The Shatterplate War Chapter 40

The Shatterplate War Chapter 40

"My lord!"

Kay glanced up from his thoughts in the middle of his walk. He'd taken some time off, just as a small break, and was enjoying walking around Avalon, just watching people and taking in the growth and change that had come as the town expanded again and again. Someone ran up toward him while he was stopped looking at a fountain, and his guards stepped in front of him protectively.

Stephen's head poked up over the two guards. "My lord, you need to come quick!"

Kay brushed some water off his legs and motioned for his guards to step aside. "Stephen? What's wrong? And since when did you start calling me that?"

"Um, it's about that thing I'm not supposed to be talking about." The tall human man looked skinnier without his armor on, but he was still muscular enough to dwarf Kay.

Kay's brow furrowed as he started walking immediately. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes and no? I wouldn't say it's bad, but it's not what we were expecting."

"Let's go, then." Kay gestured with his chin for part of his detachment of bodyguards to move in front. The Blood Guard had been expanding rapidly for some time, and they were up to almost thirty people at that point. Lauren had finally convinced him to start letting people be recruited and used directly as his guards before they started learning Blood Manipulation or other skills from Kay. He still took what time he could to train them up when everyone was free, but as more experienced members started getting to the point where they could train the newer members, Kay was acting less and less as a one to one instructor or people and more of a teacher of a large class. He got called in when someone needed specific work, but most of the time, his "TAs" did a lot of the work.

That was why he was surprised to see Lauren just outside of the secret area they'd worked up for "Cindy's project", as they were calling it.

"I thought you were doing training for the new Blood Guard today?"

"I was," She gestured into the building, "But then this came up, and the detachment we have running security came and got me." She nodded at Stephen, "I sent him and Amanda to run fetch you, Amanda, and Eleniah."

"Why us three?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Because you're in charge, Amanda is also in charge, and Eleniah knows stuff." Then she shrugged, "And Eleniah had just left here when I arrived, and it wasn't much work to bring her back. I decided that having her here was worth it."

"What's happening?" Kay demanded when they stepped inside the building.

"Wait until we're inside; this is that important."

Kay was opening his mouth to respond snappishly to that when his notifications lit up. He frowned. I haven't done anything that would cause that today...

[An Oath has been made to you.]

It was the same notification he'd gotten when each of the Ministers swore to him and to Avalon, and also when Cindy had sworn her Oaths that bound her tightly to Avalon's service. Kay stared at the notice for a moment, then focused on it trying to get it to give him more information. Who made an Oath to him? What was it about? After a few seconds, there was a slight shimmer around the notification, and something else appeared.

[An Oath has been made to you.]

Kay shook off his shock. "I don't have time to deal with this, we're leaving to take Darkport in less than a week, and I have to go do preparations." He pointed at Eleniah, "You're in charge of this while the rest of us are gone."

"I already was. We've had this conversation. And I still don't see why I'm in charge instead of someone else."

"This counts as education in my book, so you're in charge of it. Make sure that Cindy and now Quol get everything they need to keep leveling." He stopped mid-sentence, "Do I have to worry about Carrie making a fourth one?"

"No, she got 'Blackpowder Alchemist', but it's only a Class Creator Title, not Class Line Progenitor."

"Well, that's good; we don't need a another massive target on our heads." He turned to Stephen, who was now standing to one side with Amanda. "You guys know what you're doing, right?"

"You already talked to all of us about this," Amanda complained, "Quol being a Class Line Progenitor doesn't really change anything for us."

"Yeah, well, I'm a little flustered because of it, so let me just double-check things."

Quol's head stuck out from the doorway he'd disappeared through. "Oi, your lordship. If you want me to level faster, I'm going to need a lot of materials. And Cindy's going to need to spend some time down here if you want to skip all the trial and error that usually comes with making new products."

Kay rubbed at his face and sighed. "Who has my notes?"

One of the Blood Guard stepped forward with a small notebook.

Kay grabbed it and started writing. "' Get builders to make another-'... No, why would I put this off? Lauren, send someone to find Darten and let him know we need things added down here; I'll explain once he sends over someone trustworthy. Actually, make sure we use the same people as last time to be safe."

She nodded and gestured.

One of the Blood Guard hustled towards the stairs to the surface.

"Okay, so we add a firing range down here so Cindy can keep training, plus a secret way to bring in materials so we can keep things under lock and key..." Kay started thinking out loud as he tried to figure out the problems that needed to be solved. "... While I'm thinking about this, Isla's been briefed about this, right?"

"About Quol? Not yet; we didn't know where to send a runner."

"We need to train a deputy for her at some point, and some people to handle other jobs like this. Not to toot my own horn, but the leader of a town shouldn't be dealing directly with secret munitions projects." He sighed, "While I am dealing with the problems of our new secret munitions project, how are we going to source materials? We can run it through the treasury and make fake reports, but I'd rather we have a dedicated source to keep things separate."

"We could always ask Murunel." Eleniah suggested, "She already knows a bunch of our secrets, so what's one more?"

Kay turned and pointed at her. "Perfect idea. Someone go get her. Wait, no, she's out somewhere doing a prospecting run today." Kay tapped his finger against his leg before deciding. "I'll talk to her when she gets back tonight." He glanced around, then waved. "Alright, bye, everyone. I'm off to do more work for the invasion of a pirate port."

"Repeating it out loud like that, so it sounds weird, is only really affecting you and Cindy," Eleniah commented, "The rest of us are used to things like that happening. And yes, I do know you well enough to know that's what you were doing."

"Sure, but I still think this is surreal." He turned and headed for the stairs, "I'll talk to you later!"