Arturio "so, your a baronet now"
The audience with his majesty had just ended and, I am once again seated in a carriage, but this time I am headed to the brandt family home here in the noble district of the capital. The mansions of the high ranking nobility were situated close to the royal castle, while lower ranking nobility had their mannsions situated close to the commoners. This was done on purpose, and since the brandt family held a knight peerage their home was at the edge of the noble district.
Wendelin "his majesty said the 6th rank of baronet right?"
Arturio "yes, the ranking goes from 1st to 7th rank. Lowest ranking are knights at 7th, then there baronets and barons at 6th, at 5th we have viscoints and counts, marquis and margraves are rank 4th, relatives of nobility are ranked 3rd such as duke, at 2nd are the direct family of the king which includes the queen and his two sons and daughters and at 1st there is the king himself"
Wendelin "I don't remember, there being any margraves among the kingdoms nobility"
Arturio "ooh yes, the great houses of breithild, browig and homer which govern the southern, eastern and western part of the kingdom respectively were margrave houses at one point in time, but due to marriages among them and the royal family they gained the rank of dukes"
Wendelin "I see, that would make them 3rd rank, but would that make any difference"
Arturio "well, appointed nobles receive an annuity corresponding to their rank, as for landed nobles its simply a matter of prestige"
Nobles would definitely brag about being related to the king, since they are prideful creatures. Also it seems that my canon knowledge is still accurate to some extent.
Wendelin "wait, what about nobles like me who aren't appointed and don't hold any lands"
Arturio "nobles like yourself are called nobles of the robe, you receive an annuity, but your title won't be passed on to your children, unless you receive an appointed post or develop territory and have it recognized by the kingdom, also if your able to perform further great deeds then the kingdom will allow your children to inherit your title"
Wendelin "I see, in that case my descendents would have to keep performing great deeds as well, if they wish to maintain or increase their peerage rank"
Arturio "yes exactly"
Wendelin "I want to ask about that true baptism and cardinal hoenheim"
Arturio "the hoenheim household is an appointed viscount household here in the capital, cardinal hoenheim is the current head of the household. He is also the most influential cardinals of the church, he is definitely someone you want as an ally, as for that true baptism, its just like a normal baptism but more luxurious since the ones receiving it are rich people because its necessary to give donations to the church upon receiving a real baptism"
Wendelin "what kind of power does the church possess"
Arturio "the church has the largest spy network inside and outside the country, they can get information from even the holy urqhart empire, also the church manages most of the healing mages in the kingdom, plus the church has the ability to spread rumors and false information, there are various other things as well, but the ones I stated now are the most important ".
Wendelin " the church is quite the fearsome organization it seems"
Arturio "indeed it is"
Arturio said while directing his gaze towards my medal. It consisted of a large emrald surrounded by two dragons made of gold.
Wendelin "this medal, the last person to recieve it was commander general bierhoff right, about 200 years ago, before the ceasefire by the holy empire urqhart"
Arturio "yes, that perticular medal comes with its own annuity, it should be 3 platinum coins annually"
In the battle against the holy urqhart empire, the empire's leaders sent out a force of 10,000 to attack the kingdoms rear, but general bierhoff saw through their movements, and mobilized a force of 5000 to confront them, after defeating the empire troops, he employed the same strategy and attackes the empire forces from the rear. It was a great loss for the empire out of their 200,000 troops half were captured others either fled or died. In the end it was an overwhelming win for the kingdom. This decisive battle led to the signing of the ceasefire two hundred years ago.
Wendelin "how much time do you think it would take, to take apart the corpse of the dragon"
Arturio "hmm, should take atleast three days"
Wendelin "I see, you also have my thanks for accompanying me"
I thank him, genuinely grateful for him tagging along, since I still lack experience whenit comes to politics.
Arturio "don't mention it, for a merchant like me connections are important, and to have a connection with the dragon slaying hero is something very valuable"
Arturio replies while supporting a smile on his face.
Wendelin "that dragon was the boss monster of the regen plains correct?"
