Chapter 340: Creative Privileges Revoked
Cedric suddenly felt a very bitter taste on his tongue. He scrunched his face and smacked his lips multiple times.
As he did, he wondered just what exactly was making him feel this way. After a few seconds, he finally realized that the source of the problem was that stupid-ass name that Aika had given to the Oni.
So he turned to her and muttered in pure disbelief, "Redd? ...Redd?! Seriously?!"
Aika turned to him looking incredibly proud of herself. She nodded, and with her lips pressed thinly in a smile, she raised both hands and gave him two thumbs up.
Cedric’s brow twitched.
When she saw his expression, she frowned slightly. "What? What do you think? Doesn’t it sound great?"
"Wow. It sounds really great." Cedric deadpanned. Aika’s smile returned, but just as she was about to puff her chest in triumph, Cedric leaned closer and added seriously, "Do you really believe that?!"
"Huh?" Aika looked at him, genuinely wondering what was wrong with the name that she had put so much effort into coming up with. She then shrugged, completely oblivious. "After seeing his color, I decided to get creative."
"Get creative? You call adding an extra D to his skin color getting creative?" He suddenly looked shocked. "Wait... Could it be that you really have nothing but hot air behind the ears?"
Aika leaned over and slapped his arm, then lowered her voice. "How dare you?"
Cedric rested his hands on his hips, closed his eyes, and took a few deep breaths in exasperation.
’Someone please remind me never to give Aika creative privileges again.’
He opened his eyes and looked down at the kneeling Oni, who at the moment, was also alternating gazes between the both of them. Cedric’s eyes traveled from the mask on the creature’s face to its perfectly toned body. Then, he scowled and suddenly feinted a punch, making the creature flinch.
"Aissshhh. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I don’t know why just looking at him makes me annoyed."
He shook his head, reached into his inventory, and pulled out a large shirt.
"You. I don’t care how you look, but make sure you put some damn clothes on when you see my lady," he muttered as he threw the shirt at the Oni, covering those ugly abs.
Cedric then turned to Aika and tapped her shoulder. "His fighting skill needs a looottt of work. So..."
"Don’t worry," Aika smirked, crossing her arms as she looked down at their new subordinate. "I’ll whip him into shape in no time."
"Great." He pressed his lips into a thin line as he glanced at the Oni one last time. Then he turned and began walking away. "I’ll see you back at the house."
***
Hours later, Cedric sat in his personal study reading a bunch of newspapers. He was dressed in a crisp white shirt, a dark buttoned vest, and tailored trousers.
There was a cup of black coffee on the mahogany desk, which he drank from occasionally.
His butler, Arthur, came inside after a while with a stack of fresh newspapers, dropping them on the table. He bowed politely, but just as he was about to leave the room, Cedric spoke up, his eyes still fixed on the papers in his hands.
"Could you please have Lily bring me another cup of coffee?"
Lily was the name of the middle-aged maid who was in charge of the study, and the more personal needs of the Lord, like tidying his private quarters and managing his daily refreshments.
In most noble houses, the Lords and Ladies used their Bonds as personal attendants, counting on them for intimate duties like dressing up the ladies or keeping watch over the master’s wardrobe, while the maids took care of other less personal chores.
In other words, some nobles used their bonds as their glorified butlers, the ultimate servants who stood above all the others.
But since Aika and Cedric had more of a partner kind of relationship, she certainly wasn’t about to play the role of a personal maid, but rather that of a lady.
And so, Arthur took the role of the valet and maintained his oversight of the household, while Lily also only attended to Cedric’s personal comforts, as Aika had no need of her.
After a few minutes of Arthur exiting the study, the brown curly-haired Lily came inside with a cup of coffee on a silver tray. She quietly dropped the fresh cup off on the desk, then picked up the empty cup, bowed politely, and exited the room.
Without looking, Cedric picked up the cup, took a sip, and immediately smacked his tongue. "Aisshhh, hot!"
He set it back down, while simultaneously folding the newspaper he had just finished reading. As he did so, he reached for another. He needed to catch up on everything he had missed while in the first ring. He also had to compare these new developments against his game knowledge to figure out exactly what had changed and what remained the same.
Flipping past the front page, his eyes skimmed down the columns until a specific headline caught his attention.
"With the first ring no longer connected to this world, there have been talks by the Grand Council of the Lumierian Empire to revisit The Peerage Expansion Act. Word is that the law might be abolished within the next six months."
’Hm...’ Cedric looked up, lost in thought for a moment. ’I figured this would happen.’
This world, as he had come to know it, had the highest number of nobles of any world. There was a massive surplus of nobility, with the vast majority being counts and barons.
But this wasn’t always the case.
After the arrival of the Veil, people figured out that only those with bonds could fight to protect this world. The problem was that the majority of those who manifested bonds were the nobles and their children. They would go every six months to fight the threats beyond, but because so many nobles and their descendants were dying in battle, the Grand Council of the Lumierian Empire enacted what became known as The Peerage Expansion Act.
The aim of this was not just to replenish their ranks, but to also have a steady supply of bonded combatants. Thus, apart from pure bloodlines, other criteria were added to nobility.
As long as certain conditions were met, commoners could become nobles, and already existing minor nobles could be elevated to higher ranks.
