Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure

Chapter 672 Award ceremony (2)

The ceremony went as one would expect.

The nobles that were in charge of armies received gold and land, while the ones that had distinguished themselves in battle received titles and gold.

It was rare for those that distinguished themselves in battle to receive land since…there wasn't much land in the kingdom in the first place.

No, it wasn't that there wasn't much land, there just wasn't as much usable land to give.

Land could have been given, but it would have been a strain on the finances of these new nobles to develop. So instead, they were given titles and gold to freely develop however they wanted.

If they really wanted these barren lands, the kingdom had a system where they could buy these lands.

Though it would cost them more than if they received these lands as an award.

The only thing that I was concerned about was the fact that I was being ignored.

Though I was standing near the king at the front of this hall, everyone around me was called while I was made to wait.

Even those that were close to the back of the hall were called before it.

It was clear that the king was deliberately avoiding calling me up, but was that a good thing or a bad thing?

To others it might be a good thing since it meant that I was most likely going to receive a special award. But for me, I felt that this was a bad thing since this would just draw even more attention to me…

After the last person was called forward and received their reward, it was finally time for me.

The king gave a nod to me and waved his hand for me to come forward.

When I did, everyone's eyes immediately fell onto me.

It seemed that everyone knew who I was and they were all curious why the king had waited to the end to summon me.

There were some that had jealous looks, there were some that had curious looks, and there were some that just looked at me with calm expressions.

It was clear that all of them had different opinions about this matter, but I didn't care so much about that.

I just cared about what the king would say.

After I came forward and kneeled down in front of him, the king suddenly said, "Rise. There's no need for you to kneel in front of me."

All of the nobles were shocked when they heard this.

They looked at the king with these shocked looks, but he just ignored them as he maintained the same look on his face. It was as if the way that they looked at him didn't affect him at all.

But for the king to regard all etiquette and allow Count Zwein to greet him without kneeling…

This was something that was very serious.

The only ones that were allowed to do that were the dukes and the princes, but even then, they still had to bow slightly. But the king didn't mention anything about bowing either…

Did Count Zwein really have that high of a position in the king's heart?

I just calmly stood up and waited to see what the king would say, but there was a secret bitter smile forming inside of me.

I already had an idea of what was going to happen, still it was hard to brace for it.

The king gave a nod when he saw me looking at him with a calm look and said, "Count Zwein, I think that it's no exaggeration to say that you have contributed the most to our war efforts."

All of the nobles revealed awkward looks when they heard this, but not a single one of them refuted it.

In fact, none of them could refute this.

Could they have done all the things that Count Zwein had done?

No, it would have been impossible for them to do the same things as him.

If they had awakened any of the things that he had awakened, it would have been more likely that they would have been destroyed rather than the enemy.

So they couldn't refute it.

But that didn't mean that they couldn't help feeling envious of everything he had accomplished and everything that he would receive.

They were nobles to their core and they were selfish like that.

The king also ignored all the looks that the nobles gave Count Zwein and continued by saying, "The reward that we have prepared for you is the title of duke."

Cold breaths rang out through the ceremony hall the moment that the nobles heard this.

Duke, that was a title that no one had received since the founding of the kingdom.

There were only four dukes that were in their kingdom and there hadn't been a single new duke added in hundreds of years.

But now the king wanted to grant someone the title of duke…

This was not something that could be given lightly…

There were many nobles that looked at the king with gazes as if they were telling him to reconsider this, but the king just ignored them all.

So in the end, Duke Yuletide couldn't take it anymore as he said, "Your majesty, this…"

Before he could say anything else though, the king suddenly raised his hand and said in a cold voice, "I'm not finished yet."

All of the nobles immediately fell silent when they heard this.

There were some of the lower ranked nobles that even lowered their heads when they heard this.

He was a king that had ruled over this kingdom for a long time, so the prestige that he had developed as a king definitely wasn't weak.

It could suppress these nobles easily.

"Other than granting him the title of duke, there is something else I want to announce."

The king gave a clap and there was someone that came out of the back door.

When I saw this person, I couldn't help being surprised.

It was Angela who had disappeared early in the morning.