Hera was taken to a guest room where she was going to stay while she was at the Azure estate. It was early afternoon when they arrived, but the matriarch had some pressing matters to deal with. Because of that, she wouldn't be taking Hera towards the vault right away. Instead, they would be waiting until later.
The Empress was assuming that it wouldn't take that long. After all, Valera knew that she was very interested in leaving as soon as possible, even if she was going to stay a bit longer than expected to train with Insomniac.
The bedroom that she was going to be in for the foreseeable future was lavish. And even that description felt like too little. As a matter of fact, the entire building felt like an excess of luxury.
Every single wall was not only made out of the most precious of woods or stones but also painted with liquid gems that should cost a few million gold per square centimeter. The actual decorations should be made out of even more intricate gem-crusted metals and exceedingly rare pieces of monsters.
Hera imagined that if anyone were to raid this place, they could probably fund an entire country with just one of the walls, much less this gigantic mansion that had an area of almost one kilometer squared. Or at least, that was what Insomniac had said.
According to the man, between the four floors of the house and the basement, there was more than one kilometer of building. She asked Joseph, who confirmed it, although he did not have the actual specifications at hand.
The butler was also somewhat surprised that Insomniac was so open to speak about their basement, and that was not something that was common knowledge. Not to outsiders, at least. The fact that the basement was just as big as the main house. Of course, people expected a house like this to have a basement of sorts, but not one that functioned like an extra underground floor.
But to Hera, the fact that this place had an underground was the most obvious thing about it. A society focused on creating their own legacies and keeping that legacy within their family would surely have secret training locations that could only be accessed by a handful of people at a time. Of course, Hera kept her thoughts to herself and tried not to cause any problems since she didn't really know anyone here.
After a couple of hours where she stayed in her room waiting to be called by Valera, the Empress realized that the matriarch never said at what time they would be going to the vault. And sure, they were supposed to go late that afternoon. Something told her that Valera was the kind of person to completely ignore the needs of others and expect everybody to be waiting for her beck and call, no matter the circumstance.
Deciding that she wasn't going to be stuck somewhere waiting for an old woman to decide that she had wasted enough of her time, Hera stepped out. In her room, she left behind only some of her clothes and her bag, but keeping everything that she truly felt was important on her. She didn't really trust the people of this estate to not go around messing with her belongings. And that's why she only brought things that she was willing to part with. Aside from her weapons and gear.
Once she stepped out of her room, an elven maid quickly approached with a worried expression.
"Hello. Is everything okay?"
Hera nodded, "Of course."
Before she could say anything else, the maid continued, "I am sorry to inform you that Matriarch Azure is still otherwise engaged, and it's not time yet for your appointment."
"Oh, I know. I didn't expect her to be ready for me. I'm just going to go for a walk."
The maid's eyes went wide. "Oh, actually it would be better if you waited for her to call you in your room."
It was clear that the maid was uncomfortable with her words, but at the same time, there was an internal struggle in the woman. The need to be polite with someone who was introduced as an important guest, contrasting with the need to attend to every one of Valera's whims.
Hera was not going to be pushed around by someone who was the matriarch of a clan. Not just for herself, but also because of the alliance as a whole.
What would the optics of something like this be to other people? What would people think if the hero of the alliance, one of the council members, was willing to be pushed around by a member of the clans? Clans who Hera barely even knew existed.
She had no reverence to these people, and she had no more respect for them than she would have for any owner of a large business. And as Typhera constantly hammered during their classes, Hera was now in the seat of power. Even though she could act casual with her friends, with people she didn't know, she had to present herself a certain way.
"I thank you for your suggestion, but I'm not going to be sitting around waiting for Valera to decide it's time for me to do what I came here to do. She wanted my help, I came, and when she needs me, it won't be hard to find me, I'm sure. And I don't care if she might find it inconvenient to wait for me to arrive when she calls me. I am not going to give her a luxury that she refused me. So, if there are any problems, please tell her that you did your best to try to stop me, but I just walked past you."
