Throughout that night, the woman kept pacing about even when the physician was attending to her son. Unable to handle her fears anymore, she went to another shop where a man was in charge of collecting money to send letters to Silverleaf town through the messenger falcons.
That night she sent a letter to Alex, her husband.
A day later, Asher paced around his castle with his hand clasped behind him. He looked at his brown leather boots with different thoughts breezing through his mind as he walked.
Just last night before sleeping, he read the Ashbourne records, and this time about Zenas’s life. It turned out that Zenas came from a village called Ash Village, a place close to a volcanic mountain and home to a fabled red dragon.
Zenas proved to be a splendid warrior and was taken into the royal knight academy of the Eternal Immortal Kingdom, back when it was just a kingdom. Zenas became one of the oath knights of the king, sworn to be the king’s sword and annihilate all that was against his rule.
Later on, Zenas came back to that same village after hearing the news that the dragon had annihilated it. With his troops, he fought and killed the dragon, eventually causing the mountains to grow dormant, and a year after that, the very first Ashbourne pet beast was found.
The wolf that came from beyond.
The very first creature that made humans curious about what was beyond the Ash Mountains.
Today, Nineveh stands on the same ground that the Ash village that existed centuries ago once stood.
He was in the birthplace of his first ancestor!
After reading that last night, Asher couldn’t explain his emotions.
‘The first knight that slayed a dragon, pioneer of the beyond, and duke of the endless north.’
Asher’s eyes flickered.
Both the wasteland and the unknown desolateland, otherwise known as the beyond, were given to Zenas as a reward for dutifully serving his lord, and due to his loyalty, his lord was at peace giving him such an exorbitant piece of land.
“Your Lordship.”
Asher turned to face the one who called him.
It was a vanguard.
He bowed.
“My Lord, Kelvin requests your presence at the sacred hall. The large amount of mana caused by the war forced many to awaken last night, and they gathered at the sacred hall.”
Asher raised an eyebrow.
Not toward what the vanguard said but due to realization. The once small stone castle had grown so big that he didn’t know when people were trooping into his castle. It must have been because he was in the garden, an exclusive region located at the right side of the castle.
It wasn’t far from the gate before but with the upgrades, it had long left it’s previous position.
With a fast pace, he made his way through the courtyard into the hallway, straight toward the sacred hall.
Boom!
“Bow the knee! Lord Asher has arrived!” Five vanguards at both ends of the hall slammed their boots against the ground and bellowed heavily. They could hear the sound of Asher’s boots, and the murmuring of the children and their parents was unwelcoming.
Instantly, silence fell, and the civilians went on one knee with their heads bowed.
Asher walked into the hall, looking left and right at the children and their parents. They were not more than 9 ten years old that awakened, and their families came with them with expectant faces.
Clearly, the reason why they were here was because they yearned for their children to be a member of his personal troop, or they would have enlisted the children in the military camp and awaited their children’s results.
“What about Alex’s son? I’d reckon he’ll awaken a manageable talent at worst.”
Asher whispered to Kelvin as he took his seat.
“Talent isn’t based on your affection toward the said individual, My Lord. These ones here are great talents.”
“Where’s Sirius?”
“He went to hunt, Your Lordship.”
Asher tapped his fingers on the stone armrest after hearing that.
“Arise.”
The people arose.
“Why isn’t Nero here?”
He asked while wearing an unreadable expression.
Judging by these people’s excitement, there was something he might not know.
“He might not come, Your Lordship.”
A woman replied, then continued. “My son awakened the ability to turn the nails of his right hand into claws! He’ll be able to rip apart your enemies.”
Asher felt the urge to laugh but held himself; however, he came to understand that despite these people’s loyalty to him, they didn’t show each other the same amount of love.
Humans were still humans at the end of the day.
“What can his claws do? Can it cut through a stone?” Kelvin asked. He adjusted his spectacles and looked into the book in his hand.
“It can make claw marks on a piece of hardwood.”
Kelvin opened the page until he got to where he wanted.
“That’s an E grade talent. He won’t be able to cut through a good silver-ranked armor at his peak. Next.”
His voice was emotionless and calm.
Asher looked at him.
He knew Kelvin wanted to achieve something with this.
Teach him patience.
Because right now, he was already bored of this. None of these people had B grade talent or the system would have alerted him.
“Bring Nero and his mother here.”
He said it with a slight hint of authority this time around.
“Your Lordship, Nero is blind. He’s of no use to you,” the same woman said, causing Asher’s expression to change.
Looking at the expression on other people’s faces, Asher knew these people all knew about it, so they brought their children to replace him!
“What?!”
Asher turned to Kelvin.
“Did you know about this?”
“I did. I also know you are fond of the boy and it would affect your mindstate, so I made sure you had no idea about it. You just fought a war, and you don’t need any news that will—”
“Enough, Kelvin.”
Although Asher’s tone wasn’t high, Kelvin knew he was angry.
His eyes swept through the hall, and the woman who spoke hid her face, but she could feel his gaze piercing through her like a hot iron.
All of a sudden, footsteps were heard, causing everyone to look through the door into the hallway.