Chapter 443

A/N: Merry Christmas!

The royal court was a trying experience for Ajax, unlike previous appearances he had to stay until the court cleared at dusk, throughout that time he met with at least a representative of almost all noble families in Gryndor, he was glad for his high Mental stats or he wouldn’t have been able to recall who was who two hours in.

“Is it always that bad?” Ajax asked Tom as they sat in the carriage taking them to their mansion.

“It’s been mostly different in my experience.” Tom answered. “I find it hard to get anyone’s attention but that works against me whenever I want something.” 

Ajax could tell Tom had enjoyed a good portion of today’s events. His brother had learnt not to show his glee but Ajax could almost feel it every time one of the Houses who dismissed any of his previous requests for a meeting to a later unspecified date had come asking to talk they had also been met with a similar response.

“I can’t thank you enough for dealing with this.” Ajax said as he bowed his head to his brother.

“I’m actually glad this fell to me.” Tom’s words surprised Ajax. 

“You are?” Ajax asked. “I would have thought with this taking up your time you’d be slow to level, all your hard work with the guard will stop mattering.”

“I’ll lose a lot of the lead I built up over the average guard.” Tom acknowledged. “But I’ll get to make that up, my level stagnating in the early forties now will mean I will get to clear other countries' dungeons fully, at the same time I get to do a lot more good.” 

Tom sat forward in his seat. “My time as a guard let me see a lot of problems I couldn’t solve or that I was a part of. Now I am in a position to solve them, not to mention just how much more time this gives me to spend with my family.” 

If Tom had tried to push his early talent in combat he would have been forced to travel constantly, while he still spent a large portion of his time dealing with other nobles and will probably spend even longer dealing with other matters as mayor he would be able to carve out a few hours a day for his wife and child.

“How much is expected of me… of us now that I have earned this title.” Ajax asked, happy to see his brother enjoying his new role. 

“Only to be available for meetings.” Tom’s answer surprised him as the carriage stopped in front of their mansion. “The celebration is expected in one year's time once you’ve had time to establish your estate.” 

“You’ve ruined everything!” Judy pulled open the carriage door to yell at Ajax. “I was able to flirt and drink with people and it wouldn’t be a big deal, now they are ready for a commitment at the slightest bit of interest.” 

“She’ll get over it soon.” Lexi who had followed behind Judy said as they exited the carriage. “Did everything go as you expected?” 

“Not quite.” Ajax said before gathering everyone.

Ajax spent the next hour explaining everything he had told the king and the archdukes. They weren’t as shocked by the presence of a dragon inside the kingdom’s borders and the treaty didn’t mean all that much to them, they were however much more interested in his gauntlet.

“It was made by a dragon?” his father asked as he scrutinized the workmanship like never before.

“It’s a beginner’s tool.” Ajax explained. “It was meant to help me not destroy my own weapons with my spells.” 

“Can I take it apart to see how it does that?” Sam asked. 

“Not just yet.” Ajax shook his head. “I still need it for the delve in the Empire but after that it’s all yours.” 

“How did you outgrow it if all it does is channel your mana?” Lexi asked. 

“Because it does so through mana affinity gems.” Ajax explained. “Back when I first got it my spells were so weak that it even enhanced them. As my spells got stronger however they started to reach the limit of how much mana the gems could handle at once, some have already cracked.” 

“Is that why you want to go out in the Wild lands?” Silvia asked instead. “You want to bond with a dragon?”

Silvia still wasn’t fully on board with Ajax’s idea of searching for a bond in the Wild Lands, thinking it too dangerous and was hoping to talk her son out of it in the months he would spend establishing their rule over their duchy. 

“I won’t deny I hadn’t thought about it once or twice.” Ajax admitted. “But I don’t think that would work out.” 

“Why not?” Lexi and Kate both asked at the same time. 

“Because dragons are ascended races.” Ajax answered. “I’m not sure what we are but we are below them, both parties of a bond gain benefits but with a dragon, I’d be Fluffy in that partnership.” 

While they wouldn’t admit it all of them were relieved to hear Ajax’s words, they now knew he wouldn’t be walking into the lands of an ascended creature of his own accord so that would mean he should be protected by the agreement from the strongest predators that rule the Wild Lands.

“Before you start thinking about the Wild Lands you should focus on our duchy.” Alana said. “I for one am glad to be finally settling down somewhere long term.” 

“Except this time we’re actually going to be the princesses in the keep, just like we used to pretend when we were kids.” Judy joked. “Think your brother’s going to be kicking himself that he didn’t join you in the capital?” 

Alana’s brother and father had chosen to return to rebuild their small village, this meant that they didn’t have the same connection to House Hearthbound as Alana did where she was considered a member of the family.

Judy’s words set off a spark in Ajax’s mind. It was literally a life time ago for him be he had once been an architecture student back on Earth. True he had died before he finished his degree but most of his early classes had focused on old castles and bridges. His duchy would be the perfect place to start integrating some of the advanced building concept he knew with the medieval world and magic he found himself in. 

That night Ajax hadn't gone to sleep until the sun started to rise on the horizon. He had spent the entire night drawing schematics for their estate. His starting point and inspiration was Alnwick Castle, in a world with magic what better starting point was there than Hogwards, the school of witchcraft and wizardry. What truly drew him into the designs was the numerous hidden passages he remembered existing that he very much wanted to recreate.

The size of the castle was overkill for his current family but it was exactly what was expected of for a Duke. With the average lifespan for someone in a ducal household being four hundred and fifty years and the main branch pushing above seven hundred he was sure that it probably wouldn’t take all that long for his House to grow in size. Especially since those were the numbers before Ajax’s method was implemented, a good number of the nobles would most likely use the extra stats as just an excuse to increase their Vitality early in their lives so those numbers were bound to increase.

As Ajax lay down to finally get some sleep as he reached a good stopping point in his designs he felt very content. The design was halfway complete, his increased stats and skills had helped him transfer his ideas to the paper much quicker than he would have done back on Earth.

Ajax didn’t sleep for very long, just a few hours before he was back at his desk. Instead of continuing his design however he was wracking his mind to remember something from his time back on Earth.

The recipe for cement wasn’t hard, one part cement two parts sand and three parts gravel. But even with skills that would require constant maintenance, what Ajax wanted was the long lasting cement the romans had used. He remembered reading that the recipe had been reverse engineered but he had a hard time remembering the differences. Not to mention that this would only be the first step before he would have to use his knowledge of Alchemy to find the appropriate substitutes to create this world's version of the cement powder. He foresaw the death of many rock and earth golems in his future as he searched for the correct rock type.

“You’re already awake, why didn’t you come to breakfast?” Lexi asked as she entered his room before she took a look at the papers scattered across his desk. “Already making plans for a keep, you know we have mason’s that will do the little details all you need are general designs.”

“I don’t want them making the hidden passages.” Ajax said offhandedly. “Means I have to work out the little details so that I know they can be added in without anyone outside the family knowing about them.” 

Ajax was on a time crunch, at best he would have three to four weeks, that was counting the time on the road towards the Empire, before he would need to have the general plans finished so that his family could get started while he went for his delve. There was simply no way to use concrete for their castle, it was still something he wanted to look into for the future.