Chapter 36: Nobility

After those events, I began to truly settle into a new routine.

The Queen still didn't like me, but I made a continuous effort to present myself as a gentleman.

Walter actually helped me learn the basics.

Over time, I would even attend certain classes upon Isabella's request and learned things about leadership and politics.

Next, there was another glaring issue.

Part of the problem that the other nobles and even the Queen had with me didn't have anything to do with my family

I was a half-noble with no formal education, no titles, and no proper upbringing.

Even if the King was working on granting me a title, my childhood consisted of my father trying his best to raise and educate me himself.

But my father mainly taught me practical things. How to survive, how to work, and how to fight.

He always told me to remain as humble and uncorrupted by the high life as possible because one day I would be part of it.

The result was that I lacked a proper education that most nobles received normally while growing up. I was still smarter than the average commoner because of what my father taught me, but even so...

It should be noted that Isabella couldn't have cared less about such things. She was more than happy to marry me because she was simply in love with who I was. No strings attached. That was enough for me, but I wanted the insults, sneering, and harassment to stop. So I decided it would be best if I at least pretended to care.

It couldn't hurt to get smarter, though.

Next, I had the unfortunate problem of not having a title.

I was the heir to the Iratus family. And unfortunately, I had no titles to show for it due to being in Albatross and not Kalsa.

Although...legendary sword users were always given a title by default.

There was one known exception to this, however. Walter Orthright. He was Isabella's personal guard and retainer.

Most of the time, wielders were given the title of at least a Count.

Since I was marrying his daughter, the King granted me the title of Baron.

This was done to appease everyone shouting about my affiliation to the Iratus family. Including the Queen.

The official reason given to the public was because of my aid to the crown in investigating the Black Ooze and for saving Isabella's life.

He talked about granting me land, but I said it would be pointless.

If I was going to be a King, then technically, all of it would be mine. And since Albatross had no domains, such a thing was irrelevant anyway. Despite that, even without the title, my father had left me the Iratus Estate and leadership over the city of Noir. Since I had the documents to prove the transfer of ownership, that would satisfy most nobles.

Because in all honesty, that made me a Duke.

With that, I was set.

I was now Baron Mizik Iratus.

For now, at least. The title was temporary until the marriage was complete...then I would be a Prince.

Still, the thought of ruling a country made me very anxious.

And since Isabella could see this, she began tutoring me in private.

Over time, the harassment from the other nobles and governing officials began to die down.

As my etiquette improved, others began to recognize and respect me.

Hell, when I left the castle, a couple of guards would escort me to wherever I went. Sometimes, they accompanied me on Red River jobs.

It sort of felt...good!

I had come such a long way from being a homeless orphan!

Still, I didn't want to neglect my adventurer work. I achieved Gold Rank as well at the guild.

As soon as I did, several adventurer companies reached out and tried to recruit me.

But I was already taken.

The leader may have been unable to work,  but Red River was still very much in business.

I earned a lot of money from all the adventuring I was doing as well.

And while I was out, I always kept an eye on things to make sure that the Black Ooze wasn't around.

Strangely enough, no one had seen or heard anything about it for a while. The incident in the mines with Isabella was the last time anyone encountered it.

It worried me to think that the Ooze could be intelligent enough to lay low for a while, but I tried not to think about it.

The search for Arvild also continued.

As much as Queen Evryss wanted him to marry Isabella instead, she couldn't make that happen.

He wasn't around anymore, after all.

His reputation had been utterly demolished, his noble status revoked, and his family disowned him.

Even now, I heard that Lord Darius and his wife were already granting one of Arvild's many siblings ownership of his things.

Also, it turned out that Cassandra had no real information to give. She wanted to get out of her cell by making a deal with me. Later, she planned to help with the search, but...

Unfortunately for her, she failed miserably. Sir Gordon managed to interrogate her enough to learn all of these things.

I truly hoped she would die down there just as she had ended the lives of so many innocents...

Lastly, my level improved over time as I worked hard to get stronger.

