Kevin arrived at the gates of the mayor's mansion with plenty of time to spare. Since the official messenger had shown up the day before while Kevin had been drunk to give him this summons, every aspect of this enforced social call had been annoying. Kevin had plenty of experience with the nobility from his second life, and he'd studied this world's nobility, most of whom were near-equals to himself in his current position. So, to be summoned with so little courtesy was rude. To add insult to injury, when Kevin arrived at the mansion, he was forced to wait outside the gates for more than ten minutes before they let him in. He had timed his arrival at the mayor's home to be right on time, and forcing him to wait was a petty and unnecessary slight that let Kevin understand how the rest of the evening would go. He reminded himself to keep his cool. Even though the mayor was a peer, he still had an entire city's worth of guards at his disposal.

Additionally, Kevin took his mission seriously. He was a diplomat, and in order to do the job effectively that his parents had given him, he needed to understand this world better. A single year wasn't a lot of time to work with, but it should be enough if he actually lived a full life during his journey. He had no doubt that if any noble were ever to lock him up, somehow or other he'd eventually be freed, but who knew how long that would take? And after he was free, the more people who knew he was the adopted son of the Paxdraconis, the more doors and windows to any kind of normal life would close for him. He knew this from experience in his second life as well.

Kevin knew that he was being a bit of an idealist about the situation, but he was fine with that, not least because he also truly believed he'd be more effective if he understood the world through the eyes of its regular citizens. If he’d traveled directly to Tallridge Hollow as fast as he could, having only experienced this world from his parents' cave, Kevin believed that he would never be as good of an ambassador as he might be in the future. With all this in mind, he decided that his goal for the evening was just to endure the mayor's presence so he could get back to working on his overall mission.

Inside the mansion, a butler led him to a large dining table where nobody was seated. The room was completely empty, other than the places being set. Once he was in the room, the butler almost immediately turned and vanished.

Kevin grunted and stood near a wall but did not lean against it. This was another petty insult but also perhaps a bit of a test. It would be extremely rude for Kevin to sit at the table before the host in the host's house. He stood and waited for another ten minutes before the butler entered again, followed by a tall, thin man with dark hair and eyes, and a couple of guards behind him. The guards took their places on either side of the doorway, and through [Perfect Seasoning], Kevin got the distinct impression that both might even be a little bit stronger than George or Jagna.

The tall man came to a halt in front of Kevin and raised one sardonic eyebrow before offering the minimum greeting required for propriety. "I am Lord Alex Tameen da Jaskel. Welcome to my humble home."

“Thank you for having me, Lord Alex,” said Kevin. He gave a minuscule bow in return, at exactly the same degree that Alex had offered him. "Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Lord Kevin, a diplomat."

His parents had taught him courtly manners, and Kevin had done his own research as well.

Lord Alex spread his hands in mock amazement, saying, "A diplomat? That is very impressive, especially for—not to be rude, and apologies if you take it this way—but a goblin. Due to all the absolute charlatans and scammers that abound in this world, I'm sure you will not be offended if I verify your credentials, right, Lord Kevin?"

Everything the man said was almost perfectly calibrated to be annoying, but still barely adhere to proper propriety; however, Kevin didn't take the bait. He merely nodded. Lord Alex continued, "I have asked around about your family name, Brightscales, and I have not gotten any information to prove your legitimacy. I apologize, and I'm sure it's a failing on the part of my staff. But do you perhaps have any other way to prove your station?"

Kevin schooled his expression and withdrew the medallion that his father had given him. "This should be proof that my station has been recognized by the dragons."

"Oh, dragons? How interesting," said Lord Alex, not even trying to hide his obvious skepticism. He turned to his butler and said, "Heb, go fetch Miranda."

“Yes, milord.” The older, dour-looking man nodded and hurried from the room. Kevin made tense and meaningless small talk with the mayor before the butler returned with an elderly lady whose hair was in a tight bun. She wore an impressive but somewhat out-of-date dress.

"This is my court magician, Lord Kevin," said Alex. The man barely drew out Kevin's name long enough to be disrespectful but not quite long enough for Kevin to actually have any reason to say anything about it. Since punching the man in the mouth wasn't an option, Kevin merely nodded.

The old woman approached and asked, "May I please see the medallion?" Kevin wordlessly handed it over. A few seconds later, her eyes widened in surprise, and Kevin realized that she hadn't expected the medallion to be genuine, either. Whenever dragons give out an amulet of recognition, they imprint it to the person they were recognizing. It was meant to be used in situations exactly like this one. Only dragons could actually use the magic to do such a thing, of course. Kevin knew that it was a dragon lifestyle skill, one that had always eluded him. But because nly the dragon race could do it, dragon-bestowed medallions were very precious and impressive to own. More importantly, there was no way to fake the connection that a dragon medallion had with its owner.

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"It's legitimate," said the court wizard.

"Thank you. And thank you for your hard work," said Kevin. He reached out and snatched the medallion from the woman's hand before pocketing it again. Her eyes looked a little lost as she turned to Lord Alex. The woman’s gaze seemed to restart restart the gaping mayor’s brain. He ordered her to leave the room.

Once she left, the mayor seemed to find his composure. Lord Alex spun and took a seat at the head of the table before signaling something to his butler.

In moments, a few other lords and ladies suddenly entered the room. Then there was a bustle of activity as the nobles took their seats before being followed by kitchen staff who deposited plates full of food. For the next half hour, Kevin battled using words. The other nobility at the table were not quite as hostile as Mayor Alex, but none of them were friends.

