Gamer Reborn-Chapter 486

Ajax’s return was a celebrated affair. Not only was he returning with long stay plans for the first time in over a year but there was also the engagement to celebrate. The entire estate manor was alive long into the night though the party didn’t have the usual high life quality of the parties from the capital. Seeing as it was an in House celebration, House Hearthbound showed their roots as they dressed for comfort.

“I have to say I like your parties a lot more than the ones back at the capital.” Knight Bonehammer said as he took another drink from his mead. “And I love whatever this drink is. I would have thought it was too sweet but after the first two mugs it grows on you.”

“We’re still working things out with that but it’s pretty good.” Tom smiled as he raised his own mug.

Much to his own surprise Ajax was a little shocked to see mead. He had always known it was possible to brew the alcoholic beverage from honey, in fact he had mentioned it more than once. What he hadn’t expected however was that one of their retainers that came to them from the Healing Union and learned a little Alchemy from him would be the one who came up with it.

“Talented young man.” Tom continued. “His father was a brewer but when he discovered his talent for Mana at age twelve it threw all his plans out the window; he had already assigned his early stat points yet he found the Healing Union would give him the best chances for growth. Ended up focusing on mana efficiency. His father was a brewer however so when he heard Ajax he decided to give it a try. That first batch was horrible.”

“He tried to tell you it needed aging.” Kate said with amusement. “Not his fault you decided two hours was long enough.”

“How much of it did you spend?” Judy was already questioning Ajax about the small mountain of gold he had taken with him to the capital in the form of what had remained from the statue’s legs.

“A bit under half.” Ajax admitted.

“Half!” Alana exclaimed as she heard the amount. “What did you buy?”

“Quite a few high end potions.” Ajax answered. “I also paid the crafters for three years in advance, there ended up being more of them than I expected.”

“Your school idea might get cheaper too.” Tom joined their conversation. “The Warden is offering for the guards to teach some of the physical combat classes in exchange for allowing them to recruit before they end up finishing school.”

Ajax wasn’t worried about the cost of combat trainers. Even if they were a brand new ducal House they had still been nobles in the capital for years, they had plenty of retainers who could teach the basics. The only question was how much access did he want to give the guards and military. After all, while they did have to work with him as the noble in charge they did technically work for the crown.

“I think you should let them do it.” Elija said.

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“Why?” Ajax asked. “It’s not like it’ll be hard to find people who will teach beginner fighting skills.”

“Because it will greatly increase the quality of the guards.” Elija explained. “That would happen anyway as the quality of the people increases but by allowing them to teach the classes they can move up in ranks quicker. Guards moving to another city for a promotion is much more common than anything else. Considering the good relationship your brother is already building with the guards here in a few decades you might find there are guards in every city looking favorably at House Hearthbound. They might let you know about anything shady happening that would affect us.”

Ajax thought that was a good piece of advice. In the upcoming years the people he would be training would be fielding offers from lots of noble houses if his school program showed results. Those who decided to go with the guard despite those offers wouldn’t be doing it just to progress making them more likely to repay such a favor. Ajax had to admit he very much valued his grandfather’s look on the world.

“That’s a pessimistic way to look at the world.” Kate said.

“When considering a whole kingdom the pessimistic view is most often the closest to reality.” Alana said. “Especially when discussing something like morality.”

Alana was speaking from experience. Both she and Judy had their fair share of run ins with shady people before they expanded their operations to the capital and gained not only their Elija’s backing but also Luna’s.

“All this talk of schools there is still one thing we need to talk about.” Tom said as he looked towards Ajax.”

“What is it?” Ajax could see the seriousness in his brother’s eyes.

“What do you want to do during Death?” Tom asked.

“Do we need to do anything?” Ajax asked. “It’s the end of Autumn people would have time to adapt.”

“Ajax I don’t think you ever took the time to think how bad people have it during Death.” Tom pointed out.

Ajax wanted to protest that but from the way the rest of his family glanced away from him and wouldn’t meet his eyes he could tell that they agreed with Tom’s assessment.

“Don’t look at them like that.” Tom’s voice became more gentle. “I figured out you hadn’t thought about it much when you mentioned opening the quarry in five months' time. In the middle of Death.”

That statement got the rest of his family to look at Ajax once more, they were all frowning however. “I don’t think you ever realized how lucky we were to grow up next to a smithy.” Tom pressed on. “There is a reason the forger was built so the hot air would blow towards the house despite how hot it could get during the sunny summer days. Most people don’t have that or magic.”

It was only then that Ajax realized his father had always taken on long term projects at the start of every Death season, often two or three at a time. He had been stiffed more than once and been forced to sell his work to the traveling merchants for less than he had been expecting yet he kept on accepting the projects without upfront payment.

By the time Ajax had spent a Death season away from the forge’s heat he had already spent his Stats, that combined with his magic meant he didn’t have to worry about the cold but that wasn’t something everyone could rely on.

“You have to delay the quarry for a couple of months.” Sam insisted. “There is no way you should be building a village at the start of Death. They’ll use any wood you send for construction as firewood all while cursing your name for sending them out there.”

As much as Ajax wanted to try and object he didn’t have any way to counter their objections. He truly hadn’t taken the weather into consideration outside of freak weather conditions delaying him a little. His argument would be that he needed those rocks if he was to get started on building the roads that he envisioned spreading across the duchy.

“You should start building the quarry instead of the village.” Lexi suggested. She had likewise overlooked the importance of the seasons for setting up a village. Her family weren’t landed nobles so it wasn’t something they had had to deal with before. “It won’t be as efficient but you can focus on finishing the alchemy formula for cement during Death and then use that to build the first cement houses in the village. From what you said cement should work better than wood to keep heat in and that would be important during Winter and Death especially in a mountain range village.”

“That’s a great idea.” Silvia said as she beamed at Lexi. “This would also mean you would get a few shipments of stone early and you can start training our alchemists on how to make cement faster.”

Ajax wasn’t stubborn, there was a reason he delegated so he was quick to change his view on the advice of his family. A small part of him however wondered if there was anything else similar that he had overlooked, any other problems that he might have an easy solution to from his Earth knowledge. These were all things he should consider now that he was a landed Duke and he had people he was responsible for.