"Welcome, Viscount Shien!"
On this day, in the palace's audience chamber, a weighty voice rang out.
Shien raised his head at the sound of that voice.
At this moment, Shien was dressed in an expensive and beautiful court outfit. His sealed Holy Sword was hung on his waist. He looked like a magnificent nobleman from head to toe, and the presence he gave off was completely different from how he is normally.
Shien thus stepped into the audience chamber and walked forth toward the throne step by step.
On the left, the Royal Knights were orderly lined up.
On the right, various nobles watched.
Shien was the focus of everyone's gazes.
This scene was quite similar to that of his first audience.
Only, this time, Shien is no longer just newly famous adventurer, nor is he someone that others can freely glare at anymore. Instead, he is now a rising star whom all the nobles need to watch with complicated feelings.
Shien noticed it. Although there were plenty of people among those here who showed their unhappiness and dislike, their eyes did show more or less some hint of fear and respect.
Aldia was also standing at the front of the Royal Knights, but he wasn't looking completely past Shien like he did last time. Instead, he was staring intently at Shien without letting show just what he was thinking.
And naturally, Lucy was also there.
As Lucy watched Shien approach step by step, a soft expression unconsciously appeared on her face.
Beside her, Lia, who saw Lucy's change, was quite thoughtful.
During this recent bit of time, she had felt like Lucy's attitude toward Shien had changed a bit more. Thus, she was a bit more certain of a certain thought in her mind, and her own gaze toward Shien also now held a hint of judgment.
Shien walked into the audience chamber with unwavering eyes. Then, he reached before the throne while witnessed by everyone here.
"Your majesty."
Shien bowed before Ancil up on the throne.
The previous time, in this situation, Shien's bow was that of a knight's.
And this time, the bow that Shien undertook was an accurate noble's bow.
"Very good."
Looking at the youth who had countless eyes on him, Ancil felt both satisfied and somewhat resigned.
As the King, and as the head of the royal family, Ancil actually quite wanted to recruit Shien and have Shien use his talents and abilities for the sake of the Kingdom's advancement.
This person had the might that even his prided daughter recognized, so he was considered highly by the royal family from the start. Recently, he even revealed that he had a very high leveled [Taming] skill and the ability to even name the black dragon of Ataru. Add in the fact that he had the capabilities to annihilate the parts of the National Knight Order lead by the Garibaldi family, all those capabilities are things that the Kingdom are greedy for.
Ancil is the same. After learning of Shien's abilities, he had already started planning on trying to convince Shien to become a noble, join the Kingdom, and work for the Kingdom no matter the cost this time.
Who would have though that while Ancil was planning such things, his most prided daughter had already helped him complete that goal.
But what makes his head hurt is that the fact that his daughter just had to promise Shien an extreme amount of freedom, making it so that Shien didn't need to put much work in for the Kingdom at all.
If anyone else had done something so unprofitable, then Ancil would have likely blown up at them.
For a talent like that to be allowed so much freedom, isn't that just wasteful of a treasure?
Yet one who did that is this most prided, most beloved, and most capable daughter. Just what could Ancil do then?
Not only could Ancil do anything about that, none of the objecting nobles could do anything either.
"If you have any objections, then you can take it up with me as much as you like."
Lucy made a forceful statement that she never had before, making everyone utterly dumbfounded. None of them knew what to do in response.
In the end, everyone, with Ancil at the head, could only balance up the pros and cons, and in the end, they decided that it's not worth it to anger Lucy over the matter with Shien. Thus, they could only resignedly accept this reality.
"At least this talent is already our Kingdom's noble now."
"It's no longer nearly so easy for other countries to tried to lure him away."
"Besides, he's still a noble of our Kingdom in the end. When the Kingdom is faced with hardship, it's not like he'll just sit around and watch, right?"
"Beside, if the time comes that we really need it, we can pay the necessary costs to ask the people who have good relations with him to ask him to act. That's also a possible method, no?"
"Then let's settle it this way then."
The royal family and the nobility finally made such a decision.
Thus, that's why the nobles looked at Shien so differently here.
It wasn't just simply because Shien was no longer an adventurer from the boonies. It's more because he now has completely different powers behind him backing him up.
The people on his side wasn't just the many nobles under the leadership of the Latrard family. There was even a nearly invincible king of demonic beasts. Even Lucy had clearly shown that she's obviously standing on Shien's side.
The powers behind Shien is no longer something that anyone can overlook.
This is what an enormous rising star looked like. No one dared to look at him with the same gazes as before, or even show any hint of obvious rudeness to him.
"That child Lucy. She even gave away our ancestor's side residence."
Ancil felt rather helpless yet angry at this fact.
The helpless part is because Lucy's attitude toward Shein is obviously unusual, so it's not something that he, as a father, really liked.
The angry part is even more simple. Lucy has never been so close or friendly to even him, yet how did this brat do it?
