The first reaction to the question had been a resounding no. Both Aranor and the prince knew that there was no way it was a coincidence that the students were here. After thinking on it for a bit however they decided to allow them to tag along but only if they could keep up.
As a whole the group wanted to spend as little time as possible in the kingdom of Deepwood so they would be heading straight for the capital from here. Their timeline would have them exiting the kingdom in under two months. So they started their ten day journey towards the capital.
It didn’t take long for the first radical to make the first attempt on the group. Two days into their journey as they were passing through the lands of a small-time Baron whose house had fallen from Viscount three generations ago the group was charged by a small army numbering two hundred people.
“We’re under attack.” The prince calmly relayed as he entered the large carriage.
“By what?” Elara asked uncertain how to take the prince’s nonchalance.
“Baron… I didn’t pay attention to the name.” the prince said with a shrug after a moment of silence. “Small force of two hundred.”
It was here that Ajax got to see countries put so much emphasis on their elites. The group that was escorting them was formed of twenty one people, with the exception of Lioriel they ranged in level from the high eighties to the early hundred. The people ambushing them were just common guards of failing House most being in their high fifties with a few standouts reaching higher.
The fighting Ajax had seen before as part of the skirmish between two local nobles was nothing compared to what he was seeing now. Outnumbered ten to one their escorts had no issues carving a bloody path through their ambushers. The difference in stats and skills was too high for there to even be a question of who would come out ahead.
Shortly after the fighting started the students also joined the rest of the group in the spacious carriage as the most defensible position, though both Aranor and the prince insisted that their guards remain outside as a security precaution.
Despite them being on the losing side Ajax couldn’t help but pay very close attention to the ambushers' fighting style. It was clear that despite some of them not being mages, or even hybrid fighters they were still using spells as part of their combat.
One archer summoned a small fire in front of himself that he used to ignite the arrows he had dipped in some sort of accelerant. A warrior had used a weak wind spell centered on himself that caused a swift breeze to flow towards him from all directions giving himself a way to know if someone was behind him.
As he watched Ajax made a small note to himself to spar a few of the physically focused elves once he got to Sylvanthal to see if he could pick up a few tricks that humans might not have come up with because of how rare magic was for them.
“Did the baron not come himself?” Ajax asked after watching the carnage for a few minutes.
“He did.” the prince said as he pointed towards the man in the center of a defensive circle formed by the remaining forty ambushers. “The idiot who can’t cast focus well enough to cast a spell properly.”
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Ajax was utterly unimpressed by the noble. During his time in the capital he did learn that most low nobles and commoners weren’t all that different, the big difference came that nobles were given a big push early in life to level, that they were boosted through dungeons and had access to stat increasing potions.
Nobles who lived in the capital were more refined by their environment. With peers and external pressure the quality rose. Out in the countryside the only difference between nobles and commoners were a few extra social skills and a large number of points added to Vitality that was compensated for by bought stats.
“Will they just kill him?” Ajax asked as he watched the defensive formation be taken apart with almost no effort.
“No, it’ll be a public execution.” The duke’s son answered. “They’ll capture him and the royal family will make it a spectacle to outline their stance on any attacks on your group.”
The flicker in Anna’s expression as she digested the information was missed by almost everybody, it was only her best friend who caught it. “What’s wrong Anna?” Lexi asked.
“I’m not sure how to feel about this development.” Anna answered honestly. “He was a sacrificial pawn.”
As Ajax thought about what that could mean it dawned on him. If students in the academy hadn’t known they were here how would a nobody baron? He was clearly leaked the information. Considering the presence of the escort and the public execution it was all planned out by the royal family.
“Though that does beg the question, are you here as part of the plan or is your father playing a different angle?” Anna asked the duke’s son.
The man in question didn’t have the social skills high enough to hide the apologetic look he threw his classmates as some of them stared daggers at him for dragging them into something without letting them know. Ajax also made note of the three of them he picked out that had not been surprised by the revelation, either they knew in advance or put the pieces together before Anna pointed it all out.
“It’s a different angle.” Harold said the Silvertongues had given him a full debrief on the royal families, archdukes and dukes of both Sylvanthal and Deepwood. While they didn’t have perfectly up to date information as shown by the surprise news of a chance in ruler.
“Father is looking to make use of your visit to take care of a few problematic minor nobles in his lands.” the duke’s son didn’t hold back the information. “Us traveling with you like this would give me the pretext of being ‘offended’ at any disparaging remarks about some new friends I might have recently made.”
The whole plan relied solely on them making the journey to the capital together, something that had already happened.
“And do you have anything to provide for us?” The prince didn’t even skip a beat as he asked for payment for their part in the plan.
“I was hoping to pass this along once we arrived in the capital but I see no reason not to tell you now.” the duke’s son answered. “There is a kidnapping planned for one of the nights you are in the capital. I am not sure who is the target or whose plan it is but I do know they are using the Fade Leaf mercenaries who have more than one person working for them at the Springwood inn.”
There was a deep silence as the group was slightly surprised to hear the name of the inn they had actually planned to stay at instead of their decoy arrangement.
“That’ll do.” the prince nodded with a grin not giving away any effect the information had despite the lacking poker faces of the rest of them.
Ajax would have had trouble holding in a laugh when confronted with some of the expressions that some of the students had when they heard the exchange of information between. This was all overshadowed however by the realization that he might very well not be the target. He subconsciously got closer to Lexi and placed his arm protectively over her shoulder.
“The threat has been dealt with and their leader captured.” Lioriel’s voice broke the silence. “We can continue on our way.”
“What happened?” Ajax asked, probing to see what she would say.
“The crown has removed an inconvenience while strengthening the security of your group.” Ajax was pleasantly surprised to see that Lioriel didn’t try to hide that they expected the ambush.
“Did they also order this attack?” Ajax’s voice turned a little flinty. Much as he despised certain types of nobles he also took issue with betrayal.
“No,” Lioriel answered. “All nobles whose lands we would be passing through have been notified of your arrival. They were not notified of my presence, we expect at least another ambush before we reach the capital, possibly two. The road we are taking specifically goes through the lands of nobles whose personal forces don’t pose a threat to your escort and whose financial situation would not allow them to hire more experienced people.”
Ajax was satisfied with that answer, he couldn’t be sure if it was the truth but while it wasn’t a situation he endorsed it was one he could accept.
“Why go through all this to remove them?” Ajax asked after he returned to his seat. “Couldn’t the queen just take away their lands?”
“In theory she could.” Arianwyn answered. “Unfortunately it is an unwritten rule that a king or queen who removes lands from nobles for simple mediocrity and slight incompetence sets a precedent that would see them removed. She just needed them to give her a better reason.”