Chapter 21: Dragonrose Earldom (Part 2)

At the same time in a bar of an adventurers guild in a city far to the southwest.

"So, are we really going to do this?" a purplish red skinned ogre woman, Frederica, asked her remaining friends.

"As I said, I don't have much time. The cursed skill inside me must be inherited… I hate to do this to one of my grandchildren, but both my sons don't have what it takes," Garnet said with a pained expression. Her unique skill Dragonoid factor made her able to draw upon powers of dragons, but her body suffered after-effects. Looking at her fingers that partially turned to claws, Garnet sighed. As a Volcanic Dragonfolk whos appearence used to be more akin to humans, her current dragon-like hands scared her. What if I became dragon not just in body but in mind too? Who would stop me? I know Leo is strong, but even he couldn't stop me if I were at my full power without a sence of reason.

"I guess it's decided then," the priestess, Annie, nodded solemly, "Me and Frederica will acompany Garnet and her hubby to their grandson. Haba, Gordie, what will you two do?"

Haba, a member of Salamanderkin patted her whiskers, "Hmm, I don't know, I thought about returning back to my home volcano, but I guess I will use my experience I got with you to open an alchemy shop somewhere quiet."

"Oh, isn't Noel an alchemist too? I heard he recieved a noble title for succesfully massproducing lesser elixirs."

"That child might be a genius alchemist when it comes to it, but he himself said that if Leo didn't get him the materials he wouldn't be where he in now," Garnet sighed at her grandsons timid behaviour.

"B-but he's still a kid!" Haba protested, most likely not liking someone other being called genius.

"Is that how you see him? Legally he's an adult and just a year younger then you to boot," Annie teased her friend.

"Sh-sh-shut it!!!"

Coincidentally, it was clear to see her real feelings. Haba was madely in love with Noel and just didn't want to accept it. Though the boy himself did not have any idea.

"I mean, didn't you join us just to improve your alchemy skills?"

"And to get away from your responsibilities as second daughter of Salamanderkin leader?"

"SHUT IIIIIIITTT!!!" the girl embarrased beyond all lines jump dived into her bed, where a small girl was sleeping. Given how soundly she slept, everyone knew she was really tired.

"And what about her? I can't take her back home," Gordie, a mountain elf, who on numerous occasions got mistaken for dark elf, said looking at the girl.

"I would love to let her stay with one of my sons, but… given they both now have children, it could be difficult," Garnet nodded sadly.

"And what about your daughter?"

"Emily isn't going to help with this. She have too much work in the merchant republic to the north."

"I see, that's not good."

"You still didn't say what you are going to do Gordie, looking for your people again?"

"That was why I joined our team after all. Well, I never had much luck looking for other Mountain elves. I wish to try the Blue ice mountains next."

"Wait, doesn't that mean you would leave only me behind?! That isn't fair!" Haba exploded on the bed.

"So we will all go to Leo then? …Great let's head to Leo's mansion in capital tomorrow morning. We will use his magic to get there."

"But, shouldn't we get to him instead?"

"Nah, that kid created a spell that continiously connects his mansion and any other place he deems useful."

"SAY WHAAAAAAAT?!!!!"

"You're too loud…" and the girl in the bed just woke up, with angry look on her face.

***

Leo once again flew above the city. Getting a cleaner look, he smiled to himself.

"This city looks nice. Let's start with the outer walls and then create some houses. I can have some carpenters do the woodwork… Heh-heh, I got so much gold from those bandits it's scary. I can safely lower the tax to minimum and still have a leeway."

What Leo had Calpy do was create a family register, remove all taxes that didn't make any sence, created without the kings knowledge, leaving only the taxed reinforced by the crown: Citizenship tax and Income tax. Which were roughly 5% of one years income. On average though, the citizens taxes were 20-70%, depending on the lord of the region. All Royal lands had stable tax of 23% of yearly income.

"We can later create something like Society tax and use it to fund orphanages, or Insurence tax to fund clinics and hospitals… well, I should build one or two, given how many kids I see in streets. Maybe I should start teaching them and then send the talented to the royal academy… or I could create an academy of my own instead!"

