Half Orc Prince Quest (Original Fantasy Setting): Story Only Thread

You sigh a bit as you and your friends lurched toward the crosswalk that led back to the living quarters of your generic urban campus as your friends talk about the party to come

"Finally about time you managed to get those pricks to let us in to the frat parties!" said your roommate Tobias as you stopped at the crosswalk. "Heard about the fact that those cheerleaders from the basketball game are going to be there ready for a piece of this awesome hunk!"

"Last I remembered they screamed at us for you being a creeper and we almost got beat" said your other friend Jules as he glanced away from his cell phone to adjust his polo " At least try not to make Alan and me look bad with being a dipshit"

"Look alive boys" said a noticeably more irritated Tobias as he pointed at the change in the light and the cars starting line up waiting at the large crosswalk. Jules stepped out along with you and started to cross the roadway. You were on your phone forgetting for the moment the drunk drivers were alive on a Saturday night. You did not notice a blue city bus starting to accelerate when he should have been putting on the brakes for the light.

The yells of your friends pull you up from your phone to look into the headlights of a bus going 90 mph. You suddenly feel unimaginable pain as you fall down and your body is crushed underneath the tires of the bus. After a few minutes of incredible pain and shouting from all around you silently feel your senses go out one by one like candles being blown out. You then feel yourself alone and blind in a dark place, unfeeling, unknowing, and unthinking.

Then you feel an unimaginably powerful force hit you and you start to fall endlessly as the endless quiet starts to drive you crazy. You have no mouth but wish you could scream as you fall faster and faster in this new hell. You reflect on your life, your family, your friends, and yourself as the falling continues and then you stop.

Suddenly you feel something wet and fleshy around you as your eyes see red light from all around you and you hear the voice of people outside screaming in both agony and rage. Than you start to lurch forward in fleshy realm that you have discovered yourself in and you move toward the pearly light emanating in front of you.

You then emerge into the harsh light which is when you realize you have a mouth and you start to scream which you don't realize at the time as being baby crying. You then are roughly feel a pain in your front and are put into a warm bundle which raises you up.

You then realize that you can see and you take in the position of the person and you move back suddenly as you look into the eyes of a woman. You shrink back as you see odd ears, large canines, and cold dead eyes look at you from the obviously dead woman.

Then you are turned around roughly to see the other occupants in the room two people in armor stand on either side of the bed almost bored, with a shadowy figure sitting in the back. Than you look at the man that brought you into the world and you are terrified.

The man in white looks at you in terror, as if you are a beast and an abomination. You take in the man's bloodstained white regalia and you start to realize where you have arisen into. Than the man reaches behind him with still bloody hands for some tiny objects and he puts them in front of you.

Then he hisses several words that horrify you to your very bones.

"Choose one of these tools and let His Eminence judge you as man or abomination."

 

The man in white regalia is glaring down on you silently as you make your choice. You silently cock your head and move your new limbs to place it on the metal object stylized into an unknown symbol. You slowly look upwards to the man in white as your newborn eyes adjust to the light making the man visible.

Spoiler

You stare up at the face of the man as you try to gauge his reaction to your movement. His face is stone cold with an imperious visage as his eyes bore into your soul. You try very hard not to move or let go of the metal symbol as you try to ignore his familiar visage from a manga you read in the not to distant past.

"So what did it choose?" Comes a cultured voice from the darkened corner of the room. You struggle for a minute as it sounded like french before you heard it in your native English.

"I hope it is not an utter waste." As rustling sounds indicate to the fact that the man is getting to his feet to walk over to where you are.

Spoiler

The shadowed man walks slowly over to the bed where you are still swaddled until he stands next to the man in white and you struggle to not recoil in disgust. The man is quite ugly despite being dressed in opulent finery that appears to be some sort of sleepwear. Looking bored, he surveys you in the white robed man's arms and your dead mother on the bed as he turns to face the man in white.

"The father above appears to be somewhat in his heart" says the sudden deep brass voice of the man in white. "Still, it appears to be seen whether a beast such as this is loyal to you, Emperor."

"So, The Maker is on his side but it may not be loyal?" Chuckles the man called Emperor as he moves his head a little lower so he can observe you "Since, I hold the Mandate I believe that means he will be useful if properly raised."

You look up to the man in white who looks at the Emperor suddenly indignant at the insinuation that he just brought up. He also glares down on you even more disapprovingly now as you realize that you are sweating all over your body.

"I do have to question His Radiance about if the spawn of such broken stock is worthy of your crown?"

"Well obviously the mother was nothing special, Revered Father." He said as he looked at the corpse of your mother with some disdain. "A Orcianki far from home that came and triggered my carnal instincts that proved to be useless to me after her weakness showed."

The Emperor walks from his position and slaps the corpse while muttering words you cannot hear harshly. This causes the body to move to the side. With this you witness the eyes rolled to the back of the head, her hair over her face, and what appeared to blood starting to trickle outwards, as the Emperor walked back to face the Revered Father.

"You have already confessed your sin of lust to my colleague" says the man in white carefully as he glares into his eyes "However, the penance may have been tainted due to his death immediately afterwards from poison"

You glance at the emperor as he merely grins at the affront to his authority and than signals a guard to go to the door which he opened when you suddenly heard crying from outside.

"Your Radiance" said a new ornately dressed guard "The midwife has stopped resisting us for her failure"

"Excellent" chuckled the Emperor in morbid fashion "Have her flogged on her upper and lower womanly parts for the death of an Empress and give her to the retinue of the Grand Father."

Your eyes widen in shock as the guard shouted out his affirmation and the crying escalated into crying and screaming until the door shut behind the noises. You look to the Emperor who seems eager to hear the response of the Revered Father

"That seems to be satisfactory" said the Revered Father with no emotion in his voice "I presume I will be heading back to Primus after the Council meeting?"

"Of course, the Council of Imperial Heralds and myself eagerly await the word of His Holiness" said the Emperor with a practiced politeness that reminded you of a slimy politician from your world.

"Bernot Talient, you are truly a leal servant of The Maker above" said the Revered Father in a slightly loud voice as he bowed before the Emperor and placed you in the arms of the corpse in one fluid gesture "But I must hear the name of this child borne before The Maker."

The Emperor Talient stood in place for a minute and then walked over to the bloodstained bed that you lay on, dazed from all you have witnessed for your birth.

"I name you Robar Talient, 6th Child of Throne of the Grand Empire of Theoniel" said the Emperor to you with a tone of mirth which confused you before he flicked your forehead hard causing you to scream.

"May you be better than this whore right here" yelled the emperor as he slapped your mother's corpse again as you started to cry pitifully and embarrassingly relieved yourself into the sheets. Out of the corner of your eye you watched as the Revered Father walked out of the room, giving you an imperious smirk as he passed you while you continued to cry.

"Guards!" yelled the Emperor to the shocked men around the room "Take my son to a maid with big tits and clean this filth up!"

A guard covered in armor to the point that you couldn't see their face picked you up carefully, with your soiled swaddling and moved you to his arms. He carried you out of the room as the Emperor observed while glee in his face as the other guards ingloriously covered the corpse of your mother with the bedspread with some bits of excrement from you visible on it as he sheet covered her face.

Finding a wet nurse didn't take to long as apparently the other guards that left forced a rather young girl to come to wait for you in a room. Despite, being young she was extremely buxom which was quickly experienced after you had been cleaned up and were put in new sheets as she prepared to suckle you.

"Ser, I must ask you to leave" said the servant girl (Who happened to be red headed) in a nervous but determined voice which in your tired state shocked you. "I am about the let the young lord suckle and this must be done alone for the child's sake."

The guard that carried you, looked at her silently for the longest amount of time until you suddenly saw a sword being unsheathed from a scabbard by the guard and placed into the stone floor. The screeching noise shocking her and you at the same time.

"Can't do that maiden" Said the soldier in a high class but lecherous tone that disgusted you to your very core "You do, I watch for the Prince's sake."

You look up to see the maiden's eye narrow but silently accept the terms and she gave you her breasts. As you suckle, she seems to be slightly uncomfortable with your teeth but looks away from the man and starts to murmur nothings to you to calm you down.

You look away from her and the vile excuse of a knight and look out a window that is on one end of a room, outward to the dim lights that were outside the prison you were born in and you reflect.

You were a modern man with a modern life until that was stolen from you

You had good and vitriolic friends that was taken from you

You had real family that cared somewhat for you

You had a new mother that was used and discarded like trash

You now have an Emperor and father that does not care

Perhaps being killed by the white robed man would have been a mercy

Will you try to die?

No, you think to yourself as you glance out of the window.

You're going to live

 

Seven days after the birth of Prince Robar Talient...

---

Baron Timon Rigal was tired but restless as he silently stood before the gilded door to the Imperial Throne Room, awaiting for his audience with the Emperor of all Theoniel in his best doublet and a fake smile. After years of being at court and silently being pushed aside (sometimes literally) he could finally ascend to a higher rank than being a servant of the Count of Coudreres. If he could be able to explain why his son five months ago being lucky enough to find him a competent wet-nurse would correlate to a nice cushy position as a steward to a Prince. He was going to get some damn power and when the filthy orc became of age he would pawn him off to the Emperor's Steward and get a nice higher position. He was going to increase his wealth and power so much that even his knightly ancestor 300 years ago would be rising from his Holy grave to commend him for his success (unlike his father).

Timon felt a twinge of pride at how so many of the nobility in line seemed jealous of his ingenious foresight of taking advantage of this incredible vacancy. He just hoped that his ignorant liege lord had done the job he manipulated him to do and was waiting inside. Timon honestly could not understand how incompetent of a nobleman would allow him to cheat so easily on his taxes but be persuaded to take him on as an adviser and praise him for the minimal work that he did. Though Timon hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with as many higher nobility for his position due to the whole Orcianki business. Whatever the case thought Timon, his ascension to wealth and power would begin as soon as the Herald would announce him to go in.

"Announcing Baron Timon Rigal, vassal to Count Edmond Coudreres and candidate for Steward of the 5th Prince of the Empire and 6th in line to the Throne." said the bored and pompous voice of the Court Herald breaking into Timon's expectations of grandeur with all the subtlety of a blacksmiths hammer breaking, causing him some brief internal panic before the grand door to the throne room opened allowing to enter the throne room in as much of a dignified manner as his meager noble status would allow.

The entire throne room was looking at him hard when he came through the door all dressed in finery that Timon realized eclipsed his pitiful doublet in appearance. He than realized only than that the only nobility present was the high nobility. His silent survey of the court was a who's who of the powerful of the Empire. Ministers stood in their lavish robes staring him down sternly, Church officials of Theolent looked at him as if he were a demon, Marquises looked at him with utter disdain, the Dukes looked at him as if judging whether to poison him or not, and Grand Dukes looked at him with amusement as if he were some dog. He turned around and even saw old Archduke Fararem of Monsoriens smirking from behind a pillar like he was watching his head already being beheaded

Spoiler

Gulping silently, Baron Timon had determined that he had most definitely fucked up as he looked up to see the Throne of Theolent itself rise above him as the Emperor preened in his expensive robes while giving him a thin smile. Even the First Prince Guntram Talient was here as he gave him a smile even faker than the one he already had. In the midst of this shock and the Emperor's preparation to speak, he silently determined that this was going to be an all or nothing gamble with his head probably being on the line.

Spoiler

"So, you want to supervise an orc welp" said Emperor Talient in his opening question as the whole of the Court started to laugh at poor Timon as he gritted his teeth in anger. "Granted, I don't think many others want to do the duty but you might be less desperate for lands if I give it to you."

"Hail your Radiance" said Timon as he tried to desperately ignore the laughing from the higher nobility and he started his practiced begging routine. "Yes, you are correct in that regard but I believe it may benefit you if you have someone with experience to look after your son."

"I have six great noble families that have been given such tasks for as long long as the Empire has ruled, more often than not so why should someone so low as yourself get such an important task" said the Emperor with a little less mirth as Timon glanced at Archduke Fararem preening in the background with his sycophants as they chuckled at the hilarity of a lower nobleman trying to sweet talk the Emperor.

"I believe that my work as Steward for my leal lord Edmond Coudreres shows my dedication" said Timon as he glanced around to look for possibly his only ally for this position. "He said that he was traveling to Theolent to present..."

"Oh yes he did" said the Emperor as he interrupted Timon with slight impatience in his voice now as he looked down from his throne. "And what he said was so pointless that the good Archduke did them when he was his father's heir and I had to apologize to him for his arrogant servant!"

Timon puffed himself up with anger as the Court started to laugh like hyenas at the Emperor's partial dismissal of him. Even he had done some work in hunting bandits (Behind the Knights as a sane man would do) these pompous cretins probably had only gone to war when they had greater numbers than the Levornian or Balasornian savages with their pitiful armies. Even the Archduke was nothing more than a bastard clutched at the Imperial teat and rarely going to war allowing his functionaries to go do it for him like good like dogs. They were all parasites! At least he had the decency to try to act the part and rule!


"Well, at least I have some experience with how to run things other than using Imperial functionaries to do his work, unlike His Highness Fararem!" exploded Timon as the hilarity of the Court reached a crescendo as even the Churchmen making jokes insulting his intelligence

Than Timon realized than that he had taken this little charade too far. The higher Nobility were now glaring at him with the hard looks as he realized he had shown a wee bit more defiance to their order, the Emperor's order, than what was typically allowed from someone in his now utterly expendable situation. He turned around and their stood Archduke Fararem with an indeterminable look on his face until he started to frown hard and he spoke.

"Did you insult me in the presence of my liege?" whispered Fararem as Timon realized how quickly he had blown his attempt at power. Fararem than looked at the Emperor and then at Timon and then started to shake his head like one would do with an idiotic child.

"Guntram" said the Emperor in the deadest voice Timon had ever heard as he looked to his son at his side "Kill him."

Timon turned around in horror as Guntram Talient with a pleasant smile still on his face got up slowly from his seat at the right hand of the Emperor and drew his sword. Then he started hearing chanting which he realized was coming from the Church officials all around the court. Then he glanced into the Court and saw every noble look at him with apathy as he started to realize his oncoming death. Then Guntram ran down from the Throne with his same smile on his face, his sword in his right hand, and than Timon threw himself onto the ground.

"Forgive me my lord" screamed out Timon as he placed his face on the ground awaiting for the blade to cut deep into his body. "I mispoke! I did not mean to insult either of you!"

