North of the Bosque Kingdom's capital of pith, Samuel Oakley was visiting Duke Lansworth for the first time in his life. The streets so far had been clean and well-kept, all the residents also seemed rather happy.
He had garnered a good impression even before getting off his carriage and once he was dropped off at the mansion the good impressions weren't over.
"This is quite the place…" Samuel muttered looking at the lush garden in front of the extraordinarily simplistic mansion. No matter the angle, the mansion seemed rather practical as if its sole purpose was to be a house. There existed no shred of the arrogance high-ranking nobles often hid into every crevice of their homes.
"Please come this way, Mr. Tempest" A knight said and motioned to Samuel. Though thrown off by the use of his nickname, Samuel heeded it no mind and followed silently after the man in boring gray armor. Everything seemed minimalistic, holding only practical value.
The knight led him past the garden and into the foyer. From there, Samuel was ultimately left in a waiting room where he drank tea for nearly 30 minutes.
A door opened.
"Thank you for taking some time to see me today Mr. Oakley" A refined yet sharp voice said. A man wearing a plain robe was the one to say these words. The attire seemed weird at first sight, but certain modifications made it seem quite close to formal wear and not at all out of place.
"There is no need to thank me, how could I refuse an invitation from you Sir Duke?" Samuel said one eyebrow raised in a questioning manner as he put down his tea and replied.
The Duke chuckled slightly before motioning him into his office. Samuel stood up and entered the room. He was shocked to find a person already in there.
"Miller" The poised Miller who stood next to the Duke's desk was a sight that couldn't be missed. Everything pointed to him being the butler taking care of the Duke.
Hearing his name, Miller nodded in acknowledgment to Samuel but said nothing.
The door behind Samuel was then closed and locked and the Duke took the lead by being the first to sit down. Samuel soon sat opposite to him and a bout of silence took over.
"What- Hmm… What was your reason for calling me here?" Not intending to waste his time, Samuel skeptically asked for the Duke's motive.
"Samuel Oakley, the Tempest. Lower middle A-class adventurer. Current branch leader of the Arbor Town Freedom Union Branch. What business would I have with you I wonder…" Duke Lansworth said looking pensive as if posing a question to himself.
"So it's the dungeon…?" Samuel asked in response to the pondering question.
"Nope" The Duke responded leaving Samuel dazed.
"I want you" Lansworth followed up with a teasing smile.
"Me?" Samuel asked with narrowed eyes. What could he want with him? Wait… weren't they back to square one?
"Do you know the current state of affairs in the Bosque Kingdom?" Lansworth asked about to motion for something to Miller, but the latter had already handed him a cup of tea.
A new cup was also placed in front of Samuel but he was tired of it by this point so he ignored it entirely.
"Is it the war with Volcan?" Samuel questioned. All he had heard regarding it was that there existed a stalemate at the border. Apparently, the Volcan empire was not ready to invade quite yet. The new king/emperor was a young prince, so some believed him to be simply indecisive. Outside that there were rumors of a dragon.
Samuel did not believe the first rumor as an indecisive person could not kill their father and siblings for a throne, but the latter rumor had a lot of merit…
He had met a dragon once in a dungeon and he had to say he was quite terrified. This was during his B-class days and it was still scary to look back on it. The thing was fortunately still a child as the dungeon wasn't all that high leveled but dangerous things were dangerous.
If the prince had a dragon... it was only normal for him to kill his own family and take the throne.
"Samuel, I value things with value. But you don't seem very well-informed huh" The duke said sighing in disappointment before sipping some tea.
"I'm not talking about anything related to the outside of the Bosque Kingdom" The Duke then started to explain the current issues with the prince acting as a substitute to the king. He mainly spoke of the prince's character.
"Frankly, Brennan's son is an idiot" Adelio Bosque the second did not have the necessary wits to rule a kingdom. Some years earlier he even lacked the will to rule one, so where did this aspiration come from?
"Now I'll be talking about the outside forces, the Emperor Mite Volcan must be waiting for something" The battle at the border was not a stalemate because the young Emperor feared the repercussions, it was because he was waiting for something. Samuel felt as if his head was struck by a piano called realization.
