‘But back to my class. I get the [Beastmaster] class. ‘

The class he had received was [Beast Tamer].

Theoretically if he has claim over the village he might know where people are buried like the eagle

Coming in and managing land under chaos Is common for strong kingdoms and much more empires

The key is that the fairies aren’t landed nobility. If you only give landed nobility the authority to order people around, and only on their land, then the fairies pretty much just have the authority to ignore orders from his nobles, which they had anyway.

The main problem with this, is that you generally can’t just claim a piece of owned land as yours and make it be true instantly: the existing population/owner has to either dispute such a claim, or agree to it – which can take many forms, even just not disputing it.

Riverfarm not only has a headman, but should also be under the control of either a landed noble and/or one of the Five Families. Laken can certainly attempt to claim is for his empire, but until either the headman or the owning noble knows of such a claim and acts upon it, the land should not become his.

In addition, posted this on an earlier chapter, but an empire is normally defined as having multiple distinct territories, not just a single one. Laken shouldn’t even technically be an Emperor at this point, as he had only a very dubious claim to Durene’s Cottage, and Durene believes herself to be a part of Riverfarm. One building does not an empire make.

I forgot to mention that, in much the same way but more frequently, Sir and Ma’am are sometimes used politely, teasingly, mockingly or in strict formality, depending on context — and Miss or Miz are still both looking for trouble (even though the letter of grammatical law stipulates that an unmarried woman should no more be called, “ma’am” than “Mistress.”)

The latter certainly, but probably the former as well. I have the impression over the years that most of Europe, at least (or Western Europe) is much less formal in that regard than the US remains, except some older people and/or in rural areas (which is also true in the US; ’round these parts, folks like Mister Prost talk to folks… like Mister Prost does; “Farmer Prost” would be less common, even demeaning or jocular in some contexts.) My wife says she and all her classmates were on a first-name basis with all their teachers from elementary up; calling her father by his first name still feels just a bit weird to me even after a decade of marriage (but I am a country boy at heart anyway.)

A big part of Southern Hospitality and Minnesota Nice is maintaining impeccable courtesy at all times no matter how much one despises another person; when BOTH are fully AWARE of how much they loathe each other it becomes just another kind of competition over whom will slip or crack and commit the first impropriety. It is not deceitful nor duplicitous, because courtesy and honesty are two completely unrelated things.

So yeah, we still use Mister and Miss, though Mistress has given way to Missus everywhere but Amish country and Renaissance Faires, just as Master gave way to Mister. All are steadily becoming less common, in no small part thanks to all the arguments over Ms.

“I’m not good with sleep deprivation. Not that I think anyone’s exactly proficient in that area.”

I used to say this was my hobby, but it has gone so far beyond that now. Not as fun as the first twenty years; I no longer have the luxury of keeping 30-40 hr days from whenever till I Can’t Even, then crashing from whenever till Can’t Sleep Anymore. Now it is more “I would get x hrs of sleep before work if I went RIGHT NOW…” but it is funny how the same basic survival rules and tricks still apply; I have spent a lifetime developing an array of regrettably useful habits.

It feels strange to leave a comment in reply to a question written and decided years ago… but I’m hoping for more Larkin! Fortunately one click after I post this comment I’ll have my answer.

I love this story.

“mister first-name”..