Chapter 545

After leaving House Manashaper’s manor, Ajax headed straight for the royal palace. He knew the representative that had accompanied him had already left and reported the preliminary agreement his House and him had reached but it was all subject to approval from the King.

“Your Majesty.” Ajax bowed as he entered the smaller and more private throne room

“Ajax, it's great to see you again.” King Gryndor rose from his seat and motioned for Ajax to join him at the discussion table along with the rest of the royal family that was present. “How are you doing after that attack?” 

“I’m doing a lot better.” Ajax answered. “Ready to start training again.” 

“You didn’t need to ask him, I could have told you that was the answer.” King Gryndor’s oldest son still came up and gave Ajax a thorough examination before he slung his arm around his shoulders and led him to the table. “What is it this time? Got another Legendary Skill?” 

“No, it’s only Epic.” Ajax answered as he used Gravity Mana to trip the prince. “Comes in handy though since it bypasses most defensive enchantments.” 

“What was that?” While the prince was a good sport about Ajax’s joke the same could not be said about the guards present in the room. “The enchantments didn’t pick up anything besides an increase in Mana.” 

“That’s a new Mana type.” The prince was already back up on his feet and pushing Ajax into a seat. “How does it work? It felt like it immobilized my foot. It didn’t feel like Poison, have you found Paralysis Mana?” 

“I didn’t do anything to you.” Ajax said with a smile. “But that’s as much as I’ll share for now on that topic. I have some other things to talk about, both in the short and long term.” 

“You want to delve into the dungeon to get boons for your retainers.” the crown prince nodded. “Right before leaving the kingdom for at least a year. I’d love to say that a new Duke leaving to take a break right after getting their duchy is unprecedented but it has happened a number of times when dealing with commoners being raised to the title. At least you had the good sense to get everything established and leave competent people in charge.” 

“I’m not leaving because being a Duke is hard.” Everyone could sense the tension in Ajax’s words. “I’m leaving because my presence invites too much danger to my family.” 

“I didn’t mean…” The crown prince trailed off, Ajax knew the words weren’t meant as an insult but it still rubbed him the wrong way, he had put in years of work, pushed himself through numerous life and death situations yet the best thing he could do for his family’s safety at the moment was to put some distance between him and them. 

“If it makes you feel any better, we doubt killing you was the main purpose of the attack.” The oldest prince said. “Best guess is they are trying to start a war between us and the Empire.” 

“You know who was behind the attack.” Ajax latched on to the information. 

“Yep, Aranor recognized one of the assassins.” The prince continued. “One that defected to the beastkin kingdoms during the last war.” 

“Them again? And you still think they aren’t targeting me to kill me?” Ajax asked. “This is their second attempt in as many years.” 

“We are sure they do want you dead, Ajax.” King Gryndor answered. “But killing you is not their main objective. In Deepwood they sent local assassins after you to try and start a war with the elves. Now they are doing something similar with the Empire.” 

This information made Ajax feel a lot better. It would mean there was a much lower chance of their being high level assassins being sent after him in the Wild Lands and that his family would also be less likely to be attacked. 

“We suspect it’s not the Empire.” the crown prince joined in. “While unlikely it could be that King Sylvian has something to gain from covering for them. I personally doubt that is the case but it is also not something we can dismiss out of hand.” 

“Moving on to this city you want to build.” King Gryndor changed the subject, he acknowledged his son’s point by not contradicting him but he didn’t want to dwell on the possibility of king Sylvian lying to them. “Now that we are relatively sure it wasn’t the Empire that attacked you, do you still want to build it there? A trade blockade will be a mistake.” 

It was obvious to Ajax that nobody believed him when he said he had a different reason for choosing that spot. In a way that worked out better for him, he didn’t know how wide spread humanoids had gotten under the rule of the Reaper tens or more likely hundreds of thousands of years ago but there was still a chance that ships had not been built yet, at least anything bigger than a raft, that could mean numerous Trailblazer achievements.

“A trade blockade is really not why I want to build a city there.” Ajax said with a deep sigh as he relaxed in his chair. “I’m not going to say that having the option to set one up isn’t something I considered lately but I had wanted the city built there since before the ambush on me.” 

“Then why?” the crown prince asked.

“It will be a while before I can show you why.” Ajax said with a grin. “I already made quite a number of big changes in my dutchy, need those to settle before I do anything else.” 

“You destabilized the crafting market here in the capital in a way unseen outside of war.” the queen pointed out with a sweet smile on her face. “Taking all of those high skilled Journeymen and low Masters came as a shock to everyone, and unlike a war nobody had news of it beforehand so everyone was caught unprepared.” 

“You don’t sound all that upset.” Ajax pointed out, Xavier had told him he had caused issues in the capital but from how he explained it the royal family had gained from the incident as a whole.

“Oh we have quite a few more favors to call in then we did before.” The queen nodded. “But you are aware that ideas like your school have been tried before and they all failed.” 

“Oh, I know.” Ajax nodded. “But there are a number of big differences between what I am doing and what was tried before.” 

“I won’t ask you to share what those are. But if you see widespread positive results, let us know before the other nobles make a fuss.” The king requested.

Ajax could recognize how many problems he was causing for the royal family. He had provided them with a lot more benefits of course, but between the training method, the new trend in delving he started and as of late the dungeon boons Ajax knew some of the more shrewd nobles were using everything that happened as a way to make waves in hopes of increasing their power or position.

“I’ll try to.” Ajax did his best to reassure them. “On the bright side, the first of my new students won’t have achieved any true power for at least another nine years. So it will be a while.”

All of the kids starting now were still six years old. Since none of them would spend their Free Stat points until they were fifteen it would also mean none of them would draw all that much attention until then. If anything their levels might be high for their age and the number of Skills they have would also be unusually high but besides that their low stats would also act as a soft cap for their Skills.

“So, any chance I can have one or two people come with me to the dungeon?” Ajax asked. “Just for protection and insurance.”

“I’ll come with you.” The oldest prince volunteered, from the small frown that flashed on the crown prince’s face he was using this as an excuse to get out of doing something else. “But you do realize we will ask that you do another delve with some young noble talents before you leave for the Wild Lands.” 

“I’ll do another delve.” Ajax nodded. “So long as they can pay.” 

“How much are you looking to ask from them?” King Gryndor asked.

“One hundred gold coins.” Ajax’s answer shocked everyone, but the smile that crawled on his face afterwards warned them he wasn’t finished yet. “That’s the starting bid, ten spots highest offer takes it.” 

Ajax was very tempted to make the opening bid only one gold but that would have been insulting. By putting it at one hundred gold, it showed good will on his part for a low starting price and all the animosity from the nobles would be focused on each other, after all they will be the ones to drive the price higher. 

“Oh, that’s great.” The oldest prince laughed with Ajax as they both stood up and headed towards the door after Ajax bowed to the royal family. 

“Take the squad with you.” King Gryndor said before they left. “I want the last floor cleared quickly. There are a lot of nobles in the capital right now, I can understand you want to work out some boredom from the trip but I do expect my newest Duke to attend court.”

Ajax was suddenly much more excited about the idea of getting a day or so to get his frustrations out on the dungeon before being surrounded by nobles again.

“Brightstone’s ambassador is so eager to meet you.” The oldest prince said as they headed out. “After his counterpart in the Republic was sentenced to ten years of sobriety I bet he wants to finalize any sort of deal with you.”