Arturio "yes, duke breithild will be quite happy to hear that you defeated it, many generations of his family have tried to liberate the regen plains from that ancient dragon and now you have succeeded in doing so"
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After a while, we finally arrived at the brandt mansion, as me and arturio got out of the carriage, we were greeted by erich.
Erich "its good to see you again wendelin and thank you for looking out for my younger brother"
He says the last part directed towards arturio.
Arturio "don't mention it, now then I will be on my way"
Saying this arturio left on the carriage thst we used to arrive at the mansion.
Erich "come on wend, your friends and berkhart are inside, they arrived a while ago"
Erich then guided me inside the mansion, at first glance the mansion was many times better than the mansion of the baumeister household, who hold the same rank of knight. This is probably due to the brandt family having an apointed position in the kingdoms government.
As we entered, we were greeted by an approximately 60 year old, silver-grey haired man with refined characteristics and a middle-aged, brown haired women with a calm demeanor. Furthermore there was around a young, around 16 year old beautiful girl with shoulder length brown hair.
Erich "allow me to introduce the members of the brandt family"
Erich than introduced them one by one, the old man was the current family head, rudiger wilhelm von brandt, he is 62 years old, the middle aged women is his wife marion wilhelm von brandt and finally, their daughter miriam wilhelm von brandt, who was also erich's fiance.
Rudiger "a pleasure to meet you ser baumeister"
Marion "the news about you slaying the dragon has become wide spread in the capital already"
Miriam "to think that erich's younger brother, would be the dragon slaying hero, the world surely is a small place"
Wendelin "Its a pleasure to finally meet with you all as well"
I exchanged greetings with the brandt family, after which erich guided me to the rooms with my friends and berkhart.
Lia "wen, were you appointed as a noble? "
Luise "did you meet his majesty? "
Ariel "were you nervous? "
As soon a I walk in, I am bombarded by questions from the girls.
Berkhart "now, give the lad some breathing room"
Berkhart manages to get them to remain silent, while I explain the events during my audience with his majesty.
Erich "to think you became a noble with a higher ranking then father, on the way to my wedding"
Berkhart "and thats not all you even recieved the twin dragon medal, that hasn't been given out to anyone in the past 200 years"
Luise "ah wend, so your a noble now right"
Wendelin "yes I am, but still treat me the same"
Luise "yeah sure, but can you make us your retainers"
All the girls became surprised at luise's straightforwardness, even though from their faces, I could see that the others were thinking of asking me the same.
Wendelin "Its fine with me, but didn't you girls wanted to be adventurers"
Lia "wend its preferable to have a safe job like being a retainer, to becoming an adventurer which is is a risky profession. The reason we chose to be adventurers was because we wanted to be independent from our families. We can do that by becoming your retainers "
Wendelin" in that case, you girls are my retainers from now on, but I am only going to start paying you proper wages, once you reach adulthood, but until then, I'll give you a modest allowance, and I will also take of care of your basic needs"
Ina "wend, dont you think thats a really favorable deal for us"
Wendelin "you all are my friends, so please don't mind it"
Erich "also hiring you benefits wend as well"
Wendelin "that's right, soon the tale of me defeating a dragon will spread throughout the capital and I am going to be swarmed by people wishing to become my retainers. If the public believes that I have already hired retainers then I would easily be able to turn them down, without causing any offense"
Berkhart "it seems you have become accustomed to the ways of nobility, baronet baumeister"
Berkhart says in a joking tone getting chuckles from every one in the room.
Berkhart "hey lad, we can continue our chat later, for now I need you to teleport us to the duke's mansion in breitburg, he needs to be updated on the situation here in the capital"
Wendelin "alright, let's go. Big brother erich, I hope you don't mind me leaving so soon, I'll try to comeback as soon as I can"
Erich "don't worry about it , I will make sure to take good care of your new retainers as well"
Erich said jokingly, after that I use teleportation magic, to teleport us to the duke's mansion in breitburg. Arriving at the mansion we are guided towards the duke's study by one of the maids.
