I kneel in front of the grave marker, both knees on the ground, then I lower my head enough so that I show my submission and willingness to receive any judgment that my God, Virtue, may see fit to visit upon me. Then I touch my palms together and close my eyes, so that God's dearest daughter, Grace, would not be seen by these unworthy eyes, should my prayers be answered. In this position, I solemnly pray for the souls of both my parents to have found peace in the after-life.

Many times I have been told that my father was an honorable man and surely he was welcomed in the heavens with open arms and the few faint memories I have of him confirm this. Likewise, my mother was always said to have been such a kind person that it would have been unthinkable that she would be welcomed in any place but the heavens after she left this life. Unfortunately, as she died shortly after giving birth to me, I have no memories of her to confirm the truth of such utterances, but I suppose I should just take people's words in good faith. Still, I cannot help but be uneasy, as even the purest of men will make mistakes in their life. Thus, every day in the morning, after exercising and training my swordplay, I pray like this at the manor's family grave marker so that I help make sure that Virtue is reminded that they surely are people worthy of dining at his presence. It is an important habit that I have cultivated for as long as I have been able to perform it by myself.

After that, I take a bath assisted by a few servants, after all, I am part of a high ranking noble family in the kingdom of Meridia. My name is Alexius Magnar, I am eighteen years old and have been an adult for two years now. After this bath, I drink a cup of coffee, then go meet my uncle in his office. Although technically, it is the head of the family's office, not exactly his. Half-way through my warm-up exercises, he is done with his and by the time I have started training with a sword he is already at his office, taking care of the family estate's business.

“Good morning, uncle.”

After having a servant knock on and open the door for me, I greet my uncle with respect. It is the perfect reflection of our relationship. I don't really dislike my uncle and I have never been mistreated by him. That said, I don't think there is really any kind of affection between us such that one might expect from family.

“Alexius, is it? Have you finally decided what is it that you're going to do? Are you going to sit down and help me with these documents? I also don't really mind if you decide to finally take responsibility for the family's castle in the countryside. I still don't see why you would be so resistant to marrying the Gracies' girl. You've been such good friends for such a long while now... Really, she's also an adult now, so I suppose if you really don't want to marry her then you probably ought to stop seeing her so often. It's not a very good look for a young unmarried man and woman to see each other so often, you might actually end up hurting her marriage prospects in the long run, you know?”

As always, immediately after acknowledging me, he has launched into that soft pressure of his. It is not that I don't understand where he is coming from, since I have the right of taking any position of importance within the family before his children. In fact, if I was an ungrateful person, it would be possible to fight him directly for the position as head of the family. I only wish I could make him understand that I don't really have any interest in any of it.

“Uncle, I really wish I could make you understand... Perhaps when I am gone tomorrow, it might finally dawn on you.”

That managed to somewhat startle him.

“Excuse me? Gone tomorrow? What do you mean?”

It wasn't exactly my plan to have him take this confrontational tone, but I still need to be firm with my next words.

“Tonight I intend to finish attuning father's Treasury Sack to my Mana. Tomorrow, I am leaving on a journey. You may not have paid attention uncle, but I have been preparing for this for quite a while now.”

He looked at me completely exasperated and slowly lifted his right hand, then started rubbing his temple. He sighed and looked down, probably trying to think of what he could say that would convince me to change my mind. Then, he sighed again and looked straight at me, with his right hand still on his temple.

“Look. I know you have the utmost admiration for your father, I understand, I really do. He really was among the strongest knights of this kingdom, and that's saying something. You know that as things are now, most of the strongest knights are orcs, so it really was impressive for him to be so respected. Now, if you think that martial prowess was what made your father, than you couldn't be more wrong. Even if he did die fighting a dragon, it doesn't that he spent his whole life fighting. If you intend to honor your father's legacy, then I couldn't think of a better way to do it other than to take a wife and protect the family's castle along with the surrounding region.”

I could easily see it in his eyes, even as he spoke these words he knew full well that there was no way they would convince me. After all, he is quite wrong in thinking that it is all about my father, even though he is a good part of it.

“Uncle, I'm quite sure you know that this is far from just being about honoring my father's legacy. It is about understanding him, but not just him. It is about understanding my place in the world, in the kingdom. I just don't think I'm really ready to settle down and act as the steward and protector that my father was. Please, if you really value this family as much as you seem to and worries about the well-being of those that live under us, then let me go so that I can learn and mature in this journey, not just as a man, but as a noble as well.”

He lowered his head, slowly shaking his head.

