The moment he accepted the mission, Cassian heard someone knocking on the door in a discreet and gentle manner. As if whoever was calling feared being a nuisance.
Cassian looked toward the door for a moment, still sitting on the bed with the system screen in front of him.
"Cassian-sama." A young, feminine voice was heard from the other side. "May I come in?"
The first thing Cassian thought about was the "sama." It was strange to hear that, since he had only ever heard it in anime or novels.
Then he remembered the mission, to behave as Marek Nightrend would.
Without further hesitation, he stood up from the bed and straightened his posture. "It's about time you arrived."
As he said that, the door opened immediately. The girl who entered walked quickly to a spot a few feet away from him, then bowed in a respectful gesture.
"My apologies for the delay, Cassian-sama. Breakfast is ready." the girl said without even daring to look him in the face.
Cassian simply looked at her. He was several inches taller than her, and that was something that satisfied him slightly.
Then, pushing that thought from his mind, he examined the girl more closely.
'So she's Thessaly.'
In the novel she was barely mentioned; she had been Marek's personal maid, now his.
She had short white hair and red eyes similar to his own. But what caught his attention the most were her pointed ears.
An elf.
Cassian stared at her longer than he should have, in silence, until he noticed her shifting subtly, apparently uncomfortable.
"And what are you waiting for? Lead the way." Cassian ordered in a serious tone.
Thessaly nodded again, turning around to guide him, but before following her Cassian adjusted his clothes slightly.
"Let's go." he murmured, following her.
✶ ✶ ✶
The mansion's corridors were long, tall, and absurdly ornate.
Cassian walked behind Thessaly while calmly observing everything around him.
The walls were polished dark stone with golden details, carpets covered the main passageways, and every so often a sculpture or painting appeared that was probably worth more than his family had earned in ten years.
But more than the architecture, what caught his attention the most was the number of people present.
Dozens of servants. Perhaps hundreds if he counted those crossing through the side corridors or disappearing through secondary doors.
All wearing the same uniform, all moving with professionalism, and something Cassian quickly noticed was that none of them looked him in the face.
They simply bowed slightly when he passed near them.
'Of course,' he thought with a hint of irony. 'I'm a duke.'
It was a title that had fallen to Marek when his parents died, for reasons the novel had never clearly explained.
What was clear, however, was what Marek had done with that power: basically nothing useful.
Instead of managing the territory he had inherited, Marek had diverted the duchy's resources into his personal pocket with a consistency that was almost admirable if it weren't so stupid.
The result was a territory falling apart while he spent the money on anything else.
But at twenty-two, the king had stripped him of everything.
Now Cassian was nineteen. Almost twenty.
Which meant he had two years to fix what Marek had caused before the crown decided the duchy functioned better without him.
'Priority number one,' he mentally noted as he continued walking. 'Don't get dismissed before I can do anything.'
When they reached the dining hall, Cassian was surprised by the enormous size of the room. The ceilings were high and large windows allowed the light of the two suns to stream in from different angles.
At the center stood a long dark-wood table with seating capacity for at least twenty people.
And he had it all to himself.
Along the sides of the room, spaced at regular intervals, stood maids. All of them with features Cassian immediately identified: animal ears, tails, and a couple of them small horns almost hidden beneath their hair.
Beasts. More precisely, beastwomen.
Cassian vaguely recalled that in the novel it was mentioned that Marek had a rather obvious preference for hiring maids exclusively from that species.
A fetish the man had never tried to hide at any point.
Cassian glanced at them briefly as he took his seat at the head of the table.
Well. He couldn't deny the maids were… nice.
Thessaly positioned herself at his right side without anyone instructing her to do so, a place that was clearly habitual for her.
The food arrived within seconds.
✶ ✶ ✶
The food was good. Remarkably good, in fact; there were flavors he couldn't quite identify, but he liked them nonetheless.
Cassian ate slowly, unhurried, letting his gaze wander across the room with the same neutral expression he had worn when leaving his bedroom.
It was then that he noticed an elderly man, tall, with white hair combed back and a formal suit of impeccable cut.
He stood near the side wall with his arms behind his back.
He was not an ordinary servant. His posture was too upright, too confident in his place within that room.
Cassian glanced at him out of the corner of his eye as he brought the wine glass to his lips.
"Alveris."
The name came out on its own, with a naturalness that surprised even him. He didn't know where that information came from, whether from some fragment of Marek's memory or simply from having read enough about that world.
The man reacted immediately, approaching the table quickly.
"Yes, Cassian-sama?"
"I want to see the current state of the finances and expenditures. Bring me the papers."
After he said that, there was a brief silence before Alveris reacted.
"Of course." he replied as he straightened and withdrew without making a sound.
Cassian watched him leave, then returned his attention to his meal.
Noticing his wine glass empty, he slightly raised it to his right, where Thessaly refilled it with more wine.
As he waited, Cassian began mentally reviewing what little he remembered about how the economy functioned in that world.
The system was simple: bronze for daily expenses, silver for formal trade between merchants and lesser nobles, gold for those who handled great wealth.
1 gold coin ➜ 100 silver coins.
1 silver coin ➜ 100 bronze coins.
It was an easy scale to understand.
The complicated part wasn't the system. It was knowing the condition in which Marek had left the duchy's accounts.
Alveris returned before Cassian finished his glass, carrying a folder of documents that he placed on the table to his left with a brief bow.
Cassian looked at it without touching it yet.