Chapter 18
The Razel House
There are several reasons as to why someone would leave their child with another house .
One of them is so that they can grow properly under a strict environment for a while, but the more important one is the possibility to form connections between houses .
Entrust your child to a firm house, forming a relationship that both sides can benefit from in the future .
Sometimes, children are entrusted to houses that they’re already connected to, but the training in and of itself is still very important .
I was finishing up the day’s work in the office with Amagi’s assistance .
Maid androids sure are amazing .
All my paperwork was easily completed .
In the Empire, ruling with the support of AIs and androids is something to be frowned upon .
This is due to how they revolted and overthrew humanity in the past, leading to their current low-standing and minimal use .
Originally, I was supposed to have a multitude of vassals and subordinates prepared for me, but the Banfield house had a distinct lack of human resources .
This was the fault of my parents and grandparents .
From my perspective, they were incompetent .
They neglected the territory, and fled to live luxurious lives in the imperial capital .
However, it’s only because of them that I got to be born with so many advantages, so I don’t really care that they abandoned me .
Not to mention the fact that I have the guide on my side .
He’s a being that’s always watching over me while giving me support .
The ‘after-sales’ services that he provided for me is proof of that, so he’s definitely a reliable entity that I can trust .
I need to make sure to give my thanks to him today as well .
As I stretched while pondering as such, Amagi gave her report,
“Master, the location for your training has been decided . ”
“Is that so? Where did you pick?”
With my still-developing body, I started to spin the chair that I was sitting on in circles .
“…you don’t look very interested . ”
I told Amagi- who was looking at me with a somewhat disappointed look, that I was just studying abroad at another house . It wasn’t anything special .
“If you knew the truth, you wouldn’t be that interested either . Apparently, when accepting the children of other houses, you’re forced to pamper them and let them live in luxury during their stay . Brian told me that with my parents, it wasn’t like a training period at all . ”
By the way, my father seems to have just played around for his three years of study .
Apparently, this was how most houses did things nowadays .
It’d be nice to go to a house that has a good reputation with actual training .
“You don’t want people to study here anymore? You should’ve told me earlier, we’ve already finished talks with various houses . If we were to cancel now, then Master’s reputation will undoubtedly be damaged . ”
“It’s okay, as long as they give me a lot of money, I’ll greet them with open arms . Well, even though I have mixed feelings about letting others into my home, I think I’ll be able to endure it if they’re only staying here for three years each . ”
The training will only be in name anyways .
Aren’t there any houses out there that actually take this training job seriously?
“Well, let’s just make the requirements stricter . I don’t want to be forced to entertain some spoiled brat . ”
I’ll do my best to prepare for when I have to receive those noble’s children in the future .
“If that’s Master’s order then I’ll do it, but most probably the only ones to be accepted will be the children of lower-nobles . The difference between them and those above baron-class are huge . ”
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“It’s fine, I’ll leave the details to you and Brian . ”
If I can push my problems onto someone else, I might as well .
“By the way, what kind of house is the place I’m going to?”
“It’s the viscount Razel house . It’s a popular place to study that receives dozens of people every year . It’s abundant in resources from the many moons and planets they control and their excellently developed processing tech . ”
The description Amagi gave made it sound like a very wealthy house .
But something seemed wrong here .
From their file, they apparently had an abundance of resources, but they didn’t seem to have enough planets occupied to match it .
It looks like they had a few space colonies made, but even if they wanted to expand out further, they couldn’t because the surrounding areas were owned by other lords .
“The viscount family possesses a strong but small army . They seem to focus on the importance of interpersonal connections with other houses, making them a popular destination for training . ”
“Is our house able to branch out to other planets?”
“It’s possible, unlike the viscount house our territory already contains suitable pioneering planets . ”
If that was the case, then I wanted to start preparing new settlements soon .
There was only one problem- the development of my current planet wasn’t finished yet either .
Undoubtedly, the development of my main planet would slow down if I started delegating resources elsewhere .
“Although our main planet is still developing, can we start expanding out tow-”
“Lord Liam, aren’t you about to start a full-scale education that’ll force you to be absent from the territory for a few years?”
While I’m away, Amagi recommended that I didn’t try to invest into new ventures .
