Chapter 21: Nobility Hierarchy
For the following few weeks, Andrew made weekly visits to the previous doctor with Nina in an effort to mitigate her condition.
The doctor who had checked her condition in Saltstar City had expressed that her situation was not promising and the sequelae were practically irreversible. Nevertheless, he recommended treatments to at least minimize the severity of the complications that would happen to the little girl in the future.
While this was not something that could completely solve the problem, it would mean a great difference between Nina having some difficulty while walking and not being able to walk at all.
As for the relative chances of Nina's Awakening, only the heavens could tell if that would change to any degree.
During these few weeks, Lauren spent most of her time in her siblings' room, acclimating herself to get to know her newfound limits.
Walking in the dark was not easy and along with that getting used to her heightened other senses wasn't simple either!
As for Vicente, he had still been accompanying his father in business negotiations, progressively gaining more responsibilities with his old man to participate and sometimes even lead them.
Even though he was only 10, in this society, children would already take responsibilities around this age.
Children began learning their parents' trades from the young age of 5, and many would often be taking on the working responsibilities by the time they were 10.
It was not strange to find children involved in non-physical work either. Thus, Vicente did not encounter any problems.
His father and some of his acquaintances saw Vicente's participation as positive, especially when they noticed this young man was neither dumb nor slow.
...
"Father, I'm coming," Vicente announced before opening the door to his father's room and entering.
He noticed the unpleasant odor that permeated through the space after entering but didn't find it strange. Lately, his old man was not so bothered about his own appearance or hygiene.
Vicente found his father lying on the bed and noticed the wine bottles on the floor with an ashtray full of ashes beside one of the headboards.
Andrew was on the bed, wearing only his underwear.
"Father... Father, wake up..." Vicente urged, trying to wake his old man up while the man began making some noises typical of someone who was about to wake up from a bad night's sleep.
"Hell, Vicente, why are you waking me up?" Andrew asked as he yawned.
"We have a meeting now in the morning. Aren't you coming?"
"What meeting?"
"With the Murray family. Won't you come?"
"Why don't you represent me, son? I'm sure you can handle this." Andrew said, without even looking at his son, making himself ready to go back to sleep.
Vicente heard his father's response and sighed.
He had no problem in assuming his father's responsibilities. What concerned him was his father's deteriorating psychological situation!
'Father is on a terrible path... After we arrived in this city, he had been drinking more and more.
It seems he is trying to deal with his loss by becoming sloppy and drinking.' Vicente stood beside his father for a few moments and surveyed the room's messy and fetid surroundings.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to help. He had already tried to talk to his old man, but life for all of them was pretty depressing. Every day, Lauren's blindness and Nina's deafness reminded them of everything that had happened to them.
As much as Vicente disapproved of his father's way of action, he understood Andrew's hardships.
Hell, he had gone through the experience of the cycle of reincarnation and had experienced two lives, but still, he was troubled by all of it... So, imagine what was left for Andrew to go through.
It was understandable why he had no heart to go out and work!
Although Vicente disapproved of this, he felt he had to give his father some break.
"It's okay, father. I'll take care of it. You stay here and get some rest," he said before walking out of the room, leaving one guard to look after his family while departing along with the other.
...
A few minutes later, Vicente arrived in front of an estate not far from the resort where his family members were staying.
The property was adorned with several palm trees, a silver fence extending for over 100 meters, and a beautifully manicured lawn.
At the back was a large estate, the opulent grandeur of the estate made it evident that its owners were quite affluent.
Upon identifying himself at the property's gate, Vicente was quickly given permission to enter and make his way to the property's front entrance.
When he arrived, a man dressed in a black suit was waiting for him in front of the entrance door, he was the Murray family's butler.
"Young Fuller, didn't your father come with you? Is there any problem?" the butler inquired with a polite smile.
"Good morning, Butler Mason. My father is ill, so I am here to represent him. I hope Baron Murray doesn't mind having to make a deal with me," Vicente replied courteously.
"Not at all. Please come with me," the butler nodded before leading Vicente to his destination.
In the Seidel Kingdom, the nobility hierarchy was well-defined.
At the bottom of the local hierarchical pyramid, the least prestigious nobles were those members of families with Barons as their heads. Above them came those with patriarchs as Viscounts, then Counts, Marquises, and finally, the most important, the ones who held the highest positions in the nobility were Dukes.
Dukes were the closest to the king and served as provincial rulers. Some of the most important Dukes were distantly related to the royal family.
Barons, on the other hand, as was the case of the person with whom Vicente's father had intended to do business today, were loyal subjects of the king and usually possessed considerable wealth.
Generally, upon reaching certain social requirements, these men exchanged their loyalty in exchange for being granted small territories, the size of farms, to rule over.
There was no private property outside the kingdom's cities, towns, and villages, so to administer any land, one had to be part of the nobility.
This gave the nobles some advantages over all the other wealthy people in the kingdom, which was also why many free men had a common aspiration for becoming nobles.
That is why a Baron was so rich that he had an estate almost as large as the resort where Vicente and his family were staying and would also have dozens of people working for them.
Vicente observed this as he walked through the estate halls while Butler Mason directed him to Baron Murray's office.
'There are so many maids and workers here...' He discreetly noted the surroundings.
Vicente knew very well that noble families in the Seidel Kingdom were very different from those in fiction stories he had read on Earth.
These families did not have hundreds of members, armies, and so on. Usually, the noble families of the kingdom had two to three generations, including parents, children, and grandchildren, that is, only if they were close relatives of the noble themselves.
Only the head of the family received the title of nobility, and it could only be inherited by the eldest son.
Therefore, noble families typically didn't have many members, usually only including the sons of the nobleman, his siblings, parents, and the sons of his heirs.
Besides those, others were not considered as part of the family but rather as distant relatives who naturally did not have any privileges.
At the same time, only the royal family had the right to maintain a personal army, so noble powers in this place did not possess military forces with dozens of members or more.
At most, the high-ranking nobles would have a few guards and small protective groups to protect their main properties.
Hence, everything Vicente saw in this place belonged to a tiny group that couldn't have more than 20 people.
This naturally opened his eyes to appreciate the vast difference in wealth from the lowest title of nobility to a common man like his father.
'Interesting...' he thought as he continued exploring the estate.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone