Aaron Ironblood had asked the king for five things, four of which the man could easily deliver: a copy of his kingdom's laws; a copy of the Thenor Empire's laws; the detailed reports of crimes, punishments, and criminals' profiles in his kingdom; and a meeting with the Red Duke.

Getting his hands on the history of rulings throughout the empire was an endless task, but the king had already contacted a few people he thought might help him with that. He had also used his status as a Protector of the Light to request help from the Temple of Light. While he was a sinner, the goddess herself had accepted him, so they couldn't deny him. It also helped that two Priests had witnessed the Herald of Light asking for it, so they knew the king didn't want the reports for himself.

He could've delivered a few items to Ironblood on the same day he had been asked, but he had left it to the next day so he could order a quick audit of the numbers. He cared little for corruption in his kingdom when it wasn't excessive, as it helped people in power stay happy, but that meant altered reports. He didn't want Ironblood to thinking he was trying some foul play.

The king also used his Psychic skills to interrogate some influential officers who would know where the corruption was. After a sleepless night, he was confident the reports were the best he could make it without taking months to interview everyone and rewrite them from scratch.

Right after the sun rose, he went to deliver everything in person and was astonished by what he found.

Copious amounts of blood had tainted the clearing around the tower red, and five pikes had been rooted on the ground in front of the tower's entrance. Someone had mounted a head on top of each pike, and the facial expressions they had before death were of deep terror and pain. The black robes of the Temple of Darkness "dressed" the pikes mockingly.

Hundreds more blood-stained robes had been sewn together and now hung from the top of the tower like a vertical banner, in an obvious message of what had transpired there. The God of Darkness had counterattacked after Herald of Light's declaration of war. Not only had Ironblood lived to tell the tale, but he had also made an example out of the Devouts.

Such a graphic display on the streets was, naturally, against the kingdom's laws. And naturally, the king would do absolutely nothing about it. Or rather, he turned to one of the few Royal Guards who were accompanying him and gave an order.

"Remind everyone that whatever the Herald of Light does, no one is to stop or question him. Even if it's blatantly against the law. Even if it's against me."

"Yes, sir!" the man replied.

The king then took a deep breath to steel himself and stepped into the tower.

No — into Aaron Ironblood's lair.

After Aaron dealt with the pathetically weak probe, he used some corpses and the Devouts' clothes to send a message to the entire city about the consequences of attacking him. He also took advantage of the interruption to change the subject of his teachings into Space-assisted smithing.

Using only Space Energy to melt and connect metal bars into a seamlessly plating on the walls of the tower's floors required some creative thinking. Since enough metal bars to cover the ground floor had been delivered already, he taught the techniques to Alys and assisted her in mastering them. Not only did he needed the walls plated, but learning those skills also helped her consolidate her understanding of Space Laws in general.

Once she was done with it, he told her to watch closely as he inscribed ten Physical Horizon Formation around the room, enough to protect the entire floor. While on it, he also explained everything about it to her again and answered her questions. The formation was Aaron's size and contained five circles inside each other filled with three hundred twenty-seven large symbols, and a bit over three thousand smaller ones. Not only did each symbol have a meaning, but it also changed according to its positioning, the neighboring symbols, and the materials he used to inscribe the formation with. In this case, he had used Space crystal dust for obvious reasons, ground Moon Lotus' petals for their gravitational characteristics, and sixteen other materials.

After that, Aaron kept silent as he watched Alys' first attempt at kindling one of the formations. She had her eyes closed in deep concentration in front of it. Her Space Energy was touching the formation, but she was having trouble understanding some of its Concepts.

He didn't rush her. From her questions and her surprisingly fast success with the metal plating, he could tell she had the required knowledge. She only had to internalize it all.

A presence he felt on the edge of his active perception took his attention away from her. He left to meet the king, leaving Alys and the panther behind. Lana followed, carrying Tatou. Aaron met the man right inside his tower doors.

"Good morning," greeted the king with a very slight bow.

Aaron was glad that the man didn't comment on his gory warning outside. "Good morning."

"I have brought some of the things you asked of me. Where can I put them?"

Aaron was even more pleased that the man had wasted no time with unnecessary pleasantries. He pointed at the ground between them. The king swiftly removed a few hundred thick books from a spatial ring and placed them on the floor.

"The Red Duke has invited you to lunch at his estate today," the king said, took a sealed red letter from his spatial ring and offered it to Aaron with both hands, a gesture of care and respect.

Lana stepped forward to receive it in Aaron's stead, then offered it to Aaron in a much more submissive manner: not only did she hold it with both hands, but she also extended her arms and bowed her head.

Aaron accepted the letter. It was a simple one, not overly formal, but not informal either. Respectful enough, he reckoned. He nodded.

"Lana, does etiquette demands I reply to this invitation? Or should I just attend?" He still needed to learn about this world's cultures.

"Imperial etiquette demands you send a letter back, Patriarch, but things in Illyria Kingdom might be different." She bowed low. "This makes me aware of my shortcomings. I'll strive to study the local customs. Alys should be able to answer you until I'm ready."

"Alys is busy." He turned to the king. "Well?"

"In Illyria, you're expected to send a simple letter accepting the invitation and informing your host of the exact time of your arrival. You should arrive five minutes or less earlier than the appointed time, but not earlier than that. You should also not arrive later. If you do, you'll be making a statement of how more important you consider your time to be compared to the Red Duke's. Arriving early is—"

He suddenly stopped talking, looking in absolute fright at the end of the room where Alys was.

She had just succeeded.

From now on, the formation wouldn't need any fuel to be kept active. He hadn't told so to Alys; he wanted her to realize for herself that the energy the simulated metaphysical black hole sucked would also keep the formation going. He also hoped it would help her see another weakness of the formation, vulnerability to energy blackout. If an enemy removed all energy from around the tower, the formations would simply deactivate. Unless they were connected to a cultivator who was fueling them, of course.

Alys had nowhere near enough energy to fuel all formations of the tower. Aaron already had a solution for that, but he would give her a couple of days to realize the vulnerability herself. No enemy should be able to spot it so quickly.

"Patriarch!" shouted Alys excitedly, turning around and looking at Aaron. "I did it!" She smiled triumphantly. Her face was covered with sweat and almost all her Space Energy had been consumed to kindle the formation.

"Well done," replied Aaron. "It's not bad to achieve it on your first attempt. Rest until you recover your energy, then activate the other ones. Also, take the opportunity to consolidate your understanding of the formation and the Space Laws it uses. I'm sure kindling it gave you some insights."

She glowed with happiness from his compliment. "Yes, Patriarch!" Then she immediately sat down to meditate.

"What is that?!" asked the king in awe, looking at the now shining symbols on the back wall. Aaron would cover them later. "My energy sensibility isn't the best around, but it's not terrible either. I feel like a part of my senses was simply removed. It feels like I was touching a wall with my hand and then my hand was cut off."

Aaron shook his head. "It would be more precise to say that the wall was removed and now you can't feel even air where it once stood. Only nothingness remains. That's all I'll say on the matter, as that is a protective formation for my tower. Now that it's been properly marked, I officially dub it First Ironblood Tower. Unofficially, it shall be known as the Alys Tower. Let it be known that the Ironblood clan is sovereign in this place and that our rules are to be obeyed regardless of whether they go against royal or imperial law. I'll write a copy of such rules later today."

The king paled at that announcement but just nodded in agreement. "I'll spread the word."

"Good. If that'll be all, I have work to do," he gestured to the books on the ground.

"Yes, of course," replied the king. "I'm working on getting the recordings of all rulings in the empire in the past five years, but it might take a while."

"Understandable. Have a nice day."

The king bowed slightly again and went away. Aaron interrupted Alys' meditation after a while to have her write a reply letter to the Red Duke and deliver it before kindling the next formation. She read the duke's letter and gave Aaron some insights on a subtle, but serious offense he was giving Aaron.

"It would've been better if he had denied you a meeting rather than asking you to go to him like this," she explained, then gave Aaron a crash course on Illyria's etiquette.

Setting up a meeting so soon with little forewarning meant the Red Duke believed Aaron should be at his beck and call, despite both of them being royal dukes. It was especially offensive because Aaron's social position was higher due to his status as a Herald of Light and a substitute for the entire Arcane Circle. The man was telling Aaron that his status didn't matter because he was a new player in the city and no one respected him yet.

Things got even worse because Aaron had declared war on a god before requesting a meeting, and the Red Duke undoubtedly knew it. Yet, despite that, the man had done this. The duke was also telling Aaron that he doubted Aaron would see through the offense.

The Red Duke considered Aaron an uncultured swine incapable of navigating polite society.

Aaron had originally only wanted to negotiate with the man. However, those statements made it clear that the kingdom's aristocracy had their heads too deep into their own arses to understand one doesn't play games against those holding absolute power. You either bow to them or get out of their way.

Today, Aaron would educate the duke on the dangers of eating his own shit.