Final Task

on his way, after getting Camilla's hand in marriage, he set out to the closest farm's he could find where royal watchmen followed, and they expected him to take all day as getting the equipment would take a while, but Alcaeus used his magic to make a river stream appear from it with a special property to clean everything the water touches as it cleaned out all the stables in 10 seconds flat as it dried up near-instantly, cleaned everything, made it smell like lavender and blueberries, and the stables were so clean in fact, you could eat off the floor just fine as the royal watchmen return and tell of the outcome to the royal's with Alcaeus there to hear them on the task being complete, though, everyone's look was as expected, they ere shocked and surprised by this feat.

Bella:"... you hade used magic to clean the stables"

Alcaeus:" you never said HOW I needed to clean the stables, so I just used what I had available to me to complete my task"

Hellena:"... I should have expected as much, well, he's right about us not being specific and we did say as long as it got cleaned in the amounted time, it was allowed, so we can't go back on our word now"

Fumio:" since he did complete the task by himself I'll let it count, I hardly care how he completed the task so long as he didn't receive help from any outside party, the fact he did it means he's completed it, so I'll allow it"

Nala:" my daughter may have a promising husband yet, but you still need 2 thing's, the approval of 100,000 other Kitsune to support your marriage with her, and the title of either a count or knight"

Alcaeus:"... I can get both, just give me time"

Fumio:" you don't have much time really, 2 months goes by really quick before you know it, but go ahead if you think you can"

leaving on the borrowed Charriot, Alcaeus gets to where he believed that all the freed 1 million slaves were to meet up with them, it took 4 day's, but since he still had about a month, 2 weeks, and 3 day's left, he made no effort to take a break for even a minute, the banquet ended and as he was told to meet them in their castles next, they set off back home, Camilla, Abigail, and Sharifa were allowed to accompany him with a gem that show's their parent's his efforts, but they weren't allowed to help, and arriving there, some of them recognized him and welcomed him in with open arm's, though, Alcaeus was brief, he told them his situation and why he needed the approval of about 100,000 Kitsune to get Aspalis's hand in marriage, but not only did he get the kitsune in the group who were freed, he got the families, friend's, and allies of the freed kitsune, he also got the approval of many of the knights in the Kitsune kingdom approval as well, so he got over 750,000 kitsues approval, far above the normal standard, and had been asked to meet a noble family to descuse something with him, he didn't have time, but he meet the person to be respectful.

Alcaeus:' do we have time for this through, I know I have over a month and a half, but I can't waste even a second-"

Camilla:" it's okay, after this, it's only slaying dragon's with a bow, spear, and sword... none of that sound's easy, but you've killed plenty of dragon's with your bow before right"

Alcaeus:" yeah, in a group though, alone... I'm nowhere near Artemis's level of hunting ability... or power"

Abigail:" she killed dozen's of Dragon's with her bare hand's in less than half an hour... how is that even possible"

Alcaeus:" that is why I both respect and fear Artemis with a passion"

with that, each are convinced accept for Sharifa who only had rumor's of Artemis to go off of, but she had an idea what the goddess was like, so she did empathize to an extent what 3 people who were raised under her went through to feel this way, and heading to the noble's mansion, he was now in the manner of the Phoenixblood estate, he was a Count with his wife and his daughter who was about 23 year's old and the family seemed nice as they also helped the freed slaves get by with giving them jobs and good pay.

Alcaeus:" I am Alcaeus Achilles, Achilles is my middle name, I do not have a last name yet, pleased to meet you Count Uther and Count Igraine"

Uther:" please, just call me Uther, the reason I called you here is to thank you personally for saving my wife and daughter Morgan from slavery"

Alcaeus:" I did"

Morgan:" you probably don't remember us, but I was the one you patched up because she has to fend off men trying to rape her and her mother before Artemis shot them in the head's with arrow's as we were getting set free"

Alcaeus:" OH, that was you, you look much better than you did before, I almost didn't recognize you at all"

Igraine:" it is nice to meet you again, I would like to say personally, thank you for saving me and my daughter, as well as many of the other's enslaved with us"

Morgan:" and thank you for saving my life"

Alcaeus:" oh, no that's okay, as long as you all are okay, and I don't mean to be rude, but I'm in a hurry, I need to-"

Uther:" I'm aware, but I do have a proposal, you see, as you saved my families life, I would like to repay you, so I have a proposal"

Alcaeus:" a proposal"

Uther:" you see, one of my close allies betrayed me by selling my wife and daughter to the slavers as well, I found them only because the Artemis familia and you helped set them free the day they were sold, and they were hired by the man who is going to take Aspalis's hand in marriage, so I'd also like to get payback to him by making sure he doesn't get what he want's as well, so my intention's are more for revenge really"

