Iron Lord, Taurus Eastel

"Faster, beast!" The carriage owner whipped the beast pulling the cart, a wildling called Pegasus.

It not much different from a normal horse except for the two red wings and golden horn crowning its head, giving its black body a decent degree of beauty.

The Pegasus was an incredibly fast beast, these wings meant to enable flight were now a powerful source of thrust.

"Fucking human garbage, I hope you die!" The wildling roared in anger, its words nothing but a single, long neigh to Chris and the owner.

Taurus could feel the anger in the beast's tone and sympathize with it.

However, he had no intention of interfering with it for the time being based on a brief interaction between them.

Especially since it seems like it was tamed already, otherwise it could have flown away.

"Uncle! How much time is left until we arrive?!" Taurus spoke as the carriage drove out of the capital city, heading toward the northeast.

"About an hour? Maybe less or half." Chris responded after thinking about it for a few minutes.

Taurus nodded his head, the distance was certainly high but with the beast's speed, it should be at least cut by half or more.

"Uncle, is this where we are going?!" Chris' words were proven true when the dukedom's outline appeared not far in the distance as Taurus shouted excitedly.

"Yes, but we can't just go through the hills and trees, can we?" Chris responded and Taurus nodded his head in agreement, knowing the carriage would have to follow the road before arriving.

Silence reigned once again as the carriage made its way, before entering through the main gate.

As the duke's younger brother and a member of the Eastel family, Chris' carriage was allowed inside right away before passing through the bustling streets toward the center.

"Uncle, when can I get my axes?" Taurus asked, knowing they were on their way to the family's household rather than the forgery where most of the weapons were manufactured.

"Eh, is there nothing else on your mind?" Chris spoke with a smile, yet his facial expression could easily tell how annoyed he was. 

'Why would a child with such attributes want a weapon?' Chris' thoughts deepened, finding it suspicious despite his sister's approval. 

"Of course, I want to see my grandpa and uncles." Taurus responded before pausing for a moment, "But the axes are most important!" He continued, shouting his lungs out before skipping toward one of the houses in the distance.

"Ah, wait! Don't go there yet!" Chris shouted as Taurus made his way toward his grandfather's house.

The old man was strict with all of them and as a matter of fact, the same applied to children as well.

Taurus heard him well and despite knowing that, he continued on his before arriving at the house's door and began his assault.

"Granpa? You here granpa?!" He began slamming heavily on the door while shouting the old man's name as Chris' face changed.

"Who is banging the door?! Have some patience, will you?" The old man responded from the inside as the footsteps closed in.

"It is me Taurus, granpa! Is my axes here?!" Taurus shouted once again, trying his best to act as a child matching his current age.

"What axes, you little bugger?" The door flung open as Taurus rushed forward, jumping into the old man's arms.

"Uncle Chris brought me here, so I assumed my axes would be here!" Taurus responded as Chris approached from behind awkwardly, scared of his father's reaction.

"Explain yourself." The old man's facial expression changed into something more serious compared to how he treated his grandson before speaking.

"Well," Chris rubbed his hair before recalling everything that happened in the Pendragon lands, from his Taurus' awakening to the titan's presence.

'Ah, more headache! Not like two were enough, now you give me a third one?!' The old man thought before shaking his head.

Among his grandchildren, only Alexandra's children were the ones who could be considered annoying to deal with.

Theo could use average weapons because of his thunder, Amelia required a special staff to handle her elemental heat, and now Taurus was a much bigger trouble.

"Dear son, if what you've said is true, then taking him to the forgery would be a waste of time," The old man spoke before patting Taurus' shoulder as they stepped outside.

He walked around the courtyard before arriving at an average-sized boulder, then he lowered Taurus to the ground.

"Here, use this to break the rock before you." The old man retrieved a blacksmith's hammer from his spatial ring before handing it to Taurus.

Taurus nodded and prepared to do as told, knowing the test was not meant to assess his strength, but rather, prove to Chris that normal metals wouldn't handle it.

The hammer accelerated toward the boulder and soon, the impact happened. Cracks spread across the ground as the boulder turned into tiny pebbles.

The hammer in Taurus's hand was nowhere to be seen, leaving only a small handle inside his tiny hand.

"Do you understand now?" The old man's attention returned to his son, asking him right away as Chris nodded.

"Yes, Father. Thank you." Chris spoke while Taurus shrugged his shoulders internally.

'Well, I'm going to kill people not destroy rocks and hit stuff,' Taurus thought as the old man spoke once again.

"It's alright. I'm glad you brought him here first, now I can contribute to his growth as well." Taurus jumped excitedly upon hearing the old man's words.

Although he didn't mind if he was given a normal weapon, he felt nice knowing his grandfather was going to forge it with his own hands.

"Oh you little bugger, will you take revenge for your grandpa?!" Since the old man knew about the deal, he took the chance and made up his mind to teach Taurus a few tricks.

"Yes!!!" Taurus shouted as the old man carried him before heading out alongside Chris.

"While I can't teach you axe combat, I can teach you aura!" The old man spoke as Taurus tilted his head, acting as if Aura was something he was not familiar with.

"What is aura, granpa?"

"Aura is what we physical combatants use in place of elements. You have mana, don't you?"

"Yes, I have big mana!"

'Ah, yes. Fuck it.' Chris thought as the two spoke, he felt no need to think about it any further no matter how crazy unnatural the situation seemed.

"Ohohoho, even better! Aura is essentially refined mana, it is our pride and most useful weapon!"

"Woooo!" Taurus widened his eyes and both shook their heads, treating his reaction as nothing but a pure child's reaction.

They continued walking for a few minutes to the south of the household before crossing a gate where the guards greeted them.

"Do you want to watch your grandpa or do you want to play outside?"

"I want to watch!" Taurus responded as the old man lowered him to the ground once again.

"Then stay with your uncle and keep your distance, not that any of that can hurt you." The old man continued his words with a sarcastic tone as they passed by the blacksmiths working inside.