Chapter: 180
Still running through Losla, the guard had the stink of Matheson trail across the whole western part of town before he entered the small barracks. It had a small wooden wall around it with another guard at the front, so Matheson couldn’t get in.
“Sorry bud,” thought the guard as he ran past the other, entering the barracks. He felt sorry for the other guard who had to stand at his post and stop Matheson, smelling the stinking noble.
Matheson stopped at the entrance, raising a brow as he looked at the guard.
“Hmm, I guess I can give this to you.” said Matheson, holding the scout badge in hand while giving it to the guard at the entrance to the barracks. He promptly ran off again, heading back to his mansion.
He didn’t seem to mind about chasing a guard over the village, he reasoned that this was probably a routine exercise and he would at least copy the guard, doing what he thought was the bare minimum of training.
Matheson’s training was going quite well, in a matter of days his muscle mass had increased substantially. His biceps had stretch marks on them biceps because the muscles got bigger and the skin couldn’t grow fast enough. His progress was impossible for any normal human, but he had an energy pool which allowed him to keep going as long as he desired. His clothes were starting to get tighter too, and he began to notice they were looking small, though he would wait a little longer to replace them as it felt good to squeeze his muscles against his clothes.
Back at the mansion, Hodley was peacefully having a cup of coffee with some mushrooms and cheesy eggs for breakfast, though he paused his chewing for a moment upon smelling something horrible – thankfully it was just a whiff and it went away as quickly as it came.
“Hmm? Weird.” he leant forward and smelt his cheesy eggs – they smelled fine, so he went back to eating as he enjoyed his quiet breakfast, watching a few birds fly between trees outside as they collected worms.
“Mmm” he chewed his warm food with contentment.
Suddenly the door burst open and a stinking man covered in filth entered, it only took a moment for the whole room to fill up with the same stench.
“Hodley! Run me a bath! Then prepare me a breakfast feast!”
Hodley nearly fell out of his chair, startled from not only the young master bursting into his room, but also from the stench.
“Y- yes sir!” he said, gripping his chest as he quickly stood up and left the room to prepare a bath.
“What a horrible way to start the day… being yelled at out of nowhere” he thought, filling the bath with water and lathering in some soap.
“And it was worse since I wasn’t expecting it either, I had my guard completely down… I was even feeling peaceful for a moment. Dammit.”
He sighed to himself as he took a deep breath in “But I won’t let something like that ruin my day. I’ve been through worse after all.” he encouraged himself.
“Plus, maybe I’ll be able to go back to the capital if Matheson becomes independent.”
“That’s right, it’s not him I’m serving anyway. He’s just a horrible person I have to be around for the time being. It’s not permanent, I work for his father.”
Hodley took out a communication stone and contacted the head chef,
“The young master is back. Prepare a feast – a dinner feast. He was awake all night so this will be dinner for him.”
“Yeah yeah, we’ll be about… one hour.”
“Thankyou.” Hodley said to the chef.
Hodley sighed again, “How come even the people under me are rude to me too? I’m polite to everyone no matter their status…”
He shook his head before he tested the water with his hand.
“No. I’m not letting myself sink into self-pity. Not today. I’m polite because of the person I am, it has nothing to do with the person I’m polite to.”