章 21: The household’s shock Part-1
"Gasp! What's this?! What happened to young master?!"
"Dear goddess! He looks so sickly!"
"Oh dear, our young master, who was such a fine young man… how did this happen?"
"Oh no… The poor young master…"
"He looks so pale and thin. His muscles are gone! Noo!!"
"Someone go tell the head maid! This is a disaster! Young master has fallen sick."
"Young master, please allow me to help you!"
"You should've stayed in bed and just call for us, young master."
As I walked—more like dragged myself—closer to the dining hall, I got all sorts of reactions from the residence maids.
'I think there was a weird one mixed in those reactions.'
[There was. The maids do seem to dote over you quite a bit.]
'Well, duh. How many hours do you think I've spent, trying to be nice and collect AP from every female I could find in this house? Those 45k APs didn't come out of my ass.'
[Fair enough. I'm surprised you haven't bedded one of the maids already.]
'Well, you know why. I'm not planning to lose my virginity so early. I made do with my beloved, Palma R. Handerson.'
[I can't believe you named your right hand. That's very weird. But I kind of like it... Holy crap, you've ruined me!]
'Heh, it was my pleasure.'
I was taken by many surrounding maids to the dining hall. I was actually thankful for that since walking wasn't as easy for me as I had thought.
The doors opened to the dining hall, letting me view the residents, some of the maids, and my 3 family members.
My mother and sisters turned to greet me but they were horrified and shocked to see my state.
'Ah, here comes the APs.'
"ALEX! My baby, what happened to you?!"
My mother dropped her spoon and the chair she was sitting on fell as she immediately ran toward me.
[+700 Affection Points from Elizabeth.]
She came close to me and held me in her warm embrace. I had gotten taller than the first time this happened, but currently, my body was too weak to show my tallness. I was once again locked in the valleys of her bosom.
'She still smells great. I freaking love it here.'
"H-How did this happen, my poor baby? You were fine this morning. SOMEONE CALL THE MEDICS IMMEDIATELY! My poor darling, don't worry. I'll definitely fix it. WHERE'S LAURA? CALL HER, RIGHT NOW! It's okay, baby. Everything's going to be fine. Mommy's here. I'll heal you."
She caressed my head and back gently and spoke calming words, as she shouted orders to the maids in between.
This was the first time I had seen her voice so loud. And she did heal me, with her wonderful embrace. That's a power only moms have, alright.
She was really distressed. Her 'Observe' page seemed to be filled with worries.
"Big brother! What happened to you? Are you sick? You look so skinny. Does it hurt?"
[+500 Affection Points from Alice.]
My younger sister Alice too came to us and started her barrage of questions. I tried to shift my gaze from my mother's plentiful bosoms to see her.
She was teary, on the verge of crying. She looked really worried too.
'Ah, I made Alice cry. Not good. Note to self, make sure to spoil Alice a lot later.'
[Note added.]
'Thanks, Iris.'
"How on earth did you lose so much weight in the last 3 hours I haven't seen you in? You look like an undead."
And any guesses as to who said this?
Yup, it was my Tsundere older sister, Emma.
She had her usual frown on her face, but it was a soft one. She did seem worried for me.
[+450 Affection Points from Emma.]
'Look at her. Her Status says she's really worried about me, she's giving me a lot of AP, but her face seems to say otherwise. Classic Tsundere.'
My mother wore her own frown and chastized Emma, hearing her insensitive words.
"Sweety! Don't be rude to your brother. He's sick! He needs all the love and support from everyone right now."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I am also worried, you know. I'm his older sister. I was just surprised to see him like that. Seriously, how did this happen?"
Finally, they all looked at me, expecting an answer. It really was just too sudden.
I was finally released from the tight hug from my mother. I looked at her and then my sisters and then gave a weak smile.
"It's alright. I'm not really sick. It was… food poisoning."
'Ugh.'
I shuddered visibly as I tried to shake my head off some really disturbing images that came to me.
"Food Poisoning?! How can that be? Was it today's breakfast? But, we ate it together. Then was there something wrong with your serving in particular?"
My mother tried to contemplate the possibilities. But there was nothing wrong with the breakfast. It was delicious as usual. It was that abhorrent Pill. If I could traverse worlds and go find that Alchemist who made that shitty pill, I would have locked him in the toilet where I suffered. It still stank, even after I tried my best to flush and clean things.
'Whoever is going to clean that mess has my sincere pity.'
[Mine too.]
"I don't know, mother. The food was the same old. It was delicious and I didn't feel anything wrong after eating it."
I reassured her. If I blamed it on the breakfast, she would have spiked the chef for trying to poison her beloved children. And I didn't want that. The chef was an old one and he was apparently quite loyal to the family, and most importantly, he made godly food. I loved eating his dishes.
