The Strongest Spellblade

The book on my bedroom table was obvious and stupid. Someone was trying to kill me, and they were making it exceedingly obvious who they were, since the servant in charge of my apartment in the mansion had let me know who had entered and left it behind. I made my way to my father’s part of the mansion. There were two guards standing outside the doorway into his personal apartment.

“Can you let my father know there is a serious issue,” I said. After a moment of hesitation the guards knocked on the apartment door. A minute later it opened.

“What is it?” my father asked, already dressed for bed with a slight scowl on his face.

“Someone is trying to kill me. There was a book on gardening on my bedside table,” I told him. His scowl turned angry in a single heartbeat.

“I will deal with it. You, follow my son back to his room and collect the book, bring it to me,” my father ordered. The guard saluted and followed me back to my set of rooms in the family mansion. The guard took the book and then brought it back to my father. If I had gained a gardening skill, I would have died instantly.

Healer Castelle warned me there would be no warning. One second I wouldn’t have a skill, then the next second I would get one, crossing Meldor’s Threshold and instantly dying. He then said it might not truly be instant, since the details of Meldor’s deranged experiments were heavily restricted, but I would be dead regardless. The suffering from the point of getting another skill to my death was the uncertain part.

The most dangerous aspect of all of this was that the danger and risk to my life wouldn’t trigger my Danger Sense. As for my skill Soul Resistance, Healer Castelle said it was a very rare skill normally only seen in people heavily tortured using soul skills or specifically crafted torture devices. Getting the skill Soul Resistance was my soul’s natural way of trying to defend itself.

He also explained that leveling it up was stupid, since the criteria for leveling it up meant hovering right over Meldor’s Threshold or prodding at my soul, a lot, and in ways no one sane would do.

The next day everyone was called for a family breakfast. I noted that one of my siblings, Timothy, had disappeared. That only left the eldest, the heir, Dereck, and the youngest, Greg. Greg was three times my age at 27 years old. My father’s first wife was also present. She was normally very quiet and demure. She knew that her husband’s second wife, my mother, was purely for the power she represented and that I was placed at the bottom of the inheritance for the Duchy. My two half sisters had been married off at a young age, so they could have children and then level after that to extend their life.

“So, father, where did our brother Timothy end up?” Dereck finally spoke up, breaking the rules of etiquette.

“He has joined your other brother as a merchant and is no longer in consideration for any inheritance. I will not tolerate scheming inside this estate. It is bad enough with the other vultures circling outside from the King’s Court and other nobility,” my father said.

“Just us two left brother. The Supreme Warlady has brought down two of us already,” Dereck said in jest, but it was quite rude to make fun of my mother. He clearly was upset about his younger brother being banished for attempting to kill me.

“You will shut your mouth,” my father said with a glare. “You know why I took a second wife. Do you have a desire to go fight against Crownsmith on the boarder? No? Then learn something and be silent. Unless you don’t want to inherit this Duchy?” my father asked with a glare, as his eldest son shrank in his chair.

“I am sorry father. It was wrong of me to overstep,” he replied. My father was still quite upset and continued on, chastising his eldest son without hesitation.

“You think that involving myself with Supreme Warlady Elena was foolish? I can tell what you are thinking, don’t lie. Well the cost of fighting would have crippled this Duchy. We might be rich, but our military power has been lacking, especially high end military power in relation to our status. Since none of you had the drive to become a legend, well I did what I had to, in order to secure out future. Now you must accept the price and accept that your half brother is here to stay.” Everyone glanced at me but I didn’t dare say anything.

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While I was a part of this family, I was also not part of it. It was like two families living together, which made things much more tense. “In fact you should be trying to make friends with your younger half brother. Instead of trying to sabotage or kill him. When he becomes a legend one day, you will pray to the System and any other higher power you can, that you have his favor. For when our enemies come, they won’t hesitate,” Duke Darren Burnstock declared while glaring at his two remaining sons.