Before the maid could reply, Hera quickly summoned Shadow and used [Shadow Step Strike] to teleport away from the woman down the corridor. The Empress spoke in a low voice so the maid could hear.
"Just tell her I escaped and you couldn't find me."
The maid was still trying to formulate a response with an open mouth, but Hera didn't give her a chance to gather her thoughts. Instead, she just stepped away and left the hallway quickly, going to the stairs to the ground floor.
The first thing that caught her attention was the smell coming from the kitchen. And Hera sneakily approached it just to see the types of meals that the people from the Azure clan were accustomed to eat. They were nothing exceedingly special. It was just like a high-end restaurant. Things that were reduced and broken down in plates that didn't seem quite as filling. But there were also some larger dishes of pasta, lasagna, even burgers, and pizza.
One strange thing that Hera noticed was the fact that there were dishes ready to be served, but even more were being prepared. And by the sound of it, after those were done there would be another set of dishes to be put in the oven. A party was about to happen. Or perhaps what actually happened was that the cook would always have a meal ready for Valera, no matter the time she decided to eat.
Because of that, he had to constantly be making more and more food in hopes of having the matriarch eat anytime she wanted. That sounded like an awful job to have, to be cooking like that all the time.
But at the very least, she was able to notice a few spells being cast on the food that was being set aside. The ones that seemed to be past their expiration window. Those dishes that were prepared and set to the side seemed to be going to other people and placed inside containers that were magically enhanced to store food for longer periods of time. Meaning that at very least they were not wasting food, even though the definition of waste might be a bit skewed.
Hera decided to continue her tour through the estate, noticing the number of library rooms that they had. Even the books themselves seemed to be extremely expensive. The Empress didn't pick any of them up, but she noticed one opened on a table and not only was it handwritten, but the ink used was clearly magical. She could feel the mana coming out of it. It wouldn't be a surprise if they were using actual mana stones as part of the ink itself, which was the most unnecessarily expensive ink she ever considered to exist.
There was just no reason to have something like that. If someone wanted to protect the contents of the book, they should enchant the pages and the book itself so it would never fade. And if someone wanted to make a specific kind of spell that came out of the pages, it was better to use materials that were mana conductive in the ink and then have a mana stone somewhere in the book to fuel that magic. But making the very ink store the mana required for whatever effect they had was just excessive.
Still, she decided to continue with her impromptu tour, reaching the gardens outside, which were actually a gigantic greenhouse. Coming all the way from the entrance of the estate. But instead of having actual glass, the floor was enchanted to keep the correct temperature for each type of plant.
As if to show that they were smart enough or just had enough money to do that, people had planted summer and winter crops side by side. Flowers that would bloom on specific days of the year were there in a state of eternal bloom. Almost as a twisted version of the ever-blooming cherries that the Empress had found just days ago. It made her think the existence of this clan to be even weirder.
It was just too much. Too much money in the hands of not enough people. Too much power being held by people for too long. Too much excess being thrown around casually, as if it was the norm.
She started to wonder if all the clans were like this. If all of them were the type who believed in this unnecessary show of power and wealth. Maybe they were. Maybe this was a symptom of any clan that stuck around long enough in the MAZE to gain this much power. Or maybe the Azure clan was just an outlier, and the rest were a bit more sensible.
What would happen to her own legacy? She knew that eventually, she would die. That was a fact. Everybody died in the end. But her legacy would be left behind. And unless someone or something killed her, the most likely scenario was that she would give her legacy to someone. Once the time came, she would impart her wisdom about her powers to the next generation and let them carry the torch.
But she was now thinking about what would that look like. How was she going to give her legacy to someone else? Would she pass it along like a family heirloom and create her own clan? Would she say that it belonged to the Ophidianite and bind her legacy to be with them for as long as her civilization, her people, existed? Or would she just give it to a friend or someone she trusted?
