A New Star Chapter 87 (Patreon)

Derek Woodman

To have a chance to visit noble houses was already a precious thing. The fact that, as a senior at the capital academy, I had done well enough to be chosen to accompany Dean Blitz as she went around recruiting the most promising of noble children was already a great honor. Even then, I hadn’t dreamed that everything would line up so perfect; the Iron Duke and Witch of the North had several children, eight, in fact, which was already a lot. I just hadn’t calculated out the ages of such esteemed figures and their family when I had been selected, not considering how much work the academy put on one’s plate. To think, their youngest was finally in the right age range right at the time I was one of the two helpers of the dean, going around with her and talking to any nobly family that had a child at thirteen or fourteen, trying to recruit them. A minor noble from the countryside like me would normally never even get a chance to be in the same building as such storied and respected noble elite, but I was not just going to be in the same building, we were making our way to meet with the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess themselves in their own home. It was already something I could brag about and use as a positive on my official records for years, not to mention if we managed to recruit the youngest.

It wasn’t even that hard a sell, as the saying went, considering that almost all of the couple’s had attended the academy. There was really only one exception, their second-youngest child, who had special circumstances and had her own special education and training. Rumors abounded about her situation, everything from stories of strange curses and odd sigils in the night to wild stories of heavenly beings and great sages from across the forbidden oceans. I tried to be more practical about such things, but sometimes I still let myself get caught up in the excitement, and that was for a girl never seen and hardly known about. Now, I was in the heart of one of the greatest estates on the continent and meeting some of the most influential people, gosh, in the whole world. It was terribly exciting.

“Derek,” Nataliy Blitz intoned coldly, bringing me back to the present, in which I was sharing a carriage with her and Tasha Bennington, the other student selected for the trip. “Do try to contain yourself.”

“Yes, Dean. Apologies,” I said meekly. And it wasn’t just because Dean Blitz had a massive amount of power, both within the academy and within the capital itself. She never expressed or discussed her own rank, which led to rumors, as everything at the academy seemed to, but the most believable one put her at R-rank, which was already a terrific accomplishment.

I tried to focus as our carriage, one of the new mana-fueled ones that was all the rage in the capital, rolled up to the estate. Coming to Umberton had been a bit of a surprise; truth be told, I had expected the local town of a Grand Duke to be a bit more awe-inspiring, a metropolis to rival the capital itself in wealth and splendor. Arriving on the train the day before had been a bit of a disappointment, seeing the town was more a frontier outpost than a sprawling metropolis. Why, I don’t think there were more than five restaurants in the entire place, which would have been a bit impressive compared to my families tiny holding, but after having experienced life in the capital for four years, it seemed a little too humble for the town supporting a Grand Duke.

The estate, however, was much more impressive, and far more in line with what I imagined when I imagined such nobility and their homes. A grand estate covering a rather large area with a massive mansion set back from the road, though in this case, the road ended at their front gate, a massive iron edifice set into a fifteen foot high wall. Making our way up the drive, we passed a luxurious surrounding, a garden the envy of any in the capital, and blooming in the center of the frigid north. The winds off the mountains were bitter even in the summer, from what I had heard, and having such a lush estate was a testament to time, effort, and money.

The interior was just as luxurious, though the wealth wasn’t so blatant as to be gaudy. I had some little fear of even stepping on the tiles, so beautifully cut and polished were they, but I was distracted when one of the captains of the Grand Duke’s famous guard met us. Supposedly, this fighting force was one of the best in the whole nation, a rough and hardened group that put even some of the more daring mercenary companies to same, polished to a fine edge by their time defending the northern border. A border that we were only a few miles from in this estate; the thought alone sent shivers down my spine. Despite all my training and education at the academy, despite all the practice they had put us through over nearly four grueling years, the thought of the Untamed Wilds still frightened me. To even have to defend from all the horrors and terrors that flooded over that line was already bravery enough; to venture out beyond the safety we had clawed out in the Settled Lands, well, that was madness.

The captain led us down a long hallway, stopping about two-thirds of the way down at a door guarded by two of the aforementioned guards, all stiffly polished and standing at rigid attention. A knock on the door got an immediate response and he gestured for us to enter after opening the doors, giving the dean a small bow as she swept past. I was there, along with Tasha, just to escort the dean, though there had been several times she had made use of us to demonstrate the effectiveness of the academy. That was part of the job, and I rather enjoyed being able to show off the skills and knowledge that all that training and studying had imparted. I knew I had to keep myself a little contained here, however; I much doubted a Grand Duke and Grand Duchess would be much impressed with a fresh-faced eighteen-year-old trying to show off. I also doubted it would do all that much to impress any of their children, but I was often surprised by just how spoiled and unaware the children of higher nobility tended to be.

We had had a girl like that in my initial classes when I had joined the academy close to four years ago. The only child of a wealthy count, she had been spoiled and coddled and even the semi-strictness of the academy had been a massive wake-up call. She was one of the lucky ones, too, as she got to experience some of what the real world was like in a very safe environment while gradually adapting. I had heard stories of others that had not been so lucky, but if I had learned anything so far in life, it was that life itself wasn’t always very fair.

