The city's ballroom was filled with clamor of the attendees talking among themselves as they took their designated seats. As was custom, the seating arrangement had been carefully planned by Rickert to make sure there was as little conflict between guests as possible.

While it was custom that seating arrangements would be made so that the highest ranking nobles seated closer to the host, Rickert had decided that he would not adhere to these customs as he knew that if he did that, there would undoubtedly be problems between the various nobles he invited. Most of them would keep their calm but he had invited some nobles who were not quite as good in keeping their calm.

As such, a lot of nobles were surprised when they found out their seating arrangements were not were they were supposed to be and instead sat at a completely different place than they expected. Some were pleasantly surprised to find themselves near fellow friends, while others were annoyed that they sat further from the host than they were supposed to.

In the end, Rickert knew that he could not satisfy everyone and even though some nobles shot him a disgruntled glance, he paid it no heed. He had realized full well that diverting from the custom seating arrangements would make some nobles unhappy.

However due to his careful planning, only a small minority of the nobles was unhappy and the majority of the nobles gave Rickert a nod of approval. Especially the smaller nobles were incredibly relieved that the customary seating had not been followed as the smaller houses usually did not have a great relationship as they all had to vie for each others land and business if they wanted to keep their rank and wealth. Unless they wanted to compete with higher ranking nobles, but there were few who had the stomach to do that.

Rickert ticked his spoon to his cup, trying to catch the attention of the guests who had now taken their seat. "My esteemed friends and guests, may I have your undivided attention for just a moment?"

Only after repeating the same sentence two additional times did the room finally quiet down enough for Rickert's speech.

"As you all know, I have gathered all of you here today to celebrate a joyous occasion." Rickert started before looking at the room with a serious expression. "I am grateful that you have all accepted my invitation and that all of you have been so utterly generous with your gifts."

"I have never been a father before so the coming times will surely be rough on me but as many of you have told me today, there will be many beautiful moments as well. On top of that all of you have assured me that I will make a great father, although frankly, I am not sure why you think I will be a good father. I am grateful that all of you think like that and I will do my best to fulfill your expectations."

"On top of that I hope that all of you will impart your knowledge to Jasmine in years and meetings to come and hope that you can build as good as a rapport with her as you have build with me. While Jasmine is not my flesh and blood, on this day I promise that I will always consider her my flesh and blood and I will spare no expense to keep her safe from harm and do whatever needs to be done to make her happy."

"As a token of my appreciation for your gifts, well wishes and advice, I now invite you to indulge yourself in this feast the kitchen staff has prepared for us. If I may now invite the food tasters to taste the wine in everyone's presence so we can raise our glasses to this joyous occasion."

Food tasting had to be done and could partially prove that there was poison in the food or wine. However Rickert knew that the more scary poisons could not be found this way. Only poisons that acted quickly could be found in this manner while the slower killing ones would be missed.

Poisons that acted up instantly were used for the shock effect and horrifying scenes they would cause more so than anything else. He felt that if a poison master really wanted to kill someone in a covert way, he would not do so with a quick acting poison. For one, no noble would ingest any food unless it was tested by a food taster and on top of that it would be rather easy to trace it back to the source. In example, while wolfsbane, belladonna and the blue ringed octopus's poisons are very potent, the perpetrators were more often caught than not.

In reality Rickert did not feel like these poisons were so scary as simple food tasting allowed you to spot them. Instead the ones that scared him were the slow acting poisons. Not only were they hard to trace back to their origin, one would not be able to figure out when or where they had been poisoned and by the time they found out that they had been poisoned it was usually too late. Mushrooms toxins were particularly popular in this regard. Both the death cap and fool's webcap were widely used in a large number of suspicious deaths.

Even scarier were poisons that simulated organ failure. If the target was someone with a preexisting condition, it was unlikely that poison would be linked to the sudden passing.