"Well it appears you are as craven as your liege lord told me" Chuckled the Emperor as Timon slowly raised his head. "Your liege lord told me about how he discovered you were cheating on your land taxes and agreed with me and did not mind the possibility of you meeting an unfortunate end. "

"I did that and I insulted you as well your Radiance" shouted Timon as he ignored the betrayal of his liege lord and his own analytical mind as he tried anything to save his soon to be long and happy life. "I believe that I of my noble status, deserve more than to be killed like some beast or elf!"

"You still are trying to get this position?" said the Emperor in an indecipherable tone "After all you have been revealed to have practiced?"

"Yes my lord!" Yelled out Timon as he ignored the pain of a guard kicking him to stop moving.

"Hmm very well!" said the Emperor in a frankly amused tone "If you want to deal with the welp then you can do so."

Now that set off a loud shouts of disbelief all around the Throne Room as the disoriented Timon felt the kicking stop and he was harshly dragged to his feet to look at the Throne of Theoniel where Emperor Talient stood unruffled before the threats of rebellion that seemed to be developing ever more quickly at his announcement was processed. Timon had a weary smile put on his face as he briefly caught a glance of Archduke Fararem looking up at the Emperor shocked to his very bone. The cries of the noble court increased strenuously as finally a massive boom sounded in the middle of the Throne room silencing all who were yelling with the exception of some cries of pain.

"Thank you Ecuyer" said the Emperor to a woman as she silently walked into view from behind the massive Throne. Timon looked at the woman with wide eyes as he remembered that this was the new Court Mage that had been appointed a fortnight ago. He also slightly felt nausea as he remembered her functions for the Emperor when the Imperial Justice was unavailable.

Spoiler

"Rollo" said the Emperor to the Archduke , as the heavy silence returned to the Imperial Court, "You will marry my daughter Ginerva as you have been asking me for years and in exchange the good Baron will be Steward to the orc welp, understand?"

"That is very much desirous, Your Radiance" said the Archduke as he grinned from ear to ear with a lecherous glint in his eye as he bowed exaggeratedly before Timon with a slightly amused smile seemingly forgetting his insult as if the chaos that had just occurred was nothing more an amusing trading of insults by drunken noblemen.

"And you" said the Emperor as he turned to the dazed Baron "will be the Steward to the 6th Prince."

"I will be honored to serve you in that function and in many other offices to come" said Baron Timon suddenly not tired as the Knights and Prince unhanded him and the good Baron happily prepared to celebrate as soon as he got out of the viper pit that was the capital.

"No you will not get any more offices after your tenure as Steward ends nor will you be payed for your efforts" said the Emperor with a sharp edge to his voice as Timon was about to celebrate. "You will serve at the leisure of the Prince and if you are dismissed by him you will never return to Court under pain of death and all of your payment in this office will be given to the Count of Coudreres as payment for your misappropriation of taxes in the realm."

"That is obscene!" Shouted Timon as he suddenly regrew his spine, "why should I even bother myself with such an office with such draconian insults to my person when I could just return the my Seat?"

"If you don't, than the Council of Imperial Heralds will take your pitiful title and deliver you back to your liege lord where he will have you dealt with for all of your crimes. " Said the Emperor with a condescending smile on his face "Now will you honorably take this office and guide our new Prince into being a leal servant to this Empire?"

"Yes your Radiance" said Baron Timon as his stomach lurched at the scope of the massive mess he had gotten wrapped into, "But when would I start on my duties for this job?"

"Oh when will you start?" Chuckled the Emperor on his massive throne, "Why you will start on his most auspicious day, I Emperor Bernot Talient of the Empire of Theoniel have spoken."

"Long may he reign!" Shouted all of the members of the Court as a drained Baron Timon Rigal was swiftly dragged from the opulent Imperial Throne Room by the two guards that were ready to execute him moments before.

The countless opulent hallways turned into a blur as Timon was half dragged and half "guided" by the Imperial up and down the countless hallways and grand staircases until he came to a large door which he deduced in his date was where the accursed brat was.

"Baron" said one of the soldiers in a gruff manner as the other soldier opened the door to the Prince's room "You will get yourself familiarized with the Prince and his attendant before you can deal with your affairs and any indications that the Prince dislikes you or you try anything and you will be killed understand?"

The must chastened Timon bowed his head before the guards before they shoved him into the well furnished Prince's room. Finally given a sense of calm after his ordeal the Baron collapsed to the floor of the entrance of the room and started to cry pitifully at what he had lost. His entire life had just been laid bare and uprooted all because he tried to look to the heavens all because he had cheated paying a marginal amount of taxes and taken a small amount of taxes. Honestly he was being oppressed all because of his intelligence in the face of those unwashed barbarians.

"Who in the hell is crying? Said a soft female voice over the soft sound of baby noises "I was about to let him suckle Becca! Can you stop crying about how Pate left you!"

Than suddenly an annoyed and buxom, red haired servant girl started to walk towards Timon's collapsed form in the entrance and he felt a surge of anger and confidence as he looked at her sinful body. He started to remember his role as a Steward and he immediately walked towards the girl and grabbed her by her throat pushing her toward the window, right next to the cradle where the orc Prince lay. He smirked as he suddenly felt back in his element as a member of the superior peerage of the Empire of Theoniel as he intended to put this whorish peasant in her place as how he and his ancestors had done for 300 years.

"Listen here you whore" said Timon as he savored the gasps of air of the peasant girl as he increased his hold on her throat. "I am the Steward for His Imperial Highness and unless you want to be executed you will do as I say, even if he is a !"

Timon grinned as he felt his lordly rights return to him after being treated like a peasant by the Royal Court. The silent terror of the whore reminded him of when he was a young heir to his father before he had to marry his accursed wife to pop out his knightly son and he could go out on outings similar to this every night with any maiden he fancied. The servant girl had appeared to be chastened so he eased up on his hand being on her throat so she could speak and he could hear he after his bought of discipline.

"I was about to suckle him" said the buxom girl with a tone of pure irritation instead of the fear he expected. "I'm guessing you're the father of that shining Ser Lomas ?"

"Yes, I am" said Timon with pure irritation at her resistance "And this is to understand that..."

"Yeah, yeah grovel before my meager nobility and kiss it right?" said the girl now even more annoyed at the Baron "In case you're son hasn't told you if you hurt me look at what happens when the Prince sees it."

A wary Timon loosened his grip on her throat as he decided to check on the Orc brat. Timon sneered as the half orc looked up at him with his chubby body and green skin reminding him of the beast that he was going to be responsible for. For a minute the child looked at him with his hands around the throat of the servant girl and his eyes narrowed suddenly before he started bawling his eyes and screeching in the loudest manner as Timon had to place a hand on his year.

"Your Imperial Highness!" Shouted to his horror, the voice of the second guard that had escorted him from the Imperial Throne Room, opened the door.

As the guards started to draw their weapon Timon made a move for his survival as he pulled the breast out of the girl's dress and shoved them into the shocked Prince's mouth as he started to cry again.

"He just wanted to feed" screamed the chastened Baron as he shoved the breast into the Prince's mouth while the girl flailed around, the the guards moved back from him shocked but amused for some reason at his move of desperation.

"Sure milord" said the other guard richly as he closed the door "Sure."

Finally after the door was closed, Baron Timon leaned against cradle tired as the comely young servant fell off the Prince. The Prince had stopped crying which was thanked for by the winded Timon. However, just as he was about to turn back to the comely servant girl he felt a hard back hand hit his face which caused him to wobble and fall without a sound into a convenient chair.

"How dare you!" yelled out Timon in outrage to this servant who was now rising up with a red face with determination in her face.

"No you listen" said the red haired girl bitterly silencing the protesting Baron with the venom in her voice and in her eyes. "I have served His Highness first and I have given him the affection that clearly all others in this damned castle have clearly forgotten. Now here this you milord, if you do anything to me the Prince will kill you, and if you do anything to the prince I will kill you, do you understand that raper?"

"Why should I care?" said Timon with sudden fear in his voice as the girl glared into his soul "Who do you think you are?"

"The guards and the Emperor seems to be the reason why you will care." smirked the red haired peasant girl as she continued to glare into Timon's soul "And I am Erina, the Prince's servant, who you also seem to be."

"Yes, yes I seem to be his servant just like you" said Timon as he looked up at the girl with fear in his eyes "as the Steward of the Prince you may return to your womanly duties servant."

"Thank you, Steward Rigal I am so delighted by your wise decision for my simple mind!" Giggled the servant girl suddenly as she curtseyed before him "but I must continue with my womanly duties."

Baron Timon Rigal quietly gave his ascent and the girl immediately went back to work as the young Prince giggled in the background as what she was doing with him. Timon Rigal sat in the chair as he silently relaxed his eyes. He was going to be a servant of the Prince for as long as he willed it and if he displeased him than he would die before him, the Emperor, and that rat Count Edmond.

'Why?" he thought to himself 'Didn't I just pay the fucking taxes!'

Spoiler

 

"Hey Robar you need to wake up" said a kind but an accented voice "The good Baron said we needed to"

"My lord you really must wake up" said a nervous female voice next to him as well

You than open your eye and look up to the gilded finish on the inside of the four poster bed the you are currently sleeping in. Then you move your younger head up to look at the people who disturbed your sleep.

Spoiler

Erina looked at you with a cute but protective glance and you silently realize how much she had blossomed when she had turned 18. She wore a comfortable outfit that seemed similar to a tavern wrench but more modest and with pants which had first shocked you until she explained she didn't live in the palace. Whatever outfit she wore, her curves and large breasts seem to be accommodated in whatever outfit she wore which she had expressed multiple times gloomily it was a curse. She was easily the best servant you had, who had even learned to read for your sake. However, her high sense of justice often got her into trouble with "the good Baron" and occasionally a nobleman with real power often when she saw someone being abused. This naturally led to you as a baby and a toddler saving her alongside the other servant you had in your employ.

Spoiler

The other servant that was giving you an extremely apologetic glance was almost exactly the opposite of the strong-willed and passionate Erina both in personality and in other aspects. Becca, a shy 17 year old catgirl, who was one of the unfortunate servants who lived in the actual palace and you could tell with her shy and nervous attitude and body language. She almost always was dressed in the typical servant uniform for the Imperial Palace staff that was done almost perfectly to hide her own beautiful form. Despite her gentle attitude, their was always a noble that always "tried something" because she was a filthy lascivious beastman that had been rightfully subjugated by the Empire. Some nobles had hit her before and tried to do other things before her good friend Erina jumped into the fray. Hell, even your steward tried to get at her five times, after Erina left a knife on his pants, but was stopped when you cried yourself hoarse every single time he did it. However, despite this treatment she still had a hidden bit of steel that came up whenever another person was in danger or being treated horribly. This mostly came out when her friend Erina was about to get "disciplined" by a noble she had pissed off and when you were being scolded by Baron Rigal. One of the most notable times this happened was when she was walking with you and you both saw a bunny girl (you didn't know the species name) being harassed by a drunken noble, you distracted the noble while she got the girl out of there. Even though both you and Erina gave her crap for not being assertive enough she still was an honorable and reliable servant.

"The good Baron told us that he wanted you up to explain your new tutors" said Erina with considerable disdain in her voice as she pulled you out of the bed to allow you to see your room. "Lets get you into a nice doublet."



You silently got up from you're bed and you look at the new room that you had moved into three years ago. The four poster bed certainly fit in for the lavish furnishing and decoration of the room with two large windows that shined with light as the sun arose from outside. How you were dressed was honestly a big culture shock due to servants typically doing that for you. In fact you remember when Baron Rigal had caught you putting clothes yourself and you had to endure a long lecture about the precedence for your standing among other things. So you chose your favorite orange doublet with the family crest of the Empire and Becca and Erina dressed you up just as a familiar shouting voice erupted as your leal steward made his entrance.

"Ah Prince Robar you are looking quite radiant this fine" said Steward Timon Rigal as several other servants brought in food and drink to the small table in your room. "As expected of the heir to the Emperor you are punctual as you take your next step into the Imperial Order!"

As Erina got in front of you and a grimacing Becca fell behind her, you suddenly are reminded by your vile Steward. Timon Rigal was quite honestly a competent rat, he did everything to the best of his abilities (Despite being an ass about it) but he still treated everyone as the noble he thought he was. Yelling at servants, trying to have "fun" with servants, whining to the Emperor when he had problems with the servants, and sneaking off to new schemes to increase his power while trying to get some money. At least he was better than his son, who was now ruling his lands as he "served the Empire," who had been more hands on with trying to put Erina and Becca in their proper places. However, judging by how many Higher nobility that were now expressing interest (According to your father) as being his Steward and the even more horrid rumors you had heard about them you had determined the good Baron was quite secure in his position of Steward to the Prince.

" Great" said Erina after Timon's typical suck up routine "How will this work exactly and will he have to wake up this early from now on?"

"Steward" said the soft voice of Becca as she stood behind Erina "I heard from one of the Magister's that waking up this early would cause problems with the effectiveness of his studies"

The Baron seemed caught a bit by the blunt questions from all of your servants especially in front of the servants that he had brought with him, that were watching the proceedings with extreme pleasure written on their faces. Which resulted in the good Baron screaming for them to leave as they left the food plates askew. Now annoyed Timon turned back to you to begin explanations

"Your Imperial Highness" said the Baron as he pointedly ignored the questions "Everything was decided by your father and his preeminent advisers not me, I am merely in charge of getting you ready for a much more stable system of tutoring"

"Well that sounds great Steward" said Erina as she gave you a sideways glance "Will he finally have tutors that won't see him as scum for being an orc?"

You grimace silently as you remember the other basic tutors that you had over four years. Pretty much all of them looked down on you and were jealous of an orc being in a higher social strata then them (Both nobles and others) which made for an even more miserable time at learning than when you were in middle school. You even had one that pretty much told you that you deserved to be castrated before you "defile the Imperial Princess's or any other decent noblewoman in a fit of lust" which had been enough to make you freak out enough that you had to be comforted by Erina. In the end however it didn't matter, the basic tutors were replaced almost daily so you never had to displeasure of learning with them for a full year and most of the stuff being taught was just basic speaking, reading, and math which you already knew. The only things of value that you had learned was that Theoniel was the chosen Empire that served the Church of Trios and that it ruled a considerable part of the world from Theolent and it's surrounding lands Centralia (in which you lived, apparently) . Than you learned the names of your absent elder and younger siblings (Guntram, Perinal, Ginerva, Jacques, Etienne, and your younger sister Marianne) which you had almost never seen. Than finally, that the Grand Empire of Theoniel is a corrupt cesspit that gives Westeros and Midland a run for their money.

"The gentle nobility were merely shocked at the beast that they had to civilize" said Timon in his typical condescending tone which brought you back to the present "Since one of you are a beast you wouldn't understand the struggle that they had to face."