Leo smiled to himself as he fly in the sky and made high and thick walls around the city, while also making sure he kept gates at the places where the roads were. As Leo finished that, he gave it one more round, flattening the ground.

"Right. Now we will need to start the city planning… hm?" looking over his shoulder, Leo saw a group of people gathering at the gates of the old town.

Flying down, the people instantly swarmed him.

"Um, sir? Are you… expending the city?" a city guard asked Leo.

"Indeed. Once the army of mine arrives, they would have nowhere to go, so I started expending the city. Also once I'm done with that I will be starting an orphanage and build appartment units for people of the slums."

"Housing… units?"

"Let say it like this, they are tall buildings with rooms in which you can live like inns."

"Isn't that, too kind, sir?" the city guard asked me.

"One may think that way, as everything have pros and cons. I will also create a new type of office in which we will be recording work records. That way, people hiring will be able to look for information about people they wish to hire and people in search for work will be able to choose their preferencial profesion."

"I see, or at least I hope."

"In this world, everyone have skills, I just want everyone to use them to their full potential. Now if you excuse me, I will continue building the army facilities," Leo smiled and returned to his job.

***

"Hey… do you think… our new lord will do it?" one of the beggars asked timidly.

"From what I've heard from travelers, he is quite famous for capturing bandits and he apparently even slew a dragon… but I don't know how truthfull those claims are," the guard looked at Leo flying around and buildings just appearing from the ground one after the other.

"I used to be a brewer in Grubera city, but owner of the brewery stole all the money and run away. With a reputation like that, no other brewery wanted to take me in… maybe now, I finally will…" one young man in ragged clothes dried a tear from his eye as he looked at Leos flying siluete.

"I feel you man, I run an in in the Orchidee dukedom, but I lost everything when my wife cheated on me… gods I hate that wench…" another man started rumbling about his wife, his kids visibly angry as well.

"Well, now that I think about it… do you think we will have to get conscripted into a new army? Lord Dragonrose said that he defeated all those mercenaries."

"Hrrrmmmm… that may happen… honestly I hope not, I can't leave my kids behind," the man grumbling about his wife let out a concern of his own.

"No need to worry about that," a person in hood with waist-long red hairs reaching out of it said with a smile, "As I know sir Dragonrose, he will never go the conscript way other lords make they armies. The forces of sir Dragonrose, are mainly a squad of 250 Sea Dragonfolks, all above level 45 and several other squads. If I remember correctly, his entire army now counts over two thousand heads."

"H-how can you know?" the man with children turned to the red-haired woman.

"Simply. I'm one of them. I came here to calm down citizens who would withness the walls growing in the distance, but as the lord already did that, there is no need for me to prolong here. See you again, citizens of Dragonrose Earldom," the woman bowed lightly and disappeared in an instant.

"Wh-what was that!!"

"Those red hairs… Ah! I remember now!" a fatso merchant pushed up his chubby fist, "She must've been that girl who faced sir Dragonrose in the opening fight at the Hero's festival… what was her name again? Kaira? Kiara?"

"It's Kiira, dad."

"Ah, yeah, Kiira Drakera. She is rumored to be sir Dragonrose's second in command, and is rumored to be a level 51 High Elf."

""High Elf?!"" the crowd errupted into surprised awe.

"Yeah, sir Dragonrose is Mithril green ranked explorer and his team already reached floor 40 in Grubera dungeon."

"A-are we serving a real Dragon now…" some people, not taking all the informations in, stared at the merchant and his son dumbfoundly.

***

It took few days to interrogate the mercenaries and their allies, so Leo decided to separate the top brass from the small fries, who clearly had the most important informations and sell the remaining men as criminal slaves to Torren in the capital. All in all, it was almost ten thousand men, and so, Torren had to call other slave traders to the meeting with Leo and they managed to meet exactly two months after Leo took control over the Earldom.

"Lord Dragonrose, allow me to introduce you my fellow slave traders. This is Patricia Quatro," Torren introduced the lady first.

