Chapter 493

A/N : Last chapter has been updated. Sorry for the confusion, yes Jake is currently Tom's and Kate's sole child and while he already has [Sense Mana] he hasn't had much luck using his mana in any way.

Slowly but surely things started to settle into a new normal for Lessis. The rush of people moving to the city had slowed down, not only that but the extra stone and rock from the quarry helped speed up construction as the city was even starting to push out outside of its walls.

“Did the reports arrive?” Silvia asked. 

“They did but things aren’t moving as quickly as we had hoped.” Judy answered. “They’ll still be done in time but we might need to shuffle things around after school starts based on the results.” 

While things for Lessis were settling the same could not be said for House Heathbound. Their immediate surroundings were adapting to the changes they were making a lot better than even they had expected. The problem however was the four other cities in their territories. Even worse was the fact that distance was a big enough issue in terms of communication that even small problems sometimes became bigger just because it took too long for them to hear about it and their solution to arrive.

Starting the school in Death season with the entrance exam at the end of Winter was an inspired idea, it would motivate families to send their children so they could actually get something done during the day rather than worry about keeping them warm, the only issue was getting everything set up.

“Are you sure things can’t wait until next year?” Judy asked. 

“No Ajax was right.” Lexi shook her head. “If Lessis starts one year sooner than everyone else it would cause an imbalance that would take decades to correct. The students that start here would finish first, they would be the first people open for apprenticeships everywhere meaning they would then spread out among the duchy filling up all the positions. All five cities need to start together.” 

“What did you trade the Warden for this kind of help?” Ajax asked Tom. 

Ajax was staying way out of the way of any politics taking place with starting the schools. Instead he focused on any problems he knew he could help with, his influence over the crafters had skyrocketed when they learnt that not only had he gained ‘The’ crafting Achievement for cement but that one of his retainers had also gained a Trailblazer trait because of it.  

“I finalized the plan we discussed about making sure the members of the guard in all the cities would be given a chance to delve to appropriately to keep up with the new increase in Levels everyone would be seeing.” Tom said with a grin. 

Ajax had to admit he was impressed. He had been planning on implementing something like that regardless, he had in fact talked to Tom about how to best get the guard to accept the changes, challenges, extra costs and most of all risk that would come with it. Tom had really outshone himself by not only getting the Warden to agree but he sold him on the idea so well they offered the help of the guards to ensure the other cities followed their demands regarding the schools.

“Hey Ajax, do you have the numbers on what we need to order?” Alana came and asked. 

“I do.” Ajax said as he produced a rolled up piece of parchment. 

Over the last two weeks Ajax had almost all of his spare time dedicated to the best way he could help, organising crafting materials required by the schools all over the territories. As an alchemist he already had experience working with cataloging ingredients but this was on a whole other level. 

His [Mathematics], [Reading], and [Writing] skills had made a substantial increase, that was without even managing his gain of the Common [Cataloging], [Scheduling] and [Bookkeeping] skills that all supported his most recent Uncommon skill [Accounting]. His entire family celebrated his gains once Lexi shared that with all those skills the Rare skill [Ruling] would be one he might manage to pick up.

“Thank you.” Alana said as she compared the list of requirements with their shipments that were coming in. 

It was a good thing that Judy and Alana hadn’t totally uprooted their merchant company when they moved to the capital and had maintained a presence here as it was now the backbone of their House’s influence on the region. Using a not insignificant amount of gold, not much compared to what Ajax had brought from the Empire’s dungeon but still a good amount, they injected a boost into the economy as they became the ruling noble to help improve the people’s perspective of them.

“Does it really take this long for things to arrive?” Ajax asked with a defeated sigh.

One of the few things Ajax had difficulty getting his mind around was how much reagents were reliant on the season. With Winter upon them and Death approaching the number of deliveries was very small, he had never had this issue back when he was crafting in the capital, the abundant low level stuff was easy to source through the Academy and anything more rare didn’t depend on the season for acquisition it was only now that he was looking to supply all the children in five cities with reagents that he was running into the issue head first.

After a few hours of making sure all deliveries would be on time for everything Ajax decided he needed a break from the mind numbing task. More than that Ajax’s Mana and Stamina were both extremely low so training was not an option right now, instead he decided to go and oversee the evening training of his retainers, they were always in better spirits when they saw him invested in their progress.

“Uncle Ajax!” Jake quickly locked in on him as soon as he arrived and bolted towards him. “Are you here to train with us?” 

“I’m just here to take a look, maybe give a few pointers.” Ajax said. “I’m still tired from this afternoon.” 

That afternoon Ajax had dumped about almost his entire pool of both Mana and Stamina into a concrete statue that was specifically built with a basic mana storage ritual. The ritual wasn’t particularly good and in about three weeks all the mana would have drained away but Ajax just wanted to see how much use he could get out of about four days worth of his Life Mana when all used at once on a concrete statue.

“My Lord.” Jari and Nashara were commonly found in Jake’s shadow as of late. Something that made it a lot easier to ensure the two didn’t push themselves too hard in their efforts to get stronger.

“You all best finish your training.” Ajax nodded towards the three of them. “You all have your school entrance exam coming soon.” 

News of the exam had already been spread around the duchy. Having Jake publicly attend and take the same exam as everyone else would go a long way into playing on public perception, especially as word would spread to the other cities only after school had already started.

“Okay.” Jake turned around and headed back to her training area followed by Jari and Nashara and the two gave Ajax a polite bow.

Ajax watched the three of them walk away and couldn’t help but draw comparisons between them. While Jake had barely worked up a sweat by now both Jari and Nashara were drenched, their bodies had filled out well over the past couple of months but despite being older than Jake they simply couldn’t compare to years of training and well nourished growth. In the same vein Jake’s determination and work ethic didn’t stand a candle to that of Jari and Nashara who were both pushing themselves to the limit by just keeping up with Jake’s regular training.

Over the next half an hour Ajax just stayed and watched his retainers, giving a pointer or two here and there when he picked up on something. Considering his unique fighting style there wasn’t much he could do to help since almost all of his retainers had more experience than him. 

“Lord Ajax, Prince Xavier is here to see you.” Lancel said as he was approaching with Lexi and Xavier following behind him. 

“How did everything go?” Ajax asked after he greeted Xavier.

“Everything went well. I already gave the branch to one of your people.” Xavier responded and lifted a hand when he saw Ajax open his mouth. “Yes I made sure it was kept in a water pouch with Mana dense water on the way here and no and I didn’t store it in my spacial ring.” 

“Are you here for the delve?” Ajax purposefully said the words loud enough for most of the retainers to hear them. It had been more than a month since the last time Ajax had delved and he would finally be breaking that streak soon as he would personally lead a delve for some of his retainers tomorrow.

“What can I say, I want to try out my new boon.” Xavier responded with an excited grin.