Sitting in a grand wingback chair, sipping a classical dark tea herbal mixture and enjoying his daily newspaper ritual was Kareus Gavril a low tier noble of the Re-Estize kingdom. Dressed in a traditional cut black suit, combined with a red tie, light blue shirt and a white pocket square, Kareus indulged in his regular morning routine.
You see, he was a well tempered kind man and whenever he drank his tea, he was contemplating and recentering himself so, that he stayed this calm and collected personality. Which was quite essential for his work and ambition.
While he certainly wasn't the most influetial noble, nor did he have the biggest domain -in fact he only held a hereditary title, that didn't encompass any domain at all- but what he had, or more: What he was, was a key consultant to the council of the Re-Estize Kingdom in all matters.
Why would the council need some ordinary seeming Lord? Well because this very Lord wasn't so ordinary. His family was old, very old in fact. In it's long history the Gavril family always -through times of war and peace, of prosperity and adversary- upheld its family motto "valorem scientia" (=value knowledge) and thus over centurys created the biggest library to ever exist in the Re-Estize kingdom. Bigger even than the royal library.
And the person who had devoted his life studying this very Gavril library from dusk till dawn was Kareus. So naturally he was a sought after advisor to the council and thus held the formerly honorific positon of "royal Scholar". Since the day the title was bestowed on him, it was no longer honorifc, with it now came a small small office inside the royal Palace and a yearly appanage he could comofortably live off of. Technically he would have had the right to a small staffed residence close to the royal palace, but as the Gavril family was domainless since their founding they had build their family manor, staffed and decorated luxurely, inside the Capital, so there was no need for him to use a smaller manor filled with foreign staff loyal only to the king.
A part of his duties as royal scholar was regular attendances to a number of meetings inside the royal palace, in quite a lot of which the king took part in personally. However today was no such day. Kareus had different plans today. He wanted to start a new project -whose existence was better kept secret-, which he called "Gavrils path to rulership".
I have mentioned before how the Gavrils were an influential but landless noble family, however I also mentioned Kareus desire and ambition. He wanted to reach into the abyss of magic as far as he could and for that he needed resources and a bit of influence.
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In a calm and kind, but still comanding tone Kareus ordered: "Will you be so kind as to arrange for the chauffeur to ready the carriage so I can head out towards the palace?"
"Of course my Lord. It will be done." Responded Kareus long trusted Butler and aide Alfred.
While Alfred left the dining room, Kareus looked outside the window, from which he could comfortably see across the upperclass district of the capital and mused 'Living the posh life as the royal scholar inside his heritage manor do has its perks, however if I truly want to realize my ambitions in the field of magic I will need a more secluded domain over which I alone rule.'
Sucked deeply into his musings Kareus forgot about his earlier order towards Alfred until a good half an hour later, when he finally cought himself and walked -now quite quickly- towards the carriage parked before his manor. On his way from the dining room to the front gate he had to go through a long hallway. Its walls were covered with wood panneling and decorated with pictures of his ancestors -all higly awarded scholars, magicians and even a few warriors.
As he finally reached the front gate and got into his carriage he ordered yet again in his usual kind but regal tone "Chauffeur, drive to the royal palace".