After acquiring the maids, three weeks passed in a blink of an eye.

During this time Ray was mostly ignored by both the duke's family and the spies as if he didn't exist, and nothing really major happened except for a few random things.

First, his room just got a redecoration and a lot of new furniture after his mother made a surprise visit on the first week to check on him. After seeing the abysmal place he was thrown in, she hurried to the duke’s office and asked him to fix it up while coughing up blood, saying that even though he was cast to a faraway courtyard, he deserved to live in a good atmosphere.
The duke who was about to leave for war couldn’t refuse her request, he just reluctantly nodded as he called for the doctors to come see her.

His mother also met the maids and gave them instructions to take care of baby Ray. She seemed to be especially fond of Tia, maybe from the way Ray clung to her like she was the treasure he planned to keep for the rest of his life.

The second thing was that Ray was now sure he was in a rough position…
During the last week, he was finally able to paint a clear picture of his family.

His father, Duke Norman was a direct descendant of the current king who ruled one of the most powerful 3 kingdoms that divided the continent, The Golden Kingdom!
The king was the duke's Norman grandfather, so that makes him Ray's great-grandfather!

Norman’s father, who previously held one of the five duke titles in the kingdom, the Lance Duke title, died years ago in a very suspicious way when he was trying to learn a new martial art.
He had only four male descendants, and of those Norman, the youngest was the one who managed to inherit the duke's title by taking it from its original owner, his oldest brother, who failed miserably at the inheritance test that was mandatory before officially gaining the title!

This created a ton of problems and didn’t sit well with anyone…
One must know that before Norman took the title, many of the nobles who believed the older brother was to be the next duke, paid great prices to gain his favors, some even married their daughters to him and his sons!
On the contrary, at that time, no one cared for Norman who escaped his house to join the military when he was young!

So, from Norman's eldest brother who felt backstabbed by his own brother, to his other family members who wanted to inherit the duke title in Norman’s stead. Every one of them wanted him dead but could do nothing. Norman was just too strong and had a very good reputation in the army.
So after he got his first legitimate male descendant, then cemented his position with 7 others –not including Ray– everyone should have lost all hope!

Still, Ray believed that those guys were still moving in the shadows, but he didn’t know nor care what their plans were! He was at the moment completely off their radar!

The last thing that happened was that the baby casualties slowed down to a halt.
It was unfortunate, but Ray had long expected this… Nothing good lasts!

Thankfully, during this period he was able to get a total of 13 shards, of which, 4 had skills, giving him a substantial power-up.

The new skills were :

Although he didn't get the skills he really wanted like Immorality, Healing, or fast growth, the ones he got were not useless…. And he couldn’t believe he wrote those stupid descriptions by himself.

Too bad that the baby killings had stopped… It was not fine to have such wishes, but those were Ray’s true thoughts. Now he would have to wait until he is old enough to kill those babies by himself… No wait, they wouldn’t be babies by that time, so such thoughts were not that bad.

Anyway, his guess was right, he learned of this when he was eavesdropping on some maids who were gossiping about three big pieces of news!

The first one was that the custodians were unable to determine who the true emperor was! Some of their elders even began to fight with each other with their fists. They were supporting different candidates using some bogus evidence to support their claims like the unique crown-shaped birthmark on one baby’s ass, or the pink hair color another had!

The second piece of news was that someone had been killing the babies who were suspected of being the emperor, so all of the families who had such babies had hidden them away or ordered around-the-clock protection around them.

The assassins were not one person, but an entire group. They caught three of them but they committed suicide before they could be questioned.

Ray, had the hunch that whoever was behind this, must be someone who knew that the ritual had failed. Maybe the accident at that time was not a coincidence at all!

It was still early to jump to conclusions, but he needed to be careful… extra careful!

The third piece of news was not as important, but it caught Ray’s attention. It was about the end of the southern campaign with the defeat of the tribes there. Duke Norman led his men for the final charge two weeks ago and they managed to breach the barbarian’s capital and capture their king!

When Ray chose this continent it didn’t have any southern lands or Barbarians… It seemed like many of the geological features had changed before he descended!

They may have been merged from another world, or just from this one… He had no idea.

Ray had to begin using his OMNISCIENT skill to search the palace for a map. He finally found one in the duke’s office.

It was rudimentary, but from it, he could tell that the continent that was supposed to be about 3 million square miles had grown by at least 10 times… The map only indicated the sea on the eastern and southern sides as the rest was left unexplored due to hazardous terrain and dangerous creatures!

