Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Chapter 96: Confusion

Magicon Empire; Magicon System; Terra; Imperia; FBC

That was… weird. I didn’t think Tim as a bookworm. Well, you learn something new every day. But I don’t really buy his excuse of growing up with a Noble best friend. I mean this sounded like he tried to recover another slip-up… He does them quite often. And all those weird looks yesterday and the days before. I truly wonder if he’s also someone from an important family and undercover at FBC just like me. I shrug inwardly. That’s nothing I can find out here in the library. Asking Grandma Amelia is the way. I can’t wait for the next weekend.

Anyway, this library is quite something, and I can understand why Tim likes it here. I mean real books made out of actual paper. And some of them look so ancient. I think if they’d remove the magical preservation, some of them would immediately crumble to dust. But enough of that. I need to learn more about Nobles! I can’t afford another stunt like with that Charles dude, even if it was justified and he would have pissed his pants if he knew who I really am.

I wonder if my parents expected something like this and are now laughing their ass off. Given their funny personalities, I can’t exclude that option… Amelia let me experience it as well. I guess they are all afraid of me turning into a detached hippie like my mom’s parents? That doesn’t make it easier. Ugh!

They could have at least taught me a few things… Something like simple interactions. I mean I already messed up with my first words when I called him just Charles. That isn’t too much to ask, right? Also, I wonder why Nobles even care about that proper decorum stuff. My parents and the other Dukes and Duchesses sure didn’t care about that. Isn’t something like that completely obsolete?

Time to find out! I walk down another few aisles until I arrive at the one the librarian marked on my interface. It’s quite a distance further into the building than where I met Tim. “Clara, you probably have the catalog already before you. Can you please highlight relevant books for me?”

“Sure, take this one first. That’s perfect for you.”

A book halfway up the shelf and a few meters to my right is highlighted. Why do I hear a smirk in Clara’s voice though? I walk over to the indicated book, and to my surprise, there is no magical protection around it. Is this one I can actually read? Seems so. With a shrug, I pull it out and barely refrain from cursing out loud. “Are you kidding me, Clara?” I whisper in annoyance. She just snorts in my ear, and I sigh. It’s a children’s book, titled ‘The Nobles in our glorious Empire’

I walk over to a nearby table and flip it open. The first page shows a picture of happy children meeting the Emperor. How do I know this? Well, the Emperor in the picture is a splitting image of Ferdinand Benson and Grandpa John. But it’s also neither of them, as a few things on his face are a bit different. ‘Emperor Regulus Benson’ stands below the picture. Ah, there we have it. I think that was Grandpa John’s grandfather but I’m not entirely sure. Could be one generation older as well.

Anyway, I flip to the next page and find the first passage of text. It shows something I’ve already managed to learn: There are five, well six different kinds of Nobles.

It starts with Baron and Baroness at the lowest level, which makes my beef with that Charles dude even more ridiculous. Above them are the Viscount and Viscountess, followed by Count and Countess. After that, we reach the upper echelons of Noble society with Marquess and Marchioness. That’s the level the Silvanis are at. As this is the level below Duke and Duchess, it makes sense that Mom sees them as a potential sixth Duchy in the future. Lastly, there is the Emperor and Empress. Grandpa John and Grandma Amelia. Technically it’s the sixth level, but in practice, it's only a title they wear. Important decisions are made among the Duchies and the Royal family. The Big Five rule together!

The next few pages don’t show anything new either, so I quickly put the book back on the shelf and take the next one Clara highlights. Well, I try to take it but notice this one isn’t available as a physical copy, so I walk over to a nearby desk and open up a projection. This one is much more interesting as it dives into the dynamics between Nobles and normal people in The Empire.

The first thing doesn’t come as a surprise to me, but I guess most Nobles would disagree quite strongly. There is pretty much no difference between Nobles and normal people. The separation is a relic from past days when they founded The Empire and tried to structure a system-spanning nation. Sure, Nobles own land, but that doesn’t mean they decide everything for the people living there. It has been that way in the past, but the Big Five quickly noticed that democracy was important, so now every planet has an elected government with a president at the top. But the Nobles who “own” the planet have a veto right, meaning they can stop the government from making decisions they don’t like.

