This was a tradition followed in the empire to reduce competition for nobel succession of course the emperor succession is another thing entirely different since you will want the most capable to lead the empire and also the noble can have more chances to manipulate the crown prince.
"There has been no new addition to the concubine place but there have been new servants added to the castle by one of the concubines." He said to my utter surprise, there has been a collision between the concubines. This is a huge matter and the face of the Zephyris will be dragged to the ground if it were revealed. I quickly explained the situation to Alfred, he understood and started to investigate the servants in secret. Now for the talent ceremony, It is exactly 5 days away and I have little to no time to cultivate to the final level of the foundation stage.
{Time skip}
It was finally time for the talent evaluation test, I have been in cultivation all this time only taking pills and other resources for bath, brushing, and eating. I did not even sleep and have been focused on cultivation the whole time to reach the foundation stage 9th level. I can feel the breakthrough any time now, and enter the qi condensation stage. I confidently wore my black kimono style dress with golden dragons in the edges, usually only the imperial family can wear golden dragons but since I am engaged to his daughter and also the fact that his son seems to be my best friend, the emperor gifted me this cloth. I headed out to the arena in a carriage which took some time.
{Arena}
The commoners were the first to arrive at the arena, they usually had nothing to do and would flock to any entertainment they saw. As they started to appear there was clearly a mixed opinion on Riven, most saw him as a good person while others, out of jealousy of his father, cursed him. All this stopped when the noble started to take the seat, while nobles usually did not care for such events since they will get the new with servants, there were quit a few nobles present.
The first noble to enter the arena was the house of Balure, Rina Balure. Rina is a beautiful noble with blond hair distinctive of the Balure clan, she is a top tier merchant and single handedly raised the Balure clan to the 2nd tier marquis house. As she entered the crowd chated with each other.
"Isn't that Rina Balure from the Blaure clan?"
"Yes she is, I remember her skills as a merchant I almost proposed to her"
"You? A toad is thinking of trying to eat a swan."
"Yep, plus she already has someone in her heart."
"Wait, she does, who is it?I swear when I meet him…"
"Don't even think about it, The one who captured her heart is Riven Zephyris"
"You mean the main topic today and also the one who is engaged to the princess."
"Yep, that him"
"He already has the princess which is suppose to be the number one beauty in the kingdom"
"Well, it is not confirmed yet but it is highly likely that the princess would not allow it."
There was another wave of conspiracy and bullshit thrown around, right then there is the second noble who entered. The house of Mag, John paul Mag. There was another wave of rumors as it is common knowledge that Zephyris and Mag were once enemies but later they reconciled. There were some other noble houses that came which although shocked the crowd but did not spread rumors as they were either well known friends or enemies of Riven.
{MC pov}
" 5 duke, 10 marquis and 15 count. Varying from 1st to 3rd rank huh?" I said to myself, I went through the memories and summarized each one of them and my relationship. There is Rina, a childhood friend who later fell in love with me, there is John who is probably my capitalist friend, there Redrick fune a count who got promoted due to my influence and is also my best friend. He awakened a s rank flame power called the nuclear flames before I did not know what that meant but now I do know what kind of power he has.
Rest are basically spies and other random people of the empire here for no reason other than just to suck Zephyris ass. I did not bother with them but what I am more interested about is Manic cacuis, the son of the duke of pentagon. Why is he here? The Duke family was rare in the capital although not the highest rank, that belonged to the king rank. King rank were given their own territory in the empire to manage and they have the power to impose laws and taxes on multiple levels. There is also that when ¾ of the all the king in the empire unite they can even change the emperor but there has been no case in history of the empire where there was a need to do so.
The only weakness of being the king is that you are basically a commoner when visiting any other city not under your control, or you are there to discuss business matters. There are only about 6 kings in the entire empire as the power required to be a king is immense, also only you get promoted to king while the house is promoted to being 1st duke. This is so that the child would not inherit the kingdom which the father has earned.
"Alfred, what do you think the duke of pentagon wants?" I said as I was unsure of him, all other duke family were allies or friends of my brother in law or wife so I did not worry about them but more about duke of pentagon.
" I don't know but it seems the son was the one who wanted to come here." He said, but then it suddenly clicked in my mind.
"Investigate any business of the prince, I mean to say the heavenly brew, king o' don, and finally Green place. I want the copy of the financial reports on my desk by morning, use any means necessary but don't get caught" I said as I sent Alfred on his way, although reluctant to leave his master in such an important time he had to comply with orders. I then sped up to the arena, after which I reached record times. As I walked through one of the passages, the priest called my name as I walked into the center of the coliseum.
"Place your hand on the crystal" The priest said after praying to the dragon god, Bahamut. As the priest said that the center of the arena moved as a giant crystal with a pointy peak came out of the earth, it continued to reach heaven until it stopped when it reached the max height of the arena. I walked closer magnified at the crystal when there was a sudden call
" Hey Riven, remember me" A arrogant voice said, I looked behind to see that it was Xion Eleart. I grimaced at this idiot, he once cheated a girl by promising to sleep with her and what not. After the deed was done however, he went back on his word and said that he did not do the deed and what not. Unfortunately for him it was in my territory, now my previous body had a lot of problems but never once did he take the dark path. He remained pure even among the sinners this world calls nobles, untainted by arrogance.
He with his intelligence tracked down the room they used and 'asked' the manager to be a witness and he did. With that he arrested this mother fucker and made the father give a substantial wealth to the family, he later took the wealth for shops and other investments in the future so that the family does not get corrupted with the money. I must say he is pretty smart when it comes to judging humans and knowing human psychology.
Of course, if it were just that Xion would not make a scene here but what the real riven did after was the something even I take a bow to. He made a bunch of brothel men who were gay and forced themselves on Xion and later after the deed was done, Xion came to complain and Riven just started to use his own words against him. He even spread this and caused the entire house to lose face and not only that but the emperor also degraded the house by couple level making it from duke to a marquis.