While Kate and Tom were being welcomed slowly both Alana and Judy were having a hard time keeping up. They had spent most of their trip making plans of how establishing their temporary headquarters would go once they finally arrived but the age old saying kept true. No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

All of the other merchant organizations had kicked their interference into high gear. Under most circumstances a new face trying to make their way in the capital would provide them with a juicy target to exploit until they finally got their feet under them and that had been their initial plan. The recent announcement of a noble title hadn’t just changed the game map, it had flipped the board entirely, all of the noble backed organization simply took a step back as they couldn’t be seen bullying someone new.

“Has the ‘accident’ been cleared out?” Judy asked as a headache started to take place.

“Yes we got the goods out but they are trying to slow us down by having every one of our deliveries be anonymously reported so they will be checked by every guard patrol passing them.” Alana sighed exasperated.

Both of them knew that they would only have to weather the storm for a week at the most, once Ajax delivered his sigil their family would officially become nobles none of these other companies would try anything more.

“Perhaps I can be of some assistance.” a slick but well-meaning voice said from the entrance of the office.

“Who are you?” Judy asked.

“My name is Sebastian, I believe we have conversed through letters so far. I can tell that the situation has drastically changed so we decided to help you wait out the storm.” Sebastian had quickly left after ushering Ajax Silvia and Sam into the office with Aurora and Elija in order to come help here.

“And what are my grandparents going to ask for in exchange?” Judy asked, her tone only conveying her skepticism and no outright hostility, she had the entire journey to come to terms with who their mysterious partners were.

“This is but a simple gesture of goodwill from the company, as for your grandparents this is merely the first of many overdue apologies.” Sebastian answered.

“So be it.” Alana nodded as she accepted the offered help.

“I have to say I am more than a little surprised, even after months of tangential business your brother has yet to even so much as accept an apology.” Sebastian remarked.

“I am a merchant, Tom is a guard and Kate a healer.” Judy sneered. “All of us understand compromise and have had to deal with making the best of a situation we didn’t like with a smile on our face. If my grandparents' intentions are genuine our forgiveness would be much easier to win. Ajax is a delver and an adventurer, there is little he has had to compromise with.”

“On the bright side once you do get his forgiveness he won’t hold a grudge over it like the rest.” Alana said with a slightly evil grin.

“Yes, looking back I do have to agree with your assessment of him.” Sebastian nodded as he scratched his chin. “Though that does make me wonder how he will handle becoming the head of a noble household.”

“The same way he always had, with his family to help him.” Judy answered.

From there things got a lot easier for both Alana and Judy as with Sebastian’s help and their grandparents' infrastructure inside the city everything started to go their way once again.

Ajax had noticed that nobody else had returned yet by the time he and his parents returned home so he went off to do a little alchemy while he gave them a little space to come to terms with the decision they had made.

In all honesty Ajax was glad that his mother had decided to give her parents another chance as he had become slightly fond of them over the last few months, this fondness was also the main reason he hadn’t weighed in at all until the decision was reached as he didn’t want to influence her one way or the other.

The next few hours passed peacefully before Ajax could even notice. It had been almost two weeks since he had last done any alchemy because of how much time getting his presentation ready for the royal court had taken. While he didn’t find the practice as enticing as delving it was a close second.

This new relaxed state of mind had also proven useful as he had finally been able to brew his first successful stat increasing potion. The quality of the potion was barely passable on increasing a random attribute by one point, not only that but if the random attribute chosen was over fifty the potion would have no effect. Nevertheless it was a success and the first step on the path to crafting his own potions for free as he delved deeper into the dungeon.

As he came out of his room happy with his achievement he found that most of the family had returned already, with the obvious exception of Judy and Alana who would most likely have a very long day. Not only had they returned but they started making dinner already, it had been a while since he had had his family so close and this was a nice surprise.

“Ajax, have you put any thought into what the sigil will look like?” Judy asked as soon as she got home looking dead on her feet as she crashed into a chair.

“No.” He answered back but decided to explain a bit more considering the deadly glare both her and Alana fixed on him. “If you had given me more than a week and a half notice that you were coming I would maybe have had the time to do more than just gain the title.”

“I’ll come with you girls tomorrow and help sort out everything.” Silvia said. “Not to mention that those bees will most likely more than cover any initial losses we experience.”

Everyone knew that honey, while not scarce, was extremely expensive unless it was in season. Since it was mostly collected by young adventurers in the forests surrounding the capital this meant that it was also all gone within weeks of the hives going dormant.

“I actually think you might be able to get a full harvest in even before the season hits.” Ajax said.

“How do you figure that?” Tom asked.

“Well I have been using [Inject Mana] on all the trees and flowers on that field, while the bees have not had any major changes to them it seems like honey production has sped up considerably. At the rate they seem to be producing I think we will have to empty those hives three times just so they have room to store it.” Ajax explained.

“All these years later and you are still playing with plants and mana.” Tom chuckled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Silvia asked.

“I suspected once I found out he had mana but now it makes so much more sense. The reason why his small garden back in the village always produced all those rich and valuable plants was because he would pump them full of mana.” Tom explained.

“I actually wasn’t using [Inject Mana] back then.” Ajax corrected. “I just expelled mana near them, with [Inject Mana] I am losing a lot less mana, though giving too much at once seems to be destructive instead.”

“So when are you going back to the Academy?” Sam asked.

“Well my class is having a delve tomorrow but I was given the time off, what with all of you arriving.” Ajax said.

“Oh no! You are going.”

“Absolutely not, you have to go.”

Both Judy and Silvia jumped on that, sharing a quick glance and nodding at each other.

“What?! Why?” Ajax asked confused.

“You were just essentially granted a noble title, sure they may have given you the time to keep to yourself but now is the time to actually start forging connections with other nobles.” Alana explained. “Those people in your class are the highest standing nobles of your age and I guarantee you more than one of them might have an issue with the discovery you made and how it will impact the line of succession in their family.”

By the time the meal ended and Ajax went back to bed he was now thinking what he could do to help smooth over any grudges his new discovery may cause come morning.