"What did you say" said Erina as she tried to move forward but was stopped by a noticeably more despondent Becca trying to prevent another accusation of trying to attack a nobleman from Timon.

"Enough" you say suddenly enough that Erina stops fighting Becca to look at you with some shock "Tell me how this tutoring will work."

"Thank you your Imperial Highness" said Timon as he breathed out a sigh of boredom "Essentially your Father has assigned you with four tutors that will teach you the Church's mysteries, etiquette and court structure, fighting, and of course a Magister's education on everything else before you are presented to the Court for your sixth Nameday tourney and ball in one month's time!"

"Wait" you ask suddenly as a few points start to become clear to you "Who will be teaching me and will I have any breaks with these tutors?"

"Your father has absolutely outdone himself" says Timon cheerfully as he happily ignores your worried state "Father Eathon of the Grand Cathedral of Theolent will instruct you on the mysteries of the faith, Magister Baltrick of Margisbou will serve you in most of your studies, your master of arms will be Ser Limond Glace of Oigy who will help you select your sworn sword, and we even have the esteemed Marquise Coursonny as your Governess of etiquette, court governance, and culture!"

You gulp a bit as the large titles become apparent to you, all of your instructors that tutored you were mostly lower ranked courtiers and palace functionaries. The fact that this many high ranking individuals suddenly had this much interest in you to try and get positions to help you all of a sudden sounded extremely problematic. Not to mention your father chose all of these people without any input from your Steward which showed some interest in you.

"You of course will have breaks twice a day when not eating" Continued Timon, utterly oblivious to your internal turmoil but sounding slightly less enthusiastic, "However, they are limited to the Palace Library, the Courtyards, the Palace Church, and the hallways of the castle."

"Wait" said the small voice of Becca with a certain steel in them that seemed to delight Erina at her side "Will he not be allowed to stay in his quarters when not with his tutors to rest?"

"Oh no" said Timon who clearly didn't appreciate being interrupted by the catgirl "His Radiance would like him to interact with those of his age and station so he can be acclimating to ruling over them. He will only go back to his room after dinner and in order to get something he needs with guards."

"That sounds like His Radiance don't want him to interact with us" said Becca with her eyes narrowing even more at Baron Rigal "Also will he even allowed out of the Palace to interact with people he will rule over, Steward."

"His grace told me nothing about you" said Timon with a smirk on his face "As for leaving the palace any opportunities for leaving the palace will be done at the sole behest of his esteemed tutors and his Radiance. his Radiance also states that he prefers his son to remain mostly in the High City of Theolent."

"That sounds satisfactory, Steward" said Erina with an unreadable glint in her face as Becca suddenly has a cute look of confusion on her face "Though I might have to question why the city proper is off limits to the Prince."

"You don't need to question it, just support it" said Baron Rigal with a slightly despondent look on his face all of a sudden "Here, are your supplies for today's classes"

You stare a bit as a bag of what appears to be parchment and quill, drops into your hands from your suddenly resigned Steward.

"I recommended to His Radiance that this may be a little much for you, but I was overruled by everyone on the Council of Imperial Heralds" said Timon to the shock of you along with your servants standing around you "I will take my leave now, your grace"

"Thanks" you say with some reluctance and a little bit of fake sincerity as your Steward opens the door "You are a leal Steward."

"Oh yeah?" says Timon as he opens the door out of your room "Good luck your grace, a guard will come with you for your classes"

He starts to close the door when suddenly he stops and stares at you seeming to remember something

"Oh yeah I forgot" said Timon with a dead tone in his voice as he turns to face "Your father says you may dine with him for dinner tonight if you desire."

 

Centralia


Taken From: The New Survey of the Lands of Theoniel by Magister Ellard

---

As all of the citizenry of Theoniel know, Theolent is the capital of our Grand Empire on the shores of the river Theolan close to where it crosses with the river Jardins, where our illustrious Emperor holds court, and where the Exalt of the Trios reigns in the grandest Cathedral outside of Holy Primus. The capital is the most known but the land surrounding it is the true heart of Imperial pride and power since the early days of the Empire.

Upon entering Theoniel you first notice the near perfect roads of solid lined stone stretching all around Centralia, which all lead to Theolent. These roadworks were created by the vile Sorcerer Lords of Alvaria from Cermont (At the time Caera) during the days when their heathen Empire put much of the world under the yoke of their unholy magic. However, long after the Great Shattering of Alvaria these lands still held the last Rexari from their lands who still held his heathen ideals and punished the Triens for their one true faith and threatened Holy Primus. Theonile of Theolent the Anointed Founder of the Empire broke this hold in the name of the Faith when he drove them from Theolent to Caera where he slew the last Rexari and drove his host into Imperial Bay. Afterwards he purged with the assistance of the Church's Knights all mages and arrogant beastmen from the land in accordance with the tenets of the faith until the only evidence of their presence are the occasional ruin, a restored manor, and the best roads in all the empire.

Since then Centralia has been the base for the Emperors from the House of Talient frequently weathering wars, betrayal, and otherwise for roughly 300 years until when Abraxas Talient crushed the former mayor of the palace Caylan Formartian in the Battle of the Two Rivers ending his revolt against the Imperial Throne. The subsequent administrative re-centralization ended support for Formantian's ridiculous notions of the humanity of beastman, support of mob rule by peasants, and preaching of freedom for mages while making Centralia into the preeminent center of the empire of which it has held for more than 400 years since.

Since then the noble houses directly within Centralia (Coursonny, Artians, Coudreres, Preseoux, and Virans) have benefitted greatly and have become integral parts to the running of the Empire. Other nobles with history from Centralia or otherwise maintain old castles and even build fortified manors within Theolent and outside of it due to the incredible prestige, prosperity and safety that these lands have.

As a result the various settlements are well known throughout the Empire outside of warfare and black reputation. Villy, the Seat of House Virans is a well known breadbasket and wine producer for instance. Coursonny is an important port on Lake Heron, well known for its picturesque lands and also for his important military might. Oigy of House Artians has become legendary for it's countless tourneys making it a destination for Knights from all over the Empire that seek to become a part of the House's massive retinue of Landed Knights.

What is the cause of such great fortune? The blessing of The Maker above, the wise leadership from the House of Talient, and the Immemorial Imperial Guard of Centralia. This army, created by Theonile as a response to the heretical armies of Alvaria, now counts as one of the greatest armies of the world enforcing the divine will of the Imperial Throne in order to guide the people and nobility of the land. The Centralia garrison (Currently under the command of the First Prince Lord Commander Guntram Talient, one of the youngest Knights of the Realm) has a bare minimum of 30,000 men at all times, which is essential to preventing major revolts and has made many nobles comfortable with living in manor homes and has allowed peasants to be not afraid of being molested by brigands as in other areas of the Empire.

While Centralia's rule serves as a shining example of good governance naturally traitors and critics from heathen nations and from within our Empire attack Theolent and Centralia for being a vile cesspit of corruption filled to the brim with cultists, massive slaver rings, abuse of lessers, brutality by the divine church, deviants, large walled slums in Theolent, and other similar accusations. While some parts to this reputation is true with the occasional horrific incidences that Centralia has faced such as the Great Poisoning of the Wood in which no fewer than 67 scions of 33 noble houses died a horrible death by poison in a fortified manor near Oigy at the hands of a jealous noble can attest. However, the vast majority of these accusations are exaggerations and are often a sign of treasonous and heretical thought.

 

After eating your breakfast and listening to the concerns of Erina and Becca, two different guards in gilded armor came to your room to tell you that they will escort you to your very first tutor. Thus, you go off leaving your worried servants as you enter the luxury of the main palace and head toward the Palace Church. You had actually been to the palace church a few times when you were really young and naturally you were not thrilled to interact with the priest in charge of it. The priest, Roland was his name, was an old fat glutton that had been a nobleman with a black reputation but gave himself over to the faith in hopes of redemption. (Or as Erina thought it happened, was a second son that thought he could get influence at court) However he came to the palace, he naturally did not like you and tried always to move you to the back of the Church on the rare occasions your presence was required for some Holy Day on the grounds that you might "Damage the Church if your hands were allowed to roam."

"Your Highness" said the gruff voice of your guard, which interrupted your negative thoughts "We are at the doors to the Church, please act as much as your stature allows."

Thus, you straightened your posture and prepared to enter the ancient walls of the Church. As you walked into the Church you were reminded of how pervasive the class structure for the Empire was. The First room that you entered was known as the Hall of Working Peers which had two large rooms on either side that the lowest of servants came to worship which were typically a mixed bag of pitiful humans and beastmen that were separated, to Becca and Erina's utter disgust. Than you entered the Center Court where confessionals and altars to various Anointed (You assumed they were equivalent to a Saint) which were gilded along with having the finest jewels with an actual garnet or marble sculpture representing them in life. Then you prepared to enter the main and most lavish area of the church.

"Wait" hissed the quiet voice of a Knight from some Church order next to a door as you started to hear and see worship. "His Father is holding mass for the Emperor, take it through here!"



Then the knight opened a door and your guards half pulled you into it what appeared to be an access to the actual priests that worked here along with a maintenance area due to it having various stained glass which allowed you to see in on the luxurious Hall of Noble Peers, where the members of Court came to worship alongside the Emperor. You actually managed to see the Emperor sitting with a brown haired man at a lavish looking pew which stood to the side of an elevated and richly decorated altar where to your shock another priest was preaching to the assembled nobility. Now freshly worried you were half dragged by your guards into a room further down the hall which appeared to be where your "special" mass was going to take place out of sight of the civilizing nobility.

You walked into this other area and passed a few other scowling priests, some odd vestments, and a few other rooms before the Knight finally led you to a simple door where you began bracing for Father Roland or one of his grotesque cronies inside. The door than opened and you saw a much more welcome but confusing sight as you looked into the room. You saw an elegant looking dark haired man leaning on a desk, looking out a stained glass window, dressed in a full priests uniform, and strangely smiling.

Spoiler

r

"Father Eathon" says the Church Knight in a hard tone "Here is His Highness Prince Robar Talient, we will leave him with you"

Then the church knight quickly walks out of the room without any other prompting, and slams the door. While your guards were unruffled by the rude display you found yourself exchanging looks of disbelief with Father Eathon.

"Your Highness" said your own guards "We will be outside if you need anything, and we will come to take you to Marquise Coursonny when you are done with this lesson."

You thanked them for their service, to which they left in a more polite manner closing the door softly. You then awkwardly looked around for a place to sit, ultimately deciding on a simple stool close to the door and you looked up to Father Eathon as you prepared for him to begin the lesson.

"Welcome my Prince, The Maker shines down on you today" says Father Eathon in a surprisingly soft yet polite voice that had a subtle inflection of an aristocrat. "I am Eathon, your instructor in Mysteries of The Maker and his holy triumvirate, will you join me in the Creed of One?"

"I am sorry...Father" you say as you cringe at forgetting such an easy prayer "I have not learned how to pray as well as I should have."

"That is fine" said Father Eathon with a smile "All children forget prayer, just come over here and we will practice it together."

Father Eathon than gestures over to a small kneeler that is directly in front of a hanging symbol that you do not recognize. Confused, you walk over and kneel in front of the symbol and than father Eathon kneels next to you. He begins coaching you on the prayer and what to do for it in an extremely patient manner which surprises you greatly. After saying it along with him for about five times you are able to say the prayer on your own.

"This is most fortuitous, young Robar" says Father Eathon as he pulls you to your feet happily "You are proof that no matter how heretical or mean a man's origins are they can overcome it to give themselves to the Father Above and his Children."

"Uh yeah" you say with some nervousness at the priest's words "I hope that I will be better than a orc so I can learn more about the Holy Trio."

"Prince Robar" said Father Eathon as he shook his head slowly to your nervousness "No matter a man's origins they can be turned to the light of our Church, even the most vile of races and people's"

"But how can I overcome my impure blood?" you said as you forced yourself to use the crap that previous tutors used to declare you were.

"Prince Robar, stop" said Father Eathon in a noticeably stricter tone "The heresy of the many cannot be applied to the single man, I came here expecting a barbarian as all your previous tutors have said you are and so far you are learning, I daresay you are more diligent than some humans I have met!"

"Uh thank you father" you say as you try to wrap your head around how the hell this priest was chosen for you "I would like to know how you came to become my uh tutor."

"Oh I was chosen by the Exalt himself to be your humble tutor" said Father Eathon suddenly more cheerful in the moment "A combination between me being the youngest Priest ordained and for my leal assistance to the church!"

"So, how did you assist the Church" you asked as you worried about why the Exalt wanted this specific priest to serve the Emperor.

"Oh, it isn't the stuff that should be told to children" said Father Eathon a bit bashfully but with a tinge of steel in his voice. "I caught four Hierarch's engaging in simony and reported a few others for some particularly vile sins of the flesh upon the female peasantry. My Revered Father than told my honorable deeds to the Exalt and since the Emperor was looking for a priest outside of the palace to teach his unruly son I was given this opportunity!"

"Oh" you say as you suddenly realize and accept that your father had given you a damn pariah priest to be your tutor.

"Anyway shall we begin learning about the The Maker's children?" said Eathon as he moved on from the story about how he was oblivious to being kicked upstairs so to speak.

"Uh yeah what are they again? I only remember the third one, Iter of the Deserts and Rivers." you say as you mentally punch yourself for ignoring Father Roland's dull and butt kissing sermons to the nobility and of course your loving father.

"Well, you have one" Chuckled Father Eathon "Now you must understand him along with Maeve of Forested Glen and Erilos of Alvaria in order to begin our studies into The Maker's mysteries."

Thus, began your tutoring session with Father Eathon as you learned today about the Jesus-like Trios. Apparently The Maker had created them and had given them to families that were quite varied in order to serve him on Earth. The entire lesson went by pretty fast as you actually started to get interested in the lore of the religion but the more he spoke, the more you started to get wary of the higher priesthood in the Church of Trios. Apparently, the highest ranking member of the Church was the Holy who ruled on the large island of Holy Primus protected by his knightly orders and the Empire of Theoniel (The reason why Father Eathon said would be covered later and in your history studies) along with prisons with mages being kept on the island and in special areas near major churches The most troubling thing that you learned briefly was that their were twelve religious crusades led mostly by Theoniel called Anointed Marches to reclaim the birthplaces of the three from heathens and kill heathens. Eventually the lesson ended and you got an actual surprise from Father Eathon at the end.

