A few days later Adrian visited Oakbrook accompanied by the elder of Frostholm and an entourage from the Azure knights.
Both Cedric and Frostholm's elder signed a full alliance in addition to a commercial pact between both cities.
Word started to spread about the alliance between the Azure Knights and Highthorn, other clans started becoming active in other regions as well and the adventurer guilds across the continent recorded an all-time high in registrations.
Nobles started taking note of the powerful and influential clans from different regions and so the lords of each region started getting closer to the other-worlders as they were called now.
It hasn't been a couple weeks since all of this started to take place and there was still no word of Phoenix, his vitals were going up and down indicating that he had been doing a lot of fighting lately so the clan members started being concerned but he would always come out perfectly fine so they postponed looking for him for the time being.
Rage also received an official invitation from the capital following First Knight Robin's departure that times perfectly with the date when Cedric is supposed to go back to the imperial academy, and so Cedric decided to hold his banquet in his family's small estate in the capital.
Eve arrived at the castle heeding Cedric's summon, she had no clue what her half-brother would possibly want, she was an illegitimate child of the late elder and so she thought he'd want to keep her at check to not challenge his succession since even an illegitimate child had the right to claim the estate provided the predecessor hasn't named an heir before his death.
She nervously stood at the door of the throne room before she took a deep breath and nodded for the guards to open it.
One of the guards pushed the door that revealed Cedric sitting on his throne surrounded by multiple knights and high-standing officers of Oakbrook's garrison, among them were the Highthorn members who stood there eyeing her as she made her way standing before the throne.
"I g-greet the b-baron" She stuttered kneeling before Cedric who stood without a word.
Sir Waine approached Cedric handing him a decorated sword with a golden oak tree engraved on the handle an the name "Oakbrook" carved on the blade.
Cedric raised his sword as Eve closed her eyes anticipating her inevitable death, "Maybe he gathered all these nobles to make an example of me and send a threat to the other illegitimate child father had, to not challenge his rule" she thought to herself, she has been raised in the inn her entire life and didn't have any idea how politics or customs worked, she also doesn't know her brother well since she only came in contact with him very recently when their father was kidnapped, not even Cedric knew Eve was his half-sister until she revealed so during the incident.
"Evelynn Sanders, you are an illegitimate child of the late steward Thaddeus Oakbrook the patriarch of the Oakbrook family that rules this city, you know you can legally challenge my succession as per tradition, all gathered here will be witnesses shall you decide so" Cedric firmly stated, looking down to Eve who didn't dare raise her head.
"Please brother I am just an Innkeeper, I have difficulties running a small inn, how am I going to run a city" Eve trembled her voice shaking in fear.
Cedric lowered his sword towards her, she flinched only to find the sword resting on her shoulder, "I Baron Cedric, the patriarch of the house Oakbrook, hereby declare that from this day onwards, your name shall be Evelynn Oakbrook, Baroness of the Oakbrook house" Cedric raised his sword as sir waine kneeled beside Eve who was petrified in shock, "I name you sir Waine, the personal knight of Lady Evelynn Oakbrook, may you serve her until the end of your days, and may your blade only be wielded to defend her and Oakbrook's honour"
Cedric raised his eyes looking at all present in the throne room, "Is there anyone who objects?"
The room was silent as everyone's eyes were fixed on Cedric, the young boy of 20 who showed them the dignity and pride of a noble that they never saw in his father.
"Rise baroness Evelynn Oakbrook" Cedric said setting his sword aside.
As Eve slowly stood up, the room erupted in applaud and cheers with words of congratulation aimed at Eve who was still in shock, after a moment tears started to drip from her eyes as she impulsively hugged her brother, Cedric pat her back as she cried on his chest for a moment before looking up to him, "I th-thought you were going to kill me" She sobbed before Cedric let out a laugh still patting her back.
"You don't know me well sister, when you revealed to me that you were my half-sister I initially doubted you, anyone can claim to be an illegitimate child of a noble to claim his title after his death, but when I thought about it, I remembered father always spending a lot of his time in your Inn, paying more than what he owed whenever he ordered anything, I was weighing it in my head, but when you stood up for him when Valerian said he can kill him to break the curse, and your reaction when we received his body, I was certain that you were my blood, I thought how hard your life must have been living in an Inn, being looked down upon by the nobles and high ranking mercenaries or knights that ever stopped by our small estate back then, how I was surrounded by all these comforts while you were suffering, I felt guilty, how I was living in comfort protected by my knights while you were sleeping thinking how you're going to feed yourself the next day", Cedric's eyes started to tear up as he hugged his sister tighter before letting her go.
