Senior Captain Tyus came to see the next morning. I congratulated him on his promotion. He wanted to check to see when he could bring his Guards by for healing. Today was my day off, but I told him to bring them by after lunch. I wanted to repair my relationship with the Guard as much as possible.

  My first order of business for the day was to go and see my trading partner, Mr. Morisa.

  “Twice in two days. It must be something important.” He said to me when we got to his office.

  “It is and it isn’t. I am wondering about land ownership. How does it work in Decharte?”

  “For such a simple question, the answer is extremely complicated. In the Kingdom, the King owns all unclaimed land, but the local lord has rights to the resources on it. So, if there is a mine, the local lord (usually a Duke or Earl) owns the mine, but not the surrounding land. Now, Dukes and Earls own vast tracts of land in their domain. Outside of the cities and towns, Earl Donnert owns more than half of Renovolt county. He leases out his land, but rarely sells it. The farmers don’t actually own the farms, but have a lifetime lease, which in turn, they can pass down to their son or daughter. The mining company doesn’t own the mine, but leases it for 10 years at a time. Other nobles own most of the remaining usable land. A few very wealthy merchant houses own some orchards, and such.

  “Now, in the cities, you can buy buildings, but most of these have the same 100-year lease. Covern House was given to you, but most likely is leased to you for 100 years. Whereas, I own my house and can leave to my son. Our business owns the warehouses we operate out of. Taxes are higher for us because we own the property.

  “To actually purchase property outside the city, you need to get the owner to agree and the local lord’s approval. If it is undeveloped, then you may need to get the king’s approval also. Everyone will want to know why, and want a ‘token’ of appreciation for their agreement. As you can imagine, this can be very expensive,” Morisa paused here.

  “Thanks. The land I am interested is about 2 – 3 hours north of the city. It is undeveloped and not near any farms. What are my chances to get the ownership?” I asked.

  “Truthfully, not good. It is probably owned by the King, rather than the Earl. To even start the process, you will need to go through the Earl, which means going to Ruberm. Ruberm is a good man, but his loyalty lays with the Earl. Everything else, and I do mean everything else, is secondary. If it is not in the Earl’s best interest, then it will never get past Ruberm. You’d have better luck going to the King himself, but that will still take years to get on his schedule. The nobility does a great job managing the country, but it’s probably because they own most of it.

  “Now, I hear in the Alliance of Free States, you can buy land, not lease. Many merchants have bought land there. The main issue though, is that there are skirmishes between the Free States all the time. Most of the governments are unstable, with lots of changeover. A lot of land is useless because of the fighting. If you want land there, I can introduce you to the right person.

  “The Empire is a nonstarter. To own land, you must have served in the Legion for at least 10 years. If you serve 20, then the Legion provides you with a nice bit of farming land. Of course, most retired legionaries rent out the land and live in small towns. Even then, there are restrictions on who can lease the land. There is a lot of infighting between the generals, which can sometime cause problems with the general population.

  “Stugertia is an excellent choice, outside of the Kingdom. An ordinary citizen can own land. In fact, if you own enough land, you become a noble. The title is dependent on how much land you own and how many people you employ. The government is stable, unless there is an election for Duke. Then, it’s a lot of internal fighting, both literal and figuratively. But once the duke is elected, everything calms down again. Elections last no longer than 30 days, so it’s a temporary blip, but a very chaotic blip.

  “Truly, if you can get land in the Kingdom, it is the best place, because it has the most stable government. It is also the hardest to buy land.”

  “That is a lot to digest. Thank you for the information. I thought it would be a lot easier to get a small tract of land that no one wanted, but it seems that is not so.” I said as I stood up, getting ready to leave. “I know you have work to do, so I will leave you to it. Thanks again for the information.”

  I left Mr. Morisa and went back to Covern House. I was very disappointed. Who knew owing land could be so complicated. It looked like my building my Company city was going to be almost impossible, if not impossible.

  Maybe I should consider other possibilities. Does the Dungeon really have to be far away from Forest Glen? Maybe I could buy some properties in the city, or city adjacent. As long as the Dungeon was cleared frequently enough, it shouldn’t pose any danger. Something to think about.

  *-------------*

  I arrived at Covern House just in time for lunch. Lunch was a delicious affair. I swear Chef must know some cooking magic, because she has never served a bad meal. Today was some chicken like bird with sautéed vegetables and mushrooms. The balance of flavors between the three was just amazing. Lunch ended and I went into my store.

  The Guard would be coming after lunch, so my afternoon would be full. I had told Fabia earlier about the Guard coming, so she had already set up for them. We didn’t have to wait long.

  The Guard came en masse. There were ten of them, led by Senior Captain Tyus. I welcomed them into the store and had them sit in the waiting room. I had to admit, it looked pretty weird having ten Guard in full uniform sitting there. Normally, I had civilians dressed in whatever.

