Ajax had only read the contents of the letter late at night after he had just finished emptying his mana into the trees on his plot of land so he decided to sleep on it and deal with the upcoming rush in the morning, not only that he also knew that he needed the time to calm down a little before he did something rash.
The next morning Ajax quickly dropped by the woodworker who made his beehives and ordered quite a few beds be made and delivered to his two sister houses, afterall the only thing that his family would care about after the long trip to the capital in a caravas was where the closest bed was.
With that taken care of he took off towards his grandparents shop where a tough conversation awaited him. It was obvious to him that the only way the two to three year timeline they were on could be sped up to a couple of months was by his grandparents' heavy interference. Most likely they had started to get involved from the first week after they met him.
“Mister Ajax, welcome.” Sebastian welcomed him as he made his way into the shop with slow heavy footsteps.
“I need to have a chat with them.” Ajax said trying his best to remain calm.
Jumping to conclusions was a bad idea, something he had learnt the hard way back in his time on Earth when he was struggling to make ends meet after a few bad choices was not to jump to conclusions about a person's motives without talking to them first. Still considering the level of interference with a family they had essentially abandoned , he was having a hard time keeping his cool regarding his grandparents.
“Ajax.” Aurora greeted him warmly as usual though she kept herself behind the desk after she got a look at his standoffish attitude. “What is the matter?”
“I just got this letter” Ajax said as he produced a transcribed version of the letter that kept anything personal out and just had the clear message of a mystery organization speeding up the timetable for them to move. “I thought it best to talk it through before I jump to conclusions.”
Both Elija and Aurora quickly glanced at the piece of paper on the table and got the gist of the message, unlike their usual dynamic however it was Elija that talked first.
Throughout their interactions over the last few months Elija had found himself being more talkative as both he and Aurora familiarized themselves with their grandson, the one exception to this was whenever they were talking business.
Ajax was about to quickly answer back with a retort before he took stock of the situation he placed himself in. His grandparents hadn’t given him any indication that they were looking to take advantage of their connection with the rest of his family. They also hadn’t given him much indication that they weren’t, but that was mainly because he had shut that down from their first meeting, choosing to leave the decision to his mother.
“Not a conclusion.” Ajax finally answered after a moment of quiet. “I can see the worst case scenario however and I would like to be prepared for it.”
“You can rest assured that all we have done was to speed up the timetable of their move here we discussed at our first meeting.” Aurora said. “Here are all the contracts we have in place with them.”
Ajax took a quick look over all of them and quickly found himself well out of his depth. Despite some basic merchant skill the complexity of the contracts was something that eluded him. One thing that was perfectly clear however was that his sister’s organization was the only one of the two parties to have a buyout clause on all the contracts, not only that but the total sum of the contracts amounted to about five hundred gold coins.
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“I can buy them out myself at no loss to them at any point.” Ajax said softly as he looked through them for anything that would prevent the buyout clause and found nothing.
His personal finances had been steadily growing ever since wiping out his debt, to the point that he now had gone from having four hundred gold in reserves to being at close to six hundred. It would have been a lot closer to eight hundred if he hadn’t been spending as much as he had on his alchemy ingredients.
“And you didn’t think I should know that they were coming this way so I could start setting up their houses?” Ajax asked his voice, much warmer than it had started out. “I’ll barely get proper beds installed in the few days I have left before they arrive.”
“You have more than a few days.” Elija said, causing Ajax to look at them confused.
“They are coming in with a big caravan, at least thirty wagons, meaning they will be moving much slower than the messenger of this letter” Aurora explained. “Not only that but they are also bringing a lot of their furniture with them so I suggest you leave plenty of space for them to place it.”
“Alright.” Ajax said, somewhat satisfied for the moment with the explanation, he would need to talk with Judy, Alana and his mother to verify the rest but for now this was enough to assuage him.
“It’s not a trick.” Elija said as Ajax stood up and walked towards the door.
“I hope so.” Ajax responded.
“The last few months just talking with you made us realize just how much we missed our daughter.” Aurora said.
Ajax found himself truly believing the last remark, so much so that he would have thought he was under the influence of a skill if it wasn’t for the accompanying notification letting him know he had earned an Uncommon skill, not only that but it was a skill that he had been trying to get for a long time, [Basic Truth Detection].
The skill was the lowest quality of all truth detection skills, Ajax was well aware of that as he had taken a deep look into the records of all known truth telling skills. Unlike truth there was no dedicated lying skill, as such when it came down to which skills won out truth telling skills had an advantage of about twenty skill levels over deception skills. [Basic Truth Detection] could actually beat out even Epic deceptions skills with enough skill levels. The problem was that the Uncommon skill did nothing when it came to anything other than a straight up lie. Unlike the Rare or Epic variants that would at least put up a fight against deception skills, a lie by omission or anything of the sort would straight up bypass the skill.
Despite the Elation Ajax felt at the notification and ray of hope that came with knowing his grandmother’s statement to be true, Ajax pushed both feelings down as he made his way towards the Academy. Even with the assurances given in the contract Ajax was going to trust but verify.
“I like the energy Ajax but we don’t have a session set up for today.” Balthazar said when he saw Ajax enter the library.
“That’s not what I am here for today.” Ajax said as he approached the old man with confidence. “Something I was expecting to take a lot longer is now happening in a dozen days or so and there’s something I need to do in regards to it.”
“Oh is that so?” Balthazar said. “And is it good news?”
“It is if all goes well.” Ajax said.
“Then you best make sure it does.” the old man smiled. “Anything I can help you with?” Fresh chapters posted on 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭·𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢·𝗇𝗲𝘵
“As a matter of fact there is, I was hoping you would walk me through the process of getting a discovery published through the proper process so that I can claim the benefits after sharing it.” Ajax said.
“Oh?” the old man stood up straighter, something that he felt all the way down his back as his body protested the quick movement. “Finally going to share that magic style of yours?”
“No.” Ajax said knowing that trying to teach a Legendary skill without an achievement was a fool's errand. “I’m looking to share the way I got my abnormally high stats, or at least the basis of it.”
“Well now that is quite something.” the old man nodded. “How reliably can the method be replicated?”
“Everyone can make use of it.” Ajax said with confidence. “Though the increase in stats they will get will vary on a few factors.”
“Now that is quite the discovery to make public, do you mind me asking what prompted you to share it now if you were planning to do so later?” Balthazar asked.
“The rest of my family is going to be joining me in the capital soon and I want to try to get myself a noble title to make sure the transition goes smoothly.” Ajax said honestly. “Can you help me put it all together in a few days?”
“Sure, I’ll point you in the right direction but you’ll be doing all the tedious parts.” the old man joked with him. “You do know that if this method of yours leads to any substantial stat growth you’re looking at a Baron’s title right after sharing it, and it will be brought up to Viscound or maybe even unlanded Duke depending on how big the stat gains are.”
“That’s what I’m counting on.” Ajax said. “Though it will take years before the results from it will be seen.” With that the two got started at putting together the written instructions.