Chapter 720

The celebrations ran long into the night as good food and honeyed mead filled the tables. Not ones to miss an opportunity, the nobles present were the first to offer their congratulations to Tom before slowly approaching Ajax to see about anything similar being possible for their own families.

It was here that the nobles from the poorer or less important families did better than their more privileged peers, after all while all the higher rank nobles tried to approach Ajax directly they instead went to approach Judy or Silvia regarding the same request.

Ajax had little to no patience after the third noble approached him so he kept his responses short and truthful, he had no further means to unlock Mana and he didn’t know of any that would work for their circumstances.

Neither Silvia nor Judy made any arrangements for Aurexion to check any vaults during the night. They both knew they would have to clear that with Aurexion before agreeing to anything but not only that the first vault needed to be a calculated selection. They needed to pick a family that didn’t have enormous wealth since everyone expected them to have something hidden away. At the same time if they picked one that was too poor they ran the risk of them not having anything truly worthwhile and the excitement stagnating.

“You always bring the best gifts.” Tom laughed as he patted Ajax on the back. It was easy to see that Tom had a bit too much to drink but he wasn’t all the way gone yet.

“I can’t take the credit for this, it was mostly Aurexion.” Ajax answered as he nodded to Kate who approached the two of them obviously looking to get Tom to turn in for the night.

“You did enough.” Tom said before meeting Kate’s eyes. “Looks like it's time for me to turn in for the night. We have a few things to discuss tomorrow, I really did mean it when I said this turned out better than we expected.”

After Tom left it wasn’t long until all the guests were sent back to Lessis and the celebrations wound down. That wasn’t to say that the evening had passed without incident. The announcement of the celebration had made its way through Lessis and one rather high level thief decided the party would be the perfect distraction for him to steal something from the ducal family.

Being only in the mid seventies with a good portion of his points invested in Vitality the thief mostly relied on his high leveled Common, Uncommon and few Rare Skills that helped shield his presence from guards.

Making it past the guards wasn’t difficult though it did take longer than anything the thief had dealt with before due to the sheer amount of retainers House Hearthbound had. Once the thief finally got past all the guards he barely restrained his glee as he looked at the mountains of gold and treasure in the vault.

One does to live long enough to become such a high level thief by trying to steal items of real importance, however the one thing the thief hadn’t accounted for was there being somebody else with him inside the vault when he picked up the first handful of gold.

Aurexion hadn’t noticed the presence of the thief when he entered the vault, he was focused on improving his [Mana Manipulation] and trying to unlock shapeshifting so the Skills the thief had were enough to fully mask his presence. The same could not be said about Aurexion’s [Treasure Sense]. Not only was the Uncommon Skill useful in finding new treasures but also in keeping track of one's already found treasure. The Skill alerted Aurexion to the presence of the thief.

Taking in the activation of his Skill, the look of the person picking up the gold as well as the presence of Skill actively trying to get Aurexion to ignore the other person in the vault with him the dragon didn’t bother with questions. A single chomp was all that it took for Aurexion to kill the thief. Leaving only two bloody boots and one hand still clasping ten gold coins.

The chapter's home is the NovelPhoenix site, but this copy was taken without permission; reading the author's publication supports their work.

Aurexion didn’t bother cleaning up the rest of the mess or calling attention to it so it was only a few hours later that the remains of the thief were found. No alarm was sounded as Aurexion revealed exactly what happened to the panicked retainers and while a silent sweep for assassins was made none of the guards were truly worried, after all Lancel had been on watch during the night inside the estate if there more people and he didn’t sense them than they sure wouldn’t be able to find them.

“What’s wrong?” Ajax asked as he his family gathered for breakfast, he picked up an odd vibe.

“There was an attempted theft from the vault last night.” His mother answered.

“They made it past Aurexion.” Ajax’s eyebrows raised in surprise, for someone from Lessis to be Skill enough to get past Aurexion and desperate enough to steal from the rising House Hearthbound Ajax was almost impressed enough to say that depending on what and how much they took it might have been earned.

“They didn’t.” Judy said, Ajax picked up on her contained joy of the facts. “We found out hours after the attempt when one of our retainers found two blood boots with feet still inside them and one hand still clutching gold coins in a small puddle of blood in the vault.”

It wasn’t hard for Ajax to put together what had happened to the would-be thief, he did however make a mental note to ask Aurexion about the encounter. The thief getting to put his hand on the gold meant either their stealth was really good or Aurexion was distracted and he wanted to know which it was.

“So what is the issue?” Ajax asked.

“The issue is there was no trial.” His father answered. “One of our people was summarily executed.”

“He was caught red handed.” Ajax pointed out. “Theft as well as breaking into our estate carried the death penalty.”

Ajax hadn't been hung up on the sanctity of sentient life before the war but watching so much death had clearly only gone further to desensitize him to it.

“His death is not the issue.” Sam shook his head looking at his son. “It’s the lack of trial that troubles me. I certainly hoped our House wouldn’t become one that summarily executes people before they have a chance to argue for themselves.”

Now Ajax realized where the odd mood from this morning came from. It wasn’t the punishment of the crime that bothered his family, it was that Aurexion and by extension House Hearthbound had acted not as judge, jury and executioner but they had entirely skipped the first two steps when there wasn’t a need to.

“I’ll try and talk with Aurexion about it, and while I’m definitely not advocating for a strike first ask questions later policy…” Ajax took a moment to think how to best phrase the next part. “We might want to circulate rumors throughout the duchy that trying to steal from a dragon’s horde carries the risk of being eaten by the dragon at a moment's notice.

The next dozen minutes were spent discussing their House’s stance on law enforcement. Petty crime had happened but with the large infusion of beastkin in their duchy added on top of the fact that almost all high level people worked directly under House Hearthbound crime had been almost non-existent. Even the little that did exist was stopped right as it took hold as the citizens were happy with their new rulers and cooperated to help catch criminals.

“That’s an interesting discussion but I feel like this morning might not be the best time for me to have it.” Tom said as he was nursing his hangover, it was a mild one but he still felt he should be at his best when discussing such policies.

“Look what the cat dragged in.” Ajax joked as Fluffy’s large looming form behind Tom and Kate did make it look a little like Fluffy had actually dragged the pair in. “care to shed some light on those cryptic comments you made last night? I take it you gained something more than [Sense Mana] and [Shadow Aspect Mana].”

“Two more things.” Tom nodded as he took a seat and downed a mug of water. “[Mana Manipulation] and [Void Aspect Mana].”

“You got Void?!” Ajax’s surprise was matched by the rest of the family showering Tom with congratulations. Ajax had guessed that maybe Tom would have gained [Mana Manipulation] but Void Mana was a real shock to him as well. “That might change a few things. You might not want to go with runic casting.”

“No, I do.” Tom shook his head. “I know how busy I am now with the ruling aspects of our House. I barely have the time to at least somewhat keep up with my martial training so I know I won’t have time to dedicate to any in depth caster training. Chanting or your own style of casting relies so much more on control that it would be a waste for me to try either, runic is still my best bet.”

“But we don’t know the rune for Void.” Ajax pointed out.

“I trust we’ll find it.” Tom said, not knowing the fire his words ignited in his own father. “Now, I know we just had a celebration but I do believe we have guests arriving soon.”

Tom was correct. It had been a couple of days since Ajax, Aurexion and Lexi arrived so Benedict as well as Duke Manashaper were both due to arrive later on in the day and while a party wasn’t called for, welcoming them with an upscale dinner was expected of a ducal House like theirs.