Yugioh Card Summoner

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.

“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?”

“That might be the reason.” Laura admitted.

“Well, as long as you can get the sword made. Please apologize to my monsters. I really don’t want to put any more rush orders on them.”

“I’m sure they will be happy. They don’t have any orders from you in the first place, so one rush order should be simple enough.” Laura said.

“... if you say so. I’ll apologize to them myself once I have a bit more time. Can I really leave things here up to you?”

“Go. You have things to do.” Laura said, instead of directly answering my question.

---

“So, will it work out?” Lua asked when I returned.

“I hope so. Laura said she will take care of it.”

“If she said that, I’m sure it will be fine.” Lua said. “Do you need me to do anything?”

“Well, the two of us do have things to do, but breakfast comes first, right? Ria didn’t return yet, did she?”

“Not yet. And no maids visited while you were in the factory.”

“Alright. I guess a bit of time for ourselves.” I said.

I don’t know what everything the day will bring, but I feel like it will be a lot. Especially with a literal prince here. I heard from Thomas that he would have done an informal ceremony to grant me my peerage, but with the prince present, he can be a representative of the King and do it instead. I did get a warning from the maids, but that is all I really know.

Yeah. I’m not nervous at all or anything. I just got to not start a war or something. Don’t insult the prince. Don’t be a jerk, even if he isn’t a perfect human. You aren’t perfect either. Just keep calm and do as he says and this will go over fine. I hope.

---

For breakfast, Lua and I joined the Watchman family. I actually didn’t know that, but I’m fine with it. We know most of them, so the only new face was Daniel.

Daniel was a boy … yeah, really? Did you just assume his gender? Yes, I did. Anyway, he is about 15 years old. Like the rest of his family, Daniel had blue eyes, but unlike the others, his hair was a brown color, instead of the blond the others had.

I was introduced to him as a dungeon founder in the area which he would eventually be ruling. As well as the person who saved his father from a sprite attack, and the person who protected his to-be town from wyverns. All of that seemed to make a good impression on him and we quickly got along quite well. I think we might get along better than I do with his father. … okay, the two of us have gotten better after the entire sprite incident, but I still don’t think we are perfect.

---

After breakfast, I did a quick clothes swap and dressed up in my noble attire for the first time.

Mine had a white silk shirt, a dark brown tailcoat and light brown pants. I also had some black leather shoes. I’m actually glad I got shoes with the suit, as I think I’d look funny all dressed up like this, but wearing some sneakers. I need to get myself some other shoes. 

By the way, the brown color was one of the safest choices for low ranking nobles. That is why I went with it. Technically, your clothes may be of any color. There is no ‘X color is only for royalty’ ban or anything. But brown is one of the most common, especially with lower ranking nobles. Because it is usually the cheapest.

Of course the ‘special’ part of my suit, compared to the usual ones, was that mine lacked the left sleeve, leaving my forearm and my terminal visible for all to see. And because my suit was plain as anything, the terminal would quickly draw attention to itself, making up for the fact that my outfit is so plain. Maybe I’ll have my monsters make me a better, more decorated one later.

Anyway, back to the present. I was in a carriage with Thomas. In the other carriage, just behind this one, was the prince. We were heading towards the church in the city, as it was the place where peerage granting should be done, if it is done outside of the Castle. Something about the Goddess watching over the ceremony. I’m not really sure, as I’m not that religious and I really don’t understand the religion of this world.

As we arrived, I took a good look at the church. I’d seen it before, but I never stopped to really take a look. It was quite similar to the old churches you might see around Europe, except that there were no crosses anywhere.

But pictures, statues or other similar idols were around the building and on its walls. They all depicted the picture of a similar looking female figure. She was the Goddess. In all of the visualizations of her, the Goddess was an extremely beautiful tall lady, with a perfectly proportioned body and golden eyes. But there were differences between them as well. 

The main one was her hair. It was almost always different, in either color or length. Sometimes it was depicted as being perfectly white and reaching all the way down to her ankles. Others, it was red and short. Or green and long. Or blue. Yeah, you get it. It is all over the place. I somewhat knew why, and the reason was simple. The people who saw the Goddess all described her differently when it came to her hair. They could never agree what color or length her hair was, so statues and paintings of every color and style exist. If you had yourself seen the Goddess, you wouldn’t want to look at a painting with the wrong hair color, now would you? Because of that, no color was ever agreed upon. 

The ‘official’ one is the long white hair reaching her ankles, as that is the way the hero saw her, but even the sage and the saint saw her differently from the hero, so even that couldn’t take a perfect hold.

There were also some depictions of the hero and his party. They were generally depicted as these small people at the feet of the Goddess. If that depiction is true to size, the Goddess must be at least Exodia size, if not larger. I would say impossible, but Exodia is a thing, and the Goddess is a literal God, so I’m not going to question it.

As we walked inside, more pictures of the hero’s party, some of them quite detailed. The hero, as depicted, was a lean male, probably 170 cm tall. He had black hair, and eyes. Honestly, if this was an anime, I’d guess he was a Japanese reincarnator or summoned hero, but what do I know? His battle gear was a full suit of armor, made from a golden metal, possibly orichalcum. In the pictures I could see of his weapons, he wielded a sword. The sword's core was made from some sort of rainbow colored metal, but its edge looked like normal-ish steel. [A multibar sword with different metals as the core and edge] He also had a shield, made from a dark green metal, with a golden edge. Well again, it probably isn’t gold, but instead orichalcum.

The great sage was depicted as a tall lady, easily taller than the hero. She had silvery white hair, and she was dressed in a red and black cloak. She also held a wooden staff with six differently colored large magic stones embedded into the staff. I wonder if she really could use all six attributes, or if those stones are just for show? They could also just be a part of her depiction, instead of being a part of her actual magic staff.

The saint was the shortest of the three, depicted as just a bit shorter than the hero. She had sky-blue hair, and she was dressed in white robes. She also had a long staff, made from the same golden metal as the hero’s armor. She was by far the one I could tell the least about, as she just looked like a generic female church member. Well, her sky-blue hair does show off a little and the staff is eye catching, but other than that, there is very little.

---

“... and that is all. Do you have any questions?” Thomas asked me. This was the third time he had told me how the peerage granting would go.

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.

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.

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.