After multiple failures to stop these villains, Juliette became convinced that informants leaked details of patrol schedules. She solicited the church's help to interrogate her household staff to flush out these spies and discover their employers.
When the Yalong family's name kept popping up, Juliette became convinced that the rival duke's house was actively harassing her domain to avenge Kand's public humiliation at the academy. However, Duchess Silverblade declined to pursue this matter besides executing the spies and the brigands that her knights eventually captured.
Although the duchess tried to avoid disclosing this conflict between her dukedom and Yalong, word soon leaked out. The other noble families began to play parlor games and bet which side would lose. Yalong had ties with the fallen Archbishop Milstein via marriage between branch members, and they also supported Prince Josen for the throne.
Meanwhile, the Heavensfell family explicitly supported Princess Camellia via an engagement with their heir. Thus, the observers weren't surprised to learn of this conflict between the two duke houses. The only question was whether the two sides would escalate into an open war involving soldiers invading each other's land.
Princess Camellia kept Luka apprised of these events during their daily lunch gatherings. Her formidable social network collected all sorts of information, and her maids analyzed them to pass along critical facts to the royalty. "What will you do?" she asked in a calm voice.
Although the royal family typically stayed above frays between the aristocracy, Camellia wished to support her fiance as much as possible. After all, the two duke houses were fighting because of her, and neither side could back off without hurting their noble pride.
"I will fight fire with fire," Luka grinned. "Since the Yalong family decided to enter the toll collection business, it's only fair that we do the same thing," he explained. "We need a detailed map of the Yalong domain along with the most important roads used for commerce."
"Once we establish the best sites, we need mercenaries to collect tolls. They could keep whatever they collect but cannot have any connection to my house. Since the church will interrogate me, I cannot have any direct involvement in this enterprise."
Besides magic to determine truthtelling, the inquisitors may use time magic to identify the mercenaries participating in the toll collection scheme. If Luka doesn't have any contact with these people, then his denial would be much more plausible to the investigators.
Camellia clapped her hands, and Ruotha approached her seat. "Ask Reynald to arrange toll collectors in Yalong's domain."
"Yes, Your Highness," the maid curtsied. Reynald belonged to the royal family's spymasters with agents all over the country. Even if the church traced the toll collectors back to him, the organization wouldn't dare to arrest Reynald due to his strong ties to the aristocracy. Moreover, he was well known for playing both sides of a conflict. Therefore, investigators couldn't determine who he worked for in a particular operation.
A few weeks after Luka's retaliatory scheme began, Juliette summoned Luka back to the family estate. When he appeared accompanied by Orella, the mother resisted the temptation to rebuke him.
Duchess Silverblade recognized the red armor and realized that Orella belonged to the flower knight brigade. But from the warrior's closeness to her son and her loving gaze at his back, Juliette understood that Orella was his mistress.
Hanna was also livid at Orella's entry into the house and glared at her love rival.
Orella smiled at the maid and realized that the silly girl was jealous of the knight's relationship with the young master.
"Let's sit in the parlor room," Juliette invited.
Luka sat across from his mother, and the maid served hot tea and cookies. Orella and Hanna stood behind the heir.
The duchess took a sip of the drink to relax before she began her talk. "Were you involved in the toll collection business in Yalong dukedom?" Juliette asked bluntly.
"I didn't hire them. I heard that bandits decided to collect tolls in both of our territories. I hope it's not continuing anymore because the merchants might drop their trade routes in our domicile. These illegal tolls would reduce profits for the merchants and smear the feudal lord with a reputation for lawlessness," Luka noted with concern while dancing adroitly around his responsibility as the mastermind for this operation.
The mother wisely declined to pursue the topic further. Juliette expected her son to deny involvement and wanted Luka to say it out loud for the household staff's potential spies to hear. Frankly, she didn't care if he was personally involved or an ally, such as Princess Camellia, stepped in on his behalf. Duchess Silverblade's top priority now was to de-escalate the conflict between the two duke houses.
"How are things between you and your fiancée?" Juliette inquired with a faint smile. She felt ambivalent about the engagement because the mother didn't fully support it. Her family conflict with the Yalong house was a perfect encapsulation of why. The aristocracy viewed Princess Camellia as a tempting fruit, and the nobles all wanted their sons to become her marriage partner. Hence, many families resented Luka for taking away their grand prize.
That said, Juliette felt relieved that the young couple seemed well suited for each other. If they weren't, the princess wouldn't task one of her beloved flower knights to guard Luka. Orella's presence was a strong signal to the nobility that Camellia supported her fiance and wouldn't tolerate anyone messing with him. Thus, only an upper-ranked noble like Kand would dare to disregard her warning.
"We get along well. Camellia takes an interest in my concerns and feels very protective of me," Luka replied.
Orella nodded behind him. "If I may intrude, Your Excellency, the princess thinks very highly of Luka. He embodies the noble spirit and cares deeply for his subjects. Her Highness believes that it's mainly due to his upbringing by this family," she praised.
