“I don’t know,” Adam said. “I think she accepts my children as her own, and even if she doesn’t, she acts like it.”

  The mood within the air pletely shifted while the nobles spoke to the half elf, learning more and more about him, who had seemed to have no sense of self preservation as he tio reveal his intimate details.

  “Either way, she’s too cute. How she do this to me? Our little Virot, she is so adorable, and now… my brother, isn’t he too cute too?” Adam asked, shifting the versatioowards the young Iyrman, who had dared to shirk the Paragon in the room. “He’s e to wiour, all for his son. Isn’t that so adorable? He’s s, handsome, smart, and not just that, but his family are all terrifying. From Mad Dog, to even those strohan Mad Dog, and that only includes all the Rot family members.”

  “Are there others he is reted to?”

  “Yeah, he’s reted to quite a few monsters,” the half elf replied, leaning back, crossing his arms as he fell into thought.

  “Like who?” the raven faoble asked.

  “Like…” Adam frowned. “No, no, that’s too dangerous for me to speak about. I don’t even want to think about it. Mad Dog, he’s scary enough, that old man could probably csh with most of the greatest Aldishmen, I’d eve on him, but in the Iyr, they have people who will keep the old man in check. Like Kitool, Steel Kick, or whatever the Aldish called her, her grandaunt is one of the Ten Paragons of the Iyr.”

  The shock swam through the group like a wave.

  “The Ten Paragons are not all Paragons,” the Grand ander said. “They only call it so.”

  “I don’t want to correct you in front of everyone, but it’s the One Hundred Paragons who are not all Paragons,” Adam said, gng towards the older Aldishman. “The Ten Paragons of the Iyr are all Paragons.”

  “Is that so?”

  “That’s just what I know, and what I have heard, but perhaps the Iyrmen, who speak true almost all the time, maybe they’re lying about this to cause Aldnd to hesitate from invading.” Adam shrugged his shoulders.

  “So many Paragons would cause the King to pause, but not for long, for even a hundred Paragons be killed.”

  “Yep,” Adam said. “Paragons are easier to kill than one might expect.”

  “…” Sir James Greatwood narrowed his eyes towards the smirking half elf, who wiowards the Grand Duchess. ‘This young man wishes for death.’

  “The Iyr is pretty scary, just like Aldnd, but I call it my home, for now,” Adam said. “The Enter provides so many bes, one of them proteg me from light spiracies and politics, and the other is the ce to explore Aldnd, meet the various o fight figures I could only dream of fighting, and, perhaps most importantly, the pay, it’s pretty good, but the magical ons? They’re some of the best.”

  “What of your wolves?” the raven faoble asked.

  “My wolves?”

  “Did the Enter gift them to you?”

  “No, we gathered them during our journey,” Adam expined.

  “Are they for sale?”

  “Unfortunately not. They belong to…” Adam paused. “The Iyrmen?”

  “The Iyrmen?”

  “I think so?”

  Eventually, having thhly bullied the half elf, the nobles dismissed him, and Adam returned back to inform the group what happened.

  ‘Did he do it on purpose?’ Jaygak thought. Adam had definitely made plenty of mistakes, but some of what he revealed was teically on knowledge, and he had essentially just firmed it, or dispyed that he was merely a fool who believed all the words he had heard. Except, Adam had also sprinkled a few extra details here and there, and though perhaps it did cause the o grow more cautious of the Iyr, it also made them more cautious of Adam in turn. Jaygak thought more and more upon Adam’s words.

  Adam was dumb. Sometimes, it was actal. Sometimes, it urposeful.

  ‘Adam, do you uand by revealing this to me, the Iyr will know sometimes it truly is an act, and that we will be more cautious of you?’ Jaygak thought. ‘Am I… part of that pn?’

  “Seems the Grand Duchess wants to meet with us again,” Adam said, cheg the he servant brought over during lunch. “All of us, apparently. She says she hopes we haveen too much.” Adam gnced across their dinner, which he had paid for from a pertage of a pertage of his winnings.

  As they approached the area, Adam hat the guard presence remaihe same, even though he was bringing Jurot and Kitool along, as well as the pair of demons, who had remained rather quiet during their stay in the North. Lud Mara remained uhe Grand Duchess’ prote, sitting along with a few merts the old woman was close with, ag as though they were an attra rather than people, which was better thaernative.

  “Off with your boots!” The Grand Duchess stated.

  ‘Gross.’ Lucy winced as she removed her boots, and was gd she had gotten into the habit of taking daily baths, just like Adam.

  The Grand Duchess was still fnked by only the pair of knights, each Adam had estimated to be Masters, before Jurot revealed that Sir Wick was actually closer to a Paragon than he was a Grandmaster, and the other unnamed knight, Sir Grover, was also fairly simirly powerful, for he was someone who had lived after ing face to face with Sharukan, Otkan’s father.

  ‘Damn, Sharukan?’ Adam thought, eyeing up the other knight. ‘He must be older too, and…’ Adam spotted the bde ont he wall, and then the gve that the figure wielded.

  ‘He wields the gve whice beloo the Bak family,’ had said.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Vibak and Bibak are known as the Twin Sun and Moons, and both have gained Gold Rank. They will soon achieve Paragon status and will take their pce among the Ten Paragons.’

  ‘Jurot, I really am in the wrong genre.’

