The dark elf’s words made the boy start shaking once again.

“Mind you, it’s easy to repair it, but we need to know if it gets damaged so we can fix it as soon as possible. Otherwise, the plants will continue growing at their original pace and they’ll lag behind the rest of the harvest. Do you understand?”

“I do.” Ancel muttered with his head still lowered.

“Good. From now on, I want you to be more careful while you work here and immediately report if you or someone else damages the array. Understood?”

“Y… yes, milord.” The youth nodded fervently.

“Alright, let me fix the damage and you can continue working.”

“That’s it,” Tristan asked somewhat ruefully. “No punishment?”

“There’s no need for that over something this small. Hosea will make sure the lad gets a bit of extra work to do around the farm as his ‘punishment’ and that’s it. Right, Hosea?”

“Of course, sir. I’ll keep the lad busy all day.”

“Good,” Regis nodded as he cast ‘minor mending’ on the wall. “And Ancel.”

“Yes, milord?”

“Welcome to Thornfell.”

“I… thank you, milord!” The young man spoke with an obvious relief in his tone after receiving a slight nod from Hosea.

A few seconds later the damaged wall was whole again and the dark elf placed his hand on it while closing his eyes. In his mind space, the intricately modified ‘grow box’ array lit up with a faded light, making it obvious that it was barely working. He redrew the entire array three times using his arcana and will, the damaged part filling up with light once again. When the entire array came to life once more, both Tristan and the farmers knew that their liege was done.

“That should do it,” Regis said as he opened his eyes, turning towards Hosea and Ancel. “It’s in your hands from now. Just… try not to break it again. But if someone does, report it immediately.”

“Understood, milord.” Hosea nodded as the spell weaver and his steward turned to leave.

Once they were far enough, Tristan couldn’t stop himself from speaking his mind.

“I thought that infusion enchantments were pretty much indestructible because they were fused to the item. You once told me that one would have to completely destroy the enchanted item to get rid of the enchantment itself.”

“That’s true,” Regis sighed as he walked. “But these are different. Most infusion enchantments leave runes the size of your fingernail or even smaller with their true essence infused to the item. These arrays however spread all across the wall. This means that they are more susceptible to damage than their tiny runic relatives.”

“If that’s true, wouldn’t that make all of the enchantments on the town’s walls and the mountain pass gate be just as easy to damage?”

“They might be large in scale, but those aren’t arrays, but ordinary infusions. They work the same way as the ones I put on our equipment.”

“I see. Either way, all three of today’s matters have been dealt with.”

“Which means I can head over to the barracks to train.”

“And then you can have a look at today’s order of enchanted items. That reminds me, sir. You promised a spare set of arcane lanterns for the guards.”

“How many pieces are we talking about?”

“Six.”

“That shouldn’t take long. We should hurry up. I’m sure Grego can’t wait to whoop my ass and you have your own matters to attend to as well.”

“Indeed.” Tristan said with a slight smirk as he fondly recalled his liege hitting the ground after many of his practice fights with the experienced guardsman.

As they neared the barracks, Tristan split off, heading to deal with his own thing as Regis entered the training yard.

“Took you long enough to get here.” Grego noted, turning toward him from the rest of the new recruits.

“Had to deal with an issue on the farm.”

“A bad one?”

“Just a minor inconvenience. How are the recruits doing?”

“They need more training, but they have the spirit and the grit to get things done. About those lanterns of yours...”

“I’ll make them once I’m done here.”

“Good. Now go and get changed. Today is live combat practice.”

“Shit,” the spell weaver cussed. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Exactly five minutes later Regis was back, wearing his training armour with a sour face. Grego couldn’t help but chuckle as he noticed it.

“Come now your lordship, it’s not that bad.”

“Easy for you to say, I can barely leave a single bruise on you while I end up looking like a Dalmatian.”

“Only because we set up restrictions,” the man reminded his liege. “You must learn to fight without getting magic involved in any way so that...”

“So that I could fight effectively even if I’m out of arcana. I know. It still doesn’t make it any less painful.”

“Pain is a great teacher.”

“And you’re corny as fuck.” The spell weaver retorted before taking up his fighting stance.

“Ready?”

“Yeah...” He tried to answer but Grego was already on the move. ‘Son of a bitch!’

The following fifteen minutes were full of close calls and slight jabs as the dark elf had to utilise all of his strength and speed to keep up with the experienced soldier.

“How the hell is it that I can barely keep up with you, even though I have better stats?”

“Experience,” Grego said, watching the spell weaver sit down on a bench, sweating bullets. “You might be stronger and faster, but your body has to grow used to that. Right now, your inexperience is still making your mind believe that you have the capabilities of an ordinary person. Although, you’re shedding that quite fast.”

“Yeah,” Regis sighed. “I managed to land five hits on you today, old man.”

“You did. Another month and I might not even be able to leave a single bruise on you.”

“Sadly, we don’t have another month.”

“What do you mean?” Grego asked with a sudden seriousness.

“I just received an invitation to Ecragurne’s Lords’ Assembly that will be held on the first of the Azure Dragon in White-spire Keep.”

“White-spire Keep? That’s a long way from here, far into the Midlands. When will you head out?”

“I want to travel to Rust-well Keep and ask Ernest if they have anyone who can get me closer using the gateways. Hopefully, I can cut down a few day’s worth of travel that way.”

“Sounds like a plan,” the guard captain nodded in agreement. “If nothing else, you can borrow a horse or two from them to head inland. Still, it’s quite surprising that you have received an invitation since Thorn Vale lies outside the kingdom’s borders.”

“Tristan believes that it’s due to my slowly growing reputation as an infusion enchanter.”

“Ah, yes. They wouldn’t want to ignore a nobleman who’s also a mage. I’m sure they are eager to rope you in with friendly smiles and big promises.”

