They glanced at each other then threw back their heads laughing at some inside joke.
"...Hahaha, He's been in the eastern plains for decades. He's been around so long that even my father calls him gramps." Nick said.
"Yeah, we don't know when he got here. One day he just showed up on the plains and started teaching young kid's magic. The next thing we knew he was funding an entire village's construction." Conrad said.
A man with no clear past but exceptional leadership abilities and what Chronos was fairly certain was strategic magic just showed up randomly on a plain? Not the weirdest thing he had ever heard but not normal either.
Powerful old men didn't show up out of nowhere without reason.
"So, other than training mages and founding a village what else has he done? I remember the old baronets and knights saying something about saving lives and averting disasters." Chronos asked with curiosity.
They looked at each other before smiling. A chance to share stories about their local hero didn't come along everyday, especially when most people in the plains already knew every story.
"Grandpa Magar has done so much. Where should we begin?" Daren said.
"Oh, we should start with the defense of the southern region from the undead." Nick offered.
"No, the rebuilding of the flooded golden fields would be better." Roger stated.
"I think we should start with his accomplishments in training young mages, everything else starts from there." Conrad advised.
They all looked at Chronos with eager expressions leaving the choice up to him.
"Hm, Then I'd like to hear about the defense of the southern regions." If his future plans were going to work out, then he needed to know how skilled Magar was.
"A good choice, a good choice." Nick cheered before beginning, "This story happened a couple of decades ago, at the time many of the nobles in the eastern plains were not united which opened a gap in our defense against the undead of the Ancient Cladrain Battlefields.
Normally such a gap wouldn't be an issue, but it just so happened that the undead population in the ancient battlefield exploded at that time forcing their way through. Our fathers were facing thousands of them, maybe even tens of thousands, all on their own.
What's worse was the three barons that were supposed to reinforce the breach ended up fighting each other instead of the undead."
When Chronos heard about the conflict between the three barons he had a suspicion that someone amongst the nobility had planned this. So many coincidences couldn't have lined up so perfectly otherwise.
"What about Earl Malric? What was he doing while all of this was going on?"
"Earl Malric had gone to the southwest to reinforce Duke Malcolm. The duke was fighting off a much larger breach in the lines back then." Roger said.
That practically confirmed that one of the nobles in the eastern plains had instigated this while the Earl was away.
"Luckily for our fathers Magar showed up with 50 well trained mages and defended the gap until Count Aldar, Earl Malric's right hand man, was able to finish his battle and move his men to block the gap. After taking command of the men Magar and his mages fought for two days without reinforcements, holding the line against anything that came their way.
The only reason the knights succeeded was because of Magar's leadership and the creative ways he fought against the undead. Unfortunately for Magar nearly half of the mages he had brought ended up dead or crippled during that battle." Conrad finished.
They talked for a while about how many different plans and methods Magar had used to oppose the undead with such a small number of people truly enlightened Chronos about what could be done with a small group.
But losing that many skilled mages in one place was a pity; however compared to thousands dying when the undead swarmed the eastern plains it was acceptable.
"What happened to the barons involved?"
"After Magar testified against them along with a few other nobles who had been on the frontlines, all three of them were executed and their families lost their noble status. Our own idiot baron is one of their replacements." Daren spat.
That was interesting in its own way but more importantly insulting the leader of this region wasn't a good thing even if he couldn't hear them right now.
"I take it that not many people like the baron?" Chronos probed.
"Dislike is too weak of a word for it. Everyone in the region hates him, the man is fat, stupid, slow to act, and has no redeemable qualities. The only reason he was made a baron is because he's related to some high-ranking noble in the capital." Nick complained.
Ah so he was a capital noble, that explained the incompetence. Even his family struggled with those idiots who never left the comfort of their own homes.
"Aren't you worried someone might overhear you when you're speaking so loudly?" Chronos asked in a hushed tone thinking that a spy might have come with them.
"Hmph, no. Every one of us knights and baronets wishes he was dead." From the disgusted looks on the surrounding knights faces Nick was telling the truth. No matter what they said here it wouldn't find its way back to the baron.
"Let's not talk about him. What story do you want to hear next?"
After thinking for a moment Chronos said, "Tell me about how he trains these young mages? From the respect you're giving them it doesn't sound like it's a normal training method."
"I can tell you about that, I'm one of them." Conrad interjected.
"From what I've learned, Master Magar just wanted to retire to the countryside and live out the rest of his life in peace after working in a stressful job in the past. But once the surrounding villagers found out that a powerful mage was living alone in a hovel nearby, they started to gather around him.
They thought that even if he didn't care for them at all he wouldn't allow monsters to attack his home, so by living close to him they could also be protected and they weren't wrong. Every time a monster came close Master Magar would go out and hunt it down, but what they didn't expect was that on his way back from killing a monster one day he saw one of the children trying to imitate him.
Normally he wouldn't care but this child managed to conjure a fireball with no instructions at all only to have it puff in his face covering him in soot. When Magar saw this, he burst out laughing as it reminded him of the first time he had tried to create a fireball. After that he started teaching the children about reading, writing, and magic on his own."
That wasn't too surprising, bored people would get up to far worse than teaching children if left alone.
"After he started teaching the children more people gathered under his hovel hoping that he would teach their children as well. To which Master accepted and once he was done training them in the basics of magic he would send them home.
After some time, he started having trainees being sent over by the nearby knights and baronets with requests to teach them magic and a payment attached. He then used the payment to train even more mages and started building the village while sending the young mages out to help with various disasters that happened in the region or to live in other villages."
That was a curious way to do it, most mages would want to keep their novices and adepts close by to handle odd tasks or continue their training if they showed promise, but Magar was doing the opposite.
It seemed to be working out well for him.
When Chronos was about to ask another question, he caught a scent that promised violence.
Turning to face a nearby hill he watched as it lowered to reveal an army of goblins.