  I brought the first Guard into the office with me. He said he had an issue with his offhand after skirmishing with some ‘low-life ruffians’. I cast diagnose on him. He hand had been broken and healed wrong. This was going to be painful. Painful for him, because I would need to rebreak his hand. I explained what I had to do. He sighed deeply, then agreed. I took his hand in my, located the bones that needed to be broke. Using my ridiculous strength and thumb, I was able to quickly break the offending bones one at a time. When done, I cast Medium Ranged Heal. This mended his bones. He flexed his hands and thanked me. While I wrote down his treatment, I asked him to send in the next Guard.

  The next Guard was missing two fingers. I needed to cast Heaven’s Heal to replace them.

  The next Guard was missing the front half of his left foot. Heaven’s Heal again.

  More missing fingers, toes and broken bones. There were even a couple of minor curses, but nothing significant. Of course, that was because I had magical healing, and more significantly Heaven’s Heal and Cure All. Without them, most of those visiting would be either limited in duty or dismissed from the Guard. Sometimes I wondered why those two spells were so powerful.

  The last person I saw was Senior Captain Tyus. I was unsure why he was here, so I cast Diagnose. There was nothing wrong. I asked him to sit and tell me what he thought was wrong.

  “Nothing is wrong with me. I just wanted to take this opportunity to say that neither I nor Captain Willop have negative feelings toward you. What Hounti tried to do was shameful. I am glad that Earl Donnert removed him from the leadership position. You weren’t the only one that he tried to bully into doing his business. I don’t know, but suspect he might have even been behind the attack on Ramram, to force you into attacking Indrisk. Unfortunately, I was unable to substantiate any crimes he may have committed. He did a good job covering his tracks. I hope the Guard can have a smooth relationship with you.”

  I replied “I never had anything against the individual Guards. My issue was with Indrisk and Hounti. I agree with your suspicions that Hounti was behind Ramram’s attack, but don’t have any proof either. It was obvious when I accused Indrisk that Hounti wasn’t going to treat me fairly, which is why I got Indrisk to challenge me to a duel. Then when we met with the Earl the next morning, Hounti was disrespectful to me on purpose. He wanted me so riled up I couldn’t explain my actions. Unfortunate for him, the Earl saw through that. Did you know he was the grandson of the Healer Guild’s Grandmaster? The same Grandmaster that tried to have me killed. When I found that out, everything clicked for me. That was when I knew it was Hounti. I never had, nor have any problems with the Guard. I believe we can have a harmonious relationship. Just remember my healing isn’t free.” And I handed him the bill.

  Tyus didn’t even look at it. He just signed it and said “Take this to the paymaster. He will give you the gold. I look forward to working with you in the future.”

  “Fare thee well,” I said, and I walked him out. I have to say, his Guards all looked a lot happier than when they came in.

  After they left, I handed Fabia the copy of the signed bill, “Please collect our fee from the Guard Paymaster.”

  I left the store and returned home, while Fabia went to go collect the gold. I changed into my exercise clothes and then made my way to the garden. There I started my forms and katas. While I went from form to kata to form, I reviewed the last few days, trying to determine if Earl Donnert and Ruberm were truly my friends.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  One thing was true, Earl Donnert was truly shocked when he was told I was level 45. Not only his reaction, but his eyes told me all I needed to know. Fallout was coming and it was coming fast and hard. Even my agreement to heal the Guard wasn’t enough to stop whatever was coming. I didn’t need to be a Precog, like Ruberm, to know that.

  Gabriel came into the store. Gabriel never came into the store. Not once. He was shaking and I was immediately concerned.

  “What is wrong Gabriel?”

  “My Lord, you are summoned” his voice broke, but he continued on “by the King.” That was the first time he referred to me as ‘My Lord’. He handed me a letter.

  The letter was already opened. I had Gabriel open all my mail, mainly because I didn’t want to be bothered by invitations that I didn’t need to attend. I read the letter.

  Count Trevor of House Tierra you are summoned to attend the King of Decharte in Decharte City. Duke Mikael of House Donnert, Earl Justinian of House Corville, Baron Brakford of House Templar and Count Trevor of House Tierra will present themselves before the King on the new moon.

  Public investiture in new offices will be conducted the following day.

  Well…damn. I am in shock. I don’t quite know what to think. I am happy for the Earl, I mean, Duke Donnert, Earl Justinian and Baron Brakford. All three of them are more than deserving. They put their lives on the line in both the monster waves and clearing the Dungeon. I did wonder why there was no mention of Gorver or Tayla.

  Hell, Majora must be ecstatic. Her son earned his title, where most just inherited it.