"Please thank Her Highness for her kind words," Juliette replied with an aristocratic salute.
Orella reciprocated the gesture.
The nobles ate an early dinner, and Luka retired to his room. To his surprise, Hanna and Orella followed him inside. The young lord felt a tension between the two and wasn't sure how to make them stop.
The maid helped him undress and followed him into the bathroom. While Luka bathed with Hanna's assistance, Orella nonchalantly entered and washed her body with a wet rag.
Hanna compared her chest to Orella's and frowned because the knight was much more prominent. The jealous servant poured soap on her breasts and rubbed against his back.
The knight chuckled at the girl's silly reaction.
When Hanna finished bathing the young master and dried his figure, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to bed. The servant made him sit and began to stroke his cock and massage his sack with her hands. When his manhood hardened, Hanna sucked on it and performed oral sex while ignoring the third wheel.
As Luka enjoyed her hot tongue licking the sensitive tip of his penis, Orella approached from behind and pressed her large bosom against his back. "Who's got the better tits?" she teased.
Hanna heard her words and became angry. She sucked on her master's penis more vigorously until he exploded deep inside her mouth. Hanna stood up and opened her mouth to show the cum coating her tongue. The young woman stared at Orella as the maid swallowed the load.
The knight responded by roughly pulled Luka into the center of his bed. Orella straddled him and stroked his member until it became engorged again. She lowered her pussy and swallowed his cock with one strong push.
Luka's body jerked as he felt her walls envelop his sensitive penis.
Orella stared at Hanna while rocking her hips back and forth until he ejaculated inside her.
The two women traded places and forced Luka to make love until he became utterly exhausted.
Chapter 108
The Dungeon Trials (Part 1)
Contrary to Duchess Silverblade's expectations, the Yalong duke house declined her implicit truce of
fer. Instead, the noble family sought other ways to undermine the Heavensfell clan. For example, they spread rumors that Juliette had a secret, illegitimate child with a commoner; the grapes on Heavensfell's famed vineyard had a disease; the wines were consequently defective; more undead contagions broke out in parts of the Heavensfell domain.
At the King's Court, Juliette used a truthteller from the Divine Church of Light to publicly deny she had any additional children. The priest confirmed her words as truthful. She took this dramatic step because otherwise, it would undermine Luka's status as the Heavensfell duke house's heir. Frankly, Juliette cared little about her reputation; instead, she focused on securing her son's future headship.
The king supported the duchess by publicly denouncing this dark rumor and threatening to punish anyone who continued to spread it. He also asked for a church-led inquisition to investigate how this vicious gossip started.
Pope Demetrius confirmed that an undead contagion broke out in the Izan province several weeks earlier. But Lumina's attack, which redirected, concentrated, and amplified sunlight on a specific target on the ground, cleansed the affected regions. Consequently, residents had begun to migrate to that reclaimed land. Furthermore, the pope verified no additional reports of undead sightings since then. Finally, the leader implored everyone to remain vigilant and report undead encounters immediately.
While the King's Court became embroiled in this conflict between two duke houses, Luka was wholly preoccupied with the royal academy's dungeon trials. For this examination, the freshmen classes entered a giant arena together to fight off a monster rampage from all sides.
The school administration permitted participants to organize their forces however they wished. Afterward, the dungeon core will tally score by accumulating monsters' ranks defeated by each class's members.
* * *
"I see that all the freshmen class representatives are present here. I welcome everyone to this Dungeon Trial Organizational Meeting. My name is Terrwyn Cardogan, the Elite Class representative. Please allow me to share my research on this annual school event."
"I learned that all participants would enter an open-air arena, and monsters will come in waves to attack us. These creatures vary from lowly goblins and orcs to boars and ogres to cockatrices and wyverns and eventually a dragon! Fortunately, the dungeon core will monitor each student's health closely and teleport us out if we're close to losing our lives."
"The most tricky part of this upcoming dungeon trial is a severe restriction on the use of items. The rules permit each participant to bring one potion, one set of armor, a shield, two melee weapons, and a ranged weapon with 1,000 pieces of ammunition. No scrolls and other magic items permitted inside the arena; the dungeon master will confiscate them automatically."
"We may cast buffs before entering the dungeon, but those enhancements won't last very long. The strict limitation on potions is problematic because our fighters can't recover their health and stamina with potions. In other words, our success in this trial will heavily depend on the recovery skills of our light mages," Terrwyn explained.
The representatives began to curse out loud because they realized that their respective classes carried few healers. A majority of the student body consisted of melee combatants, and some parties had no healer whatsoever. Thus, they relied on potions during the previous field trip. By limiting such use, the students would fight with a hand behind their backs. This restriction was outrageous!
"Yes, the question before us is whether to unite the freshmen classes as a single army and redistribute the healers. Or, we could keep our classes as separate parties, and those lacking healers will suffer in performance," Terrwyn said bluntly. "Please offer your thoughts on what we should do," she invited.
The representatives of the classes with several healers exchanged glances and nodded. "I'm sorry to say this, but we refuse to loan our healers," one person declared.
