Chapter 556

After waking up Ajax spent all of the day with his family. Much as he might not have wanted to, however, Tom and Lexi did rope him into making a visit to the school in Lessis in the morning. The point of the visit was to praise the hard work of the students as well as intimidating the noble students that had arrived and were trying to put some pressure on the teachers and other students.

“You think that did any good?” Ajax asked after they left the class behind, he was very much tempted to plant that snobby noble brat into the garden head first to see if anything would sprout.

“You weren’t looking at the person you were sending the message to.” Tom said with a grin.

“Part of a compromise we have with the nobles is that their bodyguards can attend to them so long as they only interfere when their charge is in crippling or mortal danger.” Lexi explained. “That Viscount scion might not have seemed impressed but his guard was squeezing her fists so hard they broke the skin and she didn’t even notice the drops of blood falling to the floor.” 

Ajax had to agree that was one way to do it. No way even a delusional self-important noble would be dumb enough to think insulting a Duke in his own duchy to his face is conducive to a long and healthy life.

“How has Fluffy been doing with Void?” Ajax asked as he looked around for the feline in question. 

One of the things Ajax hadn’t anticipated when he started to train Fluffy in the use of Void was that the shadow cat would take the lessons further and apply them to improve her stealth with Shadow Mana. She had gotten so good that she could get within leap range of Ajax before her presence was felt as long as Ajax wasn’t using [Mana Syphon]. He had even started trying to mirror her use of Shadow Mana as it looked like it would mix better with the camouflage he was trying to mix with [Mana Skin].

“Consistency is still an issue.” Tom admitted. “She can only activate it one in three times, on the upside it’s gotten a lot more stable, she no longer only changes a single claw. Every time she uses Void she uses it with the whole paw.” 

“That is some good progress.” Ajax nodded, if it continued like this Ajax was sure Fluffy would have reliability with Void by the time he returned from the Wild Lands and they could start working on actually training when to use the affinity.

“Is it going to be fine that I am not here when the former slaves arrive?" Ajax asked. 

The question had been on his mind on the way back now that he knew he would leave right away. How would his newest people look at him if he wasn’t there to help them with one of the biggest changes in their lives. 

“You don’t need to worry about that.” Lexi waved away the question. “Between Nashara, Jari and Theron it might actually be better that we let them spread the word of how you personally treated them before any of them interact with you directly.” 

“Speaking of the slaves there is one thing you do have to decide on.” Tom voice sounded worried. “Aparently the emperor got word quickly about the assassination attempt on you and he put a lot of pressure on House Septimus to follow the deal to the letter not just in spirit.” 

“How is that an issue?” Ajax asked. 

“Because it means they sent some of their high level combat ready slaves as well as some of their more close personal slaves.” Tom said. “The chances for spies have gone up a lot, not to mention there is a good chance most of the strongest people in the duchy will be former slaves after they settle in.” 

Ajax wasn’t worried about a revolt from the stronger slaves, Lancel would be able to cut them all down with little issues but level one hundreds were a rarity outside of noble families or the capital. Having some independents move in could spark some tensions as the slaves would push the boundaries to test their newly earned freedom.  

“I don’t know.” Ajax admitted. “Probably best that we reach out to House Steelblade to figure out what to do about the high level slaves and the royal family about how we would deal with the possible spies.” 

Ajax spent the rest of the day split between his parents. It had been a while since he had last joined his father in the smithy and his Skills hadn’t improved but he could see just how much progress his father had made, that wasn’t even mentioning all the effort he was putting into enchanting. 

Early the next morning Ajax gathered together with Patrick and the rest of the squad as they got ready to set off. Ajax had said all of his goodbyes the night before, since they didn’t want to be followed they would be moving with a single wagon to provide some privacy for him and at a brisk pace.

In his spacial rings Ajax had enough provisions to last him for two years as well as two entirely empty rings that he was hoping to fill up by the time he returned. They made good time, the horses drawing the carriage were being run ragged and changed out once or twice a day depending on when they were passing by a village on their way towards the border.

“We’ll be there in under a week at this pace, just two more days.” Quinn confirmed for him on the third day as she and the rest of the mages of the squad had joined him in the carriage since they didn’t have the physical stats to keep up with the carriage. “Are you still sure about this? You can change your mind at any time.” 

“That coming from you or the king?” Ajax asked, the question didn’t seem like the Quinn he had gotten to know. 

“The crown prince.” Quinn confirmed for him. “He wants you to know you shouldn’t feel pressured to go through with this just because you already got so far. We can find ways to keep you safe.” 

Ajax didn’t get a chance to answer the question as a large gathering of Mana could be felt on the outside of the carriage. “Ambush!” Frank’s voice was clearly heard as well as all the people in the carriage sprung into action.

“You stay here.” Quinn said as she saw Ajax move towards the door as well. “You’re the target, we can handle it.” 

“Patrick, so nice to see you.” outside a tiger beastkin gave the squad leader a fanged smile. “Maybe there is a chance for you to get out of this alive.

“Śēr, I always thought you were a liar and a traitor.” Patrick spat back as he drew his spear. “It turns out I was only half right, you were a liar and a spy.” 

“Think daddy will finally love you?” Frank spat at the tiger beastkin. “If you do, you must be delusional, you pitiful bastard.”  

“Shut your mouth!” Śēr roared. “I was going to give you a chance to walk out of this alive but no matter.” 

While he might not have shown it, Patrick was starting to get a little worried as he took account of the people who stood with Śēr. They had twice as many people and while he doubted all of them were of the same quality as the rest of his squad he knew none of them were weak, all of them were at least elite level. 

“How many years did it take you to smuggle so many people into the kingdom?” Patrick asked. “It’s going to be a good thing when we kill you all.”

Those were the final words spoken as the fight erupted. While the squad was outnumbered and none of their enemies were weak they did have the advantage not only in terms of individual power but also when it came to teamwork. It was clear these people didn’t have that much experience working together, more than that some of them were rusty after years waiting in deep cover. 

“What the hell was that?” Śēr roared to his mages after he managed to disengage from Patrick. He had planned on ending the battle quickly by overwhelming them with spells but that hadn’t worked out. “Blast them.” 

“Somthing is affecting our spells.” one of the mages cried out. “Its making them weaker and unstable.” 

“I thought you told him to stay out of it.” Patrick turned to Quinn. 

“I told him to stay in the carriage.” Quinn answered with a shrug. “And he didn’t look like he was going to listen, I think you should be happy with what you got.” 

That was all Patrick had the chance to say before Śēr was locked in combat with him again. “You’re only prolonging the inevitable.” Śēr taunted him as he swiped his two short swords, taking advantage of his flexibility to twist his body and land a kick on Patrick’s jaw“Best you run and live another day.” 

While most of the beastkin fighting were only on the level of strong elite fighters Śēr was close to champion level, individually he was even stronger than Patrick though he had no confidence in challenging one of Gryndor’s squads by himself.

Śēr’s words were drowned out shortly by cries of terror as a large continuous channel of Mana exploded from amongst the beastkin mages. A blur in a cocoon of Shadow Mana moved between them leaving a trail of gore as the mages were crushed before they even had a chance to properly react.

“I look forward to repeating these words back to you after you spend a few weeks with our interrogation specialists.” Patrick gave a nightmarish bloody smile as he went on the offensive looking to keep the tiger beastkin from moving to back up his caster where Ajax was tearing through them.