Chapter 399: New Housemates
10 days had passed since Royal Ancestor Ariana left Misty City, and things had mostly gotten back to normal.
The delegations from all over the kingdom had departed, the southern docks were back to being used as a military base, and Lucas had returned to a busy yet mostly predictable schedule.
If the young boy had to name one thing that had changed, it would be that he now had more housemates in his residence.
At first, it had only been Lucas, Eris, Christina, Sasha, Toby, Mabel, and Yuki living in the residence; along with the staff, of
Then, after the fire at the city garrison’s barracks happened, Lucas and his cohorts had dragged Jake, Jenny, Jessie, and their 3 younger siblings over to join them, bringing the total number of occupants in the house to 12 people and one rapidly growing fox kit.
Lucas had offered to let Laura, Joel, Rebecca, and even Victoria stay with them as well, but they had all refused for one reason or another.
Now, given the fact that the ’house’ Lucas was living in was a massive mansion with over 30 bedrooms spread across 3 floors, having just 12 residents still left more than half of the building empty.
After the former queen had departed, however, 4 more guests had moved in.
Elizabeth and Audrey Carlson, Kaden Patterson, and Danika Emerson had all taken rooms in the villa and settled in at least temporarily.
Each of them had a reason to remain. For example, the Carlson ladies needed to work out some of the finer details about the new farming machinery Lucas had proposed as part of the South-West Province Revitalization Project.
Working prototypes of the seed drill, harvester, and thresher had all been completed thanks to Lucas’ drafts and the efforts of the Carlson Family’s blacksmiths back in Iron Rock, but these prototypes still had some obvious flaws that the craftsmen were having difficulties solving.
While the smiths were confident they could eventually solve these problems on their own, there wasn’t much time left until the main planting season began, so these normally stubborn craftsmen put in a request for the original designer of the machines to have a look at their prototypes and make suggestions.
There were also a lot of uncertainties regarding Lucas’ proposal for mass producing these machines, such as how to distribute different jobs and parts to different forges while maintaining consistent measurements and quality. So, even without the technical difficulties themselves, the smiths would probably have needed to reach out to him and the Balfour Family for advice regardless.
Given how many of the Carlson Family’s smiths were working on this project, it probably would have been simpler for Lucas to take a trip there, rather than ship everything over to Misty City, but when Count Mathias received word that Royal Ancestor Ariana had appeared, he decided to kill two birds with one stone, dispatching a large delegation aboard his fastest river-ship along with the farm equipment prototypes.
As for why Supreme Elder Elizabeth had led this diplomatic delegation personally, it was simply because she had once served under the former queen and thus knew her personally.
The Pattersons, as the family most likely to be using these farm machines, had also sent representatives to Misty City to ensure their interests were taken into account.
Kaden had been sent with them mostly because of his close relationship with Lucas, but the boy would likely have requested to come even if he wasn’t asked as he had recently made some interesting discoveries using the agricultural and biology knowledge Lucas had taught him late last year.
The burly youth felt that his findings were important enough that he needed to share them with his teacher and consult with him about how to apply them on a larger scale.
Elizabeth and Audrey’s business would likely take a month or two to complete, while it was unclear how long Kaden would need to stay in Misty City to conclude his work, but none of them were planning to settle down for the long term, so they didn’t see a reason to purchase a permanent residence in the South-East city.
Lucas offering to let them stay with him was a welcome suggestion that they all took up without any hesitation.
As for why it was Lucas making the offer, it just kind-of worked out like that. Officially, the mansion had been given to Celestina’s ’Disciple’, and with Lucas being her First Disciple, he somehow found himself acting as the head of the household.
Even Sasha, the actual adult in the residence, often looked to Lucas for his opinion on things, so
Danika Emerson, on the other hand, was a completely different story.
Prime Minster Perry Emerson was, on paper at least, a commoner, so he didn’t have the same financial assets or connections that the nobles of the kingdom possessed, putting his youngest daughter in a bit of an awkward position.
Upon learning that the young great-sabre wielding girl wanted to stay in Misty City, possibly for a few years, so she could train under Farah, Celestina thought that instead of finding a place in the city, or living in a simple guest room in the Manor, Danika might feel more comfortable staying with her Disciples who were around the same age as her.
Celestina told Lucas, Lucas told the others, and no one raised any objections. Christina even vouched for Danika, saying she was a quiet, sensible girl who wouldn’t cause any trouble.
When Young Lady Emerson was presented with this offer, she promptly tried to refuse as she didn’t want to cause any inconvenience, but Danika’s timid personality made it quite difficult for her to win an argument against so many strong-willed individuals like Lucas and Christina.
In the end, Danika gave a faint nod and moved into the house, only to immediately start fretting about what room to take. She wanted to be a bit further away from other people as she liked her privacy, but doing so would cause trouble for the villa’s staff, which she felt would be too selfish.
Suffice-it-to-say, life was complicated for the shy girl.