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From the capital to Red Maple province, the region of the Arnhaunts, was a week's journey and this was because the transportation was carried out by ..., special monsters trained for carting their goods and carriages.

"Is my father back?"

Bored in the long ride, Asher glanced out the window and took the sight in while he asked the question.

"... not yet, young master." Isabella replied after a bit of hesitation.

She glanced at Asher to try and pick up a reaction but noticed that he kept a plain face.

Asher sighed inwardly upon hearing her reply. Despite having lived longer than the kingdom itself, or even its past self, Asher had a lot of emotional attachment to the man who was his father in his life. As somehow that once stood at the peak in his past life, what Asher desired most wasn't just great power but familial love and he had got it here. What he now wanted to do was to preserve it, but the situation made things difficult for him to do so.

The battle, or skirmish, with the Kingdom of Terra by the border wasn't a full-blown war, but it wasn't a simple act of testing the waters either. According to the information he had, one of the six titled dukes of the Kingdom of Terra was present by the border.

The six titled dukes were six dukes in the Kingdom of Terra who stood above the others. They were the Kingdom's [1] equivalent of the Great Dawn kingdom's great family dukes. However, unlike the great family dukes, four of the six current titled dukes were above the eight-stage Guardian realm. In the former's case, three of the current great family dukes were at that level of power.

This wasn't to say that they were weaker, but certain circumstances led to this. For example, the previous duke Wesley who was a tenth-stage Guardian mage like duke Quentin Saunters, had retired and handed the position to his peak eighth-stage Guardian mage son. Even duke Quentin was rumoured to soon retire, which would leave duke Darius and duke Graham as the only above-eighth-stage Guardian mages among the current great family dukes.

Of the six titled dukes present, the duke present in the border war was one of the four above the eighth-stage of the Guardian realm; a ninth-stage Guardian mage at the early rank. Along with his forces, this duke led a portion of the Kingdom's military to lay siege to the border region guided by the Arnhaunts. In response, Darius took his men alongside his brother, Elijah, to fend off the enemy forces.

Although for the past two years, the battle was more like a skirmish than a war, the presence of top individuals from the two sides made the situation 'fragile' and neither side would retreat unless the other did so. Nonetheless, Darius still found time to occasionally return home and Asher had encountered him at least once during the past few months.

'I don't think the Kingdom is so leisure as to just leave a division out there with a titled duke for no reason. Chances are that a full-blown war would soon erupt; give or take a year or two. I have to get stronger before then and make the family stronger.' Asher thought.

For an average fourteen-year-old, this would be a difficult task to pull off. Just increasing one's strength to the required level to influence battles on such a stage was more than enough to keep them busy, but Asher wasn't an average young boy.

A few days later, Asher alongside Isabella and Chen finally arrived at the family's base in the capital city of Red Maple province, Red Maple city

Once he was back, Asher first proceeded to greet his uncle, Ol' Fang, and then settled himself at home for an hour before leaving again. His destination was a personal base of his that he had requested using his authority as the young lord. It was located in a valley close to the hills and was surrounded by a thick lush forest, making it a nice hideout. As for what was hidden here, only Asher, Ol' Fang, and Isabella knew.

Asher's base was a large plot of land at the centre of the valley surrounded by a thick lush green forest. The land was fenced and had a few buildings on it; most of which served as housing, storage, and lookout stations. There was also an open area that served as a training ground with wooden mannequins scattered standing all around. There was also a hunting ground behind the enclosure. Overall, the land had enough space and buildings to house fifty individuals with no problem.

"You're back already, young master." Luther greeted Asher once he arrived.

"It's been a while. Hope you guys are working according to plan and schedule?" Asher asked.

"Yes, young master." Luther replied.

"Have Aaron gather the others. I would like to see how far they've gone." Asher said.

Aaron was the other mage, who alongside Luther were students of Ol' Fang assigned as Asher's personal guards. Although that was their role, Asher made use of them differently.

During his first year break, after his visit to the Vermont mines, Asher had requested fifty mages from Ol' Fang to train as his personal militia; partly because it would aid his future plans and also because he was impressed by his father's 10-man corp, the Decadon. However, Ol' Fang refused his request as the family had to be mindful of how their military force was used, especially since the battle at the border was currently utilizing a large portion of them.

After many negotiations, Asher managed to get twenty-eight mages, who together with Luther and Aaron, made up a thirty-man force that answered only to Asher.

Initially, the mages were quite irritated by the fact that they had to answer to a young noble who was still growing his pubic hair, even if he was the son of their most respected duke. In fact, it was because of this that they didn't revolt right away. Nonetheless, Asher only had to beat them along with their pride, as well as demonstrate how he could raise their strengths to get levels to have them swear loyalty to him. Although this sounded simple, it actually wasn't.

The fact that Asher could take them down despite being 12-13 years old at the time had garnered their respect. Since he was also the rightful heir to the family and the only son of their venerated duke, it was only normal for the loyalty to come after Asher had gained their approval and respect.

Over the course of eighteen months, Asher had trained this group to become much stronger than they were when they first arrived. If one could recall, Asher had periodically returned to Red Maple town a couple of times in the past year and a half. While part of that was to check up on Isabella's training, the majority reason was to supervise and train this team. Now, Asher was hoping to test out the results of the group's training.

Barely three minutes later, a group of twenty-eight men under the leadership of Aaron, appeared on the training ground. Asher, escorted by Luther and Isabella, walked up to the training ground where he studied the expressions and physiques of the men, one by one.

'They've improved by quite a lot since I last saw them, but not enough to turn this place upside down.' Asher thought.

When he had started out with these men, excluding Luther be Aaron, the weakest of them was a Human stage mage at the mid-rank while the strongest was a first-stage Guardian mage at the peak rank. This couldn't be helped as most of the elite forces were either at the border, at the mines, or had to be on standby while protecting the province.

Now, however, the weakest was a peak-rank first-stage Guardian mage with the strongest being a mid-rank third-stage Guardian mage on the verge of reaching the peak rank. About four of them were third-stage Guardian mages, seventeen of them were second-stage Guardian mages while the remaining seven were all peak-rank first-stage Guardian mages. Although this wasn't an elite force, when one considers their starting line, it was quite impressive that they had come this far.

Asher's goal was for them to become a true elite force like the Decadon; in other words, for all thirty men to be of the seventh-stage of the Guardian realm at least. This was a goal that required a ton of resources and time, even then, not anyone could pull it off.

'I need to get them ready before I turn 20. I can't be here forever.'

One should recall that it took Darius twenty years to produce a ten-man force with such capabilities, and this was because the Arnhaunts had a magic crystal mine, but Asher wanted to do so within the next 5-6 years.

While it sounded absurd, it was very doable especially since Asher had a vast array of knowledge from his past life, including knowledge on potions for progressing in the Guardian stage. In fact, part of the reason why the group had moved up a stage had to do with the True Calming potion and the other two options Asher had developed in the past couple of months.

Asher cut his thoughts short as he had concluded his examination of the group.

"I'm not here to say many words. The only thing you need to know for now is that I'll be testing your progress. This time around, the focus is on teamwork."

Asher said as he took off his outer clothing which Isabella collected from him and folded in her arms.

"All of you, come at me together."