"Jacob, meet my daughter, Xacania Yepis Lezatian," the Duke swept his arm towards the now named Xecania as he nodded towards Jacob who in turn, nodded back, following that, the Duke gestured to Jacob, smiling, "Daughter, Jacob..." he trailed off awkwardly.

"Just Jacob is fine," the mage replied.

"Jacob Planeshifter," the Duke added, not sounding convinced at the fact that he didn't mind not having a last name, "as I've told you before, Jacob is a powerful mage that recently popped up in Yarya village and like I've said just now, it is because he is a Planeshifter that had gotten himself lost to our world with no way to getting back to his own."

In response, Xecania simply nodded and smiled, "I see, it's nice to meet you, Planeshifter Jacob."

"Likewise," Jacob replied, curious about why everyone here casually just accepted his Planeshifter status without any suspicion.

He wasn't really planning on saying it out loud at the moment, but if he ever gets the chance to investigate other Planeshifters, Jacob would take it and if he could, then he wished to do that investigation during his stay here in the city. As small as it is, there's no way that there isn't a single person out there in the streets who's willing to talk about other people "like him" without raising any suspicion or better yet, without telling anyone important about what they talked about.

He would, of course, make sure not to talk about his System and the interest of one of the Gods has in him as well as the deal he struck but other than that, Jacob is pretty open to answer a few things right as long as the other person is also willing to do the same and spout about any other Planeshifter this world has encountered. Though he wouldn't really accept any rumors, if there's proof, then Jacob is willing to purchase it, either through Gold, favors, or even knowledge that they can sell to the merchant Guild or hand to Horos.

Speaking of knowledge, Jacob is planning on going to one of the many "churches" that Horos has in the city to hand Horos his knowledge on how to craft bronze, it'll be a curious thing, Jacob thought, if the blacksmith he told about the metal somehow got to the God first instead of him.

Though, maybe going to Horos' church is also something that he can take advantage of by finding someone who knows about other Planeshifters after he handed Horos the knowledge to make bronze?

The question is, though, where would someone like that hide? Pub and alleys maybe? From the books that Asya had recommended (and subsequently, given during the night,) to him on the small two weeks they traveled to the city together as well as his own experience in reading fantasy novels, he can at least assume that an information broker would hide in a bar? But looking shady while wearing hoodied cloaks in a place full of people sounded like a death sentence for someone like that so maybe not?

Jacob held back a groan, how the hell does information in a fantasy world work anyway? The internet here is non-existent and books- wait, that's it, books. He could probably find something about other Planeshifters in the city's library and if that's the case, then Jacob is more than happy to go there the moment that he's done with his business with the Duke which... he still didn't really know about.

What does the man in front of him want? To hire him?

Jacob really came here out of politeness and he can leave anytime he wants but that's not really a good idea, he doesn't want to actively antagonize a Duke for no reason and since the man is pretty amicable, he thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to hear him out?.. Yeah, starting favorable relationships with the Duke isn't so bad right as long as the man himself is willing to befriend Jacob.

A servant wearing a butler's outfit came from the side and grabbed Jacob's new horse when he and the Duke reached the front of the house, "thank you," stepping down, Jacob politely thanked the kid before turning to the Duke and his daughter, he was holding her furred hand while Xecania was staring at him with interest, "it's good to finally meet you," Jacob bowed, "I've heard a lot of things about you from your knights."

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Most of which, didn't involve the Duke's... rather brutal and honest personality but he didn't really mind if the Knights wanted to hide it. Though, that begs the question, what did the Duke think of him randomly lashing out at the people and shooting them with spells back at the gate? Did the Duke approve of it? Did Xecania? Bear people- that is also something that he didn't account for even though he should've expected to see Beastman when a "half-ling" introduced herself to him back when he entered the Dungeon but then again, it is pretty weird to just suddenly accept the existence of other races, even if you expected them.

"Don't be like that," the Duke waved him off with a chuckle, "We're equals and I'll even go as far as to say that we are friends at this very moment, please, you don't need to say thanks or even try to flatter me with words, I already think of you as an exceptional young man."

The change in attitude only caught Jacob for a split second before he adapted and forced himself to smile, in situations like this, he learned that playing along with the act and doing nothing to offend the person trying to pull it off is better than doing anything else. That goes double if you're dealing with someone as influential as a Duke which, by all accounts, should be the equivalent in power to that of a dictator, and as someone who quite literally came from a democratic country, Jacob did nothing but smile as the Duke started to talk about how their relationship is gonna go on starting from now.

Xecania, much like him, stayed silent and listened to her father as he rambled on about powerplays and how a [Great Mage] - that got the beast-kin's eyes to widen in surprise somewhat, because who would know that someone so young can reach that level of power so quickly? - like Jacob would be a great asset to his lands and because of that, Duke Lezatian didn't mind that he was staying in Yarya village.

"If I were to be honest," the Duke said as all three pushed into the dining hall of the mansion, the servants were already preparing a meal for both the Duke's family as well as their guest, "I, in particular, do not really care where you are positioned right as long as you're in the frontiers making sure that everyone behind you stays safe,"

Huh, so this is the frontier, Jacob already expected that much from reading the history books he got from the library as well as the stories of Asya and the knights but hearing about it felt pretty different, he was... effectively throwing himself into danger by staying in a place like Yarya village but since he already decided to live there, he thought that maybe he should try to find a way to find a Class Ball and get the [Radiation Mage] class, that one had an AOE spell that Jacob assumed would be good for fighting armies, but probably not for the environment.

Smiling, Jacob gave the Duke a single nod of appreciation, "Thank you," he replied, "I'll see if I can hold any enemy soldiers at bay while waiting for your soldiers to arrive,"

The man nodded, "I expect you to," he replied as he moved to the head-most seat of the long table, everyone was silent as he and Jacob spoke, and seemingly, none of the 5 Children of the Duke wanted to intervene between him and his guest, "Though, Jacob," the Duke met the mage's eyes, "if the situation ever calls for it and Yarya village is unable to defend itself any longer, I want you to run away and save yourself as the villagers sacrifice themselves to buy you time, you are an important asset that I nor the Kingdom cannot lose."

Jacob nodded and hid his confusion, why was he an important asset?

Thankfully, the next words that came out of the Duke's mouth explained the situation to him, "See, [Mage]s are already rare within the Kingdom, and one as strong as you in your current age? They're pretty much non-existent," he explained, "so it is my best interest to say that you should keep yourself safe and that the Kingdom is willing to support you in any endeavors that you wish to pursue in exchange for your services or loyalty,"

"Thank you, I'll try my best," Jacob replied politely, 2 weeks, the Duke had two weeks to talk to whoever is above him before Jacob arrived and he assumed that a lot of things happened during said two weeks. Even with the man's words, Jacob wasn't planning on letting his guard down by the sheer virtue that- as much as he wanted to trust the Kingdom and the Duke, - they are probably paranoid about him and his power and would undoubtedly send in spies to the village to monitor him and his activities, anything suspicious would be reported and Jacob can only hope that things don't escalate to the point where they're sending assassins after him.

"That's great!" The Duke smiled and sat down, "now, how about we eat before we talk?"

Nodding, Jacob sat down with the rest of the Duke's family after the head of the house found his seat. As he silently ate the roasted meat that had been served to him, Jacob wished that he accepted the offer of the spirit to keep an eye on his house whenever he's away because God knows that the King would send in [Assassins] or something similar in there to check his stuff whenever he's not looking.