TRT Chapter 109: A Gathering At Sturm Manor (Patreon)

In the days after my visit to the Grand Temple, I withdrew from House society even more than I already had. Part of it was because I wanted to focus on my training. With a threat looming on the horizon, I didn’t want to waste time on parties and other social events. They were important to a House’s wellbeing, since that was the main way the various scions connected and made deals with each other, but I was better off focusing on my training and cultivation. To this end, I made frequent trips to the Temple of Tempest so I could cultivate in the prayer room.

That wasn’t to say that I ignored House society altogether. With Mother still in the Icefall Region, Father busy with House Sturm’s various enterprises, and Kaylee attending the academy, it fell on me to act as the face of our family. Once Mother returned, I planned on focusing more on my training and my adventuring career, which I had neglected for a while now.

It was difficult to determine when that would be, according to the message Mother sent down from the Icefall Region. Grandfather Gabe continued to battle the Walking Hill; until he killed it or drove it off, the beast tide wouldn’t end. That meant that I would have to maintain some presence within House society, at least for now.

I was a bit more discerning and selective about which social events I attended. I only attended the ones that were worth my time. It helped now that everyone knew that I was the Chosen of Tempest. Soon after I returned from the Grand Temple, the news had spread throughout House society like wildfire, thanks to the efforts of Priestess Kaya and the Temple of Tempest. Thanks to that, I could get away with being more standoffish. Hell, as the Chosen of a God, it was expected of me.

That said, revealing my status did come with several downsides.

Predictably, it brought on a horde of sycophants and suck-ups who wanted to get close to me due to my new status. It was as if I had become something of a celebrity and a religious icon rolled into one. Part of the reason why I secluded myself from House society was to avoid dealing with these people. Their fawning and flattery annoyed the shit out of me, and I made my stance on their behavior quite clear.

Despite this, a deluge of correspondence arrived at Sturm Manor every day. Most were invitations, as everyone and their mother wanted me to attend this or that social event. For any host, having a Chosen attend their event would elevate them in the eyes of their peers. There were so many invitations, that it got to the point where the servants at Sturm Manor needed to use large sacks in order to carry them all.

Given that I had neither the time nor the inclination to deal with all these invitations, I hired a secretary to do it for me; a man by the name of John Hyland. Father recommended him to me since John’s House, House Hyland, had a longstanding friendship and business partnership with House Sturm. They were also devout followers of Tempest.

John was a no-nonsense man in his mid-twenties, with an average build and a perpetual deadpan expression. He had the light brown skin, dark hair, and eyes typical of this part of the empire.

He was also a House scion who had just reached the Second Circle, which was the average for wizards. I had been around so many prodigies and geniuses over the past few months, that I had almost forgotten that most wizards didn’t reach the Second Circle in their teens.

Not only was John responsible for sorting through all these invitations, picking the wheat from the chaff, but I almost put him in charge of my social calendar and correspondence in general. While I could have done it myself, I didn’t have the time to spare. My training and cultivation took precedence, so I delegated it to someone else.

John had a discerning eye, which made him perfect for the job. He knew which invitations were worth looking at and which ones to burn, saving me the trouble. He also took my preferences into account. Rather than go to every social event available, and run myself ragged, I only wanted to go to a select few.

Of course, anything from Annabelle took priority.

John was also unwilling to put up with nonsense, from me or anyone else, despite his relatively low status and weak magic. This made him an even better secretary. I also liked his dry humor and deadpan personality.

Father found my newfound popularity, and the annoyances that came with it, amusing. At first he was upset at me for revealing myself without talking with him about it beforehand. However, when I told him that it was the will of Tempest, a complicated expression crossed his face. In the end, he just patted my shoulder in consolation.

At least my new status helped Father with his work, which increased the prosperity of our family overall, so it wasn’t all bad.

There was one significant downside to this entire situation, however. A number of people had shown up at Sturm Manor, and continued to show up, hoping to meet with me. Most were either socialites who thought that a face to face meeting would be better than an invitation, or they were faithful of Tempest who wished to see the Chosen of their god. I let John deal with them.

This was bad enough, since they were all uninvited and unwelcome intruders. However, a few came by with nefarious intentions. One was a Dark wizard in the Second Circle who wanted to kill me. The House Sturm retainers captured him when he tried to make a move, and handed him off to the Inquisition. After that incident, I asked Priestess Kaya for a squad of paladins in order to tighten security.

