Reborn: Knight's Code (8 page)

[Escape Ball- escape item that can be used in a labyrinth or dungeons to escape any room but the boss rooms.]

Ash was surprised to find that there were items that could allow someone to escape a labyrinth as long as one was not in a boss room. Seeing them, Ash had the urge to ask the teacher where he might get some of them, but he didn’t get a chance as here were plenty of other groups waiting behind them. Placing his hand on the plaque, Ash warped them all to the seventh floor.

Since this time the area was open, Yuki pulled out her bow, though her sword still hung at her side. Tina still used a long spear that was longer than she was tall, but it was no longer as pronounced as it was the last time he had seen her using the spear. Both girls were now over fifteen and had grown a lot of the past year. Tina had also lost a lot of her gruffness toward Ash as well, though it had been replaced with her pushing Ash toward Susan. Ever since she had got the idea into her head that Yuki could become her sister, she had become a little forceful, thankfully though this time she was absorbed in her test.

“Thank you for taking care of Yuki so much lately,” Ash said as he and Susan walked behind the two young girls. At first Yuki had felt odd about visiting Tina at her home after school. Since she was Ash’s slave, he had to order her to go the first few times, but now she would go over there for a few hours every few days. Tina though had still not came over to his house even though Yuki had asked and Ash had given his permission.

“It was our pleasure,” Susan replied with a smile. “She is a very helpful child.”

Just as they were starting to talk, the first wave of zombies started to appear. Ash kept his hand on his sword while he watched the two girls fight. As soon as the zombies appeared, Yuki pulled back and started firing arrow after arrow with three out of four hitting the zombie in the head. While Yuki was sniping the zombies, Tina kept them back with sweeping spear strikes. Because she was dealing with a large number of opponents, Tina didn’t have the luxury of killing one at a time, otherwise Yuki would be overrun. After shooting off twenty arrows and killing more than her allotted share, Yuki placed her bow back on her shoulder and unsheathed her sword and joined Tina. With Yuki at her side Tina started to target individual zombies, one after another while Yuki worked to keep them from surrounding them.

In less than a quarter of an hour Yuki and Tina had cleared up the large number of zombies that had flocked them. Due to the long fight time, the ones that they had killed at first had already disappeared, but even with that, more than thirty zombies still littered the ground. With their test finished, the group of four walked back though right when they reached the plaque to transport Yuki pulled on Ash’s arm to ask him to hold back.

“What is it Yuki?” Ash asked slightly bewildered.

“The spear…We passed. I was wondering if Master brought it with him?” Yuki asked with a slightly blushing face.

Laughing, Ash pulled the spear out of his inventory and handed it to Yuki. “You both passed, so I will keep up my part of the bargain,” Ash replied laughing.

Yuki proudly held onto the spear while walking forward and warping back outside. Ash quickly followed, his heartbeat slightly increasing as he thought about what kind of face Tina would make while receiving the gift.

Ash arrived outside just behind Yuki and saw Susan talking with the instructor while Tina was happily telling Helen that she had passed. Ash had already told Emelia about the spear and the deal with Yuki, so when she saw the spear, a faint smile spread across her face and just as Tina was about to turn around she distracted the young girl with a question.

Almost like a skilled thief, Yuki snuck up behind Tina and held the staff in front of her. Ash couldn’t see Yuki’s face, but from the way she was bouncing on her heels he could tell that she was excited. Just as Ash was moving to get a better view, Tina turned around and Yuki held out the spear to her.

Ash instinctively covered his ears with his hands as the air was filled with a piercing shrill yell that would put a banshee to shame. After a few seconds of excited yelling, Tina took the spear and made a few practice stabs with it then wrapped Yuki in a tight hug. Seeing the two girls, Ash couldn’t hide the smile that spread across his face.

“Thank you,” A light voice said from Ash’s side. Turning his head he noticed a warmly smiling Susan watching her young daughter happily jump around while hugging Yuki.

“It was Yuki that wanted to get her a gift,” Ash said dismissively. “I only helped out a little.”

