The entire Hearthbound House was celebrating Fluffy’s success before breakfast was over. The feline herself was one of the proudest as she purred in satisfaction despite not managing to call upon the Void Mana a second time yet.
“You’ll get there.” Tom reassured his bond. “But you’ll just have to work at it. I know you’ve seen how hard Ajax worked back when we were in the capital, so it will be just like that.”
As everyone was finishing up with breakfast Lexi moved on to the next topic. “We are going to need to maintain perfect records of everything that we are trading going forward for the next two decades or so.”
“Our records are always expertly maintained.” Elija was instantly defensive.
“I’m not just talking about them being able to pass inspection.” Lexi explained. “I mean that if they were to be made public other nobles wouldn’t have space to claim we were building up a revolt.”
That got frowns from everyone. “We are not planning a revolt.” Ajax reassured everyone. “It’s just that… Lexi, you're better at explaining this.”
So Lexi took them through the same explanation she had given Ajax the night before about how their schooling and influx of Mana abled former slaves could very well be used to paint their House as staging a revolt.
“It isn’t even that far-fetched.” Elija nodded as he heard their reasoning. “One third of revolts in known history was staged by a newly raised noble thinking they know better and seeing injustice everywhere. Not to mention that we will be having elves training the former slaves how to best use their Mana.”
“Should we not share how well the school is doing with the royal family right now then?” Kate asked.
“It wouldn’t help.” Lexi shook her head. “All of the previous attempts at teaching commoners started off promising. There are only two big differences between what was tried in the past and what we are doing. The first is that we are teaching everything we can, not just certain Skills that are profitable now. The second is that commoners will now have a lot more stats, especially since they will be able to run dungeons despite only a minimum of combat training.”
Anna had previously pointed out how despite the power increase commoners would get the chances that a true powerhouse would remain independent of the nobility like Ajax had actually gone down significantly after all the changes that are taking place. The reason for this was that only nobles would be able to access the dungeons of other kingdoms, so any promising commoner would have to join a noble house early so they wouldn’t miss out on those floor clears.
House Hearthbound was looking to start a similar boosting program where their people would be boosted in all of the dungeons of Gryndor when they had the level for it. The first Floor being at level twenty seven for the first capital dungeon.
“Besides the duels is there anything else that is supposed to happen today?” Ajax asked as they were preparing to leave the manor to entertain their guests.
“There are no duels for today.” Tom said, surprising Ajax. “Last duels will be held tomorrow.”
“What changed?” Ajax asked.
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“Everyone is getting ready to leave today, they will all be on the road before nightfall tomorrow.” Tom explained. “The Empire is going back, the elves are going to delve and the rest of the nobles are all going back. Today is the day where they are all going to be on their best behavior so they can make requests of you.”
Ajax quickly found out how right Tom was. Since he hadn’t taken a carriage but simply ridden a horse to Lessis he was quickly joined by a Viscount not thirty paces after he entered the gates.
“Duke” The man said with a deep respectful nod, it was impractical to bow on horseback while keeping pace. “I was hoping to find you today.”
Ajax recognised the man. He was the cousin of a Viscount, at seventy years old the man looked to be in his late twenties, not a bad achievement by any means but a step behind those who managed to gain extreme amounts of Vitality early in life.
“What can I help you with?” Ajax asked not bothering to hide his annoyance.
“My House was hoping to provide its assistance so that you might work with House Septimus on them making good on their side of the wager they lost.” Ajax was taken aback at the topic but he managed not to let it show. He had expected some of the Empire’s nobles to approach him about helping out House Septimus but this was a surprise. “We would be willing to support your own House in the future.”
With that the noble took his leave, not asking for any confirmation. The ambush set the tone for how his walk to his brother’s office would go. He had been approached seven more times before he made it to the office. Twice by people looking to help House Septimus, three times by nobles hoping he would gut House Septimus and twice by people who offered him a favor in exchange for just letting them know what his decision would be in a timely manner so that they could profit from it.
“Is something wrong?” Xavier asked Ajax when they met.
“Just getting used to being a Duke.” Ajax said with a shake of his head as he left the political issues for a later time.
“Ah, people looking to influence your decision on House Septimus.” Harold nodded in understanding. “That can be annoying but on the upside you’ll get credit with certain Houses no matter what your choice would be, just remember who asked you to make the decision you end up making in the end because you’ll have a favour you can call in with them.”
Ajax could see the wisdom in Harold’s advice. Even if he didn’t let the nobles influence his decision, three of them had asked him to make the choice he was already set on making, he made a mental note to remember which three Houses those were in case he needed a favor.
“Time flew by so quickly.” Arianwyn complained as she looked towards Ajax. “We barely got to see you. Are you sure I can’t tempt you to join our delve two days from now and help us with the floor themes?”
“Sorry but I don’t want that knowledge to leak just yet and I am sure once Emeris and Fealin know of it it will spread quickly.” Ajax shook his head. “I will be coming to see you off before you leave the capital.”
That came as a surprise for Benedict, Anna and Xavier. “How come?” Xavier asked.
“I plan to take the Collectors and Theron to get their boons .Ajax whispered back.
“But that quickly?” Xavier asked. “It’s only a month and a half away.”
“It has to be that quickly.” Ajax explained. “I have to be below level fifty five for that Floor Boss to count.”
Ajax was already almost half way through level fifty four. A month and a half would easily see him gain that half a level and he knew that word would break by the time the elves left and he would need to take another group of nobles for their boons before he returned from the capital so he needed to leave himself some leeway in terms of Experience, doubly so since he would be exchanging ideas with Duke Manashaper and that might lead to some new Skills.
“That’s great.” Elara was happy they would get to spend some time with Ajax in the capital where they wouldn't be the center of attention of all the nobles.
The whole group left together back towards Ajax’s manor, Ajax was taking this opportunity to give his friends a tour through the gardens he was setting up. On the way he made sure to ask if the elves had seen any results from adding bees to their already existing Mana infused gardens.
“We are having a small issue with mana overloading.” Arianwyn said with a tired sigh. “We tried adding seven different hives to the royal gardens but all of them died out from Mana poisoning within weeks.”
“Regular bees can’t handle such Mana potent polen that the plants you have there produce.” Ajax nodded, he could feel his [Beekeeping Trailblazer] nudge him towards the answer. “You need to work your way up slowly breeding a few generations of bees as you slowly give them access to higher and higher Mana infusion plants.”
“We stopped trying to add new hives after our last gardener got an Uncommon poison Skill from moving the last hive.” Arianwyn explained. “We’ve seen some great results from our regular gardens however.”
Lexi, as well as Kate, Jake, Jari and Nashara joined them for the tour of House Hearthbound’s lands.
“Ajax will be joining you on your way to the dungeon.” Lexi let them know. “Tom talked to the guards so you’ll be leading another delve for them as a reward for the good job they’ve done with the visit.”
“He didn’t even try to hide it.” Benedict laughed as Ajax seemed ecstatic at the idea of leading guards through a dungeon rather than dealing with nobles and politics.