"A pleasure, your grace," a twenty-or-so years old lady with glossy black hairs held in two rignglets by her sides bowed politely, her skimpy outfit, tipical of coastal regions in Beastmen kingdom, was greatly revealing.

"Welcome to my home, miss Patricia," Leo nodded in recognition not even batting an eye to her outfit.

"And this is Hugo Hart, he might seem like a scheaming bastard, but he is too pure for a merchant."

"It's nice to finaly meet you, Lord Dragonrose. Torren, please don't say such things, it's bad for my heart," the young man with snake-like facial features blushed as he spoke back to his friend.

They are all same age… as Leo thought this, he smiled and returned the greeting to Hugo.

"So, now that the introductions are over, I would like to ask you Torren why you brought these two exactly."

"As we spoke about the matter before, you know that my company can not buy more then three thousand slaves. That is why, I brought these two as they are from simmilarly sized companies. I won't be lying if I tell you that I did not know them before gathering informations on other slave traders. Patricia and Hugo are my former classmates from Royal academy."

"I see, you were aquainted."

"I know it might seem like I let my personal feelings affect me, but their two companies are known far and wide for their honest way of doing things, just as you requested."

"Doing bussiness with shady people may sour our relationships with other companies and our patrons, so of course we are keeping ourself clean of such relationships," Patricia nodded.

"It would be digging our own grave and as for me, working with the Grandmaster behind Dragonworks is the greatest honor."

"I cartainly do not know what you mean by that," Leo smiled at Hugo.

"Of course, I'm sorry for mistaking you for someone else," Hugo smiled back and big grins appeared on all four of them.

"So, about those slaves. We can take four thousand."

"We can buy two and a half at best right now…"

"Some problems Hugo?"

"Not really, we just made a bad purchase. Our former chairman bought a house from Golden Quince and was reported to authorities. We had to pay a fine and have the house seized… sorry for blabbing so much, lord Dragonrose."

"It's fine. I do not mind and to be honest, even taking two and a half thousand helps me out a lot," Leo once again nodded and over tea confirmed all the procedures and by the evening he was ten thousand gold coins richier.

***

Once the doors of the carriage were closed, Toren and his two friends started talking together with frankness, like they usually did.

"So? What do you think about Lord Dragonrose."

"To be frank, he's scary. He didn't even flinch when we talked about the golden quince. It looked as if he already knew all of that. It's a classified information you know!"

"I guess it stands for a reason that my chairboard says he have as sharp ears as his blade is," Patricia nodded as she lit up her cigarette, the latest product of Dragonwork company, introduced by one of their workers who came from south eastern island nation between Ostillian kingdom and Sorcery kingdom, where practice of smoking was as widespread as drinking alcohol.

"Yeah, one of his people came up with those cigarettes as well, right?"

"Yep, that's correct. I heard that they even set up a factory there that refines alchemy materials and make magic weapons," Hugo added.

"That kingdom apparently specializes in marinetime products so having import of ores and other materials is a godsend to them," Toren smiled.

"Yeah, but what about their taxes? I heard they are quite money grubbers."

"That my be true, but they also love alcohol, if you know what I mean," Toren smiled at Patricia.

"Huh? Did sir Dragonrose really go that way? Isn't there embargo placed by our dwarven marquis?"

"There is, but he gave sir Dragonrose an exception for some reason," Hugo added.

"Heheh, Lord Dragonrose will probably turn into a real powerhouse one of these days. It makes me happy that he continues his relationship with us."

"This relationship will help us get out of our predicament, so I'm happy too, but why do you think he asked us to not sell those slaves to Duke Orchidee faction's lands?" Hugo continued as he blow off the smoke Patricia let out his way.

"It might be presumtious for a commoner like me to guess the inner workings of nobles, but I believe that those mercenaries turned slaves were send here by duke orchidiee's faction. You noticed that not even a single one of them is from their top brass, right?"

"Then, that would mean, that duke Orchidee tried to undermine royal family's hold on the Zainred… I mean, Dragonrose Earldom, right? Why wouldn't he inform the crown of such actions?" Patricia muttered, a frown forming on her delicate face.

