Josh spent the night restlessly. The nightmares of the day before haunted him, not letting him get into a deep sleep. When the small rays of sunlight seeped into his room, signaling dawn, he was already wide awake. The black circles under his eyes showed how much sleep he had gotten the previous night.

  Still feeling yesterday's grime, he shook the bell on his bedside table calling Bella to his room.

  Moments later, Bella hurried into his quarters. She curtsied deeply, her gaze facing the ground. “How may I serve you, Milord?” she asked.

  “Prepare a bath for me please,” Josh requested. “And add clean clothes to that as well.”

  Bella hesitated, her head tilting slightly in confusion. “You washed yourself off yesterday, Milord?”

  Josh paused. “Yes?”

  Don’t tell me, we’re like medieval Christians, where taking care of your body was considered a sin.

  Not letting the awkward silence continue, Josh cleared his voice. “From now on, I want you to prepare a warm bath for me every single morning,” he requested, highlighting that he truly meant every single morning.

  Bella, still confused, replied. “Of course, Milord. It is only… unusual for someone to bathe so often.”

  Josh sighed in response. “Well, I will bathe myself that often, And I wish for all my servants to do that as well.” Josh requested his tone leaving no room for argument. “At least once every three days, you are to take a full body bath,” he quickly added. “And I want you to do it with fresh water, not water that someone else bathed in but completely fresh water. Make sure to tell that to other servants as well.”

  Bella curtsied once more, her expression still puzzled. “As you wish, Milord,” she said before hurrying off to fulfill his request.

  With at least an hour to spare before his bath would be ready, Josh went to the study room, where his attempts to decipher the foreign language proved once more to be futile. So he took the same picture book he read yesterday, hoping its minimal amount of words together with illustrations would help him to learn at least some of the foreign language.

  ***

  The bath helped Josh clear not only the grime from his body, but also cleared his mind. As he headed towards the dining hall, his thoughts turned grim as he thought about the fallen guards.

  I need to make sure that the guards that died… Bert’s and Bart's families get properly compensated. He thought to himself as he opened the doors to the dining hall.

  He gasped as he entered the dining hall. A woman of otherworldly beauty occupied one of the seats by the dining table. Her lean, graceful curves and towering height of at least seven feet created an astonishing figure. Her pale, sleek face was flawless, not a single blemish to be seen. Long pointed ears and flowing silver hair only enchanted her beauty.

  Is that an elf?

  Josh, still charmed by her beauty tried to introduce himself but was interrupted as she raised her hand to prevent him from interrupting her breakfast. She ate eloquently, and her table manners seemed so refined that it was only fit for nobles and royals.

  Deciding that the time best spent waiting would be by filling his stomach, Josh joined her at the dining table, where a warm plate of porridge together with a cup of watered-down ale was placed.

  It didn’t take more than ten minutes for both of them to finish the breakfast. She stood up, her gaze instructing Josh to do the same.

  “That’s the royal decree that declares you as a Baron of these lands,” she said, handing him a yellow scroll, closed with a red seal of a three-headed dragon. “And these are the funds allocated to you for becoming a new noble,” she handed him a small leather pouch filled with a dozen platinum coins.

  Josh stood confused as he looked into the tall woman’s eyes that, despite his six-foot-two height, towered over him. “Uhh, Thank you, lady?” Josh stuttered.

  “Elaria Kryos,” she coldly introduced herself. “Magus of the 4th circle, and your personal assigned guide.”

  Magus… Guide… She has to teach me magic, no?

  “Josh Brookes,” Josh introduced himself back as he put his hand out for a handshake, while barely managing to hold the scroll and the pouch in his other hand.

  She looked into his hand confusingly. As Josh cleared his voice. “That’s how we greet each other back from where I’m from,” he explained.

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  Elaria sighed in response.“Well, that’s not how we do things here, Baron Josh,” she said, refusing to grab Josh’s hand before instructing him to follow her.

  Josh awkwardly held his arm in the air, before quickly lowering it and following after his new guide.

  Well, that was rude.

  They headed steadily, taking large strides through the halls to one of the guest rooms on the second floor of the manor, which once they reached Elaria headed inside instucting Josh to wait for her.

  Confusingly, Josh stopped by the doors to the guest room, still holding the scroll and the small pouch of the coins.

  Only minutes later of waiting, Elaria stepped out holding a book that she handed over to Josh. “Find me once you read this and the royal decree.”

  “Uhh, Lady Elaria I can’t read this world’s language…” Josh stuttered out, taking the book into his hands.