"Thank you for giving me an excellent first lesson with you" said a grateful Father Eathon as you started putting your parchment and a few notes given by Eathon into your bag"I am confident that you will make a great Prince to the defend the faith!"

"Thanks Father" you say slightly confident that you had an ally for once "I am honored that you are my tutor in the name of the church."

"Oh you are welcome my Prince I hope to see you..." suddenly he stopped and then walked over quickly to a small chest in the corner of the room that you didn't notice.

"Uh is their something wrong Father?" you question as you watch Eathon rummaging around in a chest before he got a book and starts to walk over to you.

"While most of your previous tutors told me you were a vile orc child they did note how quickly you learned how to read" said a smiling Father Eathon as he handed you a book "Thus, I think you deserve a copy of the Triumvir of Light for your studies!

"Thank you, father" you say with considerable gratitude but with some confusion. "But is this even in the Common Tongue, I thought most of these would be in Alvarian?"

"Oh some have been translated into the Common Tongue in order to allow for younger and older nobles to read the words of The Maker" said Father Eathon with a polite attitude in his words. "I wish you luck with your other tutors and I will be telling your Governess and Steward about your excellent behavior"

Thus, you left backroom of the Church with a bit of spring in your step at lucking out on getting a decent tutor and some more info to work with. You highly doubted that all of your tutors would be as decent as the priest and the whole Church corruption business but you were glad at getting some success. Though you were a bit worried by the Governess you were about to meet.

---

The royal guards took you from your first experience with one of your new tutors rather quickly to your irritation. The guards than informed you that the more time wasted, you could have been late to Marquise Coursonny which could be considered an affront to an important noble house. You agreed with your guards and they walked with you to where you were to be taught even though you question how time was told without clocks. After a bit more of the typical half-drag, half-walk experience you had made your way up to one of the doors on a higher floor of the inner palace structure.

When you got inside you came face to face with your second tutor who surprisingly was a woman. Marquise Coursonny appeared to be an older more severe woman dressed in a very expensive yet frumpy looking dress and a scowling look upon her face at your arrival. She was in an odd position which had her body shifted to the side with her arm sticking out and her hand pointed down.

Spoiler

Your guards stood their awkwardly in the doorway with you for a few moments as the Marquise simply stood their frozen in that same posture as you watched disdain flood into her eyes. You started looked at the hand uncomprehendingly until you mentally slapped yourself again and you started to move forward to her hand.

'The lesson has already started" you thought as you quickly moved into the room where her hand was 'I mean didn't men use to kiss the hand of a women back in the middle ages?!'

You quickly came up to the Marquise and started to bow to kiss her hand until in one graceful motion the Marquise moved her hand from where you were trying to kiss it to point at the Imperial Guards that you had brought with you.

"Imperial Guards," said Marquise Coursonny in a fittingly aristocratic and pompous tone "I apologize on how slow our half breed Prince is, you may leave now."

The guards stammered out their thanks and turned to you to tell you that they would arrive before noon to escort you to the palace courtyards. They than bid you farewell leaving a bit too quickly for you liking at the orders of the Marquise. Then you turned to the Marquise ready to see how this tutor would be like.

"You have already failed a test," said the Marquise as she moved up close to you. "I know that half breeds were problems but I had know idea that I would have my work this cut out for me!"

"What do you mean by me being a half breed?" You said with repressed anger as you realize that this tutor was much worse than the jealous lower courtiers that you had to deal with when you were younger, "I am not a traitor Marquise..."

"Be silent and listen" hissed the Marquise in an annoyed voice "And my name is Marquise Treline Coursonny, you are to address me my lady or your grace!"

"Yes...my lady," you say with considerable disdain in you voice "I am very eager to learn about the Court and governance"

"Satisfactory in delivery but your tone reeks of wit," said Coursonny ignoring your attempt at peace "I can understand now why so many of your tutors left you."

"I apologize to her grace," you say with considerable disgust in your voice. "I hope I am able to become proficient in my studies."

"So, your father wanted me to ask you if you are willing to dine with him," she said, ignoring you and with such a smug tone that you were sorely tempted to punch her. "I mean if you are going you must work hard to understand the basics for..."

"I must apologize to His Majesty but I am not going to be dining with him," you say confidently as you intentionally interrupt her. "I decided I didn't want to make my lack of manner noticeable to his Highness."

That at least somewhat shut her up as you nervously watched her stare at you with an indeterminable gaze until she started to shake her head in what you could only describe as a mockingly sad way. You than braced yourself for the outrage that you half had expected would come when you rejected you father's invitation.

"I do have my work cut out on me," as the Marquise gave you an even more of a look of disgust. "I expected you to be ignorant like most other half-breeds but I never expected a half orc to be a coward as well!"

"I am not a coward!" you say indignantly. "I merely wanted to prevent his Majesty from having to look at me stumbling around until I have been suitably trained!

"Would you stop addressing his Radiance with that lesser title" said Coursonny with a tone of rage in her voice. "You are supposed to address the Emperor as His Radiance or His Imperial Highness who do you think you are child from Balasorne or some impure slave from across the sea!"

"I didn't know," you say as you started to hit your limit with crap from this bitch "I just need to learn this stuff from someone competent, your grace!"

Than you took a look at her face and you find an answer to a question that you had jokingly asked your friends in your youth about if a person could kill you with your eyes. Honestly, with the heat that she was staring at you with her eyes you were pretty sure she would have burned you like an ant if her glare had actual heat. Than you suddenly feel a sharp pain in your ears as you realize that Marquise Coursonny just took a large step and was now grappling onto his ears like a vulture with talons.

"Help guards!" You yell a bit in desperation as her nails dug deep into the sensitive flesh, "HELP ME!"

You than try to struggle in desperation to get out of the clutches of hand and run for the door but Marquise Coursonny's arm was just like a steel rod that you couldn't break. You hoped desperately for your guards to come in to take you away from this mad woman but they never came. Then after what seemed like an eternity the hand that gripped you pulled you right to the face of the Marquise.

"Be silent, Your highness" said Coursonny as her eyes narrowed even more furiously. "Until you get a whipping boy I have been given the rights by your father to direct people to discipline your Imperial person, your guards have been told this and will follow it."

"What?" you say with utter horror as you realize you were left all alone with this mad woman. "Why did he do this?"

"You are his son and you must be taught to understand duty." said the Marquise in an extremely quiet voice. "We must kill the orc to save the man! All to maintain the eternal purity and strength given by The Maker unto his Anointed Theonile and this Empire. Now you will sit at this table and begin learn your duty to the Emperor and the Imperial Order itself!"

Then you got into that chair and you went to work without any arguments. Honestly, you didn't speak unless the Marquise asked you to, and almost everything you did was wrong. You only started learning different forms of address and you sucked hard at it. Coursonny had zero empathy for you and merely demanded rote learning which quickly started driving you insane. According to her, a brief overview of heraldry would have been part of this session if not for your "disruption" and you were stuck learning addresses along with how to interact with nobility.

"Your guards are here" said Coursonny just as you perked up at the sound of knocking which indicated your release. "Now I want you tell me what your assignments are that I will be giving you are before you leave."

"Yes, your grace" you said with considerable fear in your voice as you began. "I will practice my forms of address, my basic interaction with nobility, and I will begin studying the book of heraldry that you will give me."

"Excellent" she said with a smug smile as she put the extremely expensive looking book into his bag. "You may go."

You immediately try to make a break for the door and you suddenly feel your shoulder being held by the Marquise, preventing you from leaving. Then she spoke.

"I will not speak of anything other than your refusal to dine with His Imperial Highness" she said in a simple yet cold voice "But remember that I am your Governess and I expect improvement in your studies with me and that all of your other studies will be up to the standard of an Imperial Prince, understand."

"Yes...your grace" you say as you almost forget that term of address "I will remain proficient in my studies."

"I will have your Steward ensure that is the case" she states smugly "But if you show me some improvement, your grace has permitted me to allow you leave the palace to get a very special something."

"Wait" you say suddenly as you hear this bomb drop "You mean like a pet or something?"

"Well in a way your Highness" said Coursonny cryptically, "But if you do not, your breaks will be much more supervised, understand?"

"Yes, you grace" you say happy to leave this cursed room.

"Then you may go"

The doors than open with your guards coming into the room. They genuflect before the Marquise and then direct you to come with them down the stairs. You idly listen to them giving praise to the Marquise and her husband but you are more focused on the burning glare you feel on yourself as the door closes behind you.

{Obtained a Copy of Heraldry of Centralia, and Domains of Valreaux, Margisbou, and Allais}
(Another book that you can read during studying)

---

After being free of that woman, the guards start to fill you in on what will be going on for your break. Apparently you will be brought to the courtyard where you will be free to interact with almost anybody under their watchful eye. After some time relaxing you will then have a choice to eat lunch (apparently called dinner for some reason) in your room or in the great hall where almost everyone would be eating.

While thinking about this you reached the end of the long tower staircase and you exited through one of the opulent doors to enter into a place that you had long wanted to visit. The Courtyard was considered to be the area all around the inner palace and naturally it had some of the grander architecture even though you could see the guards on the towers and walls of the palace alert and attentive. From what you heard, half of it was given to opulent gardens while the other half was given toward the area that you had stepped into. While the entire inner area of the palace courtyard was paved with stone and had fountains and other opulent attachments they still had stables and small fields for young nobles that were fostered at the palace near the periphery of the castle walls. From where you could stand you noted the large statue of what you presumed to be Theonile of Theolent.




Naturally the time you got here the area was extremely crowded with dozens of noble children flouncing around in expensive looking Armour and doublets while their knights tried to control them. The horse's stables were remarkably clean around it with various hands helping to keep it that way. Then you saw the fighting yards, which were completely filled with young or man grown nobles testing their swordsmanship with wooden swords. One of the most notable was a muscular blonde man dueling dominating a duel with another child. As you scanned around children either looked oblivious or if they noticed you they gave you a look of caution which worried you. Then you looked over to the paved area where some colorfully dressed nobles had a large expensive table out to play an odd board game and further off toward the entrance to the gardens you saw a group of young ladies (one of them appearing familiar) sewing while being supervised by a combination of Imperial Guardsmen, household knights and servants.

You look around as the worries of you last tutor fade away and you eagerly look around for someone to interact with.

 

While Robar is experiencing his Tutors...

---

'Why of all times does this have to happen?' Quietly questioned Baron Timon Rigal, as he and his servant/sworn sword Ser Michel Morel, walked urgently down a particularly lavish part of the Imperial Palace to his Princely master. 'I took care of that brat better than his own father could, and yet he wants me to talk with Coursonny about my role?!'

"Your lordship, this merely sounds as if the Emperor wants you and the new Governess of the Imperial Heirs to interact in order to foster some sort of understanding," said his exasperated knight as he clunked along with Timon in his suit of plate armor. "I do not see why I had to be fetched from my melee and accompany you in my full armor. This seems like just a typical courtesy."

Spoiler

Timon glanced back in anger as he looked at his snide raven haired servant as he walked at a snails pace behind him, confused courtiers and servants looking at him and of course his master to his dismay. Timon silently began to think back when he seemed like he had most of his situation . The Morel's were among his most loyal vassals and the current lord of the house had spent almost a decade at court which meant he had some experience which could have served him well when he "became" a Steward. However, the cursed idiot had fell off his horse while surveying his lands when he sent word, and had sent his recently knighted, second son in his stead. Michel was satisfactory in his duties and his martial prowess had won him many an honor duel (And maybe a few enemies) but he was woefully ignorant to much of the civilized Court "game" which had been an utter nuisance. His simple ideas fell in the face of the obvious machinations of the noble houses trying to gain power (Like the Coursonny's) after all how on earth does an elderly Governess fall sick and die in the same day without poisoning as another powerful woman jockeyed for the position? The thought is just so boggling. However, as the injury of his Lord Father appeared to be quite detrimental for the past three years he had been stuck with his current household associate.

"I need to catch those lazy trash and get them to tell me some progress they had with His Highness." said Timon as he changed the subject and started to speed up his walk in a combination of rage and panic as the terrifying thoughts of dismissal fell into his head again. "I am sure they compensated to my duties while discussing with Ministerial Courtiers."

"How in the name of the Maker would they be able to assist him in his study's when your tutors misliked the Prince along with pretty much all of their ilk?" said Michel winded, as after suddenly speeding up to catch his lazy master.

"Enough! We are going to question the prince's leal servants so that way we will be prepared for the Governess" said Baron Timon as he started to break into a brisk run, leaving his beleaguered Knight to run more slowly behind him.

After a few minutes of running in a decidedly non-dignified fashion to the amusement of both the servants and nobility, Ser Michel was able to bring him down to reality and pull him over to the door to the Prince's room after the good Baron passed by it around three times.

"Thank you Ser Michel for your adequate assistance to my person" said Timon after he had been calmed down by his highly annoyed Knight. "Now let us get this door open and get those rats to fucking talk!"

Thus, the door opened quickly to an immaculate room, the bed and all parts of the room were cleaned extremely thoroughly. The wood was polished to perfection, the flowers in the room had been replaced, and even the ceiling had been dusted.

"What the hell?" said the Baron as he surveyed the immaculate room until a grin of triumph fell onto his face. "Their is no way they got permission from the head maid to run off from their other duties..."

"Actually they did, you lordship." said a sweating and greatly annoyed Ser Michel as he pointed to an open parchment note with an obvious seal on it. "I think we may be under prepared for this meeting at dusk with the Marquise."

"Well then help me prepare!" yelled Timon as his face turned red in embarrassment as he suddenly lunged for a log book in the back of the room that was kept by your servants which detailed the actions of yourself for a particular day.

"This is quite blatant for those servants," quipped Ser Michel as he sat down at your table and watched the Baron rip open the logbook. "Are you actually going to discipline them for this?"

"No" said Timon as he froze for a minute at such a suggestion as his Knight gave him a look of disbelief. "His Highness is quite fond of them, now get over here and help me!"

He was going to need everything when he finally learned the truths wi

---

While you Steward and the mostly corrupt nobility played the Great Game of Power for greed and desires in the luxurious confines of the Imperial Palace of Theolent and in many locations across the High (also known as Inner) City of Theolent, the servants survive. A mixture of species both human and otherwise that ubiquitously serve the rulers and survive in their own social circles. The same social circles weather all the devout loyalists to the particularly vile nobility, idiotic social climbers, and of course the occasional desperate snitch who gave names to a household or Imperial Guard after an incident. The life of a servant was quite perilous but some servants eek out a living and are still able to feel empathy for the kindest of their charges along with their fellow being. However, this often happens deep underground where the simple replaces the opulent and the masks can come off.