While I felt a bit bad for asking the Temple of Tempest to help me with a personal matter, I had my family’s safety to consider. The paladins of Tempest were more than happy to comply. As recompense, I decided to aid them with their martial training, so they learned something while they were here. Of course, they were ecstatic to train with the Chosen of their god. Since they were paladins, and knew about cultivators, I didn’t even have to hide my strength from them.

There was some friction between them and the House Sturm retainers, though that settled down soon enough thanks to Leroy’s efforts. He had become go-to man among the House Sturm retainers, since he was one of them, and knew how to soothe any ruffled feathers.

In addition to my training and cultivation, I also experimented with alchemy. Several weeks ago, Grand Inquisitor Corvus gave me two memory stone tokens as payment for my help in tracking down the Dark wizard who cursed me and the heirs to several other Houses. One token contained the method to combine Spirit Earth alchemy with Luminan alchemy, as well as the laws and principles behind said method. The other contained the same knowledge, but for formations and magic circles.

I hadn’t been able to read either token until recently, since my mind had been damaged at the time and I couldn’t use my divine sense, a requirement for reading the knowledge contained with a memory stone token.

To my complete lack of surprise, both involved the Key of Harmonious Union that I received from Master Celestial Blade, as I started to call it. I didn’t know its actual name. In fact, reading the two tokens allowed me to glean some more insights into the Key, which increased my wizardry and cultivation somewhat.

According to the memory stone, it took the sages on Lumina (my term for wizards who were also cultivators and vice versa) several centuries to combine Spirit Earth alchemy with Luminan Alchemy. Unlike me, they managed to succeed. In my defense, I had only been at it for months.

To my surprise, the method to combining the two forms of alchemy didn’t require creating a Spirit Earth pill first, and then refining it into a potion. Instead, one refined the necessary ingredients using Luminan alchemy, before using a pill furnace to create pills from the essences. Normally, this would just result in uselessjunk; or poison if done a certain way. Failure, in other words.

However, if one placed the pill furnace inside a magic circle called the Circle of the Infusing Flame, it resulted in success. To put it simply, pill furnaces worked by using pressure and magical fire to create pills. What the Circle of the Infusing Flame did was alter the properties of the fire created by the pill furnace, allowing it to turn essences created through Luminan alchemy into pills.

This resulted in a pill that combined the best of both kinds of alchemy. It was more potent than pills created through Spirit Earth alchemy, but required less ingredients and reagents, like elixirs created through Luminan alchemy.

Not only that, but the Circle of the Infusing Flame was special in other ways as well. By default, the magic circle required mana stones, since it infused their mana into the pills, thus the name. However, other materials could be substituted so that their specific properties could be infused into the pills created, altering pills’ intended effects.

For example, using Black Fulgurite, a high-grade material with an affinity for Lightning, to create Foundation Establishment pills would make said pills more effective for cultivators with an affinity for Lightning.

The Circle of Infusing Flame also took the interactions of the various elements into account. A material with an affinity for Wood could be used to strengthen a Fire pill, since Wood fed Fire, while a material with an affinity for Water could be used to weaken it, since Water drowned Fire.

I wasn’t ashamed to admit that the Circle of the Infusing Flame was a work of genius. It added an incredible degree of versatility to alchemy, which was already a pretty versatile practice, by adding a whole new dimension to it. The potential combinations were only limited by one’s knowledge of alchemy as well as the materials available. Mana stones were the default since their mana was pure, and wouldn’t alter the properties of the pills.

The memory stone token that Grand Inquisitor Corvus gave to me also contained several recipes that used this method of alchemy, as well as which materials worked best to enhance or alter the effects of the pills created by these recipes.

After I returned from the Grand Temple, I spent hours studying the memory stone token, before I started experimenting to familiarize myself with this new form of alchemy and the Circle of the Infusing Flame. I had a lot of fun creating all kinds of pills with strange effects. My experiments burned through a lot of ingredients and reagents, but we had enough mana stones that I could afford to splurge a little.

I also spent this time making a bunch of pills for my disciples and my family. Thanks to these new pills, my disciples each went up a small rank in their spiritual cultivation, as well as their body cultivation. The Circle of the Infusing Flame, and my own mastery of alchemy, allowed me to fine tune the pills to perfectly suit them.

