Unfolding Slowly

"Ha, they want to see how much influence and manpower I have outside the official system, don't they? And while they're at it, see how much help the White Folk of Harrison Port can offer me."

Ian saw it as clearly as a mirror.

He understood perfectly well that Marquis Barton had given him a military rank and establishment not merely to acknowledge him as one of their own, but also to see just what forces he possessed in the Southern Ridge—and whether he could hold his coming position as lord.

After all, he was already at the Second Energy Level. He was fully qualified to become a proper Baron Ian. In fact, if Ian had been willing to remain in the Imperial Capital a little longer—say, until the Grand Conference and the subsequent national-local conference had ended, and the mountainfolk rebellion had been confirmed—he could even have used his connection to the Second Prince to become a baron directly, then returned to his territory under that title to suppress the rebellion.

But Ian could not wait. The moment he appeared before Landkeeper Axel, there was a very high chance his identity would be exposed, and then he would be dead as a doornail. So he could only return in the comparatively hasty capacity of a knight.

Still, it was not a major problem. It was merely a matter of order.

The mountainfolk rebellion was real, and every knightly territory had been swept into it. So long as he could quell the chaos in Layan Territory, Marquis Barton could apply to the Imperial Capital and use that achievement to formally enfeoff him as a baron, making him a noble and placing the entirety of the former Layan Territory under his control.

But that depended on whether he could accomplish it.