My wandering thoughts snapped back into focus as we were greeted by both the duke and duchess, both of whom took seats across from us after the introductions. I stood behind the dean, as did Tasha, both of us standing at a posture of loose attention that we had been trained in, something that we could hold for hours without getting tired or losing focus. The dean had started with some pleasantries, and she apparently knew the duchess from some time previously, and they chatted for a few minutes. This is just how things went with higher nobles; no matter how busy everyone was, or how important the business, it was extremely rare for things to not be taken slowly and treated with all due courtesy and respect.

The first inkling I had that things weren’t going to plan, or that there was something extraordinary happening, was when an old man walked into the room. Part of it was the fact that he had not knocked or signaled his entrance in any way, and part of it was that the duke and duchess both gave him respectful nods as he joined the seating arrangement, setting his cane to the side and crossing his legs as he sat back and examined us. What was even more startling was that, after an initial moment of frozen indecision, something very rare for the dean, she rose to her feet and curtsied with all due respect and aplomb, something I had yet to see. Her status didn’t make her equal to a duchess, or even a countess, but the amount of power Dean Blitz had, both personally and with her influence within the academy and capital, made her someone that didn’t need to take the courtesies all that seriously.

“Sir Maester,” she greeted, which was also shocking.

“Now, now, none of that, Nataliy. Have we not known each other for some time?” the old man said, smiling as he stroked his beard.

“Yes, but it’s always a great honor. Few there are that can match a true legend of the blade,” the dean said, shocking me to my core. Only one level of achievement was worth such praise, combined with her using the archaic title of maester to describe the man.

“Now, now, it’s fine,” he said, waving a hand. “I’ve had the honor of tutoring the prospective student for a time, so I thought I’d sit in on this conversation.”

“Well, if you’ve tutored her, I’m not even sure what we could teach her,” the dean replied.

Tasha audibly gasped at that, and I might have let out a startled grunt, that was how shocking it was. The dean was ironclad, both in her discipline, and in her belief that the academy system bettered everyone that participated. It was a deeply set belief of hers that no one was above learning from the institution, that even the most worldly experienced and powerful could pick up new knowledge and insight there. To hear her say the academy might not have anything to teach a person was like hearing the king say it was time for the poorest peasant farmer to take up the crown, or like hearing the commander of the Royal Guard say it would be good for the leader of the Assassin’s Guild to take a turn at leading the defense of the royal family.

“Keep a respectful attitude,” the dean corrected us, though in and off-hand way.

“Apologies,” we both replied quietly.

“There’s no need to be surprised,” the old man addressed us directly. “After all, I am Count Emmanuel du Forchaine, Y-ranker of wind, steel, and space, knight chevalier of the Holy Order of the Rose, Sage of the sword, and former tutor to the great emperor Tremaine de Garcois, knight of the east, and great hero of the third conflict.”

I blinked at that, but Tasha made some kind of strangled sound that she quickly stifled, so clearly she fully recognized the man. Even though I didn’t get any immediate recognition springing to mind, his titles and position were still more than enough, and I joined my fellow student in a deep bow and proper salute. If the man really was a Y-ranker, and I had no reason to doubt his claims, especially since the rest of the people in the room, far older and more experienced than I, found them believable, then this was one of the most powerful people in the Settled Lands. Based on the fact we hadn’t had any contact with anyone from across the oceans in centuries, if not millennia, he might be one of the strongest people on the entire planet.

“And where is our youngest daughter?” the duchess asked, her tone mild, but it was clear there was a note of frustration within.

“She’s on her way up now, Your Grace,” said the captain that had brought us in, who was standing at attention inside the room by the doors. He had let the Count pass by without issue, and it was clear from his attitude that the Y-ranker was a familiar sight around the estate.

“We should wait for her to arrive before discussing her disposition,” the duchess then said with a sigh. “I have a feeling this conversation isn’t going to be an easy one.”

That was a rather strange thing for her to say, in my personal opinion, but it also did seriously increase my interest in the young lady we were here to recruit. There had been some rumors swirling about her, though we had been doing this tour with the dean for two weeks now and weren’t always nearly as up-to-date on all the happenings. It was a stark thing to realize, how much information one was privy to in the capital, and the academy especially, and how that flow of information broke down anywhere else in the country. The dean herself had mentioned it, and that systems of formalized information sharing, for the most common of items, were being worked on even now. I have to admit, Tasha had been much more interested in that and had a long discussion with the dean about the implementation; all I knew was that it was terrible to be out of the loop and that it would be a good thing to change it.

Our conversation continued for another minute, which wasn’t all that long when one considered noble affairs, before the person we were there to recruit finally showed up. Her entrance was made even more impressive by being escorted by a full-blooded minotaur, another of the famous captains of the Iron Duke’s guard, and one that felt rather strong to boot. One, I noticed, that moved entirely silently, which was saying rather a lot, given her massive size and the heavy armor she wore. Whether it was an affinity at work, or the work of an enchantment that made it look like an affinity, a fairly common misdirection in noble circles, was a different question.

Behind the impressive captain came the girl of the hour, or so it seemed based on everything that had transpired so far, and she was not at all what I expected. Based on all my knowledge, I had expected a tall young lady in a dress and proper makeup, with an imperious bearing. Instead, a very tall young woman entered, wearing clean and precise clothes, but having chosen pants and a tight shirt and vest that showed off her rather impressive physique. She had a set of swords strapped to her waist and there was an air of power around her that I couldn’t quite identify, but it immediately set me on edge for some reason, though that reason being the differences in our capability wasn’t something I was going to figure out for another few minutes.

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