It had been several months since I began working like this and my strength went up quite a bit. I was now at level 70.

I allocated my skill points over time and even trained up my newly advanced skills as well. My current abilities were quite grand compared to the version of myself a long time ago.

{Status}

{Name: Mizik Iratus}

{Class: Magic Knight}

{Level: 70}

{Hp: 2955(+800)}

{Mp: 3822(+800))}

{P.attack: 3124(+600)}

{M.attack: 4209(+650)}

{P.defense: 1934(+900)}

{M.defense: 2547(+1000)}

{Acc: 1990(+300)}

{Eva: 1782(+600)}

{Spd: 2006(+400)}

{Passive Abilities: Sword Proficiency LV.10

Shield Proficiency LV.10

Magic Proficiency LV.10

Ranged Weapon Proficiency LV.9

Light Armor Proficiency LV.6

Unknown Skill LV.????}

{Active Abilities: Full Moon Slash LV.10

Armor Destruction LV.5

Rage Of Iratus LV.7

Assassinate LV.10

Vanguard Strike LV.8

Rail Shot LV.6}

{Magic Abilities: Ember LV.10

Create Water: LV.10

Nightvision LV.10

Arcane Ballista LV.10

Grand Heal LV.5

Fireball LV.10

Chain Lightning LV.10

Enemy Detection LV.10

Sword Enchant LV.5

Grand Silence LV.10

Grand Dispel LV.10

Greater Haste LV.4}

{Current Equipment bonuses}

{Hp +800}

{Mp +800}

{P.attack +600}

{M.attack +650}

{P.defense +900}

{M.defense +1000}

{Acc +300}

{Eva +600}

{Spd +400}

{Class Bonuses:}

{Hp +900}

{Mp +1200}

{P.attack +1450}

{M.attack +2100}

{P.defense +950}

{M.defense +950}

{Acc +850}

{Eva +900}

{Spd +950}

{Skill Points: 0}

I was proud of myself for how far I'd come.

Soon, I felt that I would be ready to start searching for the Source of the Black Ooze.

I hoped as well that Albatross would do its best to gather allies in order to stop his advance.

While all of these things were going on, I continued sending letters to Lorelei.

From that I could tell, things were going well. They still missed Jax and wanted me to visit whenever possible, but I told them I would be around soon.

They were also delighted to learn about who Rose actually was. Especially Aria...

Although she was upset about her behavior around the Princess, she expressed that it was only a matter of time before Rose fell in love with me.

I couldn't help but feel that Aria may have had an inflated opinion of me. But despite that, I was excited to see her again.

After all, once I was Isabella's husband, how could they deny the next King entry into his own hometown? Especially when he had a house there?

I had spent a lot of time wondering about whether or not to even go to Kalsa as well.

My family in Lorelei had also been wondering about the plans to move in the future and I hadn't gotten around to deciding what I would do yet.

Truth be told, I didn't want to go to Kalsa at all.

As nice as it would be to claim ownership of the Estate my father left me, I felt like it would create more problems than solutions.

For all I knew, my family in Noir could be heavily corrupt. They could very well try to kill me on sight. I had Isabella to think about now.

I had no intention of chasing wealth and power if I already had it. It would be completely pointless...

For a while, I even thought about having everyone at the Sleeping Dragon Inn move up to Albatross. I sent them a letter suggesting it and they declined.

Apparently, the family was originally from Lorelei and lived in Albatross for a long time. Although they moved back because of the close proximity of the Darius family estate. Which was located near the northeastern edge of the city.

It was both saddening and hilarious.

Sad that they were all unwilling to move back to Albatross, but also hilarious that Arvild's entire family was just as rotten as he was.

But with all of that out of the way, I was now standing at just a few days until I would be fifteen years old.

And a week after that, Isabella and I would finally be joined in marriage.

Currently, I was being tutored by her on the history of Albatross.

Albatross City had a large Academy that most nobles would attend, but...

Isabella mentioned that I would likely be constantly harassed and bullied relentlessly. Potentially even to the point of being attacked or framed for things I didn't do.

