Alaster woke up in a foul mood, but he was not sure why. He had slept well the night before. He had actually gotten a full night’s sleep, something that had grown rare after acquiring [Death Embrace]. The ensuing war against the Lich was also progressing well.

His Death Knights continued to lead his army while he stayed in the city either attending his lessons or exploring. At first, the Death Knights had charged ahead, attempting to cut off the Lich’s escape before it could get too far. But, after running into several traps and ambushes, they had been forced to slow down.

The Lich clearly had no intention of fleeing from him, just to get away long enough to rebuild. And Alaster could not rebuild his own army in a single night. Both factors had prolonged the skirmish into a war that had been waging for over four months now.

The Lich sent out sweeping patrols and the Death Knights spread out Alaster’s Undead to ensure none got past. The current battlefield was roughly fifty miles east of Galmore and spread across five miles. It was a lengthy affair that would have been easily taken care of if Alaster acted personally, but it was also a valuable learning experience.

Everyday, he learned how to maneuver politically. And every night he examined the movements of both his and the Lich’s army to learn how to maneuver militarily.

Alaster had stopped by Claire’s workshop the day before to check on the progress of these ‘firearms’. They were still in no way capable of being used in an actual battle. Still much too fragile, and when they broke, they had the tendency to explode. It was a small explosion, but it was enough to injure most people, especially if they were the ones holding the weapon.

However, now that she had someone willing to front the expenses, she was making steady progress towards solving the issues. She just took care of them in the order Alaster wanted her to.

Alaster’s lessons were also progressing. He now knew most of the history of how Nobility in general came into power. Of course, he suspected it would take several years of diligent study to learn how each family came to power. But he now had a stable foundation to build off in future lessons detailing more about how to be a Noble, or at least pretend.

However, it was not just the lessons that were progressing. The relationship between Alaster and Lunaria was also progressing. The more they got to know each other, the more comfortable she became and the more uncomfortable he became.

Alaster had never been the most emotional guy, and it was made only worse after the several years he had spent in the wilds. Everything that attempted to get close to him typically wanted to kill him. He had grown very defensive of his personal space. And she was very touchy.

It was made even worse because something about her messed with his [Seeker Sight]. If he paid attention, he could easily see her, but if he was distracted, it was very easy for her to get close to him without being noticed.

Something she took advantage of regularly.

Getting out of bed, Alaster prepared for the day. He got dressed, thought about what he was going to do after the lesson, and mentally prepared to deal with Lunaria.

The lessons were meant to prepare Alaster to infiltrate the Lissurian Nobility. And while each lesson was not significant, with each passing day, Alaster felt his plan becoming more and more complete. Before, he had only the vague idea of barging into the capital and simply attacking until he found his sister.

Of course, that plan was immediately thrown out after seeing the defenses even a small Independent City like Onigas had available, let alone the forces Taria had sent to capture it.

He had not personally seen the Lissurian Capital of Zolis, but he was not foolish enough to think they had similar defenses. Without a doubt, the Capital would have defenses that far surpassed Onigas. In physical, magical, enchantment, and man power, they would all surpass Onigas, and possibly even Galmore.

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Galmore was a city built for defense, but it specialized in defense against Monsters, most of whom were very simply minded. The people of Galmore did not have to worry about being tunneled under by Earth Mages, Flooded by Water Mages, or their city infiltrated by their enemies.

Nonetheless, Alaster made it a point to study the defenses as much as possible and due to his relationship with the City Elder, he was allowed access to much more information than any civilian.

Slowly, gradually, his plan to infiltrate the Capital grew more solid, more realistic. Occasionally, the plan would be entirely scrapped with a new lesson from Azemar, but for the most part, the lessons built on top of the last.

The lessons were mostly for Alaster, but Lunaria was also attending them, even if she knew a lot of it due to being around Nobility her entire life. Technically, Azemar was not a Noble. But due to his capabilities, as well as the duties he took upon himself, he was treated as one. No one was foolish enough to anger their strongest line of defense against the tide of bloodthirsty monsters constantly banging on their gates.

Despite Alaster greedily absorbing every piece of information he could, he still had not managed to beat Lunaria in a game of chess. She completely outplayed him every time. Sometimes he would appear to win only to find that his queen surrounded and slaughtered or a quick maneuver that would put his king in check.

Alaster quickly found his days falling to a schedule, something that had not been the case for many years. After his escape from Onigas as a child, his days had always been a question. Would he survive tomorrow? Where would he find his next meal? What would he have to kill to get it?

But now, he found himself getting up early in the morning, learning from Azemar until roughly noon, then he would explore the city and occasionally check up on Claire’s progress, before returning to Azemar’s home in time to either have the dinner Lunaria prepared or even sometimes help her finish it. Then he would clean up while Lunaria watched and teased him before the two sat down to play a game or two of chess before she retired for the night.

Of course, with Alaster’s [Death Embrace], he did not need to end the day simply because the sun decided to call it quits. While he personally rarely left the city walls nowadays, his Undead were hard at work pursuing the Lich.

For the most part, they were carefully chasing after the Lich, but sometimes the Lich would push back, and the roles would be reversed for a bit. It was not a battle that either side wanted to commit the entirety of their forces to, so they continued to skirt around each other. Occasionally poking at the other with reinforcements being constantly funneled to them.

Alaster would occasionally check on their progress through the eyes of a Shadow Assassin, but there was not much he could do. He did not really have any experience leading an army. In truth, his experience was more ordering his army to charge at the enemy and then hoping to defeat them before his army of the dead was wiped out.

Catherine, the leader of Alaster’s Death Knights, had the most experience, though that was only through being a part of an army. She was still learning and through her movements, so was Alaster.

Alaster found himself learning how to multitask. After several weeks, he learned to go about his day while weaving more Undead into existence. He was almost constantly creating more, just as Catherine was practically constantly losing them. The only time that Alaster paused his progress was when he had a lesson, as he wanted to pay full attention to it.

Azemar was not that bad of a teacher either. He knew what he was talking about as he had personally experienced a lot of it. He also knew Alaster’s goal and taught things that he believed would help the boy. He was also surprisingly quite traditional in the way he taught. The lessons were usually in the library, and they would all sit at the table as Azemar taught them.

Alaster had just finished putting on his clothes when Lunaria burst through the door, even more excited than she usually was.

“Come on! Come on!” She ran over to him and grabbed him by the hand, dragging him out of the room.

“Am I late or something?” Alaster asked, already used to the young woman’s eccentricates.

“No, she just likes what the next lesson is about.” Azemar said, standing up from the table.

“We are doing it here? Not the library?” Alaster asked, finally pulling away from the bouncing ball of energy that was Lunaria.

“There is more room here.”

“What are we doing?”

Azemar opened his mouth, but Lunaria jumped in front of her father with a beaming smile, “Dancing!”

‘Oh, gods above, kill me now.’

As Lunaria forced Alaster into proper position to begin, Sedall and Belgroth were dying of laughter. They didn’t even have the good manners to keep it to themselves.