Instead of fighting with swords, he parried with humor, deflected with puns, and evaded with wordplay. The surrounding nobles, all human, grew more surprised and intrigued by Kevin's obvious education, while Lord Alex's face darkened. The man obviously has an agenda, Kevin thought. He got hit with an almost overwhelming urge to punch the man as hard as he could, but resisted it. Even though Kevin was fairly certain that he could escape after hitting the mayor, maybe even killing him, losing his cool like that would result in a manhunt that would never end.

Kevin didn't want to put any nation he visited in danger just because he couldn't control his temper for a few minutes. For the most part, Kevin didn’t hear anything interesting during dinner other than one of the nobles mentioning that a famous mage and Alchemist was visiting town. She did so every year or two, and apparently was responsible for some sort of protection over the local mines to keep monsters from getting too close.

This led to a debate at the table whether she was charging too much for her services. The conversation was the only real reprieve that Kevin had from either the Mayor or other nobles trying to find some fault in him. It seemed several of the nobles, not just the Mayor, found it borderline insulting that they were sharing the table with a goblin in formal clothing. A few other nobles seemed to find it amusing, or curious. The latter were almost the worst of the lot for Kevin, because they kept asking questions about goblinkind that he could only answer second-hand from the books he’d read.

Even if he wasn’t interested in the topic of a mysterious Alchemy master vacationing in the city–and he was–the break in what was otherwise mostly hostile conversation would have been appreciated.

A few times, he had to make something up. He told a particularly surprised noble lady that goblins enjoyed a dessert called, “donuts.” This led to a brief explanation of what donut was. Kevin was lying like a car salesman, but at least donuts were a real thing and he knew how to make them.

Finally, the meal was over, and roughly half of the guests at the table left. Kevin had been hoping for a reprieve, but this ended up being round two of his polite table warfare.

The mayor kept asking probing questions in an obvious attempt to catch Kevin in a lie or otherwise expose him somehow. Kevin wasn't lying about his diplomatic status, and he definitely wasn't lying about knowing dragon. The only thing he actually had to hide was that he was the adopted son of Paxdraconis. That was easy to do because nobody would ever suspect such a thing. In the first place All he had to do was keep dodging questions about where exactly he was from and where he’d been educated.

He suspected at least some of the remaining dinner guests suspected that he had been raised in a monastery.

As much as possible, Kevin told the truth, although he got a bit creative with it. For instance, he claimed that he had self-studied and that his knowledge had been recognized by dragons. Both facts were actually true. Kevin got the impression that the mayor had a soothsayer listening in to the entire conversation and they were somehow communicating with him. The unpleasant man made a number of strange expressions as if he was listening to someone else who wasn't at the table. It couldn't be any of the other people still seated with Kevin, since none of them had said a word during this new interrogation.

Finally, the mayor stood and said, "Thank you, everybody, for attending this wonderful dinner! However, Ambassador Kevin, I must ask one more question, and I apologize if it seems somewhat rude."

With a resigned heart, Kevin asked, "Yes, what is it?" The situation was irritating enough without knowing that all of this wasn’t even personal. Lord Alex was doing all this to hurt Jagna through Kevin. And even that wasn’t personal. The whole thing was just so this horrible man could kiss the ruling orsk’ asses.

As the room’s hush grew deeper, the mayor, with a blank face but smiling eyes, broke it. "Are you being pursued by any high-level mages?"

Kevin blinked. "Come again? Pardon me?"

"Unfortunately, some of my people happened to come across a very powerful mage who said she was searching for you. And of course, we assumed that she was a friend of yours. I do not know what the actual relationship is, but unfortunately, I was not in a place to ask, and I could not stop her from coming to my home." And then, almost with a flourish, he stepped aside to let somebody enter the room from a side hallway.

Kevin's heart fell when he saw her. Lydia, he thought.

"Kevin," said his cousin, annoyance evident as she walked in with purposeful strides. She leaked a little bit of her aura, masterfully modified to feel human, be weaker, and less dense than it normally would be. Even though she was young, Lydia's family was very good at modifying their aura and even using some stealth magic. Using this method, she could have easily convinced the officials of a small city like Clearmine that they couldn't afford offending her. Her deception probably wouldn't have worked as well in one of the larger cities. But, while dealing with Lord Alex, the subterfuge might not have even been necessary. Just the man’s assumption that the situation would inconvenience or hurt Kevin would be enough.

At the moment, knowing or reasoning through all of this didn't help Kevin much. His cousin that he'd been avoiding almost since he’d left home had finally caught up to him.

"I am terribly sorry, Ambassador Kevin," said the mayor. "It seems as though the lady wishes to have some serious words with you."

"Come on, Kevin," said Lydia. "I’ve been chasing you a long time. We need to talk."

Kevin glanced over, and he could practically see the mayor eating up the moment, enjoying his interpretation for why Lydia was calling him by his name without any honorifics. Of course, there was no way for the man to know that he and Lydia were family. Even if someone were to tell him, he probably wouldn't believe it.

After all, at the moment, Lydia's appearance was that of a young human woman, slightly shorter than average height, but with strikingly beautiful features, including large green eyes and cascading tresses of hair so dark it seemed blue in the light. She also wore a magnificent dress with gemstones artfully sewn in, making geometric shapes. Kevin knew it was one of her favorite dresses that she usually wore when she was dealing with mortal races. The clothing was sufficiently flashy, but also had vague enough origins for her to claim to be almost anything she wanted.

"Come along, Kevin," said Lydia. She left the room. Kevin sighed followed. There was no way to run away anymore at this point, even if he were to go so far as to polymorph now. His cousin had very annoying magic. Now that she'd seen him, there was no chance she hadn’t used her magic on him, and now there was no way he was going to get away from Lydia again.