Chapter 68: Live To Sienna Pt.68
“What? Isn’t she just a maid who works in the imperial family, right?”
“Hain isn’t just a maid, she’s a maid-in. In the Imperial Palace, you have to be supported by a native in order to become a maid-of-law. Usually, many of the children of fallen aristocrats support those positions because they get the title of baroness when they become maidens. In a way, it’s more than just sitting back and inheriting titles from your parents. It’s self-proclaimed.”
“It sounds great to hear. That’s why she’s meticulous. By the way, if it’s not so hard to meet this brother of yours, can you come see me often?”
Before coming to the palace, Jamie grumbled, “I spent a considerable amount of time doing all kinds of identification and write ups for visits.”
Normally, in case of visits from families of the royal family members, the gatekeepers already have them identified ahead of time themselves so they do not have to go through complicated procedures. Still, it must have been the work of Empress Arya who had him struggling to get in.
Sienna left it alone and did not explain to him. She just said that the imperial palace was complicated to get in and out of.
“Are you still a beginner at the expert stage?”
“Are you making fun of me? It’s a huge deal that I haven’t improved at all. I have to go and train. There’s not one single vacant lot to practice in the capital city that’s good enough. But that doesn’t mean I can go to the park with my sword around, either. I think I’ve already built up some useless flesh on my body.”
Hain brought her maids with her and brought them to the table. What was served was too big to be called refreshments. There were thick smoked ham and cheese as well as bread and cookies. Jamie’s eyes saw joy rising from them.
He slotted the thickly sliced ham in between the bread and took a large bite out of it. Sienna poured some tea for him and told him ]to eat them slowly. After his mouth was full of them, he said, “I couldn’t even eat lunch properly. Those gatekeepers were really persistent. If I truly had the heart for it, I could’ve defeated them down and come straight barging to here. ”
“But then you’d be charged with treason…”
To her words, Jamie asked how she could say such a terrifying thing with a straight face.
“I know. Don’t tell me you really did that. It’s just a figure of speech as they say. ”
Sienna burst out laughing as she watched him crumple the bread he had already been eating and forced it down his throat.
Jamie’s muscle mass was significantly at a large amount. As the intensity of his daily training was enormous, the amount of meals he ate exceeded that of ordinary people. Moreover, he always hurriedly ate them because he was worried that he might lack time for training. Sienna thought he must be as developed as his stomach muscles were.
Heidel had never cared about etiquette or worried about the outside eye, as he was the only nobleman in the area. No wonder Jamie’s body was infused with a diet that was more urgent than a polite attitude.
“Really, I’m going to have to get brother an etiquette teacher. If I leave you like this, you’ll be humiliated for sure. I can’t just stand around and wait to see my own brother, the first born son of the Duke of Waters, be laughed at by others. If you do something wrong, you’ll certainly damage our family’s reputation.”
“What about ruining… I’ll be back in Heidel in a flash, so don’t worry.”
“What are you talking about? You can’t just leave until you find yourself a bride.”
“A bride, ha-ha. I need to hurry and go back. You know it too. Heidel is always short of hands.”
“It’s not like one or two pairs of hands short-handed. Just because brother isn’t there doesn’t mean it’ll be destroyed, either. And I’ve already sent a letter to father.”
Jamie, who was eating aggressively, stopped all movement with the word ‘father.’
“I told him that if he keeps leaving my brother in the periphery of Heidel, he could lose the Waters family heritage at this rate, and if he wants to see his grandson, he should let him stay in the capital. Soon, if you don’t find someone to marry, he’ll hear back from my brother and tell him not to come back to the castle.”
“When did you send that letter?”
She spoke in a lively voice to the question, “The day my brother arrived at Aunt Kelly’s.”
“You’re quite quick to act, I’ve got to say.”
“Well, of course, whose younger sibling am I.”
Jamie focused on eating again. He had thought that if he stayed in Heidel, he would have lost his fortune. As Sienna said, staying here and interacting with pretty girls seemed to be a good idea, so he quickly adapted.
“Our Aunt Kelly asked me to bring you this. It’s what you asked me to do.”
Jamie handed over a bunch of leather-wrapped papers to Sienna and then immersed himself in the meal again. Sienna filled his teacup and checked the papers.
“Hmm…”
What Sienna asked Kelly for was information about the Phoenix Knights. She was busy with one thing after another, so she left it be, but she was thinking about organizing it even before Carl spoke to her.
Unlike the solemn image of the imperial knights, the discipline of the Phoenix Knights was a mess. As the emperor became ill and Empress Arya began to take power on his behalf, many of the remaining figures in the imperial family were mutilated. It was the imperial knighthood that was most affected by him.
As one of the ways to limit the number of nobles, there is a system of lowering the class by one step.
For example, if the Marquis had three sons, the first one would receive a count status. But the second and third sons could only receive baron status. For the next generation, the gentry status, rather than the nobility, which would later on continue to be reduced to the semi-male status (lower class to be more precise). Eventually, they will become a part of the civil class.
This was why only the Waters family remained operative in the present Laifsden Empire. The best way to set a ball is through war, which has always been steadily carried forward by the nature of the region that has to fight against monsters in the north.
However, it was not like there was actually no way to prevent him from becoming a gentry member without inheriting any of his rank. One of the ways to build a ball is through becoming a knight. It was not a way of inheriting classes, but a way of getting a new one.
In the case of general articles, gentry status was given, but starting with imperial guard articles, a minimum of baron rank was granted. Also, depending on his position or merit, he could dream of rising to the rank of Count. Because of this, the nobles wanted to put their children in the imperial knights as well.
He had to be at least an expert beginner to join the Knights’ squad, but the problem was whether there was any room left. In order to expand her power, Empress Arya fired a large number of existing knights and replaced them with her own. At first, it drew a lot of backlash, but the articles were eventually forced to shut up about the issue because many high-ranking aristocrats were intertwined in the doing of so.
As Sienna arranged the Phoenix Knights, she planned to bring the current problems of the imperial knights to the surface.
‘In the past, while Carl was driven to war, the Emperor died and Valore ascended to the throne. Although he died of ill health soon as his fate supposed him to… Not Carl, but rather Valore will end up taking the throne for the next two years, so I’ll have to figure everything out quickly in order to have less problems in the future…’
Sienna identified a familiar name in the document. He was the head of the Phoenix Knights who came to see her as if he would escort her with a drunken stupor.
‘Oh, you look like an expert.’
Sienna reviewed the qualifications of the imperial knighthood at the back of the document.
“Brother, what’s your grade for the ranking test if you can keep the sword in your hand for fifteen minutes?”
Asked by her, Jamie put down the sandwich he was about to cram into his mouth and said, “If it takes more than fifteen minutes, it’s intermediate level.”