Chapter 52: Showdown with the Duke

The military camp was relatively quiet, with only about half of the personnel present. Last time Aresia came here, it was bustling with activity.

The source of the commotion was the magical beasts brought by the legion.

Oh, they should be called beast companions.

As Aresia stepped into the legion, she saw groups of magical beasts being trained under the guidance of their contract holders. Due to the short duration of the contracts, there were originally rival magical beasts in the vicinity. Despite the contract holders’ efforts to prevent conflicts, there had still been some damages caused, resulting in economic losses that they had to compensate for.

When Aresia arrived, the upper echelons of the legion were troubled by the losses caused by the disobedient magical beasts. The Duke had temporarily postponed his meeting with them and asked his guards to bring Aresia to his office.

Aresia had initially come to meet Amos, but was informed that he had already been assigned a mission and was currently not in the legion.

While waiting, Aresia looked around the Duke’s office and found a book that her teacher had written about his observations and insights. She sat on a sofa and started reading it slowly.

The book was fast-paced, easy to understand, and hard to forget. By the time she reached the last few pages of the book, the Duke’s meeting had finally finished.

When the Duke returned, he had a furrowed brow, indicating that the meeting hadn’t gone smoothly. However, upon seeing his daughter, he put aside his troubles and smiled.

“Amos told me that you did an excellent job on your trial exam. Well done! Is there anything you want? I’ll give it to you as a gift.”

Aresia pondered for a moment and asked, “Is it true? Can I really have anything?”

The Duke noticed something amiss in his daughter’s expression but nodded. “Yes, anything that is not beyond my means or inappropriate for you, my dear.”

The Duke had always rewarded Aresia for her outstanding performance at school, but he had never given her the opportunity to choose her own reward. So this time, he let her decide.

Upon hearing this, Aresia couldn’t hide her excitement. “Father, can I have the Mage Tower in the Duke’s territory?”

The Mage Tower? The Duke had only recently learned about the existence of the Mage Tower in his territory.

It had been built by their ancestors, and although it was in a dilapidated state now, it was still a Mage Tower.

“This should be known to you. The Mage Tower is primarily an alchemy workshop, and its use requires a mage to have the qualification of a Mage Knight. The requirements for the Mage Tower are even higher. It is at least the qualification of an Archmage.”

An Archmage was a fifth-level mage, a turning point for a mage. Crossing this level meant officially entering the realm of the strong. Moreover, it was extremely rare for someone to cross this level at a young age, especially before becoming a junior mage.

The Duke had no doubt about Aresia’s diligence. He believed that she would become a true strong mage someday, but she was still too young and hadn’t even become a junior mage yet.

While the Duke was willing to give her the Mage Tower, the Mage Guild would not allow it without an actual mage in possession.

However, Aresia’s thought was different. She didn’t need to officially inherit the Mage Tower. She just needed to have the actual ownership and control over it.

“No, I don’t need to inherit the Mage Tower. Can’t we still use it for magical research? It will be our family’s property.”

Normally, when the owner of a Mage Tower passed away, if there were no heirs to inherit it, the Mage Guild had the right to reclaim it.

The Duke’s Mage Tower was somewhat different. Its ownership had been cunningly transferred to the Rogest family, which meant that as long as they had a rightful claim to it, the Mage Guild couldn’t take it away.

It was precisely because of this that the Mage Guild had allowed the Mage Tower to fall into disrepair.

Aresia was thinking about the issue of inheriting the Mage Tower from a legal perspective. In reality, she didn’t need the legal title to control the Mage Tower.

According to the rules of the nobility, gender was highly valued. Although the male line had the inheritance rights, even distant male relatives had priority over close female relatives, even if the female was the firstborn. However, with Amos around, Aresia couldn’t inherit any of the Rogest family’s properties. Nevertheless, the Duke couldn’t resist his daughter’s requests and smiled.

“I know that you can’t officially inherit the Mage Tower, but you can still use it. After all, it will be part of your dowry in the future.”

