All things considered the plans for his birthday progressed well, Branston Falconbridge mused to himself, his most trusted retainers as well as family had already been invited. This year would be special though, as it was a year of the ceremony.

On the day before his birthday he would visit an orphanage adopting one of the orphans there. On the next day, the orphan would officially be recognized as a part of his house, getting the official birthday set at the same day as the adopting noble if it was previously unknown.

Of course, things had gone too smooth, as shortly before dusk a letter bearing the imperial sigil arrived. That meant it came directly from the emperor, or one of his scribes. He was commanded to conduct a ‘proper’ ceremony. That was infuriating, as he thought the way things were handled in the capital completely unfitting for someone who called himself noble. Throwing a child in an unfamiliar environment was one thing that would always happen if someone adopted it, and most children would adapt quickly enough. But throwing a child in an unfamiliar environment and then showing it off like some kind of trophy was just despicable, as it was sure to terrify any child causing it to close up and retreat into itself, a simply unnecessary and cruel thing to do.

He knew why the tradition developed this way in the capital, the nobles here were solely depending on their noble title after all, and on one hand, they wanted to feel morally superior by helping an orphan, on the other hand they actually didn't want anyone who ‘didn't deserve it’ to be like them, because of that there were two types of nobles in the capital, the ones born into nobility and those that weren't, so the nobles born into their title always held went out of their way like this to instill a sense of inferiority into the children, just plain disgusting if you asked him.

After thinking hard bow to get out of this dilemma, he decided to send an answer to the emperor asking for clarification of his orders.

As it turned out his hunch was correct, the emperor didn't care about the ceremony, as the letter he received later that week was clearly thrown together without much care, probably by one of the emperor's scribes.

Obviously the scribe had no idea of a proper ceremony, as he probably was no noble, and the definition of the meaning of a ceremony he got was that several nobles not of his family had to be present to confirm he actually adopted the child.

The letter confirmed his suspicions that the emperor only commanded him on the urging of the capitals noble population. They definitely were the type to do so, the noble that tried to ruin this day would come to regret this in the coming months though. Without further ado he sent out several of his informants to find the culprit of this mess.

He got the information he wanted only a day later, the noble in question not being subtle at all for once. Of course it had to be Viscount Snaketon, while until now he had been a minor annoyance at best, some things went too far, and trying to ruin his birthday and ceremony was one such thing. Until now he mostly held back his personal feelings when dealing with him, but now the other noble had crossed a line the intelligent people in the empire knew not to cross when dealing with him. He was fine with his rivals trying to ruin his enterprises, as he enjoyed a good rivalry and knew competition to be beneficial for economy and innovation.

When people started trying to kill his employees or invade his personal life they crossed a line that would not easily be forgiven. As he found just killing people distasteful as well as illegal he normally chose to ruin them financially, that would be hard to do against a Viscount. He would have to do something else, probably worse for the capitals noble population though, he would completely ruin his social standing.

He would surely need help with that though, as his experience with the finer workings of the capitals nobility still eluded him, he only had three years of time to adapt after all.

A week later his planning for the ceremony had advanced by a fair margin, his son had performed exceptionally when planning the ball, so he once again relied on his help. Unlike the pesky nobles pressuring the emperor thought, there would be no open ball to attend to this time.

He sent out his informants to find all the dirt he was sure they would find if he digged properly, it would probably take quite some time to find enough, as the Viscount, while unfit to govern any lands was quite skilled in hiding his tracks normally. Nothing to worry about though, as he was a very patient person and the viscount would feel safe if no immediate retaliation happened, the young people always seemed unable to properly plan ahead.

His birthday was in two months time, which would be more than enough time to plan a big ceremony. Of course that wouldn't happen, the guidelines he got from the emperor forced him to invite several nobles to attend so they could confirm the child actually got adopted, complete idiocy of course, as there would be no use in not doing so. Instead of planning a ball like the nobles expected him to, he would invite a few old friends and rivals, most were nobles governing their own lands, mainly in the northern part of the empire.

As there would be several nobles attending that were no part of his house the conditions given by the emperor would be fulfilled, while he would still get the better of those wanting to mess with him and at the same time get to see some old friends.

The preparations needed while nothing compared to a ball, where still quite time consuming and would be expensive as well.

