Nina's hint to check whether Leo was speaking the truth startled Gale who felt she was overcautious. They have barely met, why would he lie so soon?
"I'm really glad you told me who you really were."
His green eyes turned bright, making Leo's chest tighten with guilt and regret immediately. Even his expression changed as he contemplated coming clean with the truth.
"Is there anything else you would like to tell me? You don't have to worry about my reaction, I won't judge."
Leo's guilty expression didn't avoid Gale's eyes, so Gale decided to give him another push.
"I… I only said half the truth. My real last name is Clarence. I'm sorry I lied to you, I just have to be cautious with strangers or I might get killed so I tried hiding the truth."
His regret forced him to explain his actions, which revealed extra information.
"Lionel Clarence? As in the Clarence Dukedom?"
Nina asked with an astonished tone. The reason for his exceptional stage at a young age became crystal clear; he enjoyed the best resources, tutors, and genes in the kingdom after the princes and the princesses.
"Yes, I'm the second son of Duke Clarence. My father decided to adopt the royal way to select an heir and said we should all compete. He tried banning us from killing each other, but there are endless hidden schemes and attempts on my life."
"How many contestants to the title are there?"
"There are four. My eldest sister and two younger brothers. There are two titles since my father can also grant an earl title."
"How do you compete?"
"There are two aspects. The first one is strength; the stronger we are respectively to our age the higher we are valued. The second one is getting merits like killing the family's enemies, winning tournaments, earning money, and making potions."
Nina suddenly remembered his earlier phrasing and a question popped into her mind.
"He took this method from the royal family? Does it mean they also compete this way and try to kill each other?"
"Yes, in fact, they don't have the ban on killing each other and the winner is determined when all the others get killed. It has been the method of choosing an heir ever since a king was almost killed by his brother who lost the competition. The royal race is still ongoing right now."
"So what if they simply don't compete and kill the winner?"
"All the dukes and the royal family who don't participate in the competition for the throne take an oath to kill the one behind such a scheme. This tactic is no different from throwing one's life away."
They kept chatting and Leo told them he is going back to the dukedom after recruiting the local earl, a few viscounts, and barons. Unfortunately, the local earl died before he had the chance to meet him and his wife who inherited the title disappeared, so he couldn't recruit them, but negotiations with the lower-ranked nobles went well.
Gale and Nina obviously recognized the story about the earl and offered to join hands with him.
"I'd love to, I can assign you a mansion to sleep at. I will make sure to arrange a maid for the cooking."
Gale gaped at him when he heard this arrangement. Duke's sons were indeed in another league.
Suddenly, before Gale could agree to this offer, they heard a shout: "Wolves attack!"
"Wolves don't usually attack large convoys, particularly because they can also feel our stages. I'd say it might be someone trying to go after Leo's life. Be careful, we don't know who is behind this."
Nina warned before they quickly stepped out of the carriage. The wolf pack was sprinting toward their convoy in an arrow formation. At the head, two fourth-stage wolves were leading the pack with 5 third-stage wolves on each of their sides.
"Ah, it's wolves again. At least this time it's a different type."
Gale sighed, it seemed like wolves were his sworn enemies. Unlike the earth wolves that he met in the forest, Air wolves were more offense-oriented; their main element, wind, allowed them to move extremely fast, while their sub-element, fire, gave them superior power and an additional speed boost.
"Everyone, get into positions! Our mage will take care of the fourth-rank wolves and each of the expert magicians will fight against 2 third-rank wolves. If you can't defeat your enemies just hold out until someone comes to your aid! Everyone else, whether you survive against the weaker wolves will depend on you!"
Leo shouted orders as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and everyone followed them without thinking twice.
"Gale, we are counting on you. If you can't defeat them or hold out until we can support you, we are all dead for sure."
Gale nodded and assembled with everyone in front of the carriages just a few seconds before engagement. He immediately shot a barrage of small stones against the pack to pull the attention of the stronger wolves.
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6 months ago:
Gale stood in front of his mother to start his training, feeling slightly nervous.
"Viscountess Nancy's affinity with the earth element is quite famous; it's restraining and weight. It means your strongest powers are in restraining others and using the weight of the stones for your defense. However, you should be considered a two-month-old baby in the eyes of mana, which means it will probably act like your best friend now that you're in the Mage Phase."
"What does it mean?"
"It means that I expect your spells to be almost as powerful in volume as an Advanced Mage. Let's start with a simple spell often used to massacre a large amount of weaker enemies. Stones Barrage."
Elizabeth taught Gale the mage rank spell and guided him until he could perform it perfectly. Essentially, this spell worked in the same way as spamming the first rank spell 'stone bullet', which was exactly what it sounded like. Small stones formed around him and were shot into the distance for hours as he practiced the spell.
A few days later Gale could load 30 stones per second.
"Good, now you can be considered an efficient bug spray. However, such a spell will only be deadly against first-rank beasts, and if they share the burden among a large group it won't deal any damage at all. This brings us to your affinity; train on making the stones weigh as much as adult men."
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Back to the present:
His barrage did nothing to the stronger ones, but it had helped to save many human lives; The higher-ranked wolves had to dodge and protect themselves from the stones and couldn't offer any help to their allies as their offensive orientation worked against them. The Stone Barrage spell reaped the lives of the first-rank wolves and wounded heavily the second-rank ones, even claiming their lives at the third hit.
Unfortunately, the fourth-rank wolves reacted quickly and with a burst of speed they sprinted in front of Gale, pouncing on him with their jaws open and wind behind their back to make it nearly impossible to dodge. They forced Gale to cease his barrage and defend himself, yet he had already reaped the lives of half of the pack in those few seconds.
Meanwhile, it seemed the wolf pack had similar plans as Leo since each of the Expert Magicians was attacked by two third-rank wolves.
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