A New Star Chapter 103 (Patreon)

"What’s all the fuss?” I asked, leaning back in the chair, which didn’t even creak. My family, given their power and wealth, had access to quite a lot of good things, and even their furniture was of the highest quality. Woods from the Wilds, handled by expert craftsmen, enchanted heavily, and reinforced with special affinities; it would be years yet before I could do any damage to any of this, not that I was going to actively try.

“I will not be available for some time, going forward,” the Count informed us. “My estate will still stand ready to aid you, but I will not be able to help with anything for a period of time.”

“You aren’t dying yet,” I commented laconically.

“Alex!” my father exclaimed.

“No, no, of course not,” the Count laughed. “These old bones still have a little life in them. In fact, more life than even I suspected.”

“Oh. I see,” I said, nodding at the man. With that hint, it was rather obvious.

“You do?” my father asked, now terribly confused.

“What could bring about a sudden burst of life to old bones? The old bones of a Y-ranker?” I asked, trying to not-so-subtly lead him there.

“Well, there’s…ah, I see,” my father said before turning to the Count. “Congratulations are in order.”

“I’m not quite there yet,” the Count demurred, but there was a decided gleam in his eye. “However, it won’t be all that much longer. Hence, why I shall not be available for some time.”

“I cannot imagine what trouble you will cause as a Z-ranker,” I said idly.

“You’re one to talk,” both my father and the Count replied in unison.

“I am one to talk,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “And all of my endeavors are well-planned and well executed. His Eminence, the Count, doesn’t exactly plan things as well.”

“Enough,” my father said again. “The Count had news, and he’s shared his news. Is there any other business you have?”

“Plenty, if we’re done,” I said, making to rise.

“I wasn’t referring to you,” my father said sternly.

“Right, of course,” I settled back, looking at the Count.

“Only a caution to be careful in the Wilds. There are…things in motion that could pose a danger. Try to limit yourself a little in the coming months,” the Count said.

“Anything more definitive than a cryptic half-hint?” I asked with a slight frown.

“Nothing you need to worry about yet,” the Count replied with a shake of his head.

“Well, I’ll do my best, but there are things I need to do,” I said, shaking my head.

“Just a caution,” the Count said quietly.

“Any other words of wisdom?” I asked with a quirked brow. When the answer was clearly a ‘no,’ I said, “Then, I’ll be off first.”

I didn’t wait for a response, dropping into The Dark and moving out of the room, heading back down to my lab. I had to finish the last cleanup from the medicinal bath before anything else, and then I needed to brew a couple elixirs. Everything I was about to brew was going to go straight to Francesca and Cain, which would not be a pleasant experience for them, but no pain, no gain. After the elixirs would be a another medicinal bath for each of them, and then the training would begin. I didn’t think either of them was particularly weak, but I would be taking them into the Wilds several times in the coming months for exploration, and they had to be as good as they could be.

Brewing all the elixirs took only two hours, and then I quickly made the components for the medicinal baths, which took only about twenty minutes. The baths I was having them undergo were far lesser versions of what I was doing, so the preparation for their baths was far easier. After that, I finally cleaned up the lab and moved on, heading up to the family library. I had scoured the place pretty thoroughly over the last ten years, but there were still works that I hadn’t fully read, mainly because they were old and the language was tedious to work through. There was little left to learn here, but I needed to search through the alchemy texts again. I had to try to identify some new recipes, and they were also helpful in their discussion of ingredients. Traveling through the Wilds was an exercise in discovery; having greater knowledge of what people had found before was going to be important going forward.

I was a bit at loose ends, as I was waiting for Francesca and Cain to arrive in Umberton. I had coordinated with Lester for their timing, and he wanted Angela to stay in the capital for the time being. He had come up with a system of training for the new recruits he brought in himself, and Angela was almost done with that. I had gone ahead and prepared everything for the arrival of three people, but I hadn’t prepared a bath for Angela. I had to spend a bit of time with her, observing her and even sparring with her, before I could calculate what was right for her current needs. She would likely be up within a month, but I had plenty to do otherwise, whether with the others or on my own.

I did check in the next day with the staff, looking at the rooms that were being prepared for my team. The area of the wing they were preparing was really enough for about forty people to occupy comfortably; the claim that it could house a hundred was in consideration of servants and staff bunking in what I thought of as terrible conditions, and I had spent eight hundred years on campaign. My employees would not be bunking in such conditions, or bunking at all; they would each have their own dedicated suite, though they were rather small. A very small sitting room, a modest bedroom, and a small bath, but that would still be considered living in luxury for most people these days. Even the noble families Cain and Francesca came from would consider the suites to be rather nice, which was more an indictment of the current disparities in society than anything else.

Then again, having studied the history of not just my world, but many worlds I had allied with in my last life, the conditions here were on the higher end. The ready access to affinities, one’s own or the use of other’s affinities for a pittance, made life a lot easier for everyone. Things like cooking, cleaning, hauling goods, waste disposal, and all those little things that people tended not to think about on a structural level either until they became a problem or they were doing a more thorough review were handled rather easily in this society. There were plenty of magics for all of it, and they were remarkably advanced in a few areas, though it hadn’t really been exploited properly.

For example, refrigeration was a key technology in developing a society, except here it hadn’t really been taken advantage of in the way I would expect. Well, not yet, at any rate, though I foresaw that coming soon. Refrigeration enabled so much, from the preservation and transport of foods to cooling buildings to cooling delicate systems and machinery to keeping things like vaccines and medicine cold, it was really rather miraculous. And that was part of the problem; what need to research advanced vaccines and treatments when healing was so prevalent? What need to preserve food for long periods when it was so abundant and cheap, year-round? It was a case, in many ways, of the ease of the magic that was present limiting advancement, though there were confounding factors.

