The day may come when I do not post a single chapter with reference to Thera in it; but it is not this day.

On a side note, since I'll be dragged about by family until after January 5th, the chapters may come sporadically in between now and then, since I don't know when I'll have the time to write them. I will try my utmost to have at least one chapter ready each day, but please be understanding if I happen to miss a day.

Yosh! Let's go!

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The Rose Mansion would have been absolutely stunning in the early summertime. But, seeing that it was only mid-spring, the grounds and mansion were covered with green leaves. The gardens did have a few early-roses, though.

As the carriage pulled up to the mansion doors, a manservant stepped out and opened the carriage doors for them.

Upon entering, Thera was greeted with the mansion’s staff: the maids, manservants, butlers, cooks, and gardeners- of which, alone, there were over thirty of them. In all, the mansion staff totaled one hundred and ten workers, paid from the king’s treasury to take care of the mansion.

Thera greeted them in turn, and told them they could return to their respective duties.

The first thing that Thera felt she had to do was to look for all the secret hidden passageways in the mansion.

She swiftly made her way around the perimeter of the building, measuring accurately with a yardstick, despite her swift speed.

Although Thera had managed to create a new spell that mapped out her surroundings like a bat’s echo-location, it could not penetrate through walls. Therefore, she had to do things the long way.

Then, starting from the hallway, measuring each room, the closets and the kitchens, as well as the hallways; noting everything down on a piece of paper, she ignored the confused stares of the mansion’s maids and manservants as she rushed by.

The General, too, was a bit confused, until she drew an image of the mansion down upon a large sheet of graph paper that she had created. Then he began to understand.

Having ruled out the places where the rooms were already known, it became apparent in which places there might be hidden rooms or passageways.

Then, Thera went to those places and tried to find the method for opening them. It was usually a traditional method: pulling a book out of a bookshelf, twisting a torch-holder downwards, pushing a button hidden in a complicated wooden carving on the wall, etc.

Before the sun went down that day, Thera had found every last hidden passageway. There were ten total, with three methods to get outside the mansion in secret.

The other seven went to hidden rooms, where there were spy holes, hidden weapons, etc. There was even a hidden library, which Thera read through within an hour, thanks to her time perception barrier.

Some of them were forbidden books. Others were rare copies of ancient martial arts. Thera burned all of the information into her memory before leaving the room.

The General had left after the first one had been found, having been called away on some duty.

The second thing that Thera felt she had to do, was to go over the mansion’s expenses, and check the books.

Using her time dilation barrier to increase her perception by her personal maximum of five times the normal speed, she managed to read through, and check all of the household records for the past three years.

When the sun finally showed itself over the horizon, Thera called the butler who had been in charge of the books into the study.

No one knew what passed between the two, but when she had finished talking, and the butler emerged from the study, his face had gone quite pale.

When the other butlers tried asking about what they had spoken, all the man could say was, “Don’t pull any funny business from now on, if you want to keep your positions. That girl is monstrously perceptive.”

The third thing Thera felt that she had to do was to speak with the cooks, after taking a three hour nap to dispel the mental exhaustion from her night’s reading.

Since the head butler’s words had spread quickly among the household, the cooks were jittery and nervous at the start.

But, after hearing what Thera wanted to talk about, soon they began to loosen up and were genuinely delighted to speak with her…since what they talked about was dessert recipes.

Having lived in the capitol, of course these cooks knew quite a lot of recipes. But the recipes that Thera was telling them about were all new ones that they had never even heard about.

Soon, they had grabbed whatever paper they could get their hands on, and were writing down the recipes, with haste, lest they miss a word.

Once things had developed to Thera’s satisfaction, she left the mansion with written instructions for the household to follow while she was gone.

In the end, when Master Thales came to pick Thera up, she had decided to leave the spies alone.

After all, a spy is only useful if he can spy on his chosen target. Since Thera wasn’t going to live at the mansion, it was fine for the spies to congregate there. She would do something about it later, after her training was finished.

Altogether, Thera hadn't even stayed for twenty-four hours before leaving.

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After they were far enough from the mansion, Master Thales handed some items to Thera, who immediately inspected them.

The first thing Master Thales had given Thera was a magic bag. Thera was quite puzzled until she looked inside the bag. Then she quickly shut it. There were piles of books inside, filling it up to the brim.

That’s right. The bag was filled with books. The amount of books and homework that Madame Rothema had sent Thera was enough for a little over three months.

You might think it strange, but remember, Thera had her time dilation barrier, which sped up her reading so that she was now five times faster. Thus, a mountain of books would easily be demolished in three months.

Within those three months, Thera would be studying under Master Thales’s ‘regime’ as Laura called it. She had a strange smile when she said it, too...Thera naturally prepared for the worst.

Even though, physically, Thera had already surpassed her previous life’s speed, reaction time, strength, and eyesight thrice over; she still expected the upcoming training to be one which challenged the very limits of her strength and perception.

