Lin Qi was a very special person.
The real reason Mr. Patu was willing to become friends with Lin Qi was that Lin Qi had received a title personally bestowed by the Gefra Emperor.
Because he was a noble—a true noble, with nothing fabricated about his status. The Akiner Family was also supposedly a "noble family," but the authenticity of that claim was questionable.
The rumors circulating outside were the greatest proof of that doubt. No one had ever pointed at a Gefran noble and said that the man's noble title was questionable.
Because everyone knew that their noble titles had been personally bestowed by the emperor.
Whether they were nobles or not, there was a documented lineage.
Who each generation's heir was, which nobles had witnessed them receiving the emperor's permission to inherit the title—these things were all passed down and recorded.
Every generation followed the same process, so there was no way to fake who was and was not a noble.
But the Akiner Family was different. They merely kept saying that their ancestor, the first Earl Akiner, had been one of the first Pioneers on the continent and the only noble among them.
They could even list the Family Head of every generation, when each one had inherited the position, and when they had passed it on.
But... did saying it make it true? Without more nobles to bear witness, without a title bestowed by the royal family, sometimes what you claimed to be was not necessarily what you were! People would rather believe that Akiner had originally been a lowly guard serving a noble, and that he had killed the real Earl Akiner to seize his property and assume his identity, than believe that the blood flowing through the Akiner Family's veins was genuine noble blood!