Just as Flint walked by Hera’s bedroom, he heard a soft sobbing coming from the other side of the door. He frowned and knocked on the door, “Hey… are you ok?”
“Yeah. Do you need something?” Hera’s voice seemed normal, but she was still between sobs.
“Can I come in?” Flint asked.
“Sure,” when the dwarf opened the door, Hera was wiping out her tears with a tissue that Crimson had just passed to her, “What can I help you with?” the Ophidianite asked.
“Nothing. I just wanted to be sure you were doing ok. I heard you crying,” Flint replied.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry, letting go of my court members is not a fun thing to do,” Hera sniffed and tossed the tissue away.
“Right, I remember you talking about them. I imagine that it would be like putting down a pet,” Flint nodded.
“A pet?” Hera tilted her heard and scrunched her nose. The other titled blades, who were all sitting around the room, had a similar expressions staring at the dwarf.
“Sorry. I don’t understand exactly how does that works. When you explained to me, that’s what I felt like. I didn’t mean to be rude,” Flint said quickly.
Hera took a deep breath, her initial reaction was to be offended, but that was mostly because she just lost all of them. She thought it would be better than saying her goodbyes one by one, but in the end, it hurt just as much, “That’s fine. I get why on are saying this. But it’s not like a pet. It’s closer to a friend, but if I’m being honest, not as hard as losing another person I know. I still can see them later, but it does suck.”
“I’m sorry to hear it. Is there anything I can do to help?” Flints scratched the back of his head.
“No. Thank you,” Hera paused, “Actually. I wouldn’t say no to some tea. Can you just put some water on the kettle and turn it on?”
“Yeah. Sure. I was going to make some more coffee for me,” Flint stepped forward but stopped, “Can I ask you one thing about your legacy? It’s just something I realized.”
“Sure,” Hera nodded. She wanted a break before adding the new court members. A distraction could help.
“You mentioned that letting one of your weapons go was like killing a monster. Right? That someone did that to level up.”
Hera nodded, “Yeah. Or at least that’s what Daskka, the herald, says. I don’t know them, so I can’t confirm that with a 100% certainty.”
“Ok, ok. But would that work with a weapon you make with mana?”
“What?”
“I mean, you are an explorer, and you have the blueprint skill. If you make a dagger using that skill, can you use that one to add to your legacy and then let them go as a way to level up? The daggers would be at your level,” Flint asked.
Hera frowned, but she understood where he was coming from and there was a part of the question that she wasn’t entirely sure of either. Turning to Daskka, the herald took it as a cue to answer.
“In theory, that would work. I don’t see any reason why weapons made with a blueprint skill can’t be a part of the court. But what is the level to scaling ratio is something I don’t know. Maybe you need to get weapons that need a certain level, or a certain skill. I don’t know. Besides, that’s not the biggest problem with that idea,” Daskka glanced at the empty boxes of items.
“Yeah,” Hera nodded and turned to Flint, “In theory that could work. But, to put that in perspective. Could you go to an animal shelter and kill a bunch of puppies as a way to level up quickly? Oh, and those puppies can talk.”
Flint stared at her for a brief moment before nodding, “Ok. Got it, yeah that would be awful. Sorry to bother you. I’m going to boil water before I shove another foot in my mouth.”
“Don’t worry. And thank you for looking out for me,” Hera replied as the dwarf left. Nimbus, who was closest to the door, got up to close it before they continued with the process of changing the court. But before that, she turned around to the titled blades, “How are you all?”
“I’m going to miss Ember. I’m not going to lie,” Livy said with a sad smile. The Leviathan was sitting on the ground, taking a lot of space in the room, but it was the only option she had since the house wasn’t made for people 3 meters tall.
“I’m going to miss messing with Dusa. It was fun, and she was really growing out of her shell,” Daskka sighed.
“It’s always hard to lose friends. But we understand why this needs to be done,” Lurize looked at Hera.
“Especially because of me,” Vulcan added, getting odd stares from everyone, “I know none of you is willing to say it. But the fact that I have the Daemonic Influence was messing things up. We were not doing anything big, but I could tell how my emotions were impacting the other members, and in turn, Hera. Especially when we got frustrated with dancing practice.”
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Hera couldn’t say anything against that argument. She had noticed how, in the few days that Vulcan was participating in the training, she would be more snippy, and so would her blades. And the more levels were between her and the court, the stronger that effect was. When he was not there, it was less evident, but she could still hear the court members leaning a bit too much on their emotions. Bad things became worse in their eyes, small gestures like someone offering the Empress a cup of hot cocoa made Dusa, Ember, and Chris choke up. Even Ink, the most calm and collected member of her court, would find amusing things hilarious or become stressed with a minor setback. Hera never saw things get this bad, but she was also never this far ahead of one of her blades in terms of attributes.
“Vulcan. That is not your fault. Like, ok. You exacerbated an issue, but this is part of the legacy. The bigger the difference in attributes, the less able to control their emotions the court becomes. It’s part of the deal,” Hera patted Vulcan’s shoulder. He was on the floor by the foot of her bed, engraving some sigils on every weapon that had just arrived. All of them were still missing a single small line for the symbol to be completed, but the Empress was the one who had to do it to trigger her [Royal Seal] skill and give her new court some extra power. He had just finished the last one, on the tiara she got, and it was time to add the new members.