The other thing that Master Thales had given her was a green hooded cloak, such as he and Laura usually wore.

“No, it’s not a uniform.” Master Thales assured her. “It’s actually necessary for some of the techniques I will teach you.”

Thera nodded and donned the cloak, pulling the hood up over her head to hide her face.

“Brilliant!” She snorted. “Now all that I’m missing is a mask to hide this devilishly handsome face of mine.”

Laura giggled behind her.

Usually, the term ‘devilishly handsome face of mine’ was used to refer to the heroes in the legends, who were mostly all male.

While there were a few female heroes among the legends, ‘devilishly handsome face’ had never before been used to describe a female, even if she had accomplished quite the heroic feat.

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That morning, the word spread like wildfire that Thera of Rose Mansion had vanished from the Capitol.

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After a month of extra lessons, Prince John was making average grades. While it didn’t look like much to anyone else, they were a far cry from the original zeros that he had been making.

Barley didn’t know why, but constantly reminding John that he couldn’t be a great merchant without knowing basic math turned out to be his greatest motivator.

Man, even though you’ve already got your career planned out for you, you really want to learn how to be a merchant? He thought time and time again as he looked at John’s improved grades.

But, well, if a prince wanted to be a merchant, then he might as well know how to be the best darned merchant there was.

Alright! Basic math foundations were set. Now he needed to practice basic haggling. For this reason, Barley needed to take him to the marketplace, in disguise, of course.

On their way there, he quizzed John on how to haggle.

“So, you want fifty yards of fine silks; but the seller says it is worth forty gold coins, and you only have thirty gold coins. What do you do?” (Barley)

“Why does it have to be silks? I hate silks! Why not something useful, like a sword?” (John)

“A great merchant will always have something expensive for the nobles to examine, even if he does not particularly enjoy the item.”

Barley replied. “But, for the sake of a better illustration, we’ll go with swords: What do you do if you find a really nice sword which the blacksmith says he is selling for forty gold coins. You only have thirty gold coins, however. What do you do?”

“I would have him send the bill to my father.” John replied.

Barley shook his head. “Let’s assume that your father is dead, then.”

“He’s dead? How did he die? Did someone kill him? Am I getting the sword in order to avenge my dead father? Is that it?” John asked.

“Let’s go with that, then.” Barley relented. “You are trying to buy a sword in order to get revenge, but you do not have enough money, what do you do?”

“Explain the situation to the blacksmith and ask nicely?” He replied.

“Do you live in the real world or not?!” Barley burst out with a tsukkomi. “No one but a simpleton would do such a thing! They would throw you out of the shop instead!”

“I would go back home, grab some money from the treasury, and come back later to buy the sword.” John replied.

Barley’s eyebrow was twitching with anger. A vein stood out on his forehead.

“Instead of doing such a roundabout thing, this is the point at which you would haggle for the item. A great merchant must know his basic haggling skills, after all.”

That got John’s attention. “Haggling? What is this haggling you speak of? How does it work?”

“It’s an important method for getting what you want at a cheaper price.” Barley said. “For instance, if it were me trying to buy the sword, I’d ask the storekeeper how much it costs.

‘Forty gold coins.’ He’d respond. Then I’d say, ‘Twenty gold coins’. Then he’d say ‘Thirty-five!’ Then I’d say, ‘Thirty gold coins, and not a copper more!’ Then he’d say ‘deal.’ And so, there you have an example of a successful bout of haggling.”

Barley turned to John, who looked a bit lost.

“But, why did you buy it, instead of me? I need that sword to avenge my dead father!” (John)

Barley sighed. “That wasn’t the point! Listen to me, you-”

His voice was cut off by someone suddenly yelling “Look out!”

Barley looked up just in time to see a horse drawing a cart madly galloping down the street straight towards John.

He didn’t stop to think, and jumped into action, grabbing John, and shoving him to safety.

The horse, noticing Barley, tried to avoid a collision, and move around him, but the carriage behind it skidded and slammed right into Barley, blowing him backwards so that he landed flat on his back in the streets.

The frenzied horse then ran into an alleyway, where it was successfully stopped, after the carriage itself broke a wheel.

“Barley!” John cried out as he rushed over. “Speak to me! Don’t die on me, Barley! Stay awake!”

Barley himself was in a lot of pain. His collision with the cart had broken several ribs, as well as his right leg and his left arm. He had also gained a concussion when his head had hit the cobblestones.

A small stream of blood trickled down from his lips as he tried to look around.

I’m…an idiot, aren’t I? He thought to himself, as he realized that he might die for real this time.

Spotting John, he smiled. “You’re okay, right? Thank…goodness…” His consciousness drifted off into darkness. The last thing he heard was John crying out, “Barley!”

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Author's note:

The reason why there is no romance included in the description for this book is because there are no romantic encounters planned for the duration of this book. The description will be subsequently added into the books where there will actually be some romance.

In other words, just because there's no romance now, does not mean there will be no romance later. It will simply be in a later book.