A New Star Chapter 90 (Patreon)

Sadly, much of the rest of the day was a very boring slog, and there wasn’t anyone interesting right until the end. Considering they still had the actual day itself take up just one day, and were willing to go deep into the night to get everyone done, that meant I had one potential recruit. With everything else I had to do and work on, this was really starting to frustrate me, even knowing I had quite a bit of time. Aging wasn’t something that really worried me; if anything, I would likely live longer in this life, considering my body affinity and power. The thing that had me up in the middle of the night sweating was the unknown, the unknown of what had happened to my people, my nation, my armies…my friends.

It was such a distant dream, though, wanting to find out what happened to a group of people who were so distant, I didn’t even recognize the local stars. Of course, that was just looking at what I could see on a clear night with my, admittedly powerful, eyes; to really scan for known stars, I’d have to bring a little radio telescope operations or something like that to this world, and that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. It was an almost cruel position I found myself in; I was alive again, I had power, I had potential, I had many things to do and interesting things to work on and learn, but my people were gone. Gone and so far away, it could take me millennia even to figure out if there were in the same universe or dimension or however those boundaries worked. On top of all that, even if I could somehow figure out our relative positions, I had no idea where in time we were relative to each other. Then, on top of even that, I would have to figure out how to get from here to there.

The big surprise came at the end of the day, early night, really, and it was a big surprise. The young lady with the spirit-like affinity was nice, and she could develop into a real powerhouse that was hard to counter; the thing with rare affinities like that was…well, they were rare. People, even powerful people, didn’t encounter them all that much, so they didn’t really understand very good counters, though people who were powerful that spent time exploring the Wilds would be bettered prepared. One encountered everything out there and had to understand everything to cling to one’s life. If the young lady rose to even P- or Q-rank, she would be a real threat and a real power in her own right, let alone if she pushed even higher.

This, though, was something different. I was immediately impressed when the young man walked out to take the stage; sure, he was late teens and men finished most of their growth in puberty early, rounding the last parts, including a few brain developments, by their mid-twenties, but he was massive. He reminded me of the high orcs, though he was clearly human of blood; several of the different species could mingle, and there were half-elves or partial minotaurs or half-dwarfs and so on and so forth. He didn’t look or feel like he had any blood other than human, but that could be a very tricky one, as sometimes family lines did have some recessive traits from a different species that popped up here and there. Though what he would be, especially without any different skin colorations or marking to show him as an orc or leviathan descendant, and no fur to show any minotaur or large beast heritage, I wasn’t sure. As far as my research had turned up, this continent had no kinds of giants or titans or any extremely large peoples; leviats (leviathan descendants), minotaurs, and high orcs were the three biggest I had encountered, and a lot of leviats these days were around seven feet in height, though with a bit greater variability in their range.

Anyway, I was brought out of my musings already when the young man declared. As I said, many declared for a service or particular branch; the traditions were military service and the civil service, and some would declare for knightly orders if they already had an ‘in,’ so to speak. This young man I liked already, as he declared for strength before all, that he would fight for anyone who could demonstrate limitless strength. That certainly had the crowd talking, and it had perked me right up, but then the next part was what really set it ablaze. Sure, the young man was quite tall, over seven feet easily, but his heavily muscled body wasn’t just for show, either. When it was time for his spar, the examiner they had chosen didn’t hold back, but neither did the youth. He exploded across the ring, and that really was the word for what he did, and slammed into the examiner like a falling meteor. There was a massive boom, the clap of thunder echoing through the arena, and the examiner, someone many ranks above the youth, had to take three steps back to stabilize himself.

The youth continued for two minutes, knocking the examiner around and taking a few shots himself that he simply shrugged off. It got the audience talking, and listening to their discussions got me even more excited. The crowd was less than impressed with the young man because he was channeling a lot of what he was doing into brute strength, which people could do through a number of affinities and tricks. It wasn’t a new concept and didn’t really wow anybody else, but they were, in a sense, missing the forest for the trees. His fine control, and his ability to resist damage, which was unusual even for people who converted mana into physical strength, were superb, and I knew for a fact he wasn’t showing all his cards. Give someone like him even just a set of powerful, heavily enchanted gauntlets and boots, and he could tear apart a whole battlefield by himself.

His final display was one that went over everyone else’s heads, but nearly had me out of my seat the moment he did it. Others may not have understood what was happening, but he had applied a powerful and very precise gravitational field to the ring, one that even the examiner had trouble with, and then moved through it with ease without using his own affinity to resist. I had been impressed before, but now I knew this trip to the capital hadn’t been a waste at all; the girl with the phantom grasp ability was a great find, and I was confident in recruiting her to my small, elite team, but this young man was the real prize. I knew I had him, too, as he valued physical strength and future potential; he had said so himself in his little declaration. Who else could demonstrate either to the kind of degree I currently could? Hells, I just had to exchange a single punch with him and he would understand.

I didn’t wait around for the last few people, much to my family’s consternation, but that was an advantage of our position, and of having our own private booth in the capital arena. I was out the door and through the hallways right away, moving down towards an area where the young adults would gather before being dismissed for the day. Another old tradition, the time-honored one of those with money and influence getting everything, while even others with power and wealth got the scraps. The couple adjoining rooms the youths were in allowed access, for those with special privilege, to talk to them before the big banquet on the following day, and I was shamelessly taking advantage of that to go recruit my two favorites before they could be inundated with other offers. Though, I was of a mind to leave my prize, as well, considering I was guessing all the offers he would get, including all those at the banquet, would be less than he hoped. The crowd’s interest in him had waned even just during his fight, and I could guess he himself had very high standards. Letting him stew for a few days might work wonders, but the only problem with that was he seemed calm, collected, self-assured, and rather motivated. He might just dismiss the rest of the society gatherings and such as a waste and head off on his own, and I didn’t want to spend time and resources tracking him down if he decided it wasn’t worth his time and left.

