Chapter 464

A/N :Made a few correction to last chapter. The dungeon Ajax was referring to was the other dungeon in the capital not the one near Lessis, got my dungeons mixed up, sorry!"

Warden Grievous P.O.V.

I wasn’t ready for what happened, even though I was handling it a lot better than most of the people around me. It had been almost seven years since I last saw Ajax and I had only known the kid for a little more than a decade, that was less than a third of the time I had spent in my position as commander of the city.

I still remember the willful but utterly helpless boy I noticed back then. I used to think he was very weak, unlucky since he was so determined to improve. Putting that together with the new training method that was spreading like wildfire around the kingdom and his rise as a noble it was easy to see why he had been so weak back when he was ten years old. He had simply not spent his points.

The growth the kid had gone through was beyond monstrous however. I had spent some real time as a soldier and part of the army and met so called geniuses before but they all paled before him, to become so much stronger in such a short time put Ajax in a class of his own. What I had first assumed was his presence, an air of authority from how he carried himself now that he was a Duke turned out to be his decently controlled Aura. An Aura that was now flaring with rage and trying to crush everyone around him.

“Easy kid.” The captain of Squad seven said. It was only for a brief moment but the pressure of the Aura had made it seem like a lot longer, it was so domineering, worse than any other Aura I had experienced before even if it was weaker in strength. It was a good thing there were plenty of people traveling with him now that could smother his Aura with their own. “You’ll need to keep calm until you can control your Aura, it seems it can now do more harm to those unprepared.” 

When I saw Ajax take a step towards the members of House Nestor I was even more glad for the presence of the prince and the squads. From the power of his Aura I knew I could no longer stop him. I had made it to level ninety and managed to clear most of the dungeon floors at the appropriate time as part of my time in the army but he was now stronger than me

“Why don’t you all go and take care of your preparations.” the prince said as he locked eyes with Ajax. “We need to leave for the capital before sunset. I’ll take care of things here.” 

Ajax took a deep breath and I could feel his Aura return to the same controlled almost suppressed form it had been in before he nodded towards the prince. At that point Lady Manashaper quickly turned towards my Commande Levi and with a sweet smile that worked wonders to cover the small beads of sweat that had started to form at the top of her forehead from the Aura bomb Ajax previously released. “You were going to show us the way to House Hearthbound’s temporary accommodations.” 

“Y-yes m-m-my L-Lady.” Commander Levi was less subtle in his recovery, he was the youngest of all my Commanders and having only made his way up through the guards in a time of peace he hadn’t been part of the army, as such his experience with Aura’s was almost nonexistent in this backwater territory. “R-Right this way.” 

I suppressed the small burst of annoyance I felt at Ajax’s departure. I had a lot of questions for the young Duke, most pressing of all being what he was doing right outside of Lessis with that miracle mud of theirs that seemed to harden perfectly. I had talked to our new mayor, and my former subordinate, Tom. All he said though was it was something only Ajax knew about and he had his instructions to follow. It wasn’t something I needed to push, he’d return in a couple of weeks at the latest and I could wait that long.

It was only once Ajax had exited the courtyard that the prince had turned his attention towards the Baron. “Baron Nestor I believe you said it was.” 

It was clear from the pale faces of House Nestor that they had quickly figured out who the unleashed Aura had belonged to. Despite being very loud in their objections about losing their lands, House Nestor had fully complied with the crown’s decree and allowed House Hearthbound to take over the land while they prepared their appeal. They just jumped on the opportunity to make it heard earlier when their people must have spotted the prince enter the city. 

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Baron Nestor had clearly been previously exposed to Aura’s, while he had crumbled under Ajax’s Aura in the same way Commander Levi had done; his recovery was much quicker.

“And you are saying that these lands should continue to be ruled by your family?” Even a young child could perfectly understand what the curt tone of voice the prince was using meant about his point of view on the matter.

