We spend the rest of the afternoon discussing about spell structures, he’s really studious so he has a lot of the conventional theories memorised. I on the other hand hardly know any of the magic theories, but with basic knowledge from my previous world, I know the many mysteries yet to be fully explored by the Mages, like the concept of gravity.

We both gain a lot from the exchange.

As night approached, he promised he’ll introduce me to his friends tomorrow. I agreed of course.

It is tiring to act the part of a introverted person while trying to get close to someone, but there can’t be too much of a discrepancy between the old me and the current me. I plan to slowly change my image within the class, and noble circles, but it’s all going to still take time.

I head towards the gate, as I bid Xun Zhou farewell.

I spot my family’s carriage in the distance.

As I get on the carriage, Leticia enters with me.

“As you’ve ordered, young master, I’ve investigated into the nobles families in the Kingdom. It’s all surface information, as for those that meet your criteria, there’s only three.”

“Oh, that’s surprising, I would have been glad if just one was found, well done.”

“Thank you. The three that meet your criteria are the Bao family, the Beelze family and the Yun family. All of these families are well-known merchant families, having established themselves for at least a decade. The Bao and the Beelze family both have only one male descendant in the current generation. As for the Yun family, they are left with only one male descendant now, but their current young master had 2 older brothers before. It was said that during a caravan journey, they were robbed by bandits and subsequently killed, hence the youngest son is extremely valued by the current head.”

It’s surprising, since the culture here seems to involve rich families having multiple partners, which is why they tend to have large families. Even my father, who’s not known to be a philanderer, has 4 Sons in total, including me.

“Figure out the places that the two young masters in the Bao and Beelze family frequent, as well as the timings. Ignore the Yun family.”

“Yes, young master.”

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that something else was at play in the Yun family incident. However, it’s not my business, and I don’t intend to get involved in the mess.

“How about the other matter?”

“Yes, young master. I’ve looked into all the shop houses in the common district, there are a total of 284 unoccupied shop houses, out of the existing 1000. The reasons vary from the old owner passing on, the business not being profitable and so on. The average price of such a shop house would be 50 Silvers in deposit and 10 Silvers a month.”

“Alright, here’s around 5 gold, rent 50 of these for three months. Make sure that they are located in clusters of about 3 per cluster. Use the rest of the money to buy signboards for each of them. It doesn’t have to be expensive material, but must come from a store that makes signs for nobility. As for the name, name it ‘Supreme Pavillion’.”

“Y-Young master, that name is abit…”

“Arrogant? It’s fine, that’s just the way I need it to be. Just do as I said.”

“Yes, young master.”

As our conversation finishes, I peer out of the carriage, admiring the scenery with a smile. I didn’t actually experience much pain from the incident, I cast another Wind Impact against the Fireball before it hit afterall. The small grazes were worth the outcome.

This chance I took to provoke him, implied that there’s certainly some conflict going on for the seat of the successor. I’m not particularly happy that my conjecture was correct, my smile moves to a slight frown.