First, though, I went to find my little spirit channeler, or whatever she would be called or the affinity would be called. She had a few people by her, but this wasn’t the banquet, so she wasn’t swarmed, considering only a select few had access down here. At my approach, as well, the others scattered; even the wealthy and powerful knew that directly competing with the child of a grand duke, one that was herself a prodigy and the recent talk of the town (thanks to my showing in the dungeon party), would be a foolish errand. The young lady herself turned to face me as I approached, realizing after a moment why the little bloodsuckers had gathered, though I realize saying it in that way would paint myself as a big bloodsucker. Well, no matter; I was going to offer her terms and conditions that far outstripped the contracts and offers that these others fools made, and if she didn’t like that, then I could always circle back later. Or let her go, considering I wasn’t desperate for her skills or service, not in the same way that I really wanted the young monster of a man to join up.

“Lady Alexandra,” the young woman said with a slight bow. Bows were proper etiquette regardless of gender or social station, only replaced by salutes if one were in the military or a knightly order.

“Francesca, is it?” I asked calmly.

“That’s right, Lady, it is Francesca Dimitri,” she said, giving another, very small bow.

“I have some interest in offering you service in my employ. What are your thoughts about that?” I asked.

“Well, Lady Alexandra, I know you’ve made a big splash recently…” she said, nervously tucking a flyaway behind her ear. “But, forgive my boldness, I have to say I’m not sure what you can offer? I understand you are part of a grand ducal household, but you yourself are still a minor, correct?”

“Walk with me a moment,” I said, moving away from some of the leeches that were still hovering nearby. As we moved, I asked, “What is it that you want, Francesca? What do you desire?”

That put her on the back foot for a moment, and I wasn’t surprised it did. The others would have been swarming her, buttering her up and talking about how great she was and how amazing her power and skill were. They would have been making her lavish promises and offering her the sun, the moon, and the stars beyond. That wasn’t my style at all, first of all, and I was also genuinely curious what would be in someone like Francesca’s head. I had had very little contact, excluding the recent dungeon run, with those near my own age, though there was around a four year gap, and even the dungeon run, we were focused on fighting and survival. Well, the kids were focused and motivated, I was just along for the ride, but that was not an environment that had been conducive to these kinds of conversations.

“Well, there are a few things…” she began hesitantly.

“Please. Speak your mind, Young Lady. I won’t disparage your dreams, whatever they may be,” I said, and realized she had given me a bit of a funny look. Ah, I had called her young when she was four years older than me and that had confused her; damn my twelve centuries of memories.

“I know that it’s what everyone said,” she began slowly, “but I want to develop my affinities. I think I have a real, genuine shot at reaching Z-rank, and that has been a dream of mine for a long time. I think I can do it, and not just that, I can do it before I have one foot in the grave.”

The Count would have loved to have heard that, and I would have loved to have given him a few barbs about his having two feet and one in the grave, but he had stayed in the family booth to chat with my parents when I came down here. I was already a bit impressed with her; she seemed calm and fairly mature for her age, and despite her dream being a bit silly for the times, certainly from what she was saying, she still stuck to it. Stuck to it even in the face of a powerful employer that might dismiss her based on those foolish dreams.

“Do you see yourself working for the government or the military?” I asked then as we paused at the other end of the room, out of the way of others and far from the leeches. I had also separated us from them so I could manipulate the air and sound around us. It would have been impolite to do it right in their faces, but it would have been more impolite if we had moved away and put up a privacy screen and then they complained.

“No, I don’t,” she said, shaking her head. “I feel like it would be better to gain experience in the dungeons and then join expeditions into the Wilds. That was my plan at first; now that all these people are making offers, I don’t know what to do.”

“Perfect,” I said, which seemed to confuse her. “Francesca, I have already started building a small, elite team. One that can gather information, carry out missions, and support me as needed, including in going into the Wilds. Members of the team would have access to immense resources and wealth, but they would also be expected to perform up to a very high standard, and the workload will not be light. Is that something that you would be interested in joining.”

She hesitated for just a moment, but a prodigy daughter of the richest and most powerful family in the country dangling such a juicy morsel in front of her was too much. “I’m very interested. What are the terms?”

“I have several contracts drawn up, and we can discuss it more after the banquet. Unless you are so eager that you want to sign right now?” I asked. Better to tempt her with a powerful offer and then have everyone else not be able to match it to draw her further in.

“I suppose not, but how do I contact you?” she asked.

“I am staying at the count Emmanuel du Forchaine’s manor. You can stop by there any time,” I replied. “Oh, the pay and other compensation will be top tier, and that’s coming from the daughter of a grand duke and grand duchess, though that was without question. But, more than that, I have already spent years exploring the Wilds; understand that my team are no fresh-faced rookies with no experience looking to slowly learn. You are joining elite expeditionaries here.”

“Wonderful,” she said, bowing.

“Francesca,” I said, returning the bow very slightly before turning and making my way to my next target.

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