"I don't know, but I luckily have a big sway in my company right now so I will suggest to pull out all our merchendise from Duke Orchidee's lands, at least for now."

"Lucky you, I barely have a say in the company," Patricia's mood soured.

"Well, this purchase can shot your position high up, I believe," Toren took a bottle from his magic bag, a gift from Leo, and took a sip. The drink inside was non-alcoholic, as it was still too early for that.

"It will. None of those old geezers can outnumber my sales now, even if they all band together."

"Do you already have a buyer in mind?"

"Heheh, that's my secret, my fellow merchants," Patricia smiled and put the finished cigarette in her portable ashtray.

"I see, anyway let's do our job to best of our abilities to not sully lord Dragonrose's name."

"You care a great deal about his reputation, don't you, Toren."

"Of course. I was selected on a whim to cancel slave contract on his two slaves and sold him two more, but those I sold are now nobles as well as sir Dragonrose's close aides. I dare to say that just having Lord Dragonrose buy slaves from us, hightens the price for the others as well. Even though he prefers beaten up, half dead, low price, or other low quality goods"

"Hahah, it wouldn't be you if you didn't try to pinch some sales, You just sold him two hundread Apefolks."

As the three friends from different organizations laughed together, they soon arrived at their destination and got back to work, becouse like it or not, it was still nine and a half thousand slaves whos paperwork needed to be done as soon as possible.

***

"Aah~ It feels nice when SP grows so steadily without doing so much~ Now I just have build new church and get some clergymen for it… yeah, that Sea Dragonfolks we took in recently will help there…"

Leo spread his body on his bed and looked at oddly shaped doors in corner of the room.

I put doors in the mansion of Viscount Noman, but I should build myself a new mansion there… maybe one that's less tacky then that of the previous earl.

Over the year, Leo continued crushing people working with Golden Quince and took away their merchendise (mostly illegal slaves and tamed monsters). Now he had so many subordinates he didn't know what to do with them. There were some that showed interest in fighting and were sent to Grubera dungeon for training, some were interested in cooking so Leo send them to Dragonworks cafeteria and the rest with various other talents were carefully placed to places they would increase their skills and loyalty towards him. Really, show mistreated people an ounce of kindness and they will sell you their souls without batting an eye. What a jackpot.

"Hmm… seems our little project grows steadily too…" Leo took out his report from his development unit which consisted of the brightest minds he could get his hands on, "But who would've thought that Sorcery kingdoms former prime minister would end up here… I mean, I know he was thrown out, but to become slave not even a month after that… was an incredibly unlucky fellow. Or lucky, given I picked him up?"

Leos mind wandered to old man who offered his life for his son's misbehaviour in the recent purge, that Leo started himself.

"Winston really is unlucky, but his mind is still bright. He's so shrewd that even those two musclehead viscounts bowed their heads without much of a complain," Luna agreed with Leo's statement.

"What brings you here in this late hour."

"We have finished questioning the four hundread prisoners. The people from top brass are all vassals of Duke Orchidee. He was behind this all discord in earldom, presumably trying to bring it under his influence."

"I see, he wanted to expand his duchy… investigate him and his surroundings. I want all the dirt you can get on him and people around him too."

"Conscider it done," Luna bowed and blended into shadows.

"Aaah, the landed nobles play real dirty when it comes to expanding their domains… hmm, what should I do? Report him? That would rise my standing with the king, but the nobles would distance themselves. Duke Orchidee is head of his own faction and have many nobles under him… heh-heh, maybe I will find some dark secret and by blackmail I could become de facto shadow ruler of his faction…"

Lately, Leo found himself enjoying ruling from the shadows his Dragonwork and Dragoncraft companies. Dragoncraft being a new company Leo created on a whim with his craftsman department. Their main bussiness was procuring materials for Dragonwork while also making weapons for adventurers and explorers. No need to say that their main base was located in Grubera dungeon city where they also made a small brewery to make beer. The leader on site was Raidur and his top craftsmen.

