Chapter 449

The group’s reception as they crossed the border was not something Ajax had expected. There had to be at least fifty other carriages, each of them had their door open and a beautiful woman waiting and looking in their direction. 

“I know you warned me about this, but I can’t be that much in demand.” Ajax said with a gulp as he swallowed down the dread of their remaining journey to the Empire’s capital. 

“It’s not just you.” Oliver told him. “You are a target of opportunity, if the Empire can get you they’ll be happy but you are not why they’re all here.” 

“I am.” Xavier said with a resigned sigh. 

Despite nobody really knowing about the feeling that had been developing between Xavier and Arianwyn, everyone was very much in the know that Xavier had spent months in the presence of both her and Elara. As far as the Empire was concerned any marriage between Xavier and a noble elf from Sylvanthal was a disaster.

“This is quite the force you brought with you in our country.” An impeccably dressed man greeted them, someone Ajax recognised as the crown prince of the Empire, Solderon. “I do hope your intentions are peaceful.” 

“You can cut the act, Solderon.” The king’s eldest son was quick to answer. “You know the reason why.” 

Xavier opened the carriage door and the delve group exited the carriage to greet their hosts. Now that he was a Duke Ajax was left with no excuses in dodging any social events in the Empire, the best he could hope was that they got out of here as quickly as possible. 

“Duke Hearthbound.” Solderon quickly focused on Ajax. “I don’t believe I paid you the proper attention last time you visited the Empire.” 

The emperor was a couple hundred years younger than king Gryndor, as such his son was only around two hundred and fifty years of age. Solderon wasn’t a talented combatant, his excellence stemmed simply from the amount of resources invested in his growth, something that became clear to Ajax when he [Judge Threat] backed by [Inspectors’s Eye] was not only undetected but also labeled the prince as a medium threat.

“It’s an honour to be greeted at the border by you, Your Highness.” Ajax’s response was perfect, complete with the small bow that showed only respect and not submission as was right for a Duke of Gryndor towards other royals. 

The lack of difference displeased Solderon but he didn’t show it, he instead chose to focus on something else. “Prince Xavier, as well as Lady Goldmancer and Lady Manashaper. With the Empire this would make the fifth county whose dungeon you have delved. Truly you are the generation of prodigies.”

Xavier, Anna and Lexi all ignored the barb. All of them were more than comfortable with their talent and they had proven to themselves that they were special beyond the stats given by clearing dungeon floors.

When all three of them repeated Ajax’s greeting, Solderon was quick to move away and make way for the veritably army of eligible nobles to swarm the four youngsters. While Ajax had his hand intertwined with Lexi’s at the elbows it felt to him more like a lifeline to a man overboard on the open sea.

With the opening greetings out of the way, Solderon moved to the more pressing matters and the reason he had come to welcome them in person. He quickly approached the eldest prince before deploying a sound barrier.

“Is Gryndor looking for open war?” Solderon asked, his voice devoid of any warmth. “For you to share the training method openly like that.” 

“There was never any way to keep it hidden.” the prince countered. “Believe me, I spent months trying to figure one out.” 

Despite his attitude the eldest prince was a war veteran and someone who took his responsibilities as a Champion of Gryndor seriously. When he first found out about Ajax’s method he had spent considerable time and effort in figuring out a way to keep it for themselves. 

“Of course it would have leaked, young teens leak more than a sieve but there is a big difference in sharing it with the nobility and sharing it with every commoner.” Solderon spat back. “You’d best hope we aren’t struck by famine in two centuries time or war will be the only way to stop civil wars from taking place over food.”

This was a big concern that the prince actually shared with Solderon. While Gryndor’s capital will never have to fear starvation thanks to one of its dungeons having a one in seven chance of spawning food supplies on the first floor the same was not true of the rest of the kingdom or their neighbors.

“We are looking into solutions or ways to overcome a bad year in terms of food. Not only that but we are also looking into ways to slow down the population increase.” the prince shared. “Every single one of our dukes and viscounts have been tasked with this.” 

What the prince didn’t mention was that the population issue had been something the dukes and viscounts had been tasked with for a couple of years now, as soon as the nobles who had been given the technique had confessed to having their less talented children spent the majority of their points in Vitality.

Even Ajax had been informed of his duty during the trip. The prince was shocked at the amount of ideas that Ajax had of how to approach it. For someone so dedicated to increasing his personal power on top of his study of both magic and alchemy Ajax had presented numerous ideas off the top of his head.

Ajax ideas had naturally come from Earth. Because of his study of architecture Ajax had also become somewhat familiar with a few of the issues some countries had suffered from back on earth. The layout of a city was dependent on its population and that was influenced by its birth rates. He had information on the downsides of trying to outlaw large families from China’s attempt at a one child policy as well as a brief overview of how Korea was trying to increase the birth rates of its slowly aging population.

“There is also no point in discussing this further, not like we can take it back.” the prince knew better than to mention that Ajax had requested the information be made available to commoners. “At this point the only way forward is through.” 

“This is not the end of this.” Solderon warned. 

“I have also brought along a piece offering in the form of another more sensitive piece of information that I will be relaying to your father upon our departure.” The prince couldn’t resist provoking Solderon.

With the discussion between royalty finished everyone took the hint and got back into their carriages to begin their trip towards the Empire’s capital. As they got back onto the carriages Ajax, Xavier and Oliver could be seen blushing.

“I never expected seduction skills to work like that.” Ajax confessed after the carriage door closed.

Seduction skills didn’t work like mind control, in the same way that merchant skills couldn’t mind control someone into a lower price. Despite the lack of mind control Ajax had found a few of the women present very attractive, his focus on them had been the giveaway of seduction skills.

“This isn’t even their full extent.” Oliver said in a rush as he loosened his collar in an attempt to lower the temperature of his neck. “Rare and Epic skills can actually cause slight changes in the body of the user to better match the preferences of the target.” 

“I can’t wait to get out of here and back to Gryndor.” Ajax said as he laid back and tried to get some sleep, despite the encounter being brief Ajax felt more tired than he did after a few hours of training.

Unfortunately for Ajax the convoy’s travel speed slowed down significantly now that they were joined by numerous carriages that had no intention of traveling throughout the night. They also couldn’t just leave since they now had to match Solderon’s pace. This meant that they would be stopping at certain cities or villages as they made their way to the capital.

It was in the first city they stopped in that Ajax finally saw one of the unintended consequences of making his training method not only publicly available but also widespread. Ajax felt a wave of nausea hit him as he took in the slave market, more specifically the advertisements they were making about training their slaves for optimal stats.

In a way it made sense, only the most foolish of slavers wouldn’t see the need to act quickly on the new information or be quickly run out of business, but that didn’t make it any easier for Ajax to accept.

“I need to leave.” Ajax whispered as he retreated back to the inn before he did something he couldn’t take back.