With the test done and Yuki moving to the second class, there was nothing else to do and even if they had taken the morning off there was still plenty more to be done before the day was over. After giving their congratulations to the two young girls, Emelia gave a few words to the other students then she took Ash by the arm and headed back toward the mansion. Half way to the manor, Ash gave Emelia a light kiss on the cheek and moved off as he had his own business to take care of while she went over the many reports that were piling up in her study.  

7-9

After leaving Emelia, Ash headed for the fort construction site. As he exited the city gates, it was now clear that the forest was starting to be cleared, but still only ten percent of the needed woods had been cleared away and still a large number of the logs were stacked up waiting to be cut and shipped.

The largest problem wasn’t the trees themselves, but the stumps that still littered the landscape. The only way to remove them was to either use an earth mage or to use a team of horses to pull them out. Right now they only had one low level earth mage working on the stumps, but after only three or four he had exhausted his mana supply and had to rely on potions to restore him. Other than the earth mage, there were four teams of horses pulling out stumps, but it took both of them and their handlers to do the same amount of work as one earth mage. Ash had tried to pull out one of the smaller stumps himself, but even with his strength it took the better part of an hour to free it from the ground and even then he had to cut the roots before it was completely released.

On the south side of the forest near the city walls, two buildings were already built where the young knight recruits were now living. For part of the day, they did weight and sword training much the same as Ash had done not long before. The rest of the day, they helped clear the land though for their work they were given good food, much better in fact then most of the workers could afford even after a full day of work.

The only other addition to the site was a small wood processing plant that had been built. Ash had always envisioned a large saw blade cutting up the trees, but instead it was fueled by a magic. Ash learned that one of the more selective guilds, the Magic Craftsman Guild made various items that were used by normal people. There were items made by processing monster items infused with magic for human use. The sawmill was made using various monster items that from what he was told, were fairly common. The most impressive part to Ash was how they cut the wood using a blade made of fire and wind that left the wood looking marbleized. After the wood was cut, it was treated with a thin brown liquid to make it waterproof and then dried for a day before being used or shipped.

After seeing how fast the sawmill worked, he asked about using something like it but smaller to cut down the trees, but he was told that right now it was hard to make it to a smaller degree and even if they did it wouldn’t be cost effective.

Thanks to the notoriety that he had gained lately, Ash feared that he would be kept from working, but that was not the case. In fact the more he showed himself, the better people not only viewed him, but the course of action that the duchy was taking. There were still plenty of naysayers, but they had quieted down considerably over the past few weeks.

Now that the land was starting to be cleared, the condensed stones were starting to be arranged to build the wall. It had to be built far enough away from the city so that the city walls couldn’t be used against it, but not so far away that it left the city vulnerable. Ash didn’t know how high to build it, but after talking to the architects they decided on twenty-five feet tall and eight feet wide. Every hundred foot there would be a tower built for guards to watch out of. The drawbridge of the fort would be made out of metal instead of wood and would be operated by a magical device, though due to the cost of operation it would only be used in emergencies.

Ash had wanted to start on the fort itself first, but there was not enough of the land cleared and prepped yet. The main part that was lacking was the ground preparation since it couldn’t be done until enough of the stumps were pulled out. Ash had come daily to check on the progress, but it seemed to be moving to slow. Thankfully so far none of the other duchies had made a move yet, though there was some action near the border.

Ash had been a little apprehensive, but Emelia assure him it would take the other nobles’ months before they would dare to start an engagement. The first thing Emelia had done was to send a request to the king to demand a full inquiry, but so far he had yet to respond. Most likely the king was trying to settle any problems without an official statement. Ash had asked why it mattered, but it seemed that unless the nobles had a legitimate reason for a war, then it was prohibited to attack another noble and since their reason would put them at odds with the church, the king didn’t want to have to make a public declaration.

