Chapter 8: Before The Birthday I

Name: Lazarus Azrael Gremory

Race: Human

Age: 9

Talent: Photographic Memory, Appraisal, Devour ( Uses: 1 ), Calm Mind, Teleport,

Illusionist

Rank: E-

Str: E-

Int: E

Sta: E-

Agi: F+

Def: F+

Mana: D

Yes, I am already 9 year old and will turn 10 tomorrow. Not only that but I have awakened another talent. Hooray!

'Appraisal'

Illusionist:

Can you use mana to create illusions, depending on the amount of mana used the illusion can be made large scale or last longer.

A pretty handy which is as expected of a high tier talent. I can use it both in combat and oustide of combat, something I have been doing to avoid my annoyingly overly loving sister who doesn't waste any opportunity of being with me. It's been very useful looking back at how much less time I have been spending with sis.

Thinking about the what I have seen or been through, a lot really has happened after my social debut but unfortunately I had to continue with attending events or parties hosted by nobles. Other than that nothing interesting really happen- ed, ah wait minute.

Remember the Knights family? Yeah the one from my social debut, well they currently should be on the verge of bankruptcy. Mother made sure they suffer for being rude to me by causing trouble to their business. Hmm, no causing trouble aren't the correct words, instead destroying is. Yes mother made sure to destroy their business which is why they are on the brink of poverty. Quite humiliating for a noble family, they will most likely be stripped of their title if they can't escape their situation.

What else happened? Hmmm.

Oh yes! I remember now, this one is big news and became everyone's main topic to discuss, everyone other than the Gremory's after all we don't really care much about anything other than the royal families. Well the news is that just less than 2 years ago a family got promoted to ducal ranked! Didn't expect that did you? And guess whose family it is?

Drum roll please.

Yes of course it was our dear protagonist's family. Yay! Woohoo!

The Reinhardt family is now ducal ranked, this plays quite a big roll in the future during the academy arc between the relation of the protagonist and the children of other noble families. Don't worry I won't say much more because you don't like spoilers now do you? That's right obviously you don't. Anyways, the promotion of a marquis ranked family to ducal ranked caused a massive uproar throughout the Arcadia continent. It was the talk of the town for commoners and other marquis ranked families. Now don't get me wrong here and think that the ducal ranked families don't care about this happening, they do care but aren't not much as they won't take a new ducal ranked family seriously. It's not always you see a family gaining a higher status, usually it's when there is a new marquis ranked family. The last time a family got promoted to ducal ranked was 270 years ago so it's quite rare.

For a family to get promoted they need to meet certain requirements, the most important being the need to reach a specific rank for one of the members of the said family.

So the ranks required are:

Marquis - S- rank minimum

Ducal - SS- rank

Royal - SSS- rank

There needs to be a family member of a family in the required rank for the said family to hold onto or reach a specific status. For example, a marquis ranked family needs to have a member with a minimum rank of at least S-. If the person who meets the required rank is dead, the said family will have the maximum of 50 years to groom another family member to reach the minimum rank or have someone part of the family marry someone who meets the required rank. If they can't do that they will lose their title and will no longer be a noble family.

Therefore, for the Reinhardt family to become ducal ranked they needed a SS- rank in their family, which the father of the protagonist managed to achieve. Hence they became ducal ranked resulting in there being 5 royal ranked families and now 12 ducal ranked families. Quite an impressive feat. But after the protagonists father dies and the protagonist only manage to reach S+ rank 50 years after his father's death, the Reinhardt family will drop back to marquis ranked. But the protagonist will obviously reach a rank greater than S+, I mean he is the protagonist, the main character.

Now enough of catching up on the past news.

Currently I'm inside one of the building owned by my family, well we own a massive amount of land with several buildings for specific events or function and the building I am in was built for hosting banquets. This is where I will be celebrating my tenth birthday and will also be the first time people other than my own family will attend it. It's a tradition to celebrate your birthday with only your family till the age of 10. It is because of the significance of this age where everyone is guaranteed to awaken a talent which is why your tenth birthday would be one of the most important days of your life if not the most important. On this particular day in the banquet hosted for the birthday boy or girl , the talent they awaken is often announced to everyone present. Statistically, on your tenth birthday you have the highest chance to awaken a high tier if you have already awakened a talent beforehand. Want to know why that is? Well I have no clue, it wasn't ever explained in the game why it was like that and if there is any conspiracy behind it so I don't know.

Now you might be wondering that isn't it foolish to reveal your talent to the masses. The answer to that thought is no, it isn't. The reason why? Your talent will eventually be exposed anyhow so there really isn't any point in being so secretive about it in the first place. How will your talent be exposed? Of course after you use it you dimwit, you will naturally have to use your talent in the future where people will find out what it is.

Glancing at the maids and valets setting up the venue I can't help but feel a little irritated about tomorrow. It's not because anything fancy or important to the plot will occur but because I generally don't like celebrating my birthday, especially not with several people who I don't know well. I'll probably see a few familiar faces I have already met from the previous banquets and parties I have been to, but other than that nobody interesting or important to the plot will be there ignoring myself, my family and those related to us.

After finishing with my thoughts I decide to head back to the main family mansion, or should I say castle.