"Come on Becca!" yelled Erina as she hurried down the stairs to the servant quarters. "We don't want to miss the others!"

"Yes, coming!" shouted back the catgirl Becca as she ran faster down the stairs with her tail moving fast with worry.

Eventually they came to the end of the stairs and after running down a few hallways in opposing directions they finally reached the servants meeting rooms. The servants quarters were unique in the Imperial Palace as that all large rooms did not have any doors. This was due to the fact that over two centuries ago the servants revolted against an abusive Emperor and before killing the Lord Chamberlain, half the Imperial Stewards, twenty four guardsmen, and one unfortunate member of the Empyrean Guard they had used the heavy doors to fortify themselves. Naturally, the doors were removed and a twelve guardsmen were left to supervise the servants. However, the Palace Guards were much more lazy and in exchange for wine and good behavior they didn't interfere. This was where your servants Becca and Erina met with a few of their fellow servants.

"Why good morrow Erina" said a cocky elf wearing the typical Imperial servant livery as he gave Erina a big smile while she and Becca came up to the table. "You are as beautiful as..."

Spoiler

"Oh stuff it Maeric," yelled Erina as a day of irritation and stress boiled over as she took a seat "You and all the good women here know you will always be a virgin until your wedding night, hells maybe after !"

"Oh come on Erina," wilted the elf as Becca, a bunny servant girl, and a human servant roared their laughter as the false bravado of the elf crumbled beneath Erina's shining will.

"Oh Maker that was so satisfying Erina" laughed the bunny girl as the elf fell further and further into his seat. "He's been trying that on everyone, even the married servants. Ain't that right Bryen?"

Spoiler

"Oh yes I'm pretty sure Arten almost knocked him out for trying that." Chuckled the much more composed human servant as he adjusted his work rag. "Now lets stop ganging up on our good friend here before Frynne takes his member to!"

Spoiler

"Come on Bryen I'm not that desperate!" laughed the bunny girl Frynne as her bust shook with her increasing laughter.

"Erina!" said the annoyed Maeric as he hit the table futilely for quiet as he heard the laughing spread to the adjoining meeting rooms "I hope you didn't get me out of extra pay just to kill my love life"

"Yeah she didn't want to kill your..." paused Becca as she looked at Erina's face suddenly harden at the mention of the business that was coming as the other two continued their laughter at the expense of Maeric.

"I'm here about the young thing, Maeric" said Erina which instantly silenced all the servants that were still laughing and the adjoining rooms suddenly became quiet as well.

"Well, I must be going off to talk to the Steward about how he wants us to approach the food at midday" said the bunny girl Frynne now completely alert as she quickly got up from the table suddenly and moved toward the opening to leave. Right before she leaved however she covertly mouthed 'no guards' and walked down the hallway before the remaining servants started to hear the light hitting of shoes on the stone stairs.

"You really gotta be careful" said Bryen also completely serious as he got up to leave and gave a slight glance out the door before signaling something. "I need to get back to the gardens outside."

With the departure of their other two accomplices Becca and Erina both handed parchment to a stone- faced Maeric. He gave a quick glance at the ratty parchment before frowning and then he stuck the parchment into his boot and then looked to Becca and Erina.

"I don't know," said Maeric with a low voice as he started switching gazes between the doors in a paranoid way. "That information is more imperial than gossip."

"What!" said Becca with some volume that made Maeric and Erina shush her, "You mean after a month you still have no idea on why this Coursonny women is here?!"

"Yeah what the hell, you found out the whispers about the new tutors coming but you couldn't tell us about the noble," said Erina with an indignant glare in her eyes. "If you sold us out..."

"What what! No!" said Maeric now quite mad at the accusations. "We have known each other since we moved out of that gutter, we live in the same inn, I would never betray you! Ever!"

"Really well..." said Erina now blushing a bit.

"Oh enough you two," said Becca as she hit the table hard to get them back on topic. "We need the reason why this happened, now Maeric!"

"From the few tidbits I heard this matter is being handled directly by the Heralds and some Ministers" said Maeric now his voice at a whisper. "The channels that are deciding these things have moved beyond that ponce of a Steward and the Lord Chamberlain to someone more important. No reason why or how it's being done."

"That makes no sense, the Duchess..." said Erina as her voice started getting panicked. "You really think she just died in her sleep do you?"

"I know that!" snapped Maeric as he started to glare toward the entrance area to the deserted room. "But her own family disliked her and she had pretty much lost her wits, I wouldn't be surprised if someone poisoned her to get this Coursonny woman to become the Governess of the Imperial Heirs but again this stuff is beyond typical palace events."

"You told us about all sorts of crap!" Whispered Erina furiously. "You even told us about that one poisoning that turned out was actually the Steward."

"I can tell you about a shit ton of stuff alright. Like which nobles sire bastards, the best idiotic court intrigue, when a noble got a pox, and hell when an idiot gets caught trying to kill" said Maeric with a resigned tone in his voice. "But I can't tell you secrets where even nobles die to keep them."

"Are you a coward?" Asked Becca with steel in her voice that replaced her typical meekness. " Weren you not the same man who robbed Grand Dukes in their chambers before you became a servants?"

"I was younger and stupid" hissed Maeric in a sort of desperation. "But we all have limits before the Gods, this is my limit!"

The silence after that was palpable, Becca lost her edge as she silently realized how close they were to the dragons den. This was stuff that any noble other than the Emperor and his close circle would die from an unfortunate application of poison and would die peacefully in their sleep. For servants? Well, she could see every part of her body being hacked off during torture and than being burned alive by an entire army of Guardsmen. That was fine for her if she could help the Prince but if they died the Prince would have no one except perhaps for one greedy Steward that would gleefully kick him off the Palace walls at the first mention of a trumped up charge of treason and the reward for taking them down.

"Can you tell me about the noble house again?" Asked Erina curtly with a subdued air of determination which seemed more in place with Becca.

"House Coursonny of Coursonny, " began Maeric with a certain urgency. " A moderately wealthy noble house that currently holds only two offices of note, the Governess and some role in a Ministry. The current Lord is Marquis Bartoloman Coursonny who is a Portmaster for Coursonny, a tax farmer, and owns multiple ships in Cermont along with on Lake Heron. His wife was the daughter of his sworn lord Viscount Mallette and was a handmaiden for some noble family in the south in her youth. They also have a son named Germain who is currently ruling in their stead while they are in the capital. "

"Is that it?" Begged Erina as desperation showed again. "Please tell me that's not it!?"

"I'm sorry my friends," said Maeric as he brushed away some tears that started to fall. "I'll help you in any way I can but you need an actual spy to find the information you seek."

Erina and Becca gave him a hard look and they silently thanked him for his help and he left extremely despondent. Then they both got up from their seats without speaking to each other and started walking in lockstep toward the stairs leading upward. Their were a great many thoughts in their head but they both had the same thought as they walked up the long stairs into the palace above.

'We need a way to spy' they thought as they walked back into the opulence and falsehood of the palace as night approached for the Steward.

---

Later that night...

---

"Milord we're at the manse" announced Timon's servant Pate in a much more subdued voice than normal temporarily pulling Timon out of thinking about the scenarios that frightened him. The most obvious one was of course possible dismissal and at worst he imagined his head on a pike but at the same time he felt relief in getting some of the Herald's goals to be told to him,

Whatever his thoughts Timon and his Knight both looked out to see the the sun outside the carriage was setting fast as they could see the quiet High City manse of the House of Coursonny coming into their vision. The High City, while being rightly famed for it's glitzy aristocratic homes, the palace, and it's luxurious stores seemed to forget that this part of it existed. The Manor and the ones next to it were on the very periphery of the Old Tourney grounds. A wooded glen in the eastern part of the High City that had once hosted tourney's for the first Talients before the city expanded. Now the tiny glen had shrunk as old manors gradually took it's spot including the large gardens of the Coursonny's manse.

As Timon approached he realized the age based on the old cobblestone walls which appeared at first glance to be new but the closer you got to the grey manor showed their age. The lavish fountains sprayed their shining water and the entirety of the gardens appeared to be spotless which unnerved Timon due to his own experience with his harvests. Timon checked his and Ser Michel's doublet and when he was satisfied he glanced again at the manor and saw that only one weak light was on for the entire old manse with the exception of the guard station which was hailing for the carriage. Upon getting stopped the guards immediately ushered him and Michel outside of the carriage, after telling Pate to wait nearby, Timon walked up nervously to the door of the manse while his sworn sword followed lazily behind him.

"Marquise Coursonny has been expecting you" said the nameless guard as he stopped before the big oak door. "Just follow the household guard to the great chamber."

Timon muttered his thanks and knocked on the doors to which three young servant girls immediately opened them. They were two blond humans and a brunette elf that were wearing immaculate livery and giving smiles that were so fake that Timon was reminded of some particularly disturbed aristocrats. Regardless he moved into the manse where he almost hit a huge household guard that was standing so still that he appeared to be a statue.

"I apologize good servant" said Timon as the guard gave no acknowledgement of his presence and the servant girls starting beckoning him further into the house.

"This place is worrying, your lordship," whispered a now alert Ser Michel as he covertly tightened his grip on his shortsword's handle while trying to avoid the speechless household guards which littered the lavish floor as they continued toward the great chamber.

Between avoiding guards, he began to notice some marks on the servant girls back and necks that were only just visible due to the heavy dresses on each of them. Then he noticed one of them slightly limping and his heart utterly sank. Ser Michel had also noticed the hidden marks that he was now was extremely close to his master with the pommel of his sheathed shortsword being gripped even clear. Both were now clear that this may be a problematic visit. Finally, they came to a large door which was guarded by two guards whose face's could not be seen under the fully armored knights.

"Announcing his lordship Baron Timon Rigal" came the voice of a deep voice from within the room which promply made the guards at attention suddenly open the door to a large great chamber, with a massive stone fireplace whose flames that cast eerie shadows on the walls. The occupant that Timon was here to see sat at a long, ornate, wooden table giving him hard glance.

"Thank you for coming Baron Rigal but we must make this short, " said Marquise Coursonny in a bored and detached tone as she got up and stretched her hand out to have Timon kiss it. "I will be having an audience with the Emperor in the Imperial Palace for the rest of this night so I will not be asking you the trivial tidbits of the Prince's daily life."

"Thank you your grace, " said Timon uncertainly as he realized to his relief that he didn't have to talk about what the servants did with the prince while he slowly made his way into the dark luxurious room to kiss the hand of the Marquise. "I eagerly await to discuss the young Prince."

"Well, the young prince does seem to be having quite a few problems related and not related to his breeding," chuckled the Marquise, as Baron Rigal paused mid-kiss as he could feel his worst fears start to solidify.

"What do you mean?" said the Baron as he quickly raised his head from the kiss and backed up further into the room. "I hope he is not doing anything wrong?"

Marquise Coursonny looked at him before shaking her head and sitting down in her expensive looking wooden chair. She than immediately waved over a large, guard who walked over, ignoring his Knight and stood on the other side of him. As the glare of Coursonny grew, the Baron decided to look into the fire as it seemed less hot than the glare he was already receiving.

"Baron Rigal," started the Marquise as Timon started feeling her guard suddenly grab his arm hard. "I must ask you to refer to me as 'your grace' or Governess or the Emperor will hear about this. Now before we can talk about your feelings I want you to sit down."

"But..." sputtered Timon ineffectually as Ser Michel attempted to move toward the guard that held him before he noticed the other guards had moved slightly in their direction extremely fast while the servants continued to stand ramrod straight and smile as if their life depended on it.

"I said sit down!" yelled Coursonny suddenly as the guard holding him shoved him painfully down into the chair in front of him.

"This is absurd I have my rights!" said Timon as he suddenly regrew his spine at the blatant insult. "How will the Emperor look at this?"

"You title has no bearing on this meeting and these guards are the Emperor's," said Coursonny with a dash of smugness in her voice, as Timon suddenly froze and looked around at all the black armored men that had moved even more towards him and his beleaguered knight, at his sudden spurt of resistance. "Now, please let this meeting go smoothly."

"Of course, your grace," said Timon, now visibly chastened fell back into his chair. "What is the problem with his grace?"

"A myriad of problems when I first met him," said the Marquise as she fell back into the bored pompous tone she had used earlier without any of the edge. "Some of it was understandable due to his ilk, but at times he seemed more like a cowardly peasant then a member of the royal family since he couldn't bother to meet his father."

"What!" Yelled Timon with an unusual amount of outrage for a charge that he supposedly hated, "I thought it was an option to see his father!"

"Yes it was," said Coursonny with clear distaste in her voice. "But he set himself back in his etiquette lessons even further than the ignorance of his breed had just as the previous tutors have said."

"The previous tutors were a problem but honestly his servants..." said Timon with an unusual amount of desire to defend his work with his charge.

"Then we come to those servants," said Coursonny with her voice laced with disgust at the mention. "Honestly how you got some gutter born trash and a filthy bastard beastman to serve the His Radiance's child is beyond me."

"They were the servants that were given to him from birth," said Timon who was shocking himself with his own defense of his own antagonists. "I do not want the emperor to be separated from something that he likes."

"Sometimes what a Prince likes is not toward the interests of the realm," hissed the Marquise as her disgust seemed to increase. "After all he needs fitting companionship from pure highborn's rather than the daughter of the gutter and some slattern's spawn."

"You mean you want me to get rid of them?" Yelped Timon as he sat ramrod straight in his chair and suddenly thought back to how it was possible for him to be dismissed by the Prince.

"Oh no, I plan on observing that trash to make sure they are not a bunch of whorish social climbers," said Coursonny as her tone started to soften towards Timon to her confusion. "After all his highness must have been given too much power over you, that allowed him to act so horrid."

"He is somewhat of a nuisance," said Timon as he ignored the false flattery. "Though his considerable problems with his previous pool of tutors that may have brought this on."

"Still, from what I heard he still treated leal servants of the Empire like trash," said Coursonny as her tone continue to soften. "Most likely due to his orc blood."

"Your Grace, his orc blood may be a problem with his temperament," said Timon as he continued his odd impassioned defense for his position and for his Prince. "I believe we are starting to civilize the orc and the various tutors..."

"Baron it seems that you do not understand," said Coursonny as she interrupted him. "My Lord Husband's House along with my House have known the nature of the heathen orc since our ancestors made war on them in the Anointed Marches."

Marquise Coursonny than raised her hand without turning to point to the back wall of the house that was illuminated by the firelight. In the back Timon could see a blood red tapestry with vague silver and darker figures fighting each other. He recognized the various iconography of the church on the civilized silver soldiers and could see the fangs of barbaric looking warriors fighting brutally against them with various bloody deaths being shown. Coursonny gave him a hard look and a grim smile as he could catch her meaning.

