Chapter 721 (Patreon)

Duke Manashaper chose to make the trip to House Hearthbound’s duchy alongside Benedict. The presence of the duke meant House Steelblade had little to worry about in terms of anyone trying to ambush the leader of their youngest generation, an issue they had grown more wary about following the war and the progressing relationship between Benedict and Elara. 

“I had heard they are looking to spread the roads throughout their entire duchy but I hadn’t expected progress to be so made so quickly” Benedict said as he felt the difference the moment the carriage changed from the dirt path to the cement road. 

“All roads leading to Lessis would be the first to be made since that would just make it faster to ship out the materials.” Duke Manashaper looked at it from a slightly different angle. “Makes sense that roads heading to Lessis would be the first ones completed.” 

House Steelblade and Duke Manashaper knew each other well and while they had dealings in the past their relationships weren’t too friendly before the connection strengthened thanks to Lexi’s and Benedict’s friendship. The issue between them was Duke Manashaper’s independence while House Steelblade pushed to have such a promising magic researcher tied to them or the royal family before the duke reached champion level in terms of strength. 

“The capital hasn’t even finished paving all the streets in the city and they are already pushing almost a hundred miles from the city.” Benedict said. 

“You forget how large the capital is, the next biggest city is a quarter is size.” Duke Manashaper pointed out. “House Hearthbound has had access to cement a lot longer, is the main producer and even after its usefulness was proven the royal family had to wait to see if it would hold up as advertised. They have had time to spread out since then.” 

“Ajax is doing a lot of things…” Benedict said with a feeling of unease.

Cement wasn’t the only thing House Hearthbound had going for it. They had their own dungeon and a few Houses suspected what Benedict already knew about the Collectors, they had a team of people with boons that Ajax helped them obtain that could help them profit from it. They had a connection to the Ascended races in Aurexion. As of late there were now also rumors about how effective the school system seemed to be, the only conflicting part of the rumors was if the schools success had more to do with the amount of Skills the kids were learning or Ajax holding back a secret to his method of stacking Stats before spending everything at the age of fifteen. 

“You fear some of them will fail?” Duke Manashaper asked. He was ready to help Benedict see the logical reasons why House Hearthbound’s ambitious moves shouldn’t fail. 

“I fear that none of them will fail.” Benedict said in a soft whisper Duke Manashaper obviously heard. “And what that might mean for the future of Gryndor.” 

Duke Manashaper was left silent. He very much understood Benedict's reason for fear. One of the downsides of long lived nobles was that while known history did get preserved for a lot longer the same amount of time wouldn’t cover all that many generations as it would have if nobles lived only one to two hundred years. The few examples of a House becoming too much in the history they did know ended in one of two ways. Either the House was cut down by the crown and the other nobles until it fit in with the others or a coup took place and a new royal family was born with the old royal family’s remaining fortune split amongst the new royal’s supporters.

The former was a lot more likely to happen than the latter by almost seven times in the history of the humanoid kingdoms but neither case would fit House Hearthbound. The second scenario was easy to dismiss, House Hearthbound had just become a ducal House and Ajax had shown no real interest in ruling a duchy let alone having aspirations of becoming a king. 

The more common scenario is likely what should happen to House Hearthbound. Even with their positive relations with all the archducal Houses and the royal family, their family should be gently forced back in line with the others by having their success be forcefully shared. The issue with that was the presence of Ajax and Aurexion. Already they had proven themselves to stand at the peak of power in humanoid lands and they still had a long way to go before either of them even slowed in their growth.

“Be glad you get to live when history is written instead of just living with the consequences of the past.” Duke Manashaper felt a little bitter about how old he was and how he might not get to see the entire thing play out over the next few centuries. “You’re coming to learn Ajax’s casting style right?” 

The change in topic was abrupt enough to get Benedict's minds off his worries. “I am.” Benedict confirmed. “I will still mostly be focusing on my physical Stats but with the amount of dungeons I delved my mental Stats have reached a point where not using the aptitude I have for Mana would be a waste.” 

Benedict knew he wasn’t talented as a Mana user. Oddly enough his talent for Mana was a little above the average elf, dwarf or beastkin but Mana usage was common among those races. For a human Benedict had one of the lowest aptitudes for Mana outside of those unable to use it, it was why he had focused on his physical stats for his fighting style. He was only looking to learn from Ajax to have a way of using his limited magic as a way to support his physical based combat and not rebuild his fighting style from the ground up. 

“Is your current style more reactive or flowing?” Duke Manashaper asked. 

“More flowing.” Benedict answered. “I have my own flow to combat, pushing forward with my own moves and forcing the enemy to adapt to me rather than waiting for them to make a move so that I can counter it.” 

Benedict knew that the style was perfect for dealing with  those weaker than him and gave him a small advantage over those at his level but it made him a lot weaker against those stronger than him. His rigidity and style usually would force an enemy to fight on Benedict’s terms but when the difference in power grew past a certain point that rigidity could lead to lethal or grievous blows in the opening exchanges.

“That’s good.” Duke Manashaper nodded. “[Spell Direction] might be perfect for you then, though you might need to adapt your style slightly to get power out of your spells.” 

“You know how his casting style works?” Benedict asked. 

“I know the very basics.” Duke Manashaper said. “The casting style isn’t based on words spoken or runes but on specific movements meant to amplify the spell. Not the best fit for a reactive style.” 

“But Ajax” Benedict was surprised to hear that since Ajax’s style was the definition of reactive. Some built up from his early training as a hunter with Hatchet since he hadn’t invested his free Stats he was always at a rather large Stat disadvantage to the beasts he hunted.

“Ajax just recently learnt how to use this form of casting.” Duke Manashaper shook his head. Not knowing how much Ajax had shared about his fighting style with Benedict he didn’t go into the topic further but [Spell Direction] wasn’t the foundation of Ajax’s magic in combat, that was [Mana Argumentation] and [Mana Conjuration], both Epic Skills Ajax had for a while that allowed his elemental enhanced physical attacks to really pack the magical power of spell behind the raw physical hit. [Spell Direction] would help Ajax with the other magic he was using and an enhancement for his Epic Skills but it wouldn’t be the backbone of his combat prowess. “While Ajax might teach you something new he will only be giving you a tool. It’ll be on you to use and adapt it properly into your style.” 

The Duke’s words were reassuring for Benedict as he had been a little worried about how something that worked for Ajax might work for him. The remainder of the trip was spent discussing things of much lesser import and by evening they had finally arrived in Lessis. 

Both the Duke and Benedict knew they would only be getting settled in before they would need to make another trip to the capital for the coronation. House Hearthbound already had rooms ready for both of them, Ajax and Lexi warmly welcomed both of them and told them to make themselves comfortable in their rooms since they would be living in the duchy for the next few months.