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Amadeus "I had been updated on the events in the capital by the magic communication device, but still its surprising so much happened in just a day"
After arriving in the study, we started to explain the events, first the ancient dragon which attacked the magic airship, how I defeated it, due to which I was granted an audience in which the king appointed me as a noble, and bestowed to me the twin dragon medal.
Amadeus "first of all wendelin, you did a great job, because of you the ancient dragon is finally dead and we can finally begin the development of the regen plains, there is still the matter of extermination of the monsters but that can be handled, by hiring adventurers or sending in the feudal troops"
The duke seemed very excited. The reason for that is the rapidly increasing population of the kingdom, it is currently 64 million and increasing at a rate of 4~7 percent per year. The kingdom's economy is stagnating and unemployment rate is increasing. It is possible to solve these issues by developing new territory, but the problem is that most of the undeveloped territories are monster domains.
The kingdom in the beginning was formed by gaining land through liberation of monster domains, which were easy enough to liberate. The remaining monster domains however are the ones which the kingdom, failed to liberate in the past, meaning only the most difficult monster domains haven't been liberated.
The development of the regen plains will help create many jobs, especially jobs in construction and agriculture related jobs. These new jobs will provide employment to the people, at the same time help in the economic growth of the dukedom.
Amadeus "however the king is very shrewd"
Wendelin "there has to be a reason why he granted me a full peerage instead of an honorary one, even though I am underaged"
In the kingdom, underaged nobles who are supposed to inherit territory when they reach adulthood are given honorary titles, there are many other cases as well, in which honorary titles are granted.
Amadeus "yes, under normal circumstances, that should be the case, but there isn't any law stating that its necessary that an honorary title must be granted to underage individuals"
Wendelin "so what do you think his majesty is planning?"
Amadeus "I don't know, but I intend to find out, he shouldn't do anything until your brother's wedding tomorrow, after that he will most likely make his move, so I want you to teleport me to the capital on the day after the wedding"
With that our business with duke breithild came to an end, and we returned back to brandt family's mansion in the capital by using teleportation.
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It is the 2nd day since my arrival at the royal capital. Yesterday was my audiance with his majesty and today is erich's marriage.
Since rudiger, the current head of the brandt household didn't have any male heirs, it meant he would have to adopt someone into his family and have them marry his daughter to succeed the household.
If it had been a house of landed nobility, it would have been possible for a female to be the head of the house, according to the kingdoms laws, but for an appointed house, it is necessary for their to be a male heir.
So many nobles of the same faction, wanted their second or third sons to be adopted by them, even viscount mongerard, the patron of the brandt household, presented a groom but they were turned down by rudiger.
This caused many voices of criticism by the nobles of the same faction, but since none of the presented people were to rudiger's liking, he turned them down. He couldn't say anything either since these were people of his own faction, so he decided to remain quiet.
Rudiger had observed erich for about an year, since the time he had joined the finance department as a petty official at the age of 15, in the end he chose him to be adopted into his family and marry his daughter, erich naturally accepted.
There were many people who said bad things about him like 'the 5th son of a peasant knight', but niether rudiger nor erich minded them much.
After news reached them that erich was my brother, than it was these people who started to say that, 'if he is the brother of the dragon slayer than he should be, a great son in law', in all honesty their behavior was quite despicable, but I was able to help erich out, so I was happy about that atleast.
Right now me and berkhart were in the gardan of the brandt mansion, where the marriage announcement ceramony was to be held, about three hundred people were invited, many of which were from the same finance faction, the rest consisted of important nobles or their representatives, who wanted to attend the party to meet me.
This had actually become an issue, many nobles and merchants had wanted to participate in the party at the last minute, but fortunately rudiger was able to handle them.
Berkhart "its a nice day for a wedding"
Wendelin "your just happy, that you have a good opportunity to drink"
Berkhart "baronet baumeister, I am surprised you would think of me in such a way"
Berkhart replied in a joking tone.
Wendelin "you are here as the duke breithild's representative right?"