"The Emperor has interest in the child and understands our loyalty," said Coursonny simply while still maintaining her soft tone. " We must kill the orc to save the man in the name of the Emperor and with these tutors are under my supervision I shall achieve what you you failed to do."

"So, I understand that the emperor is using you to get this supervision" said a now worried Timon. "I understand why the servants, tutors, the prince and me are being supervised but why is the Emperor doing all of this?"

"That is not for you to know" said the Marquise with a smug glance at the Baron. " Continue with your duties but try to be more competent at them."

"Your grace, the carriage has arrived to take you to the palace," said the deep voiced guard which startled Timon briefly out of his extremely worried state.

"Perfect timing!" Chuckled the Marquise as she got up from the seat and left Timon paralyzed with the revelations in his seat next to his forgotten sworn sword; still alert even as the large amount of guards that were emptying out of the room following Coursonny.

The room had pretty much emptied out after a few seconds when Timon got up and ran after the Marquise to the shock of his sworn sword.He was mad, all of this time he had been told some of the most obvious tripe about the brat that he had to deal with but he hadn't heard the reason why. Why was the Emperor interested in this orc child? Why did the Emperor give him more resources for tutoring? And of course the thousand gold question, how was the orc mother involved? As he ran through the manner he ignored the puppet servants yelling at him to stop, he ignored the silent guards that lunged at him, and he tore the main doors to the manse open to come face to face with the Marquise. The Marquise was looking at him at shock from atop a black carriage unadorned by anything, the black robed guards on the carriage also turned to look at him.

"What in the name of The Maker is that orc spawn!" Yelled Timon as he took tried to catch his breath while listening to dozens of swords being unsheathed, "I am the Prince's chief servant, I deserve to know!"

"Why should I tell a pawn that?" Laughed Coursonny as the shock wore off from her face, "I knew that you were a conniving little worm but I had no idea you were willing to die in the name of your position!"

"Tell me," yelled Timon as his rage increased as he thought about the various humiliations he had suffered to meet this woman. "I will not die for you because this boy did something wrong!"

It was at this moment that Timon noticed the various faceless guards that were moving cautiously toward him and he awaited for the death that was sure to come. Until, the blades were suddenly sheathed as the Marquise walked over to him with a look of silent rage and stopped right to the side of him.

"I will ignore this impudence in the name of the Prince," as she whispered into this ear. "I will tell you a bit of what is known and in return you will return to your duties with no complaint, you will owe me your life ."

"I understand your grace," whispered back the much chastened Timon

"After the brat's mother died from childbirth a Magister returned from overseas," began the silent Marquise. "The Magister had found some interesting information about the orc Empress's bloodline."

Then the Marquise turned around and walked to the carriage that was still waiting for her, while telling the guards to escort the sworn sword and much chastened Timon back up to the palace once she left. In the meantime, a shocked Timon stood in the exact same spot, ignoring his now freed sworn sword's questioning on his conditioning, as other questions flooded into his mind.

 

As the elegant courtyard echoed with activity from the denizens of the palace, you made your decision on how to proceed. You decided you needed to interact and train in order to make a good impression from that knight that was going to teach you your martial skills which meant possibly fighting in one of the many sparing grounds littering the eastern side of the courtyard near the stables. Thus, you move past the large marble fountain spurting glimmering water, past the curious aristocrats and head toward into the inner courtyard.

As you moved your way over to the fighting fields you realized how crowded the Inner Courtyard was at this time. The stables you had glanced from the side hid many other fighting fields along with stables and even a large jousting field where two knights with elaborate helms appeared to be going at it with each other while behind them you see a few individuals standing around yet another large statue of what you assumed to be Theonile of Theolent. The thing that you saw the most was the mass of people which had everyone from nobles, servants, sworn swords, knights, and presumed noblewoman that were clustering around areas to watch duels or were in strange elevated seats near the much more official looking paved fighting fields. Most of them either ignored you and if they did look at you they either had the typical look of disdain at your unfortunate lineage. You could see a few nobles and servants eyeing you like a hawk ready to swoop down on a dying animal.

As you made your way into and through the crowd, almost two dozen old and young aristocrats bowed in your path purposefully which you quickly realized meant you could see their face. A few servants with colorful livery marking them as not in service to the Imperial House of Talient, even laid their sheathed knives out in front of you while they bowed before you, prompting your guards to push you to go faster through the crowd. A few older servant girls even bowed so you could get a glance at their cleavage causing you to walk faster with a tinge of red on your face. An especially ballsy servant was a grinning human servant in gold, black, and red livery which blocked you to the point that you had to push past him personally while leaving your guards eyeing him suspiciously.

As you walked away from those dubious individuals, aware that their eyes were still on you, you stopped after noticing someone that appeared to be quite out of place in the elegant courtyard. In stark contrast to most of the colorfully dressed nobility and servants you notice deep in the crowd a young priest. He was of an average height, average weight, dressed in a simple priest's cassock, and more unusually had his head down to the point you couldn't see his eyes even without the influence of the crowd.

You continued to watch him silently as eventually the sounds of the crowd started to fade from your mind and you stood their, frozen as if you were waiting for something to happen. You than moved forward toward the odd individual, curious of what his intentions were, you were taking about to take a first step when you noticed his head had moved upwards. You could see an unusually shadowed face that was hard to look at through the crowd of people, from your distance he was watching you but his eyes were so shadowed that they seemed like they were completely black...

"It is a pleasure to meet you your Highness" interrupted a haughty aristocratic sounding voice, pulled you out of your worried state of mind, to see a well-dressed dirty blonde giving him a polite look while he stood in front of him.

You blink as you prepare to move our of the way of the noble and also getting a glimpse of what you assumed to be the swornsword standing at attention giving you a hard look.

"You misunderstand your highness, I Azarias Dampier have been asked you to escort you over to the training fields." Said the now named noble as he smoothly blocked your path with a bow while you saw his swornsword walk over to where your guards were to talk to them about something. After a bit your guards promptly shouted that the Knight that you were to practice under had ordered it to be polite. With the go ahead the dirty blonde of a noble happily started to urge you toward a specific fighting field.

Before you started walking you quickly scanned the visible courtyard looking for the sinister looking priest. You start to get even more nervous as you look around and found that he was gone. You could have seen him walk away due to the size of the palace's inner courtyard but it was if he just disappeared.

Spoiler

While you started to walk with the aristocrat you tried to ignore him as you continued to scan over the crowded inner courtyard, getting more worried as you realized you couldn't see him, even at different vantages. Meanwhile you started to worry about what that man was and how exactly he had disappeared.

"Your Highness, are you alright?" Asked the concerned voice of the noble walking, breaking you out of your paranoia as you look upon the extremely well-dressed lordling.

"Yes," you answer warily as you start to get the feeling of falseness with this noble while trying to remember the name that he had introduced to you. "Are you doing alright Lord Dampier?"

"Oh yes," said the dirty blonde as he smiled at your acknowledgment of him. "My father said that you would be wonderful person to be around."

"Really?" You say with some suspicion in your voice at that admission as you start to think of a probing question to get some information to respond to him.

"Oh yes, he said that due to your interesting bloodline..."

You watch with a raised eyebrow as his eyes suddenly widened as he realized what he said could be construed as offensive to you. He than turned away from you and seemed to go through multiple faces of panic, anger, and many other emotions before he turned to you once again with a half-baked poker face.

"Along with the fact that he knows that I love it when he takes me to the capital," said Azarias as he smoothly trying to hold in the obvious wavering voice.

"Oh, does he have business in the capital?" You say as you ignore the obvious slip that the lordling had shown to you as tried to wring more information out of the kid.

"Uh, he actually is a Justiciar, You highness." Said the noble lamely as he struggled to improve his poker face.

"Oh what is that?" You ask as your eyes narrow at one of the first government positions you have heard about beyond noble titles, the occasional court titles, and the omnipresent title of Minister.

"He helps defend the Empire against bad people," said the noble now with a much more relaxed and childish tone in his voice that reminded you that he was indeed a young boy. "And he always travels to the capital when he has to talk with the Emperor and the Master of Law."

"Cool," you say as you quickly note the titles that you were previously unaware of in your head. "Are your lands not as interesting as the capital?"

"Oh yes your highness," said the noble as he seemed to relax at the questions you were asking him as he rolled his eyes at his land. "Sure the some of the peasantry are interesting and I can always go to Hevsk."

"So why the capital?" You ask with some interest in these locations as you continue walking starting to forget about the odd priest.

Azarias suddenly sighed and started to look around and take in the ornate inner courtyard and the highborn walking with their servants. You watch him suddenly watch him walk with a bit more swagger in his step with a smile on his face. Than he turns to you and answers with a voice filled with childlike wonder and arrogance that seemed to be appropriate for his age.

"It is just amazing to look at greatness that my ancestors helped create."

You silently nod your head as you were unsure of what to say in response to that extremely heartfelt statement.

---

With the odd priest now firmly in the back of your memory you and Azarias walk in towards a now visible blonde knight in armor dueling with a wooden sword against a brown-haired young aristocrat wearing fine chainmail. While a large grouping of well-dressed lordlings stood

Spoiler

As you got closer you realized how poorly the young aristocrat was fighting, with him desperately trying to slash, slam, and use some dirty tricks to knock the older Knight off balance. While all of this was blocked by the bored looking knight in his full armor, barely moving in contrast to the desperate moves of the sparing young aristocrat.

"Come now your lordship," said the deep aristocratic voice of the knight, rich with humor and boredom, as he deflected a particularly bad strike from the aristocrat while also knocking him to the ground. "You must probe your enemy and then strike when you are not in pitched battle, not fight like some sellsword with the pox!"

"Ser Adrien!" Yelled the angry young aristocrat as he was helped to his feet by another armored man , "this is ridiculous! Why do we have to fight in heavy plate at the front of battle? My father's levies are far more..."

"Expendable!" Roared the blonde man-at-arms at such as you realized the assertion of having reserves while he hit another weak stab way from his face. "In order for a lord and knight to fight effectively he must be on the front-lines with his men not hiding from them in a castle or in the rear! If you had said that on the battlefield half your levies would have run and the other half would have shot you off your horse to be killed by whichever army you were facing!"

"He is right your lordship," said the an armored and sandy-haired, presumed sworn sword, helped helped up the squirming aristocrat. "Levies have been known to kill nobles in such a way."

The angry young aristocrat was just about unwisely hit back verbally with his teacher, when he noticed you and your guards march towards the blonde knight and promptly shut his mouth. All the other pages, aristocrats, sworn-swords and others turned to face you as you as you walked up to the blonde knight and stopped before him. The blonde knight watched you with a careful gaze before he put his wooden practice sword on the fighting field and got on his knees before bowed before you.

"Bow before your Prince!" Yelled the Knight to the befuddled looking standing aristocrats he was teaching who promptly got on their knees and bowed hastily before you. You as the prince had gotten this much attention but it had later tapered off as your half orc blood became more apparent and you got older.

"Your Highness," whispered one of your guards, tearing you out of your thoughts. "You may wish for these young peers of the realm to get up."

You than looked up and around the courtyard and you saw that the other people in the courtyard had stopped talking and were looking at the kneeling aristocrats in the fighting pit. Even the Knights that were jousting, seemed like they had stopped mid-joust and were glancing at you through their elaborately decorated helms that hid their faces. Some nobles, close to where the knight had yelled to bow were now kneeling just enough to look at you. You were used to crowds looking at you during your lecture presentations back on Earth but it seemed like more than half of the people were looking at you with an even stronger look of disdain than before to the point they looked insulted by your very presence

"Thank you Ser you may arise," you said quickly in the most aristocratic voice you could muster, as you looked out over the silent crowd hoping that this would placate their annoyance with you. As the Knight and his young aristocrats rose the courtyard promptly turned back to the bustling crowded area it was though, you could tell through the corner of your eye, with more aristocrats and servants watching you.

"Now apologize to his highness for your lack of courtesy," said the blonde haired Knight as his voice morphed into what you assumed was the medieval equivalent of a drill sergeant. " And introduce yourself with your name!"

The noble named Myron backed away into his Swornsword's chest, arrogance now gone, and realizing that the son of his overlord just had heard him being dishonorable. He seemed to shift awkwardly between looking at his Swornsword and toward a particular small blonde noble that seemed to be giggling hard at him before he closed his eyes and turned to you.

"I am Myron Pelletier of the Marquisate of Stellen," said Myron as he flatly started to give his introduction while glaring at the small blonde lordling to the side that appeared to be continuing to snicker at his awkwardness.

"My father is the current Marquis of Stellen," rambled on Myron as he now turned his eyes to the blonde haired knight that was now shaking his head disapprovingly at him.

"My father is also the Minister of Lands..."

"That's enough Pelletier," interrupted the annoyed voice of the blonde knight as Myron prepared to go even more in detail to his life. "I'm sure his highness has learned more than enough about you"

"Uh yes I have," you say as you interjected on behalf of the now silent noble that seemed to be glaring daggers at you and the now silent blonde lordling but having a smirk of silent relief on his face.

"I still will be talking to your father about your lack of tact and progress," said the blonde haired Knight, wiping the smirk off of Myron Pelletiers face.

Myron than walked back over to the crowd of other nobles but not before you caught him shoving the blonde lordling to the back of the crowd as the blonde knight focused his attention on you.

"You highness," said the gruff voice of the blond haired knight as walked toward you and clasped your hand into an extremely strong handshake. "I am Ser Adrien Bercilly of Bercilly I am honored to see you before your lesson."

"This is a pleasure as well Ser Adrien?" As you looked at the blonde haired knight with some confusion on your face. "I thought I was going to be taught by Ser Limond Glace?"

"Oh that commoner," laughed the blond haired knight heartily. "Limond, bless his soul, is your teacher in art of the sword but you're going to be supervised by me in all of the lessons to make sure that he and any other man doesn't stab your belly in."

"Oh," you say with a bit of nervousness as you looked up at the grinning face of Ser Adrien.

"Please relax your Highness it is merely a tradition for the Imperial Prince's to have a second teacher for one of the his most essential skills, " laughed Ser Adrien as he started scratching his now noticeable mustache. "Besides Ser Limond wouldn't hurt a fly, unless it was a little rat!"

