Volume 2 Chapter 1: 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 incompetant.

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 even 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 are 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 doing actual training.

"You don't want to 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."

"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.

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 data.

"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 power 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.

"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 were 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 flaxen long 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.