I had woken up the next morning early, making my way downstairs with Crisplet. I was again surprised at the number of people working in the house now.
“Greetings, Lord Trevor,” a voice called as I turned around to see Tony bowing.
“Oh, it’s not Lord, just Trevor is fine, and you don’t need to bow,” I said with a nervous chuckle.
“Ah, good. I was just coming to wake you up,” Milo’s voice called out.
Waving to Tony, I quickly made my way over to Milo, who had a look of concern on his face.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
Milo let out a sigh. “Nothing we can’t deal with. Co with , the others are already waiting. It’s not taken long for your surna to spread.”
We entered the dining room, where the entire party, including Micca, was already seated.
“Take a seat, Trev. As I ntioned, word has already spread to everyone who matters that you’ve taken a surna. The King has already acknowledged it and announced your house is to be recognised as a noble house in this kingdom,” Milo began.
I was a little confused about why this was a big deal. I thought this was the plan.
“It’s nothing we didn’t expect, but it has added another social event to your list, as you’ve been invited to another dinner with the King. You also have your eting with the Fairmonts tomorrow,” Milo continued.
“Tomorrow?!” I blurted out.
I was expecting a few days at least, not tomorrow.
“Yes. Now we need to decide who is going to go with you. I believe Hari will not be an option due to his ties with a house already, so it wi—” He started to say, being interrupted by Liane.
“I’ll go with him. None of you will be blunt enough,” she said.
“I don’t really know if that’s best,” Milo started.
“Truthfully, I think it’s the best choice,” Hari said, earning surprised looks from Liane and Jen. “We already decided we’re not going to hide, so it’s safe to assu you’ll be joined by Crisplet and Lily, right?” he said, looking to .
I just nodded. I believed Lily would at least be watching, if not directly there.
“And we could wait and send him in with Sylverith, but arriving with a dragon and a shadow cat would likely be too much. So Liane as his voice to put a stop to any backstabbing, and Lily and Crisplet as backup to reinforce it, it’s ideal,” Hari explained.
“Then it’s settled. I’ll go,” Liane said.
“Okay, but please don’t be purely antagonistic. We don’t need everyone as an enemy in the capital,” Milo pleaded.
“I will not turn everyone against Trevor, but they will understand he’s not a pawn for them to manoeuvre in their plans,” Liane said, folding her arms.
Hari laughed, earning another look from Jen.
“How are you okay with all of this? I thought you’d be wanting to play nice,” Jen asked.
Hari shrugged. “Liane’s right. If Trevor wants to stand outside the ga, or above it, he needs to assert himself as untouchable. Either that or play the ga yourself.”
“So when is the eting with the King?” I asked.
“In a week,” Hari answered simply.
I sighed. I wanted to leave the capital already; it was too much to deal with.
“Could I possibly do so shopping today? I want to get so supplies, and I really want to check out what is available in the capital,” I said, looking around.
Jen nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that too. We can go past Micca’s store, then make our way to the lower district where we can do so shopping.”
“I’m coming with you this ti. If you discover any magical bookshops, I want to be there!” Milo said with a chuckle.
“Seems we have a plan. I’ll take Darren and George to the guild training halls today,” Hari said.
Noticing everyone was about to pack up, I asked the question that had been bugging the most.
“What did you an when you said I was recognised as a noble house?” I asked.
Hari let out a chuckle. “It ans in the future you’ll likely be granted so land to look over. I doubt you’ll be assigned any responsibilities other than not destroying everyone. Then your children, or anyone you accept into your house, will carry on your na like any other noble house.”
“So I can grant my na to other people? What about Liane?” I said, blurting out the first person who ca to mind without a surna.
I heard Liane let out a gasp mixed with a cough, and I knew imdiately I had probably stepped into sothing I didn’t understand and said sothing stupid, but how was I to know if I didn’t ask?
“Well… that’s complicated. Technically, yes, you can adopt people into your household and grant them your surna. However, I don’t know that I have ever heard of a sixteen-year-old boy doing it to soone older than them,” Hari said with a laugh.
Milo, who seed to have taken the question seriously, spoke up. “That said, despite it usually being reserved for adopted children or particular staff, it wouldn’t technically be against the law, as far as I’m aware, for him to do so. It would be an interesting turn of events. Liane, a noble… could you imagine?”
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“What’s wrong with being a noble!” Liane called.
“I don’t know… the part where you want to murder them all?” Jen said with a snort.
“Not all of them. Trevor is alright, I guess,” Liane said.
And I was about to ask why it was just alright when Crisplet threw a piece of coal directly at her forehead.
“Hey! Don’t you get upset with ! If you were a noble, you’d be better than alright!” Liane said, rubbing off the dark mark.
When another coal hit her as Crisplet posed, this made wonder.
Crisplet Ashmoon (Ashborne Elental)
Level: 24
Experience: 2658/22200
“Wow, Crisplet shares my last na,” I said, shocked.
All eyes turned to Crisplet then, who was still posing.
The silence was broken by Liane. “Trevor is alright, and I like Crisplet. See, not all nobles!”
Crisplet burst into sparks, clearly happy with this.
