Shades of the New World

Chapter 217: Nobility

'Though, they don't really look like the hate Bella that much... What's the deal with that?' Evin thought excitedly, his mind imagining whatever tragedy that had occurred between the sisters.

He searched for scars and traces of injury on the two sisters' bodies, but obviously, it was a fruitless task. After all, in a World filled with healers, it wasn't hard for the people of nobility to hire someone to fix a beaten-up daughter.

With the Serpent next to the town, Evin wouldn't find it implausible if there were a number of talented World of Life mages inside Smallwall town. Now that he thought about it, probably the Earl himself also knew of the Serpent's existence. After all, since the Earl was in charge of letting new mages take on the Oaths and also receive descriptions of spells from everyone, he shouldn't be completely ignorant of matters relating to mages.

'Speaking of the Earl, as always, he acts like nothing ever happened' Evin thought, as he glanced at the man talking about a monocle that he received from Duchess Klavd.

'Perhaps it's his method of coping? Like how some people would run their mouths endlessly to forget the pain? But he doesn't even look like he's sad like that' Evin thought a bit and sighed softly.

'It isn't my place to care...' he sighed again and felt a bit depressed.

'Ugh, I'm such a terrible person Bella beat the shit out of her sisters and I'm just sitting here reveling in the aftermath...'

'Though how did she even manage to do that with the Oath inside her body?' Evin wondered.

'Unless of course, the sisters had gotten physical with her at some point. Maybe they were shoving Bella around, before the little mage snapped and fought back' Evin thought of an explanation. How the sisters thought that was a good idea, and why they even dared to do such things after witnessing what Bella was capable of, Evin didn't know. 

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But as he thought further, he was leaning towards the idea that whatever happened was good for the sisters. Sure, the two were probably deeply traumatized, but Arelyn was working on overcoming it and in over-all, the girls seemed to be becoming better human beings. 

Punishment usually did a better job than empty rewards... though, one had to not over use it. That's just abuse at that point. 

'As for her trauma, she would probably get over it at some point in her life' Evin mused inconsiderately.

As for Bella, well, time would tell what would happen to the young girl... though Evin was pretty sure the girl was intoxicated by her powers. At any rate, Evin was sure as hell not going to meddle himself in this family's affairs.

'Now that I think about it, the Earl seemed to have ended up in the worst possible situation, huh?' 

Evin noticed that none of the girls seemed to be acting nicely towards their father. Bella looked like she lost all hope in him, while Olevyn and Arelyn looked at him like they were looking at a traitor of some sorts.

"Now that I think about it, have you ever considered becoming a noble?" the Earl asked suddenly, catching Evin's attention.

While before, the man talked about seemingly unimportant topics like how the food is and what kind of horses Marquesses preferred, and what kind Barons preferred. All things that Evin could reply with a nod or an 'uh-huh'. But now, it was a topic that Evin was slightly interested in.

"A noble? Not really. Though I don't really know what they do specifically, so I can't be sure if I want to become one or not," Evin answered. He knew that he could buy, or earn the title of a baron if he wanted to and tried to rise in ranks inside the kingdom, but aside from that, he didn't know much.

"Oh, if you become one, I'm sure you'll become a Viscount or an Earl in no time. After all, money is the easiest and fastest methods of rising through the ranks," Velpin laughed.

"Could you elaborate a bit?" Evin asked.

Velpin waved off the maids in the room, leaving only the mages and the people of nobility, with the head butler staying as well.

"As you can probably guess, nobles rise in ranks through contribution to the country. But one should know that nobles are widely divided into two categories. Nobles focusing on military strength and nobles focusing on economy. After all, not everyone is talented at both," Velpin explained and Evin simply nodded along.

"But obviously, it doesn't mean that a noble can just single-mindedly focus on one thing. Even if you're a war hero of some sorts, you still have to make sure that the territory you were assigned to is functioning properly, with its citizens properly paying their taxes and living comfortably. And conversely, even if one is a noble who focuses on economy, it doesn't mean that they could neglect the safety of their domains. Like me, who hired a group of mages to protect the area."

'I'm pretty sure they're here to just protect you since I've seen none of these mages in the town, but okay,' Evin retorted in his head.

"At any rate, nobles like me mainly receive benefits for my contributions by properly developing my economy and paying the kingdom money, while others might focus on training soldiers and mages to send them to the war with the South. Obviously, the mages and soldiers who go to the war receive some sort of compensation as well." Velpin finally got to the main point.

"So, does that mean that I can just stay as a Baron and if I steadily send money to the kingdom I'll receive benefits?" Evin asked.

Being a baron meant owning a piece of land, one which usually produced one thing or another. So, if Evin said that his land produced money, he could just keep exchanging them for these benefits, whatever they were. 

"Exactly, but of course, it's not that simple as you're making it out to be," Velpin smiled slightly.

"Could you tell me what these benefits are?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. Most of them are rights to purchase materials in bulk: lodestones and the various forms of sorbothium mostly. But you should know that the rarity of the materials you can get becomes better as your noble rank increases. For example, after you become a Viscount, you get access to the various materials that cater to specific Worlds, like Hermium of the World of Space and Ventium of the World of Storms."

'Right to purchase? Does that mean I won't be able to buy any Nyxium and the like from that factory in the North if I don't have Northern clearance?'

"But I'm still able to simply purchase those materials if I wish to, right?" Evin asked.

"Yes, definitely. But you should know that purchasing from the countries will be substantially cheaper and easier. And moreover, after you become an Earl like myself or maybe even a Duke, you can receive materials that aren't easily found in the market like World Shards or even World Cores if you pay the proper price," Velpin said, before throwing more bait: "Obviously, aside from those there are many more materials that you can get. One more thing that you might be interested in is the right to impart magical knowledge upon others."