Chapter 715

The change as Ajax, Lexi and Aurexion passed over their duchy was easy to see. While the roads were not yet complete and it would still likely be another year or two before they were finished Ajax could clearly see them being built.

“Have we had issues with the roads?” Ajax asked.

“A few ambitious bandit groups tried to prey on them with the increased merchant traffic.” Lexi answered. “ They were easy to deal with. The mayors asking for tolls from merchants when they got to a city were a bigger issue.”

Ajax could see why that was, stopping the toll would be easy but that would set a precedent they might not want. “Your mother fixed it by having us thank the mayors for collecting the tolls on our behalf and taking whatever they managed to extract from the merchants, after all we supplied the materials and paid for the labor to have the roads built.”

Ajax didn’t bother suppressing the chuckle. He could already imagine the look on the mayor’s face when the new toll they invented was suddenly taken from them, now their cities would have a reason for merchants to avoid them and they wouldn’t see a single copper coin from it.

As they neared Lessis Aurexion dropped lower, beneath the clouds, and the people could see Ajax and Lexi as they approached the city. Ajax wanted to stop by and made the trip to the estate with any of his family that was in the city.

Unlike the first time the people of Lessis saw Aurexion there was no fear spreading over the city when the dragon arrived. Cheers and people instead flooded the streets as they hoped to catch a glimpse of Aurexion.

Unfortunately for the dragon even with the big changes that were made in the city most of the streets weren’t large enough for a dragon to land and move through comfortably without wreaking havoc so Aurexion instead landed in the middle of the city square.

Where adults still had a healthy fear for the dragon despite knowing he wouldn’t start roasting them, Aurexion's Aura was enough of a reminder for them to keep away. The children of Lessis had no such inhibitions and their parents fought to keep them from running up to Aurexion as Ajax dismounted.

“Warden.” Ajax nodded as Warden Greivous came to meet him.

“My Lord.” Grievous bowed deeply followed by all the guards present, the majority of the people there also followed suit. News about the war took a lot longer to spread throughout the populace but the knowledge that Ajax was killing enemy champions had spread and his reputation had soared.

Lexi quickly moved and wrapped her arms around Ajax as they stood there next to the preening Aurexion who basked in their recognition. Lexi knew that the display made Ajax uncomfortable but him just rushing away would be a bad look for a Duke being welcomed back like this.

The silence was broken as a large shadow cat made its way into the city square jumping out of the shadows as it raced for Ajax. Naturally Ajax and Aurexion spotted the feline long before it got close but both of them recognised Fluffy neither made a move to stop her.

“Hi Fluffy.” Ajax said as he hugged the feline, taking care to scratch her behind the ears. “I’ve missed you too.”

Fluffy’s appearance might have broken the stunned silence and while the busiest of people were starting to get back to their work most still stood by and watched. One thing Ajax picked up on was the noticeable beastkin population that lived in Lessis now. With the settling of the former slaves it was only natural that Lessis’s population wouldn’t be mostly human for long. What Ajax hadn’t been prepared for was the grateful looks the beastkins were giving him.

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“Why are they all looking at me like that?” Ajax whispered to Lexi as he pointed out the beastkins.

While Ajax had been able to send letters back home the reverse wasn’t so easy. Getting letters to Ajax was a lot harder so updates from the duchy were few. Especially since Ajax needed to be focused on the war.

“The Empire was trying to get in our good graces.” Lexi whispered back. “So they made a public point of providing proof of Duke Septimus’s scheme and execution. With you having not only freed them but essentially assured the death of their former master a lot of the former slaves look to you as a hero.”

Ajax didn’t know what to think of that. It wasn’t something he tried for, but at the same time that level of loyalty in what was a good part of their duchy’s population was bound to be valuable as they developed.

It didn’t take long for the crowd to part as Tom, Kate, Jake as well as Jari and Nashara made their way towards Ajax. It was clear Jake had been getting some lessons when it came to noble manners as he didn’t rush to give his uncle a hug in the same way Fluffy had done.

“Welcome home brother.” Tom said with a shallower bow than Greivous followed by his wife and the children.

“It’s good to be back, even if I wasn’t gone for all that long.” Ajax said loudly as he hugged his brother before leaning in close and whispering. “What’s with the show?”

“There are a lot more nobles watching now.” Tom whispered back. “You might be able to ignore tradition but the rest of us don’t have your power, if we want to be taken seriously we have to follow the rules of the game.”

Nobles were nothing if not adaptable. With the way House Hearthbound acted politically they quickly adapted, despite Ajax being the head of the House most stopped looking to him like that. This came with a little added pressure for Tom, Silvia and Judy who had to bear some of that pressure.

“Can we go home?” Ajax asked, he didn’t want to just drop in and throw his brother’s life into chaos so he asked.

“Can you greet some of the nobles first before we do.” Kate requested of him knowing Ajax taking a few minutes to do so would make things a lot easier for Tom in the following weeks.

“Something to show your success in the war would also be good.” Lexi added in from the side.

Ajax took the time to hug his nephew as well as greet Jari and Nashara before he left with Aurexion and Fluffy as the rest of them headed towards the gathered nobles. Aurexion had no interest in the nobles and knew that him coming closer would just make them uncomfortable and that wasn’t the goal. What he hadn’t planned for was that being left with just kids around him encouraged the rest of the children to fight harder to break free of their parents and approach the dragon.

All of the nobles present greeted Ajax with deep bows. “My lord.” A chorus of greetings perfectly synced as he got close to them. Some of the nobles here might come from other ducal Houses but they were branch members at best. Not knowing almost any of them Ajax returned their greeting with an approving nod before taking out a large hammer that he put head down on the ground and used the handle like a walking stick.

Aurexion instantly recognised the hammer as it was his prize from the war but nobody else knew what made it special. Even Lexi hadn’t gotten a chance to hear about it as there was so much more to discuss.

“A wonderful hammer, my lord.” the words carried a little apprehension as Ajax took out a weapon. “I don’t recognise the crafter, is it a dungeon weapon?”

“It is.” Ajax nodded, causing Lexi to be a little confused before Ajax’s following words provided the explanation. “I managed to claim it as spoils of war after I almost killed its last wielder. It’s enchanted and even allows for brief use of Space Mana.”

“Keeping the spoils from a surviving champion.” one noble feebly spoke up. “That could cause some resentment in the future for you my lord, resentment that might not be taken out on you.”

“I’m sure the king has many more pressing reasons to find issue with me than just his hammer.” Ajax appreciated the warning but waved away the concern.

His words however hit the group like a club. All of the nobles stationed in Lessis were sharp and none of them took more than an instant to realise that the weapon had belonged to the beastkin king and that Ajax casually mentioned almost killing him seconds earlier.

The conversation didn’t last long from there, a bit more small talk was made before Tom excused them all, mentioning Ajax’s return to the mansion. “Thank you.” Tom whispered after they were out of earshot of the nobles. Kate’s plan to have Ajax speak with the nobles worked better than she expected.

Getting Aurexion free of the children surrounding him on the other hand almost broke Kate’s heart, watching the tearful eyes of the kids trying to hold it together now that the friendly dragon was leaving. She reassured them that Fluffy would be back the following day knowing she could bribe the shadow cat but made no promises for Aurexion, she knew better than to try and speak for a dragon.

Finally heading home Ajax couldn’t wait to spend some time with his family. While Aurexion couldn’t just walk out of the city Ajax joined the rest of his family in an open carriage as they traveled through the city and out towards the estate.