“Do you think Lily shares my surna too? Or is it a bonded companion thing?” I asked curiously, looking at Milo.
“It’s not a companion thing I have ever heard of, so who knows,” Milo said.
“Right! Let’s get to the shops then, shall we!” Jen said happily.
As we all made our way out the hall, Crisplet took his place in the brazier by my side. I also felt the presence of Lily arrive.
Entering the main hall, Archie was waiting.
“Morning, sir. I wanted to let you know I’ve taken the liberty of reaching out to several builders in the capital to start your butchery room. I have also organised several carriages for your use out the front,” he said, bowing slightly.
“Thank you, Archie. That’s amazing to hear. Do we need anything at the markets for the house?” I asked.
“No, sir. We can handle all the day-to-day supplies,” Archie said with a smile.
I still wasn’t okay with being called sir, but it was better than being called Lord.
***
It didn’t take us long before we parted ways with Hari, Darren, and George, and found ourselves standing outside what was to be Micca’s new shop.
To say it was excessive was an understatent. The shop looked like a grand house all on its own. It was made of uniform grey stones, with deep red wooden trim, leading to the roof where it had red tiles. The front of the store had two large windows, and what appeared to be a heavy wooden door that had so of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen carved into wood.
“This is it? It’s too much,” Micca said next to , in awe.
“We’re going to need to do a lot of work to get this as a store for your needs,” Milo said, looking at it.
“We’re happy to help if it’s required,” a female voice ca from behind.
I turned around to see Kathrine stepping out of a small carriage.
Milo didn’t even turn his head. “The issue we’ll have is I don’t know if it’ll be suitable for what we’re planning on selling here. I think a large portion of our patronage will be adventurers. Granted, well-off adventurers, but still, this area seems to be exclusively for nobles.”
I looked around and we had already caused a scene, as small groups of very well-dressed people were watching us and whispering, no doubt because the princess had shown up.
“Could I enquire as to what you’ll be selling then?” Kathrine asked, looking at us curiously.
This was a question I was worried about. It had crossed my mind that asking for this shop for my friend and it then starting to sell rare candy would probably link the two of us together and make it very obvious, the source. But I had not put enough thought into this scenario before asking.
“Candy,” Milo said simply.
Her eyes went wide. “Candy? Why would rich adventurers be your target audience for candy?” She asked, confused.
Milo pulled out one of the ones he had in his storage and handed it to her.
“It looks very crude, but I don’t see how this would be aid at high-level adventurers still,” she said, turning the candy in her hand.
“Try it, you’re a mage, right?” Milo said.
A mont later, a guard rushed forward to stop her from eating the candy, but it was too late. She had already put it in her mouth.
“Princess, please. You cannot eat random food you’re given like that. What if it were poison?” The voice of Liam ca from under the helt.
“If they wanted dead, do you think they’d use poison?” She said with a laugh.
“Though I don’t see what’s so special about the candy? I an, it doesn’t taste bad, but it’s certainly not the best,” she said.
Milo chuckled. “Look at your stats.”
“Oh… OH!” she said, her eyes wide.
“How? Who?” she turned to .
“We have an outside supplier who won’t be nad, but we intend to sell it in the capital with limited supply. These are the weakest ones,” Milo explained.
As the words seed to sink in a mont later—
“Weakest? If you have stronger than this, then we’ll buy them all. This would be invaluable for the kingdom,” she said, looking at Milo.
“The supplier would prefer that these are distributed around and used actively by people, not stockpiled,” Milo said, looking back to the shop.
“Why?” she asked, before sothing seed to click. “Experience? Soone has a candy-making class that provides buffs?”
She turned her eyes back to , but I did my best not to make eye contact or seem suspicious. I’d never been called a candy maker before, so perhaps they won’t put it together.
Sighing internally, who was I kidding? Of course, they would. I would only have to hope they didn’t tell everyone.
“Well, enough standing outside. Let’s take a look inside. We can certainly facilitate allowing adventurers to co to the store here, since I have to imagine these wouldn’t be for the general population as a whole,” she said, approaching the front door.
“Correct. There will only be thirty to forty a month to start with, then we’ll see how it goes,” Milo said as they both walked into the store, followed closely by Micca before the rest of us made our way in.
Entering the ground floor of the store, I couldn’t help but admire the shelves and counters. They all appeared to be hand-carved, the sa as the door.
“That’s not many. Will there even be enough for adventurers?” She asked Milo as they entered.
Micca, clearly not happy with not being in the conversation, spoke up for the first ti. “That’s why it’s important that what supply we do have goes toward active adventurers. They don’t need to use it right away, of course, but there will be the expectation that it’s used.”
The conversation with the three of them went on as I began to look around the store. It must have been an old alchemist’s shop, because heading through the back door, I entered a nearly entirely stone room, with a large cauldron in the middle.
Wondering if there were any left-behind petals or leaves, I activated Arcane Foraging.
I was initially disappointed as I looked around; nothing at all glowed.
It was only out of the corner of my eye that I noticed an incredibly bright blue spot above . It was almost white, like it appeared to be in the roof, or the floor above?
The question though: how do I get there? I have not seen any stairs yet?
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