Blood Shaper

The celebration lasted well into the night and for some people several hours into the next day. Carousing and merrymaking went on for hours as people ate, drank, and partied. The massive feast inside the square was a rotating affair with people eating and then leaving to allow more visitors and citizens a chance to partake in the meal provided and see Kay from a little bit closer. There were fights and arguments as there always are in populated events, but most people were at least trying to behave and that made things work out overall.

The food was great, with a wide variety available across the square, with different sections having different selections with predetermined areas serviced by different cooks, chefs, and restaurants. For the normal citizens and the less affluent visitors and prospective immigrants the feast was similar to a buffet, but not an “all you can eat” one. Each person was given a large plate that could hold a hefty serving as allowed to take as much as they could fit on it, but there were no second helpings since there were thousands of people to feed over the multiple hours long event.

For the visitors with some level of power, whether that meant people with connections to get them into the higher end area of the feast or delegates from various polities and organizations, it was a multi-course meal made with high quality ingredients by high-tier Chefs and comparable Classes. There were still enough people that more than one kitchen’s worth of cooks was needed to feed everyone, so the meals were different even among the wealthy, connected, and powerful. Instead of making everyone follow the same menu, Kay had asked each restaurant or chef to make the best menu they could and present that. It was a little irregular, but at the feast celebrating the coronation of a king who was both and Outworlder and a Class Line Progenitor, irregular was expected. It helped that all of the meals were delicious.

Kay’s own meal, shared by his new noble, his Ministers and advisers, and the members of Parliament that had won the right to stand close to Kay during the coronation, was prepared by chefs provided by Kolm Davidson’s restaurant. The, likely very high-tier, restaurateur and entrepreneur had politely insisted that his people be allowed to cook for Kay during the important event, and while Kay was sure it wouldn’t count as payment for the favor Kay owed the man for bringing advance warning about the army marching on Avalon giving him the chance to advertise through the feast would hopefully earn some good will when it came time to pay Kolm back.

The food was delicious, the company was enjoyable, and Kay only had to sternly drive off a handful of people trying to approach him to talk business before everyone else got the message and decided to wait till later. None of them were his people who already knew that Kay was more interested in enjoying at least one part of the day where he permanently bound himself to responsibility and duty instead of trying to wheel and deal. That wasn’t the entirety of what becoming king meant or the only feelings he had, but it was going to be a lot of work for the rest of his life and he wanted to relax and enjoy the good food, not have conversations about trade and possible alliances to distract him from how delicious the roast dinosaur was.

Based on the glances they’d shot and their body language a god number of the people who’d approached him wanted to speak to Cindy more than him which wasn’t unexpected but was equally unwelcome, not only because she was seated at Kay’s right hand and he’d be stuck listening to the conversation anyway. Cindy deserved to relax and enjoy the moment as much as Kay did, and she also didn’t have the answers to most of the questions he expected people to ask her, mostly because they hadn’t decided yet. The lands she would be given control of would obviously include the growing town they’d used to disguise their firearm production facilities, but how large would they be? What shape would they take? Would the town grow into a city and be the capital of her duchy or would they pick a different location for that? No one knew, least of all Cindy, not yet at least.

And the other questions they’d be asking weren’t going to be answered for other reasons. Moving into a more defined relationship of subordinate and superior wasn’t going to hurt their friendship, in private at least who knows how their public personae might shift over time, but she was now a duchess and he was now her king, meaning professional roles had shifted, and she needed his permission to perform the one action the vast majority of people coming to speak to her would be asking about, bestowing noble titles. Kay trusted Cindy as far as he could conceive of, but he didn’t trust any individual noble that would be appointed later on, so he was starting as he meant to continue. Once a king had appointed a noble they then gained the ability to appoint lower nobles. Only kings or queens could appoint dukes or duchesses, or whatever they called the highest level of their nobility, Kay had decided to use the English naming schema since it was the only one he knew to any level, but Cindy now had the power to appoint someone to any level of nobility lower than her own, and anyone she gave a title to would have the same ability.

Somewhere along the line there would be a prospective noble that didn’t make the cut for one reason or another, and Kay didn’t want people who didn’t deserve or couldn’t be trusted with power the chance to slip through and become a noble of his kingdom, which was why he was going to make it law that all appointments of nobility must be approved by the king. He’d probably make it a little less stringent once there were more nobles of Avalon out there that he knew he could trust, such as making it possible for a noble to grant someone a title three ranks below their own without his permission or something, but he was never going to allow anyone with a title to start handing out lower titles like candy.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The limited number of remaining questions anyone might ask Cindy had answers that were still some level of secret. They weren’t going to be sharing too many details about guns or the related Classes, they weren’t opening tutelage in those Classes to the public anytime soon, they’d barely started letting a limited number of civilians learn to be Blood Manipulators after all, and Cindy didn’t have a Class tied to her title to give a Class Bonus to her populace, nor was she founding a House yet. Kay hadn’t even had time to found a House and there was no way Amanda was going to let a political faux pa like Kay’s first noble setting up a House before him happen.

