While Urgat and Anko Allen were battling away in the Opu Casino, Xu Yi was already in the Royal Palace, attending a banquet His Majesty the King had held specifically to celebrate the Lampari Kingdom's bountiful harvest.
As a major contributor personally singled out by His Majesty the King, Xu Yi was not only called forward at the start of the banquet and praised before everyone, but also presented with a special reward in public.
To reward Xu Yi and the Xinfei Merchant Guild for their contributions to the harvest, His Majesty the King granted Xu Yi a promotion in rank, raising him from an Honorary Lord to a Kingdom Baron.
An Honorary Lord was merely an honorary title and did not count as true nobility. Becoming a Kingdom Baron, however, meant that Xu Yi had officially entered noble society and become a genuine noble of the Lampari Kingdom.
Everyone attending the banquet was surprised by this reward.
Under the relevant regulations of the Kingdom Noble Council, nobles were forbidden from directly engaging in business. Thus, even nobles who wanted to conduct commercial activities would find an agent to act on their behalf while they directed things from behind the scenes.
Yet His Majesty the King had now made Xu Yi, the president of the Xinfei Merchant Guild, a Kingdom Baron. Although baron was the lowest noble rank, this still amounted to a direct violation of that regulation.
Stranger still, Duke Lisedo, the chairman of the Kingdom Noble Council, was present, yet voiced no objection whatsoever.
As a result, Xu Yi had now become the most unusual baron in the Lampari Kingdom.
This also made everyone realize just how highly His Majesty the King valued Xu Yi.
While Xu Yi received a generous reward, the reward given to the Xinfei