Time continued to pass as days went by, one after another. Adrian’s routine remained the same as he spent his days reading and memorizing the contents of the compendium, all while receiving new knowledge from Sir Avalon during their lessons each day and regularly training his infusion art.

If there was one change, it was that once a week, Evangeline would visit the estate, and the two of them would spend that whole day training together on the same spot where he usually trained and had lessons with Sir Avalon.

And just like that, a whole month went by, and it was finally the day of the Fiducia festival.

Adrian rubbed his eyes and slowly got out of bed as the lingering drowsiness faded.

’Looks like I woke up early.’

It seemed today he had woken up an hour before the time his personal maid would usually wake him up. He did a few stretches and went straight towards the table in the corner where he usually sat and read the compendium.

’I have one hour; I should utilize it efficiently.’

But just as he reached near the table...

’Uh, what’s this?’

He saw a strange silver chalice on the table, right beside the thick book. A lot of strange patterns and symbols were carved onto its surface. He recognized some of the symbols as he had seen them in the books related to the church and the divine faith.

And looking at its shining surface, it was apparent that this chalice was rather new.

’Where did it come from?’

He had never seen this chalice before, and he was sure that something like this wasn’t on this table when he had closed the compendium yesterday and gone to sleep.

Adrian picked it up and began inspecting it.

’It looked well-crafted and expensive at first, but looking closer, it now seems cheap and mass-produced. It’s not even made of silver, just some cheap metal that looks like silver.’

Just then, the door opened, and Rue casually stepped inside, but she paused as she saw him. When he turned to her and her gaze landed on the chalice he was holding, her eyes slowly widened as she suddenly shouted.

"Young Master Adrian, don’t tilt the chalice like that!"

Adrian tilted his head.

’Why is she reacting like that?’

"What’s the problem with tilting it? The chalice is empty."

Rue rushed forward and quickly snatched the chalice from his hand, then carefully placed it back on the table. Then she turned back to him with an angry pout.

"It doesn’t matter if it’s empty or not; tilting is disrespectful to the lord."

Adrian’s expression turned strange.

’What does the lord have to do with this?’

This was the first time he had heard about something like this. Never had he heard that tilting an empty chalice was disrespectful to the lord. What was that chalice, anyway?

But just as he was supposed to ask, his personal maid turned around and left the room, closing the doors in the process, leaving Adrian alone with his confusion.

She seemed to be in a hurry.

He glanced at the chalice one last time, then he, too, turned away and left the room.

’Maybe training right now would be a better utilization of this one hour.’

After that, he spent the whole hour training his infusion art at the usual spot. Feeling somewhat exhausted, he tossed the wooden sword away and began walking back toward the mansion’s door.

As he reached the wide road that connected the estate’s entrance, which was the large golden door, to the mansion’s front entrance, he saw several carriages lined up on both sides.

Their numbers easily crossed fifty. A few carriages were also just arriving.

After glancing at them briefly, Adrian turned away.

’There are quite a lot of them; it seems like today is going to be bigger than I expected.’

This view was not new to him. For about five or six days, nobles started arriving at this mansion and staying here. The atmosphere inside the mansion itself had also turned somewhat busy.

This was all because today was the day of the Fiducia festival, which was something that House Ravenshade was celebrating, just as his mother had told him and his younger brother Elias a month ago.

This celebration was nothing more than a grand banquet that was held today in the Ravenshade mansion.

’This event is going to be different from that engagement.’

The engagement had been too small in scale, and only the vassals of House Ravenshade were present. More than that, he didn’t have to experience much in the engagement since all he did was go inside, exchange rings, then leave.

But this time, he would have to interact with other nobles or other noble children his age.

But the most significant difference between the engagement and today’s grand banquet was that, unlike the engagement, where only vassals of House Ravenshade were present, this grand banquet was open to all nobles of the empire.

The nobles whose territory was too far from Aevithar had already arrived, and many more will be arriving soon.

Adrian sighed.

’So tedious...’

Then he entered the mansion, which was especially busy today, with servants running around everywhere, decorating the place. Looking at them working so diligently, Adrian could only furrow his brow.

’What’s the point of decorating the whole mansion? The banquet is only going to be held in the banquet hall, after all.’

The Ravenshade mansion was large, absurdly so. It was so massive that he had barely encountered nobles during these days, even though a lot of guest rooms were now occupied by different noble families.

And despite spending ten years growing up in this mansion, Adrian hadn’t yet explored every corner of it.

As he walked inside and witnessed the servants busily moving around, Adrian’s feet suddenly paused.

’What the...’

Something was strange. Almost all servants were carrying ‌a silver chalice in one hand while working with the other. They also seemed to be careful not to tilt it, even though all the chalices seemed empty.

They seemed so inconvenienced while working with only one hand since one hand was carefully holding the chalice.

As Adrian focused, he noticed that all those chalices in the hands of the servants looked very similar to the chalice he saw on his table today. They all had similar patterns and symbols carved onto their surfaces.

’This is all so strange.’

It was a sight that looked rather weird.

He briefly thought of stopping a servant and asking them about it, but then he shook his head as he continued walking.

After taking a bath and spending about an hour and a half reading the compendium, it was finally time for breakfast.

Adrian was now in the dining room, sitting at the dining table near the corner. His mother sat at the end of the table, right next to him. His younger brother Elias sat beside him as well, smiling happily while looking at the food.

His older sister was not present, since she was currently at the academy.

But even with food right in front of him, Adrian’s gaze was focused on something else.

There was a somewhat large silver chalice with strange symbols carved onto its surface, placed at the centre of the table.

Staring at it, a frown slowly appeared on his face.

’Seriously, just what the hell is going on?’