You nod your ascent at his words and you get a better look at the towering Ser Adrien of Bercilly. Who was much taller than you thought from afar, wearing expensive well wrought armor indicating he was a noble with an old but cool looking longsword hanging in a unadorned black sheathe. He was a tad bit stouter than you expected until you realize based on the calluses you felt on his hands that it was mainly muscle. His face even while laughing had a much more pronounced chin than most of the aristocrats that you interacted on a daily basis and a large mustache and slight goatee that were blonde. He seemed to be one of the first pleasant nobles you had met in a while but that could just be a front so you determined to be cautious.

Spoiler

"Anyway you want to fight, I presume?" Shouted Ser Adrien in a challenging but enthusiastic voice.

"Yes Ser!" You responded back forcefully as you tried to match the enthusiasm of the large Knight in front of you.

"Heh, I had a feeling you might have some fight in you," chuckled Ser Adrien as you looked up at him in expectation and glanced at the noble he had fought previously. "That orc blood'll will probably give you better instincts then this sod right here."

You watched him point directly at Myron Pelletier as he froze in the back of the crowd of nobles while in mid hoist the small blonde noble that was laughing at him. While the smaller noble also gave a deer in the headlights look.

"But you will need a little demonstration, " proclamed Ser Adrien as he moved his pointer finger to a persumed black haired swornsword

"Ser Lorent will you honor us with a spar for the young nobles?" yelled Ser Adrien as the swornsword had gotten up to his feet in confusion at this statement.

After a reluctant nod of ascent from the swornsword and a gesture from Ser Adrien you moved into the dense crowd of young aristocrats and headed toward the back of the crowd to where Azarias Dampier was to talk with him more about his father being a Justiciar.

"Orc bastard," said an annoyed aristocratic voice, that interrupted your thoughts on interacting with Azarias more.

You looked to your side and you saw a pudgy looking noble giving you a smug smirk while bowing exaggeratedly. You moved away from him as you tried to walk faster toward Azarias, hearing more and more offhand comments from the nobles the further to the back of the crowd you were. You eventually made it near to where Azarias was laughing at a joke from a noble right next to him. Though as you looked around, yout heart started to shrink as you noticed that the nobles closer to Azarias appeared to be giving you much more hostile looks of rage, you even started to notice the Swornsword's were giving you hate filled glares that were promising that they would not intervene if their charges tried something.

Determining that it would be too much of a problem to interact with him you quickly hustled back toward the front of the crowd where you accidentally knocked over the young, blonde lordling who was wearing an expensive looking doublet.

Spoiler

"Sorry," you hiss under your breath as Ser Adrien finished gesturing toward the annoyed looking Ser Lorent completely oblivious to your movement around the crowd.

The noble sighed and hoisted his tiny body off the ground appearing to have gotten something in his eye before he spoke. "Just be careful next time Myr..."

The young blonde noble's eyes promptly bugged out as he realized he just ran into the son of the Emperor of Theoniel but curiously he seemed to be excited as well. Than you felt a small childish hand thrust into your hand as you started to feel it being shaken.

"A pleasure to meet you your highness!" Started the young lordling in a very childish voice as he continued to shake your hand rather hard instead of bowing like all the other nobles you have met. While the Ser Adrien seemed to carry on with his description of the coming battle while the swornsword seemed to be getting more annoyed by the minute.

"My pleasure as well," you say as you politely shake his hand back until you remembered your place and your courtesies. "But what is your noble House?"

"Oh," the noble promptly took his hand out of your grip confused before he hit his hands together as it seemed he suddenly remembering his courtesies as well. Then he steeled his face, stepped back until he stood before you with a look of determination. Than he let loose.

"I am Robin Cermont of the Grand Duchy of Cermont," he roared before you startling all the other nobles and Ser Adrien mid-sheathing of the black haired swornsword's blades. "Son of the lord over the big port city of Cermont..."

"Okay Robin that's enough," said the annoyed voice of Myron Pelletier as he grabbed him to get him out of his little spiel about his family and looked nervously at Ser Adrien.

"Trouble your highness," said Ser Adrien with an amused look in his eyes as he glanced over to where Myron and Robin had frozen in place, while you had a worried look on your face.

" You talk while I fight, your highness." Chuckled Ser Adrien as the swordsword seemed to give you a look of utter hatred. "After all, watching Ser Lorent's unfortunate defeat will be quite a more observable lesson."

You politely thank Ser Adrien, thankful that he wasn't offended by you moving around and talking to the other people in the crowd. You than turn to the two nobles that appeared to be looking at you with a nervous look on their face.

" Apologize to his highness Robin," groaned the annoyed Myron as he shoved the blonde haired noble toward you.

"You did just as much to bring Ser Adrien onto us as I did," hissed Robin Cermont as he turned red with indignation at the other noble's assertion. "Besides I was going to ask him about some of the much more important things."

"What are the more important things?" You ask with some confusion while you heard Myron, behind a now serious looking Robin Cermont, combining face-palming and giving death glares to some of the nobles that were also giving your little group some smug remarks that you couldn't hear.

"Well, first do you like cats?" Said Robin with his serious look in his face that ignored the Swornsword and Ser Adrien taking the opposite sides of the arena appearing to begin their sword fight.

"Idiot," hissed Myron from behind him as Ser Adrien happily announced the last bit of information of the fight that was about to occur. "He likes warhounds! The ones that eat cats and whatever elf thief that always comes to steal from us!"

"Cats are far better them some mangy mutt that can bite off your hand," said Robin stubbornly in response to Myron before turning to you and giving you a pleading look. "Right?"

"I actually like both of them," you fake laugh as you watched them give you a dubious look. " I mean dealing with Elf thieves is obviously important but I still want something cute."

"Hmm you like them enough," said Robin as he made a contemplative look on his face before smiling at you. "Now I need to ask you the other important thing."

You nod your head to give Robin ascent to ask, as you have to thank yourself for getting to interact with some nice frivolous nobles that you felt could be useful in the future. After all even Azarias didn't have that much close contact with your father.

"Okay! last checking for the important things," grinned Robin Cermont before his face turned serious again. " Is Prince Guntram going to marry my big sister Sariel?"

You froze as you drew a blank on that as you gave a sudden look of surprise at the smiling face of Robin Cermont as he looked up at you expectantly. You had no idea that you brother was going to get married, quite honestly you wondered if he had been with any women before. He didn't really have the best attitude to be able to woo women by the bucket full. Could your father have done this behind your back? Well you were a kid but who the hell was this damn family anyway? While these ideas went around in your mind for a bit you remembered who you were next to and immediately turned back to him to get some more information.

"I actually haven't heard about this at all," you say quickly avoiding your fake laugh to get straight toward the information that Cermont may have about your brother. "What gave you that idea?"

Robin Cermont gave you an extremely confused look at that statement, even cocking his head to the side in confusion. You didn't seem to have ticked him off and he appeared more confused about your statement. He than answered you with a confused tone while the young lordlings seemed to be cheering for some reason.

"Well, he's always been around Cermont when he needed our fleet and the Imperial Fleet to go out," said Robin as he started to recall some information while the cheers of the crowd reached a crescendo. "And father said that I needed to go to the capital..."

"Hey," interrupted the Myron Pelletier with a scowl on his face. "The fight's started, hope Adrien gets knocked down hard."

Upon hearing the word fight Robin's face promptly lit up and turned just in time to see the blades of the two knights to clash against each other to his delight. You attempted to get Robin's attention but he was to engrossed in the beginnings of the fight to finish the conversation. Resigned you turned to see the fight had started to begin.

The first thing you had noticed about the fight that you turned to watch, was the fact that Ser Adrien appeared to be fighting with just a sheathed sword while the other fighter
- the black haired swordsman- appeared to be fighting with his regular longsword while being particularly mad for some reason.

"Remember children," shouted out Ser Adrien as he deflected a quick slice from the Sworn sword. " Remember that your footwork must be well developed while fighting any battle."

This seemed to incense the black haired swordsman as his attacks seemed to pick up in ferocity as he tried at least a few times to get Adrien in a blade lock but it was super uneffective when Adrien merely moved away quicker than it could to hit him.

With a snarl the swornsword doubled down on the attacks but even from where you stood you could see that he was getting tired but he also seemed to be going for much more lethal attacks such as aiming his sword toward the face of Ser Adrien.

Finally, Ser Lorent the swornsword made one last desperate charge at Ser Adrien only to be hit down when Becilly hoisted his, still sheathed sword, and hit him straight to the ground.

Every lordling in that fighting pit paused until Robin Cermont started cheering for the victory that Ser Adrien had done. The swornsword on the other hand looked enraged and crazed as he tried to get up to continue the fight. But he stopped and seemed to be cursing under his breath as Ser Adrien brought his still sheathed sword to his throat.

The young aristocrats under Ser Adrien, on the other hand, began applauding him nervously while their Sworn-sword's standing along the sidelines of the field started to become more alert than they had been.

"Well, it appears I have another honor duel in my future, " sighed Ser Adrien as he reattached his still-sheathed sword to his belt before turning to you with a much more polite smile on his face. "Learn anything from that Your Highness?"

"I learned to not charge a Knight recklessly?" You say, slightly confused but curious at what you were about to learn while Robin seemed to just be disappointed that the fighting had ended.

"No, being reckless in a battle is unavoidable when their fight is for your life," said Ser Adrien as he flourished his hand to point at your face. "What can you tell me about what I did when I disarmed our good volunteer."

"You only used a sheathed sword," you say as the logic suddenly clicked in your brain. "He didn't realize you wouldn't hurt him due to this being a spar but he construed that as an attack on his honor!"

"You are partially correct in your idea you highness," said a much more serious Ser Adrien as he quickly drew out an extremely beautiful looking blade from his heavy sheathe. "I also didn't want to dishonor the sword of ancestors!"

"What?" You say with considerable confusion as you ignored all of the young nobles cringe as if waiting for something.

"RIPTINE HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN THROUGH THE HOUSE OF BERCILLY FOR GENERATIONS!" Yelled out Ser Adrien to you and whoever else was listening as he held his beautiful sword aloft for a few minutes and then quickly slammed it back into his sheathe. "Stabbing a swornsword not during a duel or in battle would be a crime against the Holy Trio and my ancestors!"

"Ugh now he is really going at it," groaned the voice of Myron Pelletier next to you as he facepalmed while all the other nobles seemed to be less than thrilled as well. Well, with the exception of Robin who seemed to be nodding to the knight's reasoning with a big smile on his face.

"Um okay," you say as you were temporarily united with your fellow aristocrats at grimacing at your teacher. "Who will I be sparing with?"

"I could do it, your highness," interrupted an odd but cocky sounding aristocratic accent from behind you.

You turn around quickly to hear the source of your first eager challenge, only to see a tall boy step out from behind his surprised and much more anxious peers. He was a brown-haired boy that seemed close to your age, wearing a cape trimmed by dyed blue fur and an elaborate white and red doublet. His face however, held an unusual duality of arrogance and politeness that seemed similar to the nobility you had already encountered in the yard. You also could see Azarias Dampier looking at him in annoyance at preventing him from continuing attempts to talk with him.

Spoiler

Character Art will evolve with time and time skips

"Florian Chastien," said the slightly displeased voice of Ser Adrien as he walked over briskly to meet your challenger in front of you. "You will be Prince Robar Talient's first opponent?"

"Yes ser!" Shouted the brown-haired Chastien noble as he immediately about-faced a questioning Ser Adrien.

"Explain your reasons for fighting!" Shouted a now serious Ser Adrien he started to pace in the fighting field between you and Florian.

"I wish to fight a brother of His Highness, Perinal Talient!" Answered Florian, as he name-dropped one of your other brothers, the second Prince of Theoniel.

He was the one of the brothers whom you had never seen his face but you had heard of his reputation occasionally in the Palace. The story your servants had heard was that him and his brother Guntram, when they were first Knighted, were sent to the north and the south to fight against rival kingdoms. From what you heard, Crown Prince Guntram in your early years of life, had led a grueling campaign against the southern Kingdom of Balasorne which involved the poisoning of wells, assassinations, and of course brutal battles. The campaign ended when Guntram was summoned back to the capital for an unknown reasons (Erina guessed it was incompetence, Becca guessed it was injury) where he lived to this day and you almost never saw him.

Perinal Talient on the other hand was sent up north to lead a campaign against the northern Kingdom of Levornia not just because of his status but because your servants had heard whispers of him doing something so dishonorable that he was sent up to make the Imperial Court . Despite this reason you heard he was just as effective as his brother but he still remained away from the capital, fighting an eternal war that was rumored (according to your servants) that he loves. You glance at the smiling young aristocrat that was regaling you with more information than even you had heard from your brother and you began wracking you brain for information to make a logical decision.

"-The rest of my House has long served Prince Perinal in expanding the Empire and our lands in the north," continued Florian as you wracked your mind for more information at the man his family had served before you looked up to see him turn and bow before you. "I would be honored to do my part to assist a brother of a great man."

"You may duel," said Ser Adrien seriously as he deftly picked up his unfortunate former opponents wooden sword and threw it to you.

"But I've never fought," you protested as you caught the sword rather clumsily. "I can't just observe my opponent to fight."

"You have the blood of Orcs and kings in you veins," said Ser Adrien with enthusiasm in his voice as he walked to the edge of the fighting circle, keeping an eye on the both of you. "Ser Limond and I will teach you all that we know and more, but you will only truly learn through trial and error!"

You grimace at the words that Ser Adrien tells you but you turn and face the your smiling opponent with your wooden sword in your hand and you know he is right. That was advice that you had long heard in your life but you had never listened to due to everything seeming to usually work out for you. But as you realize the need to fight in this new and far less gentle world you stood tall before your opponent knowing that this probable defeat would be one of the keys to surviving this empire.

"You are simply radiant your Highness," gushed your opponent as he hefted his wooden practice sword up into the same position as you, while still giving you that servile smile. "In the name of the Duchy of Raugalur and the House of Chastien I welcome your challenge!"

You pull your wooden sword up barely hearing Ser Adrien and the cheer from Robin Cermont, ready to begin the fight. At the start of the fight you immediately move forward as the still smiling lordling comes at you. You for some reason can see a few sloppy openings in the first few seconds of the fight that you immediately took advantage of by giving a slightly weak hit. You even managed to get a hit on his sword hand almost immediately after you found the openings which shocked you due to knowing that a few of your hit to those opening were weak. The fight continued like this for a bit as you questioned why an already training lordling was doing so poorly against a newcomer like yourself. Than you find the answer.

He was planning on letting you win.

Annoyed and a little disgusted you immediately started pushing forward in almost an almost wild abandon, trying to use what little five-year old orc strength you had to deal with your better trained counterpart. A wide-eyed Florian immediately made his strikes stronger for a child in response but it was clear he was struggling with your little raw strength. Eventually the fight ended just as you sort of expected, with you on the ground feeling the wooden sword-tip, while the young aristocrat looked down on you with his polite smile being back on his face.