"Well, I should look into those Ice statues. Oh, and this too…" Leo took out the dragon egg he got from the Forest dragon and chanelled his magical energy into it as Diniel asked of him. Recently, the egg started to get warmer and Leo from time to time caught himself smiling while patting the egg.

As he did so, a knock on the doors made him look up and he noticed Nina coming in.

"Leo, your grandparents came for a visit."

"Did they tell you what is it about?"

"No, but they look really grave. I couldn't read them at all though."

"Alright, I'm going, tell Kiira and the rest to not disturb us."

"Okay," Nina nodded and went away.

Leo walked through the walls bustling with maids and other servants, all of which politely bowed to him. As he made his way to the parlor, he noticed the members of Garnet's adventurer team waiting in other room with a small girl. Weird, that girl… she doesn't feel human, but she's not a monster either… weird.

Leo knocked on the doors and entered them right away. Once he did, he send the maid out and took a seat infront of his grandparents.

"I welcome you, grandfather, grandmother, what do I owe the honor of todays visit?"

"Leo, this may be hard to say, but your grandmother is about to die very soon."

"What?!"

"Don't make that face, Leo. It's not that uncommon… Actually, no one with my unique skill lived as long as I did, so that alone is actually a win," Garnet made a strained smile.

"Is the reason you are about to die… becouse of your unique skill?"

"It is. It grants enourmous power, but takes life force and sanity in exchange."

Yeah, her Soul Power is really low, wait, if I extract the skill and suply her with my SP… this could work.

Leo snaped his fingers, erecting a soundproof barrier in the process, "Grandma, what was the purpose of reaching out to me today?"

"As you know I'm from Earth dragonfolk ducal family, one of our branch families pass down this skill in order to make sure it won't reappear in wrong hands. This cursed skill grants enourmous power as I already said, but it also turns the user into a monster. As you can see, my hand is already turned into this claw like uglyness. You see, my siblings have all died out really young so I had to inherit this skill… to do so, I had to kill the previous owner, my father..." Garnet's voice trembled.

"So, you want me to kill you, is that right, grandmother?" Leo asked coldly and Garnet could only nod weakly. "I see. That is certainly a predicament, but I won't kill you."

"L-Leo! I can become a monster any day now! If I kill any innocent people… I…"

"No need for that. I'm going to extract the skill and save you."

"C-can that really be done?" Leos grandpa asked with hope in his eyes.

"Of course I can! I'm quite greedy so it won't be a problem! But I ask you to not speak of what you are about to see, okay?" Once Leo asked that, his grandparents nodded while holding their hands.

Leo raised his body from the couch and circled around his grandmother, placing his hand between her shoulder blades. "Now just relax… and done."

Leo returned to his seat with a skill orb in his hands.

"Huh? What did you just did?"

"I used Skill extraction. Oh, and I also gave you some of my SP so you should live longer now… all that's left is to undo the body alteration «Space restore» …Honestly, I didn't thought that would work, but hey, here we are," Leo smiled widely as he restore his grandmothers body to pristine condition.

"W-wow… I, I feel like before I took the skill… this is amazing… Leo, just what…"

As Garnet was confused and happy, Leo smiled mischieviously, placing a finger on his lips.

"Greed!" In that moment the little girl from other room jumped in, her aquamarine hairs fluttering behind her. "Y-you are greed!"

"Wh-who's this pipsqueek?" Leo raised his eyebrows.

"This… we don't know actually, we found her in dungeons treasure box."

Are you isekai protagonist too, grandma?

"I'm greed! And you are too!" the girl clasped Leo's hand in hers. While she looked like a five year old, her grip was strong enought to lock Leo in place.

Just who is she? Appraisal…

[Gauntlets of Greed (1)] a Legendary equipment made by the first King of Greed. Power-ups the effects of King of Greed when equiped. Part of original Seven Sin series. Indestructible.

"Equip me!!!" the girl yelled out.

"The heck? A legendary equipment?!"

"What did you say Leo?!"

"She's a Legendary equipment Gauntlets of Greed… but why do you want me to equip you?"