That’s quite eye-opening, as this pretty much places most Nobles as just figureheads. The only exception is the Big Five, who would have guessed differently? They have command over the Peacekeepers and take care of foreign affairs.

Just when I begin to wonder how my actions had such consequences as most Nobles are without real political powers, I notice the next big chapter in the book: Companies.

That’s where the juicy stuff is hidden and what also makes all the Noble things very confusing and difficult… While reading this, I silently curse out the founders of The Empire, namely Ferdinand Benson, Conor Valterion, Li-Ming Song, Magnus Schmidt, and Maria Axtendus. Just what were they thinking back then?

It starts with the Big Five up top. They each own the biggest companies in The Empire and are the leaders of said nation at the same time. Below that, other Nobles often own multiple companies. The more important they are, the more influence they have over people, directly undermining the established democracy…

The book continues to show a few examples of various constellations, which I mostly skip, as my head is already starting to hurt. This is all so confusing. In the end, I think the important fact is that the Big Five are the rulers and other Nobles pretty much try to get as much influence as they can by using their companies and other things they own.

The author criticizes the founders heavily, and I’m inclined to agree with him. All that stuff is just complicating everything… But I guess the author was a heavy critic of the system and might have written everything in a negative light… Maybe the history lessons are more enlightening.

In the end, it’s the company connections which bite me in the ass. Legally, I’m completely fine, but that Charles dude must have leveraged his various company connections to get me banned by all the establishments in the city. Tim’s friend or whoever he called must have leveraged other connections that were more important or whatever to the restaurants and bars so that they ignored the earlier ban. I guess this resulted in quite a few changes in suppliers throughout the city.

With a lot of thoughts in my head, I close the projection of the book and leave the library. Somehow, I’m now even more confused than before I started my research…

While I walk back over the campus grounds, I feel a magical connection form. It’s Chris making a call! I happily accept and sit down on a nearby bench. “Hi, Sara!” He greets me.

“Hey Chris, what’s up?” I ask him right back.

“I’ve got a few things to discuss with you… Are you free?”

Hmm, that’s probably about my call last night. But Tim already took care of it… Well, maybe I can ask him about all that confusing stuff. He’s the one having fun with all the Noble things according to Mom. So he should know a lot. “Yeah, I’m good. You’ve got some coordinates?”

“Of course, here you go.” He sends a set of coordinates along the spell, and I quickly redirect them to Clara.

“It’s here in the city, one of the central towers.”

“Thanks, Clara!”

I focus back on the spell, as it’s all mental communication, I can talk freely. “Uhh, do I have to come as Sara Green or Sara Valterion? Clara told me you’re in one of the central towers of the city…”

“Sara Green would be better. We’re meeting at a restaurant, as I really need something to eat right now,” he replies with a chuckle. “Don’t worry about the ban, I took care of it. Oh, and the table is reserved for Randolf Green. Grandma Amelia made me an identity as your cousin, so we can meet up in public places as well.”

He almost chokes at the word grandma, and I have to suppress a laugh. He’s trying though. As he said when I last met him… His habits are deeply ingrained. “Randolf, huh?”

“Ugh, please stop. It sounds so old! Anyway, let’s meet in half an hour. Just walk straight from the jump room I sent you the coordinates to, and you find the restaurant.”

“Alright, that’s perfect. See you soon!”

I cut the spell and get back up. Half an hour is enough time for a quick shower!

Almost exactly half an hour later, my Teleportation spell transports me to the jump room Chris sent me the coordinates to. I quickly step outside and keep on walking straight ahead, just like he said. A hundred meters later, I arrive at the entrance of a rather fancy-looking restaurant. A tall, dark-haired man is currently talking to the waiter manning the entrance. Besides them, there is no one close.