-I guess she’s right .
“Our current policies suit us just fine, so I guess there’s no need to copy the Razel house . Still, I’m looking forward to seeing how much their territory differs from ours . ”
“Before that, you still have another session with the education capsules you need to complete first . ”
“–okay, I’ll see you later . ”
In this universe, there were things called education capsules .
They were mysterious items you locked children inside of for several months to years!
Inside, their bodies would be strengthened and knowledge would be forcefully loaded into their heads .
However, you couldn’t just leave things like that .
Once finished, you had to go through physical therapy while reviewing everything you learned .
Many people have neglected this, thinking that there was no meaning to it, but the difference between those that did do it and those that didn’t was huge .
“How long will I be in there for?”
“It’s only a short period this time . Please rest assured and leave everything to this Amagi as you sleep . ”
“I’m counting on you . ”
The main planet of the Razel house .
The head of the house, [Randolph Sera Razel] had gathered his vassals into a conference room .
They were confirming the noble children who were going to enroll into their house next year .
The data displayed showcased the amount of money and resources provided by each noble house and the respective child sent .
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Although the Razel house was well-known for children to study at, it was still a business .
“Hmm… so far there doesn’t seem to be any outstanding individuals joining us in the next fiscal year . ”
If a child was impressive enough, then they’d also have to consider if it was worth building a connection with them .
They’d do anything in their power to strengthen the relationship with a useful house, but conversely they rather neglected those that they deemed useless .
“Lord Randolph, as I mentioned earlier, it looks like the eldest son of the Exner house will be coming to our school for training . They even sent an abundant amount of gifts . ”
But Randolph immediately lost interest after looking at the Exner house’s data,
“-there’s no point in building a connection with some up-starts from the frontier . ”
“O-oh, but I think the Exner house has lots of potential for development in the future . ”
“‘Potential’ development is of secondary importance . We need to focus on building strong relationships with houses that are strong right now . ”
They didn’t deserve to associate with them .
However, they would gladly receive the offerings given to them .
As future plans were being discussed in the conference room, everyone suddenly stopped moving .
This happened just as they were about to check on Liam’s data .
“Haha… HAHAHA!”
From the door to the meeting room, the guide had appeared .
He manifested himself as if his body was growing from the door itself, he didn’t even need to open it . Once he finally got through, he went over to check out Liam’s file .
“At last I can finally have my revenge . Now Liam, let’s see what your data says!”
Looking at the statistics, the guide was surprised .
There was an enormous amount of funds and resources prepared .
Amagi and Brian had prepared it . Even though it was an unreasonable amount, that just showed how much they wanted Liam to be treated well there .
Not to mention his high reputation and personal assets .
The imperial capital seems to hold him in high regard for eliminating the pirates .
“Damn, that’s annoying! But it’s nothing I can’t fix . ”
The guide had the ability to falsify and tamper with data .
However, the guide’s current power severely limited how much he was able to change .
“–this is all because of Liam . With how I am now, I can practically only do petty tricks . ”
But as he went through the data he came across the file of someone named [Peter Sera Peetak] .
“-oh?”
Looking through the data, he seemed to come from a house the same rank as Liam .
However, his ratings were at a dismal level in all aspects .
“This has potential, how about I try swapping their stats?”
As a result, everything on Liam’s file became terrible .
When the guide manipulates time, he’s actually just slowing down everyone’s ability to process information .
He’s not actually stopping time .
As Randolph and his associates started moving normally again, they didn’t see the guide .
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“This next one is just plain awful…”
Randolph started to tiredly rub his eyes .
“Every year some hyena tries to build a connection with our house . Lord Randolph, are we going to reject them?”
“We already gave them our confirmation that we’d accept them . If we refuse them now, we’d damage our reputation . We’ll accept them, but we’ll treat them the same way we’d treat a child of a knight or that upstart from earlier . ”
Liam had received a medal at the imperial capital, but the Empire was too large– there were many cases where proper information on events couldn’t be reached .
Many people received medals on the imperial capital, it was impossible to know all of them .