Of course the sole reason that Rickert knew so much about poison in the first place was due to how useful it could be on the battlefield. While he preferred not using it, his supply caravan always had a single cart full of toxic materials. This ranged from hallucinogenic toxins to pots upon pots of belladonna extracts. Even so, the number of times Rickert had actually deployed poison in battle could still be counted on one hand.

A few seconds passed at the banquet before the food tasters were ready to taste the wine. One by one they drank from the different barrels until suddenly one of the food tasters choked.

The whole ballroom was instantly in an uproar. "Poison! He's been poisoned!" Various nobles cried out, jumping up from their seats and backing away, dropping their cups of wine in the process. The ballroom instantly was a mess as wine was spilled all over the tables, dying the cutlery and plates a deep red.

"Quick! Leave! The food is not safe!" One noble said to his wife. Both quickly got up and prepared to leave.

Seeing one noble getting up and ready to leave, many decided to follow suit and panic quickly broke out.

"Wait! Wait!" The food taster in question urgently exclaimed while heavily coughing and wheezing. "I just choked on the wine, nothing is wrong!"

Hearing the food taster shout, the ballroom quieted down. Only after an awkward silence of a minute, did the nobles who had reacted hastily return to their seats, their faces flushed red due to embarrassment.

"I am so sorry for scaring all of you! My apologies! Please find it in your heart to forgive me!" The food taster responsible for the commotion cried out, apologizing profusely and only leaving the room after Rickert told the guards to escort him out.

The spilled wine was quickly cleaned up and empty cups were refilled.

Seeing that everyone was ready, Rickert raised his glass and said "To Jasmine!".

"To Jasmine!" The nobles shouted in unison as they raised their glasses.

The food was quickly brought thereafter and the nobles quickly filled their plates after the new batch of food tasters confirmed that nothing was out of the ordinary.

They did not use a second batch of food tasters due to what happened previously but solely because once upon a time there was a baron who did not drink wine. To be able to easily get away with the murder, the poisoner had put the antidote in the wine and had spread the actual poison throughout the rest of the food. As such, even though everyone else had been poisoned, only the baron ended up dying.

Ever since, no one dared to let everything be tasted by one and the same food taster and instead, multiple food tasters were now the norm.

The rest of the meal passed in an orderly fashion and two hours passed swiftly.

Near the end of the meal the children grew restless, unable to stay seated for too much longer. As the nobles would be staying and chatting for a while longer, the nobles agreed to let the children leave the table after a short deliberation.

Of course, due to the encouragement of their parents, many of the young nobles ended up swarming Jasmine, with only a few other groups forming around the various sons or daughters of the marquises and similarly high ranked nobles.

Soon after a few of the groups started playing games with each other, laughing happily as they did so. None of the kids dared to bully another noble, at least not as long as they were within the ballroom. While they were still children, none of them turned out to be simple, something Jasmine experienced first hand.

While she had somewhat expected that the young nobles would have a certain level of intellect, she quickly realized that she had underestimated them, much to her surprise. However this was a very pleasant surprise as she had been rather afraid that the conversations would be boring.

The young nobles quickly started to talk about the academy. After all, many had already been admitted to the academy and those that had not had at least started studying for the exams. At first they asked some probing questions to see how much Jasmine knew because even though they saw the badge with a single star adorned onto it, they did not fully believe it to be true. After all, Jasmine was only a seven year old girl and thus it was hard to believe that she really could enter the academy by her own right.

However, the children quickly realized that Jasmine really had entered the academy by relying on her own strength and this caused them to feel a mix of emotions. Envy, astonishment, jealousy, disbelief and respect could be seen in their eyes. of course Jasmine made full use of this occasion to answer any and all questions the young nobles had. On top of that she also asked any and all questions she had herself, hoping to gain at least some answers from the young nobles.

All in all, Jasmine was able to at least gain some standing with the young nobles. Still, the group surrounding her had instantly diminished by a fair amount the moment the young nobles figured out that she had in fact passed the exam on her own. A few of the ones who left formed their own little group, while others reported back to the sons and daughters of the various marquises.

