Technomancer: Genesis Chapter 57: The Path of a Noble

A pair of eyes stared at the scene, a knight was holding a toddler throwing him up in the air while the others were chanting his name. The body of the chimeraan lay sprawled all over like the corpse of an insignificant beast.

A man in the shadows unseen hid behind a conifer. 'I don't know why this child is so intelligent,' the man thought as he watched, 'but he has God's Eye, I must tell my brethren of this immediately."

He disappeared as he left into the darkness of the forest.

The knights were ecstatic, they never thought that with their strength alone, they could kill the Chimeraan, even though they were good with tactics against human mages, tactics to subdue Precantae were different as they behaved differently from humans and their power could easily kill them with an assault of both magic and physical strength.

"Thank you, Lord Ezra," the knights said in unison as they bowed before Ezra.

Ezra rubbed his nose shyly, he was not accustomed to garnering such praise from practical strangers.

Deimos stood up and said, "Thanks again Lord Ezra, we shall salvage what we can from the beast's corpse and leave immediately there might be another Precantae lurking."

For the next half an hour they tried to salvage the hide of the Precantae, which would sell for a healthy sum, unfortunately, they could only salvage a third of the hide because of the time constraint, they also took the crystals that were embedded in the Precantaes' head.

Phobos dug out the crystals and walked toward Ezra.

"Sire, this shall be your keep," Phobos presented the crystals to Ezra with a smile.

Ezra was excited as he received the crystals he wanted to investigate their properties but he put it off for the time being.

"Thank you," replied Ezra with an angelic smile.

Phobos felt awkward fast, he could not fathom how intelligent this child was yet as soon as he smiled he looked just like a normal innocent child you would want to dote on. Phobos then went back to the beast and proceeded to help the others in taking what valuable parts of the carcass.

Evan was beside Ezra because the others did not let them join him in looting the carcass. He was left to guard Ezra, in their eyes he ranked higher than all of them because of his status as Ezra's personal guard.

Ezra, then he asked him a question. "I thought magic crystals and cores were mined, how come this creature has them on his head?"

"I am not certain of that as well milord. This is the first time I have actually seen Precantae, I have only ever been assigned with bandit clearing and escort missions before. Most of the wilderness clearing operations are done by the four knightly orders."

"I see,"

'Hmm, do these crystals have the same properties as a mined crystal? Why is it you can both mine them and gather them from these creatures?' Ezra thought to himself.

"If you could gather crystals like this and sell them, why is it that no one just goes to a forest and kill Precantae it would be lucrative," Ezra asked once again.

"Sire, you are the only one who actually thinks this way," Evan answered.

'You must be ridiculous Lord Ezra, You think it is easy getting crystals as slaughtering chicken? You're the only one who could probably think like that,' Evan thought this but did not say it out loud, he was incredulous at Ezra's proposition. Sometimes he did not understand why such an intelligent child asked such ridiculous questions.

"You must know that killing the beasts like the Precantae we encountered is not easy, one could easily lose a considerable amount of lives before one can kill a such a creature, it is far safer to mine for crystals rather than hunt for these beasts, also mines yield more crystals than Precantae."

"Oh yeah, I guess people can easily die from attempting to kill one of those, Yep, you are right it is safer to mine these things. But I mean powerful nobles could hunt these things right?" Ezra forgot that just because they killed the creature really fast, it did not mean other people could do it as well.

"Well, unless it is for sport, Lord Ezra, I doubt a noble would do such a menial task," said Evan thoughtfully. Evan knew how high and lofty nobles were, except for Lady Aerwyna and Lord Reitz, he doubted that many nobles would try and personally kill a Precantae to protect their subjects unless it would hurt their domain for some reason.

"That reminds me. Evan, before we were cut off by the Chimeraan, how did you find me?"

"Oh, where was I? Well, Lord Ezra, I travelled straight from Bren for six hours straight to the Fulmen Trident,"

"Oh, I did not see anything I stowed away on the carriage where supplies were stored," Ezra said in a light tone, he was slightly ashamed of what he did.

"Sire, I have seen how bored you were in the Castle, I understand how unbearable it was but please do consider the feelings of your mother and father before attempting such an act."

Ezra looked at the ground, he could not look directly at Evan due to the light scolding he was receiving.

"Anyway please continue your story," Ezra tried to change back the topic.

"Yes when I reached the Fulmen Trident I did not know which of the paths you took to Anticourt so I could only guess, the shortest route was supposedly the middle one which took five days with stops so I decided to gamble and go forward, I had no idea that Deimos would split the caravan into two.

"Luckily I came across the caravan of soldiers going to Anticourt, I searched for you in the caravan but I did not see any sign of you, I asked where Deimos and the other knights were they told me that they went to Irriton, So I gambled and sped toward the grove even though it was unlikely that you were there.

"When I arrived I saw traces of a fight with the bear and deduced your general direction, I did not know the woods very well only stories about how dangerous it was."

"Wow you did a lot to find me, I'm sorry for the trouble I caused," Ezra looked at the ground again, he was regretful for his actions that made quite a stir.

"Sire, I would like to think that if it weren't for you the people here would probably be dead, so it was providential that you came here and rescued them, aside from the ruckus you caused, you did not do any real damage, Lord Ezra."

"Really?" asked Ezra as he looked up.

"Yes, but milord, you should understand the feelings of the Lord and Lady as well, they want you to grow up safely and enjoy life. They are actually very caring people, more than any nobles I personally know, they want people in their domain to live a happy life free from worry that is one of the reasons why Lord Blackfyre was adamant in exercising his authority over the mines.

"And of course you know of Lord Blackfyre's principles, House Blackfyre believes that the strong should protect the weak, this is a noble aim, Lord Ezra, try to strive for it. Grow strong, protect the weak, and guide them towards a sturdy path just like you have guided us here and lead us in the face of adversity."

Chapter end