Chapter 468

With the speed they were moving at it hardly took more than half a day before the group left Ajax’s duchy. Ajax’s lands covered a long stretch of land from the mountain range all the way to the lake that acted as a border between Gryndor and the Empire, his new duchy now isolated one of the other dukes as well as a viscount and two barons from the rest of Gryndor. 

With the size of the lake and the otherwise limited bodies of water that were available to the humanoids nobody had yet bothered to invent any boat larger than a small paddle boat. One of the things Ajax was planning on doing in a few years was to establish a port on the lake and start trading with the Empire directly, especially considering how close their capital was to the other shore.

“Do I even want to know what you’re planning now?” Lexi asked as she looked at his face through heavy eyelashes as she stretched awake.

“Just a passing thought.” Ajax waved her off. “Nothing that will be put in practice for a decade at least.” 

The only reason Ajax was willing to delay the invention of ships was that he knew the humanoid civilization had stretched much further in the past, most of the skills related to ships had to have been obtained already and that there wouldn’t be a bounty of trailblazer skills waiting. On the small off chance that he was wrong he wanted to wait until his family was in a better position to monopolize them once the first ships were ready to sail and direct commerce with the Empire’s capital could take place.

“You should prepare yourselves.” the prince said to them. “Ajax won’t be in the capital for long so that means that you’ll be delving for the floor boss within the week.

Ajax could already feel the time pressure. It had been less than two weeks since he evolved but he could already feel the increase in his experience gain, and that was with the minimal training he could do on the trip.

“I’ll be coming back with you.” Lexi said with a smile. “No way grandpa will stay away considering you have access to not only Vibration Mana but also Life Mana.” 

The way Lexi said this made it seem that it was her grandfather who would push for this but Ajax knew that it was Lexi who had. By having Duke Manashaper visit them so soon it would all but scream the connection between their houses providing House Hearthbound with strong support as they established themselves. 

Ajax did his best to hide a smile. Once he proposed the visit would surely turn into a celebration of their engagement instead of just a normal visit. As much as he hated politics he knew that the party would have to have an expanded invite list. If he was to invite only his friends it would be incredibly imbalanced seeing as they would mostly cover some of his Academy class and instructor as well as Luna. Excluding that many nobles from an event that would be attended by the three archduke Houses as well as the royal family would cause waves.

The trip to the capital wasn’t entirely boring, on the second of day they had managed to run into a band of thieves. Nobody made a move on their fast moving carriages but the encampment had been spotted by one of the scouts and an entire squad had taken a little detour to clear them out.

“It's hard to believe there are still roaming bands of thieves like that out there.” Ajax said. 

“It happens more and more as people leave the guard units of towns away from the capital.” Xavier explained. “It’s one of the few downsides of this period of peace we’ve had.” 

“How is peace responsible for this?” Ajax was surprised. 

“The high position in the guard of a city requires some high levels, levels a normal guard wouldn’t have unless they joined the army. Most cities don’t have access to a dungeon close by so all the commander and warden positions have been going to guards from the capital who have pushed themselves in dungeons and are looking to settle down with a family.” Xavier said. “In the past local guards would join the army and return with higher levels as well as a chance to move up but with the peace that hasn’t been the case for the last two generations.” 

“That still doesn’t explain how you go from guard to bandit.” Ajax frowned. 

“Guards are afforded a certain level of authority.” Anna said. “Once they leave they lose that, something they had for at least a decade or more. The only way to regain that feeling is to turn to banditry, after all it's the ambitious ones who leave like that and then they gather others.” 

Ajax realized that this would be something else he would have to look into fixing when settling his own duchy. Not so much the guard issues since he would be adding a new duchy wide guard unit for his roads that would give the more ambitious people a way to move up and with access to a dungeon a way to progress. But with the increased lifespan that was going to affect the new generation he would need to add a number of stepping stone positions to current industries to ensure people didn’t stagnate waiting for a way to progress.

“Won’t this affect a lot more industries soon with the increased lifespan and projected increase in the population?” Ajax asked. 

“It will,” the prince confirmed. “It one of the biggest problems we are trying to address. Funnily enough the elves have a head start on all of us with half the issue.” 

“What issue is that?” Ajax asked. 

“Elves hardly age, physically at least until the end of their lifespan.” the prince explained. “This means that their society had developed in a way that somewhat restricts having children to a certain time. We don’t have that, with people being young so much longer we will end up having siblings that are fifteen years apart in commoner families as they have more children after the first ones move out.” 

Hearing this only reinforced Ajax’s conviction about the necessity of standardizing education and forcefully moving his duchy forward in terms of technology. A more informed population was less likely to grow so out of control like that, the best example being the current nobles. Despite their average lifespans exceeding even what the commoner would reach after adapting to his technique they still remained a small percentage of the population.

“What are your plans after meeting with the king?” Anna asked Ajax as they neared the capital. 

“What do you mean?” Ajax asked. 

“With your family no longer living in the capital, will you return your estate here?” Anna clarified. 

“I’ll be going to see a family friend.” Ajax said with a smile. 

Ajax was planning on visiting Luna and his former mentor Hatchet. He wanted to extend an invitation to Luna to expand the Healing Union’s presence in his duchy. More than that however he wanted to offer her the option of opening a research base in his duchy where both her and Hatchet could have a second home. Over his time in the capital Luna had been one of the closest friends for his family and they didn’t want the relationship to deteriorate because of the distance between them now.

“How is Hatchet doing?” Lexi asked. 

Unlike Luna who still looked like she was in her early forties for somebody from Earth, Hatchet was now reaching the end of his life. He had stagnated his level hiding away in their little village and without the increase in levels his low stats were starting to get to him. Despite only being a little over one hundred years old his body was getting old.

“He’s slowing down.” Ajax said as he lowered his head. “It won’t be long now until he won’t be able to go hunting any more.” 

Seeing Hatchet like this was hard for Ajax. He hadn’t realized it when he surpassed him because he hadn’t been there to compare himself with the old hunter as his progress soared. It hadn’t even been a decade since Ajax was slow and weak compared to the man.

Ajax didn’t have long to dwell on the matter as they were quickly let into the capital and headed straight for the palace. Once there they were quickly ushered into the small throne room where the rest of the royal family was waiting for them and an explanation for the message the prince had sent them. 

“Well, what is it?” the king said as soon as the doors shut following their entrance into the room. 

“The next step for humanoids.” Ajax said. “After clearing one hundred and fifty floors we evolve.”