BXBX NOVEL Chapter 101 - 100 Noble Title
As both Aria and Marcus looked at each other, Marcus was about to open his mouth and say what he wanted when Aria beat him to the punch and said, "I know that you have turned down offers from Wade and Erastalven, but how about one from me. Would you like to come back with me to the Guldur Spire and learn the true art of magic? From what I saw from your fight you are adept at lightning, iron, and darkness magic. If you come back with me, I can promise that your magical skills will skyrocket."
Aria looked at Marcus awaiting his answer but unlike the other offers he had received he actually gave this one a bit of thought.
However, after pondering the option for a couple minutes Marcus shook his head and said, "Thanks for the offer but I plan on focusing on forging weapons next. Maybe at a later time I will delve deeper into the realm of magic."
Aria looked at Marcus figuring that he was not going to accept her offer but Diana and Jared looked at Marcus like he was crazy.
In fact, Jared stood up and angrily said, "The disrespect, you stupid commoner, do you know how many…
However, Jared\'s outburst was quickly silenced by Aria who had created a zone of silence around his mouth.
Jared immediately realized what happened and sat back down and hung his head in shame.
Aria looked towards Marcus apologetically before saying, "Sorry about that, sometimes he has a hard time knowing when to control himself."
She then turned towards Jared her normal happy grandma demeanor disappearing and said, "Jared leave and think about your actions, I only took you in as a student as a favor for your grandfather and if you cannot realize your mistakes by the time we leave, you will no longer be one of my students."
Jared\'s face distorted into one of terror when he heard Aria\'s chilling words and he quickly left the room thinking with all his might how to resolve the situation.
As Jared left the room Diana let off a quite snicker obviously pleased that Jared had gotten in trouble when she realized where she was and quickly got her emotions in check not wanting to anger here master as well.
Aria then turned back towards Marcus her loving grandmother façade back in place and she said, "I understand you have your own goals to pursue but know that you are welcome to join the Guldur Spire whenever you want. I would much prefer to have a talented student like you than that buffoon that just left. He thinks too highly of status when he should focus more on his magic. But enough about that, since you do not want to study under me, I have prepared some suitable rewards. First you will be rewarded with three hundred gold, second since you said, you want to learn how to forge weapons I will write you a personal introduction to the best in the royal capital, but it will be up to you whether that old codger accepts you. And for final and biggest reward, I will award you the title of baronetess as well as an estate within the kingdom\'s capital."
The first two rewards while they piqued Marcus\' interest especially the letter to the best forgemaster in the kingdom but when he heard the last reward his calm demander went away.
However, he was not the only one since Diana also stared utterly astonished since her own father was only a baronet and here this random girl was getting the same title.
Of course, this would be unusual even for someone accomplishing such a heroic dead, but Marcus\' fame was spreading like wildfire from guards and soldiers to commoners and nobles. With such growing fame the kingdom could lose face if they did not offer a substantial reward.
Also, Aria had discussed it with Wade and Erastalven and decided that they needed to pull Marcus into the kingdom somehow, and offering a noble title was a good start.
It took Marcus a good minute to collect his thoughts before he said, "I really do not want any responsibilities that come with a title nor do I have any experience with governing or anything like that"
Having possibly expected such a response Aria said, "No need to worry about that, this title does not come with any authority over land or agencies, unless of coure you want some. It will, however, give you plenty of benefits such as the ability to purchase goods and use facilities not normally available to the public as well as lower taxes on any business ventures you might have in the future. There are of course plenty of other benefits, but I could spend the better part of the day listing them"
Aria looked at Marcus triumphantly seeing that he was struggling to come up with a good reason to deny the title.
Sighing Marcus gave in and said, "I will humbly accept."
"Very good, then we will need to get things ready, in three days the viceroy of River Landing will be awarding titles to a batch of new knights and young nobles inheriting their family titles. At that time, I will also have the viceroy confer the title of baronetess to you. Ah, you should also think of the family name you want."
Hearing this Marcus immediately thought to use his own family name when he remembered that he was wanted as Marcus and they knew his last name so that would certainly be a bad idea.
While he quickly thought about last names to choose Marcus realized something odd.
\'How do they change people\'s names, as far as I can tell people could call themselves whatever they want but the system has a record of your actual name. With the proper appraisal you can find out someone\'s name so how would they give me a last name. The only thing I can think of is that they have a way to access the system and modify the information on it. But how do they do it.\'
Marcus looked at Aria inquisitively and said, "How do you add a last name to people, as far as I know I have the one name and even if I call myself something different my status will still show only Irene."
A surprised face appeared on Aria as she had not expected such an astute question since the answer to it was actually one of the kingdoms secrets.
Aria seriously thought about it before saying, "Most people do not ask that question, so you have surprised me a bit. I normally would not tell you, but you are likely to find out anyway during the ceremony. There is actually an artifact that allows one to change the names of people and bestow noble titles to them. The kingdom has a number of these artifacts that it has distributed to the viceroys of major cities and towns. Any kingdom that wishes to function would need at least one of these artifacts otherwise they would have no way to maintain the nobility."
Marcus sat there astounded by the information he had just heard since this was the first time he heard of an item being able to interact and change information used by the system governing this world.
\'I see so whoever controls these artifacts can control the kingdom, but there must be some other rules to them otherwise everyone just give themselves the title of king. The more I learn the more questions I have, though if I did not originally come from Earth, I would not find any of this strange.\'
With her business concluded Aria was about to get up and leave when Marcus remembered something else important and said, "Wait there is one last thing I was hoping to get."
Aria turned around a bit disappointed in Marcus since she had already offered quite sizeable rewards and asking for anything else would be too greedy.
"Yes, what is it, but you know the rewards that have already been agreed upon are quite favorable and asking for too much can get you in trouble."
"It is nothing much, I have a little sister and I was hoping that I would be able to enroll her in a school if possible."
Hearing this Aria\'s face immediately softened, and she said, "Yes there are a number of schools in the kingdom especially the royal capital. As a noble so long as you can pay the tuition and your sister can pass the entrance exam there should be no problem. I will have someone make a list of schools for you to choose from and you can decide with your sister which one to send her to. Ah, and you should know that once your title has been bestowed your family name will automatically be given to any immediate family members as well"
Nodding his head in understanding and with the meeting discussing Marcus\' rewards now over, Aria took he leave along with Diana leaving Marcus to think about what he is going to do next.