By the ti Ajax, Lexi and Aurexion arrived at the estate it was already late into the evening. Ajax’s family was all glad to see him whole but he spent little ti with them, letting them know what happened in the capital, asking his mother to find a proper spot for Aurexion’s cave before he and Lexi retreated to their room where sleep would find them, eventually.
The following morning was the first ti in a long ti that Ajax actually got to laze about, not worried about any form of ti pressure. He knew he had less than a month before he would be going to war but he had planned for three days of just catching up with his family and his duties as a Duke so there was no pressure to wake up at dawn.
“Just how long are you going to sleep?” Tom asked from the doorway. “We’re just waiting on you for breakfast.”
“I think my bond’s affecting .” Ajax's voice was filled with obvious sarcasm as he stretched a little. “Dragons love their sleep.”
“Well it's ti to get up.” Tom said before setting up the guilt trip. “Since he doesn’t have school today Jake wanted to eat with his uncle and he’s used to eating early before leaving.”
Ajax groaned at the guilt trip and tossed one of the pillows towards the doorway before he finally started to drag himself out of bed. It didn’t take more than five minutes for Ajax to clean himself up and get dressed before he was down for breakfast.
“We need to make a decision on this.” Ajax heard his grandmother’s voice as he approached the kitchen.
“Yes but the decision got harder, not easier like we were expecting.” It was Judy who answered. “ They honestly deserve so extra rit since they are the ones doing the work.”
“There is already so jealousy built up since they are the only ones Ajax knows by sight.” His mother’s voice joined the conversation. “It’s a good thing they were so of the first to join our House or it could end up much worse.”
“Good morning.” Ajax greeted everyone as he stepped into the kitchen to see his entire family was there waiting for him with the table set and filled to the brim. Funnily enough he could also see a large al set outside on the balcony with nobody there though it was clearly for Aurexion who could reach it from the outside as his head was visible nearby.
“Uncle Ajax, I saved you a seat.” Jake was the first to react, hungry as he was, and he dragged Ajax to the table and made sure he was seated next to him before he started reaching out and filling his plate.
Jari and Nashara were more patient, giving a more respectful greeting to Ajax before they also joined Jake in serving themselves, after all they were also on the sa eating schedule and while they had filled in over the months the last year they were still growing and needed the nutrition.
Ajax saw no reason to wait as he also started to eat as everyone took a seat, the table moved so that one of the ends was free and pointed towards the balcony where Aurexion could be seen clearly. Ajax also spotted a smaller table set up next to Aurexion’s for Fluffy who also started to eat though she was clearly not yet comfortable around the dragon.
While the conversation he overheard did sound a little concerning, Ajax first decided to focus on his nephew and asked how school had been while he’d been gone. This was his big innovation and while he had done sothing similar to stellar results, his case was very much influenced by his Divine Witness Trait.
“You were here for the start of the year when everyone was starting to get their Skills but that didn’t continue for much longer.” Jake explained and Ajax could see both Jari and Nashare look down towards their food, probably worried they had disappointed him.
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“So people stopped getting Skills?” Ajax asked, looking around the table hoping sobody had a better explanation.
“That’s not quite how I’d put it.” Tom said, he had been keeping a very close eye on the school, not only because they had put so much effort and capital into it but also because it directly affected Jake. “More like they’d already gained the Skills they had aptitude for. So did it quicker than others but after about three months almost nobody got any new Skills.”
Tom was skipping a lot of the legwork that was done to reach this conclusion. It had taken months of odd results before they finally reached this conclusion and all of it was because of one thing they didn’t take into account. Teaching Skills the teachers themselves had picked up, since they didn’t offer the information it took a while to put that together before they realized what happened.
“It’s why we decided to change the structure a little.” Lexi explained their decision. “As far as we could see most everyone could get eight of the Common Skills we were trying to teach them. Five or six was more realistic and so had as few as three.”
“How did we change it?” Ajax asked, everyone was happy to see Ajax wasn’t even slightly upset they had decided to make changes to what was essentially his model without waiting for him to return and was only interested in how they improved on it.
“There is a lot of information that has to be learned regardless of Skills.” Lexi started off. “So we decided that everyone would still learn that in the latter part of the school day as per usual.”
“What we did notice however was that while nobody managed to get all that many Skills the Skills they did get were usually connected to each other.” Elija continued. “So we decided that for the start of the day we would split the kids into Skill groups and have them work on the Skills they gained.”
“We were thinking the new class starting soon should stick with what we started with for the first two to three months so everyone has a chance to unlock the Skills they have the aptitude for.” His mother ntioning the next class reminded Ajax that he had been gone for the better part of a year and the next school year was almost ready to start which is why they needed to make the changes before he returned. Ti might not be that pressing for him when it ca to progressing but for kids the first fifteen years were extrely important. “After that they will also switch to this schedule focused on getting them more levels in the Skills they did gain as well as experience.
“Did splitting them up into groups by Skills cause any… social issues?” Ajax asked.
One thing he knew from attending school on Earth was that if kids were sorted into groups based on anything other than randomness a solidarity would form and that could cause issues.
“Yes.” Lexi let out a sigh. “But that problem can wait until your second day back. We currently have a handle on it.”
The rest of the feedback on the school system was great. Most of the population in Lessis and even across their duchy as it was adopted in all their cities was in favor of it as their children got opportunities they didn’t while also getting free childcare as well as so free food for lunch.
Ajax took this as a win but he knew that expanding school beyond the cities would be much harder. Children in villages weren’t usually as free with their ti as city kids. Their family had been an exception since his father had always had volunteers for apprentices but for a farr their kids were a part of the workforce when they reached school age and they wouldn’t appreciate losing that much productivity.
“What was the argunt about when I ca in?” Ajax asked once the topic of school was put to rest for the mont.
“It was about how to deal with the Collectors.” Silvia answered. “After all they have the boon and they have been pulling quite a bit out of the dungeon for us with it but our other retainers are starting to get a bit jealous. It's a good thing they are so of our strongest retainers or it would be a bigger issue.”
That was not sothing Ajax had expected. Back when the king ntioned not helping anyone else get the Achievent and the boon Ajax had completely forgotten he had also helped the Collectors get it. That was an extra twelve people who had the boon, not only that but they were all stationed in his duchy which could make their dungeon more unstable if it wasn’t properly monitored.
“How tied are they to our House?” Lexi asked, the question nearly made Ajax frown before he realized that once the other Houses found out he wouldn’t be helping others gain the boon and that they had it they would be throwing around impressive incentives to lure them away.
“They are all sworn to our House, for life.” Tom answered. “ Thankfully this happened before Ajax even helped them gain the Achievent and they were so of the few who were sworn to us at the ti.”
Lexi had already explained the issues with the boon to the rest of the House earlier this morning both in terms of the kingdom politics as well as the potential problems with the dungeons.
Much as Ajax would have liked to simply stay with his family it wasn’t like his return to Gryndor was planned. All of them had things to take care of and while they had taken the morning off there was still work to be done.
Unfortunately for Ajax Lexi had also revealed his improvents in the social Skills departnt to his family which is how he found himself joining his brother on his way to Lessis to et with nobles, most of whom were here to talk about the children they had enrolled in school here or looking to get enrolled in the upcoming year. Having them wait could cause issues but the Duke showing up should smooth all of that over.
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