"Damn it, who really dare to assassinate Harry Xavierius? Just because that one person, we are hunted everywhere now."
"I don't know much. The only thing I know is the assassin was a man. Damn, could it be there was a female assassin in this kingdom? It's just useless piece of information here."
"If I found this person, I will torture him day and night. Just because him, every organization in the surroundings are already
obliterated. If you want to kill the head of the family, at least don't involve us."
A few men were grumbling since their day went from good to worst in just a couple days. Just because a failed assassination, the Xavierius family started to pulverize any criminal they met in the way. Everyone could
stay peace and silent before, but because of the incident, the surroundings were shaken. To these days, it was very rare someone targeted a noble. Not to mention the Xavierius family had amazing influence around the society. No one would dare to mess with them easily, but one person dared to do it and successfully escaped.
Because of one man, the rest of hidden people around were quickly purged through force. As the head of family, Harry took advantage of this case to clean up everything in his area. Whether it had connection with the assassin or not, he just made an excuse not to risk it, so in the end, the guards took for granted. Anyway, they also disliked in some hidden forces so this would be a good way to teach one or two for everyone. While some people were crying badly, Baston just enjoyed his good time in the mansion.
Waking up at the morning then eating the big breakfast, his life was surely enjoyable. He went to the library everyday while waiting for
lunch and dinner. As the guest of the house, he didn't have much capital to attend the family dinner but there would be a few maids who brought the food to him. The big portion was specially cooked for him, making Baston thinking it would be very hard to go diet from this day. However, he wouldn't complain since the food was better than the academy. On this day, no one disturbed him
which was already good. Theodore and his gangs never looked for a trouble anymore. If he met with him on the way, he just nodded and passed him quickly.
Baston also had already took the reward. Because of his sacrifice, he achieved the good performance. Even though his life was in danger for outsider to see, the respect he gained was only moderate. It seemed it was
very hard for the poor class to get higher anymore than this. Anyway, the good
performance was already good so he wouldn't complain. This time, he got Inferno
Insignia.
Particularly, he never used Insignia before because he didn't need it much. But considering this was an item from the old book, it must be quite stronger to use. Just looking at the puppet he got was already
heaven-defying which he could mobilize anytime even though there was a certain
limit. He was also afraid when using this consumable item, it would produce
unexpected result so he swore he would use it when something urgent happened.
The days went by until something really happened. There was a special guest came who was talking about the business. Different from Baston who stayed at the guest house at first, the guests right now were welcomed to the main house. Just this attitude clearly showed how much the prestige the guests had. At the moment, Baston's room was located at the main house. It would be awkward if he bumped into these distinguished guests so he decided to stay at his room for a while.
His plan worked but sometimes, a certain fate would find its own way to bother. When the maid brought the food to Baston's room, the guest accidentally lost his own way and met with the maid. It was at that time that
the fat boy came out from the room to take over the food. He felt a little guilty by watching the maid served him even though he just took advantage about the assassination. When the guest saw him, he thought Baston was also a servant at this mansion. The man misunderstood him because the clothes he wore was an
ordinary one, unlike the nobles here.
"Excuse me, can you guide me to the meeting room? I forget the way back because I'm in a hurry to bring the goods. It's quite heavy, so could you help me bring it too?"
"Ah… Alright…" the maid looked at the goods which was simply impossible for her, but she acquiesced.
"I will help…" Baston suddenly added, making the maid surprised and hesitated.
Baston waved his hand to the maid so as not to speak about his identity to the guest. Rather than staying bored in the room, it was fine to get exercise for a while. Besides, the goods looked heavy so the maid would have a difficult time to bring it with her. It was no problem for him since he already became stronger during the completed quest. As soon as he lifted it, he followed the maid and the guest to the meeting room. When they reached the destination, everyone who recognized Baston was dumbfounded.
"Here! Put it here!" the man pointed to one spot.
Baston easily put the goods down. There was no other task, so he needed to go back. Just looking at Harry with the elders plus the noble guests had already stipulated that it was an important meeting where the
outsider should not hear. Unfortunately, the man from before asked Baston to stay since he needed to perform with the goods. If he did it alone, he was afraid he couldn't take it and would make his lord disappointed on him.
"Lord Harry, pardon me but these goods are very valuable. If my people did it by themselves, I'm afraid they will break them completely. It needs a strong person to take care of it and one of your servants seems handful. I believe with his help, our little experiment here can be done successfully,"
one noble guest said.