Berkhart "yes, the duke couldn't attend personally, since a duke appearing in the marriage announcement party of a knight of the finance faction, would be considered unorthodox, I was sent here instead"
Mine and berkharts gazes then went towards the section of the garden, where the gifts had been layed out. Berkhart had dropped off the presents from duke breithild but the problem was that the place where the presents from the baumeister house should be located was empty.
Berkhart "it seems that the presents from your family haven't arrived yet"
Erich "I urged them many times in letters, but they didn't respond"
Berkhart "hey are you serious, if the duke finds out"
Wendelin "this would reflect poorly on his image"
At that moment we were approached by two young men, one 19 the other 22, they were my brothers paul and helmut. They also had a letter in their hands.
Paul "erich here, we received this letter from home"
Erich then takes the letter and starts reading, while helmut looks at me with recognition and greets me.
Helmut "wendelin, is that you?"
Wendelin "yep, it's me"
Seems like he was able to recognize me, even after I changed the color of my hair and eyes with my 'transformation skill'.
Helmut "erich told me that you changed the color of your hair and eyes with magic, we also heard about the news about you defeating the dragon"
Ah so erich told him, so that's how he recognized me. Me and helmut didn't interact much, but its good to see he doesn't have any reservations towards me.
Erich "hah, this is troubling"
Then I read the letter and understand, why erich had such a reaction. Apparently our family had spent all of their money on kurts wedding and didn't have the money, to provide gifts, so they had askes paul and helmut to do so, in their sted, and asked it to be treated as a loan.
Although I had visited the baumeister territory many times in the past two and half years, I mainly did so to retrieve the metals that I mined and refined with my magic during my time there, that I had hidden underground. I also spent a lot of time training my magic control by using it to separate salt from sea water, refining suger from the sugercane growing in the demon forest, mining and refining different metals, hunting monsters and animals. I also gathered fruits and even made a map of the savage lands by making use of my 'clone skill' and splitting the work among the clones I created. I was able to gather quite a lot of things by using my 'clone skill', but I didn't interact with anyone and didn't even attend Kurt's wedding, since It would have been difficult to explain my pressance in the baumeister territory, because I hadn't even been invited and had no reason to be there.
Paul "do they really think we have the kind of money to pay for a wedding gift for nobles"
That's true paul and helmut are ordinary guards, there salary shouldn't be more than 3-4 gold coins per year, they can bearly scrape by with that amount much less pay for the marriage present of a noble.
Wendelin "there's no use crying about it now, I'll provide the gifts from our family side"
Berkhart "yes the lad has the money. Duke breithild will refund the cost of the gifts later, something that is locally produced or native to the south should be fine. If you don't have anything in the magic bag then ask arturio to obtain it for you"
Erich "I'm sorry to trouble you with this wend"
Paul "yes, I am sorry as well"
Helmut "me as well"
Wendelin "don't worry about it, its not your fault"
Saying this I along with berkhart, go to the place where the gifts had been arranged and start taking out the gifts from the magic bag. I started to take out diferant alcoholic drinks like wine, fruit liqueur and ale, which I made with fermentation and distillation magic.
Berkhart "hmm this tastes very good, but it loses out to the best brands"
wendelin "it took a lot of trials and experiments with my fermentation and distillation magic, to make them taste this good"
Berkhart "the bottles, did you make those as well"
The bottles were made with glass, by using my 'transmutation skill'.
Wendelin "yes they are, I made them by constructing it with sand then super heating it to make glass"
I haven't told anyone about my transmutation skill yet, so I lied about the manufacturing process of the bottles. I then take out more bottles of alcohol, since the ones I originally took out had been stored by berkhart in his magic bag, but it wasn't a problem since I had plenty in storage.
I then took 12 white ceramic pots that I made mith my transmutation skill, filled with suger I refined, during my time training in the demon forest. Next I take out 12 more identical pots, but filled with salt. I also took out the bow, arrows, and sword which I brought as gifts for erich, then I take out the silk dress and jewelry I brought as a presents for the bribe.
Wendelin "this should be enough right?"
Berkhart "yes that is plenty, now lets return to the party"
Once I had completed taking out the gifts from the magic bag, me and berkhart returned to the party.