I dismissed my musings on how technology was developing for now, deciding to worry about a semiconductor revolution some other time. For now, the preparation for the area my team would be staying were well in hand and I had a day and some change free. It wasn’t really enough to do much of anything but a little alchemy and some training. I must confess, I was a bit worried about training at this point, mainly because I didn’t want to give anything away, though also because if I pushed myself with my weapons, it could go rather…poorly. I was still holding off on reaching the level I had in my last life. Some bridges, when crossed, couldn’t be uncrossed, and I didn’t want to make that particular move just quite yet, though the time was approaching.

The thing that first disturbed me was not the arrival of my team, but the arrival of my sister. By this I meant Marianne, who I had only seen occasionally the last year or two. She had been about the estate, but she tended to keep herself closed off doing research and working on her affinities. I worried about her mental health a bit, as being a shut-in like that wasn’t a great sign, but all I really could do at this point was make sure to stop by and talk to her a little here and there. I was still working, very slowly in the background, on chasing down exactly what had happened four or so years ago with the assassins, but the Royal Guard looking into it had muddied the waters. I had a few suspicions, but that was all they were at present.

“Sister,” I said, sheathing my blades and walking over to where she had stopped at the edge of the dueling rectangle I was using to train.

“Alex, there’s something we need to discuss,” she started but I held up a hand.

“Not here,” I said, glancing around the yard before leading the way out of the barracks.

I took her down to my lab, as that was the most secure place I currently had, apart from maybe my room, but too many people moved in and out of my room. My lab was much more secure, as I kept it locked quite thoroughly, and that was with more than just the physical, iron locks. I had several different types of alchemical and enchanted locks protecting the place, and the first time someone was knocked unconscious with a nasty case of bruising by just the first layer of security was enough to convince everyone to stay out when I wasn’t present, and often when I was. I disengaged the locks with a thought and a flick of the fingers before ushering Marianne inside and sealing the place behind me, engaging a set of enchanting plates I had gotten that obscured conversation and muddled sounds.

“Now, you can go ahead,” I said, leaning back against my work bench. Marianne occupied the only stool in the room, feet propped up on one of the bars and hands in her lap, fingers twiddling back and forth.

“Well, it’s like this…” she started, a bit hesitant. I simply waited, knowing she would speak if given the room. “I’ve been working on my divining lately, as well as my other affinities. I’ve focused on my enchanting as a well to help boost and control the divination, and it works well with my ability to scry. I’ve been getting these strange readings for a while now, but I had something happen this morning that was quite concerning. I wanted to come to you with it first because…well, you know what to do about these things, and you saved me when I was in trouble.”

“Well, then, let’s hear it,” I said, remaining non-committal at this point.

“I think there’s going to be another attack, and soon,” she said. On seeing me slightly raise one eyebrow, she rushed to continued, saying, “I’ve had premonitions of a dark figure moving into the house, someone or something I don’t recognize. The formations I made with my enchanting have helped focused the visions, at least, to an extent, and I was able to catch glimpses of someone slipping through the wards, cutting some of them with a knife that glowed a bluish color. They stalked the halls of the estate after that, and there were vague impressions they were searching for someone. I think they might be after me again.”

“Hardly conclusive evidence, but divinations often point towards a larger issue that is at play,” I said with a sigh. “How confident are you in this vision?”

“Very confident,” she rushed to say before I could keep going. “I know it sounds crazy, but I fell like the attack is just about to happen. Within not even a month, and I know that it’s going to be something bad.”

“Well, I was going to ask how confident you were in the finer details, such as there only being one person or the enchanted knife, but I understand the worry,” I replied, frowning a bit.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to rush in,” she said, pausing her fiddling and taking a deep breath. “Divination is often uncertain, but I get very strong feelings about some things. I don’t think there will be more than one person this time, and I don’t think they have any kind of backup. The knife was very clear, I could even draw some of the enchantments from the blade, if you want to see them?”

“I think that would be useful, but we should take some measures first,” I said with a slight shake of my head. “Have you told our parents yet?”

“Not yet. I just had the vision and came straight to you. You always know exactly what to do in these kinds of situations, which is a bit strange, but then again…” she trailed off, looking at me a little nervously as she started up fidgeting with her fingers again.

“Well, we’ll have to inform at least our parents and the commander of the guard,” I said, running through scenarios in my mind. Things had been peaceful for a bit, so of course, now that I was getting neck deep in work, with my alchemy, my team, the things I had to do in the Wilds, and my own growth, it was time for a wrench to come hurtling out of left field and into the works. “How has your divination been progressing?”

She knew I wasn’t asking in an idle way, and answered in kind, saying, “It’s improved two grades in the last year. I think I’m getting a much better handle on how to focus and even direct it, but it’s still very hard. Not that your medicinal baths helped with the process.”

She stuck her tongue out at the last part, but I just slowly glanced between her and the tub, which had her shrinking back. She was the first of the other family members I had undergo baths, as she needed the physical reinforcement more than anyone else. Our parents were just fine for now, and I suspected that our father had a tier four body and had kept that under wraps from all but likely our mother, who likely had a tier three body. That didn’t guarantee the other siblings had higher tier bodies, but it gave a good chance for them to have even tier three bodies, let alone tier two bodies. Upgrading the family was a work in progress, however, and I was starting much slower, and I would be more selective. Thomas, for example, wasn’t getting any help from me; I wouldn’t even dump medicine on the lout if he were on fire, but that was a different issue.

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