”
“Yes. I don’t know about women, but adversity that doesn’t destroy a man’s existence tends to make him grow greatly. I also started growing a beard after I stumbled over a rock and didn’t cry.”
Then a green-haired woman wearing a brimmed hat got off.
Philip nodded.
“Veronica has matured a lot too. It seems she was so stressed out that her hair color changed.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Sister…! What on earth happened…!”
At that time, the Ayla siblings and their children were drifting in the storm of chaos.
widely.
A boy and a girl appeared behind the man and the woman.
Silence came in an instant.
With everyone’s attention focused on it.
Ray looked around at the children and opened his lips to speak.
“I’m back.”
Whispering, softly.
*
The mansion’s reception room.
Ray heard from the Isla siblings and Phillip about what had happened in the sector.
“You’ve worked hard, everyone.”
It was a dry but sufficient word.
Philip asked, unable to hide his excitement and thrill.
“How about you? Did you get any results?”
“It was a great achievement.”
Ray summoned a yellow gem and placed it on the table.
Philip exclaimed in surprise when he saw the jewel in its perfect form.
“You found your match…!”
“That’s right, I was lucky enough to find the other half and merge them.”
At that moment, Ayla, unable to contain her curiosity, intervened.
“Is this the rainbow you were talking about before? The one Ray, you’re looking for?”
Brilliant brilliance.
Mana of absurd purity swirling inside.
The magicians, Ayla and Ain, could instinctively tell that it was no ordinary charging stone.
Ray answered.
“Probably, that’s right. To be exact, it’s one of the seven fragments of the rainbow.”
Ray briefly explained the process of combining the yellow gems.
From what happened at the historic site.
Even the things that happened at Lael Lowe.
Philip said with a hardened face after hearing Vicious’ story.
“If Murkred’s executives visited the ruins first, there is a very high probability that the doctor knows our location and route.”
Ray nodded and took Walter’s ring out of his bosom and played with it.
“That’s right. The binding magic that indicates the enemy officers’ locations has also malfunctioned. However, I don’t think the Doctor will show himself to us any time soon.”
“On what basis is that?”
“The doctor is wary of me for some reason. I’m not sure if it’s because of what the enemy says, but I think it’s probably true. I’d like to discuss how to deal with it when Curiosa arrives.”
Philip and Veronica agreed.
“Okay. I think that’s right too.”
“There’s probably a lot that Curie can tell you. She said she’s been watching you for a long time.”
At that moment, one of the arrows on the ring spun around and suddenly stopped.
It was clearly pointing in the direction of the mansion’s main gate.