Lord Naranoff did not show up on the day of the arrival of Aiden, Valdan and the princess' arrival, neither did he show up the next day.

Nella proved herself to be a well enough host and after a few moments of confusion, Aiden was informed by Valdan that house Naranoff had no lady of the house. Lady Naranoff had died a year ago during a specific daring adventure she had embarked on.

It turned out that Nella had inherited her love for adventures. Aiden wondered if the woman’s continued love for adventuring was because she loved it or some kind of love for her mother. A tribute of some kind perhaps.

He didn’t know how these things worked since he’d never lost someone very important to him. He had lost people in his past life, but none of them held any true sentimental value to him. There had been an adventurer he had made friends with before Ted became the Demon King, but they were more like relatable acquaintances than friends.

Members of the Order had died every now and again, and while it had hurt, it had felt more like losing a colleague than a friend.

Some things remained difficult to understand until they were experienced.

Aiden’s training with Valdan did not stop. On the day of their arrival, however, he trained alone in his room, mastering his class skills as much as he could. He learnt more with every mastery increase.

One of the things he found out was that there was no enchantment fitting of his level that he could engrave that he could not weave. [Enchanted Weave] ensured that the enchantments applied to him. Unfortunately, even the ones that were meant to be cast as AoE enchantments.

When he cast [Enchantment of lesser silence] he became silent. It was an odd experience. His heartbeat became almost nonexistent to him. Everything else functioned perfectly. He could hear the wind in his ear but the sound of his feet touching the ground did not reach him.

It was as though he’d silenced himself. Out of curiosity, he had punched the wall and had heard almost nothing. The sound was there, but it wasn’t as loud as it should be.

All enchantments worked on a principle of affecting mana. Enchantments that were meant to affect areas instead of items were engraved on tools that could be broken. The way they worked was that when broken, the enchantment funneled its purpose into every shattered piece of the item as it spread to establish its domain.

It was possible to limit the default reach of an enchantment by limiting the range of impact, but it was like deciding to limit the range of a bomb. With enough planning and tools, it would be possible, otherwise it was a hard task to manage.

So as far as [Enchanted Weave] was concerned, Aiden was the item. Casting AoE enchantments did nothing but apply the effect, like every other enchantment, on himself.

Thus, [Enchanted Weave] had taken the enchantment that was supposed to cast a silent bubble that kept sound in and turned Aiden into the bubble. That was as much of [Enchanted Weave] as he learnt.

On his first night, Aiden took his dinner in his room. Valdan did not call for him or stop by to speak of training, and Aiden felt it was probably because of what happened with the teleportation. The knight was probably giving him time to rest.

Aiden spent the second day walking the estate grounds. It was almost as large as the palace grounds, possessing a room for every fathomable home activity possible. It had four wings for all four cardinal points.

From what Aiden learnt, the west wing was out of bounds. No one was to enter unless explicitly summoned.

The north wing was specifically designated for guests. Currently, Aiden and Valdan were the only guests housed in it, and Aiden was certain it was no coincidence. What he didn’t know was if it was Lord Naranoff’s idea or if it was Brandis ensuring the secrecy of Aiden as much as he could.

Valdan came for Aiden on the evening of the second day a few hours before dinner. If they had remained at the palace, it would’ve been the time for their sparring.

Aiden was practicing AoE enchantments when he came, combining [Enchanted Weave] and [Walking Canvas]. While the former was a main skill of its own, the latter felt more like a supporting skill. The only thing [Walking Canvas] did was extend Aiden’s mana so that it reached outside him.

Surprisingly, it only reached about six feet in radius. When he used it, his mana decreased by only a single percent. When he deactivated the skill, the percentage decrease was reverted. Still, if he held the skill active for too long, his mana percentage would eventually start decreasing, even if at a slow pace. The main mana consumption only happened when he activated [Enchanted Weave] alongside it, and it varied.

Using both class skills together turned every enchantment he weaved into an AoE enchantment, regardless of what enchantment it was. At least that was applicable for the enchantments he could currently weave.

