Visitors

The villagers woke early the next day, they spent all morning getting their measurements, and the afternoon they had someone teach them the basics of courtesy and manners.

The strange environment drained all the villagers of their energy but they still felt excited. They didn't expect the ceremony to be so fancy, they even got a new set of clothes each.

While Luckas was more educated than most of the villagers learning the customs of the noble in this world was still taxing on him. He decided to rest like the rest of them.

And just like that, another two days passed and the ceremony day arrived. All the villagers were guided to the gardens of the Duke palace, there were too many people in the ceremony, and without the Duke present wasn't possible.

Jeffrey still didn't finish the settlement of the villagers, the way land ownership worked inside and outside the cities was different, so this complicated the process of granting land to the villagers.

While Jeffrey had a good idea where he would settle the news villagers, there was still too much work to be done, such as clearing the land and officializing the papers.

Jeffrey choose to give each villager a piece of the land where the new villages were to be located, if some of them didn't want to live there they could trade for more coins, while this land ownership wasn't equal to the nobles, they would detain the right to live in the land.

This way the villagers wouldn't have to pay rent for the noble that was owned the land they would end up living, this gesture was just performative as the villages were located on the direct territory of the Duke household and they did not bother to tax their inhabitants already.

Jeffrey was anxious, he was pacing around next to the palace hall when a guard rushed in.

-" Master, guests from the Eternal Sun Sect arrived." The guard was serious as he spoke, everyone around this land knew the name of this great sect.

Jeffrey's anxiety grew, even more, he thanked his uncle in his heart for telling him about the group in advance, unknown to him Philips didn't think the party from the Eternal Sun Sect would arrive so soon, he only told him that because Jeffrey stubbornness made him angry.

-" Bring them to the reception room with haste, treat them as VIPs."

Soon Jeffrey met them, there were four people in the group, three women and one man. The man was older and looked like he was an elder accompanying the group of disciples out.

-" Greeting to the cultivators of the Great Sun Sect, uncle already informed me about your trip here." Jeffrey was courteous as he greeted them. " I took the initiative to prepare a villa for your stay."

The three girls were looking around while the man nodded and thanked Jeffrey for his courtesy.

-" May I know where is Old man Philips?" Jeffrey thought the man was a friend with his Great uncle by the way he referred to him.

-" Uncle is dealing with some matters right now, but he will be back soon, I will inform him of your arrival so he can visit you before the ceremony."

-" Oh, there is a ceremony today? If i knew i would bring some gifts." The mention of the ceremony caught the attention of the party, especially the three girls, their eyes shone, they thought their stay here would be quite boring.

Jeffrey at first was surprised, he thought that the group came so early because of the surprise.

-" In this ceremony, we will honor and reward the deeds of the villagers that fought against the Heigong cultivators." As Jeffrey explained everyone was shocked, especially the young girls, their sect fought quite frequently with the Heigong, they knew how vicious they were;

-" Oh, truly a maters to commemorate, those villagers are an inspiration for all of us in their resistance against the dark forces."

The elder eyes shone with happiness as he heard the news, while he didn't hear the full story the Sect leader told him some parts of it. At first, he thought that the Duke Household wouldn't spread the news about their heroic act, but now, not only has he gained even more respect towards the Strafhampton young.

The spread of this matter would surely impact the infamy of the Heigong, and as their mortal enemy, anything that could make them mad would make the Eternal Sun Sect happy.

Soon Jeffrey ordered a maid to guide the group to their villa and came back to organize the ceremony. Philips arrived not long after and the news about the arrival of the group made him sweat.

-" Wait, what? Why they are here so soon?" Philips's shock was evident.

Jeffrey was quite confused after all, it was his uncle who told him that the guest would arrive.

-" The elder who came with the group asked about you. It looked like he knows you, I told him that you would visit before the ceremony." Jeffrey didny think too much about his uncle's strange behavior and focused back on ordering the people around.

-" You told them what? Someone who knows me?" Philips's face gradually turned worse till he suddenly lost all color of his face. " Did you invite them to the ceremony? Fuck, What should we do? Can you go over and tell them that the ceremony is canceled?" Philips's behavior made Jeffrey and Cyl frown.

-" Why? If you want to burn the bridges with the Eternal Sun Sect go yourself." Jeffrey thought that his uncle was just joking around.

-" Jeffrey I don't think you understood. An elder from the Eternal Sun Sect will be present at the ceremony, they shouldn't be here so soon."

Philips continued to act like a crazy man, Jeffrey was almost out of patience he was about to tell his uncle to go play somewhere else, but Cyl suddenly started to a bit strange too.

-" Hey maybe you guys should reward the villagers in private? I think they would like that better than having such a fancy ceremony." Jeffrey was furious, even Cyl began to play around with his uncle.

-" After so much work? If you want me to —-" Just as Jeffrey was about to finish something popped into his mind and turned to his uncle. " You said they shouldn't be here so soon?"

Philips and Cyl nodded their heads, Jeffrey thought for a bit and his gaze turned dark.

-" Fuck, Byrth?" As Jeffrey asked the two just nodded again. "Why did you have to invite them just so soon? You couldn't wait after the ceremony?" Jeffrey's mood instantly worsened, if the Eternal Sun Sect came for Byrth things would be really ugly.

-" Maybe we give the highest merits just for the other one? What is his name again?" Philips was scheming how to avert the situation, he was the most anxious one of the three, after all, he knew that the presence of the sect here was his fault.

Jeffrey thought and noded, they could give the extra rewards for Byrth in private, this could too improve his goodwill towards them.