House Gilsend

"Don't open your eyes yet."

"Ok."

Edith kept her hand firmly clamped over her younger brother's eyes as he stepped over the pool of blood that had once run inside the bandits' veins. Then, turned the corner and entered a different alleyway, where Jax was.

"You," she said, releasing her brother. "…are you a commoner?"

Jax looked at her. She was dressed in a very fancy, blue dress, and around her neck he could see the gold chain of a necklace. Even her hairpin which held in her flowing blue hair was encrusted with pearls.

Bingo.

"Yeah."

"…thanks," she said, shyly. "My name's Edith Gilsend, the youngest daughter of House Gilsend. I am indebted to you!"

She flung her down and bowed to him at a perfect right angle.

"Uh… you're welcome," Jax replied. "Take care of yourself."
…she can't be more than twelve years of age.

"…would you like to come back to the Gilsend estate with me…? I'm sure father will think very highly of you for saving my life."
"Alright. I don't really have a place to stay anyway. Thanks."

My master plan is working, isn’t it?

"As expected of master! This humble servant, Quix, will always follow-"
Yeah, yeah. I already heard that like fifty thousand times.

The city was vibrant and bustling with noise, there were vendors selling elixirs, knights showing off armour and weaponry, and mages selling crystals. The main road was filled with people, from children playing around to farmers and their horse carts, loaded with goods and hay.

"The main city really is different from the alleyways," Jax muttered, taking in the sunlight.

It's a medieval-Georgian hybrid world... I can see marble mansions with mahogany doors... and posh, tailored suits and silk dresses... but the technology is definitely still medieval. There won’t be any phones or cannons or radios this time round. Just pure magic. And that's enough for us.

"Of course," Edith said, walking along beside him, blushing a little. "Wait, are you saying you never saw the outside before?"

"Yeah, I'm not from this place."
"Really? You don't look like you're from here anyway. But you are really strong! Did you already awaken your Ena Core?"

"…Ena Core? Tell me more."
Finally…! Information on the power system of this world.

Edith told me quite a lot about this power called 'Ena'. It's a power that's very similar to mana back on Earth, except they do not have pools or veins of power here, they instead have a core, in the solar plexus of the body. It's power is defined by the number of 'stars' orbiting the Ena core - Pre-Star stage is when there are no stars around the core, and then 1 star, with the strongest being 9 stars. Even a 7 star Ena core is regarded as a living disaster capable of annihilating an entire city alone, and there are two main classes people who 'awaken' an Ena core fall into: Warriors, who use Ena to enhance their physical abilities in order to wield close range weapons, and Mages, who are capable of highly destructive AOE spells. Each star stage is split into 3 stages - raw, central and peak - one must reach a peak star stage before they are able to advance to the next stage.

"Hmm, there are some minor differences, Master."
Yeah. I'll have to find a way to release you guys with Ena, it seems.

"If it's Master, a renowned genius on Earth, then I'm sure you can manage it!"
"Jax," Edith said, coming to a halt. "Aren't you… fazed that your meeting a noble?"
"What do you mean…?"

"Well… we nobles are always taught to look down on commoners like you… that we are different…"
"Hmph," Jax shrugged. "So, what do you think?"

"I… changed my mind when I met you," she smiled.

…she's surprisingly mature for an adolescent. I guess that's because she's a noble and that's how she's taught to act…

"Most of the famous and strong mages or warriors are of noble bloodlines," Edith said. "Occasionally, a commoner will rise to the top 10 in the continent, but the number of times that's happened can be counted with ten fingers."
"Hm," Jax muttered. "I see."

They say that's because nobles are more talented? That's a load of bull. It's just cos they have money that they can spend all their resources on education, artifacts, and give them enough support and backing to climb up the ranks. But that's just natural, the poor will be the poor and the wealthy will be the wealthy. However… if anyone of those snobby noble families, I'll just trample over them like the trash they are.

"We're here," Edith said, handing a piece of candy she had bought to her younger brother, who was called Lloyd. "The Gilsend Estate."

They had walked for almost an hour, into the suburbs of Eldrith, and they passed a marker that said on it in curved, golden lettering: The Gilsend Estate.

"…Edith. Is the Gilsend family… one of the Ten Great Houses of Etherea?"

"Yes…" she said, looking a little embarrassed.

Jax stared at the graffiti-covered sign, covered in slander and slurs mocking the Gilsends. Edith sighed.

"It's because of the Ruxlyns," she grumbled. "They're ranked as the third strongest house in and it just so happens that they're the closest house to us."
"What did they do?"

"They spread false rumours and blackmailed our allies, and also promoted false news about us from the shadows. Then they manipulated us into a mountain of debt. It's because we used to be ranked fourth, but we were actually more respected and thought to be on a higher level than the Ruxlyns because of our weapon trade."
"…so you could say that its due to rivalry and jealousy."
"That's right," Edith said. "It's been six years since then, and every year they challenge us to a duel competition. We've never been able to beat them because we're bankrupt and don't have enough resources to defeat them in a fight, since they hire very high-star warriors every time, and our house's strongest, the eldest son, Arthur Gilsend, is currently in his final year at the Albitz Academy."

"Albitz Academy?"

"It's the country's most prestigious magic academy," Edith muttered. "I want to go there too, someday, following the footsteps of my elder brother and sister."

"Do you have any idea who House Ruxlyn hires for the competition?" Jax asked.

