Ajax’s whole body was sore. He had spent the last few days sparring with instructor Gatecrasher as the man pushed him with the very skills Ajax was hoping to pick up for a rogue styled combat. The only issue there was that rogues focused more on shallow cuts meant to push their advantage as well as killing blows with not much in between. Furthermore his instructor had the skills and knew how to use them but wasn’t good enough to do so without having some of the blows land on Ajax.

His training was pushed even further by Ajax practicing his [Cursed Slash] attacks with any leftover stamina he had once his mana ran out. The only reason he was taking a break now was because he was doing some alchemy. Much as he might want to ignore crafting he knew that wouldn’t turn out well in the long term so Ajax kept on at it doing his best to master the skill.

Much to Ajax’s surprise he found that none of his family members were having any difficulties as they started to adapt to their new roles as part of a noble house. A lot of this was thanks to his grandparents who not only understood this world but were trying their best to get into their good graces.

Sleep came easily to him after he filled three vials with the resulting potion. His success rate had improved by leaps and bounds, he was no longer getting any failed potions, most of them came out at common quality with one in ten being inferior and one in ten being Uncommon. This was true for all of the basic potions he had learned how to craft, it was now time to start trying to have them maintain their quality as hu upped the quality of the ingredients. This was going to be an expensive process and one he will not start before a few dedicated discussions with professor Vilethorn.

As Ajax got downstairs the following morning he found his family was already awake. Much like in the past few days his grandparents had joined them all for breakfast as it also served as the daily family gathering to discuss anything that had happened throughout the previous day.

“I had another five people approach me yesterday.” Tom said as he loaded up his plate.

Out of everybody seated at the table Tom’s daily work was the only one actively improved by having been named a noble. The guard was filled to the brim with people who would be finished with their service in a year, two or five and they were always looking to make a good impression on any noble family that might employ them afterwards.

Kate’s whole social status had also flipped with the announcement. With the vast scarcity of healers however the change wasn’t an upward move on the social ladder like Toms but a lateral one. Whereas before she was being groomed for taking an official position as a member of the Healing Union she was now being moved over to the rest of the noble learners.

“Things are almost ready, are you sure Ajax should be giving a few samples as gifts?” Alana asked.

Judy and Alana had spent all of the free time that came from the announcement preparing for the first honey honey harvest. Most of the work was done by them and a few trusted people so the news wouldn’t be leaked ahead of time.

“I’m sure.” Aurora responded. “We must first make a big deal launching the product and only after will we have Ajax give out a few samples. Doing it this way will give all the nobles a chance to overlook the initial launch and regard it as another failed new noble house attraction before being brought back to it. Doing it like this will have them reevaluate everything else you are selling as well and will help you build a loyal customer base in all the high quality things you sell.”

“These are the invitations you will give out today sweetheart” his mother said as Ajax sat down. She had already loaded up his plate and had four invitations on the table already.

“Only four?” Ajax asked, slightly confused.

“Houses Manashaper, Silvertongue, Goldmance and Steelblade.” his mother explained. “They were the first to send their congratulations and did so in an open and supportive manner.”

“No invitation for the royal family?” Ajax asked.

“That invitation will be sent out separately via messenger.” his grandfather shared “It is customary to have it delivered by a messenger with a gift and it invites a representative of the royal family to attend. The gift is given as a show of thanks for the received title.”

Today was the first class day since he received his title that Ajax will meet the rest of his classmates and the changes were already clear. First of all Ajax was no longer wearing his usual uniform but instead he wore a fashionable suit his grandparents had made for him. Being only a baron he would go back to wearing the usual uniform after the first day but this was a show of pride.

Everything about the day would be more of an inconvenience to Ajax. After he had given out the invitations he had been bombarded by congratulations from all sides. Despite the positive attitude of his classmates Ajax was simply not that much of a social person. This was especially solidified as he got the skill [Feigned interest] before the first class had even started. The Uncommon skill was a lifesaver as it allowed Ajax to still retain some of the information despite not really paying much attention to any boring topics such as the latest fashion.

Much like the students the teachers also took a moment upon entering the class to congratulate Ajax on his new title. Thankfully that was the only acknowledgement they had made regarding it and had treated him exactly the same after that.

It was two hours before dark that Ajax had finally said his final goodbyes to his classmates for the day. Following their usual day at the Academy Ajax had taken a good part of the class, with the exception of a few people who had been openly antagonistic towards him ever since discovery was made public, and shouldered the bill for a visit to the tavern following classes.

Ajax now knew more about the noble current noble gossip than he had ever cared to. Sure he had picked up a few interesting topics before he had received his title but now he was being actively engaged on some of these subjects.

Not all of the topics were uninteresting to him however. He had quickly perked up the moment he heard talk about how a few different houses had started pushing their under fifty representatives to start training harder. Ajax knew the reason for this was the tournament the king had also mentioned to him so he kept his ears open for any scrap of information he could gather about his future competition.

It was sadly too early to gather anything solid. The tournament was six years out at least and right now a lot of people were being trained, nobody that knew about it would put all their eggs in one basket so a lot of the people being discussed now wouldn’t even be selected to participate. Nevertheless it was a topic Ajax enjoyed much better than the discussion about single or double lined garments.

Having placed a rather heavy coin bag in the hand of the happy bartender, Ajax finally let out a long sigh as he made his way towards the Academy. The day was almost over yet he had one more invitation to give out. Unlike the others this one wasn’t one he was making a public spectacle of and it wasn’t in return to any open show of support.

As he entered the library Ajax heated straight towards the ancient man sitting at the far desk and placed the invitation scroll he had personally written in front of him.

“Oh, what is this?” Balthazar chuckled as he took a look at the scroll, not needing to open it to know exactly what it was. “I see congratulations are in order.”

“No need to get all mushy on me now old man.” Ajax enjoyed the banter that had developed between the two across the long days of getting the discovery ready.

“Are you sure you want an ‘old man’ like me to come to something like this?” he asked as he took the scroll and opened it simply to get the specifics.

“You did a good 20% of the work writing up that discovery, if anyone deserves an invitation it’s you.” Ajax said with a teasing smirk.

“What do you mean 20%?” the librarian quickly took the bait “I’ll have you know I’m responsible for at least 40% of it.”

“40% is a bit much, I can go up to 30%.” Ajax countered. “But that still means you should come take part in the celebration of the achievement.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll be there.” Balthazar relented. “I can expect you to continue showing up for some more experimentation with that curse mana now that all of this has blown over?”

“I’ll be back here at the usual time starting tomorrow.” Ajax responded as he started making his way back home.