Antihero In the Hero Academy: I Can Connect the Past Heroes-Chapter 76: Duke Shorekeeper

"You never told me that. I see you have many secrets you haven’t told me yet," Aether said with a smile. Then he gestured to Eva and gently took the beautiful woman’s sword and shouted again:

"My name is Aether Epsilon! I am the 1937th Emperor of the Epsilon Empire. With a history of over a hundred thousand years, Epsilon has existed for a long time. The Herria family, who built the buildings, armour, weapons and heart of the Empire, the Restie family, who always cared about the wealth and loyalty of the Empire, and the Fembe family, who always cared about the protection of the Empire! The BUILDING Stones of the Empire!!!"

With Aether’s shout, everything became clear. The nobles in the room could only watch in shock and admiration, and frankly speaking, they had a hard time believing what they saw, let alone what they heard.

"By the authority vested in me by my ancestors, I hereby declare Atlas to be the fourth Duke of the Blessed Epsilon Empire since its inception!"

As Aether finished his words, he placed Eva’s sword first on Atlas’ right shoulder, then on his left shoulder, and then horizontally above his head.

Immediately after that, he uttered the following words:

"From this day on, you will be the owner of the Misty Mountains on the cold side of the Empire, west of the city of Herria. Two thousand kilometres of land around the Misty Mountains will belong to you. You will build a harbour city there, and you will be the sole guardian of its shores."

Then he smiled and said, "I bestow upon you the surname of Shorekeeper. From this day forward, you will be one of the foremost bodyguards of our empire. The people of the Empire will recognise you as a foreguard and remember you by the surname Shorekeeper. Congratulations on your position, Atlas Shorekeeper."

With those words, Atlas rose from where he had fallen to one knee and then looked around, chest high, first at his surroundings and then at the Aether.

"I will fulfil my duty properly, Uncle," Atlas said suddenly. Aether put his hand on his shoulder and then turned to Eva, saying, "I know that, kiddo, you do not even need to tell."

"As of today, you are a member of the Shorekeeper house, my dear friend, and your name will be Eva Shorekeeper."

Aether smiled widely as he finished and handed the sword back to Eva, climbing back up the stairs to the throne.

"If there is anyone who will oppose these words, come forward now; if not, these words will be valid as of today. The land deed will be delivered to you tomorrow evening. The proof of your status will be handed over to you after the age of eighteen. You currently have the name of the Ducal rank, and you will be able to use all the rank transactions, but you will be strictly forbidden to do anything in the field of politics." Aether said, and when he saw Atlas’ approval, he continued to speak, pointing to the lady Cassandra:

"Your rank, position and landed property will be overseen and protected by the second Sage, Lady Cassandra, who is very likely to be your future wife. Congratulations, Atlas."

This time, Aether had indeed finished, and Atlas looked around at the nobles one by one. Atlas had expected at least one of them to object to these decisions, but it didn’t take him long to realise that it wasn’t going to happen.

Each noble seemed pleased with the decision.

They knew what it was like west of the city of Herria. Dominated by huge foothills and an incredibly cold habitat, with mountains blocking the upper part of the continent, it was an incredible place where dragons lived madly, and only the strong dared to enter.

It was the last direct route to the sea that led directly to the western continent, and one of the few places the empire had not endeavoured to develop.

The reason for this was that only a few people were rich enough to do it so far, and in addition to wealth, it required an excellent labour force... Or someone incredibly strong who could do it alone.

In this case, it was none other than Cassandra.

Even if Atlas could not make money, Cassandra could buy the empire itself with all its assets. Cassandra was old, very old. She was one of the closest in age to Cordelia in this world.

Among them were several of the mighty dragons and Cassandra’s younger brother, Duke Sullivan the Vampire.

That was enough to explain why this woman had such an enormous sum of money.

In short, that strange question Atlas had asked Cassandra a few days ago had set in place the final piece of a wheel that would be enough to completely build one of the few missing pieces of the empire.

He wasn’t very powerful, but he had an aura master as his sister, two Sages that cherish him a lot, the daughters of a Vampire Duke, and even the daughter of the only Elven Queen in the world under his command at some point.

He didn’t need much more power. At least not yet.

When Aether saw that no one was against it, she shook her head and smiled, "Then let the feast continue. Not only for my birthday, but also for my nephew Atlas and his future. Cheers!" and raised his glass.

Time had flown by so quickly. Atlas used Cassandra’s help to return to the academy and teleported back to the academy after saying goodbye to his sister and those he considered family members.

Cassandra had made it clear to Atlas that she would use her people to develop the western region, even taking most of the vampires there.

There was much to be done. Shortly, Atlas would even have to go to the Church of Night in the capital and ask if a church could be opened in his area.

He was only fifteen years old, but he was already more powerful than the kings of other continents.

It was an enormous burden. It was an incredibly heavy responsibility that Atlas could never have imagined in his previous life, and instead of crushing him, it was making him stronger. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

The devil worshippers could do nothing but hide...And angel worshippers were doing nothing but shivering.

Atlas’s reign was only just beginning...