Chapter 34 Trait
***
-Andrew-
He was pulled out of his bed by his screaming sister. He thought they were being attacked. Andrew was wrong. Amy was stressed out about what kind of clothes she should wear. For what? He had no idea.
No idea until his sister reminded him with a slap.
While he had barely woken up, Samuel had informed them that the Lord would like to talk with them. It looks like he had fallen back asleep.
He should have played it cool, but instead, he dumbly asked why Amy needed those clothes.
They settled on the best clothes they had: a shirt and a pair of trousers with no holes in them. If Andrew was being honest, he would say they looked like a hundred gold coins.
Samuel walked them to the mansion. It was gigantic. The insides were large and extremely pretty. Andrew had never seen such luxury before. But as he kept looking around like a clueless villager, he remembered his sister's words.
He had to play it cool.
The Lord shooed Samuel away. Rude. Then he motioned for them to eat. The food was good! There was even meat inside. However, Andrew couldn't enjoy the meal at all.
Why was the Lord not speaking?
In his confusion, he asked.
"What did you call us for?"
The Lord was slow to respond.
Then his body froze the moment the Lord finished his sentence.
"So, what kind of Trait do the both of you have?"
Andrew's body grew tense, and his eyes widened. How did he know? The spoon that he was holding froze mid-air. Then he fed himself.
He looked back at Amy.
Her expression did not change at all.
Oh, he had messed up.
***
-Ivor-
I decided to take a gamble.
And it worked.
There was no way a pair of villagers should have knowledge about Traits. Even I, a noble, barely did.
Yet the boy reacted to my statement with surprise, then slight fear before catching himself.
He knew what I was talking about.
His sister, on the other hand, stayed completely cool. I had to give her some credit.
Now that the cat was out of the bag, I could go back to being my real self.
"I apologize for the game we had to play," I smiled. "But I assumed you wouldn't have told me that you had a Trait otherwise, would you? I had to know for sure. There is no way you guys know what a Trait is without having one, so thank you, Andrew."
Amy shot her brother a glare. I smirked.
"Let me explain to you what a Trait even is before I start asking any questions," I said.
"Mind you, I barely know about them myself.
All I know is they are very, very rare and can be very, very powerful.
Essentially, a Trait is...I don't even know.
It's kind of a mix of a unique skill and talent.
Some Traits simply increase the damage output of your fire magic or whatever.
I heard that the crown prince has gotten a Trait that allows him to summon creatures from a different realm that he can control.
And officially, he is also the only Trait holder in the Blackfire Kingdom. "
I eyed the two in front of me carefully. They shifted uncomfortably underneath my gaze. They knew what this meant. If somebody found out both of them had a Trait, they both would get kidnapped.
"So be careful," I said. "Don't worry. I won't tell anybody about your Trait.
I won't even force you to work for me. I know better than that.
If you are interested in seeking out opportunities outside of this town, I won't stop you.
I just ask you to swear an oath not to disclose the fact that Samuel and I know of your Trait.
Some people might want to keep you a secret. And I don't want to be assassinated."
The two didn't talk, and neither did I. I let the information settle inside their minds. It wasn't until a few minutes that the sister spoke up.
"What can you offer us?"
Oh, she was good.
"A bet. A gamble, if you will," I answered slowly.
"Unlike the others, I can't offer you unlimited resources.
I can't offer you unlimited luxury. I cannot even offer you true protection.
However, I can promise you that you will be treated fairly.
I can promise that I will try to make the most out of this town.
A city. No, even more. I want to go even further.
And while doing that, I promise to treat its citizens with respect and dignity.
I know for certain that this is not what other nobles can offer you.
Chances are, and I am not just saying this to you so you work for this town, they will simply enslave you. "
Andrew seemed more and more convinced with my speech. His eyes lit up in excitement, and he seemed to rock back and forth inside his chair.
I glanced at Amy.
She was perfectly stoic. She took the information in, then spoke carefully and with precision.
"Okay," she said. "But what would you offer us? Not what your plans are for this town. What you plan to do, and not what you think the other nobles will do to us."
I couldn't help but grin.
Man, was she good at this. She immediately spotted the lack of answer to her previous question.
"You are good," I said. "Very good. Later, I would like to find out how you became so well-versed in...
this. As for your question, I had already answered it in my first sentence, albeit I have to admit, a little bit vague.
Essentially, you will take a gamble. You will take a gamble that I am able to grow this town into a city, and eventually more.
And as that happens, you will get more and more resources.
You will be treated very well, and I will train and nurture the both of you into trump cards. That's what I am offering you."
Seeing her unsure gaze, I decided to stand up.
"I can see that you have a lot to think about.
So, I will leave the both of you to your own devices.
I still have my morning training to attend and some work to do.
I will return in the afternoon, so feel free to ask Magret, the old lady, for some food.
I don't expect an answer until then, so it's perfectly fine if you wish to take more time.
However, I can't let you leave without swearing the Oaths. "
Andrew nodded at me while Amy stood up and bowed her head. "Thank you for the meal, Lord Ivor."
With wide eyes, Andrew hastily did the same thing. "Thank you, Lord."
I smiled and went upstairs before changing into a pair of training gear. I went back down and saw the two sit on the nearby couch in a heated discussion. They paused when they saw me and continued when I was almost gone.
Of course, it was my speech that made them so cautious.
But it was a conscious decision that I made.
If I downplayed their Trait now, to make them stay and force loyalty, they would eventually find out.
It might be when they traveled out of this town, or when the Crown Prince's Trait was once more praised by the Kingdom, that they realized they were special in that regard.
