This prompted a laugh from Luther. "Your Excellency, I’ve already had your championship prize delivered to your residence and given to your two attendants. I wonder, might I have two minutes of the esteemed Flame Knight’s time? I’d like to chat."

"Of course. It would be my honor, Lord Viscount."

"Oh, please don’t call me that. I merely hold the title of Viscount. There’s still a wide gap between me and the true nobility!"

The two of them talked as they walked out of the great hall, stopping beside an exquisite pillar in the corridor outside.

Ronin knew he likely wanted to talk about Karda.

"I have a request, Count, and I hope you will be able to grant it," he said.

"Oh? Please, go on."

Luther got straight to the point. "This afternoon, I saw you speaking with Karda alone, so I’m taking the liberty of guessing that you intend to recruit him."

"I enjoy associating with people who have potential."

Ronin smiled. "Although Karda comes from a humble background, I think very highly of him. I would be very happy if he were to join my Wubei Territory."

"But I hope that you will abandon your efforts to recruit him."

Luther looked directly into Ronin’s eyes, his expression completely serious. "In exchange for you changing your mind, I will secure collaborative projects for your Wubei Territory and, within the scope of my authority, yield a portion of the benefits."

The Minister of Finance, controller of the Kingdom’s treasury.

This was no empty promise. Ronin believed that since the man had said it, he would absolutely deliver.

’So that’s why. No wonder no noble has tried to recruit someone as promising as Karda.’

’Lesser nobles probably wouldn’t dare recruit him, while the great nobles who deal with Luther would surely do him the favor of staying away.’

’Under these circumstances, it would be incredibly difficult for Karda to break into the circles of nobility.’

"Perhaps you are unaware, but even if I don’t recruit him, once he becomes a Golden Knight, he will be able to join the Royal Knight Order."

"Perhaps."

Luther’s tone was unconcerned. "Even if he joins the Royal Knight Order, it’s still extremely difficult to go from a mere Knight to one of His Majesty’s Honorary Knights."

’It seems this Minister of Finance is dead set on going after Karda.’

"May I ask why you’re so against him?"

Ronin asked, "From my couple of interactions with him, he doesn’t seem to have done anything wrong."

"It’s very simple. I despise him."

Then, Luther explained why.

It turned out that Karda and Missy had met at an exchange event between the Royal Knight Academy and the Horn Bay Extraordinary Academy and became friends.

Seeing that the two were on the verge of becoming lovers, Luther, as her father, chose to intervene.

In Luther’s eyes, his daughter was exceptional; she had to marry a true nobleman’s son.

Karda, with his commoner background, had to expend enormous effort just to obtain a High Tier Combat Skill. He was completely unworthy of Missy.

"Karda used to be extremely confident. He told me that with his strength, he could absolutely become an Honorary Knight and break into the noble class before he turned twenty-eight."

Luther gave a slight, cruel smile. "But I intend to show him that this circle isn’t one that anyone can enter just because they want to. Without connections, without a network, a little bit of strength alone is not enough."

Some people are born into the circles of nobility and can never comprehend how difficult it is for an outsider to try and get in.

"With Karda’s talent, he has the potential to become a Meteor Knight," Ronin countered.

"A Meteor Knight is indeed powerful, but that power belongs to him alone."

Clearly, Luther was not afraid of a Meteor Knight.

It wasn’t that he himself was so powerful, but rather that he felt that even a Meteor Knight could not stand against the nobility as a collective.

"And what if he becomes a Silver Moon Knight?"

Ronin asked with a smile, "An expert of the Silver Moon Level doesn’t need to be granted a title. They are nobility unto themselves."

"Then I can only wish him luck."

Luther said, "But even the exceptional Crown Prince Garrett is only a Meteor Knight for now, and I hardly believe Karda is more talented than the Crown Prince. In another ten or twenty years, Missy will have long since been married."

Ronin reminded him, "Offending a Silver Moon Level expert doesn’t seem like a good choice for the Cox Clan."

"Thank you for the reminder, Ronning Count, but that is merely a theoretical possibility."

Luther’s expression remained relaxed. "There’s no shortage of people in this world with great potential and talent, but how many of them actually reach their full potential? We can’t just worry about this and that over things that might happen in the future, can we?"

"Besides, it’s not as if I didn’t give him a chance. It’s just that after all these years, he can’t even break into the circles of nobility. How is he supposed to become an Honorary Knight by twenty-eight?"

’From Luther’s perspective, his words did make a certain amount of sense, I have to admit.’

’After all, the concept of freedom in love and marriage didn’t exist in this era.’

’Of course, even back in modern society on Earth, parents still cared about their children marrying someone of a similar social standing.’

’But Ronin still found Luther’s methods—using his own status and power to cut off a person’s future and block their upward mobility—to be unjust.’

"Well?"

The Minister of Finance, having said all that, asked with a beaming smile, "What do you say, Your Excellency?"

Ronin pondered for a moment. "I wonder, what sort of collaborative projects could you offer my Wubei Territory?"

"The Kingdom has many opportunities for collaboration with the nobility each year, such as grain procurement, weapon supply, material provision, clothing, tools, and so on. Even a small portion of a single project, if given to your Wubei Territory, would mean enormous profits for you and your domain."