The Duke’s expression softened as he spoke.

Aresia was relieved that her father had understood her intentions. She thanked him and said, “Thank you, Father! I promise to make good use of it!”

Because he suddenly realized that Aresia had reached the age to talk about marriage.

However, he quickly realized that Aresia is still studying and will not get married for at least five years. That is not within the scope of consideration.

Aresia was naturally happy to get a mage tower for free. However, getting married was not on her mind.

She decided to spend the summer vacation in the Duke’s territory.

She said, “Father, you said before that, as long as I can create a production line that can produce magic hoverboards, you would be willing to help me open an alchemy workshop? I want to go and choose the site myself.”

In fact, the design drawings for the alchemy workshop had already been made.

Rogest raised an eyebrow and asked, “Is it true? Did you really create a production line?”

Aresia nodded and said, “Yes, it’s true. I haven’t assembled it yet. It’s too big. I’m considering whether to choose a workshop location or directly install it.”

“Too big? Where did you put this thing? In the Duke’s mansion?”

Aresia raised her left hand to show the ring on her thumb and said, “It’s right here.”

“This? A spatial ring?” Duke Rogest recognized that it was not a magical item made in their production line, and he didn’t know where Aresia got it from. He didn’t quite understand the spatial capabilities of the ring.

“The entire production line is twenty meters long, one meter wide, and two and a half meters high. It needs to be assembled, and the components are stacked together, occupying about one square meter. It barely fits within the space of this ring.”

Aresia’s spatial ring had a space almost the size of half a football field, with a height of twenty meters. Even though it was estimated roughly, it could easily accommodate several five or six-story residential buildings. This space was truly enormous, enough to astonish anyone who saw it.

Even if it was just a twenty-meter production line, it was enough to make Duke Rogest take notice.

Indeed, in this world, there were very few spatial tools. Even in the prosperous Rogest family that had accumulated these tools for several hundred years, the number of spatial tools they possessed didn’t exceed twenty. Normally, these tools were limited to a capacity of around twenty cubic meters.

The spatial tool Aresia possessed, with a capacity of almost seventy cubic meters, was beyond comparison. The ring she wore on her finger was the main family ring of the Rogest family, and its spatial capacity was around one cubic meter.

The two rings Aresia wore were this large. It was because of the increasing signs that she was no longer as willful and childish as before that Duke Rogest allowed her to live outside the mansion. Moreover, after graduation, one ring would be left for her, and it wasn’t certain whether she would bring the remaining ring with her when she got married.

Indeed, Aresia possessed an unknown origin spatial ring that could directly hold things that required a space of about seventy cubic meters. This space was so large that it could possibly compare to one of the Holy Lotean Empire’s emperor’s rings.

Duke Rogest’s attention had now shifted to the spatial ring. He asked, “Aresia, where did this ring come from?”

The Duke’s tone carried a hint of concern. He knew nothing about this precious spatial ring. The mansion did not have a record of such a large spatial ring being obtained. Was it something Aresia bought? How did she acquire it?

Aresia lightly touched the ring and lowered her eyes apologetically, but she opened her mouth and said, “Father, there’s actually something I haven’t told you.”

Duke Rogest trembled slightly. He had known about this moment from the beginning. Aresia’s situation was unpredictable. If it weren’t for his trust in the mansion’s defenses and the habit of not changing anything, he would have checked and investigated the issue. He was afraid that his little daughter had been swapped.

“Tell me, what is it?”

Aresia raised her eyes, showing her true emotions. She looked calm, but there was a sense of seriousness.

At this moment, Aresia was not acting.

“Actually, when I obtained the magic notebook, I also gained an inheritance memory.”

Inheritance memory was not unfamiliar to Duke Rogest. Some special races possessed inheritance memories, such as the famous dragon race, which allowed them to inherit the knowledge passed down from their ancestors. It included the knowledge of powerful mages.

…which is difficult to obtain. It is a special object that can only be obtained under specific conditions, and the person who obtains this special object inherits their knowledge and wealth.