The man gets highlighted on my interface. “That’s Christopher,” Clara chimes in.

I grin broadly and call out. “Randolf! Good to see you.”

He turns around, mirroring my grin. “Sara, you’re right on time. I was just asking the nice waiter here if you’ve already arrived, but I see you haven’t.”

“Nope, took me a bit longer to get ready,” I wiggle my freshly painted nails. They are purple, of course!

“Well, that’s good, I guess…” he turns back to the waiter. “Could you lead us to our table, please?”

“Of course, sir, right this way.” He turns around and walks into the restaurant. We both follow him, and he leads us to a table for two right next to a big window, overlooking the city. “As requested, this table features a privacy barrier. Just press this button right here to activate it. If you need anything, press the second button, and a waiter will see you shortly. Please enjoy your stay. I’ll be right back with the menus.” He turns around and leaves.

“Menus?” I ask Chris and he smirks.

“Yep, paper and all. They’re old-school, but I really like it here. If you look at the wall to your right, you’ll notice a picture of me. I did an advertisement for them a few years back. That brought them a lot of customers and lifetime free meals for me. Unfortunately, only for my real identity…”

I glance to my right and see a picture of Chris Valterion with the biggest smile ever looking at a gigantic burger. That makes me laugh a bit, as Chris is normally way more stoic in his expressions.

“That’s nice… But you wanted to talk to me?”

He clears his throat. “Yeah, but let’s wait until we’ve ordered. It’s better if we discuss this under the privacy curtain. Say, how’s college so far?”

That gets me talking about the things, I’ve learned so far. We also order our food, and it arrives shortly after. Finally, Chris presses the privacy button, and a piece of Magitech in the table activates and covers our table in a translucent sphere. Chris swallows down his piece of burger – the same one he has in the picture – and starts talking. “Alright, first of all, I took care of your ban. You’re now cleared to enter every establishment in Imperia.”

I grin at him. “Thanks, Chris! You’re the best.”

“No problem, it was quite fun, actually.”

I frown a bit. “I guess so… Though I can’t imagine this being fun… All those Noble things are so confusing! It’s just frustrating. I read a book earlier, and now I’m even more confused.”

Chris chuckles a bit, then coughs as a piece of food goes down the wrong hatch. “I get it, believe me, I get it. It is confusing. But when you know a bit more details and rules, it becomes much simpler. If you want, I can explain it to you after dinner? Who knows, maybe you’ll see the fun in it too?”

“Yeah, I’d like that very much,” I find myself nodding eagerly. “But I don’t think I’ll change into the stiff Noble Chris overnight.”

We both laugh. “True, being like me is an acquired taste,” Chris snorts. “Anyway, we’re off-topic again. I wanted to ask you about your friend… Something doesn’t add up here. I know you don’t know about the Noble Game yet, but what your friend did should be way above his weight class. Especially as fast as he had your name cleared.”

I nod slowly. “Yeah, I’m glad you noticed as well. It’s frustrating. There is something… I don’t want to call it wrong with him, but that’s how I feel. I think he’s not who he pretends to be… Just like me, but not as good? There are also things I’d call slip-ups when we’re talking. Like he says something and then remembers he’s not supposed to say it mid-sentence.”

“I can understand that. Pretending to be someone else isn’t easy. I have to say, I’m shocked at how well you’re pulling off your Sara Green identity. Grandma Amelia has me keeping an eye on you, but I didn’t have to step in at all.”

Huh, I didn’t know that, but it makes sense… Not sure I like it though. They could have said something.

“Why thank you… I pretty much had the whole trip to The Empire to practice as I was falsely seen as a Valterion Envoy. But please tell me next time you do surveillance on me. Anyway, I plan to ask Grandma Amelia about him the next time I see her, but could you take a look into things as well?”

“Yeah, sure, and sorry. I’ll tell you if there is a next time.”

“Thanks, let’s finish eating and then you can give me a primer on your Noble Game.”

He nods, and we finish our burgers.