Damn it! These complicated things! Unifying all this land will take a lot of time… A time he should be spending building his Harem!
No… He can do both at the same time…. He smiled evilly.

“Why does this baby look like this sometimes… It is as if he was a grumpy old man who is up to no good!” Blond said as she watched from the side as Tia changed her young master’s diapers. The other maids left the dirty deeds to her.

“I think he looks cute…” Tia said. “I am sure he will grow up to be a great man!” she added as she pinched his ugly cheeks. Ever since she had begun serving him, she had a feeling that he really favored her, and that gave her a special sense of belonging that she never had.

She met Lady Penelope two weeks ago, and felt really happy when she was not judged by her appearance, on the contrary, lady Penelope told her to take care of Ray when she noticed how much he clung to her.

“Like hell, that would ever happen!” Blond said. “The old duchess, the duchess, and the queen all hate him! They think he ruins the family’s image. If not for his mother’s position he would have long been fed to the dogs!” she yelled.

The queen she was talking about was Ray's great-grandmother.

She came to visit a few weeks ago with the snobby old duchess who was trying to carry favors with her, and under Lady Penelope's insistence, they came to have a look at Ray.

When they laid their noble and refined eyes on him, they screamed so loud that the royal guards had to force their way into the room to check on their safety.

“Miss Blond… Watch your mouth!” the one who said it was none other than the guardian knight who was tasked with protecting Ray. He had just stepped into the room and heard her words.

“Ahh… Sir Alvar… I am just stating the facts…” Blond said nervously as Ray inspected the handsome young man dressed in silver armor.

“I know… That’s why I didn’t cut your tongue just now!” Alvar said coldly then looked at Tia. “Tomorrow morning, prepare the young prince… He will be expected at the grand hall!” Alvar said.

“Is everything ok?” The one who asked was Carmen, the (old) maid. She came out of the room’s side kitchen carrying a warm milk sack that she gave to Tea who in turn gave it to her young master who was enjoying the feeling of a clean silk diaper wrapped around his ass.

“Well, I guess you should know... The announcement will be made tonight anyway...” Alvar hesitated. “It is a Title granting ceremony…”

“What?” Blond asked in surprise. “Really?” she asked as her eyes began to twinkle.

“Yes…” Alvar nodded.

“What is a Title granting ceremony?” Tia asked locking her eyebrows.

“It is an old tradition!” Carmen replied, explaining. “To ensure a fair distribution of power, every noble has a limit of titles, holdings, and lands that they could have, so according to the law of the land, in case a noble acquired too many honors, he must distribute the excess ones to his offspring or vessels!”

“Exactly! Because of the success of the joint campaign against the barbarians in the south! The kingdom had acquired a huge territory. The duke got about 10% of it due to him offering everything he had to help the king's endeavor!” Alvar said. His voice reflected the great respect he held for the duke.

“Would His Highness the Duke really grant Young Master Ray any titles?” Tea suddenly asked suspiciously. During this last week, she realized her young master’s peculiar situation. Lady Penelope also pointed it out many times, telling them that they must fight to get Ray as many benefits as they can in her stead.

“The duke will not have a say in this!” Alvar said in a low voice while shaking his head. “The excess titles are to be assigned randomly between the duke’s legitimate offspring! It is a tradition to ensure that no faction would gain too much power!” he added, making Ray who listened nod. He was the one who put this rule.

“Oh… so the young master will have a chance?” Tia asked.

“A tiny one but yes!” Alvar said. He really appreciated how Tia worried about her young master. It was too bad she was ugly.

“Don’t get your hopes up, if he gets it, He will still have to prove he is worthy of it when he becomes an adult!” Carmen interjected, making Tia nod with a sigh. With Ray’s lack of skills, it was a useless cause.

“Exactly… But it is too early to think about such things!” Alvar said.

“So… Tomorrow all the princes are supposed to be there?” Blond asked. “Even the ones who already hold titles?” she asked, stars sparkling in her eyes.

“Yes…So make sure you dress him suitably!” Alvar said as he turned around intending to leave. “I will come to get the young master at half past 7, so make sure he is ready by then!” he said before leaving.
“I will be the one taking the young master to the ceremony tomorrow!” Blond directly said as the door closed.

Tea looked at Carmen then nodded. Blond was the best candidate for this job, Carmen couldn’t really carry Ray without him exploding into a crying fit. And Tia didn't want to disgrace her young master with her ugly appearance.

Ray didn’t care about their stupid thoughts… He was busy spying on everyone around the mansion, listening in to the conspiracies they were weaving in the darkness.

He was wondering, What title should he get and if it was worth it...