“Lord Ash, play with us,” one of the younger kids yelled out.
Though he was tired, Ash ended up playing with the kids for a little over an hour before he was able to take a break. Taking a rest under the shade of one of the buildings, Ash was amazed at how much energy the young had.
“Lord Hawkwing, the children have taken quite a liking to you,” Den said taking a seat right next to Ash.
“That is just because they haven’t had to start fighting yet,” Ash said laughing.
“I don’t think you really understand,” Den said shaking his head. “These kids don’t have anyone to look out for them. In a way you are like a parent to them. They are still young, but as they grow I am sure they will fully embrace the knight’s code.”
As Ash thought of the knight’s code, he stood up and walked a few feet away from the buildings and placed his hand on the ground. Suddenly a small wall about six foot high, four foot wide and about a foot thick erupted in front of Ash. Shortly after the wall was made, deep words started to appear on it. It took most of his remaining MP but when he was finished the knight’s code shone brightly on the small mural. “Now every day the knight’s code will be greet them each morning.”
After the sun had started to set, Ash finally stumbled home and quickly fell asleep.
Knight's Code #7-12
The next day Ash woke slightly later than usual. There wasn’t much planned for today but after spending so much time in the labyrinth the day before, Ash wasn’t in much of a rush to go in again since he had already achieved his goal. Ash decided instead to visit Emelia and see if any new news had come in.
Since he was in no rush, Ash took his time walking through the city. With everything that was going on lately He hadn’t had the chance to have much time to shop lately.
Ash stopped in a few stores, but none of them had anything that he really needed or wanted. It wasn’t until Ash was in the fourth store that he noticed the emblems that were put out for show. Looking down at his own guild emblem, Ash remembered that he had just advanced from novice to intermediate which required him to get a new badge. Walking up to the counter, Ash quickly ordered a new emblem and quickly replaced his old one as soon as it was purchased.
Most people reached the intermediate rank in the professions so having a silver emblem wasn’t anything to brag about, but it was still much better than having a copper one. The real mark of excellence was having a gold emblem signifying that one had reached the master stage of their occupation. Even someone who belonged to a weak guild wouldn’t be looked down upon if he reached such a high level since it was not an easy thing to do. The higher one’s level, the more experience needed to reach the next level and yet the amount of experience that one received from killing monsters of a higher level didn’t increase much. From what he understood, Ash needed more than ten million experience to reach his next level, even if he were to kill a monster twice his level, it wouldn’t be enough to automatically reach the next level. Sighing after thinking about the large hurdle to reach level sixty so he could get his next job advancement, Ash left the small stone and continued to look around the large market area.
Other than the large stores, every day there were a number of traveling merchants that would open up stalls as well as adventurer stores that sold rare goods that changed depending on what was brought in and sold to them. Ash spent most of his time looking through the adventurer store inventory though most of it was items that he had no idea how to use or things that he couldn’t use. Thinking that he was just wasting his time, Ash turned to leave when his eyes caught the sight of a small set of rings placed in a small case off in the corner.
None of the rings looked very presentable as they all had a dull look as if they hadn’t been properly cared for. Ash picked up one ring after another reading their description as they came into his mind. All the ones he picked up so far had weak effects such as +1 to strength. It wasn’t until he picked up the sixth ring that Ash got a welcomed surprise.
[Superior mana ring: increase mana by 10%.]
“Sir may I help you?” A wizened old man asked in a businesslike manner.
“Yes I was wondering how much this ring costs?” Ash asked as he held onto the ring tightly.
“Let me see,” the man said, looking at the ring then at the box where Ash had got it from. “This box of rings were obtained from an old adventurer’s estate after his death. The family wishes to sell his belongings quickly. Most the items we have on sale today belonged to him. If you wish to purchase the ring, I am sorry to say that much must purchase the entire box. There are a total of thirty-two rings that the man has acquired during his life. We haven’t had a chance to have them appraised yet so we are selling the box as a whole for the cost of thirty-five silver.” When Ash didn’t respond, the man quickly went on. “I know it sounds like a large sum for such old rings but there is always a chance to find a diamond in the rough.”
“It is true that many of the rings are quite cheap and need maintenance, but this ring alone is worth far more than the asking price,” Ash replied honestly.
“Is that so lord,” the old man said. “Do you happen to have the appraise ability?”
“Something like that,” Ash replied. “You said that the money will go to the adventurer’s family. How much from the sale will they receive?”
“Since it is a commissioned sale the store will receive 10% from the sale of the items and the rest will go directly to the family my lord.”
Ash pulled out five gold coins from his inventory and handed it over to the store owner. It was far more than the asking price but from what he could tell wasn’t even half the price of the single ring in his hand. “I will take the rings,” Ash said pushing the gold into the man’s hand.