Alcaeus:"... I understand, so it's more to pay that man back for what he did to you and your family, I get it, but how did you find out"

Igraine:" you also were able to get the name's of the people who they did business with, that's how we found him, but that's why I would like to adopt you as our son, a way to help you, and we'd pay back that bastard, 2 birds, one stone"

Alcaeus:"... what"

Igraine:" you see, we know about your plan to take the hand's fo the princesses, and succeeded in taking these 3's hand in marriage so far, but you have 2 more, so I would like to adopt you so you can accomplish one task for taking the hand of princess Aspalis"

Alcaeus:"... thank you, but is there anything else you want out of me from being your son"

Uther:" we do expect to have a better reputation to have more influence, but don't worry, you'll have the title of count and our last name for now as well as us teaching you some thing's you may not know like politics or management of a business, it may help you even if you don't think it may"

Alcaeus accepted and was now accepted as the son of a count, fulfilling the request, he was able to get Aspalis's hand in marriage successfully as he was now able to have a home for now as word spread fast as he was now Count Alcaeus Achilles Phoenixblood, the adopted son of the head member of the count of the Phoenixblood family, Uther Phoenixblood, and now, he only had Makeda's hand in marriage left, but she was going to be hard, but he could do it, only one problem, how was he going to slay 3 dragon's with a bow, sword, and spear by himself, the bow part he could probably do on his own, but the spear and sword were questionable for him to accomplish, but then came another problem, he had to wait for Aspalis to join him on his journy in order to move on, something that the kings and queens said was unfortunate, but if he was going to be a good husband, he had to take his wives with him when he can, otherwise it wouldn't be fair as he is favoring over the others, and while Aspalis said she'd be fine not going for Alcaeus to be able to get this done sooner rather than later, her parent's didn't give her a choice, if it were Otrera or Sharifa's parents, it would have been fine, but in the case of Aspalis, this was not an option if Alcaeus were to sucssed in this plan of his, the father wanted his daughter to have credit in this to help inspire their race, and her mother wanted her daughter to be seen more favorably to her husband when he is going to choose an heir, so with no other choice, Alcaeus had to wait about a week or 2 based on how fast Aspalis gets there, so he would make a plan before she got there since he was at his adopted parent's home to wait for her.

Alcaeus:" I know it's not her fault, but waiting for Aspalis to get here will take up a lot of time, time I don't think I have the luxury of having right now since the last task are probably the hardest"

Uther:" given the last three tasks, I don't blame you, some think it's simple enough, but even the weakest of dragons are tough enough to level entire villages who have many of their citizen's train in dug's and around level 2 and some even level 3, and even for veteran level 4's, a weak dragon is a nightmare, as well as them being rare to find outside an official dungeon as well, so it's like trying to find a needle in a hey stack as well as fighting the equivalent of a small army with lot's of magical power on your own"

Morgan:"... don't worry, I'm sure I can help"

Alcaeus:" you can"

Morgan:" sure, they never said HOW you find the dragon's, so if I help, it should be fine, though, finding them is the limit, you have to be the one to kill it, think you can do it"

Alcaeus:"... yeah, I think I can"

Morgan:"... don't think, I'm not going to help you if you think you're going to die, you're my younger brother now, I can't have you going off and getting into situation's unless you're either given no choice or know for a face you can come out on top, so I'll ask again, can you do this"

Alcaeus:"... Morgan... thank's, I will come out on top, no matter what"

Igraine:" now as much as I would like to wish you off with good luck with that kind of answer, fact is, as of now, we have to wait, assuming this girl knows your situation, I assume she'll be traveling as fast as she can, so a week or a little over is your limit assuming she is rushing now"

Alcaeus:" I can wait for her, besides, I did wonder what it was like to live in one place at once"

even with the change to what he was use to since he grew up always on the move, he did admit the life of a noble was somewhat nice, he of course was humble, but he did take some advantages of the mansion life as well as spend time with his new family as well with getting to know them and help around when he can himself, he also learned how to do some thing's as a nobleman, namely how to handle business and management, as well as politics and negotiation skills in how to talk game, though, with this, he was also feeling more part of his new family, they accepted him with open arm's and were nice people, and he did indeed care for his new family greatly, though, he knew he would be gone soon, and now, he was somewhat sad about it, knowing he'd leave them soon, but he did do what he intended with his money, he went to a slave market to fulfill his promise to the Oni King and Queen on what he would do with it.