CH.239 Getting Peerage

CH.239 Getting Peerage

In the morning, I had a few things to do before breakfast. First was to do the final preparations for my gift. I had the magic fanny pack, I had the bolt rolls of cloth, three tricot, two cotton and one denim. I had the ‘three-piece suit’ I made from them. The only thing left was the swords I planned to present with it.

For that, I took out the pair of twin steel swords from the dungeon. They were gotten from one of the challenge rooms by Guardian Angel Joan, when we tested out the challenge rooms with Diamond Sword. For them, all I had to do was to install Twin Swords of Flashing Light - Tryce onto them, to make them a bit better looking.

Spoiler

[collapse]

“Install.”

After I said the word, the card disappeared from my hand and entered into the swords. The swords glowed softly for a while, until they let out a powerful ‘Ding’ sound and broke into pieces.

“...” I stared at them wordlessly. The two swords were now nothing but a pile of broken pieces of steel.

“Brian? What was that sound?” Lua called out to me from the bathroom.

“... something bad.” I admitted. “My swords broke.”

“What? Your mithril sword?” She asked.

“No. The twin swords I was going to give to Thomas as a gift.”

Lua got out of the bathroom. She seemed to have been in the middle of brushing her hair, as she still had the brush in her hand.

“... wow. They really shattered.” Lua said. “What did you do?”

“I just tried to install a card into them, to hopefully make them a bit more pretty, but they just shattered.”

“I see. So, just give him something else. You didn’t show the maids these swords, so it isn’t like anyone actually knows what weapon you were about to give him, right?” Lua suggested.

“Yeah, I guess. I just don’t have anything that aesthetic in my storage. I want it to be pretty, but also usable.”

“Can’t your monsters make one? They made that upgrade to Ria’s armor in a day. I’m sure they can turn out a national treasure sword in a day.” Lua said.

“But we don’t want a national treasure. This gift isn’t for the King.”

“Does it matter? You even said that the armor isn’t national treasure class. So just make something on that level, and give that instead.”

“... why do you make this sound so easy?”

“Because it is you, and I know you can do it.” Lua said.

“... yeah. I guess I have to try.” I agreed. If I fail, I can just give the gift as is. Sure it will lack the ‘big impact item’, but I guess the suit will have to do that. “I’ll head to the factory for a bit.” I said, as I sat down on one of the chairs in the room. Let’s hope I won’t fall off.

As soon as I reached the factory, Laura was waiting for me.

“So, you know the situation?” I confirmed with her.

“Of course. Will you let me handle this? I have an idea.” She offered.

“Do share, please.”

“We will make a vampire steel blade, with bronze guard and pommel. The handle will be made from ever tree from the forest. It will just be a single blade, but the material should make up for that.” Laura told me her idea. “We will also make a scabbard from the sword-horn bulls hide, if that is fine.”

“... Yeah, that is fine. But ever tree? Is that what they are called?” I assume they are the trees from the big ass forest to the west.

“Yes.”

“Why? Because the forest goes on forEver?”

We were currently in a small private prayer room of the church, waiting for us to be called. Thomas has planned to do the ceremony himself, but it wouldn’t technically be ‘official’ until done by a member of the royal family. But even a title granted by an Earl was more than enough to work in every city and town close by. You could get into some trouble farther away though, especially if you attempted to bloat with your noble title.

“Don’t worry. It will all go fine.” I promised, even though I was basically just as nervous as Thomas is.

Don’t start a war. Don’t say anything bad. Don’t threaten anyone. We can do this. Worst case scenario, you escape the country. ... NO! Bad brain. Don’t go there.

“Sir, it is time.” A clergy woman informed me. They had prepared the area for us, so we could do this before the large Goddess statue, basically at the center of the church.

I got up from my seat and followed her. Thomas had left the room a bit earlier. He, and some other nobles and guests would be observing the situation. Even commoners were allowed to watch, as long as they stayed quiet. The security was also quite tight, as we did have a member of royalty here.

I followed the woman and entered the main area of the church. Plenty of people were there, including most of the Sawyer daughters, and their families. As well as some of the other nobles, who had arrived yesterday.