Aiden had a working theory on why that happened.

Valdan knocked on his door while he was in the middle of deactivating [Walking Canvas]. The constant use of the skill for the last two days had raised its mastery to 9% and its range had increased by a few inches. The increase was arguably inconsequential, especially when his interface liked to measure distance in kilometers, but it was progress.

“One moment,” Aiden called out when the knock came again.

He walked up to the door and placed a finger against it. All the doors had basic enchantment locks but Aiden had tweaked his own a bit. It was a safety precaution in case someone out there somehow had a master key that could unlock the enchantment from outside the room.

It was not common but it was not unheard of.

Aiden unlocked the door and opened it to the sight of Valdan outside his armor.

Aiden leaned against the door frame and smirked. “Have you come to get me to practice without your armor, sir Knight?”

Valdan’s brows furrowed in mild annoyance. “You are too old to be teasing someone capable of killing you in one blow, Lord Lacheart.”

Aiden cocked a brow. “You do remember that I’m only nineteen, right? I’m really not that old.”

Valdan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Apologies, Lord Lacheart. It is often easy to forget. I guess you aren’t too old for such antics.”

“You are here to drag me to training, though, right?” Aiden asked.

Valdan nodded. “I am.”

“Then please, lead the way.”

Their stroll through the manor wasn’t as long as its size would indicate, at least it didn’t feel so long. Valdan walked with quick steps as most knights do. He led them through the hallways and down the stairs until they went into a room.

The room was large, hot, and filled with countless maids running around as they prepared one meal after the other and accomplished one task after the other.

Valdan had brought them to the kitchen.

Aiden felt uncomfortable as they made their way through the kitchen, not because of anything but the fact that they were getting in the way of normal peoples’ tasks.

Every maid and cook and help scrambled to get out of their way, most paused their tasks just so they could bow and greet.

Valdan’s responses were simple. He nodded to every bow and responded to every word with words of his own.

When they came out of another door, it was into the evening air.

Aiden suspected he knew why they had taken the back door, and through the kitchen at that, but he wanted to be sure his thoughts were the same as Valdan’s.

“Any reason we had to disrupt the life of the nice people?” he asked as they walked towards another building in the evening air.

Valdan looked at him from the side of his eye.

“You look like you already have your suspicions,” he said.

“I do,” Aiden confirmed, “but I would also like to have them confirmed.”

“Fair enough. Since we arrived, I have felt like we have been kept under surveillance.”

“The Lord is keeping an eye on us?” Aiden asked, though he didn’t think that was the case.

Valdan shook his head. “No. It’s more like someone is watching us on their own. It just feels off.”

“Personally, I wouldn’t think too much about it,” Aiden said. The path they followed curved and brought them closer to the next building. “I’d argue it’s a spy from one of the other lords. Lord Naranoff suddenly gets three important guests worthy of clearing out his entire guest wing? Any spy not wondering what exactly is happening deserves to lose their job.”

Valdan shook his head. “But that’s the problem. I’ve seen a few spies in my short time working under the king. This does not feel like it.”

Aiden thought about it, worrying his bottom lip between two fingers. “Could be a spy from a different kingdom. No one says they have to limit themselves to the palace.”

“Nel Quan?” Valdan suggested.

It was possible. If they were aware of the fact that Bandiv had their own summoned ‘saviors’—which they were—Aiden would not put it past them to set a spy to watch his every action.

He had almost bested their best in unarmed combat and displayed information he should not possess. He was also the only ‘savior’ in Bandiv they were aware of.

But would they go this far?

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Aiden doubted it. But he rethought his opinion soon after.

If Jang Su told their Sage of my fighting style, then it won’t be very surprising.

Aiden let out a sigh. If that was the case, he would be in a different kind of problem. A Sage’s attention was not an easy thing. The attention of two Sages would be worse.

Brandis had referred to them as a natural disaster which, if Aiden was not mistaken, was also the way some people referred to the Order.