"We also decline the proposal to combine our classes," other students announced their opposition.
"May I ask why?" Terrwyn inquired calmly.
The opposition leader raised his hand. "Our classes are competing against each other for points in this event. If we lend out our healers, then our class strength would drop significantly. Even a small change in the final score could alter the class rankings."
"Second, the general taking command of the entire freshmen grade could send rival classes as meat shields and eliminate them from the arena sooner. In other words, we have no assurance that the leader would be unbiased when issuing orders on the battlefield," he expressed his fear openly.
Terrwyn accepted these words calmly. She already predicted a backlash to combining the classes and splitting the healers. But her Elite Class should fare better because of Luka's presence within her group. Thus, the class rep didn't mind having each class act independently since this arrangement benefits the Elite Class.
"Does anyone else have a different opinion?" she solicited and looked around the room.
"With all due respect, it's foolish to expect the classes to fight under a single banner. Even if the class representatives agree to work together, our members might oppose. After all, many students are muscleheads who won't listen to orders on the battlefield anyway. Frankly, we're better off using them as meat shields and saving our energy for the secondary waves of monsters," another rep said.
"We're all in agreement for our classes to fight separately, then?" Terrwyn asked.
"Yes!" The attendees nodded in unison.
* * *
When Terrwyn arrived in homeroom the next morning, she summarized the discussion during the organizational meeting. "The class reps decided that each class should act as a separate party during the dungeon trials," she announced. "The reason is that this school event restricts participants to bring in only one potion per person. That means recovery magic will be a premium for this event; the classes blessed with multiple healers refused to loan them out."
All eyes turned toward Luka because they knew that he possessed incredibly high light magic proficiency along with a deep mana pool. He could easily manage every class member's health recovery if Luka focused on this specific party role.
"That's fine with me. I will serve strictly as a healer in this event," he agreed readily. Luka was happy to carry the bulk of this duty if other classmates could remain in the group for next year.
"If you focus on recovery, you won't be able to attack the monsters. You might lose first place in the student rankings," Terrwyn warned.
"Who said the dungeon wouldn't throw abyssal monsters and the undead at us?" Luka retorted.
Her jaw dropped because Terrwyn didn't consider that possibility! Her focus was on the dragon, which was the trial's final boss. However, Luka raised a good point because Headmaster Ladis may introduce monsters requiring light magic to defeat. "You're right, Luka. I apologize for my erroneous assumption."
The other classmates nodded. They thought Luka had hogged the limelight during the previous school field trip and planned to run up their scores during the dungeon trial. But Luka's warning burst their heroic fantasies.
"I'm going to bring more powerful, illusionary monsters for you to fight during practice," Luka added.
The students groaned.
Luka upheld his promise in the shadow realm. He created illusions of monster hordes for the class to fight. The mage started with lower-ranked monsters like goblins and orcs; he steadily increased the difficulty with ever more powerful creatures. When an undead dragon finally appeared as the dungeon boss, the monster promptly wiped out the entire class!
The students received a painful beating from the S-ranked monster. Its gigantic, skeletal frame had a strong resistance to slash and jab attacks. Some fighters, such as Wickkuil, tried to adjust by turning their blades to the flat side to attack the dragon. But their unfamiliarity with this style of fighting reduced the power behind their strikes.
Moreover, the monster swatted the students whenever they trie
d to attack his back. The dragon also deployed a combination of dragon fear and breath attacks to freeze his targets motionless before engulfing them with black fire. The miraculous survivors earned bites from the dragon's sharp teeth.
After today's horrific practice session ended, Terrwyn gathered the class for a review session. "What went wrong during our fight with the undead dragon?" she asked aloud.
"I have a better question. Why did we fight one in the first place?" Kherherac retorted. He tried shooting his pistol at the dragon but did no damage. It crushed him with a left paw before the gadgeteer could evade the attack.
"The dungeon trial will feature a dragon as the boss monster. There was an undead contagion during the winter break; people are worried about encountering undead monsters now. That's why I wouldn't put it past the dungeon master to designate an undead dragon as the final boss for the dungeon trials," Luka explained.
"I tend to agree with Luka. Sooner or later, we will fight a dragon. We must come up with a plan to deal with it," Terrwyn spoke up to support him.
"Well, none of us possesses the title of a dragonslayer. So it's hard for us to inflict significant damage to the boss monster," Wickkuil laughed at his impotence.
"By now, we know an undead dragon's moves. Its skeletal wings cannot lift the body in the air. Since the monster is landbound, we could trap its movement to some extent with our shieldmen. The creature is also undead and very susceptible to holy magic. We have to make it stay still while the light mage chants a high-tier holy spell to attack the dragon. That's the key to defeat it," Luka concluded.
The classmates nodded their approval of Luka's plan.
"We'll practice fighting the dragon tomorrow," Terrwyn said.
Noram raised his hand to object. "Why are we spending so much time and focus on a dragon? The dungeon trials will serve up plenty of other monsters," he pointed out.
The Divine Summoner: Godson of Altima Page 87
