The first part of this chapter will continue from Chase's perspective.

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I spared the window a brief glance.

I leisurely raised myself off the bed and strolled over to the closed window. I delicately unlatched the lock which is keeping the window tightly shut with my fingers. The lock gave away with a clicking sound.

I took hold of the window with both hands and lifted it upwards, the window produces a grating sound in defiance as I do so.

Warm air wafted in and caressed my body. I leaned forward on the windowsill and observed the outside world. The soft, soothing rays of sunlight in the morning is completely dissimilar to the unforgiving searing heat of midday. The colour of leaves on the trees were a deep, verdant green, enhancing the lush landscape with its freshness. Birds glide from tree to tree, playfully chasing each other. They perch themselves on the leafy branches while composing their enchanting songs without a care in the world. A single bird decides to be adventurous and flies over to me. It lands on the windowsill and happily hops about beside my hand which is placed there. My lips curve into a smile of pristine tranquility at the sight, a smile worthy of a person who had achieved transcendence. All my worries are blown away upon beholding the magnificent beauty of nature.......... or so I had hoped.

I threw my hands up in frustration, startling the bird as it flew away in fear. I grabbed the window and pulled it shut with a loud bang.

'Nothing is working, not even the captivating beauty of nature could distract me'

'The thought....it is still haunting me'

'ALICE IS COMING OVER TODAY, ALICE IS COMING OVER TODAY, ALICE IS COMING OVER TODAY'

The sentence had changed to accommodate the passage of time. However, the intensity of it only continues to increase. All my other thoughts are muffled at the back of my mind, overshadowed by it.

I give up trying to repress the persisting rogue thought and decided to go about with my routine. I proceed to cleaning myself up, I almost bled my gums while brushing my teeth vigorously and I washed myself thoroughly by repeatedly applying soap and rinsing my body five times. Satisfied with the impeccable level of hygiene I had achieved, I proceeded to change into some clean clothes. I made sure to pick the best shirt I had with a matching pair of trousers.

I descend the stairs and head into the dining room to have my breakfast.

My dad is currently serving up the meals, I take my seat at the table and wait.

He turned around and quizzically raised an eyebrow.

"Well, You're up earlier than usual"

"Mmm" is all I could respond with.

He let out an audible sigh upon hearing it and continue putting down the food on the table. He sat down and we begin to eat.

He is eating at a much slower pace than usual though, the knife and fork in his hands methodically cutting the fried egg. The knife slices through the half-cooked yellow part of the egg, causing the yolk inside to slowly ooze out. He eyes me with concern as he munches down his food. Upon finishing off the meal he gently placed the cutlery on the empty plate. He took a deep breath and steadied himself in preparation to say something. While gazing at me in utter seriousness, he finally divulged the thoughts he had been keeping in reserve throughout the whole mealtime.

"Listen, Chase..." he starts off in a grave tone.

"The thing about us humans is that we are not perfect, and we make mistakes all the time" he pauses for a while, his gaze lingering on my face.

"We learn from our mistakes, Chase" he continues.

"And we never really stop learning"

He grinned contently after saying something profound. I was bewildered by the irrelevance of the words he spoke. He looks at my expression in a satisfied manner while nodding to himself, most likely misunderstanding something. He reached his hand out towards me and pats my shoulder.

"Just enjoy your day off and play around with Alice" He says in a tone that is meant to console me.

Unfortunately the mention of Alice's name only further intensified the recurring sentence in my mind.

'ALICE IS COMING OVER TODAY , ALICE IS COMING OVER TODAY'

I kept my face neutral to prevent him from getting unnecessarily worried.

"I'll be off to work then, I'll probably get a raise soon! The customers love my food, especially my special 'Spicy Stuffed Chicken Delight'!" He happily chatters away, thinking he had resolved my problem. A vivid image of the 'Spicy Stuffed Chicken Delight' crosses my mind, I wonder if the customers would still be fond of it should they find out the stuffing is made up of powdered insects which according to my father were meant to be nutritious.

"See you later and take care!" His voice a bit subdued as he called out from outside the house.

I grab the dinnerware off the table and begin washing them at the sink in his stead, he had forgotten to wash the plates frequently these past few months. The workload must be getting to him.

