Keiren:
And Flora's just casually talking with him! She even hugged him!

oh Kei, if only you knew...
your ex-slave fucked your boss!

Shingen said:
oh Kei, if only you knew...
your ex-slave fucked your boss!

And the good news just keeps coming!

I really don't think Trace would still hold the position if he abandoned his duties and title for years. But the main character has to have everything dropped into his lap on a silver platter, right?

Antallo said:
I really don't think Trace would still hold the position if he abandoned his duties and title for years. But the main character has to have everything dropped into his lap on a silver platter, right?

Duke is not some corporate position or military rank that gets rescinded if you abscond from your duties. It's a hereditary feudal position meant to be for life, and usually nothing short of a treason gets rid of it -- hell, if Twokinds word still runs of feudal system at this point (still kinda unclear on that one), then it would be difficult even for the King to oust Trace from that position, absent or not, without upsetting other Dukes.

Iago1 said:
Duke is not some corporate position or military rank that gets rescinded if you abscond from your duties. It's a hereditary feudal position meant to be for life, and usually nothing short of a treason gets rid of it -- hell, if Twokinds word still runs of feudal system at this point (still kinda unclear on that one), then it would be difficult even for the King to oust Trace from that position, absent or not, without upsetting other Dukes.

Uhm, being a Duke and being a noble does come with duties. Like fealty and military support to the monarch.

Pretty sure you could lose your title if the monarch gave the stamp to approve it. Aka if Trace's title is tied to the estate and is inherited nobility, the Monarch could seize the land if they had need of it and Trace was a no-show or demonstrated that he wasn't interested in carrying out his responsibilities as Duke (this is called derogation).

But again. It's easier for the writer to just say "Trace has loads of prestige and money and didn't even know it!" as a way of ensuring his main character conveniently has everything he needs. I mean, when he saves the world and gets the tiger girl for real, it'd suck for him to have to stick it out in a thatch roof cottage in the middle of the woods, right? Nah, best to make sure that he's always gonna be loaded.

Antallo said:
Uhm, being a Duke and being a noble does come with duties. Like fealty and military support to the monarch.

It depends greatly on time and place what those duties are. In Holy Roman Empire, for example, the Emperor was all but powerless, and the second tier nobles were essentially petty Kings in their own right. But what is common with all of them is that it's very hard to oust someone who's unpopular from such a high position -- wars have been fought to get noblemen who weren't playing along to leave. The idea that a King could "fire" a Duke like he was a CEO and the Duke was the head of the Marketing Department is an example of modern thinking in a quite un-modern situation, and doesn't work with closer inspection.

But in any case, in this setting the King has been assassinated, and no-one has had the time to rearrange the noble hierarchy, as the Templars seem to have taken over in all but name.

If you think that this is just a cheap cop-out, think again. I'll bet you right now that Trace isn't going to stay at Edinmire, and he's not going to leave with a significant amount of personal wealth, either.