Chapter 367: A Profound Mystery
How, then, was Lucas able to win so frequently against stronger opponents from his generation and even his more talented Junior Sisters one might ask?
That mostly came down to the large amount of combat experience he gained from his inherited memories, his sharp tactical mind, and his superior senses.
Lucas was better at reading the flow of battle, analyzing his enemy, thinking on his feet, using innovative tactics, and exploiting openings than Eris and Christina were, but he knew that this advantage was only temporary.
Once his Junior Sisters accumulated more experience of their own, they would undoubtedly surpass him.
He was happy to see Tina and Eris grow stronger, but the thought that in battle they would likely be the ones protecting him, rather than the other way around, was a bit depressing to Lucas.
However, that didn’t mean he was going to give up trying to get stronger, nor did it mean he couldn’t help his sisters.
Them being stronger than him in the future might be inevitable, but there would always be many problems that personal strength alone wouldn’t be sufficient to deal with.
It was in predicting, preparing for, preventing, or ’purging’ such threats before they could harm his friends and family that Lucas’ strength truly lay, something he was well aware of and worked hard at every single day.
.....
After the morning training session, where Lucas received more than a few bumps and bruises from his Junior Sisters and a certain resentful grandfather too afraid to take his frustrations out on his wife but perfectly fine with doing so to him, the young boy made his way to a newly opened facility in the Balfour Family’s Misty City Manor.
Now, as Celestina Balfour’s First Disciple, Lucas naturally had a rather large and comfortable residence of his own, one that came with its own staff and a full set of amenities. There was even a bathhouse fed from well water and equipped with Spirit Arrays capable of providing heat without the need to light a fire.
If he had wanted to, Lucas could have had this residence all to himself, but not only did he find that extremely wasteful, it was also quite uncomfortable. He was used to living together with his family in a small house, so suddenly being alone in a mansion was unnerving.
As such, Sasha and Eris also moved into the same mansion, the mother and daughter pair having no issue living together with Lucas.
Even Christina joined them, despite being a royal princess and definitely being used to having her own private residence with a full-time staff.
Yuki technically moved in with them as well, but other than sleeping there some nights, the little fox kit actually spent most of her time together with Frey’s pack of Snow Spirit Foxes.
What she did with them all day was something of a mystery, but with everyone being so busy recently, they were just glad Yuki had ’friends’ of her own to play with.
All this was to say that there was no need for Lucas to use the Manor’s public bathing facilities, but he still did so quite frequently for a number of reasons, chief among which was he still felt uncomfortable having so many people fussing over him.
When he was at ’home’, the maids would insist on assisting him with everything, even bathing himself, something Lucas was very much not accustomed to.
Aside from his own personal preference, however, Lucas also chose to use the new public bathhouse so often because he was the one who designed and built it, so he felt a certain attachment to it.
During her brief stay in Redwood Town, Celestina had gotten to experience the showers Lucas had built and greatly appreciated them, so it was no surprise that once she returned to Misty City, she had ordered a similar facility built.
Lucas was in full agreement with his Master in this regard and thus dove into the project headfirst.
Of course, the Balfour Manor in Misty City was massive, so it was necessary to have multiple bathhouses for the several thousand people who lived and worked there.
In fact, there were already 4 public bathhouses inside the Manor, but their capacity was quite limited.
The higher-ups all had similar facilities to the one in Lucas’ new home, but for the common workers, each day, these public bathhouses would only provide a single 5-litres-bucket of hot water to them for free; if you wanted more, you had to pay for it.
Still, this was sufficient for most of the staff to wipe themselves down, and it was better than what they could get out in the city, so no one really complained.
When Lucas learned about this, he immediately drew up plans for several new, bigger bathhouses to replace the old ones, all of which would be equipped with what he considered ’proper’ facilities and allow everyone to have a brief but full shower every day.
As for why the first of these new bathhouses was built essentially next-door to where Lucas was living... well, who could say?
It was a profound mystery that might never be solved...
Arriving at the facility, Lucas swept his gaze over the polished stone floors, rustic brick walls, and sloped timber roof and couldn’t help marveling at the Balfour Family’s efficiency.
This wasn’t like the other universe, where buildings could simply be ’printed’ in place or pre-fabricated in factories and then assembled by automated drones; no, everything in the Rockwell Kingdom basically had to be done by hand.
The fact that this massive facility was erected in just over a month was a testament to both the skill of the local craftsmen and to the strength cultivation granted to humans.
There might not be power tools or heavy machinery here, but when 4 Core Formation labourers could easily lift and move a 1-ton stone block, and a Low-Rank Martial Initiate could easily drive a 5 metres-tall wooden stake into hard ground with nothing but a hammer, construction was still astonishingly quick.
Stepping inside, Lucas was greeted respectfully by the staff on duty, all of whom either saluted or even bowed to the Marquess’ Disciple, another thing the boy hadn’t quite gotten used to yet.
Setting aside that slight discomfort, though, Lucas smiled and waved before hurrying along to the changing room where he stripped down, took out his soap box from his Space Bag, then stored his clothes in one of the many open cubbies.
Grabbing a fresh washcloth and towel, another service provided by the bathhouse, he then headed into the actual shower room.