Ash quickly picked up the box of rings and left the store heading straight for Emelia’s manor so that he could look over his spoils. He put on the mana ring on so that he wouldn’t lose track of it and after he checked a ring he put it in his inventory.
Most of the rings were ordinary and other than the mana ring, none of them really had much of a use to him, but both Shina and Yuki could use a few of them. Even the weaker ones could be used since one could wear a ring on each finger without problems.
Ash was so absorbed in looking at his new ring that he didn’t notice until he reached the manor gate that something was amiss. Not only did the gate guard seem a little out of sorts, but as soon as he entered the manor proper he found it filled with a number of knights and nobles all talking in hushed whispers among each other. Even though they were talking in hushed tones, it wasn’t hard for him to pick up the meaning of most of the conversations. It seemed that there had been a rather large pitched battle along the western duchy border.
Hearing the news, Ash couldn’t help but turn slightly white as he quickly found one of the maids to find out where his wife was. It wasn’t hard to find Emelia as she was in one of the lower meeting rooms with a gathering of the higher nobles and more trusted knights.
When Ash walked in, Emelia just gave him a weak smile, but she didn’t stop to welcome him. It seemed that more than fifty knights had crossed the border and attacked one of the smaller barons killing a number of people before being forced to retreat.
They had expected some small battles, but a group of fifty knights was far outside what they had expected. It seemed from what everyone was saying that the war would start much faster than expected.
Not having any experience with war, Ash took a seat in the back of the room while the others talked. Many of the nobles wanted to launch a counterattack, but Emelia strongly refused otherwise it would be harder to claim that the attacks had come unprovoked when talking with the king. From the way Emelia was talking, it was obvious that not only did she want to win the war, but to win it while being able to claim freedom from the kingdom.
Ash knew that she had mentioned something like that when they had talked a few days before, but he never expected that it would be her main
goal. Listening to her now, it was clear what her goal was. Ash thought it was pushing a little too far and from how the other nobles and knights were acting, they were thinking the same.
After more than two hours, Emelia had laid out her plans and given out strict orders. All the knights in the Duchy would guard the border with the exception of the ones currently training the new squires outside of the capital. At the same time all nobles were to send troops to the border to help protect the duchy. It would give them a ready force and show a strong front which Emelia hoped would keep the other duchies from starting the war as quickly. Every day that passed without war breaking out was one more day for them to prepare and build fortifications.
Once everyone had left Emelia slumped down in a chair next to Ash and placed her head on his shoulder. “Do you think we are doing the right thing?” Emelia asked in a weak voice.
“I don’t know,” Ash said though his mind was screaming something different. “You just have to do what feels right.”
When Emelia didn’t say anything for a long time Ash took a deep breath. “Do you think I should head for the border as well?”
Emelia jerked her head up and looked at Ash with fearful eyes. “Not yet,” Emelia said hastily. “I don’t want you to go at all, but at least wait until the war truly starts.”
“Ok, I will wait for now,” Ash said with a warm smile. “But sooner or later, I will have to go.”
“I know, just don’t mention it too often,” Emelia replied weakly. “Every time I think about you in danger, my heart feels like it is going to stop beating. Even if we lose the war you have to promise to come back to me.” Emelia said with pleading eyes.
“I promise.”
Though it was still early, Emelia and Ash took a small break in the back garden away from the other nobles. With the fighting already starting, the moments they would have alone would become harder and harder to find.
After their short getaway, Emelia returned to meeting with nobles while Ash met with the knights so that he could give out the new orders. Just as they had planned, Ash would be the face of the knights while she would be for the nobles. Ash might not have any experience with war, but knights tended to listen to other fighters more than they did nobles, even if the noble happened to be one that they had sworn their allegiance to.
Knight's Code #7-9
After leaving Emelia, Ash headed for the fort construction site. As he exited the city gates, it was now clear that the forest was starting to be cleared, but still only ten percent of the needed woods had been cleared away and still a large number of the logs were stacked up waiting to be cut and shipped.
The largest problem wasn’t the trees themselves, but the stumps that still littered the landscape. The only way to remove them was to either use an earth mage or to use a team of horses to pull them out. Right now they only had one low level earth mage working on the stumps, but after only three or four he had exhausted his mana supply and had to rely on potions to restore him. Other than the earth mage, there were four teams of horses pulling out stumps, but it took both of them and their handlers to do the same amount of work as one earth mage. Ash had tried to pull out one of the smaller stumps himself, but even with his strength it took the better part of an hour to free it from the ground and even then he had to cut the roots before it was completely released.
On the south side of the forest near the city walls, two buildings were already built where the young knight recruits were now living. For part of the day, they did weight and sword training much the same as Ash had done not long before. The rest of the day, they helped clear the land though for their work they were given good food, much better in fact then most of the workers could afford even after a full day of work.