I deposit the dripping wet plates on the dish rack and sauntered into the living room. I sink myself on the cushioned chair and stare at my immediate surroundings. My eyes stop at a layer of dust on the wooden floorboards partly hidden by the shadow cast by the table above it.

"NO!"

I gasped in abject terror as I bear witness to the spot of filth which lies hidden out of plain sight.

'Such foulness, how could I have Alice visit this house when it is in such a state?'

'I can't have her thinking that I live in squalor and disease!'

I bolted off into the kitchen and procured a bucket of water along with a rag frequently used for cleaning. I hold the simple cleaning utility I have in my hands, filled with determination to remove the filth. Setting the water-filled bucket aside, I dip the rag into it and squeezed off the excess water back into the bucket. I vigorously begin to scrub the offending spots of dust with the soaked rag. I realised that my hand could not reach some parts underneath the table. I grip one side of the table with both of my hands and moved it by lifting it up, careful not to scratch the wooden floorboards. I carefully placed the table slanted against the wall and turned back to clean the floor.

Cleaning the floorboards proved to be a lot easier with the table out of the way. I scrubbed and scrubbed the dust off the floor, stopping once in a while to dip the dirty rag into the bucket. The water inside the bucket had turned into a sickeningly dark colour from all the dirt submerged into it.

"Phew..." I heaved a sigh of relief as I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my forearm.

I admire my handiwork, the wooden floorboards give off a dull shine on its surface. It had most likely retained its glamour when the house was newly built. However, upon careful observation I realised one glaring mistake. The part of the floorboards I cleaned is gleaming with a lighter brown colour compared to the surrounding area.

'Ugh...this is going to take some hard work....'

People say that shortcuts would never lead to success, but I have to disagree with the statement. I had cautiously lifted the furniture using wind magic and moved them into the adjacent room, leaving the floor bare.

'Step one is done, moving on to step two'

I gather mana into both of my palms, the familiar warmth coursing through my veins. A small jet of water starts to continuously shoot out from my palms, wetting the floorboards. I am currently using the Intermediate-ranked Water spell 'Water Blast' at a drastically reduced output. I slightly increase the output and the intensity of the water jets increased, effectively removing the stubborn dirt which had integrated into the surface of the floorboards. A smile fleets across my face, I am happy with the results of my action.

The water starts to pool up on the floor and is about to flow into the neighbouring rooms, I halted its movement and imagined them floating up and moving out of the door which I had opened beforehand. The idea came about from watching Alice clean the tea I spilt all over her table a couple of months ago and I am happy to say that I am able to reproduce it perfectly. I continue to wash the floor as the excess water continues to float out of the house. It took me less than five minutes to clean the floorboards, a feat that would have taken a lot more time if I did it by hand.

'Step two complete, proceed to step three!'

I replaced the furniture back inside the living room the same way I got them out in the first place.

'There's still plenty of time until the afternoon... ah...what the heck, I'll just clean the whole house'

I repeated the same process for every room inside the house and even washed the exterior of the house. Standing outside with both hands placed on my hips, I stared at the house in admiration. A sense of accomplishment fills me up as I see the shiny roof tiles and the spotless bricks.

However, turning my head around I see a large puddle of mud surrounding my house.

*Sigh*

I invoke the Basic-ranked Wind spell 'Air Blow' in my right hand and the Basic-ranked Fire spell 'Fireball' in my left hand. A ball of fire and air coalesced instantly on each of my hands respectively.

'Now, how do I do magic compounding?'

'No, wait... maybe I should just imagine it like I always do'

I imagine the fireball and air to fuse together forming a torrid blast of air. The ball of fire and air moved towards each other and collided, the fireball disappeared, leaving only its heat behind. A swirling ball of hot air is floating above my palm as a result.

'Success!'

I invoke the same spell with my other hand, apparently I don't need to repeat the compounding process after I have done it once. I blast the spell all across the mud puddle in hopes that it would return to firm ground.

The mud pools were deprived of their moisture but instead of the firm ground I had in mind, mudcracks were formed.

'It's one thing after the other, huh?'

