Chapter 305 - 305. Books, Books, Books

"Honestly, I'm pretty surprised that you actually let us come for a tour. I thought you would have found a way to get out of it." Jane was pretty surprised. It was written on her face. 

"I would have lost that fight. You two would have ended up dragging me all the way here to my place and giving yourselves a tour." Art wasn't stupid enough t believe that Jane and Asher would have let him get away. He would give them a tour one way or another. 

"True, we would need someone to at least unlock the door," Asher smirked as Art unlocked the gate and headed in. When he had gotten back to Asher's and the parents had all finished speaking with each other his mother and father had left him a key to the gate and a paper with the new access codes to the security system. 

The massive front yard and well kept garden was already enough to keep Jane and Asher entertained for some time. But it was late in the day and they knew that the inside would hold many more secrets than they would find outside. "Anyways, welcome to the family mansion I grew up in and my whole family has lived for close to a hundred years." 

The main entry way was, to say the least, extravagant. The entire stairway that leads to the second and third floors was made of pure white marble. The ceiling was a work of literal art. It rivaled any painting from any museum they had ever been to on school field trips. There were many pieces of ornate furniture for guests to rest in while waiting for a family member or for the staff to guide them. 

"Welcome home master Arther. Please allow me to take you and your friend's shoes and coats." A simply dressed butler was at their side before they even knew it. 

"This is R, he's the family butler and body guard. He is very polite as long as you don't do anything to ruin the gladiolas. He has crossbred them for about sixty years now and has claimed the species he bred in a few housekeeping and gardening magazines. They really are something else." The introduction was a little more than what they expected. It sounded like the butler that went by a single letter as a name was more accomplished than an average person. 

"Thank you for taking care of our best friend. He is a bit of a mess at times but he is family now." Asher held out a hand and shook the butler's hand. It was not the usual people the butler met and he took note. 

"Yes! Thank you for taking care of Art for us all these years. It's thanks to you he was able to come to school and barge in to our lives." Jane stuck her tongue out at Art making Asher laugh. 

"You guys talk like I'm some walking disaster. But Asher is the one with the bad and good uck super power thing. I just move metal." Art mumbled under his breath as he left his shoes and wandered toward the stairs. "We can work our way down from the top." 

"Sounds good to me!" Asher and Jane ran after him to keep up the [pace since Art was taking the stairs two at a time. 

"Hmm, much better friends than the other young master has. I hope they will stay with him for life." The butler took the group's shoes to be polished up while they toured the mansion. He was genuinely glad that Art had broken free from the timid and sad attitude he had always had while being alone in the mansion. 

"The third floor is mostly bedrooms. My mom and dad have the entire side of the house so we won't go in there. Plus, if they are home they would kill me. My brother...he stays on the other side. I have a room here." Art's room was nearly at the top of the stairs. It was the first door while the other two doors in the hallway were farther away. 

Asher and Jane nearly burst through the door hearing this. As Art watched he reminded himself that this was the best way. Just to get it over with fast. They would need to see his room at some point. 

"Holy cow! How do you have so many cook books? Is this a library of every cook book in the world?" Jane found that there were shelves along every single wall of Art's room. They each did not have a single free space on them. They were full of cook books from all genres and cultures. Some were even marked up with personal notes made by two different hand writings. 

"Are these the ones you experimented with when cooking with your grandmother? It looks like you two got through most of them." Asher recalled when Art mentioned he would cook with his grandmother all the time and that she was the reason he knew so much. 

"Yeah, she started to gift me the ones she had and then buy new ones every month so we could cook different things. We got through almost all of them before she passed away. It was the best time of my childhood. She retired early from working at hero corp. She helped make one of the healing fluids they use for broken bones and it set her up for life. When she retired she had nothing she wanted to do until she found some weird ingredients and decided to learn to cook them." Art didn't sound sad that his grandmother was no longer in this world. He truly cherished every moment he had been with her and nothing would ever change that. 

"That's pretty great. I always wondered why it seemed that you could cook just about anything." Asher found that the rest of the room was fairly normal. Other than the cook books there were a few stacks of video games and a game system. 

"Do you only have fighting games? That's insane. I thought you would be more in to strategy." Jane wanted to see what Art had since he had been the one most set on getting the video game that helped them learn some of their strongest moves. 

"I used to be but I was always losing those to my brother when I was little and he was still normal. I switched to fighting games after I saw one from the car window. It seemed cool." Art shrugged and checked through them. "None of these are as good as the one we won though. It would be better if their moves were realistic and we could learn them." Art shuffled through them more. 

"What about that one? It's some fantasy gods of the world theme right? Maybe Louis and Sammy could get inspired." Asher's idea was spot on. It was a great way for their friends to take their powers even further. 

"That's a perfect idea. I bet it will help them a bunch. They only look at natural weather and not at more imaginative sources." Jane started to think in that instant that she should be doing the same. She might find she had more abilities that go along with Medusa mythology. 

"Alright, let's leave my room alone now. The second floor is kind of fun since it's the entertainment area for my family partys'." Art was watching as Asher and Jane got closer to his manga and anime collection. He didn't want them to end up being played with since he had some signed by authors and artists. They were his little hobby. 

"Oh, I bet it will bet ten times fancier than the rest of the house." Jane was sold since she was expecting diamonds and crystals at every turn. 

After Jane left the room Asher couldn't help but smirk, "You know, that looks very similar to that mang novel you needed to stop for when we were shopping." Art punched him in the shoulder and the two got in to a small scuffle as they headed down the stairs. 

"This floor is Huge!" Jane had found the massive dancefloor and entertainment area that took up all of the second floor. Besides the staff kitchens and storage, the shiny wooden ballroom was ideal for lavished events and dancing. There was even a massive crystal chandelier in the middle of the high ceilings. The walls and ceiling had been made to appear taller and more ornate even though it was the second floor and the third was above it. 

"As I said, this is just for entertainment. It's not much when it comes to places to look but it is a pretty great room to stand in when you feel like the walls are closing in on you." Art spoke as if this was normal. But Asher and Jane picked up on the feeling. 

"You're right.. There's so much space here I would feel like I have the whole world to explore if I lay down in the middle." Asher wrapped a hand around Art's shoulder, "So what's next? The kitchen?"