“... yes, Your Majesty.” the words were barely a whisper, almost unheard compared to his earlier shouts, his defence came a little stronger. “The land has prospered under my family’s rule, especially in the last five years since my oldest has started sharing my burden and training in his role as my heir.” 

I was just about to interrupt but the malevolent grins that spread across a few of the remaining squad member’s faces told me there was no need to do so. The main reason for the improvement seen across the Baron’s lands were the rewards they received for the crown following the discovery of the mana dense lake in the skirmish more than half a decade ago.

“Oh really?” the prince asked. “That’s an interesting take on the events that happened, I have to say. You see I have looked into all the reports that came out of this barony over the last two decades.”

“You have?” I could hear the dread past all of his social skills.

“Yes, you see I had recently gotten involved with training a historical talent unlike anything our kingdom or any other for that matter has seen before.” the prince continued. “Him coming from this region of the kingdom alone made it worth investigating, it was his extreme dislike of nobles and secretive nature that made me dig further to look for a cause.” 

I didn’t even bother to hide the pleasure I was taking in seeing House Nestor finally having to own up to their misdeeds. The decades of using their influence to secure an income from the merchants that operated in Lessis and cruelty of their malformed child on the civilians was finally coming back to bite them, it was worth waiting a few weeks to talk to Ajax just to see this. 

“We have operated within our rights as awarded by the crown.” Baron Nestor said with a straight face.

“Your extortion of the merchants is pushing heavily on the boundary of what is acceptable.” the prince said with a cutting voice. “The amount of dismissed complaints of harassment and minor assault push far beyond, the destruction of multiple villages following the raid of a salamander den however is enough to relieve your family of your title.” 

“All of this over the boy?” It was the baroness that asked as the Baron was left speechless by the threat.

“Hah hah” A dark chuckle escaped the prince that sent a frosty shiver up my spine. “Of course it's all over the boy. Do you know why noble families like yours can usually get away with a bit of abuse of power? Not that the salamander beastwave wouldn’t have caused an intervention even without Ajax, but do you?” 

We all stood in silence as the prince gave them a chance to answer. “Because our family line is better.” Baron Nestor’s oldest son and heir answered.

“Wrong.” the prince cut down the answer. “You receive that benefit because of your status as landed nobles. You see land is given as a reward, in your family case it was your great-great grandfather whose service was rewarded. You are given power and authority over the commoners because the crown cannot rule alone. It is a show of good faith to the other noble families to support the crown with the promise that even with a subpar generation their House will live on.” 

The prince’s words made me look at things from an angle I hadn’t considered even back during my time in the army. I never understood why despite most nobles being kind the crown allowed tyrants to rule. They were doing it to ensure the loyalty of the other Houses, as long as you don’t push it too far your House’s future transgression can be overlooked in return for loyalty.

“Then why wait so long?” the Baron asked. 

“Because it took a while for your transgressions to reach us.” the prince said. “While we do care for our people, out of the way places like this I am said to say take a while to come to our attention. By the time it did Ajax had already shared his discovery, it was then decided that he would take over your lands when the time came.” 

“Then why give them all that money?” I looked towards my aid with wide eyes at his outburst. “If you were going to replace them, why send them all that wealth?” 

“Because with reward comes scrutiny.” the prince explained, not at all looking upset by the interruption. “For the last few years they have let the people prosper, even though I have no doubt they didn’t treat them any better. This would make the land prosper in turn while diluting the populace general dislike for nobles. Making this a perfect time for a change in the nobles ruling.”

I could see the disagreement on my aid’s face even as he kept quiet. It was easy to understand his point of view but I agreed with the prince. While it did seem like a cruel way to do things this was simply the lesser evil.

“Oh, and I wouldn’t bother trying to appeal the decree in open court.” The prince said as he turned and started to walk out of the courtyard. “All it would do is make you enemies with every House looking to earn the favour of the new Duke.” With that final word of warning the prince and the rest of the squad members left to follow after Ajax and those who had gone ahead.