“I guess I can't win, can I? You really are your father's son. I don't think I could ever truly say no to my brother or have him back down from anything. I thought that maybe being the elder in this case might help me, but I guess in the end, things are not so simple. Fine, do as you want, go on a journey. Although, that is only if you find yourself able to weather the storm of my wife's wrath during tonight's dinner. She really is intent on marrying you to the Gracies' girl and shipping you off to the family's castle.”

I already knew that of course. A big reason why I waited for this specific date to finish my preparations was because I plan to leave on this journey with Helena, the aforementioned girl who my aunt wants me to marry. Not that I intend to let either pair of parents know about that. As confusing as it might be for my aunt and uncle, I do not harbor romantic feelings for and have absolutely no intention of marrying Helena, but that doesn't mean she is not an important person to me.

I have known her since we were quite young and I know for a fact that, much more than I, she dislikes her current position in life. She has very little choice or freedom in what she does and more than once she has expressed to me the need to somehow break free from it. To be honest, I wouldn't really have opposed settling down and marrying her if I felt it would bring her happiness, but I don't think that's the case. In this particular way, I suppose that this journey is as much a gift to her as it is my path to self-discovery. Though if she herself asks the truth of it to me, I would deny it. After all, I wouldn't want her to feel as if she is imposing on me in anyway.

“I must admit that my aunt makes for a ferocious opponent when it comes to words, but I would like to believe that I have sufficiently prepared for her this particular evening. If not, then I might as well doubt my preparations for this entire journey.”

My uncle raised an eyebrow at that. Perhaps he has finally realized the extent of my resolve. That is how much of an obstinate person my aunt can be. I understand why she wishes to neutralize any possibility of me expanding my influence by marrying me off to the daughter of lower nobility, but unlike my uncle, I have no intention of letting my aunt run my life, not because I wish to stand above her children as she seems to fear, but because I intend to forge my own destiny. I suppose that is another reason I do not wish to marry Helena.

“I see. I would wish you good luck in your endeavor, but I am afraid that should you succeed, then the one to suffer my wife's wrath would be none other than me, so you will have to forgive me if I maintain a respectable distance from this whole business.”

That was good enough to me, and I bowed down in appreciation.

“As long as you're not overtly opposed to it and do not work to undermine my preparations, then I can only thank you, uncle.”

Now, if only it would be half as easy to get my aunt to tolerate my decision... Knowing her, I wouldn't put it past throwing both me and Helena into the Manor's cellar and chaining us until both of us sign a marriage contract. I don't need her approval, but I will need to at least not have her be completely opposed to my journey. Having succeeded in convincing my uncle, I made my way to the Manor's library, for a last review of all that I should know for this journey.

At the library, I picked up the first book of a pile I had set aside, “Fantastic Dungeons and their Spoils”. It was the single most informative book of that library on the topic. While it contained no information on any unconquered dungeon, it was the life's work of a self-proclaimed scholar of dungeons. It not only has information gathered on many ancient dungeons, even some from another continent, but also had extensive information from people of the legendary party of adventurers led by Gauron. While the book is light on direct advice, it has many stories on how people conquered the dungeons they were faced with, including an entire chapter on the “Bone Pit”. Conquering a Dungeon, even if just the “Eternal Testing Grounds” which offered little challenge and no rewards beyond some recognition from adventurers, might be quite an interesting experience.

Next was “Marks of Upheavals”, a book that did not have the most entertaining writing. It mostly discoursed about quite dryly about locations of known important battles that had Tyrants involved and whether and marks of these battles remained. I can't say I wasn't bored out of my mind for most of the time I read the book, but I believe that it is a good book if one wants to visit these places and ponder about the meaning of fighting for or against a Tyrant. A surprising amount of information in it is from before the reign of Teldarion. The author must have been an assiduous researcher indeed, even if not the best writer.

Under that, one would see a book titled “Independent Cities of Nemiria”, about a region south of the kingdom of Meridia, composed mainly of different city-states, a good amount of them being port cities. I must say that the shallow treatment given to each city was slightly unsatisfactory, but it at least gave me a general idea of the kind of culture that I might find in the city when I travel there.

The last of the important books in the pile is “Mysteries out of this Continent”. I can't help but be unsure of the veracity of the information of this book, but how else is one supposed to have information on things such as the secret land of the Tengu or to know about the culture of Ogres, who mostly live outside of this continent? While it mostly talks of legends, the author is an orc, whose race originated outside this continent, so perhaps there might be some kernel of truth to it.

Reviewing all of the relevant information took a good part of the day. Then, I had the books and notes transferred to the manor's treasury, from which I could access them using my father's Treasury Sack. With that done, I finished attuning it to my mana and started mentally preparing for the battle that would be tonight's dinner.