  She sighed. “Of course, you can’t read,” she whispered quietly, more to herself than to Josh.

  Raising both of her hands she drew some kind of runes in the air and said a chant out loud [Oculus Comprehensio].

  Isn’t that fucking Latin? I’m pretty sure Oculus means eyes, sight, or something like that.

  As soon as her chant finished, light blue motes flew towards his eyes, leaving Josh with a tingling sensation as if ants were inside his eyes.

  “You should be able to comprehend this book and the decree in whichever language you are familiar with for the next half-day,” she said to Josh before closing the doors, leaving Josh with no further explanations.

  Definitely very, very rude.

  ***

  Josh spent the next several hours in his study room, struggling as he forced himself to read the most boring book that ever existed. ‘Proper etiquette and customs of Pertis Kingdom’

  It explained the ranking system, which was fiefdom-based. To simplify, a Baronet answered to the Baron, who in turn answered either to the Viscount or Count. While the Count to Earl or a Marquis or even in some rare cases to Duke directly.

  As if that was not enough of Noble titles. There was a Margrave who was only directly under the Duke, but more focused on border defense rather than internal politics. And then there was Arch Duke, who was basically a King’s brother who somehow didn’t die in the succession and occupied a high position. And if that wasn’t enough, there were Grand Dukes who were elected by the Dukes to represent the Noble faction.

  As for the Magus title that Elaria introduced herself by. It’s equivalent to a Viscount in administrative powers. But with no lands granted to govern, only noble ranks are granted lands.

  For the royal decree, it raised even more questions for Josh. It told him that he had been granted the lands of a previous Baronet Bran Daim, together with the guidance of 4th circle Magus Elaria, and that he should prepare himself for a call by the kingdom. Since there was some kind of vague prophecy about disaster to come in the future.

  The manners described in the book were a real headache for Josh, which to summarize was kissing the ass of the higher rank noble, don’t insult them, bowing when you see them, and addressing them by their noble title.

  It also spoke of a code of chivalry for mana users, which was kinda similar to the code of chivalry for Knights back on Earth. It explained that you needed to defend the mana-less people, don’t kill a mana user that is a tier below you, avoid cruelty, and all that stuff that is expected of the strong people.

  He sighed, closing the book and leaving a bookmark in the middle of the book.

  Real pain in the ass. He thought as he headed out to find Elaria.

  Only moments later he found her in the decrepit garden of the manor, where from somewhere an umbrella shading her from the sun appeared, together with a small table on which a cup of tea was placed. She seemed to be reading a book as Josh approached her.

  He took a slight bow. “Magus Elaria, I come up with a couple of questions while reading the book and the royal decree.”

  “Speak, Baron Josh,” she nodded, acknowledging his greetings.

  “Why was the previous Lord a Baronet, yet I’ve been granted a Baron title?” Josh asked politely.

  Contemplating for a second, she answered. “You have the potential to control a spirit core, otherwise known as a town core. Controlling it requires a mana rating of at least five, which the previous Lord didn’t have.”

  “A spirit core?”

  “It fosters the town and the surrounding land, making it more fertile and its inhabitants better at controlling mana, including various other benefits. Yet you shouldn’t worry about it too much as your land doesn’t seem to have one since they are pretty rare, only around half of the summonees got land that already had an active or dormant spirit core,” she explained to him.

  So basically I qualify for controlling the spirit core for whatever it is, which in turn granted me a free promotion from a baronet.

  “The decree also mentions a disaster coming in the future?”

  “I guess you could call it a disaster or a crisis,” she smirked. “There were seven cities and fifty-two towns without a suitable Lord to command its core. Which in turn made these cores dormant, with no one to take control of them, as even I who reached the rank of Magus at the age of twenty-eight only have a mana rating of four.”

  “Is that all?” Josh angrily retorted, not believing that he was pried from his home world to take control of a magic ball that he doesn’t even have.

  “Watch your tone,” Elaria sternly replied, which made Josh lower his gaze in turn, remembering the teachings of the book he read before coming to ask the questions.

  She sighed before continuing to explain. “There’s always some kind of disaster going in this Kingdom of ours, whether it be famine north or wars, even internal strifes are common. My rank isn’t high enough to know for what kind of disaster you were summoned.”

  Before, Josh asked for another one of the countless questions filling his mind.

  Elaria interrupted him, waving her hand. “Now go eat your lunch and then meet me in the garden, we shall learn how to sense mana then.”

  The prospect of magic shook the anger away from Josh as he left quickly for the dining hall.