And if Sages fought like the Order, it meant they shared a relationship with the Order. The question was what was the relationship. Was the Order of the Sages or were the Sages of the Order?

It was a troubling question.

“That’s a deep sigh for a child of nineteen,” Valdan said.

They were at the building now and it looked more like an arena than a simple building.

Valdan opened the door and walked in, and Aiden followed.

“How old are you, Sir Valdan?” Aiden asked as they walked up a flight of stairs.

Valdan started but schooled his expression.

“Forty, Lord Lacheart,” he answered. “Why?”

“Just curious. In my world those at the age of nineteen are more correctly referred to as teenagers or young adults. It takes a certain age to see a nineteen-year-old and call them a child.”

Valdan smiled. He was showing more expressions these days than in his earlier days with Aiden. “And does forty fall under the category of said certain age?”

Aiden gave it a quick thought. He would call a nineteen-year-old a child, and he was only in his thirties. “Personally, I wouldn’t say it does. But there are some that might differ.”

The stair case ended at another door and Valdan, ever the serving knight, opened it and waited for Aiden to walk through.

It released them onto a balcony. The building was one of a wide extension of four other buildings that walled in a large space. Below them was a training ground, almost as wide as a small stadium.

There were people engaged in training. On one side the people wore armors and swung real swords and real spears, each one customized, some even flashy. Those that used the bow practiced with real arrows, sharpened tips designed to pierce more than just flesh, and their bows were equally customized.

On the other side of the space, the inhabitants used simple long swords of the Bandiv design. Their combat and training was less demanding than their counterparts and their spars were less entertaining to watch. Even those of them that used the bow used simple long bows and simple arrows fired at wooden dummies from over a good pace.

Aiden leaned down, rested his arms on the balusters in front of him. “What are the requirements for knighthood, Sir Valdan?”

Valdan did not emulate him. The knight remained standing, arms folded over his chest.

“They are a lot,” he answered.

“Humor me with the most important.” Aiden never took his eyes off of those fighting in their armor.

“For one, the most important of them all, you have to achieve level forty,” Valdan said. “To serve as a direct knight of the king, you have to achieve level forty-eight.”

“And at level 49, you’ve only been a knight of the king for…”

“Three months.”

“I see.” The Sage had assigned him to the ‘baby knight.’ “What else?”

“You have to have achieved something of great significance to the kingdom. It does not have to concern the kingdom as a whole, but it needs to have a significance. It is better if you achieve it yourself. If you are a part of it, then you need to have been a significant part of it.”

“And how does one tell if the part was significant?”

“There are ways. At least the king can tell. The System gives the royal family great power over these things.”

Aiden nodded. It was probably one of their title effects. On Nastild, titles weren’t only for combat benefits. Some were political and some were of other varieties. Bakers often had titles that enhanced their baking skills. Artisans had the same.

“What else?” he asked.

This time Valdan turned to look at him. “You seem to be waiting for some specific piece of information. Perhaps if you told me what it is, I could confirm it for you.”

Aiden adjusted his arms on the railing. He continued to watch the armored trainees as two sparred and one slipped below a dastardly blow from their opponent and slammed their blade into their opponent’s torso. There was a flash of an enchantment on the recipient’s armor before they were blasted back.

“Everything you’ve said,” Aiden said to Valdan, “seems difficult. But it does not account for why there are so few knights under the employ of nobles. And while king Brandis has a grand array of knights, I know for a fact that they do not number more than two hundred.”

Valdan frowned so deeply that it was almost a scowl.

“That is information that even I do not possess, Lord Lacheart,” he said. “I would advise that you treat all pieces of information given to you by the king in public or private as secrets of the crown.”

Aiden spared Valdan a simple look. “I will take that into consideration.”

It wasn’t information Brandis had given him.

Valdan shook his head but his frown faded. “The reason Knights are so rare is because there is a title you must possess before you can apply as well. You need it to become a knight to anyone.”

“Which is?”

“[Giant Slayer].”