The next couple of weeks passed like this as I focused on alchemy and training. I spent what little free time I had with my loved ones, with Annabelle taking top priority. Soon it came time for the little gathering I had set up; the one for Lord Asher, Lady Isabella, and Annabelle.

***

The day of the gathering turned out to be bright and sunny, with a few clouds trailing across the sky here and there. With the days growing warmer, I figured it would be best to have our little sparring session/social gathering outdoors, in the makeshift training area I had set up.

At first I had intended to just trade pointers with Lord Asher and Lady Isabella. Both to get to know them better, as well as get a feel for their fighting styles. After my duel with Lord Asher, however, I figured it would be a good idea to make it a social gathering rather than just a straight up sparring session. After all, my goal was to make connections and forge friendships with Clan Griffin and Clan Rhodes. What better way to do that than through socializing and serving refreshments, in addition to sparring?

To that end, I set up tables and chairs near the training area, as well as a plethora of tea and snacks. Well, my family’s servants set up the tables and chairs. Lorelei and I made the tea and snacks.

It turned out that Celestial Weaver, in her guise as Terra, had been teaching Lorelei spirit cooking. This allowed my disciple to create food infused with mana, though it worked best if she used ingredients that already had an abundance of mana, like magic beast meat. Meanwhile, I made green tea using spirit water from the gourd Master Celestial Blade gave me. Lorelei was the better cook, but I knew tea better than her. Together, we made a good team.

Corie tried to help, but Lorelei and I chased her out of the kitchen. To call her attempts at cooking awful would be an understatement. She knew how to create pills, medicines, and poisons using alchemy but edible food was beyond her. Even Leroy thought so, and the man was in love with her. I almost changed my mind when she left the kitchen with a defeated look on her face, but I managed to stay strong.

My guests started arriving around mid-morning, soon after Lorelei and I finished making the refreshments. I met them at the entrance to Sturm Manor, with my three disciples standing behind me.

First came Lady Isabella, who drove up to Sturm Manor in a magic carriage. This surprised me, since I expected Annabelle to show up first. Keeping my beloved’s jealousy tendencies in mind, I made sure to keep an appropriate distance away from Lady Isabella.

I needn’t have bothered. It seemed Lady Isabella had given up any thoughts of trying to seduce me. She showed up wearing beautiful, but functional, robes suited for sparring and greeted me like a friendly, but distant, acquaintance.

“Greetings Lady Isabella,” I said, giving her a polite bow. “Welcome to Sturm Manor.”

“Greetings Lord Gabriel,” Lady Isabella said, eyeing my House’s ancestral home. “Thank you for inviting me. Your home is…lovely.”

She must have had one hell of a poker face, because she almost sounded sincere when she said that. The House Rhodes retainers accompanying her weren’t as tactful. One outright sneered at Sturm Manor.

“Thank you for saying that,” I said, wearing a polite smile on my face. “I appreciate the effort.”

Lady Isabella gave me a pity filled smile in return.

After some more small talk, I had Corie escort Lady Isabella and her retainers to the training area.

Soon afterwards, Lord Asher showed up. Like Lady Isabella, he arrived in a magic carriage. He paused when he saw me, probably because I formed two new threads since we last met, but recovered soon enough.

To my surprise, an unpleasant one at that, he only showed up with one retainer: Lord Wilbur. I narrowed my eyes at the both of them when they exited the House Griffin magic carriage, making no attempt to hide my displeasure. Lord Wilbur flinched at my glare and avoided my eyes. He carried an ornate wooden box in his hands.

“Greetings Lord Asher,” I said in a cold voice. “Welcome to Sturm Manor.”

He gave me an apologetic smile in response.

“Greetings Lord Gabriel,” he said. “Thank you for inviting me.” He gestured to the young master of House Shelton. “Before you say anything, I brought Lord Wilbur here so he could apologize for his previous behavior.”

I narrowed my eyes further.

“House Griffin and House Shelton are followers of both Lady Terra and Lord Ferrum,” Lord Asher explained.

Ah, that explained it. Since Terra and Tempest were married, their followers tended to get along. Ferrum, the God of Metal, was also one of Tempest’s allies among the gods. Unlike with Brand, people knew the reason why. Ferrum studied under Tempest as his student for a time, learning the ways of the sword. While they were no longer master and student, the two maintained an amicable relationship and so did their followers, for the most part.