First, it was the tiara, the item that Hera wanted to add to the currently empty Marquessate. She chose it because of the skill, calling this new house the Cerulean Marquessate. Along with this house came a skill that was perfect for the commanding role she intended the new marchioness to have. The tiara was made out of a specific type of silver known for its ability to spread mana, and increase the range or area of spells cast through it. It was a simple band of metal that came from the back of her head and rested against the ears. Above that were what looked like dried branches that would cup the Empress’ head with two larger branches that were flattened and turned into blades, pointing up at Hera’s request. She invited the tiara to her court, trying to already add her to the right house and setting up the heirloom all in one go.
It all worked, and now the Cerulean Marquessate was born with the theme of ‘Strategic Command,’ and the heirloom already in place.
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Twiggy - Tiara - Metal affinity
Marchioness Cerulean
Attribute Scaling:
Empress Attributes: 852
Charisma X 26.5, Intelligence X 35.5, Strength X 4,
Agility X 4, Endurance X 4, Luck X 4
Active skill:
Silvered strength:
Increases wearer’s strength by 30% for 10 seconds
10 minutes cooldown.
Passive skill:
Urgent Orders:
Any order or command given by Twiggy to the court will have its priority understood.
Cerulean Marquessate Skill
Commanding Position:
Members of the Cerulean Marquessate are the generals of battles and leaders of armies.
Their mere presence can increase the scaling of their allies by 2% for each member of the Cerulean Marquessate within 30 meters
In addition, when a member of this marquessate gives an order, those who are following said order to gain a bonus 10% to their scaling while following said order. Once the order was completed, the decays over the next 10 seconds.
Only one of said effects can be active at a time.
If a court member received this benefit, it cannot receive it again for 1 hour.
Cerulean Marquessate Heirloom
Bathed in Eternal Silver:
For the next minute, the scaling of this item is tripled.
Mana cost: 5% of user’s total mana
Cooldown: 1 minute
Familiarity: 80%
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[Bathed in Eternal Silver] was the reason for Hera to get this tiara. Most people will try to get something like that in a weapon, but for some reason crafters were more likely to give skills similar to this one to defensive items, or worse, accessories. By itself, that wouldn’t be great, but Hera had the [Army of One] skill. Which meant that every skill that affected one of the court members would affect all of them at 10% of their strength. The translation became that by using this skill, she could give a 30% scaling buff to her entire court almost permanently. Sure, it asked for her 5% of her total mana, more than the 2% that was before Twiggy became the Marchioness. However, according to some tests, Hera could still use the mana from her [Empress Core] for it. And the total mana was referring to her normal mana, not what was in the core. The [Urgent Orders] skill was an unexpected benefit of her [Royal Seal], but a very welcome one.
All in all, the Empress was very happy with this first new addition.
“Hello, Twiggy.”
‘Hi there! Wow, you’re pretty!’ the tiara turned to the side, ‘And you are big!’ she gasped when looking at Livy, her high-pitched voice bubbling with excitement, ‘And I’m really happy to be here.’
“I’m happy you are here, too. But I have a very important job for you. You will be our general, the one looking out for everyone and making sure we are doing well in a fight. And telling them what to fight, and where the priorities are. Do you think you can handle that?” Hera asked. She could just give an order, but that never felt right. Besides, the Ophidianite was sure that doing things this way would work out better.
Twiggy stopped to think for a moment, then nodded, ‘Yeah, yeah. I can do… WAIT! Does that mean that everyone will have to do what I tell them to?’
Hera could swear she saw the tiara smile somehow, “Yes, but behave. Don’t go playing pranks or abusing your authority.”
‘Ok! Thanks mom!’ Twiggy rushed forward to give Hera the best version of a hug she could.
“Hey!” Daskka snarled, “I’m the only one who can call Hera mum here. Do you hear me?!” her snake eyes staring down the tiara.
Hera nodded with a smile. It’s been a long time since she had accepted this, “I’m afraid that is true. You can call me Hera, Empress, or whatever, but mum, or any variation of it, is just for Daskka.”
‘Got it. Sorry, I didn’t mean to step in your… you don’t have toes. So I’m going to say tail. Yeah, step on your tail, that feels better,’ Twiggy nodded while looking at Daskka.
The snake just huffed and floated over to Hera, taking her spot around her neck. The Empress chuckled before asking, “Twiggy. Can you sit here?” she tapped the bed, “I still need to add a few members to the court and then I’ll talk to all of you a bit to explain some things.”
‘Sure, sure. They will be the ones I can tell to do stuff, right?’ Twiggy leaned over, looking at the weapons on the ground.
“Yes, but don’t be mean. I don’t want to order you to do that, but I will if you start to make them upset. Ok?”
‘No worries. I’ll just start practicing my drill sergeant yelling,’ Twiggy cleared up her ‘throat?’ and tried to make her voice deeper, to no avail, ‘Now listen up, you maggots. There are five D’s in defense. Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge! No, wait… that’s 2 dodges. What else can I say that starts with a d?… four d’s doesn’t have the same ring to it.’
Lurize rubbed his metallic helmet where the temples should be, “Why can’t we have zomeone normal in the court for a change?”
“Says the dude who yells ‘I’m Mr. Beetle,’” Nimbus smirked.
“To be fair. I’m technically talking to myself right now. So I don’t think we can expect anything different,” Hera chuckled and looked over at the other weapons. There was a falchion, a chain sword, a scythe, a longsword, a spear, a bowblade, and a tail spike, “Ok. Who is next?”