There were only two people left in the study room. One, an auburn colored shaggy-haired man, in dented silver armor. The other, a young man wearing a loose white shirt similar to the one Vulcan wore, except his had a few frills on it. That, and attached to his wrist was a golden watch.

One sat, the other one stood.

"Lezhalt, are you sure this is a good idea? Sure, the kid looks like you but it will be easy for others to realize that he is not you."

Renold said as he stood with his arms behind his back.

Vulcan del Lezhalt, that was his full name but he did not like his given name thus he went by Lezhalt instead. Normally people would call him lord, but lately, he has not been in the eyes of his maids, butlers or guards. His presence here was almost nil, just as he wanted.

Overtime he hoped people would forget how he looked, the way he behaved and most importantly the way he talked. This way, when he did appear again no one would find it that odd if he spoke strangely. They would just think, is this how he use to behave?

While some may have their doubts, they could not say anything. After all, it was their lord or a noble who was speaking. Just having the title of one came with many benefits.

Lezhalt twirled the black pen in his hand as he thought over a few words before he began to speak.

"It's been a while since the last time I have attended any events in ChangLi city, the citizens' minds pay me little attention now. No longer am I getting visits from my father's associates, and there has not been an attack made on my life in these past few months. With that child you picked up, he will draw attention to himself while less is on me and eventually we can leave this wretched city."

Lezhalt stopped twirling the black pen in his hand as he set it down on the desk.

"I always hated this city, and if some god forbidden incident occurs to 'me' while I'm out and about attending events or the market then eventually the name Vulcan del Lezhalt will fade into nothing more than a forgotten memory. Trust in me Renold, we've been patient all this long we can hold out for a bit longer."

Renold said nothing, he just stood and stayed silent the entire time. This is why he disliked nobles, it did not matter how old you were. If you were a noble or one of their children, you were always scheming something.
Why couldn't they just say what they wanted and act right away? What was the point of making all these plans and after months and sometimes even years did they finally come into effect?

Renold understood that patience was a virtue and it would help you on the battlefield, but these nobles were not fighting for life and death. He was, and he has experienced those death-like situations more than once.

Although Renold did not understand the scheming nature of the nobles, Jacob did. It was in their nature as they were always vying for more power.

If you were third in line in the succession tree but knew your father was dying what would you do? Third in line gets nothing, so to gain something you must work your way up the ladder.

The easiest way to do this was to have your competitors vanish without a trace, but that would cause suspicion to yourself if it went wrongly. Other ways, were to have the others ahead of you disowned by some scandal that couldn't go away.

The thing that bugged him though was what exactly was the lord's plan? If things went as he wanted, then it was only a matter of time before someone came to try and kill him. If the plan worked, the lord would be free of this threat but if he planned to stay in the city then his plan had a big hole in it.

This estate would then go into the hands of the church or some other noble, especially if there was no one in his family alive to claim it for themselves. Naturally, the lord himself couldn't claim it because he was supposed to be 'dead'.

This is what worried Jacob.

Still, now that he was out of the study room he managed to take control of this body once more. The scenario ended and Vulcan left, where did he go? Jacob had no idea, but he had a feeling he would be back eventually.
What exactly was he supposed to do now?

His plan was to leech off of Veronica for a while to gain experience, money and eventually help stop the rebellion in its tracks. If that did not work, then he could help Veronica shape the land into her image.

Jacob walked down the stairs while his mind was filled with countless thoughts. It would not be difficult to escape this place, but he felt as if there was something he could gain here.

Nobles were rich, and with the Valorian empire the way it is now, he knew they were bringing in tons of cash. The rich used the high taxes to their advantage to increase the prices not only on food goods but also on the goods produced by their stores. Something that went for ten silver before, would now cost sixteen silver.

The various enterprises one could have were endless, as long as you had the money to buy the land and build one, you could have the market in the palm of your hand. Which is what most nobles were doing.

The lord here surely had some land to himself, and with his 'new' identity he was given Jacob planned on taking full advantage of it.

'I should explore this place first, then build up a small relationship with the workers here. They'll be more interested in telling me the latest rumors and gossip.'