After we got back to the Sawyer manor, I was guided to the backyard of the house. There, I saw a bunch of tables set up, some of them already filled with food and the maids were actively bringing in more.

  I hadn’t heard about this party. I khere was supposed to be some sort of pre-party this evening, but it isn’t even noo.

  “This is just a simple party to celebrate your peerage.” Thomas told me. “I hope you enjoy it.”

  “... I … Thank you.” I thanked him for putting out all of this food for us. “But you really should have asked. I could have helped prepare everything.”

  “You shouldn’t worry about something like that.” Thomas said. “This is not anything really eborate or anything. We didn’t officially invite anyone or anything, but the people who arrived to know we are lunch, so some will e. You should get to know them, and I believe this is a good ce for that.”

  “... Alright. Thank you.”

  The ‘party’ clearly hadn’t started yet, as they were still setting up everything, so I just stood there, looking at everyone doing things.

  I soon noticed that Ria had joihe maids. In the church, she had been in her more ‘normal’ clothing, a dark cloth shirt, with some sort of leather pants, and a cloak, but now she was ba the ‘maid’ dress. I guess they didn’t have time to replicate the maid outfits from the picture of Laura in one I gave them. … uhey are saving them for tomorrow? Yeah, no way, right? But I dream. I’ll have to ask for that picture back, so I make a proper maid outfit for Ria ter.

  “Brian.” I soon heard a familiar voice calling out to me.

  I turo see Lua in her bck dress ing towards me. She had worn it back at the church as well. I wonder why she didn’t use the new white and purple one instead? Is she saving that for tomorrow? Well, she do what she wants.

  “Hi.” I said to her, as I felt a smile e to my face. I’d been a bit tense since I heard about … everything that has already happeoday, but Lua really calmed me back down.

  She approached me and gave me a soft hug. As she did, she whispered into my ear.

  “Your status, what did you do?” She asked.

  “Laura did it. As an advanced, she do that.” I answered.

  “I see… Brian, gratutions on being a noble.” She said, as she let me go from her hug. Not that she was holdiight or anything.

  “Thanks. I’m happy I could share this moment with you.”

  After Lua had ‘opehe floodgates’ some others came to gratute me as well. Well, most of them were Thomas’ daughters, but still. I don’t know if the other nobles were scared, or just waiting for their turn, but I guess this was fine.

  “Sir Wood. May I have a moment?” One of Thomas’ daughters came up to me and asked.

  “Of course. And please, just call me Brian.” I answered. “May I call you by your first name as well, Lady Mariina?”

  “It would simplify things, so I’ll allow it.” She agreed. “Do you mind a few questions?”

  “Depends on the question, but go for it. The worst that will happen is that I refuse to answer.”

  “I see… Well, first of all. Your level. Is it really 88?” Mariina asked.

  “Oh that. Well, the status doesn’t lie, does it?” I asked back, averting the question.

  “I suppose not. But how would you get to such a high level this quickly? About a month ago, you were level 25.”

  “You know about that?” I asked before I even really had time to think about what I said. A month ago, huh. It has been little over a month since I registered in the adventurer’s guild. I had to show my status at that time, and I was level 25 back then.

  “A sage’s apprentice has their ways.” She answered. “So it is true. Just how many monsters would you have to kill for that..? Well, it doesn’t really matter.” She muttered under her breath. “Then what about telekinesis? you really use it?”

  “Sure.” I firmed. “Do you want a demonstration?”

  “Yes. If you would.” Mariina responded.

  I turned my vision to a nearby table which had a bunch of gsses and some sort of drink bowl. Had this been a different kind of party, I’d have said it is a punch bowl, but I think it might be just juice. I took a hold of one of the gsses, then the dle, filled the gss with the drink and brought it over to us. It wasly easy, but I could handle moving a few light objects at the same time. And with my Laura haow boosted to advanced level, I found it more than doable.

  “Here you go.” I said, as I floated the gss of juice between us.

  Mariina took the gss into her hands, but she stayed silent. While she just stared bad forth between the gss and me, I took anss, filled it aated it over, so I could take a sip.

  “.... HOW!?” A yell shook everyone present. “Are you a sage or something? You are doing that so easily.” Mariina questioned me.