Aiden let out a low breath. Even in his previous life he’d never gotten any title by that name. By its name alone, he had an idea what it entailed.

“And how many levels is that?” he asked.

“Levels?”

“The opponent you are supposed to slay,” Aiden clarified. “How many levels above you are they meant to be?”

Valdan smiled, genuinely impressed. “It is nice to know that your continued time in the library continues to yield fruits. Still, I guess it’s not a difficult thing to decipher, given the name.”

Aiden nodded. “It is not.”

“Twenty.”

This time Aiden let out a very slow whistle not a high one. “That’s a lot.”

“It is,” Valdan agreed. “And so are the benefits. It gives plus ten percent damage when fighting an opponent ten levels stronger than you and higher. It crashes out at thirty levels above, I think.”

“You think?” Aiden cocked a brow. “You haven’t faced an opponent higher than thirty levels before, I take it.”

Valdan snorted. Somehow it came out derisory. Self-derisory.

“[Giant Slayer] is the requirement to become a knight, Lord Lacheart. To become a knight of the crown, you need something else.” Valdan unfolded his arms and placed both hands on the railing. He leaned into them and his face hardened as he stared out at nothing.

Aiden saw too much grief behind the man’s eyes, because he wasn’t looking at a knight right now. Right now he was looking at a man, a man whose experience had molded him. A man with an experience he would rather not have had.

Aiden couldn’t help himself.

Unable to stop himself, he asked, “What do you require to become a knight of the crown?”

“For that, you need a different title.” Valdan turned and met Aiden’s eyes. His eyes were dark. His eyes were steel. “You need the title [Inevitable].”

Not many people knew the title, but Aiden did.

He said nothing and Valdan nodded.

“You know it, too,” Valdan said, as if he had been expecting it, then he stared out at nothing once more. “You know too many things for someone that has only been here for a month, Lord Lacheart.”

Aiden stared down at the training ground. The people below were beginning to notice them. Trainings were beginning to slow as they all looked up one after the other.

Valdan chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. Unfortunately, it was too strained. Too forced. It didn’t lighten the mood.

Aiden knew what it took to gain the title [Inevitable]. He’d met a few masters in the Order with the title. Derenet had also gotten it at some point in his past life. How, continued to remain a mystery to Aiden.

It was a powerful title but Aiden wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Not even his enemies.

While [Giant Slayer] required you to kill an enemy twenty levels higher, [Inevitable] wasn’t just an upgraded version of it, it was a sadistic version of it.

To achieve it, you had to defeat at least one opponent forty levels higher than yourself as well as three opponents twenty levels higher in the same fight, with a health stat of less than twenty percent. And all this was to be done alone.

It was not a feat people set out to achieve. It was not a feat people were supposed to achieve. Such feats were the side effects of people thrust into horrible situations by fate.

What did a man have to do to survive such a situation?

“Do not pity me, Lord Lacheart,” Valdan said, his voice strong. “It is a part of my life, one that has passed. It made me a better man. A better Knight.” He paused. “Do you, perhaps, know the benefits of the title?”

Aiden nodded.

A thirty percent increase in damage to all opponents with a higher level than the title holder, regardless of how many levels. Ten percent increase in damage given to all allies within a certain distance against opponents with levels higher than them. Thirty percent damage reduction to all forms of damage once the title holder’s health fell below ten percent.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a forty percent chance of surviving a single killing blow.

And Brandis has almost two hundred such men under his command. How the hell did he not win the Demon wars so easily?

“So do not pity me,” Valdan repeated. “The gods blessed me with more than enough to compensate for what I lost.”

To go through such a situation. Aiden could not imagine it. But it was too high to be a requirement. It was literally suicide.

“How does the crown have that many people?” he asked.

What was the population of Bandiv? If he remembered correctly it was supposed to be somewhere between eight million and ten million.

Valdan paused, then looked at Aiden like he was stupid. “Not all knights serving under the crown are knights of the crown, Lord Lacheart?”

Aiden paused. “How do you mean?”