The only other addition to the site was a small wood processing plant that had been built. Ash had always envisioned a large saw blade cutting up the trees, but instead it was fueled by a magic. Ash learned that one of the more selective guilds, the Magic Craftsman Guild made various items that were used by normal people. There were items made by processing monster items infused with magic for human use. The sawmill was made using various monster items that from what he was told, were fairly common. The most impressive part to Ash was how they cut the wood using a blade made of fire and wind that left the wood looking marbleized. After the wood was cut, it was treated with a thin brown liquid to make it waterproof and then dried for a day before being used or shipped.
After seeing how fast the sawmill worked, he asked about using something like it but smaller to cut down the trees, but he was told that right now it was hard to make it to a smaller degree and even if they did it wouldn’t be cost effective.
Thanks to the notoriety that he had gained lately, Ash feared that he would be kept from working, but that was not the case. In fact the more he showed himself, the better people not only viewed him, but the course of action that the duchy was taking. There were still plenty of naysayers, but they had quieted down considerably over the past few weeks.
Now that the land was starting to be cleared, the condensed stones were starting to be arranged to build the wall. It had to be built far enough away from the city so that the city walls couldn’t be used against it, but not so far away that it left the city vulnerable. Ash didn’t know how high to build it, but after talking to the architects they decided on twenty-five feet tall and eight feet wide. Every hundred foot there would be a tower built for guards to watch out of. The drawbridge of the fort would be made out of metal instead of wood and would be operated by a magical device, though due to the cost of operation it would only be used in emergencies.
Ash had wanted to start on the fort itself first, but there was not enough of the land cleared and prepped yet. The main part that was lacking was the ground preparation since it couldn’t be done until enough of the stumps were pulled out. Ash had come daily to check on the progress, but it seemed to be moving to slow. Thankfully so far none of the other duchies had made a move yet, though there was some action near the border.
Ash had been a little apprehensive, but Emelia assure him it would take the other nobles’ months before they would dare to start an engagement. The first thing Emelia had done was to send a request to the king to demand a full inquiry, but so far he had yet to respond. Most likely the king was trying to settle any problems without an official statement. Ash had asked why it mattered, but it seemed that unless the nobles had a legitimate reason for a war, then it was prohibited to attack another noble and since their reason would put them at odds with the church, the king didn’t want to have to make a public declaration.
Unlike Emelia’s duchy that mainly followed Altina, the other duchies each had their own patron god chief. Among them was the god of war and the goddess of the hunt, neither of which cared much what humans did to each other or other tribes. In fact, the god of war propagated killing in all its forms.
With the king trying to keep the other nobles from attacking, Emelia expected that it would take at least two months before they would dare to cross the border in full force. Emelia made it no secret that she sought the king’s aid and while the other nobles might send over a few small groups to test the kings resolve, once they learned he would not support her in the slightest, the full attack would come. They wouldn’t do it out of any moral reason but for profit since her land was rich in resources and had the labyrinth. It might not seem like much, but the labyrinth was a gold mine that would never give out. Not only did it bring in people, it increased trade which the duchy could tax.
“Lord Hawkwing, I see that you are here again today,” a young man who was in charge of the tree removal said as Ash headed toward an open patch of trees to start working.
“I can’t ask other people to do what I won’t do myself,” Ash said as he took off his outer shirt so that it wouldn’t get dirty. Ever since the speech he had made outside the manor, Emelia had demanded that Ash wear what she called more appropriate clothes for a noble. Even when he went to the labyr
inth, he had to wear over piece though as soon as he got inside he exchanged it for his armor.
Thinking about the labyrinth, Ash let out a heavy sigh. He wanted to go to the labyrinth more often, but Emelia wanted him to show his face more not only to the public but to the knights as well. He had tried to convince Emelia with giving her one of the party crystals, but not even that convinced her though it did allow her to gain a few levels. Ash had asked her why she had never done it before, but she had told him that usually only male heirs are allowed that privilege since no noble wants a wife that is as strong as they are. For that reason, she was kept from it. After her father’s death, she had just never thought about it since everyday was always so busy.
Thanks to everything, Ash could only get a few hours every few nights to go to the labyrinth. Thankfully though, things were started to settle down slightly and that would allow him a bit more freedom, unless fighting really broke out then he would have to head to the front lines.
Emelia was against him fighting in battle, but this was one area that he refused to budge on. If there was going to be a war because of him, he was not going to sit idly by while others died. He knew in his heart that it wouldn’t be just for him that they were fighting, and even Emelia had hidden reasons for her actions, but it would still make him uncomfortable to sit behind in comfort while others fought and died.
Thanks to how strong Ash was, he could now cut down even one of the larger trees with only a few strikes. Due to his fast speed, five teams of haulers were assigned to him just to carry away the trees as he cut them down. After he had worked for an hour, some of the young knight apprentices started to come over to help him.
The first few days, the kids had kept their distance from him, but it didn’t take long for them to start warming up to him.
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