"Whatever, I guess I just deal with it as it goes."
After putting all of his female stuff back on top of the cabinet to sell his 'feminine' appearance, Alex started looking around the room.
He was a little stunned by how big the room was. Even though he was on the first floor, he could see the houses of the city in the distance.
There was another whole castle wall right below him, below another castle wall that gave layers upon layers of protection from outside intruders.
At the same time, it had been snowing outside for a bit, and a cold breeze hit him in the face when he opened the window.
Closing it back up, he turned back inside, continuing to explore the massive bedroom he was in.
There was a bed big enough to fit six people side by side, with enough space for their arms to wrap around rather than be squished together.
The bed itself was also extremely fancy, made of some expensive wood that had a mysterious pattern to it.
Besides the bed, the wall had four different drawers and two wardrobes for him to put his jacket inside.
There was also a full-body mirror next to it, with a desk and chair on the other side of the wall.
"Crap. I don't have any winter clothes..." Alex murmured to himself, as he had always lived somewhere that had always been sunny.
"I probably need to ask for it."
After looking around for a bit, Alex finally found a perfect spot to put his suitcase in. Right around the corner of the wardrobe that no one would purposely look into.
With everything out of the way, he finally headed out of the room, only to find Sophia and Mary had been waiting outside next to the maids.
"What took you so long?" Sophia asked curiously.
"Just putting my clothes away. Let's go to the living room where Amelia was talking. Miss—Ahem, Luqing, can you guide us there?"
Alex quickly changed his wording at the last second as he could see Luqing's face change for a second when he addressed her as Miss.
"Of course, Miss Alex."
As the three of them followed Luqing down the hall, he was once again shocked by how long it took to walk to the other side of the house.
After walking for five minutes straight on what felt like a maze, they finally arrived in the living room Amelia had mentioned.
"Oh, would you look at that? Speaking of the devil, our grandkids are here..."
Fredrick was sitting in his seat, drinking some sort of tea, as Ava sat next to him with her own cup of tea.
"Don't call our grandkids like that," Ava argued, looking a little angry at Fredrick's use of words.
"It's just a saying... Ahem, how do you three feel about this place?" Fredrick softly asked as he turned his attention to the three of them.
"The place is very big! It looks very fancy, too! It's a lot bigger than the one in the capital." Mary excitedly replied.
"Of course, it has to be big. This place used to house over a hundred people—"
Before Fredrick could finish, he suddenly started coughing a little before covering his mouth with a piece of cloth.
"But now it just feels awfully empty... Only me and your grandma are the only ones left in this house."
"What happened?" Sophia asked curiously, looking a little intrigued by Fredrick's nostalgic face.
"They all—"
"Fredrick! Do we really have to talk about this kind of stuff as soon as we meet our grandkid?"
Ava loudly interrupted, looking a little unhappy at the topic's direction as the three kids sat on the side with curiosity.
"It's better for them to know it now. I don't want to see them trying to scramble for some sort of cure.
Their mom probably hid this from them. But I'm not going to sugarcoat something we all faced."
The mystery left all three of them curious as they waited for him to continue. Yet he didn't speak up until Alex asked out loud.
"What cure?"
"Do you guys know our family bloodline is cursed with having mostly females, right?" Fredrick questioned.
All three of them instantly nodded in agreement, as they had just heard it from Amelia out loud earlier.
"Another thing about our bloodline is that no one in this family had ever lived past the age of 100."
As soon as Fredrick mentioned it out loud, all three of the kids were a little stunned by the sudden bombshell news.
"But how about our great-great-great grandma?" Mary immediately pointed out.
"She's an outlier. She had broken the curse herself, but none of us had ever broken it. Me included."
"So we have to reach Grand Archmage by the age of 100?" Alex curiously asked, his heart racing after realizing the deadline in his head.
"Not exactly. Just Archmage is enough... But there hasn't been an Archmage in our family for centuries now."
All three of the kids could feel the pressure, as Archmage was still a level 8 mage, which was still way beyond what they had ever dreamed of.
"Grandpa... Can I ask how old you are?" Sophia curiously asked as she began to realize something.
"Me? I have two more years before I'm going to kick the bucket."
Hearing a man who was about to die say it out loud so casually, the three of them didn't know how to react.
They weren't on the verge of tears. Not for someone whom they had met for less than two months into the school year.
Yet, they still felt sad, knowing that their grandpa was about to be gone when they had just had the chance to meet him.
"Hey, don't be sad like this. I still have two more years left in me. That's enough for me to pass everything to you, Alex."
"Me?"
"Yes, you. You're the only one that I can pass this Duke title to without losing it to a random Count."
As the room fell into silence, Alex hesitated, thinking back to what he had said to Amelia earlier.
"Grandpa, I don't want this Duke title. Can you give it to my mom or auntie instead?"
Alex finally decided to pursue his request, as he didn't want to inherit something so big in less than two years.
"You sure? Being a Duke means you have the resources of an entire city to help you become an Archmage."
Frederick's temptation made Alex swing a little, but he still shook his head.
"I don't need it. Mom and Auntie Amelia need it more than me." Alex argued back.
Suddenly, Fredrick and Ava let out a chuckle before looking back at him, which confused Alex a bit.
"Look, I was right. I knew he was going to say to give it to someone else." Ava smiled as she got up from the sofa.
"You won... Ahem, Alex, are you sure you want to give it up? Once you say so, you can't change it."
With a nod, Fredrick took Alex's word as confirmation.
"Very well. But unfortunately, you have to tell the Guardian about this, not me. So you'll need to go there yourself."
"The Guardian?" Sophia asked curiously this time.
"Our great ancestor... The only Grand Archmage of our family."
All three immediately realized Fredrick was talking about the great-great-great-grandma that Amelia mentioned earlier.
"I'll tell her that when I meet her... Grandpa, can I ask how old Mom is?"
Alex curiously asked after realizing Katherine had never once told them her age on every birthday they had celebrated together.
"She's... Ava, do you remember how old she is again?"
"Kate is 30 years old right now. But her next birthday is coming up in February."
Hearing Ava's answer, all three of the kids were relieved, knowing they still had plenty of time with her.
"Ahem, enough of this talk. There's no need to worry about any of this any time soon. How was your guys' school experience so far?
Did you guys make any friends in school? Anyone tried to bully you guys or anything?" Ava asked as she forcefully changed to a lighter topic.
"It's great! Sophia and I made a lot of friends in school!" Mary excitedly replied.
"That's good to hear... What do you guys want to do over the winter break? There are a lot of things to do around here."
"We still have to finish our winter break homework first." Sophia interrupted as she poured Mary's excitement with a bucket of water.
"Oh, really. What kind of homework is it?" Ava asked, looking a little intrigued as she noticed the annoyed look on Mary's face.
"It's a multiple-choice knowledge test and an experiment we have to complete."
"Ooo, what kind of experiment is it?"
"We need to come up with a unique way of using a spell. Like fire element and stone element combined to make a fireball."
"Aren't you guys only mage level one, right? That seems a little hard for a beginner." Fredrick suddenly chimed in.
"Yeah, but it's extra credit, so it's more of an optional winter break homework," Sophia explained.
"I see... Well, if you guys need help, we are more than happy to do so—" Before Ava finished talking, the door to the living room swung open.
"Mom!"
The three of them excitedly got up from the sofa before running over to Katherine, only to have her push them away.
"Don't hug me yet. I need to take a shower first... Fredrick, I did the thing you wanted."
Katherine stated coldly, her warm face disappearing as soon as she turned away from the kids and towards her dad.