Chapter 53 Questions

The baron didn't know how to respond, he had never heard of such a name. Although the baron wasn't the smartest merchant, he did, however, have a good network. He knew almost every worker in the mansion by name. If they worked for him in the mines, it meant something else, but personal attendants never went unnoticed.

"Hmm, I don't think there is a single maid called Lammy, I'll have to ask the head maid, perhaps they're someone new. Though I would be surprised if she didn't inform me beforehand."

Out of nowhere, Liam interrupted the lord's recollection.

"My lord, may I ask them instead, there's no need for you to waste your time with something so meaningless."

"It's not meaningless, Lucas had contact with someone named Lammy, and I never even knew she existed. Look at this letter, it asks Lammy to move to the city to help him out. The thing is that she would be about two weeks absent if she went to the nearest city with a carriage, so it would be obvious the moment she left. She must have a very low position, comparable to the slaves, or I would've known her. Considering Lucas it could've been one of the chefs or something, no that wouldn't make any sense, they are loyal to me."

The baron went on and on about who this mysterious person might be, but only a single member present knew everything. Liam never really liked his nickname but was glad that it remained between the soldiers. Now that all of those soldiers died a gruesome death, the identity of Lammy will never be found. To use it like this actually impressed Liam quite a lot.

'He needs me to go to the city? If I did it now it would be a little too obvious who it is. Perhaps I can make it happen with an investigation.'

"I'll ask all the staff in the mansion so-"

"Don't bother, you've clearly shown that you wouldn't mind covering things up for him, I'll ask the staff myself."

Rudely cut off, the baron emphasized his displeasure with Liam's latest performance. It would seem that for the time being he wouldn't be allowed to do a whole lot. He needed to redeem himself if he wanted the position of power he previously held.

Robert had been studying while all the other things went down. It took some time for him to process what happened on his first journey. The fact that the only reason he grew to be so powerful was purely due to Lucas weighed on him. His suffering brought benefits to Robert, he felt guilty.

'I am a noble, a person that has inherited privileges. Our rank shows us that we are superior to other people, but am I better than low rankers? Lucas was the lowest of the low, an orphan adopted by the church of Nature. A religion that isn't welcome in the Holy Kingdom. He was at the bottom, yet he is better than me in a lot of different aspects.

He was better in combat training, he has a strong mental fortitude. He's smart without any kind of teaching. He trained every single day he stayed here, while all I did was play around. He has a rarer core than mine. He was able to kill a demonic bear, something that is feared under Rank 1, while I had trouble dealing with some measly spiders. I was better in arrays purely because he didn't have those lessons, if he had them, he would probably beat me once more.

What makes me a noble and what makes him a commoner?'

Robert was having a small identity crisis, he was trying to figure out why there was such a big gap in ranks and why you needed to look down on lower ranks. This standard and custom that has existed since time immemorial, why was it the way it was?

Lucas was an obvious example, 'He deserves to be a noble, but why? Because he is powerful? So the powerful rule and look down on the weak?'

Robert used to look down on the people because he thought that they simply didn't want to work or only steal and leach from the rich, but what he heard from Liam changed his perspective. The poor had to work every day to earn a slice of bread. Their work wasn't more or less meaningful than his own. His lifestyle was completely different from the average worker's, but he was cut off from them, never knowing the struggles they had.

'They farmed and made food just so we could eat it and leave the scraps for them. How is that even fair? Because they don't work? Ridiculous! Because they are simply a lower rank and don't deserve it? That's just protecting your own rank without looking at the full picture!'

Robert was imagining a world where ranks didn't matter anymore, but the work you performed did. 'That's a fair world, right?', he wasn't completely sure, but the future would spell it out for him.

'For now, I should look into the rank system and see why ranks were even created in the first place. Just because a single family with a lot of money and power decided it to be like so doesn't mean that it's good. Why hasn't the royal family looked into this? Are they living with the same mindset I had before? Is the entire noble world filled with hypocrites looking down on other hypocrites that look down on the poor and weak?'

Left with tons of questions, Robert grabbed another book and started to research further.

Time passed, and more than a week had passed. The weather looked dreary, nothing but dark clouds and thunder that seemed to come closer and closer. A downpour of water rained from the heavens as if the gods were balling their eyes out at the mistakes their children made.

The mansion was still the same, just with a cover of water its appearance still looked majestic. What was a lot less nice were the guards at the gate that didn't have any kind of protection from the rain, enduring it for as long as it went on. In the bigger cities, the guards had shields they could use to block the downfall a bit and in the capital, they had little rooms where they could stand to hide from the rain.

Yet at this baron's mansion, they didn't have enough funds to pay for such a thing. Next to that, they were also simple soldiers, which was a single rank above commoner. Baron's didn't have to give them any kind of privilege.

The rain obscured a lot of things, but their vision wasn't massively impared. The guards heard someone running towards them. The sound was so distinct that they couldn't help but wonder who would visit them in this mess. Surprisingly the young master of the mansion was there to visit the lowly and weak. He had an umbrella covering his face, but purely by the clothes did the men recognize their lord's son.

"Here, have one of these, it won't be easy, but they'll keep you dry.", Robert held out his hand. He had brought two extra umbrellas with him. The soldiers' eyes were wide open, in a state of shock.

The soldiers didn't know what to say, all they knew the snotty young master from rumors, but never in their life did they think that he would help them. The fact that he even looked at them was an event that would be shot down in an instant. "Th-Thank you, young master!"

The guards quickly snapped out of their state and retook their previous demeanor as serious guards that protected. Robert didn't mind their reactions, he had been quite the bratty noble, but he decided that it was time to change.

"No problem, you also have to work hard after all. Can you do me a favor and tell me your names?", the soldiers were even more confused, why would their arrogant master become so different in the span of a few months? Faced with such a strange request, they answered swiftly.

"Euhm ok, I'm Terril and he's Orther."

"Wow, you have some special names! They remind me of the east.", Robert was making progress in the socializing department, but he was still a ways off from being a diplomat.

"Well, we are from there, after being kicked out from a lot of places, we finally found this mansion that was looking after guards. The pay is good enough and we don't have to risk our life anymore. We are thankful to you and your father." the man named Orther said. He seemed quite intelligent and just the way he explained a complex situation in a few sentences showed Robert that everyone could have a hidden potential waiting to be discovered.

"You'll always be welcome here, don't you worry about that anymore.", the soldiers almost wanted to smile, but they were still a bit uneasy. They were still talking to someone way above their position, any mishap could result in their execution. Seeing that the conversation started to halt a bit, Robert decided to leave, waving goodbye at the soldiers.

'They were kicked out of a bunch of places and had to risk their lives, all that just so that they can guard a gate for months. How pathetic and sad, all that work for a boring and lowly job. No! I shouldn't say pathetic, it's just sad....perhaps even that might be a bit too much.'

These days Robert was going around making conversation with every servant of the mansion, the cooks, the guards, the maids, everyone. He wanted to learn how they lived, he wanted to be capable of understanding the ranking system.

'If a child of a Marquis inherits their title, but they don't work a single day and are an annoyance the entire day, do they deserve that Rank? If a commoner was taken in as a maid that now works every day to clean everything and make everyone happy, do they deserve the commoner Rank? Do they deserve a noble rank? No, I don't think so, nobles should be something else.'