"B-b-becouse you are greed! Only greed can use greed!"

She have quite lacking vocabulary… is it becouse she's equipment?

"Would something bad happen if greed didn't use you?"

"SP would be mine alone," the girl said with sad face.

"I-I'm sorry! Now come here little girl! I'm gonna talk some mind into you…" Annie walked in seemingly to take her away.

"No! I found Greed so I stay with Greed!!!"

"What is she…"

"Miss Annie, it will be okay, she's not a bother so please wait outside."

"You should do that, Annie."

"Um, yes sir, boss…" Annie nodded and left the room.

"Hey Leo, can you explain to me what does she mean by Greed?" the old man asked.

"Grandpa… very well, but please do not spill it to anyone. I haven't even talked about it to my parents yet," Leo said and after recieving nods from both of them, he spoke up, "My unique skill is called King of Greed."

"King of Greed?"

"It's a skill that allows me to steal skills, Soul power, essentially, what you called Life force before. Well, I can also administer it to others, but there are conditions. Like being subservient to me, or not resisting me."

"So… in a way, you can take away your oponents skills and kill them at the same time…"

"Yes, that's actually what happened to that forest dragon back in Roseburg."

"I see, that explains why you all came back unscathed."

"W-well, yes…" Leo smiled as he hide his own almost unbecoming end.

"Aaaah, will you equip me already, Greed?"

"Call me Leo, that's my name," Leo patted the girl's head.

"Alright Leo, now equip me!" the girl demanded.

"Isn't there some kind of a catch?"

"There's no catch. All I need for sustainence are skills! As long as I'm feed those, you can use any of my abilities!"

"So you eat skills… would Skill orbs suffice?"

"Of course!"

"I see…"

"Leo, are you serious? Feeding her skills? You know how rare those are?"

"I know how rare they can be, but strictly speaking, I never left any bandits I've captured leave without taking away their skills first. I have quite a collection now."

"Can I eat some?" the girl looked up at me with sparks in her eyes.

"Here, a common skill. Now tell me about your abilities."

"Yay! So tasty!" the girl kissed the skill orb and it got instantly sucked in like a noodle, "At level one I can extract skills and SP, but the skills don't keep their original level!"

"I see, so when I use you to suck out a, let's say level four skill it will remain level four on higher level?"

"Yes!"

"Hmm… Alright, I will equip you, how am I going to do that?"

"Hold your hands up like this… and there!"

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!"

Somehow, Leo could hear Kiira scream in pain somewhere far away as the little girl interwined her fingers with his.

"And there!" a blinding light appeared between Leo and the girl and by time everyone could open their eyes again, the girl was gone and instead of her Leo had a pair of gauntles on his hands. They were black with aquamarine colored lines starting at tip of each of his fingers, combining into one around the wrist and continuing up from there to the end of the gauntlets at elbows.

"W-wow, they fit me perfectly."

"Of course I do! I'm greed after all!" the girl said through telepathic link.

"Leo? What did just… Wait, no. Don't tell me, my head would hurt even more…"

Oh it seem like I found the origins of dad's habit of massaging his temples, thanks grandpa.

"Well, with that done, let's have a discussion, Leo. Becouse of that accursed skill I decided to end my adventuring career and retire."

"I see… so you will live with grandpa again?"

"Sure I will! But I'm worried about my mor— ahem, teammates."

"That can be a conern given their quir— ahem, unique personalities, you see?"

Whoa, they're in perfect sync! They were about to dis their friends just like that!

"Hmm… could I speak to them?"

"I'll call them. But you shoud materialize the kid, it would be weird if she was suddenly gone."

"True that, come out… how am I even supposed to call you? Greed?"

"I don't have a name so you can pick one, master Greed!"

"Alright, you'll be Lucy. Now materialize and call me by my name! I already told you!"

"Okie Greed!"

With Lucy now matearilized, and sitting on Leo's lap, the rest of the Briar crown came in. The Salamanderfolk girl came in first and took a seat next to Garnet. The rest of the group took a seat too and Annie, the priestess spoke up first.