  Adam stared at the gve for a long while. ‘I wonder if he’d be willing to give up the gve?’

  The Grand Duchess listeo the stories of the Iyr, even hearing the tales of the Baks from Jaygak, meanwhile, she thought of the reasons why she had asked them to eet with her. She tio listen to the stories of the Iyrmen, even as the bck of the nightval evening passed towards night.

  ‘Damn, these biscuits are really good,’ Adam thought. ‘Shortbread is so damn delicious. I wish we had some tea, but, it’s dangerous for me to start thinking about tea. It’s not like I have a navy anyway.’

  “Boy, do you uand you’ve been marked with death?”

  “Everyone dies, Grand Duchess,” Adam replied with a small smirk.

  “Here I thought you were a father.”

  Adam frowned. “Sorry.”

  “It’s too te to apologise now, you fool. You have been tasked with fighting daily iour, and you should be so lucky to find none are assassins hired to deal with you.”

  “Well…” Adam paused. ‘Hold on. I’m the ohat bring people back from the dead. Who the hell is going t me up?’ “That is quite ing.”

  “You o learn to keep your mouth shut.”

  “Yeah.” Adam reached up to his forehead, feeling it pulse.

  “You are lucky I have sponsored you. I will block the small as against you, but you should sleep with your brother beside you.”

  “I’m marr-,” Adam began, before stopping himself when the woma him. “Thank you, Grand Duchess. I will sider your words carefully.”

  “Don’t sider them, just do it.”

  “Right.” ‘I’m not strong enough to deal with the nobles yet. Maybe when I’m ten times as wealthy, and a Paragon, then I think about messing around with them.’

  “You don’t o worry about the daily fighting,” Jaygak said. “Adam deserves to get beaten up daily, and then, when we fight, I’ll take advantage of how tired he is.”

  “Very wise. He won’t learn unless it’s beaten into him.” The Grand Duchess’ eyes fell upon Jaygak for a moment. “He may be exposed to assassins.”

  “The North is the North, but Aldishmen are Aldishmen,” Jaygak said. “If Adam is killed, it’s a ve excuse for us to react.”

  The Grand Duchess gred at the young woman, who spoke so openly about her political moves, the smirk on her face revealing how troublesome she was.

  “Perhaps I should have been a little more at ease, but the nobles did hit a spore spot,” Adam said. “There’s only so much even I endure, you know?”

  “I should not have allowed you to go,” Jurot said. “I believed it would be fine sihe Grand Duchess had invited you, and no nobles would dare to misbehave, but it seems the Bow family’s name is beginning to fade with your retirement.”

  “…”

  “The names of nobles and we Iyrmen ebb and flow with the sands of time,” Kitool said, uanding her panioaking too many swings at her pride. “It was enough that you put a Paragon in his pce.”

  The Grand Duchess uood Kitool was the wisest of them all, and she gowards the demons she was going to threaten, but decided to let it go. “If you uand, it’s fine.”

  “I appreciate your , Grand Duchess.”

  “If you appreciate my , and my ability to protect you, then you should take it easy upon Sir Roseia,” the Grand Duchess stated.

  “I believe I made my iions to win quite clear,” Adam replied, trying to calm himself.

  “I did not say you had to lose against her, but you shouldn’t allow her to lose so easily. She is reted to my family, and if you don’t return the favour I show you, you should fet about any business you wish to have my family, and you should sleep beside all three Iyrmen.” Her eyes then darted to the demons. “Since-,”

  “Alright,” Adam said, stopping the woman from saying anything more. “Alright. I got you. Go easy otle noble ss, as fragile as a flower she is, since she was raised in the South. I got you.”

  Jurot tensed up, and Kitool’s eyes darted to the side, the pair ready to react to the knights who were also tense.

  “As long as you uand.”

  “I uand, alright. I uand right now I’m too weak. I don’t have any influence. Even if I go toe to toe with a Grandmaster, no one cares. I uand that I have to let the nobles walk all over me. I uand that, right now, I ’t drink tea safely outside of the Iyr’s nd. I uand that. Everything thinks I don’t know, but I do. However, there’s only so much a man take, before he explodes. Are you going to sit here and pretend that the nobles don’t-,”

  “Adam,” Jaygak said, pg a hand on his shoulder.

  “Jaygak! How much of this-,”

  “Adam,” Jaygak said, reag up to Adam’s cheeks, holding his face. She stared into his eyes. “I know how difficult it is to endure. I know it’s worse for you, because unlike us, you ’t stand up and sy whichever nobles you feel like. That’s a good thing. Think of how much that would displease your wife.”

  Adam inhaled deeply, still shaking slightly, but he let out a soft exhale. He was still tense, but the rising tension began to fall.

  “The Grand Duchess hasn’t asked you to surrehe first position. If she does, you cause a mess then, but until then, just accept whatever the hrow at you, and cut it down with your axe.” Jaygak pat his cheek gently. “Think about how much you spoil your children after you win.”

  “Yeah,” Adam said, slowly nodding his head. “Yeah.”

  Grand Duchess Aeda realised she couldn’t ask more of the young boy now, and allowed him to leave with his panions. She uood, following the sight of his eyes, he wao speak of the gve, but he endured for the moment, and pulled away.

  “Fi everything you about that boy,” the Grand Duchess said.

  “Yes, Yrace,” Sir Wick replied.

  Jaygak uands.