I was honestly extremely nervous, but seeing Lua in the audience did calm me down a bit. Alice, Ria and even Agatha were here as well. I have no idea how Agatha knew this was happening, but she was present.

I walked up to the Goddess statue, and kneeled down a bit away from it, just as I’d been instructed.

“His Highness the second prince Elias Ruiso enters.” One of the knights with the Royal knight insignia on his armor announced.

I heard everyone in the audience stand up. I don’t know if they had been informed of it, or if they just did it because the nobles did, but even the regular people here stood up. Not that I could see it, as I was looking at the ground.

I heard some footsteps closing in.

“You, to be granted rank, reveal those present thy status.” The prince said, after he had come to a full stop, just about two steps in front of me.

“Yes, your Highness.” I answered, before saying: “Status open.”

My status opened for all to see. My slightly falsified status that is.

SpoilerName: Brian WoodRace: Human !Level: 88HP: 3180Mana: 4260Strength: 1025Defense: 1195Magic: 1205 Skills: Pack Opener LV.5 (unique)Storage LV.4 (unique)

Telekinesis LV.3 (extra)Summoner’s Unity LV.4 (extra)Dungeon Founder (extra)Summon Water Spirit (extra)Health Conscious (extra) Sword Technique LV.2

Mana Control LV.8 Water Spirit’s Blessing (Greater)Language Comprehension (humanoid)Slave MasterSlaves: Rhianna[collapse]

As I said, fake. I had Laura remove both Factory and the new Space Magic from my status. Then just lower down some of my other skill levels, Storage, Unity and Mana Control. Now, of course, my stat numbers were abnormal still, but that is not something Laura could alter. And even if she could, my skill structure is all over the place. 5 extra skills and 2 unique skills. That can’t be normal. And, of course, the most abnormal part of all. That !-mark at the end of my race. Not that it is even accurate any more, but better to keep that one, instead of having the star there.

I heard some murmurs from the crowd, but it quickly quieted down. The royal knights probably raised a hand or something. I wish I could record everything from Lua’s POV, just so I could watch it later.

“Brian Wood.” The prince once again spoke up. “For the momentous task of locating, eliminating and founding a dungeon, I, the second prince of Ruiso Kingdom Elias Ruiso, acknowledge your family name of Wood and grant you the title of an Honorary Baron. May you build your dungeon strong, so it may serve our great country.”

“By your will, Your Highness.” I answered.

Normally, had this been a ceremony held at the Royal Castle, this is where I would stand up, and walk away, but as we weren’t, I wouldn’t stand up until the prince had walked off.

But as we had both said our piece, the audience clapped for a few seconds, until they stopped.

“You must really be someone the Goddess keeps her eyes on.” I heard the prince say.

Wait? This is going off the script. What happened?

(Your status.) Laura pointed out.

I took another look at my false status, and indeed, something had changed. I got a new title.

SpoilerName: Brian WoodRace: Human !Level: 88HP: 3180Mana: 4260Strength: 1025Defense: 1195Magic: 1205 Skills: Pack Opener LV.5 (unique)Storage LV.4 (unique)

Telekinesis LV.3 (extra)Summoner’s Unity LV.4 (extra)Dungeon Founder (extra)Summon Water Spirit (extra)Health Conscious (extra) Sword Technique LV.2

Mana Control LV.8 Water Spirit’s Blessing (Greater)Honorary Baron of Ruiso Kingdom

Language Comprehension (humanoid)Slave MasterSlaves: Rhianna[collapse]

So my status is acknowledging that I’m a noble. I’ve heard that it is possible, but only around 20 to 30% of nobles have their nobility written in their status, with the chance going up the higher you are in rank. And honorary nobles almost never have it. I guess System Support and all of that.

“Thank you, Your Highness.” I said, thanking him for his previous comment.

He seemed to take one last look at my status, before he walked off and the royal knight who had announced him allowed me to stand.

I walked back into the room where I had been previously, getting plenty of stares from the people in the audience. I don’t know which of them are for my new title, and which are for my !-mark, but it doesn’t really matter.

All in all, I think that went fine. Sure, I had to reveal my system support for people, but that was basically an open secret at this point. And I feel like at least some of the people really don’t understand the importance of that little mark. Being level 88 and all of that should also take away some attention from the more ‘secretive’ parts of my status.