Chapter 470

It barely takes a couple of minutes for Ajax to cover the distance from the royal palace to Luna’s mansion. When he first arrived at the royal palace he had sent word via a servant that would be visiting as soon as his meeting with the king was finished, there was no surprise that Luna and Hatchet were waiting for him.

“It’s good to see you again, Ajax.” Luna greeted him as he took a seat at her table, a cup of hot tea being served to him. “Though I do have to say you really wasted no time, do you know how many rumors there are about what you did in the Empire?” 

While Luna might not have been a particularly influential or powerful noble, she had lived most of life in the capital as a Viscountess with the silent backing of the royal family. She had long since learned how to navigate the political water and more importantly how to gather the latest gossip.

“It can’t be that bad now can it?” Ajax asked, though he felt a little stifled. “I hardly did all that much.” ‘At least in terms of what was publicly known.’ Ajax finished the sentence in his mind. 

“It hardly matters what actually happened.” Luna chuckled as she stirred a teaspoon of honey into her own tea. “With the distance to the Empire right now the rumors need to only lightly touch on the facts, after that they can make up whatever they want. For example there is one going around that you robbed the emperor’s vault and then paid him a tax on the gold you stole.” 

Ajax had trouble not choking on his tea as he heard that. It was so far removed from what actually happened the only things truthful about it were that he had returned with a large amount of gold and that he paid the Empire taxes on it.

“That’s not at all what happened.” Ajax defended himself. “I did manage to get a particularly large amount of gold out of the dungeon, and sure I did pay the Empire taxes on it but that was only because they also gave me access to the other dungeon in their capital.”  

“Oh, so that means the gold you have has some mana infused into it.” Luna nodded as she picked up a new piece of information. “But it’s probably best if you don’t listen to what the rumors are saying right now.” 

“How bad can it get?” Ajax asked, a little scared to find out just how active of an imagination the bored nobles of the capital had, especially now that they were left a little more off the leash with all the competent ones focusing on handling all the changes the kingdom was going through.

“There’s a theory that you bedded the Emperor’s granddaughter and high tailed it out of the Empire right after.” Hatched could barely hold his laughter as he finished his sentence, Ajax’s face however sent him into a full bellied laugh, even Luna couldn’t hide a smile.

“You’re right, I didn’t want to know.” Ajax said as he dropped his face in his palms. “But that’s not what I’m here to talk to you two about today. I have two things that are both far more pressing to discuss with you.” 

“Two things?” Luna sounded surprised. 

“Yes.” Ajax nodded. “The first is in regards to the Healing Union. I have already talked it over with the royal family and they have agreed with my plan so you don’t need to worry about that.” 

“That’s great.” Luna said enthusiastically, “What are we researching?”

In all the time they had known each other Luna had figured out what sort of person Ajax was, if he wanted something to do with the healing union personally that it would no doubt have something to do with some new research he was trying out. Between him and Kate they had already made five discoveries, though a few were minor. Two of their attempts had also ended up without any conclusive results but none of their attempts had yet to be proven false.

“I was thinking of setting up a larger research base for the Healing Union in my duchy.” Ajax explained. “I am expecting there to be a large infusion of novice alchemists and I am hoping to find alchemical concoctions that help with healing indirectly.” 

“How would that work?” Luna sounded interested. “There already are healing potions and they work just fine without a healer.” 

“Think about it differently, instead of the potion being a pure benefit it could be a mix of positive and negative, where it would then be the healer's job to counteract the known negative of the potion.” Ajax explained. “We already know that some poisons are powerful enough to invalidate other poisons, what if we can discover one that a healer can handle the symptoms of while an unknown and potentially lethal poison is suppressed.”

Luna was already nodding at this. She did in fact know that there were plenty of alchemists who tried to sell such poisons, the issue with them was that anything that got too overbearing for other poisons came with lethal consequences for the victim. Adding a healer to simply manage the symptoms wasn’t something she had even considered.

“That’s just one of the things that can be researched, the broadest field would be potions that prepare a body for healing.” Ajax continued. “We all know that healing spells put a strain on the body, the few that don’t are so mana intensive even senior healers can barely cast it once or twice before being fully drained.” 

“Most of this wouldn’t help much with healing houses as they are now. But if they manage to make any discoveries they would be worth a lot should the rumors of war turn out to be true.” Luna speculated. Luna knew very well that on the battlefield healing was always a battle of efficiency.

“Not only that, but this would also give a solid reason for both you and hatchet to stay in my duchy for at least a few months out of the year.” Ajax said, his more selfish motive revealed, he wanted to keep his friends close.

“How can you be smart, yet at the same time so oblivious.” Hatchet huffed at Ajax.

“What do you mean?” Ajax asked. 

“If we also leave the capital to stay back home for a couple of months a year, who will look after your land here in the capital. Your hives, plants and trees aren’t all too difficult but they do require attention a few times a week.” Hatchet said as he shook his head in disappointment at Ajax. 

Ajax’s family had assured him that his blossoming garden would be looked after so he never questioned the minutia of the solution they had found. In hindsight it should have been obvious that they asked someone else to step in and help, someone local since they were taking all of their retainers to help establish their duchy. More than that Ajax wanted to keep pushing his garden, the mana level of the plants was growing, slowly but it was growing. At most he would have taken one hive of mana infused bees and maybe a few queens to help establish some more hives in his own duchy that would start from the same mana infusion his current bees had reached.

“I’m sure the crown would be happy to step in.” Luna reassured Ajax. “They bought out every plot of land surrounding yours and have seen record numbers year after year. They will have no issue taking care of things for you.” 

Luna’s solution was actually the one Ajax would have guessed his family had also reached. What he failed to understand was how different Ajax and the rest of his family looked at the royal family. Unlike Ajax they hadn’t been almost constantly in the presence of royalty for years so despite settling well in their new stations something like asking the royal family to help care for a gardening plot was not something they would consider.

“It does seem to me like a good idea for my presence to be more permanent in your duchy, though that is more selfish of me.” Luna said, having a base in the lands of a landed Duke would rapidly increase Luna’s position in the noble hierarchy of the capital. “And I would also like to still see you more regularly even now that you are a Duke, I have missed you over this past year.” 

“Now what’s the other thing you wanted to ask about?” Hatchet asked. 

Ajax’s cheeks blushed slightly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I wanted some advice about proposing to Lexi.”

Ajax was very thankful that neither Luna nor Hatchet laughed at his request, he spoke about asking the royal family for a favor as if he was asking a neighbor for a glass of water so he could see the irony. They spent the next twenty minutes discussing how and when Ajax should pop the question.