Huh. Did that make me Ferrum’s senior brother or his junior brother? I was Master’s student first, back when I was Celestial Thunder, but then I died and was reborn before becoming Master’s student once more. I guess it depended on one’s perspective.

Regardless, now that I had outed myself as the Chosen of Tempest, it made sense for House Shelton to make nice with me. It looked like relations between House Griffin and House Shelton hadn’t fallen apart if Lord Asher was willing to do this for Lord Wilbur.

“Lord Gabriel,” Lord Wilbur said, pulling me back to the present. He bowed from the waist. “I apologize for the way I treated you before. It was rude and disrespectful of me.” He stood up straight and held out the wooden box towards me. “Take this as a token of my apology.”

I took the box and opened it. Inside, a blood red pill sat atop a black velvet cushion. The pill’s surface looked glossy, almost as if it were liquid. I examined the pill with my divine sense, but it didn’t have an elemental affinity; at least not in the traditional sense. It had an affinity for blood, but not Blood magic, which was a form of Dark magic. Curious, I gave Lord Wilbur a questioning look.

“This is a Thicken the Blood Pill,” he explained. “It is useful for those who have a special physique or those who practice a bloodline body cultivation technique. Given the legends about your House, I thought you might appreciate it. If not, you can trade it for something you need. It’s quite valuable.”

I resisted the urge to let out a whistle. This pill wasn’t as useful for me, since I practiced a divine body cultivation technique in addition to a bloodline body cultivation technique, but I could still make use of it. If nothing else, I estimated that it would help me go up a small realm in my body cultivation. After stepping into the Second Rank, I had focused more on my wizardry and spiritual cultivation, so my body cultivation had lagged behind. This pill would help me rectify that.

“Well, given your sincerity,” I said, closing the wooden box. I placed it in one of the holding bags I received from House Griffin, which I had taken for my personal use. “It would be churlish of me to reject your apology. Thank you for your gift, Lord Wilbur. I shall make great use of it.” I gave him a hard look. “As long as you don’t make the same mistake again, I see no reason why we can’t get along.”

Lord Wilbur blanched at this, but managed to nod.

“Good,” I said, giving him a bright smile that didn’t reach my eyes. “Now then, I’ve kept you two here for far too long. Please follow Lorelei. She’ll guide you to the area I set aside for today. Lady Isabella has already arrived.”

Lord Asher nodded to me, before following Lorelei to the training area out back.

“Miss Lorelei,” I heard Lord Asher say as they walked out of sight. “Have you given any thought to my mother’s offer?”

They walked out of range before I could hear Lorelei’s response. I could have eavesdropped on them further by using my divine sense, but I held back.

Soon after I returned from visiting the Grand Temple, Lorelei accepted Lady Diana’s invitation and spent the day with her. As expected, Lady Diana wanted to take Lorelei in as her student. Not only would she teach her Clan Griffin’s signature body refining technique, the Black Iron Body cultivation technique, but she would also provide all the resources Lorelei would need for her cultivation.

It was an offer most would kill for. However, rather than give Lady Diana an answer right away, Lorelei asked for time to think it over. She’s been in a pensive mood ever since then.

When Corie found out about this, she viewed this as a betrayal and grew upset with Lorelei. However, the two of them talked it out and managed to work things through in the end. It helped that I supported Lorelei, regardless of her decision, and that I would always consider her my disciple.

After Lorelei led Lord Asher away, I waited for Annabelle to arrive. As the minutes passed, and she failed to show up, I grew concerned. When I invited her, my beloved seemed as excited for this gathering as I felt, since it would give her a chance to spar and learn from her peers. It wasn’t like her to be late, not for something like this.

However, just as I started to grow worried, I caught sight of the House Thorne carriage with my divine sense. I let out a sigh of relief, though this turned out to be premature. A few minutes later, I caught sight of a House Solaria carriage heading towards Sturm Manor at a rather reckless speed. It seemed as if it were chasing after the House Thorne carriage.

I peered inside the House Solaria with my divine sense, and a chill ran down my spine when I saw who was inside.

Oh no.

The House Thorne carriage stopped in front of the entrance to Sturm Manor and Annabelle climbed out. Her bodyguard, Shannon, followed right behind her. My beloved wore a harried expression on her face. When she saw me, she gave me a smile that was equal parts relieved and apologetic. I gave her a betrayed look.