The prince's actions were somehow related to the Volcan Empire's young emperor. Hearsay about the king suffering from an assassination might have also been related to this foreign power.
Apart from this excessive reaction, the other two remained quiet as they waited for Samuel to come to terms with the revelation.
"Ok, but what does this have to do with me?" Samuel finally recovered enough to ask. The two seemed to have no intention to move but for just a second Samuel's eyes widened and his body took action.
A spear of water abruptly shot out towards Samuel's position. Water droplets splashed around the office space.
"Explain yourselves" Samuel who had suddenly stood to intercept the attack asked angrily through gritted teeth. If it weren't for his recent breakthroughs even if he managed to see the attack coming he wouldn't have gotten out unscathed.
"You might need to re-evaluate your rank soon" Lansworth said putting his hand down. The Duke was an A-class water magician, so the attack was obviously his.
"I don't care about that, what are your real intentions?" Samuel's eyes still held certain hostility but as a rational person, he also knew that the two individuals did not intend to kill him.
"We need to take back the crown" Miller who had been silent up to that point was the one to respond. The Duke couldn't say something so blasphemous even if the room was secured.
Samuel's eyes narrowed once more, this time in scrutiny.
"You both sure are confident" Samuel could turn them into the royal family and the Duke's things would be confiscated. Well, the royal family could try at least. The Duke had enough loyal troops hidden that such a thing was merely a matter of declaring independence from the Bosque Kingdom. It had to be said, the Bosque Kingdom was a sinking ship.
Yet, the Duke did not seem to intend to claim the throne for himself when asking to take back the crown.
"Are you in?" Lansworth asked with a faint smile. His looks were much younger than his brother's and on account of him being a great mage, this made complete sense. To Samuel, this seemed like a historical drawing found in the books.
So… did that mean he was in? Even if he decided to walk away, as long as he said nothing the Duke didn't seem to want to silence him. Not that Samuel was willing to be silenced.
"What do you need me to do?" But to Samuel who only cared about the future of his family, learning of these tumultuous state of affairs he couldn't possibly stay still.
It was here when the Duke flashed a bright smile and stood with an outstretched hand. Samuel grabbed it.
"I wish us a good cooperation, let's discuss what comes after" The Duke said before letting go of Samuel's hand and sitting back down on his comfortable chair. His position seemed to relax but the Duke's eyes were filled with drive, he had gained a talent.
***
Back in Sanctuary things were proceeding smoothly according to Ed's basic mental itinerary. He had gone to visit the goblins and asking Prild for a favor retrieved the consciousness of one of the goblins.
He replaced it with the modified one and after a series of various tests, he came to the conclusion that the goblin had improved by leaps and bounds. The running skill's effect was small, almost invisible.
The goblin just ran more like an orc would which given the difference in body types didn't necessarily bode well. For the other things, however, including axemanship, it was a substantial improvement.
Ed presumed that since running was already a skill on the goblin the orc variant was created but axemanship was different. The goblin was not skilled with axes whatsoever.
The skill was therefore transformed into one fitting its body and did not greatly decrease its effectivity. As for the gut feeling… it couldn't be really well tested. But his modified goblin won 9/10 bouts with other goblins without the use of an axe, something had to be up.
'The body is the same so it was obviously the skills in play' Ed had already returned the consciousness of the body's rightful owner back and was currently trying to learn something new from Prild.
Seeing the shifting of consciousness at the hands of Ed had inspired him somehow and Ed wanted to capture that. Unfortunately, he learned nothing from Prild from merely observing.
'I'll have to steal his skills later, well, borrow' Returning the skills back into the body… he hadn't tried it but it shouldn't have been too hard, right?
'Maybe it's best I leave him with his skills for now' He could think of other ways to multiply it later. After failing to learn something, Ed diverted his efforts back to handling the issues in Sanctuary.
This mainly took the form of treating the injured which thanks to the efforts of Sharog was a cinch. By the time dawn broke, Ed had already assimilated something and was waiting on his second assimilation but…
[Recalling Champion's Soul]
'Damn! Are you giving me my leve-' As Ed's thoughts had drifted, he was unable to properly finish his sentence.. Whether this had impeded the dungeon from understanding was yet to be seen.
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