  Of course, this threw all my plans up in the air. Besides, how was I supposed to get to Decharte City in three days?

  An hour later I received an invitation/summons to meet with the Earrrrlll… Duke at my earliest convenience. Which meant now. I didn’t have any more appointments, so told Fabia we were needed at the Earl’s manor. Damn, I mean Duke.

  Amazingly, there was already a carriage waiting in front of Covern House. Fabia and I got in and off we went to the duke’s manor. Along the ride to the duke’s manor, I realized that I really didn’t know much about how nobility worked in Decharte. I knew how it worked in theory, but not in practice. I mean, could I turn down the title? If so, what would be the consequences? Hell, I didn’t even know if the duke would be allowed to stay in Forest Glen. With a promotion would Duke Donnert be required to move? Maybe to the capital. If the duke was forced to move, then would Earl Corville have to take over governorship of Renovolt county? Could the King move his nobles around at his whim? It started to sound like the Marines. I remember being sent to Camp Pendleton then six months later shipped off to South Korea. The more I thought about, the less enamored I became about being a Count. My musing was interrupted by our arrival.

  This time, I was led directly into the conference room, where Brakford and Justinian were both waiting. Fabia was asked to wait outside the conference room.

  “My Lords” I simply said to them.

  “Lord Trevor” Brakford said back.

  “Count Trevor” Justinian said with a huge grin on his face.

  Duke Donnert walked in at that moment. Ruberm followed along with a servant who brought tea. The duke waved at us to sit. Everyone sat around the conference table.

  “First thing first, congratulations to you all. It is well deserved. Second thing, the Portal is being charged and will be ready tomorrow before lunch. I want us all to leave and have lunch in the capital.”

  Ruberm chimed in “You have rooms reserved in the castle, so you don’t need worry about that. Each of you has a chamber as befits your new ranks. Lord Trevor, Lord Brakford, your chambers will accommodate two additional guests. Lord Corville, your chambers will accommodate four additional guests. You have reservations at the Blue Crown restaurant for lunch, and at Yufoal’s for dinner. Breakfast with the Crown Prince, where each of you will get the days itinerary. The following day, your investiture will take place in the morning, and a ball that night. Any questions?”

  Ruberm looked to Justinian, who shook his head, then me.

  “Umm. What’s a portal?” Everyone turned their heads to look at me.

  Ruberm sighed, then added “It’s a magical device that allows instant travel between two points. In this case, between the Forest Glen and Decharte. It is expensive to operate, but the Kings letter gave us no other choice. Anything more?”

  “Do I have to accept?” I asked.

  “Accept, accept what?” Ruberm was confused.

  “Accept being a Count. Is it something I can turn down?”

  Duke Donnert answered, “No, you can’t turn it down, as you are already a Count. It was done the moment the King sent the letter. The investiture is only a ceremony. It gives you the second class of Noble. You are already a Count of Decharte. I realize this is all new to you, but the moment your level was known, this was happening. Anybody that reaches level 40 automatically becomes a Baron or more. Justinian was made a viscount when he reached 40. Since you are past that, it was determined that your rank would be count.” Brakford didn’t appear surprised to find my level was over 40. I assume his mom told him. I didn’t blame her, as I would probably have done the same with my daughter.

  “Your only choice is for your House to leave Decharte, but no matter where you end up, you will be in the same position.” Duke Donnert sighed and continued “If you don’t show up, the King will send people. Whether to kill you because you can’t be trusted or to drag you to court for the investiture, they will come. And Justinian will be one of them. He won’t want to, but the King will order him. Please don’t force Justinian or me into that position.”

  There it was. I had no choice but to accept. The unspoken message behind Mikael’s words was that my family and friends would also be hunted down and imprisoned, if I didn’t show. So, tomorrow I would show up. I would take the portal along with Mikael, Justinian, and Brakford. I would do what needed to be done, as long as it did not break my internal moral code.

  “Let’s change the subject. While I am here, any chance I can get a parcel of land? I found a great place for the new Dungeon. Far enough away to give plenty of notice if something goes wrong, close enough that it won’t be too much of a burden to get there. Also isolated from any populations. It really is a good place, just two hours north of here. It about an hour west of the mine.” I asked.

  “You can ask the King, it’s his land, since no one else wants it. He will probably gift it to you as a new count.” Ruberm said.

  That was it. We all left to get ready for tomorrow.

  *-------------*

  Things changed at home. Everybody was addressing me as ‘My Lord’ rather than teasing me with ‘Young Master’. They kept bowing or curtsying, and they wouldn’t look me in the eyes. Everyone except Ramram. Ramram did address me as ‘My Lord’ but otherwise hadn’t changed. Gabriel was way too reserved now. Chef wouldn’t let me eat in the kitchen.

