Noble Emblem

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Walking into the village, Behring leads the way in front, Liang Li Dong follows behind. Meanwhile, even further behind follows a crowd of people, most of them are dirty snot nosed kids and some adults among them. A small border village like this hardly has 1 or 2 outsiders coming in a year so every time there is visitors from outside, people from the village will drop whatever not so important things they are doing to crowd and watch. This is also the rare entertainment of the villagers every year.

If it is just regular visitors, villagers and kids might dare to talk about them. If it is minor n.o.bles, they will still dare to talk quietly. But Liang Li Dong is decked in red follower’s robe, red cape and there is multiple magic lines flowing with blue glow on top. With this dress up, villagers only dare to look from behind and not dare to talk casually.

To ordinary people, n.o.bles are already an unreachable group of people, while spellcasters are even above n.o.bles in status. Be it mages, warlocks or priests, these people who can use supernatural powers are mysterious and scary. Even if few km away, if you talk behind their backs, they will still know and will come to you at night to give you the scariest punishment like for example, turning people into frogs……

Ordinary people held spellcasters in awe thinking they are spokesman of G.o.d. And in fact it is, most mage are followers of G.o.ddess of magic, priests are believers of G.o.d and borrow G.o.d’s power to spread miracles. Only warlocks who are born to cast spell have not much relation to G.o.d but even so, most warlocks will still choose to believe in a G.o.d who has similar ideals.

Behring was afraid of Liang Li Dong in the beginning but the latter successfully used the socializing techniques he trained for 8 years in the game to overcome the young girl’s fear in him. ‘n.o.ble’s Temperament’ is a really good feat, it is totally possible to use the sense of pride from ‘n.o.ble’s Temperament’ to establish an invisible barrier between people you hate and make the other party not contact you. While for people you like, ‘n.o.ble’s Temperament’ can change into an unique attraction which makes people feel that Liang Li Dong is n.o.ble and gentle, even in heated negotiations, ‘n.o.ble’s Temperament’ can also change into an oppressive aura to dampen the other party’s imposing aura and let Liang Li Dong gain the upper hand in the negotiations.

Now Behring is totally affected by the feat ‘n.o.ble’s Temperament’. Every time they pa.s.s by a household, she will happily introduce the family’s situation to Liang Li Dong in detail.

“This is Auntie Jessica’s house, her husband died more than 10 years ago, has a 21 years old son, Brother Thor and a 8 years old daughter, Sister Rafi but others are saying Sister Rafi is Grandpa Hawkins’ daughter. Why? Grandpa Hawkins is a man, how can he give birth to children……”

“This is Uncle Nicholas’ house, he is a blacksmith. His family is the richest in the village other than the Village Head’s family……”

“Here it is, this is the Village Head’s house!” Behring stops in front of a big white house.

The houses in the village are mostly yellow adobe houses with roof being laid with straw but this house is obviously different. It is a 3-storey house, not including the courtyard, the house itself is about 200 square meters. The triangular roof is covered with blue-stone tile. The outer wall is built using white Rigan stone. These stone are very good building materials. In the game when Liang Li Dong became a Thane, he mined ores, did business with ores and Rigan stone is a product that has small profits but quick turnover.

Of course, for players, it is small profits but quick turnover but for NPC commoners in the game, Rigan stone is still an expensive building material. A small house made entirely out of Rigan stone cost the price to feed a normal family of five for 20 years.

From the looks of this house, the village head is really one of the richer family in the village. But Liang Li Dong also saw that this outer wall of this house is hanging with vines and algae. Slight yellow stains already seeped through the surface of the Rigan stone of the originally white outer wall. This shows that this house has a history of at least 100 years.

Seems like the village head family is kind of like a aristocratic family in this village.

Behring goes to the fence of the courtyard and shakes the copper green palm-size bell hanging on it. Behring’s nice young girl voice rings with the sound of the bell: “Grandpa – Village – Head, there – is – guest!”

“Coming, coming!” A hoa.r.s.e but full of energy voice of a old man comes out from the window on the 2nd floor. After a while, the wooden door on the first floor, which is mottled with traces of time like the outer wall, opens. An elderly with gray and white hair and a kind smile and also seemingly ordinary appears at the doorsteps. He stares at Behring kindly and smiles: “Shouldn’t you be shepherding goats now, why did you come back, your father might just beat you!”

“He won’t beat me!” Behring points to Liang Li Dong behind her: “I brought you an important guest.”

Village head seems to have myopia, he squints his eyes and walks to the fence with doubt. After managing to see Liang Li Dong’s face and get-up, the surprise made his amiable smiling face turn serious. His right hand placed in front of his chest and slightly bows: “Your Excellency Priest[1], I’m the village head of this village, Caspar – Reed! Pleasured to meet you!”

Liang Li Dong is wearing believer’s robe and believers normally can be referred to as priests, Village Head did not treat Liang Li Dong as bishop[2] and can even tell his status. This means he is a sophisticate and also Village Head’s salute is very stable without any trace of panic when seeing big-shots. This shows that Village Head frequently meets up with people from the upper-cla.s.s so he is very calm.

