Dragon Child: The Journey Begins

Interlude 1

Duke Mathias Dragonden drummed his fingers on his desk.  He was in a slight dilemma.  It wasn't that he had too much on his plate. Although, that too could be said of his situation.

As the Grand Duke of the Altrove kingdom, he was tasked with the protection of the border. The place he had to protect was the crossroad between two other kingdoms and Altrove.  They were in friendly terms with the kingdom of Lasdrom.  However, the kingdom of Harloss was always eyeing their kingdom's fertile lands.

He had recently read some reports pertaining to the capture of spies from Harloss, although they never talked. He was afraid they had already communicated sensitive information to the enemy.  There was also some movements of the Harloss army near the border. 

More reports stated that several villages near the border had been recently attacked by hoards of monster coming from the Abysal Forest.  Bandits were spotted on the road between the two border cities of Demal and Abroth. Several caravans had already been attacked.

All these things were a daily occurrence, something Duke Mathias was able to handle with ease. No. His current situation was something that truly troubled his heart.

The Marques Wyvernclaw had pressured the king about an issue involving the Dragonden house.  Duke Mathias was already certain that the Marques was after his lands. Just the thought of this made him frown.  Unfortunately,  the Marques was able to convince the king, and now Duke Mathias felt pressured.

In the Altrove kingdom, only nobles could use magic. It wasn't something they kept intentionally from the main populace,  it was simply a fact. And although a noble wasn't necessarily a magic user, all magic users were nobles.  Magic users were very uncommon as it was, and whenever a new magician without a noble title appeared, they would be given a baronet title.  However, discovering a new magic user without a noble family was an extremely rare event.

Although magic users did give birth to magic users, there was only a fifty percent chance of this happening.  And the chance of a magic user being born to non magic user parents was close to zero.

Magic users were held in high esteem. They were the backbone of any kingdom, the ones who protected the rest of the kingdom. The more magic users a kingdom had at their disposal, the more powerful the kingdom was considered. 

This was one of the ways a noble house could elevate their peerage. The stronger and more plentiful their magic users were, the more likely they would be elevated to a higher peerage.

This was where the Duke's problem lay.  His house was one of the oldest houses in the kingdom.  His family's magic had always been the strongest.  Unfortunately,  although their magic was strong, it was rare for a magic user to be born in his house. 

He was actually the last one in his family to currently have the ability to use magic. His magic was one of the strongest in the kingdom, but without an heir, his family was in a crisis.

It wasn't as if he had never married.  He had married the love of his life, but she had died in childbirth to his son.  He had raised the son up, doing his best to make him into a strong heir to carry on their family name.

Unfortunately,  thirteen years ago, that son had been sent into a battle against the Harloss kingdom.  He had been a strong magic user himself, but he had been captured by the enemy. Later, although he had escaped, he was killed when the enemy was pursuing him.

Duke Mathias entered a great depression at that time. Not only did his loving wife leave him, but his son was gone now too. His family line was at the end of its life, and now he was being pressured by the king to marry and produce another heir.