It had taken the entire Academy break for House Hearthbound to have their mansion finally ready but with two days before the Academy’s first day back Ajax and his family had started moving over.
That wasn’t to say that they were the first to move in as priority had been given to one of their small barracks buildings and their few retainers had already moved in a week prior. This move was also very different from their arrival in the capital as they weren’t the ones to do any of the actual work. Ajax’s grandparents had hired the people who made sure that the manor was fully furnished and then transported most of the family's personal possessions. It would be unseemly for nobles to do their own carrying after all.
As for Ajax’s grandparents themselves, they had been given their own room inside the manor, that said they still hadn’t moved in there. While their presence was much more accepted now compared to a few months back there was still a bit to go before they would be fully integrated.
That wasn’t to say that the entire manor had been finished, there were still two more barracks to be built, the training field hadn’t had more than its foundation set up. Most importantly Fluffy’s specific stable hadn’t been finished either so for now the oversized feline was wandering the halls of the manor full time.
“Just take a seat.” Tom said. “I’ll take care of it, you take it easy.”
Tom hadn’t been all that attentive to Fluffy for a short while now as Kate’s pregnancy had started to show and as a first time parent he was fussing over every little thing.
“I’m fine, I’m not due for another two months and I can still do some things around here.” Kate complained though she did remain seated to placate him.
“I was just like that the first time Silvia was pregnant.” Sam said as he remembered back to fond times. “Thankfully that turned out well, he will calm down by the second and third children.”
“I’m thinking there will be a bit of a break before we have anymore.” Kate said as she rubbed her extended belly. “With the resources we have now our lifespan is large enough that we can leave that for a bit later, I don’t want to put anymore pressure on Ajax by extending the family.”
Luna had become a more common sight around the family ever since Ajax received his noble status. Hatchet had formally joined Luna as one of her trusted retainers and Luna’s house and Ajax’s had become allies formally.
“How so?” Kate asked.
“The higher a family’s status the bigger it is expected to be.” Luna explained.
“But your House basically only has you.” Tom said.
“My title comes with the position as head of the Healing Union” Luna answered. “For a Baron your family is on the small side but still acceptable. For a duke you are all way too small and there will be pressure on you to extend it through marriage.”
“House Manashaper is one that rose in a similar manner.” Aurora said. “ The key difference there was that the Duke was much older when he got his title and he had a few children, it was their marriages that grew the family to the size it is now by adding a Viscount and Baron to the fold.”
Both Aurora and Elija had been orbiting Kate more as of late as well. Unlike Tom they weren’t overly concerned about the pregnancy as they had gone through something like that before, instead they were adamant about not missing the chance to spend some quality time with their first great-grandchild in the same way they did with all three of their grandchildren.
“Nice to see you take a day off, I know you were always pushing yourself but make sure you don’t go overboard.” Hatchet said as he saw Ajax enter the room.
“It was only a bit of beekeeping.” Ajax defended himself, not mentioning that he also emptied out most of his mana in the ground and plants surrounding the bees.
Ajax had taken it a bit easier on the training ever since he heard that house Goldmancer had started talks with the Empire and that a possible delve in their capital’s dungeons was potentially on the table. He wanted to make sure he didn’t push past level thirty seven just in case the delve would only happen halfway through the year at the Academy.
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Experience : 42860/65000
Traits: Divine Witness, Baron Googlᴇ search 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭·𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢·𝗇𝗲𝘵
Illusion Resistance 0 -> 1
Impervious senses 0 -> 2
Alchemist’s Examination 0 -> 5
Unarmed combat 36 -> 38
Heat Resistance 21 -> 23
Poison Resistance 25 -> 29
Pain Resistance 25 -> 26
Cold Resistance 15 -> 18
Mana farming 21 -> 23
Danger Sense 33 -> 34
Mana Milling 21 -> 24
Precise Blow 37 -> 38
Judge Threat 32 -> 33
Piercing Shot 38 -> 39
Berserker Style 11 -> 19
Manipulate Mana 40 -> 42
Spot Weakness 31 -> 32
Mana Conjuration 25 -> 27
Water Aspect Mana 40 -> 41
Fire Aspect Mana 40 -> 41
Air Aspect Mana 40 -> 41
Earth Aspect Mana 40 -> 41
Shadow Aspect Mana 40 -> 41
Light Aspect Mana 40 -> 41
Lightning Aspect Mana 23 -> 24
Metal Aspect Mana 23 -> 24
Ice Aspect Mana 23 -> 24
Magma Aspect Mana 23 -> 24
Holy Aspect Mana 17 -> 20
Beekeeping Trailblazer 7 -> 9
Curse Resistance 15 -> 17
Mana Augmentation 30 -> 31
Mana Conjuration 25 -> 27
Battlemage Style 1 -> 9
Dungeon Crafter 1 -> 10
Despite not gaining all that much experience, Ajax had finally seen some progress that reignited his excitement. Many of his mana skills had managed to break through their most recent bottlenecks. He finally had skills that pushed beyond level fifty.
His physical skills had made some gains but outside of his [Berserker Style] that had gotten quite a bit of practice against Theron most were small as they too approached the same bottlenecks.
[Enigma] had not only broken through its first bottleneck but had also already started to progress further. This was a more recent development as Ajax had started to feel more inspection attempts on him almost every time he walked through the city. So far none of them came from people that had any power and even the strongest inspection skill hadn’t managed to get anything more than his name but Ajax knew there were more eyes on him. He will approach his teachers at the academy to find out if it was something he should be worried about.