Chapter 171: In the Face of Doubt
Manual labor was something Irene had never been required to do in her life prior to joining the knighthood.
As she carried boxes or moved furniture for the maids, she felt a strange sense of pride. Even if she was small, she was strong, and no one ever doubted her. At least in the knighthood, where people knew her feistiness made up for her size, she was never doubted.
At least until Leif started to doubt her.
Days after the Duke’s death, Stanley left the barracks in search of Sir Gunnar, but he would only yell at anyone from outside the Duke’s Tower. He refused to set foot in such a tainted space where he felt like his mana was being slowly drained.
Those with less of a mana pool would certainly suffer more than he.
In his refusal to go inside, a few squires had become his errand boys. They were constantly going into the library and finding things for him. Even worse, whenever they wanted to eat, there were a couple of tables moved outside for their convenience. Because of their importance to the knighthood and Sir Gunnar refusing to lose them, he was bending to their will, and they were certainly taking advantage of this fact.
"We will need a mana pillar in this area if you hope to receive a response from the King," the mage insisted. "It will have to be beyond the barracks because otherwise this dark mana emanating from the tower will block out any possibility of that."
And with that, the apprentices and knights began the days-long effort to build a tower embedded with mana stones that would act as a pillar to receive communications from those wanting to send them. Instead of letters popping up to the strongest mages—which always turned out to be Siverly or Stanley—the letters would be more organized. They would even be able to receive them even when the mages decided to finally leave.
Irene, along with the other apprentices, brought boards from the basement of the Duke’s Tower, where they had been placed for random repairs throughout the various buildings of the property.