  “... is it really that good? I just moved a gss of juice.” I defended myself.

  “Of course it is. It takes immense tration and trol just to move a pebble. You just moved multiple objects, while taking precise care with their orientation and the speed they moved with. That shouldn’t be possible if your telekinesis level is just 3.” Mariina said.

  Well admittedly, I probably couldn’t do this with LV.3 telekinesis, even with Laura helping me. I would have likely had to put the gss down oable, before moving the dle. Theurn the dle to the bowl, pick up the gss and bring it over.

  “Well, I . I suppose I could bme part of that on Laura, but that is also a part of my power, so what are you going to do?”

  “Laura? And who would that be?”

  “Not something you o know.”

  “Wow. Is that why you are popur with the dies? You teaser.”

  “Please don’t say that. I have a girlfriend and I’m holy not sure if I could pull off multiple.”

  “Then just ahe question.”

  “You could answer one of mine instead.” I tered. “How about you tell me how strong sages are?”

  “... That is not an easy question to answer.” Mariina said. “It depends highly on the sage.”

  “Well how about this? all sages use telekinesis?”

  “As far as I know, but not all of them are that good at it.”

  “And how many sages are there?”

  “I’ve met fourteen, but there should be a total of twenty-two.” Mariina said.

  Twenty-two, huh. I was expeg less. Like uen. But what do I know? Well, more now.

  Marii b me about my skills, while I was also able to gain some info from her, until someone finally came to save me. Well, save might be wrong, but still.

  “You two seem to have an iing topic. Mind if I join you?” A certain red-headed pri into our versation.

  “Y-yhness.” I had a half panicked rea to him just suddenly showing up, so I staggered a bit as I bowed down.

  “Oh. It’s you…” Mariina didn’t react quite the same as I did. “Just as I was getting him to talk about his spirit’s blessing and everything.”

  “Don’t be like that. We are to be wed, so you open up a little.” The prince said. “I already have your father’s blessing and everything.”

  “I never agreed to that.” Mariina said. “And I’m uhe jurisdi of the Sage’s tower. I have no real e to this try any more, so you hold no power over me. her does my father. If he tries to force me into something like marriage, I’ll just abandon my family name instead. I don’t and I take a new one when I bee a sage anyway.”

  Yeah. That was something I had learned during our versation. Mariina was basically guarao bee a sage. She had all of the cssifications for one, and she could use telekinesis. She wasn’t quite as good as I was with Laura hacks, but she could do what I without Laura helping me. And apparently, a sage is basically a noble and they get their own family name.

  But still, what is this development? The prince wants to marry her? Well, they are of … simir age. I think Mariina is a year or two older than the prince, but close enough. And Mariina is a good magi. While I’m holy still not sure if magic is in any way hereditary, it might be. Or maybe people just believe that it is, as noble families have more resources, so they dedicate more time to magic practice.

  “I’ll get you to ge your mind.” The prince said, before turning bae. “But that wait. I’d like to speak a bit with the new noble, if you don’t mind.”

  “Fine. Do as you wish.” Mariina said in an aone, and quickly left, almost like she was running away from the prince.

  “... yhness, what may I do for you?” I carefully asked, after Mariina was some distance away.

  “Don’t be that nervous.” He said, probably trying to calm me down, but it really didn’t do anything to calm my nerves. “I’d just like to ask a few questions.”

  “Y-yes. I’ll ao the best of my abilities.”

  After taking a look around, the prince said. “We should take this inside.”

  I followed the prinside and into the study of Thomas. I don’t know if the prince asked to use it or just said he would, but not my problem.

  “Leave us.” After we both sat down, the prince ordered the two Royal knights who were ag as his guards to leave the room.

  “Yhness? Are you..?”

  “Don’t make me repeat myself.” He said.

  The guards quickly left the room and just the two of us were left. I don’t know if this ts as overly trusting, or if he is just reckless.

  “Now then.” The priook some sort of tool from his pocket and pced it oable. He then pressed a button on it, and it let out a soft hum. “This is an anti-eavesdropping device. The knights, nor anyone else hear us, so you speak freely.”

  “... I uand, yhness.”

  “Try to not be so stiff.” He said. “You are really something, aren’t you? System support, two unique skills and even a spirits blessing.”