“Annabelle,” I said, walking up to her, skipping the formalities. “Why are Prince Eugene’s twins on their way here?”

Annabelle’s expression turned even more apologetic.

“Gabe, I’m so sorry,” she said. “It wasn’t my idea. They ambushed me just as I left Thorne Manor and followed me here. I tried to lose them, but you know how they are.”

Oh, I knew how they were. Everyone in House society knew how they were.

Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn, Prince Eugene’s twin son and daughter, were rather infamous for their eccentric behavior. To put it bluntly, they were serial stalkers.

Every once in a while, the two of them grew attached to someone, making that person their favorite. From what everyone could tell, there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason behind the twins’ behavior. Gender, race, pedigree, etc. None of that mattered. Their favorites ran the gamut from the highest of House society to regular mortals. The only common factor between them all was that none of them were above the age of twenty-five.

In most cases, attracting the attention of a scion from House Solaria was a positive thing. Not so when it came to Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn. When someone became their favorite, the pair wanted to know everything about them, regardless of their favorite’s wishes; and I do mean everything, down to the tiniest personal detail. The twins weren’t shy about using their family’s resources to get what they wanted either.

However, strangest of all, they never directly approached the target of their…affections? Instead, they watched their current favorite from a distance and made no attempt to approach the person who caught their interest.

Annabelle attracted their attention a few months after she joined the Solarian Imperial Academy. The two followed her everywhere and questioned (harassed) her friends and family in order to learn everything they could about her. They even questioned (interrogated) me a few times, thanks to my feud with her, asking me why I dared to harass such a pure and refined soul; their words, not mine.

This wouldn’t have been so bad, except that they broke into my dorm room in the middle of the night in order to ask these questions.

Every. Single. Fucking. Time.

The twins’ blatant disregard for privacy and personal boundaries made dealing with them an exhausting experience, even for those on the sidelines. For the person who caught their interest, it was a harrowing ordeal. The only reason they were able to get away with this sort of behavior was because they were scions of House Solaria, as long as they didn’t cross certain lines.

Thankfully, their interest in a person only lasted for a few months at most, before they grew bored and started stalking someone else. In Annabelle’s case, she forced the issue.

After enduring their behavior for several weeks, she went to her family for help. As a Great House, House Thorne had enough clout to push back against Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn. It helped that Lady Thorne came from House Solaria herself.

Prince Eugene pulled the twins out of the Solarian Imperial Academy. I didn’t know what happened to them after that.

“I thought they lost interest in you a while ago,” I said in a bewildered tone. “Why are they still following you around?”

I had forgotten about them, since I hadn’t seen them in a while, and assumed they had moved on from Annabelle. After all, it had been more than a year a half since I last saw them.

“I thought so too,” my beloved said, sounding exhausted. “It turned out that they were under house arrest this entire time. They just recently earned their freedom again.”

Fuck.

I turned my attention back to the House Solaria carriage. We had about a minute before it arrived at the entrance to Sturm. After thinking about it for a fraction of a second, I made a decision. No way in hell would I let Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn harass Annabelle or any of my other guests. While this could cause conflict with House Solaria, I was more than willing to pay that price.

With my divine sense, I searched for Charles Motley, the leader of the paladins of Tempest assigned to protect Sturm Manor. He was patrolling the grounds around the manor with a squad of his paladins.

‘Paladin Charles,’ I said, speaking to the man through telepathy.

‘Yes, Chosen?’ he said, speaking back to me in the same manner.

Like with wizardry, it was possible to be a cultivator and use Holy magic. In fact, it turned out that most paladins were cultivators, which was why they were so martially adept. I learned that little tidbit when I started training with the paladins.

‘Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn of House Solaria are on their way to Sturm Manor,’ I said. ‘They are unwelcome and uninvited intruders. Do not, under any circumstance, allow them to go further than the entrance. If they try to force their way in, drive them off or take them into custody. I'll take full responsibility for what happens afterward.’

Paladin Charles gave me a mental salute.

‘By your command, Chosen,’ he said in a solemn voice.

I relayed the same orders to John Coombs, the Vice Captain of the House Sturm retainers, though he was more reluctant to accept than Paladin Charles. However, in the end, he acquiesced.

After making sure the twins wouldn’t be able to bother us for the time being, I grabbed Annabelle’s hand and ran towards the back before the House Solaria carriage could show up.