Sir Waine kneeled before Eve bowing his head down, "My lady, I pledge my blade and my life to you and only you, I shall serve you with the honour and pride of a knight until the day I depart this world" the old man swore his oath before he stood up.
"U-Uncle Waine e-" Eve stuttered, Waine was one of the very few who knew about Eve, he always stopped by the inn and spent some time chatting with her and even helped her on some rough days, so the idea of him kneeling before her gave Eve a sense of guilt.
"Eve starting from tomorrow, I've hired some teachers to teach you proper etiquette and politics so you can be a proper lady" Cedric called out from his throne as he sat down.
"Brother, I know this is extremely selfish of me, but please, I'd like to learn swordsmanship as well" Eve bowed her head pleadingly as Cedric paused for a second.
"All of our instructors are busy training the garrison at the moment, I am not sure if we can spare a private instructor" Cedric replied.
"My Lord, allow me to teach the lady myself" Sir Waine said.
"Alright then, Sir Waine" Cedric replied, "I'm looking forward to sparring with you myself, sister"
A small festival was held that night in honour of Baroness Evelynn Oakbrook which the whole city attended, expensive food of all types was served in addition to dozens of barrels of expensive wine.
"Brother!" Eve approached Cedric who was speaking with the knights, he turned to her with a smile waving as she got closer, "You did all of this for me? Are we really that rich?"
Cedric laughed before looking back to Eve, "Nope, that's way above our budget"
"Then why bother, we shouldn't spend recklessly!" Eve exclaimed trying to knock some sense into Cedric who laughed again.
"Well, we do have a sponsor who took care of all of tonight's expenses, you should go thank him" Cedric said, "He paid around 7,000 gold pieces just for this"
"S-SEVEN THOUSAND!" Eve yelled before looking around and lowering her voice, "Is he the count of Silvergate?"
"I think I'm a bit higher in rank than a count" Sensei approached from behind.
"Y-You did this?" Eve blushed in embarrassment.
"It's not much" Sensei replied with a smile, "Now may I have this dance?" He extended his hand before Eve hesitantly took it.
"I don't know how to dance, tho" She replied, her cheeks as red as apples after holding his hand.
"Neither do I, so let's just wing it"
Rage approached Cedric handing him a bottle of wine, "Damn, looks like we'll be in-laws soon"
"H-Huh! SENSEI IS YOUR BROTHER?" Cedric exclaimed.
"Eww no, but I treat them all as my brothers" Rage looked at Sensei and Eve who were happily dancing with others under the moonlight in the Castle's garden, "They're the only ones I have left in this world"
"I feel you, I thought I was alone before Eve came into my life as well"
"You know Cedric, my father and the crown prince resented me" Rage started his stories again, trying to act emotional to make it as believable as possible, it was the lore he was making for himself after Varon told him that Cedric was curious about his imaginary family, so he rehearsed it for a while.
"Resented you?"
"I was also an illegitimate child of the emperor as well, but where I come from even if my mother wasn't his official wife he had to acknowledge me as his son, he initially tried to keep me in check, even going as far as preventing me from learning the sword, when I had enough I renounced my claim to the throne and took my mother and younger sister and left the palace" Rage tried to fake a tear while Madeen was doing his best to hold his laughter in the back.
"I worked as a mercenary to make a name for myself and make a living before I created Highthorn, my father saw that I grew in power and would come back to challenge the throne so he paid an immense amount of money to the Pope of the Vatican to communicate with our demon god Heimdal to open a dimensional gate to your realm to banish me there, the 12 gods that opposed Heimdal didn't like that our realm made a deal with the demon god and sent their wrath destroying our entire continent, so we had no choice but to escape to your realm"
Rage's acting made his story believable, but what wasn't believable was the global announcement that was sent to all players containing the new Phase 1 lore that was exactly what Rage said, marking him the actual second prince of the western continent, furthermore the lore was filled with stories and statements made up by other guild masters and adventurers that validated their stories, the announcement mentioned that it was a gift from Aelarion the gate administrator to the players.
YOUR STATUS HAS BEEN UPDATED
YOU ARE NOW A NOBLE OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE
CLAN AUTHORITY +5000
YOU ARE NOW ALLOWED TO BUY PROPERTY OR BUILD YOUR OWN IN THE EASTERN CONTINENT
"Well, shit, this is interesting" Rage thought to himself with a smirk.