  “... Yhness, if you don’t mind, could we get onto why yht me here?” I asked. I know that might have been a bit rude, but I feel like the longer he monologues, the ruder I’ll bee.

  “Straight to the point, huh. Well, I don’t dislike those kinds of people.” The prince said. “As I said outside, I just have a few questions. I want you to ahem holy.”

  “Yes, yhness.” I agreed, even though I will 100% lie if I feel it to be necessary.

  “Then, first question. How you obtained your system support?” The prince asked.

  “It happened when I elimihe dungeon.” I answered holy.

  “... that’s it? Are you sure?” The prince asked.

  “Yes. I swear that is how it happened.”

  “... I see. Do you know if that is the way to obtain the system support?”

  “I apologize, but I do not know.” I answered.

  “... I see. Then. What the system support do?” He asked.

  What? He doesn’t know that? … Well, I guess it might be secret information or something.

  I gave him a quick run down on some of Laura’s basic abilities. I kept it at the most basic level though. Things like helping with mana trol, being able to tell ways of acquiring basic skills and giving ao basic questions. As well as the system missions, but I worded it a little differently, where the missions seemed more like warnings from the system, rather than actual missions the system wants you to do.

  “... I see. What about your spirit’s blessing? Tell me about that.” He asked. Or was that an order?

  Well, either way. It isn’t a secret, so I quickly told him about the sprite attack, and how the system had ‘warned’ me that Brandon was utack. How I flew there on the back of a dragon and took down the sprites. And how a greater spirit had appeared before me and gave me her blessing as a thanks for taking down her corrupted children.

  “So you summons. Well, let that be. Now, I did hear a strange rumor. I heard that during this rescue mission, you used resurreagic. Is that true?” The prince asked.

  “No, but also yes.” I answered. “It teically isn’t magic, but my unique skill.” I again holy told him.

  “The ‘Pack Opener’, I assume?”

  “Yes, that.” I firmed.

  “Would you mind expining that skill a little?” The Prince asked before adding. “This isn’t an order. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”

  “No. I don’t mind, as long as it is just the basics. I’ve told others the basics already.” I answered. “It just allows me to make these ‘cards’. Then I use them to either summon monsters, or perform magicluding things like resurreagic.”

  As I said that, I got a card out of my colle. I picked 7 Colored Fish, as it is the first normal monster in my colle, uhe default s.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]“This is a ‘monster card’.” I expined. “I use these to summon the monster on them.”

  “... I see. anyone use these cards?”

  “... yes, but also no.” I answered. “This one, as it has this protective sleeve on it, only be used by people with a certaira skill.” Actually, the fish had a toploader, but that is all the same. “But if the cards don’t have it, anyone use it.”

  “So if someoole these ‘cards’ from you, they could use at least some of them?”

  “Again, yes and no.” I said. “If you take a good look at the card, you might see you ot read it. Now I’m not sure if Language prehension allows you to read it, but as far as I know, only the skill I previously mentioned allows you to. Again, anyone actually use one, but they have to actually know the name of the card for that.”

  “That does seem to be true. I do possess the Language prehension humanoid, just as you do, but I ot read this card.” The prince admitted. “Would it be possible for me to keep this? Try it out with other variants of the Language prehension?”

  “Sure, but not that one. I’ll give you another one, if you don’t mind.” I answered.

  “I think any card is fihe prince said.

  I took back the fish and took out a non-sleeved Gigobyte instead.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  “Here.” I said. “This card isn’t sleeved, so anyone theoretically use it, as long as you know the name of it. You have it.” I pced the card oable. “If you’d like, I tell you its summons a weak monster, basically on the level of a kobold, or maybe just a bit stronger, so don’t think it actually protect you or anything.” I warned him though.

  “You are willing to tell its name? Even if it is weak, getting a summoned beast is quite an honor.” The prince said.

  “You only summon it ohough.” I said.

  “Oh? … Well, I guess that is a bit less impressive.”

  “Also, to summon it, all you have to do is to say the name while you hold the card, so try not to do that.” I warned him.

  I ended up writing the card's name down on a piece of paper, which I ripped out of my notebook, instead of telling it verbally.

  After a few more questions, the prince seemed satisfied a me get back to the backyard lunch party.