“Beta, G.o.ddess Waukeen’s believer!” Liang Li Dong continues to bluff: “To spread G.o.ddess’ glory, I pa.s.sed by this place but unfortunately lost my way and wishes to rest here for a period of time. I can do things within my means to pay for the fees required for accommodation. Is Village Head willing to shelter this lost traveler?”

“Ascetic believer?” Village Head’s face shows signs of surprise!

Liang Li Dong nods. Ascetic believers are special priests who are in charge of spreading G.o.d’s ideals. They travel around the world looking for places to build new temple.Typically,  ascetic believers are very popular because they are not pure combat spellcasters but spreader of truth. Of course they are armed with special skills because all kinds of danger lurk in the journey. If unable to dealt with, there is no way to spread G.o.d’s glory.

Getting Liang Li Dong’s confirmation, Village Head’s face brightens up. He quickly says: “Able to have Your Excellency stay here is the most glorious thing to happen to our Reed family in more than 100 years. Please enter……” He then turns his head to the young girl besides him and says: “Behring, go get Kyle to come back. He is practicing swordplay in the empty s.p.a.ce behind the village!”

Young girl leaves with a hop.

“Please!”

Liang Li Dong follows the village head’s footsteps into the house. The first thing that comes into view is a portrait hanging on the wall. The portrait is of a handsome man holding a burning long sword in his left hand and a shield in his right hand. A flame emblem is engraved on the shield. The man is wearing chain mail and stepping on an ugly devil.

Village Head notices Liang Li Dong’s sight and proudly says: “This is my ancestor, legendary hero, Kite – Reed. 500 years ago, he single-handedly defeated the devil which revived from h.e.l.l, Modi Deboro and then rejected the king’s invitation to become the leader of royal cavalry and returned to hometown alone and went into seclusion. Ancestor is so great but us descendants being so weak is a shame to our ancestor’s glory.”

Legendary hero Kite – Reed exists in the game but mostly comes out from the mouth of bards in taverns. Liang Li Dong’s cla.s.s is n.o.ble, his game experience is mostly developing territory and battling with other forces. Discovering game’s history is what the cla.s.s ‘Wandering Scholar’ will do. But he has heard things about this legendary hero.

“I have heard about your ancestor. Back then after Modi – Deboro’s revival, the first thing he did was destroyed a small nation which name I can’t remember and then led countless undead towards Holevin.” Liang Li Dong does not really believe Village Head is the descendant of legendary hero but he definitely will not show his opinions. Instead he follows the flow and flatters: “Holevin’s king Haydn V orders a counterattack but the army wasn’t a match. As Modi’s army march close in to the capital, a young man stood up at that time. He charged into the undead army alone and killed Modi with his sword. He was unbelievably strong!”

Hahahaha! Seeing Liang Li Dong so clear about his ancestor’s glorious deeds, Village Head is very happy. He feels Liang Li Dong is even more pleasing to his eyes already. In the past, when talking about his ancestor’s deeds to the villagers, they treat it as a story. While telling it to other n.o.bles, n.o.bles could not care less, an unknown village’s lowest kind of n.o.ble, if they did not still have their emblem, the upper cla.s.s of Holevin would have treated them as commoners. No one will believe their ancestor is the legendary hero Kite – Reed.

Village Head offers a seat to Liang Li Dong and says: “Where does Lord Beta plans to go to spread G.o.d’s grace?”

“Wherever G.o.d needs me to go!” Liang Li Dong puts on an act: “I believe when I find it, G.o.d will give signs.”

Village Head’s expression moves: “How about Priest Beta stay in our village…… Although our village is not rich but providing for a small temple is not……”

Thud…… Before Village Head can finish his words, a young man barges in and shouts: “Grandpa, I heard from Behring there is a distinguished guest in our house and is a Lord Bishop who can cast spells?”

This is a fair-skinned teenage around 15/16 years old with short blonde hair but not as conspicuous as Liang Li Dong’s shiny gold hair. His hair is dark blonde but full of l.u.s.ter. In addition, this teenage is very handsome, just the looks is more conspicuous than Liang Li Dong but because his face still looks childish unlike Liang Li Dong’s calm and amiable and with Liang Li Dong’s Cla.s.s trait ‘n.o.ble’s Temperament’ adding on so Liang Li Dong looks more handsome than teenager.

For charm, looks makes up a part of it, temperament makes up another part of it and character makes up yet another part of it.

“Kyle, what are you shouting for!” Village Head stands up and says unhappily: “Come and meet Priest Beta!”

“I’m just being anxious!” Teenager touches his head and smiles awkwardly. He walks up to Liang Li dong and looks at the latter with yearn: “h.e.l.lo, distinguished Lord Priest, I’m Kyle, the one with the best swordsmanship in this village. I heard you can cast spell, can you teach me magic, I can give you all the money I saved up!”

T/L note 1: The village head is calling Beta Priest together with honorific. I cannot think of any way to make it not sound weird.

T/L note 2: In the original text, 神官 Shen Guan is being used. Shen Guan literally means G.o.d’s officer. They are literally G.o.d’s spokesperson. But it is hard to find a translation for such role so i just used Bishop.