Following Ajax’s revelation and with a clear example in front of them about the truth of his allegations both the headmaster and the librarian quickly started walking the three students away from the secure training grounds and towards the royal castle.

Neither of the older men were acting in their capacity as faculty; however, both had taken out a clear sigil of their house, placed it visibly on their chest. They were now being escorted by Duke Manashaper and Duke Young. More than that Duke Manashapr placed a powerful illusion over them before they even made it out of the training grounds.

“What is going on?” Ajax asked.

“Something you should have learned in your fourth year.” Duke Young said.

“We’re going to be informing the king of this discovery, right now.” Duke Manashaper said.

“This is too big.” Anna explained for him and Lexi. “The ability to wear down armor like that is already powerful enough in a war setting, but there it is even more terrifying in a revolt.”

“You will all be made aware of this in your fourth year, it is one of the more undisclosed rules that the kingdom has.” Balthazar said. “What it boils down to is that no more than two houses can share access to a specific technique or skill while also maintaining it as a secret.”

“It is there so that the royal family doesn’t change with every new discovery of a powerful trick, a few large noble houses would share it and then they would start a revolt.” Duke Manashaper chimed in.

“Even if we were to overlook House Hearthbound as a new Baron house we already have two Ducal houses and one of the three archdukes.” Balthazar said. “It is usually the first lesson taught in the fourth year of the Academy since around that time is when most prodigies hit level thirty-five and start experimenting with creating their own style and niche skills.”

Everyone threw Ajax a look at that. Funnily enough he hadn’t broken the mold there as he was around level thirty-five now that the innovations started, he simply did it a whole two years early.

As they made their way through the city Ajax had plenty of time to get a good look at the illusion magic used by Duke Manashaper. He was sad to admit that it wasn’t the best he’d ever seen, that honor went to the kitsune, but this was a solid second place. Despite not being the target of the illusion and spending the entire trip towards the castle looking at it he couldn’t find any weak point in it. His only answer to it would be to simply brute-force it with [Mana Syphon].

“Halt.” the palace guards called out once Duke Manashaper removed the illusion surrounding them.

The five of them stopped, none of them said a word but Duke Young threw an obvious look behind them before turning to glare at the guards.

“You may wait inside but don’t approach the second gate before one of the squads comes to get you.” the guard said after a few seconds.

It took no longer than five minutes before one of the Squads Ajax didn’t know opened the second gate and made their way towards them, all of them were in their combat gear and had stern looks on their faces. The gear they had on marked them as the Fifth.

In contrast to them the king’s oldest son was sporting a cheeky grin as he made his way towards the group of five. “Well this was rather unexpected. What good thing have you found out?”

Oddly enough despite never having met him before the prince was talking to Ajax.

“How did you…?” Ajax trailed off at that.

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“One of the people we had protectively tailing you reported in about your meeting.” the prince said. “You then show up right here under an illusion, clearly you found something good and shared it, the only question I have is if you didn’t know the implication of what you found or if you had a few questions you wanted to ask them about it.”

“He had questions.” Balthazar replied with a wide grin. “ It may have taken a while but I think I finally found a student that’s more of a problem child than you.”

“What?” the prince said with clearly faked outrage. “You’ve always been an old man but I think it's finally starting to catch up to you. Nobody is more of a problem than me.”

Anna, Lexi and Ajax all stared in shock at the prince while Duke Manashaper who was clearly experienced in dealing with the prince and his eccentricities was simply rubbing his forehead in an attempt to prevent the oncoming headache.

“We have something that needs to be brought to the king’s attention.” Duke Manashaper said.

“Follow us, the King has granted you a private audience.” the leader of the Fifth said, he was just as eager to get past the initial stages of this interaction where a bit of suspicion had to be maintained.

All of them walked in a heavy silence as they made their way towards the throne room. Or at least most of them did, the seriousness of the situation was heavily undermined by the prince and Balthazar catching up with each other completely ignoring the situation at hand.

“I was right.” the prince declared the moment he set foot in the throne room. “He simply had questions!”

“None of us disagreed with you.” the crown prince said as he looked to be having a much tougher time fighting off the same headache that Duke Manashaper was combating.

The audience for this meeting was both larger and at the same time smaller than the previous time Ajax had come to report to the king. Whereas previously there were three full squads in attendance this time it was only the Fifth and the leader of the First. Besides them and the king all three of the king’s children, the queen, Xavier and the king’s only granddaughter were all in attendance.

“I take it that this is something different than last time, Ajax?” the king asked.

It was Balthazar, Anna, Lexi and duke Manashaper who were surprised at that question. They all understood that Ajax had to have shared something with the king that he was looking to keep secret.

“Yes.” Ajax confirmed.

“Why not bring it to us first?” the leader of the first Squad asked.

“The main research is still far from ready to be applied.” Duke Manashaper answered. “Ajax came to me with questions that I know will at least take years for me to find answers to.”

“Then why did you rush here?” the king asked.

“One of the steps involved in the discovery has more immediate and more serious consequences.” the duke answered. “Ajax himself already refused to share more than a basic demonstration with me before you were informed of it and even that was to answer an obvious question regarding his discovery.”

From there the Duke went on to explain in detail everything he had learnt in the past few hours about Magnetic mana. It’s applications, it’s strengths, it’s weaknesses as well as the most obvious uses. They even had Ajax show them examples of it both being directly created as well as fused from metal and lightning. Lexi and Anna both did their part too in showing how it could be used by two mages even without the affinity in question.

“Without any known runes or chants this mana affinity currently has little potential to be developed. What we know so far has provided me with a clear path for testing. In a few years I hope to develop at least one chant that successfully implements it.” the Duke finished.

“Certainly noteworthy, and I can see why you are the one he would approach with this.” the king nodded. “I don’t see the immediate and dire impact however.”

It was then that Duke Manashaper explained the process that Ajax claimed led to him discovering the existence of magnetic mana. The air in the room turned instantly shifted once he was done explaining the previous congratulatory and somewhat relaxed mood was now serious and focused.

“What effects can this have on mana infused metals that are already sporting runic magic?” the prince asked, for the first time since meeting them at the gate he had lost his cheery attitude and looked on edge.

“I don’t know.” the duke admitted. “ Other than the most basic of requirements for the magnetic mana generation to occur I have done no testing.”

“With two ducal families as well as one of the three archduke we thought it prudent that the royal family be informed.” Balthazar said.

“You have done well.” the crown prince said. “This is indeed something that must be considered carefully. Duke Manashaper if I could ask that you focus your research on this primarily for at least the next few months so that we can get a foundational understanding.”

“Yes, your highness.” the duke responded.

With everything explained Ajax took the opportunity to change the subject, everyone was too on edge with the previous revelation but there was nothing they could about it before more testing was done. “Your Majesty, about your request to me….”

“Yes?” the king appreciated the change in subject.

“Would it be possible for me to have access to a few attempts at solodelving before the trip to the Empire. I would like to at least be prepared so that I can reach as high a floor as possible.” Ajax requested.

“Yes, that is a reasonable request.” the king nodded. “I must insist however that you have someone escorting you while you do so, I do not want to see you kill yourself over this.” the king said.

“Ah…” Ajax found himself speechless at that since he didn’t have anyone that was strong enough to act as minder for him.

“I’ll go with him.” the king’s firstborn, having regained his cheery attitude with the change in subject was quick to involve himself in the discussion. “We can head out tomorrow."