"Then why did you get sick, big brother?"
"Uh… I don't know…"
'Crap. I forgot to make up a reason for it. What do I tell them so they don't worry?'
My head wasn't in the best shape to come up with something. Luckily, Emma threw me a rope.
"Was it your stupid training? You had been really overdoing it this past month. I can't see anything else affecting you. So, did you get sick from overexerting yourself?"
Emma mused, but my mother jerked, hearing it.
"What training are you talking about? I know Alex was training with the knights… Did they make my boy overexert himself?! I'll have a talk with Commander Joseph right this instant—"
"Wait, mother! It's not due to that training! Commander Joseph has only been making me do normal exercise and sword training… I was training on my own too."
I finally confessed.
"You trained on your own?"
My mother asked, looking genuinely confused. It was understandable. I did most of my training inside my room to not cause suspicion. Even in this world, a 14-year-old doesn't do 100s of pushups, situps, and squats in a single day, every day.
I did have to do my runs outside, but it was somewhat manageable. I tried not to traverse through paths that were populated and our garden was freaking huge.
But it still wasn't completely hidden. The servants and Emma knew a bit about my 10km and 20km runs. Emma especially knew quite a lot about my "training" since she and I had been spending a lot of time together practicing sword. Speaking of swords, that's another troublesome matter but we'll come to that later.
Emma had tried accompanying me on my runs, but she barely managed the 10k ones, and couldn't even complete the 20k ones. She had called me nuts for running that long. But a man's gotta do what he's gotta do to get those sweet stats. And it did do wonders to my stamina. Unlike Emma and everyone else who retained the same stats as they did once they reach a Tier until they Tier up, my progress, with the Stat-based system, was much more linear and continuous. I could grow continuously if I trained hard or leveled up.
Anyway, coming back, my mother due to her busy schedule wasn't much aware of my private training. Even Emma and Laura who knew the most only knew of my long runs. Not the rest of it.
So, I was going to keep it that way, but blame it on the runs. After all, I was already as strong as I could get through training. I had to find a way to level up now.
"Yes, I was doing some jogging on my own to improve my stamina. And—"
"Jogging?! How do you call a 10KM run 'jogging'? Wait, no, for a while you've been running double that amount. No wonder you got sick."
I was trying to make something up when Emma decided to butt in and spill all the beans.
'Oi, you idiot! Stop! Damnit I was gonna make something less drastic…'
"Is that true, sweetheart?"
I heard my mother's even voice as her face suddenly turned into a scary smile.
'Well, shit.'
"Ahem. Well, I was just trying to do some jogging. It kind of got out of hand. So, yeah… Hahaha…"
I gave them my best anime Oscar performance, which was me giving them a wry smile as I rubbed the back of my head.
'Nailed it, probably.'
[Sigh.]
Needless to say, I didn't win any anime Oscars for that corny shit. Anime Oscar isn't even a thing in the first place, but that's beside the point.
"Why—"
My mother was probably about to start her reprimanding when my stomach disrupted her.
*GRRROOOWWWLLLLL*
"Umm, can I get something to eat, please? I am really famished. I feel like I'll lose my consciousness if I didn't eat something."
I pleaded, looking first at my mum and then at the maids who served her food.
"Of course! Come here, sweety."
My mother was back in her loving and caring mode as she gently pulled me toward the dining table. However, this time she made me sit close to her, on the opposite side of the table where nobody usually sits.
"My poor baby is sick, so we can't give you normal food. Please ask the chef to cook a nutritious meal for Alex."
She ordered one of the maids there.
"Actually, I would like the normal food, please. I was sick, but I'm much better now and I feel like I really should be eating something delicious… to offset the still lingering taste of the puke."
I muttered the last part to myself.
My reasoning went to deaf ears, however, as my mother denied me of it, saying I was sick and should eat a healthy meal.
… But I needed good food, damn it!
Still, I ate whatever was served. And I ate a lot of it. I really was completely empty. I even asked for seconds, thirds, and fourths. I think I almost reached the two digits before my mother put her foot in and refused to let me eat anymore. Her reason was– too much food could upset my stomach again.
In the meantime, she and Alice showered me with their love, questions, and a lot of AP. Emma was comparatively normal, but her worries for me didn't escape my Observe skill. Occasionally, she too gave me APs.
I even got AP from the maids who looked at me with concern.
Maybe it was worth it since I got over 3k points by the end of the dinner.
***
クリエイターの想い 
The_POZ
The_POZ A new week(according to WN) and the power stones have become 0 again. Please change that horrible number by donating your power stones. And enjoy the story. :D
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