What Jasmine was left with were mainly the sons and daughters of lower ranked nobles, with one exception being Jacob, Rodrick and Selene's fourteen year old son who had arrived half an hour after them. Jacob resembled his father in quite a few aspects. He was tall and his face was surprisingly similar to his father and he carried himself in a very similar matter. However there was one aspect of Jacob that was completely different from his father and that was his build. Jacob was muscular, much unlike his chubby father. Even though his clothes tried their best to hide this fact, the outlines of Jacob's muscles could still be seen very clearly.

Surprisingly, Jacob was not very popular with the other young nobles, something that struck Jasmine as rather weird. Jacob was tall, muscular and rather handsome, yet none of the other children paid any attention to him whatsoever. At first Jasmine did not pay attention to it, until she noticed that Jacob was not taking part in any of the conversations and just stood there as if he were a guard.

This caused her to speculate on what was going on. She excused herself for a moment and ran over to Iris. "Iris, why are all the other nobles ignoring Jacob?" She quietly whispered in Iris's ear.

Iris looked at Jasmine with a questioning expression before realizing that Jacob had been part of her little 'circle' ever since they left the table. She quietly replied, whispering so silently that Jasmine could only barely understand her. "Ah. Uh. How should I explain... The other nobles do not really like Jacob, because Jacob's not really... all too smart? He has no chance at becoming a strategist so the other nobles avoid him."

Jasmine's face scrunched up and she replied a little angrily. "That's unfair!"

Patting Jasmine softly, Iris hushed her. "I know, Jasmine, I know. But you can be his friend then, can't you?"

Nodding and getting the hint, Jasmine ran back to her group and poked Jacob's side. "So, Jacob! Why are you so strong?"

Jacob was a little surprised at Jasmine's sudden interest in his strength and it took him a little to reply. "Uhm. I-I am planning to become a general." He said with a mix of embarassment and pride in his voice.

"A general... I see! No wonder you are so strong! Oh. OH! How about this, Jacob! When I become a strategist... you can be my general! hehe!" Jasmine said with an innocent smile on her face.

Jacob pasted a polite smile on his face and said. "Sure, that would be nice."

While he was not the smartest, Jacob still realized that Jasmine was saying this to draw him into the conversation and help him to build a better relationship with the other young nobles. At first he did not like her doing so, but after thinking about it for a few seconds he realized that it would not be such a bad thing to play along. Even if it was just a superficial promise now, it could still serve as a once upon a lifetime chance for Jacob to build a good friendship with Jasmine.

"Great! It's a promise then!" She winked with her tongue stuck out.

Many of the surrounding children were taken aback at this promise and quite a few of them realized that in the future they should act a little more cordially towards Jacob.

Some of the nobles overheard the children and they frowned as they lost themselves in their thoughts. No one could say what they were thinking but one thing was certain. After today, Jacob could no longer be disregarded. At least not by the nobles present.

In the next few hours, Jasmine kept socializing with the young nobles surrounding her and at the end of the night she had been able to make befriended two other nobles who were already attending the academy. They were the twelve year old Nolan and Nelly, a pair of twins whose parents ruled over a small plot of land nearby. While merely children from what others might consider a lowly count, Jasmine had truly enjoyed talking to the two of them.

As for the other nobles that she had socialized with, they were more like acquaintances than they were friends. After all, the younger ones were still too oblivious and many of the older ones already had their own agenda. Only Nelly, Nolan and Jacob had given her the feeling that their interest in her was pure and innocent.

When they finally ended up arriving at their mansion that night, Rickert tucked Jasmine in and asked. "So, what did you think of today? Were you able to make some friends?"

Jasmine yawned and had trouble keeping her eyes open. "I'm tired, tomorrow?"

"All right we will talk about this tomorrow, good night Jasmine." Rickert mumbled as he ruffled Jasmine's hair.

"Nini." Jasmine mumbled, falling asleep almost instantly afterwards.