She stopped to consider that. And right now, the one thing that she had in mind was a promise. A promise that no matter in what form she gave her legacy to someone else, she would never let them end up like this. A clan that was too much up their own ass to understand that this made absolutely no sense.
Looking towards the garden, she noticed Joseph approaching, although she could tell that he was trying very hard not to be seen. She wasn't entirely sure if this was just because he was a butler and his level was not that high, or if her senses were a bit more fine-tuned to detect the approach of random people. Either way, once Joseph started speaking.
"This is a beautiful garden, isn't it?" the man asked with a smile.
Hera nodded, making sure to not act surprised in any way. If Valera was the one who sent him, she wanted the woman to know that she wasn't able to surprise her.
"It really is. I do think it's a bit much, though."
Joseph stared at Hera for a moment.
"That doesn't surprise me. Most people who come to our estate feel like this is an exaggeration."
The Empress glanced at the palm tree that was just by the side of a pine tree.
"I mean, you have to at least tell me you see the point."
Joseph chuckled.
"I do. I do. I am not detached enough to say I don't understand why people find it rather strange. But at the same time, this is something that we created. Something that we are proud of."
The Empress nodded.
"It would be one thing if you were proud of just one thing. But it seems like you have a lot of things to be proud of."
Hera did her best not to sound too judgmental, but she knew she wasn't able to do so.
"I suppose I could see how this might be too much. But it's not something that happened in a day. It took generations for us to reach this point."
"Even then, at some point, you should have realized that it was enough. You know, improve what you have, don't make more."
The Empress immediately felt like she was overstepping, but Joseph didn't seem to mind. Or at least his job as a butler made him more accustomed to ignoring that type of comment.
"I do hope you are enjoying your stay here, as brief as it might be. Either way, Mr…" There was a pause. "Insomniac has requested the training grounds for the two of you. Unfortunately, today they are being utilized by other members of the clan. However, by morning, you have full reservation rights for the foreseeable future. I do hope that this is not an issue."
"Thank you. I wasn't really thinking about the logistics of where we're going to train."
Joseph gave a small bow and continued speaking, "Matriarch Azure would like to schedule your attempt at opening the vault for after dinner. At 9:45 p.m., would that be agreeable?"
Hera glanced at the clock on her tablet, noticing how it was still around 6:00. She had about three hours to wait and hopefully eat before having to deal with the vault.
"Fine. What about dinner? Do I eat in my room, or is Valera going to ask for us to all be in a giant dining room or something?"
"Matriarch Azure is going to have a family dinner. Unfortunately, visitors are not invited. However, you may have your meal with Mr. Insomniac if you so wish. If not, you can have it in your room, and someone will fetch you when it is time for your appointment with Matriarch Azure."
"I would like to have dinner with Insomniac, if he wants to."
"Of course." Joseph nodded. "I will let your wishes be known. Also, do not take this the wrong way, but we do have a rather comfortable indoor hot spring. I don't mean to say you are in need of a shower. However, most of our guests tend to say they would regret not having used it when they stayed here. Dinner should be served in about two hours, which would give you ample time to enjoy the hot springs for as long as you would like, if that is something you find pleasant, of course."
"That does sound nice. Do you know if there are private areas there? I am not sure people will find my presence soothing if we are in a shared space."
Joseph nodded.
"We do have smaller areas in the hot springs where one can be private. Please, feel free to use one of them and enjoy as you see fit. I'll have someone bring your clothes from your room if that will be okay. May I please show you the way?"
"Of course."
The idea of a hot spring was interesting. But more than that, it was a private place. A place that she was going to be properly alone and that she wouldn't be worried that someone was listening in or that there were any ways to tell what she was doing inside. Which also meant that if she wanted to call the Guide, this was likely the best place to do so. And she really wanted to know their take on this clan thing.