“Dear, perhaps, having some wine would be best,” his first wife said. He picked up his glass and a servant rushed over to quickly fill it back up with wine while no one dared speak.

“I am sorry Justin. My words were poorly spoken and ill timed,” Dereck said.

“I accept your apology. In fact, this entire incident is best never spoken of again, since it is settled,” I said, and everyone relaxed slightly at that. If I had tattled to my mother, people would die. I knew that now. But I wasn’t going to use her as a weapon.

Timothy might have overheard something and thought it a joke. That gardening would kill someone. Unfortunately for him, my mother wasn’t one to make jokes about my safety. If she found out, he would be killed without hesitation. It was only a question of how much would be left behind once she was finished.

“I heard that you have health concerns?” Dereck spoke up again to try and defuse things. While he might be doing some kind of scheme, everyone knew that if I died while in the estate everyone here would not be alive for long. That was why I wasn’t worried about sharing this information.

“I have too many skills. Right now, Healer Castelle is keeping my soul stable, but more skills could kill me,” I said, keeping things simple. No need to explain everything behind what was occurring to me, but extending an olive branch so there were no misunderstandings felt like the right thing to do.

“Concerning. Very concerning. I assume your mother is finding a solution?” he asked.

“Yes. But I am also handling the issue myself by adjusting my training to focus on more mental skills to fix the issue,” I explained.

“Can we do anything father?” Dereck asked.

“No. Healer Castelle is renowned for his great medical skills. Finding someone better is close to impossible, even for me. The only place that has better healers is the Five Star Institute of Healing. I have talked with him personally, and there is nothing more a healer can do, except keep Justin alive for now. Matters concerning one’s soul are quite tricky and rare. The Supreme Warlady Elena will return with a solution and as Justin has said, his training has been adjusted,” my father explained.

The dinner table quieted down now that the drama was over, and everyone had gotten the answers they wanted. Peace had been restored to the Burnstock family, for now.

My siblings were under a lot of stress, and not just from my mother. Duke Burnstock was looking to arrange marriages for his two sons and to retire. While I didn’t see much of that side of the family, there were countless issues that needed to be addressed and resolved. From dealing with the influx of refugees from the neighboring Crownsmith kingdom, addressing local complaints, handling trade matters, the list went on.

While the Duke, my father, could delegate more, it was dangerous to delegate too much authority away, since other nobles would take advantage. It also didn’t help that Duke Burnstock’s territory was incredibly large. Then he had to deal with pressures from his King of Terander.

While it might seem like my issues were center stage, they were just one part of the family dynamics and not even the main part, except for one reason. Unfortunately for everyone else, no one could ignore or slight my mother in any way. The only people who could bring justice to a legend was another legend, and she stood above almost all of them.

That was why no one could do anything to my mother, except try and convince her. But if she didn’t like someone or something, she could wipe them out with little to no repercussions due to her high level and immense power.

As for who would inherit everything, it seemed set that Dereck would remain the official heir. As the official heir, and he was managing quite a bit. The disruption my mother caused to the running of the estate and the Duchy were immense. While I knew my father didn’t have any regrets, his heir, my half brother, had to deal with the stress and drama with no way to respond.

Even if our father appointed him the next Duke, there was no way he could tell off my mother. As his wife, this was technically her home and my home. Unless I moved out, there was no way to remove this hassle from his life. That was why he had been frustrated with me and my mother.

For a noble the best way to express that annoyance was through veiled insults. Unfortunately, that was a very bad idea in regards to my mother. She knew such things but didn’t care. The world bent to her not the other way around.

I knew there was quite a lot of danger to my life if I got another skill, but I was going to stay in the estate. There was no going back to physical training either. After experiencing training from my mother’s Squires, going back to the guard captain of the estate would feel like several steps down. He was good even as an elite guard, but nowhere close to the same skill levels as my mother’s Squires.