A series of problems cropped up later with each magical-based solution I applied. The sun was already high up in the sky by the time I was finished sorting out everything. I am currently sitting in the living room while brewing tea for the upcoming visitor.

*Knock* *Knock*

The sound of a delicate small fist rapping on the door is like music to my ears. I immediately stand up and put on the confident gait of a nobleman. I unlock the door and swing it inwards, revealing an angel with brown hair illuminated by the radiance of the sun, wearing .......... a set of leather armour and leggings.

"Afternoon, Chase!" Alice announced in a jovial voice.

"G-good afternoon, would you like to c-come in?" I stammered to thin air.

Alice had already took off her shoes and walked in as soon as she greeted me.

"Wooooah~~~" She gasped in appreciation of the clean room.

"Everything is so..... shiny!" She turned to me and flashed me a heart-stopping smile.

"Y-yeah, we of the Blackstone household are very hygienic p-people" I muttered a half-true statement.

"Cool! Everything in the house actually looks newer compared to the last time I was here!"

"H-huh?" I am confused with her statement, just when did she come over to this house?

"Oh come on... what's up with that look? This WAS my uncle Godric's house you know?" She chided me and puffed out her cheeks, slightly frustrated.

'Oh yeah... this house belonged to Gillian's deceased son, didn't it?So his name is Godric Cloud?'

I am slightly worried about myself, forgetfulness at such a young age is not very common... did I inherit it from my dad?

"Y-yeah, I know, I was just- uhm.. surprised that we managed to make it look b-better than your last visit!" I try to cover my blunder.

"Well.... my uncle didn't have much in the way of aesthetics anyway.." She bought my excuse. What she said does make sense, the furniture in the house when we first moved in only consisted of essential ones. It was later on that we carried our furniture over from the old house during the early morning jogs. I shudder at recalling the unpleasant memory.

"O-oh, I see. Uhm... have a seat, I made some tea" I gestured at the teapot and cups set on the table.

"Why, thank you! You need not have to go through such an ordeal for me!" She replied jokingly while faking the pompous manner of a noblewoman.

"What's wrong with your eyes, anyway?" Alice stares at my bloodshot eyes. I silently blame sleep deprivation in my mind for it.

"It's n-nothing" I brush her inquiry off.

As we are enjoying my perfectly brewed tea, Alice asks me a question.

"So, have you found the secret basement yet?"

"T-this house has a b-basement?" This is surprising information for me who had lived here for a couple of months now.

"A seeeeecret basement, and I'll take your reaction as a no"

"B-but I didn't see any stairs leading d-down..." I am definitely sure with this statement as I have thoroughly washed every room in the house.

"There's a magically hidden trapdoor hidden under a bed in one of the bedrooms" She explained.

"Let's go! I'll show you where it is!" She abruptly got up, without spilling the tea like I did and rushed off into one of the unused bedrooms. I put down my cup and hurriedly follow her.

I walk into the room and see Alice moving the bed, a screeching sound is produced as the wooden legs of the bed scraped the floorboards. I cringe from the sound and also the damage done to the floor I painstakingly avoided to scratch.

"It's here!" Alice exclaimed while pointing at a segment of the floor. It looks absolutely normal, I could not see anything strange even as she points it out to me.

"It's hidden with light magic, you can alter the appearance of some things if you are an expert at it. I'm sure you could do the same with that crazy ability of yours" she elucidates the matter.

'Looks like her late uncle Godric was no ordinary man. Altering the appearance of objects... that's neat. I'll try it out some other time'

Alice invoked a 'Light Ball' and changed the colour to a light blue.

'Let's see.... if i remember correctly changing the colour of 'Light Ball' requires at least Advanced level mastery, Alice is pretty good with this huh?'

She illuminated the floor revealing an iron handle attached to a trapdoor which was previously not there. Smiling to herself, she grabbed the handle and pulled the trapdoor open. A flight of stone stairs descending into darkness is uncovered, a musty smell emanates from the basement. Alice looks at me and asks me a question.

"Shall we go?"

Swallowing my saliva, I nod in reply.

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Part 2 will be coming out later, stay tuned!

Chase gets a day offArmusGodric's Hollow