Chapter 3: Castle? Nice!

It took only a few moments for Martin to get out of the pit thanks to the others pulling him up. Liam wanted to try and keep hunting for a while longer but, Andrew on the other hand, wanted to head home immediately to get Martin checked by a healer.

It took quite awhile before Liam was able to convince Andrew to allow him to continue hunting while Andrew and Martin headed back home. Liam was only able to convince him because several of our personal guards offered to stay as well.

Martin's headache didn't let up for practically the entire trip home. His brain had to process sixteen years worth of information all at once. It was like someone was force feeding his brain mountains of data. It took him quite awhile before his mind was able to sort through everything and the fact that they were traveling back on horse back didn't help. Luckily, it didn't take long for them to reach the baron's estate.

'That's quite the castle for a baron.' Martin thought as he gazed at the huge castle walls looming over the surrounding trees.

The front gate of the castle looks to be over ten meters tall and is wide enough for a semi truck to drive through comfortably. The castle walls are around twelve meters high, made out of large stone bricks at least a meter long each and about a half meter tall. "Surprised they don't have a mote." Martin said aloud.

"What was that?" Andrew asked.

"Nothing. Just still can't get over how a baron can build a house like this." Martin said quickly. He was a little flustered as he accidentally let his thoughts come out.

Andrew had a confused face as he said. "Did you hit your head harder than I thought? You know that grandfather paid for the majority of it himself. There's no way father would pay for something like this."

Andrew laughed bitterly. "Feels as if that old man gets stingier every day."

Andrew thought for a moment as though he just remembered something. "Martin, you go to your room and get some rest. I'll send a healer to check on you soon. I'm going to see if I can find that old man and tell him what happened. There was something suspicious about that pit being there. Seemed like something dug it up recently. I should have forced Liam to come back with us." Andrew said with a bit of worry in his voice.

"Careful, your starting to sound like mother." Liam snickered from a few meters back.

Andrew nearly drew his sword in alarm. "My gosh, Liam! Your going to be the death of me!" Andrew shouted, clearly surprised. "I thought you had kept hunting with Darius and the others." After Andrew finished one of the guards rode forward.

"My apologies Master Andrew. Not long after you left we found traces of a mud troll in the area. That's likely what dug the pit young Master Martin fell in. We decided to immediately come back and make a report to the lord." The guard said seriously.

Andrew raised his eyebrows at that but then nodded his head. "A mud troll you say. That's a bit more troublesome than I imagined. Thank you for bringing Liam back so quickly, Darius. I want you to come with me and report what you found to father."

Then Andrew turned to the guard on his right. "Silas, would you please take my brother back to his room? He seems to be a bit light headed from his fall earlier." Andrew asked.

The guard Silas nodded silently in reply and then he got off his horse and gave it to the servants waiting at the gate entrance to the courtyard. Martin saw this and replicated his actions. As they headed towards the second gate across the courtyard, Martin took the opportunity to take in the courtyard's layout.

There was only one large tree in the center of the grass. From Martin's memories, that tree is actually an Ironwood tree that was planted by the baron more than twenty years ago.

To his left Martin could see a number of practice dummies standing in even lines. He could clearly see the slash marks and holes left behind by frequent use.

On his right Martin watched as several guards were walking towards the gate behind him. Each guard held a chain leash that they used to lead three large wolf like creatures with two heads.

'That is definitely a bit intimidating. No wonder they don't have a mote. Who needs one when you have beasts like those guarding the place.' Martin thought to himself.

As they entered the second gate Martin finally was able to get a decent look at the castle itself. 'Hm. Interesting. Seems to be a combination of a castle and a giant cottage. Has quite the homey feel to it and I do like that they have two gates to enter the castle. Makes it much easier to defend. Not a bad design.' Martin thought as he admired the place.

The guard, Silas, didn't seem to be one for conversation as they approached the front door. Before they could even try to knock, a servant opened the door to let us in.

"Sir Silas. Master Martin." said the servant as she bowed respectfully.

'It is truly going to be hard to get used to that.' Martin thought to himself.

The interior of the castle was definitely luxurious but not overwhelming. It felt more like a simple mansion than a lavish castle. 'Rather charming place.'

Martin followed Silas to his room since he was too lazy to search the previous Martin's memories. Martin dismissed Silas as soon as he opened the door.

The room wasn't particularly large. Maybe the size of a normal master bedroom back on Earth. the bed was at least King sized with comfy looking pillows. Martin hardly even looked at the rest of the room before jumping straight into bed. He sighed heavily as he felt the soft pillow under his head.

"That was quite an experience. Not something I would like to go through again." Now that Martin was able to settle his thoughts he started to sift through the memories of the previous Martin Ironwood.

Martin is the third son of Baron Stephen Ironwood. The baron was a former knight who served in the sixth great war more than thirty years ago. Apparently, he was famous for single handedly killing a squad of five red skinned cyclops who were aiming for a commanding officer. 'Cyclops, huh. This is definitely another world.' Martin said quietly to himself.

It seems he was actually offered an even higher title by the king but refused. After he settled in his estate, the baron married my mother, Ellieza Rosewall. She had served as a healer in the military and was the daughter of the commanding officer who was saved by the baron.

'Giving your daughter away as a thank you gift? Personally, I couldn't even imagine such a thing, but oh well. It is a medieval type setting and all. Women are sadly used more as objects than anything, unless they have talent for combat.' Martin thought sadly.

Both women and men are able to serve in the military, however, men are heavily favored over women. Most women don't seem to even bother trying, though there are exceptions.

"Seems like magic is quite the equalizer." Martin thought to himself.

"Just as Aella said, magic seems to play a major role in the lives of the people in this world. Different forms of communication, combat, and simple daily necessities like plumbing and cooking all have something to do with magic.

Seems as though magic is almost as important here as technological innovation was back on Earth. I really should try and learn as much as I can. Let's see there seem to be at least quite a few known attributes aside from 'no attribute magic'.

Aella did say I can choose to master some magic. It seems that anyone who has at least a little bit of magic, can use 'no attribute magic'." Martin thought very hard about the subject.

"Hmm. What to choose? We have the original four; fire, water, wind, earth. Then we have some advanced versions of those; metal, ice, lightning, poison/acid. Finally, we have a few unique attributes; wood, shadow, light. Oh, there appears to be a few legendary magics as well; gravity, time, space. Every magic seems to have their own pros and cons. Maybe I should contact Aella. Wait a minute... how do I contact Aella?"