Ever since the system was activated yesterday, the talent he possessed seemed to have been fully unleashed.
When the sun shone during the day, he almost always felt the desire of his body's cells to absorb sunlight, but the rate of strength increase was a bit concerning.
Strictly speaking, he was currently nothing more than an infant, while his older counterpart had been basking in the sun for over twenty years.
He had only half of the other's potential, not to mention that even the energy accumulated from his previous sunbathing had been completely absorbed by the system for activation, so he was currently equivalent to starting from zero.
Fortunately, the energy consumption for activating the system was a one-time thing, and after activation, it returned to normal.
Karl tilted his head up towards the full moon, the bright moonlight shining upon him, and he smiled, feeling the cells also expressing their joy.
"Indeed, moonlight is also essentially sunlight, just significantly weaker than during the day, but it's better than nothing."
"Sleeping indoors wouldn't let me absorb the moonlight... forget it, I'll just sleep right here on the balcony."
......
Early the next morning, Marta, the head maid who was the first to wake in the manor, gathered with a group of women.
They brought washbasins and cloths to attend to Raymond, Karl, and Jack, helping them dress and wash.
There wasn't much to say about Raymond; things had been going on as usual for many years, simply because he suffered from the Pale Sickness, so he rarely left the house.
As for Jack, when the maid knocked and entered, he only accepted the washing supplies but refused the maid's assistance with dressing.
"Just put the washcloth down; I'll do it myself. You go find Karl." Jack calmly said to the maid.
"Alright, guest. Please do as you wish."
Hearing this, the three maids exchanged glances: one stayed here to wait, and the other two went to the next room.
When it was Karl's turn to dress, the scene was a bit amusing.
In fact, the moment the sun rose above the horizon, Karl was already awake, and he had even been standing on the balcony in just his shorts, basking in the sun.
Hearing the maid knock on the door, he turned and walked over to the bed, pretending he had just gotten up.
"Guest, pardon the disturbance. Are you awake? It's time for us to come in and help you wash and dress."
"Alright, you can come in."
Then the two maids saw that Karl was only wearing shorts.
His noticeably muscular upper body and thighs were exposed.
In an instant, the maids' cheeks flushed red, their eyes darting around; they wanted to go to Karl but appeared shy and afraid to look.
They almost constantly shuffled, heads down, approaching Karl like quails.
They picked up the clothes Karl had placed on the edge of the bed beforehand and slowly helped him put them on.
The maids' soft palms occasionally touched Karl's pectoral muscles and strong arms.
Karl accepted the maids' services with an indifferent expression, but they didn't know what they were thinking.
Their faces were red, and sometimes they would stroke their hands along Karl's limbs, as if it were both unintentional and intentional.
However, since they didn't dare look at him, and their limbs occasionally touched him, they were in a state of guesswork and distraction for a while.
Then the two maids helped him put on his pants.
"Oh, ladies, could you please lift your heads and focus?"
"You're putting the pants over my head and trying to stuff my arms into the pant legs..." Karl said helplessly.
"Huh? Sorry, sorry!"
"Forgive us, sir."
The two maids repeatedly apologized to Karl in shame, hastily removing the pants from his head.
What should have been a simple dressing took them several minutes.
Seeing Karl push open the door and leave the room, they slowly breathed a sigh of relief and looked at each other's crimson cheeks.
"Ah, helping Mr. Karl get dressed was so hot..."
"Hmph! It seems you didn't say why you're holding Mr. Karl's dirty clothes so tightly? Give them to me!"
"Hey, I won't give them up; I'm going to wash them with my own hands."
......
Karl strolled through the manor, and although Raymond's manor looked dilapidated, the grounds themselves were not small at all.
Based on his visual observations, the house alone covered an area of nearly two thousand square meters.
However, that didn't include the open areas; he even saw over twenty plots of arable land within the manor.
The entire complex occupied a total area of at least eight thousand square meters.
In such a large manor, there were so few people: one housekeeper and four young maids.
Even counting the head maid, Marta, there were only five maids, plus four guards and one coachman.
A full count, including Raymond, was twelve people here, which showed just how serious the family's decline was.
If these people were attacked by twenty or thirty bandits, they couldn't even put up a fight.
Unconsciously, he walked through various corner passages and arrived at a relatively open training ground.
The huge training ground was very simple: there were only a few wooden training dummies on the ground and more than a dozen stones of different sizes.
On both sides of the stones were grips, and he guessed this should be a tool for strength training, that is, a lifting stone.
Next to it stood a weapon rack, on which rested a crossbow.
Not far away was a groom, and the coachman was stroking a horse's face and feeding it grass.
The four guards on the field were paired up in teams of two, sparring with each other using iron swords.
One of the guards stopped swinging his sword, paused, turned his head towards Karl walking in this direction, and jutted his chin towards his companion.
"Captain, look at this guy. Wasn't he the one who knocked you down before?"
"According to the maids, they just moved into the manor yesterday. Do they have some connection with the master?"
"Oh, and what about it? What's it to you?"
"I advise you to keep quiet. The master's affairs are not something we can ask about, if you still want this job."
Dalton curled his lip, feeling a slight ache in his wrist, frowned slightly, and replied in a deep voice.
After the rebuke, the guard was stunned and then gave a wry smile.
Although they hadn't been trained by a master since childhood, they had also served as guards for many years.
And not everyone was qualified to be a noble's guard; if he had to go back to being a commoner, he definitely wouldn't be able to get used to it.
"Good morning." Karl approached the four and greeted them with a smile.
"Good morning, sir."
Everyone was stunned, clearly not expecting Karl to be so familiar, but they still replied politely.
"Are these lifting stones on the ground for fitness? Can I use them?"
"Besides the iron sword and crossbow on the weapon rack, you're free to use the other items as you wish." Dalton replied casually.
Although he didn't have much sympathy for the commoner who had previously insulted the Baron, he didn't speak ill of him either.
Lord Raymond and Lord Hans hadn't held him accountable afterwards, so why should he care so much?
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