Chapter 125: Untitled
After a long string of repeated adversities, the Algar clan faced a severe shortage of genuinely strong individuals, pushing their once-proud noble standing down to little more than a scattered collection of stragglers clinging to a fading name, a name that had once carried real weight across the entire stronghold.
However, with explicit permission from the king, Ethan managed to retain the family’s noble title, promising in return to rebuild the Algar clan from its remaining embers into something worth preserving, a promise he intended to keep on his own terms rather than the old ones.
He hadn’t taken the position of clan head, however. At least, not yet.
"Bring the timber down to that corner. We’ll build the youth training center there."
Ethan pointed toward a flat stretch of land backed against a rising mountainside, directing a group of workers hauling materials across the estate grounds, his voice carrying easily over the steady rhythm of hammers and saws already at work nearby.
Ethan had studied the Algar clan’s collapse extensively, cataloguing the internal politics that had slowly rotted the family from within long before any external threat ever touched it. He understood clearly enough that rebuilding meant firmly separating every trace of that old corruption from the very foundation upward, no exceptions carried over out of sentiment.
The youth training center itself, for example, drew inspiration directly from academies he remembered from his previous life, structures built around the idea of genuine fairness among developing summoners rather than favoritism tied to bloodline or connection, a concept he’d found himself explaining more than once to skeptical newcomers who’d only ever known the old system.
Beyond that, Ethan had stripped away the traditional elder system entirely, partly because too few genuinely strong individuals remained to fill those seats meaningfully, and partly because the old structure had proven fundamentally unsustainable in the long run, collapsing under the weight of its own favoritism time and again.
For now, he’d opted instead to establish a dedicated team of enforcers, individuals who, under the new rules, held no authority to distribute resources or favors. Their role remained strictly limited to punishing offenders, and only after a proper, lengthy legal process had run its full course, a deliberate check against the very abuse of power that had gutted the clan before.
For every problem he identified within the clan’s history, Ethan applied a deliberate solution, working methodically through each issue as it surfaced, treating the rebuilding process less like restoration and more like an entirely new foundation poured over old, cracked stone.
Still, none of his careful planning could fully overcome the simple reality that a considerable number of former Algar clansmen had already scattered to the winds, vanishing into whatever new lives they’d built elsewhere, some never to be found or contacted again.
For that particular problem, all he could do was wait patiently, and keep building steadily in the meantime.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"You’re from the Wilderness Stronghold? Why are you only arriving now?"
Outside the gate of the newly established Algar estate, a two-woman team of administrators worked through a list of names, cross-referencing them carefully against a set of identification records.
The Algar estate had been actively receiving returning members for roughly four months by this point. Everyone still residing within reach of Windgrave, Blackwater, or the capital itself had already been properly informed and had long since arrived, most trickling in during the first few weeks alone.
"We only learned about this recently, when a wandering clansman of ours happened to catch word of it in Windgrave. We come from the Seventh Elder’s family, and originally left the city before the raid began."
An older man led the small group forward, his eyes carrying that particular clouded depth of wisdom that only accumulated with genuine age and hardship.
"Oh, an elder’s family kin."
The girl seated behind the registration desk let out a faint sneer, her tone carrying open distaste.
The elders of the old Algar clan had, honestly, ranked among the worst offenders within the entire structure. They’d slept with helpless women without consequence, killed anyone who dared stand in their way, and carried out both without a shred of visible shame, treating the clan’s lower ranks as little more than property to be used.
The low-born members of the clan had learned to despise them long ago, though they’d never once held the actual power required to act against that abuse in any meaningful way.
The dislike, understandably, ran deep.
"Yes, young lady. I wonder which elder is currently overseeing this estate’s construction? As you can imagine, we aren’t particularly familiar with the area..."
The older man asked, a slightly skewed smile settling across his weathered face.
Word of the clan leader’s arrest, along with several elders swept up by the Punishment Hall, had reached them long ago. As a result, they’d worked hard to stay well away from the fallout, carefully concealing their identities in the meantime, unsure whether association with the family name would bring danger or opportunity.
However, the fact that an estate was being actively constructed within Windgrave itself signaled clearly enough that the family’s future might genuinely be brightening. Presumably, some surviving elder had struck a favorable deal with the kingdom, securing the family’s eventual revival, a rumor the old man clearly wanted confirmed before committing his group any further.
"Elder? I’m not sure that’s a particularly accurate description of Master Ethan, but sure."
The young woman shrugged, mocking the older man’s assumption lightly before dipping her pen and formally registering the group’s names, watching them get led into the estate afterward with a faint sneer still lingering across her expression.
If they genuinely believed this place would operate under business as usual, they were about to learn very quickly exactly why that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. Master Ethan had made that abundantly clear from the very first week of construction, when he’d gathered every returning clansman together and laid out the new rules without room for negotiation.