Isabella and Cassandra once attended this Academy, but stopped due to both of them growing up.

They became targets for sexual harassment and the King worried someone would attempt to do them harm.

And thus, the two of them were privately tutored at the Castle.

But since Isabella was so protective of me, she decided to tutor me herself.

Because she was certainly qualified...

Isabella was a certified genius.

"Alright then, now I'll tell you about the war between Kalsa and Albatross," Isabella said.

"Yes, ma'am," I replied.

"I'm Isabella! Not 'ma'am'. I'm not an old lady!" She said.

I chuckled as she corrected me.

"Of course, Mrs. Iratus," I said playfully.

"Th-that's not for another week! I'll have none of that yet!" She said.

"Okay okay, Isabella."

"That's better! Now, the war was started when the former King of Albatross, King Victor Balthazar Albatross, decided to tamper with trade negotiations between Kalsa and other countries. The reason was to purposefully start a war and annex the entirety of Kalsa to create a global superpower," She said.

"Why did they do that?" I asked.

"Greed. Albatross is bigger than Kalsa and has a larger military force. Kalsa, while smaller, had more legendary sword holders within it's ranks. Albatross only had Bravery and Honor, while Kalsa had Justice, Compassion, and Intelligence," Isabella continued.

"They thought bigger numbers would be enough, then?"

"Yes. We vastly underestimated the Kalsan military and the strength of the Iratus clan. My grandfather was far too greedy for his own good. The war lasted for four years and ended when Walter Orthright fought Sir Ulysses Iratus to a standstill over three days in the battle of Sakai Bridge," she finished.

"So Walter really did fight my father in battle? Ulysses didn't have a magic sword, did he?" I asked.

"No. Sir Ulysses possessed a battle prowess and ferocity unheard of in common men, but it is unlikely that he ever came into contact with a sword willing to become his blade."

"That's amazing... Though I never would have guessed it, being raised by him in Lorelei."

"I'm sure he didn't want to talk about it. After all, he did kill lot of people in that war."

There was something else I had a question about as well.

"Isabella, I have a question about nobility," I asked.

"Go ahead," she said.

"My father listed his official title in the letter he wrote me in case he died. It said he was a Duke, but he also used the title of 'sir' in his name. Why is that?"

"Being a knight is an honorary title given to warriors of exceptional ability in service to the crown of any monarchy. Ulysses likely received this title on top of being the Duke of Noir. Additionally, from what I have gathered on the subject, he preferred the title of 'Sir' on the field of battle and 'Duke' while in Noir," Isabella said with a smile.

"Why did they send him to Lorelei if he was a Duke then?" I asked.

I knew that Isabella couldn't possibly have the answers I sought, but I wanted to hear her thoughts.

"Hmm...that's a difficult question to answer. It's also a particularly strange situation. I think most people would assume foul play. A Duke, even a knighted Duke, is not usually sent out for field missions. Either they wanted someone they could place a great amount of trust in to complete the mission, or they needed him out of the way. Sadly, corruption is just a part of life in higher society..." She said.

I wanted to ask about political corruption in Albatross, but Isabella might not actually know a lot about it. I decided to leave it there.

"Well, that should conclude today's lesson. I believe it's time for your daily training with the Grandmaster," Isabella said.

"I don't really want to go. I'm more happy spending time with you, Isabella," I said to her with a smile.

Isabella then hugged me.

"There will be plenty of time for that later, my love. It's important to prepare for the coming battles. We're counting on you to keep us safe, after all," she said adoringly.

"Alright then, I guess I should get going..." I said

* * *

After class, I headed to the training yard.

I spent a few hours training with the Grandmaster while I was there and even managed to come close to beating him.

He'd taught me so much about swordsmanship in the last few months, that I had even been able to spar with Walter a few times.

Walter told me at one point that I had the same ferocity and determination that my father did in battle.

All in all, things were going quite well. If everything kept up like this, I had a bright future ahead of me.