Unlike Emelia’s duchy that mainly followed Altina, the other duchies each had their own patron god chief. Among them was the god of war and the goddess of the hunt, neither of which cared much what humans did to each other or other tribes. In fact, the god of war propagated killing in all its forms.

With the king trying to keep the other nobles from attacking, Emelia expected that it would take at least two months before they would dare to cross the border in full force. Emelia made it no secret that she sought the king’s aid and while the other nobles might send over a few small groups to test the kings resolve, once they learned he would not support her in the slightest, the full attack would come. They wouldn’t do it out of any moral reason but for profit since her land was rich in resources and had the labyrinth. It might not seem like much, but the labyrinth was a gold mine that would never give out. Not only did it bring in people, it increased trade which the duchy could tax.

“Lord Hawkwing, I see that you are here again today,” a young man who was in charge of the tree removal said as Ash headed toward an open patch of trees to start working.

“I can’t ask other people to do what I won’t do myself,” Ash said as he took off his outer shirt so that it wouldn’t get dirty. Ever since the speech he had made outside the manor, Emelia had demanded that Ash wear what she called more appropriate clothes for a noble. Even when he went to the labyrinth, he had to wear over piece though as soon as he got inside he exchanged it for his armor.

Thinking about the labyrinth, Ash let out a heavy sigh. He wanted to go to the labyrinth more often, but Emelia wanted him to show his face more not only to the public but to the knights as well. He had tried to convince Emelia with giving her one of the party crystals, but not even that convinced her though it did allow her to gain a few levels. Ash had asked her why she had never done it before, but she had told him that usually only male heirs are allowed that privilege since no noble wants a wife that is as strong as they are. For that reason, she was kept from it. After her father’s death, she had just never thought about it since everyday was always so busy.

Thanks to everything, Ash could only get a few hours every few nights to go to the labyrinth. Thankfully though, things were started to settle down slightly and that would allow him a bit more freedom, unless fighting really broke out then he would have to head to the front lines.

Emelia was against him fighting in battle, but this was one area that he refused to budge on. If there was going to be a war because of him, he was not going to sit idly by while others died. He knew in his heart that it wouldn’t be just for him that they were fighting, and even Emelia had hidden reasons for her actions, but it would still make him uncomfortable to sit behind in comfort while others fought and died.

Thanks to how strong Ash was, he could now cut down even one of the larger trees with only a few strikes. Due to his fast speed, five teams of haulers were assigned to him just to carry away the trees as he cut them down. After he had worked for an hour, some of the young knight apprentices started to come over to help him.

The first few days, the kids had kept their distance from him, but it didn’t take long for them to start warming up to him.

“Lord Ash, can we help you today?” A child of the beast tribe asked with large eyes.

“It would take all of you together to pull one tree,” Ash said doubtfully. “You should help them cut the limbs from the downed trees like you have before.”

“Yes sir,” the boy said with a slightly downcast look on his face.

After he finished working for a few hours, Ash sat aside his axe and headed to the area where the children were working. Ash pulled out three small balls that he had commissioned to be made. They were made out of cloth that was soaked in slime which made them much like large bouncy balls from his previous world.

“Sampson,” Ash yelled as he tossed the ball lightly to the kid.

The oldest of the boys looked up and quickly snatched the ball out of the air. Ash threw the other two balls one to a young elven girl and the last to one of the few human boys.

“What are these Lord Ash?” The young girl asked.

“Are they for training?” Sampson followed up before he had time to reply to the first question.

“You can use them for training, but mostly they are for playing with,” Ash said as he pulled a fourth ball from his inventory and bounced it against the hardened ground then snatched it out of the air. “Want me to teach you a game?”

The children quickly gathered around Ash and even the knights were watching him closely. Using the ball along with the side of the building Ash started to explain the rules of wall ball that he used to play back in his school days. It was simple, you threw the ball against the wall and then everyone tried to grab it. If someone missed the ball they had to touch the wall before you hit them with the ball or they were out.

The kids took to the game quickly and seemed to enjoy it and before long Ash quickly was able to sneak away with a smile on his face.