His son once again proved his capabilities in planning social events and the like, making the Baron wonder why he hadn't made him plan such events back in his duchy, at least until he remembered there were none as he never saw any value in them.

The ceremony would take place inside of his mansion this time, as there wouldn't be as many people attending this time. Ge still got his mages to arrange an impressive show, but only to the benefit of the child he would adopt.

In the next week several nobles in and out of the capital received an unexpected message by Baron Falconbridge, inviting them to take part in his ceremony in seven weeks time.

Count Crowdrait always wondered why his former rival fell from glory three years ago, it had always been fun to compete with the Grand Duke’s enterprises and the outcome benefitted both of them as their people developed better ways to produce goods. While normally a Count had no way to compete with a grand duke, this had been different as the north had to fight constant monster incursions which bound a big part of the duchy to it's defense, the remaining resources were then split up to several of his rivals projects, enabling him to compete with some of them.

He had always thought the Baron a great man, so when he got the message spell, after wondering how the Baron managed to reach him, he answered the spell.

“Good day Count I appreciate you managed to answer my message so quickly!”

“Good day to you too, I have to admit I was surprised to hear from you. I didnt think i'd hear from you ever again, not after our last meeting.”

“I may not be a grand duke anymore, but I do have my sources. Anyway I contacted you because you always were one of the most competent nobles in the empire, I was informed you wanted to visit the capital in three months time and wanted to invite you to the ceremony I will be holding this year, it would of course mean you’d have to accelerate your plans.”

A most curious request. “Why invite me, the capital is practically busting with nobles!”

“You may know I dislike the way things like this are done in the capital, and hadn't planned on hosting anything at all, but alas the nobles were goaded by Viscount Snaketon to pressure the emperor to force me to hold a ‘proper’ ceremony. I know you see this matter like me and I would like to not traumatise the child i’ll adopt!”

“How does inviting me stop a proper ceremony?”

“After inquiring about what a proper ceremony is, I got told I needed several nobles not belonging to my house to witness it.”

Obviously his rivals intellect wasn't diminished by living in the capital, the Count had once been an orphan himself and had been adopted by his late father. Back then the policy the baron spoke about was just getting popular in the capital, and he had been on the receiving end, of course it hadn't been as bad back then. As the ceremony was something he wholeheartedly supported he was disgusted by the nobles destroying it's spirit.

“Of course I’ll arrange to be there!”

“Very well, see you in seven weeks Count Crowdrait!”

He wouldn't really be inconvenienced by it anyways, his yearly visit to the capital being right around the corner.

Viscount Bearsted was equally pleased and surprised to receive a message from his old friend Branston. The two of them had been part of quite the successful adventuring team, together with another eight noble children, until duty called at least and they had to disperse because the emperor commanded them to take over their parents lands. He only learned of his old friend fall well after it happened, his lands being in the most north-eastern part of the empire. As Branston didn't see the need to inform him or the others, he obviously saw it as nothing important.

So when he was asked to come and visit the old fox for his ceremony there was really nothing to think about, he got up and was on his way towards the empire.

When he reached his castle’s gates, responsibility trained by decades of being a lord came through for a short amount of time, and he called up his advisors and told them his son would be representing him in his absence. They were long used to his antics and didn't even properly try to argue with him, though they managed to convince him to take a mount with him, as he could return faster after his business was concluded.

He still wondered why he was given his own land to govern, even he thought himself way too irresponsible to do so. He did it to the best of his abilities though and with Branston gone his lands were among the most flourishing in the surrounding area.

After preparing his mount, a Ephox, a nimble mammal that excelled in travelling the wilderness, he set out to the capital arriving in the capitals surrounding area a month later. Travelling to the capital had been fun, not one to use such things as streets he travelled in a direct line between capital and his castle, running into nothing dangerous, the only mildly curious thing he met was a lesser drake that thought it intelligent to try and eat the lone human camping in its territory, an assumption that didn't pay off too well for it, but gave him and his mount some very nice meals for the next few days.

He was now really looking forwards to a real bed, as the journey had reminded him of his advancing age.

The next weeks would probably be interesting enough, he was especially excited about who his old friend would pick up this time, as he always had a hand for finding the rare gems among the orphans in his duchy, and the capital was sure to have several.