  However, at dinner I lost it. When dinner was served, there was only one place setting. Gabriel informed me that it was not appropriate for the ‘servants’ to eat dinner with the ‘Count’. They would be having their dinner in the downstairs servant’s dining room. That was it that was the final straw.

  “Get everyone into the downstairs dining room now. I will be there in 5 minutes, and everyone needs to be there.” I ordered Gabriel.

  When I got there, everyone was there. The house staff, the guards, and even the store staff. Not one would meet my eyes, but at least they would listen to me.

  “First, nothing inside this House has changed. We are all the same as we were yesterday. You are all members of House Tierra. That means that inside Covern House, including the store, we are all the same. You may refer to me as young master or my lord, whichever you are most comfortable with. BUT we will continue on as before and that means eating our meals together. I love our evening meals and don’t want them to stop. I want to be able to stop by the kitchen and eat a snack or get a bunch of sandwiches to go. No bowing, or curtsies are expected or wanted. That has to stop. Treat me the same as yesterday before the letter arrived.” I looked around the room. Some of the braver staff were willing to look me in the eyes, for which I was grateful.

  “Now, let’s all go have dinner together.” I said as I turned to go.

  “Give us 10 minutes My Lord and we will have a proper dinner ready.” Chef said.

  I went upstairs and waited in my office for Gabriel to announce dinner was ready. Everybody was in the dining room. Chef paraded the food in front of me, then made me a plate. When she was finished, everybody sat down and we all had dinner together. I would make this work.

  The next morning, I got dressed in my healing outfit. Nobody told me what to wear, so I had Gabriel pack a few suits to take with me. He and Fabia were going to accompany me, since I could count on them both to instruct me on the protocol needed not to offend the King or Crown Prince.

  Gabriel had arranged a carriage to take us to the Duke Donnert’s manor and the portal. We arrived about an hour before lunch to ensure we showed up on time and reassure Mikael. Ruberm allowed us to take over a conference room, where both Fabia and Gabriel forcefully instructed me on the proper protocol for meeting a King and Crown Prince. I know this was the main reason for me bringing them along, but it was horribly dry and as exciting as watching paint dry. I just knew, I would forget half of it by tomorrow and need a refresher.

  A servant came by an offered us tea and snacks. I gladly accepted both. The tea was really good, because they don’t have coffee here. However, for snacks, nothing beat Chef. We ate some, just so the cook wouldn’t be insulted.

  Justinian came by after the tea was served and helped himself. He brought Brakford with him. They also brought their guests. Brakford brought his sister, Anilulu, and his mother, Countess Majora. Of course, Majora would get her own chamber, but still counted against his guest list. Justinian brought his wife Katemilla, his oldest son, Jaster, and his daughter.

  The conference room was very large, so we weren’t crowded. They brought more tea and snacks. Jaster remarked at how good the snacks tasted. We made small talk, but I noticed that Justinian’s wife had a bad cough. I asked if I could cast Diagnose. She agreed.

  She had leukemia. I cast Cure All and then Heaven’s Heal. The heal was to remove any scaring from her lungs. I cast Diagnose again and nothing else was wrong.

  “Everything is fine now. You should breathe easier from now on.” I told her.

  “What’s the bill for that?” Justinian asked jokingly.

  “Nothing. Consider it a gift for your new rank.” I smiled as I said it. I figured I probably owed him more healing, since Arem’s Defense had saved my life at least twice.

  It seemed everyone was very excited to be going to the capital. It turned out that Justinian and his wife had been to the capital before. But all of his children were born and raised in Forest Glen. This was the first time for all of them. They could only go because we were using the portal to get there and come back.

  Countess Majora had been to the capital twice. Once for her investiture, and once to attend the Grand Duke’s wedding. This was also Brakford’s first time in the capital. He was supposed to go once before, but his father had died and the trip was cancelled. Brakford was supposed to meet his fiancé there. She was coming in from another city. Majora and he would then go to his fiancés’ home, where they would get married. I discreetly cast Diagnose, just in case. Turns out it wasn’t needed. Countess Majora just raised her eyebrow at me, then smiled. Secrets. Damn, that woman is scary.

  Ruberm finally came to get us. He took us through the manor, down into the basement. Behind a very large and sturdy door, I could see the portal. The portal was as wide as a pair of French doors. It was a standalone frame. Intricate runes were carved all over. Even the bottom of the frame had runes. It currently glowed in the dim light of the room. There were two mages performing the ritual. One on each side of the frame.

  Suddenly, instead of seeing the other side of the room through the frame, I saw another room. Much better lit than this one. The portal was up and running.

  Duke Donnert and party showed up and went straight through. It was time to go to the capital, then Justinian and party went next, follow my Majora, my party, and then Brakford and his sister.