The lord granting ceremony took place in a peaceful atmosphere. Steward Derek placed a luxury purple cushion with flower embroidery in front of the stage and asked Abel to sit on it.
Abel was no stranger to lord granting ceremonies. He stepped up and kneeled down with a serious look, staring forward.
To the surprise of all the elf councilors, Grand Duke Edwina did not request an oath from Abel. She only took out the silver sword from the hands of steward Derek, and lightly tapped it on both sides Abel's shoulder. Afterward, she placed a Lord's medal of honor in front of Abel's chest, and the ceremony was finished.
Grand Duke Edwina couldn't do anything else anyway. Abel's status as a human was too awkward. If he didn't have the moon goddess's transformation necklace, Grand Duke Edwina would never even consider giving Abel a noble status, such as a Lord of elves. It signified Abel's identity as an elf, so she needed to be certain Abel's true identity would never be exposed. Now, since Abel had the transformation necklace, he was able to completely change into an elf inside and out.
Of course, there were also those few royal elves who had seen the transformation necklace, but Grand Duke Edwina was sure they would not make it public after they saw how she had treated Abel.
The oath an elf needed to say in a Lord granting ceremony could only work its power against elves. Abel was a human, so it didn't matter much if he said it or not anyway.
The medal of honor in front of Abel was the ones of a Lord. Since he was not granted any land, he could not design his own coat of arm. He could only show his noble status through this Lord's medal of honor.
After the Lord granting ceremony had finished, Abel had put on his skin-tight white suit with the help of Brewer. Afterward, he sat in the resting room with a bottle of fruit juice, waiting for the banquet the Grand Ducal palace had organized for him. Suddenly, Carrie appeared by his side. She glanced at Brewer, who was also standing by Abel's side and said to Abel, "I'm looking for
you!"
"Master, the honorable Countess Carrie. I'll go first!" Steward Brewer quickly said with a bow and left the resting room.
"Countess, Carrie, why are you looking for me?" Abel put down his juice and said with a slight bow. This sister of Loraine had a special ability: she always broke people's good mood when she appeared.
"Let the Grand Ducal palace take care of the selling of those elven perfume!" Said Carrie with a monotone voice.
"But, I'm not even planning to sell those elven perfumes!" Abel carelessly threw out this sentence. He wasn't in need of any resources anyway, and the things he wanted could not be bought by gold coins.
Maybe the only thing he was short of was some fresh crystal cores. Those things were a very crucial resource, but they could not be bought with wealth. They could only be attained through a soul beast hunt.
"That was mother's decision!" Carrie replied to Abel's disinterest with the same monotone.
Carrie's attitude was basically commanding Abel to give the 'elven perfume' to the Grand Ducal palace for sale no matter if he liked it or not, since that was what Grand Duke Edwina had said. That was crazy.
"Countess Carrie, you really are good at persuading men. I'll give some elven perfume to the Grand Ducal palace for sale in a few days." Said Abel with a hint of sarcasm.
Seemed like Carrie didn't catch Abel's intention. She continued to say "you also need to prepare some "conditioner" and "lotion". Master Mara is helping you to apply for honor from the Alchemy Union. It doesn't matter if you pass or not, all your alchemy will still belong to the elves.
After Carrie finished her sentence, she turned and left. Abel wanted to follow up and ask, do all the elves like to make decisions for people without asking?
Suddenly, Carrie stopped. She turned back to Abel once again and took out a portal bag from her chest pocket. "This is some resource".
When Abel took the portal bag, Carrie had already disappeared from the resting room.
DII
This portal bag had a cute bear embroidery on it. It was the complete opposite to any other vicious bears he saw. He could tell this was a female bear at first sight. Abel gave out a little laugh. He would never guess the serious all the time elves would like embroidery of this style.
He reached in with his power of the will. Inside was filled with 'elven perfume', 'conditioner', 'lotion', and countless ingredients that were commonly used in alchemy, some of which were even very valuable.
Too bad he didn't find a single beauty grass, it was the main ingredient for 'beauty potion'. It seemed like beauty grass was too rare, and he didn't know where to get them. Of course, he wasn't preparing those beauty potions for himself; he was still young. He was thinking of making some for his mother Nora, and future Loraine.
Abel then thought about Master Mara helping him to apply for honor from the Alchemy Union. Suddenly, joy struck his heart.
Back in the days when he was learning to forge, Master Bentham had also sacrificed his only chance to help Abel apply a Blacksmith Master examination. Although he wasn't sure how many times Master Mara could apply, he was sure this opportunity was not easy to come by.
"Master, the banquet is about to start!" Said Steward Brewer as he appeared beside Abel.
Upon hearing Brewer's reminder, Abel wrapped the portal bag on his waist. He was very cautious as he wasn't sure what would happen if he threw the portal bag Carrie had given him in his personal storage box in the Horadric Cube. This white suit for elves was also almost skin tight. So he could only wrap the portal bag on his waist.
"The Lord of Bennett had arrived!"
With the call of the Grand Ducal palace's steward Derek, Abel entered the hall. At first, Derek did not follow as he stayed at the entrance. It was only after another steward had arrived, he began following Abel. He only had one mission today, and that was to introduce Abel to every noble in here.
wer
The nobles in the hall turned and gazed at Abel. Some smiled and some ignored, but all 12 of the elf councilors were very friendly towards him. They all separately stepped up and greeted Abel respectfully, while Derek introduced them to Abel.
All the nobles in the hall were surprised by this. Those big ego elf councilors were not easy to interact with. Although this lord granting ceremony was organized to welcome Abel into the noble circle, it was just another excuse for the other nobles to gather around. No one actually cared about a Lord without land.
The thing that surprised the nobles the most was Steward Derek's attitude towards Abel. It was like he was serving a Master. Since steward Derek was the steward of the Grand Ducal Palace, he was only a status below the elf councilors, so no one would want to mess with him.
Because of this, the elves began to guess Abel's identity. Some of them had even stepped up and started to chat with him with a friendly look.
By this point, Abel realized the elves were just as fake as the humans. They weren't graceful like their appearance at all. Suddenly, a voice came from the entrance.
The honorable Master Mara had arrived!"
A young elf entered. All the elves were extremely curious. From what they had heard, Master Mara was already entering her old age. How come she was so young?
"This is Master Mara? My god, are my eyes ok?" An elf councilor said in shock.
"I told you!" Elf councilor Kroc turned and replied.