Of course, Ancil had also more or less noticed some things. He knew that his daughter may have certain thoughts toward this previously unknown man.
This much was make Ancil quite surprised.
Just how many outstanding young men have appeared before Lucy, only for Lucy to not so much as give them a glance?
Among them were quite a number of capable men who had chased after Lucy tirelessly with all their efforts for years now. Yet Lucy just wasn't interested in any of them.
Now, an adventurer who hasn't even been in the Capital for a month yet managed to make his daughter with her high standards took at him appraisingly?
Not even those who gained the blessing of the goddess of love, and thus had divinely blessed luck in love could do this, right?
This just proved how special and amazing Shien was.
However…
"You think you can steal away our Kingdom's treasure without working for the sake of our Kingdom? Like something so cheap can be allowed?"
Ancil had decided. If that guy really did end up having anything with his daughter Lucy, who is the Treasure of the Kingdom, then unless he completely belongs to the Kingdom, there's no way that will be allowed.
Although it's true that, given Lucy's influence in the Kingdom, not even the royal family could decide her marriage, making it impossible to force her with anyone, the opposite is also true.
If Lucy really did want to get together with anyone, then it's similarly no easy matter without the agreement of the royal family and the Kingdom.
While Ancil was thinking such things, he had no idea that this daughter of his had already gotten stamped by the person in question.
Ancil simply made his announcement with a gratified smile.
"From this day onward, you will be a noble of our Mitra Kingdom."
"I, Ancilfrig Mitra, in the name of the 13th king of the Mitra Kingdom, grant you the title of viscount."
"I grant you the name of Bayztrot."
The moment Ancil finished his speech, an administrative noble immediately came from the side with a plate and came before Shien.
On that plate is a pendant with a coat of arms.
It's the proof of a noble's status.
Every single noble has their own personal coat of arms. Much like the token that Lucy gave Shien, it's a proof of identity that shows one's status.
The coat of arms for a noble is personally designed by the Kingdom itself. It has divine steel mixed into the construction, so it's extremely hard to damage. The designs of the coat of arms is also based upon the thing that best represents their bearers.
Take the royal family. As they are the descendants of the Hero, the design of their coat of arms is a picture of the Holy Sword.
The Arbin family's is a shield, representing their will to protect.
The Latrard family's is that of a sword and magic, the symbol of the adventurer's guild.
As for Shien, his is a dragon.
As an adventurer who tamed a dragon, this is unquestionably the thing that best represents him.
"That little brat Airi would probably be very satisfied at this design, huh?"
Shien was thinking such things as he accepted the coat of arms and hung it on his neck.
From this day onward, he will be a real noble.
"Shien Bayztrot… Is it?"
Shien mulled it over before smiling.
"Not bad."
Shien's ennobling ceremony thus ended.
Afterwards, the Bayztrot house's banquet will then begin.
…
The noble district. The center residence.
From this day onward, this will now be known as the Bayztrot home.
When night came, countless carriages headed on over from everywhere in the noble district before stopping at the gates and letting out one noble after another.
Since it's very attention grabbing in various meanings, this banquet had also naturally attracted the gazes of practically everyone in the whole Capital.
Even those nobles who didn't want to come to the banquet had kept a quiet eye on the situation here. They hoped to use this banquet to get an idea of Shien's personal connections and the forces backing the Bayztrot house.
Thanks to that, many people were shocked.
It's because none of the nobles who came to join the banquet were minor characters.
"That's someone from the Valliere Count's family!"
"The head of the Elizabeth counts family had also come?"
"Oh gods. Another two counts families had arrived."
"He's just a mere viscount, yet so many counts families have come. How is this possible?"
The nobles who were planning on laughing at the Bayztrot house were all utterly stupefied.
They had thought that, given Shien's actions in the Capital, that he should have a lot of enemies hidden all around, so there shouldn't be many nobles who would be willing to show him face and come participate in his banquet.
Who could have known that the reality would end up harshly slapping them in the face, showing them an unthinkable scene.
There were not only quite a number of nobles who came to the Bayztrot house's banquet, every single one of them were of high status as well.
Barons weren't even given invitations. All of them merely arrived as part of then entourages of families that they were vassals to.
Is was the same for viscounts as well. Even though they're supposedly equal in noble rank to the Bayztrot house, each and every one of them however could only follow by their respective count family's side as they were all respectfully welcomed in by those beautiful maids.
In the end, even the Latrard family had shown up.
"I'm not late, am I?"
Megis got off his carriage at the front gate, and Vivian immediately came forward to receive him.
"Of course you're not late. Please let me show you in."
Vivian had a gentle and beautiful smile on her face as she welcomed Megis, who looked at her with fatherly affection, in.
"To think that even the lord of the Latrard family has personally come…"
Everyone was dumbfounded.
But what would truly shock everyone is still to come.
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