Harry looked at Baston and didn't correct the guest since it would be awkward by then, "Then, please… You can arrange it as much as you want."
"Thank you…"
With the help of servant Baston, the man before with another helper quickly uncovered the goods. There were consumable items like magic stones and other thing, but there was also some that needed to be assembled. It was hard job but fortunately, Baston was strong enough to handle it. Now, he wondered what kind of use this instrument did. When everything was ready, it looked like a simple magic scanner.
"Everyone, this magic scanner might be simple, but I assure you that the process inside is very complicated. At the beginning, we can only detect how much stronger the magic level of someone by putting his hands on top of the scanner. With this improvement, the instrument can be used to score how much proficiency that someone already have. Imagine that not only we can know the magic power, we can also deduce how good their ability in magic."
Everyone nodded understandingly. Either being a wizard or a knight, it couldn't be valued by their strength only. The perception of each ability could show how much the proficiency someone had. Just looking at the
sparring between Baston and Theodore before, the people could see clearly that
Baston's ability was higher than his opponent. Even if Theodore had high magic
power, it would be useless since the fat boy could utilize his magic efficiently.
While the noble guest was still giving more explanation, the elders of the family urged the youngsters to come up and tested it for
themselves. They could go personally, but if it showed low scores, whether it was the actual value or the instrument's fault, the lost of face was unbearable. If young kids did the assessment, then it would be easy to appear
benevolent.
Alicia, Theodore, and the rest of kids could only smile bitterly. They all knew if the assessment score was low, they would be
reprimanded. If the score was high, everyone would appreciate their efforts.
Even though the instrument was still in testing stage, no one would underestimate it since it was already brought in front of the head of family. No one dared to play around in front of him, so it must already function like
the usual.
For the noble family, a boy must come first for this testing. Theodore then took the lead, taking the magic instrument on his hand
and with the help of the assistants around, it started to operate once the magic stone was inserted as the source of energy. Different from ordinary one, it needed much magic energy since the assessment was quite complicated. After waiting for a few seconds, the score displayed on small screen.
"Magic power is 300. It seems the score is same as the month before. There's also wind proficiency, casting speed, mana reservoir, and few others. The overall score for my wind magic is 75 from 100. I think it's good
enough…"
Theodore was quite happy but the elders around started to think about the instrument. Not only it had basic measurement, it could also measure another ability from wizards. Looking at Theodore, one by one contemplated the benefit. They knew their magic power, but they were curious about their proficiency in wind magic. The boys and girls lined up and found their scores were quite satisfying. Of course, they must not neglect their training and had to keep hard work on developing.
From the younger generation, Alicia was still the highest with magic power about 350 and the overall score was 85 of her wind magic.
Looking at her daughter, Harry nodded happily. Still, it would be better if she
attended the most prestigious academy. Unfortunately, the matter with Clark made her felt disgusted if she looked at it so as her father, he would just need to tolerate it as long Alicia still showed good development.
Harry then continued to have a conversation with the guests. From what Baston heard, this magic instrument would be used only for nobles. It would be limited for some prestigious noble families and royalty to be exact since this thing was actually an investment from many of them. By doing this, they could make sure the nobles had their advantage while others would be in
the dark for the same magic development.
Baston could only sigh that being a noble in this world was too much. Not only how much the benefit they could take, they also had their own priority of this magic instrument. No wonder people like Rembrant also wished to be a noble. Even though life would be easy with the money he had, it would be empty if people didn't taste the power of authority. That was why many merchants would try the hardest to reach upon nobility once in a lifetime. Much money felt bland for them and the one thing that could keep with their motivation was using the noble's authority to deal with something.
All the people then went back to their rooms after holding a small presentation of the assessment. Before the guests went back, the Xavierius family would hold lunch and dinner party as a part of their hospitality. Baston as a temporary servant surely didn't have the right to attend it, but because the guests were having good impression of his strength, they asked for him to join as a matter of thankful praise. The fat boy lamented his fate because his daily life seemingly couldn't let go of delicious food. He thought about diet every day, but the temptation was too strong.
By the time the lunch was held, everyone came to dining room. The family and the guests were at the main table while Baston took a seat far from them. As the lowly one, he had to keep checking his manner. In the
meantime, he should busy himself with the food here for now. However, the old book that Baston kept inside him suddenly gave a tremor, signifying a new quest. The fat boy frowned because he never thought a quest suddenly popped up in this ocassion.