"Sir Dragonrose, we are deeply grateful for accepting us all here."

"Think nothing of it. You are my grandmother's friends. I've heard a lot from her already so I only wish to ask what would you like to do now."

"As you know, we decided to disband the group and go after our own dreams. I for example wish to open a church dedicated to Skill God."

"Hmm, that is a noble goal. Would you like it to repurpose our old church in Zainrose?"

"Sir Dragonrose, can that really happen?" Annie's eyes sparkled as she put her hands together.

"Of course. We had a little fight, and as a result, we currently lack a head priest."

"Little fight?"

"The Bishop here was working with mercenary group that tried to undermine my position here. He's currently in my prison."

"That's so sad, to hear. Anyway when can I start?" Annie faked her sadness as her eyes sparkled at the prospect of getting her own church this easily.

"We still need to repurpose the interrior of the church, so in week or two at best."

"Understood! I will do my best!!"

"Great, can I help anyone else?"

"No need for me, I'm planning to search the Blue Ice mountains to north from here for my people."

"You are a mountain elf, right? There is a village in the northeastern part of my earldom that reported Mountain elves going there to trade with villagers from time to time. I can give you location, if you want."

"Really?! Thank you so much!!! My name is Gordie and if anything happens, you can count on me!" the girl introduced herself with gleam in her eyes.

"Alright, I understand." Leo separated himself from Gordie with a slightly troubled look.

"Well, I don't really have a solid plan in mind, but I guess I will open up an adventurers guild. I heard the one in kingdoms capital closed it's branch here and other guilds have not came in to replace it," Frederica smiled wickedly.

The way the adventurers guild, or rather guilds worked, was since begining decided by it's founders connections. Though it's name is adventurers guild, it mostly handled Odd jobs around the cities and exterminated monsters in their spare time. Explorers guild however, is regulated by kingdom as they are important for their constant production of magic stones.

"Ooh~ in that case you can hire me as an instructor, what do you say?"

"Huh? But Garnet, your current state is…"

"Never have been better!" Garnet grinned broadly and showed her hands to her companions.

"Huh? Your scales are gone?!"

"Yeah, Leo used his healing magic on me."

"What?! There is no holy magic that could overwrite a unique skill's effect!" Annie closed in on Leo.

"That is true, but I've not used holy magic, but Space magic. You can say I restored grandmothers body to time before she had been inflicted with the skills after effects. Oh, and miss Frederica, would it be okay for me to sponsor you?"

"Yer crazy magic saved our boss, for that I'm grateful, but I'm not sure about bein' sponsored by you as well. It leaves in me a bad feeling."

"If you are worried about repaying me, then why don't join hands just on paper? You will be protected from the royal capital's guilds interfering with you and if they go out of their way to speak with me, I can just shoo them away. It's not like they can interfere with a noble directly."

"Hmm, that is definitely a good offer, but don't you think your vasals will invite them to their towns?"

"That usually can be worrisome, but it won't fly with me," Leo smiled, "You see, I've already put them on a leash."

"By that he means he made them indebt to him by being too nice," said Alette who just walked in the room.

"Hey Alette, what brings you here?"

"Just to inform you about the Survival training already left for the Alensta mountain. The S class is already debating how strong the monsters will be."

"I see, good thing we already cleaned the place."

"Cleaned?" Alette tilted her head.

"Well, the lowest level in our year is fifteen so I made sure all the monsters on the mountain are under level twenty five I separated the mountain by three meters thick and six meters tall wall too. And I also made a garrison there and have soldiers stationed there. Not to speak of the top of the mountain."

"Well, isn't that nice," Alette laughed softly.

"Hey Garnet, isn't that a little, you know."

"I do, many lives would be usually lost, but this is Leo we are talking about here. Something tells me he didn't lost a single one. Hey Leo, what was the highest level monster you found there?"

"About level thirty, nothing that challanging. If my guys failed fighting that, then they would loose privilege of being called my knights."

"See?" Garnet smiled exasperately at her worried husband.