The guide burst into laughter,
“Since this is your precious apprenticeship, I hope you enjoy the harsh training waiting for you! I’d like to make more changes, but I have to ration what little power I have left . ”
As the guide slipped through the walls of the conference room, Randolph lost interest in Liam and continued to look at the data of the other children .
-The National University of the Imperial Capital .
[Christiana Leta Roseblaire] was currently attending such a school .
She was there to earn the qualifications needed to become an imperial knight .
It takes about twenty-four years to qualify as a knight .
Twelve years were used for attending a military academy and the military service that came afterwards .
University studies and training came next, after which you had to work twelve more years as a government official .
Once all of this is finished, she would finally have the qualifications to be a knight .
Native nobles would also have had to spend six more years in elementary school .
But Christiana was from a foreign country- Tia didn’t have to enter elementary school .
With long flaxen hair and neatly cut bangs, she exuded an atmosphere resembling that of a princess .
In fact, she actually was a princess of a fallen kingdom, who had already earned the qualifications needed to be a knight .
She was also stylish, and her emerald-green eyes seemed to have a glow to them .
Her lips were plump and pink .
As she walked through the university buildings, lots of eyes gathered on her .
Ignoring the surrounding gazes, Tia started fiddling with her communication terminal .
“A message from space?”
Even though Tia was Liam’s knight, it was still only in formality .
She didn’t have much authority, and even now she was only a student .
Most foreign students would expect such a message to have come from their home country, but that was impossible for Tia .
After entering the classroom and taking her seat, she began to check the message’s contents .
“Lord Liam seems to have chosen the Razel house to be his place of study . I don’t think it’s a bad choice, but I think there are better ones . ”
Tia was a little dissatisfied .
“If possible, a house belonging to a higher-noble should’ve been chosen, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to commensurate a proper treatment worthy of Lord Liam . ”
Far past the normal loyalty of knights, how she regarded Liam was something closer to worship .
As to why- it’s because Liam was the one who saved Tia from hell .
After being caught by pirates, she was experimented and tortured on until she was molded into what could be considered a living chunk of meat .
Even though she had given up on living life as a human being, she was saved by Liam and given this second chance at life .
She would gladly die for Liam .
And Tia wasn’t the only one prepared to do so .
There were many youths who had come to the imperial capital to become Liam’s knights .
Many had gone straight to the academy, but Tia decided to go to the university .
The reason was because she wanted to strengthen Liam’s military influence after he enrolled .
For that purpose, she decided that she was going to graduate from university first .
After reading the contents and closing the message, the picture displayed on the standby screen was that of Liam at his coming of age ceremony .
Tia cheeks slightly flushed at the image,
“Oh Lord Liam, I’ll make sure to do my best today as well . ”
-She was truly loyal .
The merchant [Thomas Henfrey] was the head of the Henfrey Chamber of Commerce .
He was the exclusive merchant of the Banfield house .
Therefore, the moment he heard about Liam’s training destination, he immediately began preparations .
He was currently giving out instructions to his subordinates,
“Have you prepared the gifts for Viscount Razel?”
The subordinates answered him with a smile,
“Yes, we’ve prepared items the viscount will truly enjoy . ”
“That’s good to hear . Since it looks like Lord Liam is going to build a connection with the Razel house, we probably should as well . Who knows? Maybe this will be the start of a long and mutually beneficial relationship . ”
“Are you going to switch over and become one of the Razel house’s exclusive merchants?”
“There’s no way I would . The Razel house has too many already, the competition there is tough . ”
With the development of the Banfield house, the Henfrey Chamber of Commerce grew in proportion as well .
As Liam’s reputation spread as a specialized pirate hunter, smaller pirate fleets immediately fled once they spotted the Henfrey Chamber of Commerce ships, which were affiliated with said hunter .
Because of that, business was booming .
“The Razel house has quite a good reputation, so it’s perfect for Lord Liam . ”
Viscount Razel was no warrior .
If anything, he specialized in business rather than military affairs .
That fact was important to Thomas .
His subordinate gave his report,
“They also have a daughter who had recently come of age, so maybe we’ll be hearing wedding bells soon . ”
Thomas started to laugh at that statement,
“I can see a lot of benefits in that, so I hope things work out that way . ”
–Viscount Razel had a daughter the same age as Liam .