...If it's very powerful mercenaries... then I'm sure that it might be possible that one of my old allies who died could be one of them. After all, when their souls were reincarnated by the Regression Key, they stayed in this world for 20 years, and they lost their memories. However, they did retain their potential and their talent. 20 years is more than enough for my companions to make a name for themselves, even if they do not know about me and the Sovereigns.

"Hmm..." Edith said, scratching her chin and they walked on from the vandalized sign. "There is one warrior who appeared in every competition since the third one. He uses dual swords, but it's as though his arms are separate beings – each hand is using its own technique. And on top of that, he is also a barrier master."

"...oh."

"Master..."

I know. It's definitely... Jack Keynes.

Jack Keynes. He was one of Jax's allies in the battle against Mazog, and he very almost survived until the very end, but ultimately had to sacrifice himself holding back the entire enemy army so that the twelve survivors and the others alive at the time could deal with Mazog when he was alone. He had a unique technique which allowed him to create barriers out of mana which were harder than diamond, but in the opening days of the war he had lost his main sword hand, his right arm, losing his confidence. However, after encouragement from Jax's best friend Erik II Frosteye (the Catalyst of Ice), he rose back up and learned how to use a technique on his left hand.

He didn't know that he could wield a sword in his left hand as well as he could with his right. But it looks like this time round, he finally got over it. Took him long enough, huh.

"The events this time are completely different from the cycles of the 3,000 years, after all, Master."

"We're here," Edith said, and she came to a stop before a gigantic marble mansion, with glistening, silver walls and tall windows covered with velvet curtains from the inside. It was about as wide as one and a half football fields, with balconies on almost every room on the second floor, and a slanted roof made of grey tiles. The front porch was supported by four towering quartz pillars, and the steps lead up to two giant mahogany oak doors.

"Wow," Jax said. "A noble house is still a noble house."

"Looks can be deceiving," Edith, said shaking her head. “It was much larger and grander before, and there was a golden statue outside, but we had to sell it to pay our debt. After all, we're now in 10th place and on the verge of getting kicked out of the 10 Great Houses, and replaced with Drakemore."
"Hmmm," Jax mused, as they climbed the steps to the double doors. "What's the situation with wars?"

"Wars? To fight a war, you need to provide a cause to the Ministry," Edith replied. "Most of our fighting force is gone though, and we lost a lot of territory and resources to Ruxlyn after they fought a war with us with the cause being the debt they purposely plunged us into."
She ground her teeth bitterly.

"When we were on the brink of being annihilated, the demanded my elder sister as the reward," she fumed. "Of course, there's no way father would let that happen, so instead we had to give them 30 of our personal trained squad. Each of them are at 4 or 5 star Ena cores."

"…dang. The Gilsends are going through hard times, huh."
"We used to be one of the greatest houses in the kingdom, but now we're nothing," she muttered, before pushing open the door.

"Edith, just what is the meaning of this!?"

"Father, please calm down!"

It was going just about how Jax had expected it to. The master of the house, Cedric Gilsend, was a tall, burly man in his late forties, and he had the same blue hair as his daughter, just a darker colour, coupled with a neatly trimmed beard. There were bags under his eyes and wrinkles around the corners, and he looked a little pale from exhaustion, but Jax could definitely feel the pressure and strength from that body.

"We may have fallen very far, but to bring a commoner right into our doorstep is ridiculous!" 

"Father, me and Lloyd were about to be captured and sold off by bandits, but he jumped in and saved us!" she exclaimed, stamping her foot. "Don't you think you should at least be grateful to him and let him stay?"

"…I greet the Lord of House Gilsend," Jax said, on one knee.

"…humph," Cedric sighed. "I don't know anymore… how about this then. If you were able to save my daughter from bandits, then I'm sure that means you're strong at least. Am I right?"

"I wouldn't dare to boast before the Lord of House Gilsend," Jax replied.

"For every one of my guards you defeat in a duel, you may stay at my house for a month."
"Husband," interjected the Lady, Hemia Gilsend, Edith's mother. "Don't you think you're being too harsh?"

"He should be grateful that I'm even giving him a chance!" Cedric snapped. "Out to the duelling arena, now!"

"Father-"

"Be quiet! I have already decided, unless you want to leave right now, commoner boy?"

"No," Jax said, smirking to himself secretly. "I will do it, Lord Gilsend."

"A mere commoner dares to speak to a noble so rudely!?" the butler which had been silently standing behind Cedric exclaimed suddenly, and reached for his sword. "I'll make sure you-"

"Enough, Edrick," Cedric said, stopping him. "At least he has some kind of backbone."

"I will go through the rules once again!" Cedric said loudly, from the Lord's place in the stands around the duelling arena. "My soldiers may  not use their Ena cores or Ena swords in this battle, nor may they use magic. Every duel that the commoner boy wins, he will earn one month under my roof."
"Big brother Jax…" Edith muttered under her breath, looking on nervously. "Please be safe…"
Hemia noticed, and mused to herself.

To think that that boy could win over Edith's heart. She was always distant from everyone except Lloyd, ever since she had been humiliated at the last duel competition with Ruxlyn…

Jax looked at the soldier opposite him. They had both been given wooden swords, but his was obviously shorter than the soldier's, and his opponent was a grown man wearing iron armour and a pre-star grade warrior at that. The man sighed to himself and readied his blade. The butler, Edrick Lenka, had told him beat the boy before him until he couldn’t move so he could be deposited outside the estate, but he himself felt a pang of regret from the boy before him, who could not have been over 14 years of age.

"Let's begin," Jax said, prodding the sword on the ground. "I'll earn a year at the Gilsend Estate at least."

….!? What!?