Later that afternoon, Damon made his way onto the training grounds.

He was exceptionally sore, but he had gathered some mana threads through the day and had distributed them through his body for support.

He wore his normal training gear – the brown gravity enhanced tunic, trousers, and boots that Umbra had given him. He also had Umbra's restrictive braces on.

By the time he got onto the training field, William and Lucy were already there, also in their training gear.

William was warming up whilst Lucy sat with her legs crossed, circulating her mana.

As their training had progressed, Umbra had upgraded the restrictive braces to restrain mana flow whilst they were training, but saturating one's body with mana before training started was a viable tactic.

Damon's mana threads were impervious to the mana restriction, a fact that had initially interested Damon, but he lacked ability to investigate further as to why.

Once he got to the academy, Damon resolved to take advantage of the books, resources, and professors there to study his mana threads and truly understand why they had such odd properties.

For the time being, he walked over to Lucy and sat down beside her.

Lucy had been reserved since breakfast. Usually, she would be grumbling about the training to come as she meditated, but today, she was quite stoic as she sat.

Seeing Fernand had triggered something that had spoiled her mood, and for the typically bubbly Lucy to be unable to brush it off meant that it was something serious.

"He kind of does look like a pig, doesn't he?" asked Damon.

"Huh? Who?" asked Lucy, turning to look at him.

"Uncle Fernand. Just like Umbra said, he's quite Piggy isn't he?" asked Damon.

Pffft!

Lucy exhaled a soft chuckle.

"He wasn't always like that, you know. He used to be more like a snake than a pig." She said.

"Did you know him well?" asked Damon, chuckling along with her.

Lucy's tone grew somber, and the smile lifted off her face.

"I originally stayed with Mr. Fernand when I used to live with the family. It was only later that Aunt Ariel took me in." she said.

"Mr Fernand?" asked Damon, raising an eyebrow.

"Shouldn't it be Uncle?" he said.

Lucy's lips drew a firm line and she replied with vitriol that Damon had not expected.

"He is not my uncle, as far as I am concerned, we are not related." She said.

She placed a hand in her temple and drew a calming breath. Damon heard her mutter under her breath as she breathed out.

"As far as he is concerned too."

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

Damon was still unsure of what exactly had caused Lucy to be abandoned by the family, leading to his mother taking her in.

His best efforts had only served to dampen the mood and upset Lucy further, so Damon tried to cheer her up.

"What was grandfather like?" asked Damon.

Lucy's countenance noticeably brightened up as she thought of their grandfather, and Damon was happy to get her mind off Fernand, if only temporarily.

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"He was kind and gentle. From the very first day I was brought to the Marlow house, Grandpa Francis was the nicest to me, apart from Aunt Ariel of course." She said.

"What was your favorite thing about him?" asked Damon.

"He was always smiling, and he always had something to say about how bright and talented his children and grandchildren were." Said Lucy.

"No matter what, he saw the positive side of things, and he fought fiercely to protect those he loved." As she said those last few words, she shivered slightly.

"I miss him" she sighed.

"Well, you'll be seeing him again soon, so why do you look so upset?" Prodded Damon.

"Grandpa Francis and most of the family were great to be around, but not everyone there was so nice. Especially not to a bastard daughter who came out of nowhere." Said Lucy bitterly.

This was news to Damon.

He knew that Lucy was a daughter of the Marlow family, but he had assumed that her mother and father were distant cousins of the main line.

From the way Lucy spoke, however, it looked like Lucy's father was a core member of the Marlow family, but her mother was a commoner.

Those were the only circumstances that would allow for her to be brought into the main house and allowed to live there if she hadn't been born there.

"Well, it's a good thing that you'll be going as an attendant of the prince and not just some daughter." William, who had been walking past the two of them, chimed in.

His words made Lucy smile again, but she seemed slightly upset still.

Lucy sighed again and stood up.

"Well, you're right at least, I just need to focus on grandpa, I'm sure I can avoid the rest of them." She said.

The finality in her tone and the fact that she walked towards the track showed Damon that she was done with the conversation.

William scratched his head.

"Did I say something wrong?" he asked Damon.

"No, I think she just has a lot to think about." Said Damon, also walking towards the starting line.

Damon Lucy and William stood at the beginning of the track.

The track circled the training grounds, it was like a typical Olympic track in shape and size, though the distance was greater, and the ground was packed dirt rather than a rubberized artificial surface as one would find on earth.

Along the track, Umbra had coordinated with magic engineers to set up various obstacles, and though the ground itself was packed dirt, there was a formation running through the whole thing keeping it firm and well maintained.

The obstacles that the three encountered varied as they went, and the track was built such that the formations rotated, so that the obstacles encountered varied on a day-to-day basis, as did the order in which they appeared.

There were formations that increased gravity, whilst others turned a section of the track into a quagmire. There were pitfalls, moving platforms, and random traps triggering projectiles aimed at them.

Whilst the track was formed of packed dirt, the various formations present could shift the terrain of entire sections of the track, also changing the incline.

Because of this, a light jog on flat grass could become a mountainous ascent, which could give way to an icy descent.

The creation of this track had certainly raised many eyebrows within the kingdom.

It was well known that the mages belonging to the Kingdom were not skilled enough to accomplish such a feat, and the Kingdom's strained relations with the Towers meant that seeking support from tower mages should have been almost impossible.

There were initially rumors that the first Prince's acceptance as a tower disciple had served to pave the way for negotiations, but these rumors were quickly dismissed as folly.

The sour relationship between the two queens was public knowledge, there was no way that Queen Isabella would assist Queen Ariel in such a way.

Had Damon not seen Zereth arrive personally with some mages, he too would have been confused as to how his mother had managed to bargain with one of the towers.

Zereth had taken great interest in Lucy's growth when he had arrived and had spent time personally training her whilst his men worked on the track.

He had attempted to converse with Damon but had clashed several times with Umbra in the process.

Much to Damon's surprise, Zereth had managed to match up with her without much movement of mana – showing that his physical stats and combat ability were much higher than that of a typical mage.

Zereth had essentially toyed with Umbra whilst being chased around, but Umbra's presence had kept conversation between Damon and Zereth to a minimum.

He still hadn't been able to determine which tower the old man came from, but Damon was sure that the was a very high-ranking member.

Honestly, following Zereth as a disciple would not be a bad idea under normal circumstances, but Damon was not at the leisure to behave as if he were under normal circumstances.

In the first place, his mother's assassination was looming over the horizon, and Lucy and William were also targets of the first Queen's faction.

Secondly, his own power-base within the kingdom was much too pitiful. There was no point in gaining only personal power, as one man was not able to stand up to the demon invasion that would eventually come.

He needed to unite not just his kingdom but humanity as a while.

Only then could they keep the demons at bay and contend against the future Elven aggression.

Just a few actions in his childhood had served to shift the balance of power between the two queens, as compared to his previous life.

His mother had much more stable ground to stand on now, but the gulf between her and Isabella was still significant.

Damon had to lay a foundation that could not be shaken when he went to the academy, one that he could build off once he graduated.

To do that, he would need to stay within the Kingdom.