"How did you do that Belle?"

"Belle looked at the page and read the words, how does master not know that?" She eyed me suspiciously. Looking at me like she was looking at an idiot. 

"You've only been learning for two weeks, Belle." 

"Two weeks?" Tammy finally chimed in, picking up on why I was nearly having a fit. 

No matter how I thought about it Belle shouldn't be able to do that, no offense to her, but she wasn't anywhere near that intelligent. 

She couldn't be a secret genius, could she? 

Getting some suspicions based on what I knew about attributes and my system. Her perception was incredible, she spotted an actively camouflaged monster from a hundred meters away. Perception and sensory abilities fell under the effects wisdom, which also had an effect on memory enhancement. She was already a native speaker... could it be that she was just able to memorize the words?

Even so, how high would her wisdom have to be? Mid twenties possibly? Higher? An unexpected talent to be sure. 

Beastkin all had pretty good senses, which by the system's logic should mean they all had good memory as well? A little unclear on how the same attribute could cover so many different aspects at the same time. Even so, this was beyond anything I had heard about beastkin, Belle's aptitude being clearly beyond the norm. 

Belle seemed to be having an especially good time after showing me up, sighing while I let Belle have her moment before tucking in for the night.

With things calmed down, the three of us snuggled together comfortably. Just their presence alone reassuring to me as I closed my eyes, forgetting my worries from the day. Listening to their soft breathing as I drifted away into slumber.

By now I had grown used to only sleeping for two to three hours a night. Having naturally woken up far earlier than the two girls who were still sound asleep. They shifted around some from my absence, but didn't seem to wake. Belle sleep-wiggling towards Tammy's side of the bed now that she no longer had me to lay next to.

Taking out a pile of slime mana cores, and beginning to cultivate silently. Now that I knew what the skill did, I had no problems maxing the skill level out with another nine point investment. Focusing in on the warm flow of energy traveling up my arm, through my heart, feeling it spreading throughout, before finally gathering to rest at my navel. The process calming and therapeutic to me; a needed distraction from my worries. 

When the first bits of morning light started to brighten up the room, Tammy was the first to stir. Her body's natural alarm clock having been set to a consistent time due to her regular work hours. Seeing her realize that she had glued herself to Belle during the night, her arms and legs wrapped around her like Belle was a living kitty-pillow. 

Embarrassed by the revelation at first, with her face turning even more red when she realized that I had been watching her the whole time. Responding to embarrassment with a simple smirk. 

Tammy finally rolled out of the bed and woke up the clueless Belle in the process. Which was what we needed to do anyway, all of us getting ready for the day before heading off to the dining room. Enjoying a meal in relative solitude, leaving me to wonder where all of the Marcets had gone. 

One of the maids finally explaining to me that they were keeping Marcella locked in her room for the time being, while Jagen and his wives were busy discussing what to do with her. Meaning the only people up and about should be Cal, Kaya, and Marcella's older brother. 

Thinking about it, maybe they were even trying to see if they could validate any parts of my story to see if I was indeed telling the truth. I'll admit my evidence was rather flimsy, seeing it was mostly testimony based, and my only living witness to the actual event was my brother. Even so, Marcella's reaction last night had made my job much easier, making it clear that Gawn had been someone special to her. Most importantly, the letter Gawn received yesterday was witnessed by several members. Dozens of knights could probably testify to seeing him with it, something that would help my side of the story a lot. 

Circumstantial evidence at best, but my side was clearly more convincing. 

Sighing and putting it out of my mind for the time being.  With things still up in the air, it was difficult to commit to anything, forcing me to adopt a wait and see attitude. 

With our meal finished the three of us headed off together to fill the vacancy left by Tammy's resignation.

Now that we had the go-ahead from the guild master, it was just a matter of tracking down this crippled adventurer. A man by the name of Emmet, a former silver rank who had lost his leg a number of years ago and fallen on rough times because of it. Had the guild master not been playing favorites, he probably would have been the clerk all this time. Even so, when we found him he showed nothing but gratitude to Tammy for choosing him to be her successor. 

The whole exchange seemed to put a warm feeling in my belly, like we had just done a good deed for the day. 

Now we were left with an entire day to spend. No schedule, and no responsibilities to speak of. All of our minds in sync as we decided to pay a visit to our proper home, the renovated farmhouse Cal had lent me before. 

Opening the door with a bit of a creak, the room was a tad cold compared to the lively and lived-in Marcet family mansion. Even so, Spring was in the air. Not having had any morning frosts for a number of days, the temperature didn't seem so cold to me anymore. And in a few moments we had a newly lit fire roaring in the fireplace, the room quickly rising to a comfortable temperature. 

Tammy whispering in my ear that she wanted to do something for me. Heading to the bedside and allowing her undo my belt buckle while her fingers moved excitedly.