A Dual Crest Summoner In Infinite Summoning World

Baron Audrey Thornmarch was not what Auren expected the guy to look like. Nothing like Dante at all—he was a middle-aged, balding man with a protruding belly. There were some hints of him being a warrior in the past, but clearly, his warring days were long gone.

The Baron wasn't alone. His wife, a quite good-looking woman with shapely features, and a teenage daughter—around 16 years old—an exact copy of her mother with slight facial familiarities with her father, were with him.

He had come with two carriages and a wagon to collect all the more 'important' things the serfs tried to pay as tax. The amount was calculated by estimating the size of the field of each farmer and the supposed yield it should have on average—it was fundamentally unfair since not all soil was the same. The pre-decided average for their region, which was called The Greenvale, was more than half of what the area around their village could actually grow.

Their main crops were millet and barley—not worth much compared to the average tax-equivalent money. The 50% of their yield didn't even total 60% in value. The remaining 40% they had to cover in other ways. Auren saw some farmers give 80% of their yield, barely having anything for themselves. Some gave goats and chickens, while others gave money earned from their object-summon stocks.

The Baron had been convinced by the few villages around, including theirs, to give them some leeway due to the poor soil and all. So they were only supposed to pay 80% taxes. The people now just had to add 20–25% more along with their yields. The ones who did not do any farming had to pay the full amount, though.

Dante, as the knight in charge of the village, was actually supposed to have 5% for himself from all villagers—for his armor, horse, and household—but he did not collect it for himself, just adding it in the last days for those who missed the target by a small margin.

Their whole family had come to the village for the festival. Last year, Sable had brought him back to their house before 5 p.m. in the evening. The preparation was not as much as they had done for this year. As the knight's wife, Sable had to accompany the Baron's wife everywhere and had to stay until they were gone.

Auren had spent half his day—from 2 p.m., when the lord came to the village, till 5—when finally all the tax-collecting process by the Baron's men had ended with no punishment given to anyone. The Baron praised Dante for having the only village where not a single person had failed to pay the required amount. The Baron had no idea that Dante went above and beyond to help all the villagers reach this goal.

On top of that, for the whole time Dante was with the lord, he kept subtly mentioning the poor condition for farming and earning money in such a rural place—trying to convince the Baron to agree that the average decided by the Greenvale capital was not fair for everyone. Dante wasn't the only one who had said it, and he wouldn't be the last. The Baron, too, had grown used to it and had developed quite an art of not listening to things that were political in nature.

When the men started drinking, seated under the big banyan tree, Auren was told to go find Sable—by Dante. The words he used were:

"Your mother might have sweets, Auren. Don't you wanna eat them?"

He would have loved to roam around in the festive environment alone, but they did not allow it. Still, he took his time going to the Elder Mukishi's house-where Sable with the Baron's wife and daughter were.

Before he entered, however, he heard the voice of the Baron's wife:

"..All of Primarch Hold is praying day and night, they say. Every day, this or that lord holds grand sacrificial offerings for the health of His Imperial Majesty. One of them even stopped eating and took an oath that he won't eat anything other than plums till the Beast Sovereign recovers from his illness.."

News of any importance always reached their village last. The Baron had brought with him the news of the emperor. The guy was seriously ill. He was old—apparently, he was 157 years old—and would have even reached 200 if he hadn't caught an illness some 20 years ago, which had worsened with every passing year and now had left him bedridden for the last year.

The emperor—though they did not use that word—in their language, the accurate translation was "Beast Sovereign." On paper, he ruled over all regions of this continent, but in reality, The Primarch Hold was what the Worldbinder family (Emperor) had true control over. The other four regions were controlled by powerful spirit beast summoning families, and they had accepted fealty to the Worldbinder. Their village was in the region called Greenvale, the ruling family of which was The Grove Keeper.

Only the head of the ruling family was addressed as The Grove Keeper or Worldbinder. Their household people simply had Keeper or Binder after their given names. All five of these old families had ruled the continent for quite a long time - all five heads of the families were Gold Rank summoners. A rank above Dante who was already a powerful dude.

"Is that him?" Auren heard a younger voice as he entered the elder's house.

It was from the Baron's daughter. Both the mother and daughter had been with Sable since they had arrived. The other villagers were too intimidated to even come close. The Baron's wife was also prideful and barely talked to common people; she only did so when it was necessary. Sable showed them around the village and then at last came here to rest for a while.

"Yes," Sable said. "That's my son."

Auren froze in the doorframe. Why was he suddenly being discussed? This did not feel right. Auren tried to turn away, but Sable got up from the simple wooden chair and grabbed him before he could get away.

"What is your name, young man?" the Baron's wife asked.

He was being played with. This was the worst thing about being a kid. Even if he was dying of cringe inside, seeing the grown-ups use baby voices—he had to keep his face neutral, not showing the rude expressions.

"I am Auren Goatshield," he replied, accepting his fate.