The whole founding a House thing hadn’t happened yet because they’d been too busy to work on it, for the most part, but there were some other reasons behind the decision to wait. The early effects of being a member of a House weren’t that powerful and thus weren’t worth focusing on when they could work on the city’s walls instead for example, and it took a while to finalize to the point where the System would recognize a new Noble House and start granting those bonuses. In addition, most countries considered members of a House to be family to each other, even it was adopted family, and that would bring up some interesting questions for Kay and his government, mainly around the question of potential succession.

Technically with the System in charge, the person who succeeded a noble when they died or abdicated was the strongest candidate available, in many cases that person being the one who killed the noble, but not always, and with the nobles of the world having the power, influence, and resources to ensure their family members were as powerful or stronger than they were it meant that while hereditary succession wasn’t the rule, it was a ingrained trend with a very strong following. Making a House meant declaring people as its members and those members would generally be seen as Kay’s adopted relatives and thus viable candidates to becoming the next king or queen if something happened to him. One thing Kay did not want was his brand new kingdom suddenly dividing into political factions supporting potential heirs to his throne that hopefully wasn’t going to need heirs for many years. And with every person he would be willing to have as a member of his new House also happening to be his Ministers, advisers, and other direct subordinates added a pinch of additional political pressures, he written the whole thing off as a problem for later.

Cindy getting a Noble Class in the future and what bonuses it would provide was a different, if similar, question but one with a much more interesting answer. Classes over tier three provided Class Bonuses, which were usually just little boosts to whatever the Class did. For example, the Class Bonus he’d unlocked at tier three of Blood Manipulator made it so Kay spent less mana while using the Blood Manipulation Skill. Class Bonuses were stronger at higher tiers and were lost if someone lost the related Class. The Class Bonuses of Noble Classes, such as Kay’s old Blood Mayor Class, also gave direct bonuses to the citizens under the nobles rule. When he’d still had the Blood Mayor Class anyone living as a citizen of Avalon had gained slightly healthier circulatory systems and an even smaller boost to general health.

Which Class of Cindy’s would eventually evolve into a Noble Class as she tiered it up or what new Noble Class she’d unlock in the future was obviously unknown at that moment, but it would be very interesting to see what bonuses they could provide. What would a Noble Class related to guns give to her populace, or what would people get if she evolved her future sight Class into her Noble Class? It was an interesting thought exercise and to some people a very vital question to learn the answer to, because bonuses from Noble Classes stacked.

Kay wasn’t sure what bonus he gave to his citizens at that exact moment, he’d looked when he’d become Lord of Spilled Blood but he didn’t remember the details while he tried an interesting looking vegetable dish and becoming a king would have changed it somewhat since Noble Class Bonuses got better at higher level of noble titles, even if the name of the Class hadn’t changed, but anyone living in his kingdom and Cindy’s duchy would get both bonuses, once Cindy got the needed Class of course. It made it actively more valuable to live underneath the layers of staggered nobility, as long as the potential bonuses were worthwhile, as people living directly under Kay’s control got less.

The various dignitaries and visitors wanted to know what Cindy could offer them, both to see what kind of bonus she could provided to their daily lives and possibly to their advancements, but also to see if the information was worth selling to others who definitely would want whatever bonus Cindy had. There was a noble in the Bannerthrust Empire Curcius had told Kay about who’s Noble Class Bonus slightly increased the leveling speed of dagger related Skills, and the competition for citizenship of her lands was apparently incredibly cutthroat as people fought, sometimes literally, over a chance to increase the speed of their progression through the tiers by even a small amount. Citizenship in Cindy’s duchy might become a similarly hot commodity and anyone who managed to jump on the opportunity early would have prime positions to benefit.

Cindy already knew all of this of course, there was no way Amanda or Cindy’s devoted butler Colen would ever let her not know all of this, and she was prepared for the future greedy opportunists. Thankfully neither she nor Kay had to think about any of that at the exact moment that they were quietly bickering over whether the au gratin potatoes, infinite blessings on whoever had made sure Torotia had that dish available, or the mashed root vegetable that wasn’t potatoes but was equally as good was better. Those worries and all the other political wheeling and dealing were for tomorrow, and the next several days after that, at minimum.

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