“Any advice?”

“Expect a dagger in your back at all times,” Grego said with a dour tone. “That way you won’t get surprised. Every act or word that comes from another noble is only to further their own plans. If they say that something is beneficial for you, you can be sure as hell it’s trice-fold as beneficial for them.”

“I’ve figured that much. Do you know of anyone specific I should be extra careful about?”

“Lord Norman Silvergrass and Lady Emilia Duskbloom,” the man recalled the names with obvious disgust and venom. “Despite how friendly they might seem at first, those two are far worse than Verhen and Vidal combined. Be very careful of any offer they make, or you’ll find yourself indebted to them for decades to come.”

“Okay,” Regis hummed. “I’ll make sure to shake hands with them while wearing a thick enough glove.”

“That would probably be for the best. Alright, I think we’re done for the day. I still have to check on the mountain pass and I’m sure you have things to do as well.”

“Don’t I always?” The spell weaver sighed as he stood back up, heading toward the barracks to change clothes before heading back to the manor.

The way home was uneventful and after giving a slight nod to Euric, he headed over to his workshop, finding a single half cubic metre wooden crate in front of its door. As he read the note left on top of the crate, it became clear that this would be one of his more ‘special’ orders. Mayoress Tine sometimes asked for more powerful items from him, providing either rare materials or magic tomes. Regis had no idea where the woman got her hands on the books, but he didn’t really care.

The last ‘special’ request he fulfilled got him a rare earth magic tome which held spells related to ore conjuration. It enabled them to gain the ores needed to create bronze, providing them with a practically endless supply. This time the mayoress offered a tome regarding unique second-tier enchantments, providing a small side note on which one of the runic diagrams could be found, In return, the woman wanted Regis to use said diagram to enchant the items in the small crate.

‘An enchantment that could sense poison? Just what kind of trouble did you get into, Tine?’ The dark elf mused as he examined the runes on the parchment. It was quite a unique enchantment as it was meant to be infused into a quartz pendant which one would then hang above an object, be it a consumable or otherwise. After it got some arcana channelled into it, the quartz would either turn pitch black or pure white, depending on whether the item was poisoned or not. ‘We could use this ourselves as well with that noble gathering and all.’ He admitted as he opened the magically sealed door, bringing the crate inside.

After locking the door, Regis opened the crate, finding an assortment of smaller items inside. Several bracelets, necklaces and rings greeted him along with a couple of golden cups. The tags on the bracelets made it clear that they were to be infused with a simple spell of light wisp while the rings were either to be infused with arcana regeneration enchantment or a simple arcana shield spell. The cups were expected to have the cleansing spell infused into them while the few pendants were waiting for a spell of haste to find its way on them.

He also found five golden chains with a piece of clear quartz on them, the supposed recipient of the ‘detect poison’ enchantment. ‘That book better be worth it,’ he sighed. ‘If it only has this one new diagram, then I’ll lose out on it big time.’ Not wanting to waste time grumbling, he stepped beside one of the tables, placing his hand on it to create a ward which depicted the elemental stone charging transmutation circle. After that, he spent the next hour and a half creating clear quartz stones which he proceeded the turn into elemental ones.

A short meditation later he had all the materials needed and thus began to infuse every item with its requested enchantments. Hours later once the final piece was done, he let out a strained sigh. ‘Finally,’ he thought, looking at his arcane wristwatch. ‘Damn, it’s already half past seven. No wonder I felt so hungry.’ Thinking that, the dark elf left his workshop and headed towards the dining room. It was already prepared for dinner, Euric and young Dana sitting at the table, only standing up when he entered the room.

“Evening everyone,” he signalled them to sit back while he joined them. “I take it dinner is almost ready?”

“In a minute or so,” Euric remarked. “We tried to call you several times, sir, but you didn’t respond.”

“Sorry about that,” Regis hummed. “I must have been too invested in my work to hear it.”

“Was it that difficult, milord?” Young Dana asked, always ready to hear more about the arcane arts.

“I wouldn’t say it was difficult, but it was quite time-consuming. It also required a lot of concentration, but I believe it was worth it. If the mayoress keeps her end of the bargain, I’ll get a new enchanting related tome.”

“That’s great,” the girl said with a bright smile. “Will you add a copy of it to the guild's library as well? We have so few books about the subject of enchanting.”

“I know,” the spell weaver sighed. “The guild has exactly the same amount of enchanting-related tomes as I came across.”

“Oh, yeah.” She nodded awkwardly as she remembered how each book was either procured or copied by her liege himself.

“Either way, I’ll decide on the matter after I get my hands on said book. And even then, it will be up to Salvador to judge which section it will go to.”

“Probably the restricted one,” the young woman sighed dejectedly. “He puts there pretty much everything that holds knowledge above the first tier.”

“That’s understandable,” Euric finally spoke up. “We wouldn’t want untrained or unproven mages to get their hands on dangerous knowledge now, do we?”

“No...” Dana sighed even deeper, but before she could argue against the decision, her mother appeared from the kitchen with the dinner cart.

“I’m glad to see you could join us, milord. I was starting to worry that you would work through the night. Again.”

“I managed to finish just in time,” Regis answered. “So what's for dinner tonight?”

“Meat stew from one of the boars you’ve hunted with a side dish of potatoes. There’s also some fresh vegetable soup and I baked a couple of those spicy ground meat filled buns you love so much.”

“Sounds delicious.” The dark elf nodded as he looked at the mouth-watering menu. Dana served everyone their meal before sitting down as well. Dinner went by in a quiet yet pleasant mood, Regis saying his thanks for the food after it was over. Once done, he left towards the bathroom to take a hot, long bath. After returning to his room, he pretty much collapsed on his fluffy bed, falling asleep in a minute.