I stepped through the door and into a long room, there were a few chairs and lamps on the ceiling and I could also see something like vents on the upper part of the wall. Waiting inside were multiple women wearing long black skirts and white shirts with laces to tighten them on the upper part of the front. All of them had the same ponytail and all of them had their hair resting on their right shoulder, in fact, the only difference between them was the colour of their eyes, hair and skin. Even their figures looked so identical that I couldn't tell the difference.

"Welcome, you must be Altair. We are the maids that take care of the fort and its inhabitants. If there is anything you require you need simply call for us," one of them said.

This one had brown hair and blue eyes as well as white skin and a few freckles around her nose.

"I will lead you to your room and once you have put on more comfortable clothing I will guide you to our dining hall," she said.

I nodded in response. The woman nodded back and led me to the door in the back of the room, opened it and waited for me to go through. She then led me through multiple corridors, up multiple stairwells and staircases until we reached a long, round corridor that led around the entire fort. On one side it was opened up a little, with beautiful arches and a wall no higher than a metre. On the other side was an artificial garden with all kinds of strange-looking plants that I couldn't even begin to describe. On the ceiling of the artificial garden was a large glowing orb that resembled the sun and its rays of light had the same warmth the sun on the outside of the fort had just hours ago.

"This is the garden for the plants that are used in alchemy," the maid explained.

I nodded, still staring at the plants. They gave off a comfortable feeling, similar to Elsa's spirits. I followed the maid along the corridor, paying little attention to her or the other people walking around and just looking at the plants. She then led me up another staircase, that was embedded into the wall, which just led to another corridor that was exactly the same as the one below, with the only exception that I could now see the plants from another angle. Some of the plants were so large that they nearly reached the ceiling which was at least as high up as the ceiling of the entrance hall.

After I had followed the maid around the circular corridor for a little longer she stopped at a door that had runic inscriptions, just like my wood elven magic mark and a copper nameplate that said: ALTAIR and written beneath the name I was actively using was my full name: ALTAIR OBERON LYRIUS.

"This is your room, your things have already been delivered. Once you're ready just come outside and I will lead you to the dining hall," the maid said.

My belongings?

I just shrugged and opened the door. The inside was surprisingly normal. Stone walls, wooden floor and ceiling. A large shelf on the left side of the room, the bed on the right side pointing into the room, a desk beneath a large window that had a beautiful view out onto part of the mountain and the waterfall as well, there was a single padded wooden chair and bedside table with room for some things, a wardrobe integrated into the shelf itself a large bushy plant in the corner of the room right next to the door, a single painting of some forest with a stag in it above the bed and a large lantern hanging from the ceiling. There was also a door beneath the bed and the plant that had a brass plate on it on which the word: BATH was engraved.

I nodded as I looked around. Then I noticed that there was something on the desk. It was a small letter. As I walked towards the desk I noticed the armour stand standing opposite to the plant, it was integrated into the shelf as well. I then picked up the note and read it.

_________________________

Dear Altair,

since you didn't have any belongings with you I took it upon myself to gift you some clothes.

You can put your armour on the armour stand and it will be cleaned once a day during dinner if it's dirty, just like the clothes still in the wardrobe.

I won't be able to help you a lot but I did pull a few strings to make your stay here a little easier since you did help out a lot and saved us a lot of work by taking out an entire branch of Pergament.

I hope you will make it far.

Kind regards,

Paladin Rudolpho Alami

_________________________

I put down the note and smiled.

He's useful, that's for sure...

'Making powerful friends is always good,' Ira said.

'Friends? Me. And a fucking paladin. Friends? You can't be serious. I'm just using that guy to get ahead,' I responded.

'If you say so,' Ira said.

Then I suddenly heard a knocking. I instinctively turned to the door but the knocking didn't come from there. It also didn't sound like anything was knocking against wood, more like something was knocking against the window. I looked out the window and saw M sitting outside the window, staring at me.

I quickly opened the window and let the large raven inside. He hopped onto my desk and looked around.

"Cosy room you got here," he remarked with his usual rough voice.

"Right? And I can even feel the mana from those plants outside when I'm in here," I said as I walked over to the wardrobe and opened it up.

Inside were multiple baggy grey pants, black shoes seemingly made of leather and pale green shirts. There was also a dark green cloak with hood and fur lining in there, closely resembling my own cloak although this one seemed more expensive. There was also a drawer inside the wardrobe that had white socks in it and another drawer with underpants.

I quickly began undressing and put all my armour on the armour stands and put the stuff I wore underneath, a thing shirt, a thin pair of pants and underpants and a thin pair of socks, into a small bin in a separate compartment with a separate door.

"So, you saw anything useful?" I asked as I went to dress myself in the new clothing.

"They seem to be working on the teeth of that giant cat head or whatever that is," M said.

'Royal dragon,' Ira said as soon as M finished taking.

"Interesting... truly interesting," I said.

"How come you've calmed down so much? Even during the carriage ride... what happened to the laughing and singing and twitching?" M asked.

"I don't want to be too suspicious you know? Imagine me walking around laughing and twitching. It's going to be a challenge not to throw up every second because of the number of human mages around here. Especially with Lestul and Rudolpho in one fucking place," I said, already starting to feel my muscles tense up a little.

"Well, if that's what you want. I'll take a closer look at the teeth while you do... whatever in here. Just try not to die. I don't want to end up alone again," M said as he turned around.

"Did you remember anything?" I asked as I put on the clothes Rudolpho had organized for me.

"I think I had a brother or something like that... and I remember my previous owner having something going on with his eyes or something but I'm not quite sure," M said.

"So I'm your owner now?" I asked, raising one eyebrow as I straightened the shirt I put on a little.

"As close to that as it gets anyway," M said as he hopped out of the window. "See you," he said as he took flight.

Now fully dressed I walked up to the window and closed it again before walking across the room and stepping back into the corridor.

"Are you ready?" the maid asked.

I nodded and she led me to the dining hall.