"Leo, tell me, what is the lowest level in your army?"

"I believe that would be Lil' Derreck, he joined us just last month and he's level 39. The rest of the guys are above level fourty seven—though my elite soldiers are all level 51."

"This is absurd… usually armies consists of people at level 30 at best… even the top brass is rarely above fourty… Leo, are you going to overtake the kingdom or something?"

"Naaah, that's too bothersome. Plus there is a lot of monsters here that needs to be exterminated first," Leo gave a completly annoyed look to Garnet as he shoo the idea away.

"So, I understand it right that you are going to invade the Barren Lands, right? That's why you so readily offered your support of the new adventurers guild," Garnet smiled fiendishly.

"Oh? Invading barren lands? Sounds fun."

"There must be a lot of resources no one have used in alchemy before…"

"There is a chance that other Mountain elf tribes live there…"

"A divine relevation! This is the new begining for our society!!"

The Briar Crown members quickly catch up to the talk.

"They cartainly are sim— Ahem, lively."

You were about to say simpleminded, weren't you, grandpa? Leo smiled to himself as he guessed his grandfathers thoughts.

"Well, it's certainly true that I want to investigate more of the moutains to both north and east and if luck wills it, even the ocean to the south."

"Heheh, that sounds more like it, I'm in," Garnet laughed softly.

"Grrrrr, I wish I could help too, but I'm tied to dungeons only…"

"Well, what about visiting a hot spring, while you are here? We have only constructed the most basic buildings, but I would be grateful if you could tell us if anything is missing."

"Oh-ho! A hot spring you say Leo? You were here for barely two months, how did you managed to find and build something like that so fast?"

"There is this thing we call Construction magic, that falls under metal and earth magic, that's what we used. With that thing, only thing we need to do is call some carpenters to furnish the insides and get some glass for windows."

"Boy, you lost us," Frederica massaged her temples.

"Oh, what did you not get?"

"Well, just like, everything."

"Oh…"

***

The night fell and sun rised once again. Leo stood before gates to Alensta mountains. Everywhere around him were running people from his army. Every single one of them were preparing for arrival of the school's Survival Expedition. As it was held by the one and only Marchioness Bella Berita, everyone was trying to make sure everything was in top condition.

"Kiira send us message that they should arrive within next two hours!" Alette, who was here with me called out as loudly as she could and the people around us, mostly Rabbitfolk, Dragonfolk of both Sea and Volcanic varieties and some humans sprinkled in between sped up their pace.

"Okay, let's get ready to welcome them. Phew, who would have thought that in just two months we would grow this much."

"Ho-ho-hoo! That is not surprising at all, young lord!" a man with long white hairs and beard laughed softly as he leaned on his white walking stick that doubled as a wand with it dark blue crystal.

"Winston, I see you are as lively as ever. How is the development of our [Satelite] going?"

"Ho-hoo! It's great! I never would have thought that you could enchant Sight crystal and Recording stone in such a unique way! I came to report that the measuring device and Warping bracelets have been delivered."

"I see, do you want to wait with us for our schoolmates to arrive?"

"If you would be so nice," Winston bowed to Leo and made himeslf a chair from compressed nothingness.

Winston Wade Dousal. A former duke and prime minister in the Sorcery kingdom, while he only had access to all basic level magic elements, he also had great affinity with Void magic, for which he was praised. However, Winston wished to make his other atributes more known as powerful elements. Now, after being bought from slavery by Leo in small island nation between Sorcery kingdom and Ostillian kingdom, the Gangan kingdom, he found out about his thesis about strenght of basic elemental magic was true. He got a position of High official, the highest ranked political position after Leo, though as it stood, his work was greatly restricted due to Leo's wish to have at least two more people in same position to not have the political situation stand in one person's hand.

Two hours later, the carriages arrived and the students started getting out.

"Earl Dragonrose, it's nice to see you are here. Have you prepared everything?"

"Of course, Lady Beritta," Leo bowed politely.

The students in the meanwhile started exiting the carriages.

"Alright everyone! Welcome to Dragonrose Earldom!"