The sounds of clashing blades and arrows thudding into their targets was gone now. In their place was the silent rise of muttered conversations.

“We have [Knight],” Valdan explained. “And we have [Knight of the Crown]. These are two entirely different titles. One answers directly to the king and is above reproach by anyone. Not even the queen. The other can be scolded by a noble should the moment deserve it.”

Aiden didn’t know this. He didn’t know any of this. He knew there were a select few amongst the knights that always rode with the king in battle, but he’d thought they were perhaps the strongest of the knights, maybe the most loyal.

Aiden’s mind went back to the ball where he’d faced Jang Su and finally understood what Valdan had meant when he’d said the advantage would’ve been skewed horribly in his favor if he'd fought. With the titles and the experience, it would’ve been unexpected of him to lose.

“Mind you,” Valdan continued. “There still remain imbeciles who try to attain the position on their own. Often times we find promising knights or simple squires or even soldiers dead and desiccated in territories known to hold monsters with far greater levels than theirs.”

Aiden snorted and turned back to the training grounds. “Well that’s stupid.”

“It is,” Valdan agreed. Only a handful of those training were not looking at them. “But I do not completely fault their stupidity. To be a [Knight of the crown] is to hold the highest military power second only to the king. Apart from the king, only a more powerful [Knight of the crown] may stand against an order you have given.”

“And that rarely happens.” Aiden squinted down at the men below.

Was that…

He really hoped it was not what he thought it was he was seeing.

“The title, despite giving you near autonomy, also comes with its own System benefits.” Valdan wasn’t paying attention to their new audience. “So, yes. It rarely happens. It would be stupid to go through all that, gain the title, just to lose it over something stupid. Mind you, Lord Lacheart, despite the gravity of this specific requirement, it alone will not serve to make you eligible for the title, neither will it guarantee you the title. The king gives, after all, and he also takes away.”

…Blessed be the name of the king.

It was a bastardization of a Christian line Aiden knew from the bible, but it was a fitting response.

“With all these questions,” Valdan said. “I must ask, do you wish to become a knight, Lord Lacheart?”

Aiden stood up straight and stretched, hands held over his head.

“Nope.” He leaned back down onto the railing and his eyes fixed on one of the trainees below. He didn’t like the way the woman was looking at him. “Knighthood is too grand a thing for a man like me. And I do not joke when I say that I am not worthy.”

Valdan shook his head in disagreement. “Every man alive is capable of being worthy, Lord Lacheart. Never forget that.”

That much was true, but something else was taking Aiden’s attention away. And he did not like it. If it was what he thought it was that was happening, then this was a problem that just kept on giving.

“Sir Valdan,” he said slowly.

“Yes.”

“By the virtue of being granted the title of [Knight], every knight gets their own company of soldiers to command, right?”

“Right. The Knights that are required to be at the palace at all times take a small number along with them while the remaining are left behind.”

“Left behind where?”

“For Knights who have their own land and home to protect, they are left there. For knights belonging to a family yet to have their own house and home and land, then they are left with the family.”

“And what happens when such a knight has their title taken from them?” Aiden asked.

“The soldiers and squires alike are returned to the home of the knight, pending redeployment in the event that there is no lord or knight that wishes to take them under their service.”

Aiden sighed as he got the answer he already knew. “Which means that all of Derendoff’s subordinates are currently being employed by the Naranoff family, pending their reassignment.”

Valdan nodded. “That is correct.”

Aiden stood up straight and ran a hand down his face. “Isn’t that interesting.”

He was completely certain of it. The woman below was definitely giving him the stink eye.

And so were a bunch of other trainees.

Valdan finally turned his attention to the group. “Oh.”

Took him long enough.

Aiden almost laughed. “Oh, is right.”

“Would you like to train elsewhere?” Valdan asked. “We could perhaps ask Lady Nella for a different location. I'm sure they would have something to accommodate us”

Aiden waved the suggestion away.

“Nope. I’m fine right here," he said, then turned and looked around. “How do we get down there?”