So, I wanted them to know their worth.
I was thinking very, very long term with these two.
I trained with the guards like always. Laps around the courtyard, bodyweight exercises (although it was hardly bodyweight with Gerald sitting on my back), and then weapon training with our exhausted bodies.
I really liked these workouts, mostly because they allowed my Meditation Skill to grow steadily.
Meditation [Common] has reached level 6.
I nodded and gulped down the water. The cool liquid spread across my throat. It felt awesome. Once the training was done, I asked Gerald and my Guards to stay behind.
"Place one Guard at each entrance of my mansion," I said. "Be very gentle if Amy and Andrew try to leave. You know them?"
A few head shakes in between nods.
"Okay, ask the others to fill you in. Ben, I need you to use your Hiding and Infiltration Skill to gather some information. If they refuse, I want to know why and what else I can offer them."
The people around me were confused, understandably so.
But they didn't need to know the why. They had their orders and would fulfill them.
Once I was done talking, they moved out immediately.
I wasn't worried about Ben leaking any of the information about the two siblings.
He had sworn an Oath of loyalty after all.
Seeing them move, I nodded. Only Gerald remained, and he looked at me with a questioning gaze.
"I will fill you in later," I said. "For now, just check up on the Guards here and there and find me if there is something unusual."
"Your wish is my command, my lord."
With that, we went our separate ways. For the next few hours, I walked through my town a little mindlessly. First, I visited the bakery for some pastries, and this time I had some money on me. They tried to refuse again, but I insisted.
A shame that one of my favorites was sold out.
As I walked through the town munching on some extremely tasty pastries, the people all around me greeted me. I greeted them back. Most people recognized me by now, but a fair amount didn't.
First, I checked upon Jason. His door was still wide open, and he was hammering away at some kind of piece of gear. At least that's what I caught from the outside before I fled the scene. He was preparing weapons and armor for the Town.
Next, I decided to check upon Samuel and how his work was going even though I had done so recently—I didn't know what else to do with my time.
Most of the things were up and going and didn't need me micromanaging.
At least Samuel always had an issue I could chew on before he came up with a solution in our conversation.
I remembered my sister. She was a Software Engineer. Well, she wanted to be one. But she was a hell of a programmer and a wizard when it came to tech. Sometimes I saw her explain her problem to a rubber duck only to come to a solution mid-conversation.
Was I Samuel's rubber duck?
I smiled, but then I noticed how my heart ached and almost dropped into my pants.
I hadn't thought of my sister in ages. The emotions overwhelmed me.
However, for the first time, I didn't remember her lifeless and skinny face as she lay there in the hospital bed attached to things I had no idea about—I remembered something happy about her.
I sighed and shook my emotions away.
I had to focus on what I had to do now.
Save a Town.
Eventually, I arrived at the edge of the town.
Man, was the progress fast. In the distances, I could see walls set up in a zigzag pattern, spikes covering the front and mounds of earth behind.
It was so the walls didn't get pushed back.
Inside that zigzag pattern, holes filled the ground.
The zigzag pattern was massive. I looked towards my right, and there it still was.
Then to my left. People were putting up more walls.
As I neared the construction site, I spotted two guards with spears in their hands. They stood upright and eyed everyone carefully who wanted to enter. These were my new recruits.
A person appeared in front of them; they pointed at the badge on their arms, and the guards let them through without trouble. Then their eyes went back to me as I neared them. The guard on the left nodded. I nodded back. The guard on the right, however, smashed his spear into the ground and yelled.
"Halt! No civilians allowed. Please leave the premises–"
A smack from the other guard stopped his speech.
"Man! That's the fucking Lord! What the hell are you doing?"
"At ease," I couldn't help but chuckle. "The man was just doing his job. But may I enter now?"
"Of-of course, my Lord," the guard who yelled at me bowed hastily. The other followed his motion but more refined.
I chuckled again.
I entered and found Samuel quickly after I asked somebody.
Last time I searched for half an hour before it occurred to me to ask.
Anyway, my talk with Samuel was nothing special.
He just updated me on the current affairs of the construction, the problems they were going through and had gone through, and all the other complicated stuff that went into this.
I could tell he was living up to his fullest potential.
The man spoke with such speed and energy that I had to ask him to slow down a little.
After spending around an hour with Samuel walking around the construction site and discussing a few more problems, I decided to return to the mansion.
The walk was uneventful, but to my surprise, I spotted Gerald leaving the walls of my mansion.
"Did something happen?" I said.
"They are ready to talk."
I nodded and hurried inside. It was only now that I noticed I hadn't changed out of my training clothes. Well, it didn't matter; I was already inside.
"So," I said, and the siblings' attention turned to me. "Did both of you come to a decision?"
Andrew and Amy looked at each other and nodded. Then they turned back to me.
"We did," Amy said. "We have decided to take you up on your offer. But we require you to swear an oath not to disclose our Trait and Classes."
I thought about it for a moment. "I can't. There are a few people who need to know of your strength."
"Then get these people to swear an oath too," Amy said without missing a beat. "We are talking about specifics. People shouldn't know we hold a trait, nor the grade or name of our Class. Wouldn't it be enough to tell most people that we are strong fire and ice mages?"
"Okay, I planned to keep you as trump cards mostly anyway."
I swore the Oath.
A second later, the two of them swore their separate Oaths. It was mostly not to disclose who knew about their Traits. I nodded. I bet if I asked them to swear Oaths of loyalty, they would leave immediately.
"So," I sat on a chair across from them. "Tell me about yourself."
Amy answered, "Our Trait is called...