"Hmm you lasted longer than expected," chuckled Ser Adrien as he marched over to you to give you his hand. "Learn anything from this little duel?"

"I learned that I needed to practice," you say as you gasped while grabbing Ser Adrien's hand to get up before an idea hits you. "Can I go observe how the other nobility fight?"

"That seems like a good idea your Highness," said Florian as he spoke up for the first time since your quick duel before he gave a bow to you. "I think you fought well but practice is perfect along with observation."

Ser Adrien grunted with approval in support of your idea before he yelled at your guards to bring you around the fighting fields with him while other nobles seemed to clamor to leave with you as well probably to try to get your approval. Most of them were blocked by Ser Adrien who seemed to end the lesson and direct the sworn-swords to take their nobles away. By the time you were ready to be a spectator, the majority of the young nobility were leaving with their sworn-swords except for a lordlings that included Florian Chastien.

"We're ready to go your Highness," said your bigger guard as he saluted in the middle of the line. "Just remember that other knights will summon us for dinner soon."

"And your Highness," added your tactless guard as he glanced to Florian Chastien still smiling. "You may bring some other peers of the realm for midday dinner."

You nodded at the affirmation and you immediately began walking again through the crowded inner Courtyard with curiously none of the other groveling nobles seeming to be trying to gain you attention accept for the young Dampier lordling that appeared to be glaring at you. Myron and Robin appeared to be continuing their prior argument, ignoring you completely while Ser Bercilly appeared to be talking furiously with Myron's Swornsword.

You made your way around the fighting pits, watching as young aristocrats hit each other with their practice swords to please the men-at-arms supervising them and impress the older nobility that were watching them from afar. This continues, until you hear a faint scream close to where you are which causes your curious self to walk towards a much less crowded fighting pit area where you can see four well-dressed boys, one of them the pudgy noble that had called you an orc bastard. You see one of them on the ground faintly yelling while the other three stood over him with their practice swords as if finishing up a particularly brutal bought of sparing

"Cyril, you know you deserve this," said a smirking and well-dressed aristocrat in a plum colored doublet while hefting a practice sword while the other two lordlings eagerly followed his lead by raising their own practice swords

"How?" You heard the black-haired boy on the ground yell, moving around bloodied and squirming in the dirt because of some sort of pain, "how am I deserving of this!?"

"You're weak," hissed the leader of these goons as another one of his friends kicked the black-haired noble. "But you still try to be better than your social betters."

When the kicking started you stood their wondering how nobles could possibly abuse another noble child without a significant conflict starting but as you started to look at other people's response to the obvious brutality you understood. Unlike when the nobility glared at you when Ser Adrien and the other nobility bowed before you, most of the nobility around you just seemed to be ignoring the blatant abuse going on between the children. Even the nobles closest to the boy simply walked away or talked without any other care in the world as if this was just a normal occurrence. The only people that you saw were looking at the little show from the young nobles was three burly men in armor that were standing around the end of the kids that appeared to be watching what was going on.

'Sworn-swords,' you thought as you watched the bullying play out from where you were. They were here for the three aristocrats ganging up one the young children and judging by their intense observation of the their charges they had current control of these kids and this was a norm.

"Always so good in your studies with the Magister," Continued another brutal-looking but well-dressed looking lordling with a dark green doublet and an even larger practice sword.

"Making us look bad," said the pudgy third lordling with a weak chin as he prodded him cruelly with his wooden sword.

"But when you can't duel," said the leader of the aristocrats with a large smirk on his face. "It reminds us what type of lower nobility you are."

"My father is a Count!" Yelled out the lordling on the ground as if fearing what was coming next. "My sworn-sword will deal with you."

"A disgraced Count," added the brutal-looking lordling again as he started to raise his practice sword. "And a drunken sworn-sword won't help you

"He is not!" Shouted the black-haired noble as he pitiful tried to get up only to hit down by one of the other aristocrats while his doublet came undone.

"Besides, " laughed the chinless noble. "You fight like a some dirty peasant woman."

"And you know what my father does to discipline dirty peasant woman?" Chuckled the well-dressed leader of the scumbags as he raised his practice sword high along along with his other goons while the black-haired noble watched in terror. "He beats them until they know they deserve it!"

"STOP!" You yell as you run into the yard screaming out, already in motion before the aristocrats even started get ready to hit the black-haired noble into submission. You then hear a bit of a rustling of metal as you watched Ser Adrien hop into the fighting fields from the other side of the fence.

"Rerenets, Guigen, Callowood!" Boomed the loud voice of Ser Adrien, freezing you and the three aristocrats mid-swing, as he started to briskly walk toward them with an extremely displeased look on his face. "It is not honorable to hit an aristocrat after he has been defeated by sparring."

"We didn't mean..." Said the chinless lordling, now with a pale look on his face as he glanced over to his sworn-sword moving into the fighting pit along with you.

"Enough!" Yelled Ser Adrien as he turned his glare to the three nobles sworn-swords as they came into the fighting field for their masters, as if daring them to try something while a Prince of Empire was within the field. "You all are dismissed for the day."

"But you're not teaching us, ser." Said the brutal looking lordling as he moved forward, seeming to have more bravery than his partners in crime.

"You're still dismissed," said Ser Adrien matter of factly as his eyes narrowed even further as he put his hand on his mustache. "Though, you can ask my good friend Perceon to deal with me."

The brutal looking lordling started to make a move toward Ser Adrien before his sworn-sword came up to him to whisper in his ear. After a few seconds of whispering that you could not hear the brutal-looking lordling walked away with the rest of his annoyed or scared compatriots. They each gave you the evil eye as they exited the fighting field and one even had the audacity to mouth something to you. As they left you turned to the victim of their cruelty that was still sprawled in the dirt and immediatly grabbed his hand to pull them up.

At first the black-haired lordling tried to resist you as you pulled him up for some reason which became awkward as the noble realized that you were stronger than him and he tried to help you get him to his feet. Meanwhile, you looked up to out to see your guards, Azarias, Myron, Robin, and Florian Chastien giving you confused looks at your action. You even saw, to the right of you, the ballsy servant that had been trying to get your attention, pursing his lips with a frown deep in the Inner courtyard highborn crowd. You narrowed you eyes as you saw that the priest that hid his eyes, had reappeared to the opposite side of you and the calculating servant. You somehow knew he was looking at you and for that you for some reason you had a sudden desire to discover who he and the servant was. You also realized that you had broken possible Imperial etiquette as you pulled up that noble but honestly you didn't care, this was the right thing to do.

"Thank you," said the black-haired lordling awkwardly as you fully pulled him from the ground.

He than wipes the dirt off of his back and without even bothering to put his shirt and doublet back in order, runs over to the edge of the fighting field where he picked up an odd satchel. He than came back to the front of Ser Adrien.

Spoiler

Character Art will evolve with time and time skips

"Cyril Auille, isn't it?" Says Ser Adrien with some confusion in his voice as he looked him up and down disapprovingly.

"Yes, Ser Adrien?" Answered back the now named aristocrat with some determination and spite in his voice.

"You need to find Glover don't you," sighed Ser Adrien as he facepalmed in front of you.

"Yes, Ser." Said Cyril angrily as he bowled his hands into fists.

"We'll help you find him," said Ser Adrien with a very angry look on his face as he started to call over the nearest palace guards to him.

As Ser Adrien started to give order to some of the palace guards you realized that your little lesson had come to an early end. From what your guards had said, you still had some time before you had to go into eat you realized as you gave looks at the two enigmatic individuals that were still watching you. You had several more decisions before your dinner or lunch began and for how you would proceed.

 

The oblivious chatter of the lordlings along with the crowd in the inner courtyard does not distract you while deciding which ominous observer hidden in the crowd for you to go after. You briefly consider going after both but your realize that one could just get away easily while also giving more fuel to the nobility to mock you. You consider going after the shifty looking servant that was frowning at you in the left part of the crowd near your fighting pits but you determine a jittery servant like that is up to something rather murdery.

Thus you decide to go confront the priest in the black cassock that still seems to subconsciously hide his eyes from you while moving with the crowd of jostling nobility and servants. He still feels you with a strange feeling of worry that you try to push down as you think of perfectly logical reasons for why he is here.

Maybe he could just just be a particularly austere member of the Church of Trios that is just looking for highborn to further evangelize?

...or not

Whatever the case you know what you need to do before you go after a potentially dangerous individual

"Hey Ser Becilly," you say to Ser Bercilly, interrupting him talking to your guards about Cyril's missing Swornsword.

"I just saw something that was a little...odd."

You believed in safety on Earth, there was no way that in your current body would you be confronting a dangerous individual among a sizable proportion of the demographic that consistently hates you. The way that your guards suddenly became alert seemed to confirm your ideas

“What do you mean your highness,” asked Ser Adrien who was also alert and scanning the crowd for any trouble

You hold your breath before you pointed over in the vague direction that the Priest in the Cassock was. “That priest has been watching me for a long time and isn’t that odd?”

Ser Bercilly looked at you with a confused look before turning toward the direction of the priest with the shadowed eyes moving amongst the crowd still watching you. His face promptly turned a dark color before he walked up to your guards that were giving a skeptical looks and whispered something to them.
“You highness,” began Ser Bercilly in a rushed and cold tone. “You will be taken immediately to Great Hall while we investigate this priest.”

“Right now?” You ask in confusion as your guards saluted Ser Bercilly in response.

“Yes we will handle this situation for you”

“I want to help too,” you say seriously as you glared at Ser Bercilly confused at how you grew a sudden spine. “I would like to dine with my young peers with some confidence that I am capable of dealing with problems”

Your guards seemed to be ready to talk you down before Bercilly raised his hand for them to stop.

“Hmm fine!” He gave a big grin to you with what you thought was approval in his eyes.

He then pointed at the stables toward the far end of the inner courtyard before he turned back to you. “I will be looking for Lord Auille’s wayward swornsword if you need me to cut a man your highness!”

With that he gave a polite grin to you and a stern glare to your guards before he walked over to the crowd of lordlings and began pantomiming where they were going to be going until they started to walk toward the stables. You then turned to your guards where they were giving you a skeptical but stern look.
You and your guards started walking in the direction of the shadowed priest, pushing through the crowd of nobles that were now ignoring your presence. You kept your eye on the priest as he shifted through the crowd still seeming to observe you. You could see the persistent servant in livery giving you a confused look from the distance before turning and walking away out of your vision.

It was just you, your guards and the priest with the still shaded eyes.

You then pause as you notice the priest move his eyes up to you to look at you, while they were still in the shadows, their was nothing but black as far as you could see. If he even had eyes…

Then shocking you and your guards he promptly turns around and starts to briskly walk through the crowd. You then turned to see your guards cursing as they nearly tripped over a particularly wealthy old dowager that was giving them the evil eye. You watch as the priest was walking away scott free from observing you and you immediately move ahead of you guards and start roughly pushing people aside to get to him.

The nobles and servants alike in your path, reacted in irritation and rage as you moved your way fast through them as you tried to keep the priest within your frame of vision. Soon you were out of the large crowd in the Inner Courtyard while you ignored your guards yelling at you from behind. You turn to see the priest with the shadowed eyes running along the line of the shrinking crowd as he booked it behind the towered section of the palace. You in turn started running at him while the voices behind you picked up in annoyance.

You ran toward the priest as he turned behind the opulent wall of the palace and you quickly reached the area seconds after him. And it was deserted…

Your eyes bulged in your head as you processed the fact that the priest had disappeared into thin air in the deserted part of the courtyard. You then turned to see your guards and ser Bercilly running slowly toward you with your hands on their swords with hard looks on their face.

“Never do that again you highness,” yelled your first guard as he came up on you with an enraged and fearful look on his face.
You second guard had less formality when he straight up, asked you if you were trying to die.

“Did you catch him?” Interrupted Ser Bercilly when he stopped in front of you and gave you an unflinching look.

You quickly respond that he disappeared in which a ‘tsking’ Ser Bercilly informed you that the guard and something called Church Knights would be put on alert in the palace.

While all of this was going on, you looked up at the gothic opulence when you though you saw something.

Until another guard came to tell Ser Bercilly that Cyril’s Swornsword had been located and you were dragged away from the side of the palace looking up at looming palace to the back of you.

---

After a bit of nervous walking with your guards and Ser Bercilly, talking about the Swornsword and the possible threat to you security, you soon found yourself in the middle of a mob of people on the side on the stables that could not be easily seen. Ser Bercilly pushed his way through the crowd for you and then you saw one of the most pitiful things you had seen in your short sheltered life.

You saw a knight laying on the ground of the palace leaning against the stable with a red face and even from your distance, dilated eyes. He had a shield leaning on his yellowed Knight’s tunic as you realized his head was tilted. You looked down at the ground and you saw to your disgust, darkened pants with three drinking horns on the ground leaking what you were sure was booze. Cyril Auille was standing in front of him, ramrod straight with a look between panic and trying not to cry as the crowd of lordlings and Swornswords giggled and jested behind him.

As Ser Bercilly walked toward the Knight, you watched as the drunk knight tried to get clumsily only to fall down on his ass with a drunk smile on his face. Ser Bercilly stopped in front of him and started to talk to the Knight and then he turned to a Cyril trying to smile for him when he sighed. He promptly waved over three grimacing palace guards who struggled to pick him up as his shield fell to the ground. You and the increasingly talkative crowd of lordlings watched as the guards started to carry him away to someplace that you were unsure of.

The noble crowd exploding into laughter at the result with even a few Swornswords getting into the act. You scanned the crowd for the reactions of the nobles that you had met, Robin Cermont appeared to be looking at a standing Cyril with what you would describe an innocent concern. Meanwhile, Myron Pelletier appeared to be talking lazily with a few of his fellow chuckling lordlings, with the appearance of not really caring about the events that had transpired. Florian was lightly chuckling but seemed to have a look of pity on his face for what Cyril’s supposed leal servant had been doing during the practice. Then you looked over to the blonde Lord Dampier who was among the hardest that was laughing while talking to the nobles around him with him.

Ser Bercilly seemed to gesture to Cyril Auille to go back into the crowd before he yelled for quiet to the noble crowd.

“His Highness, Prince Robar of House Talient will be inviting one of you esteemed you lord to dine with him on this day,” said Ser Bercilly with a flat and slightly resigned voice that seemed out of character from what you had seen for the man.

The crowd stopped talking immediately and you could see particularly Florian and Azarias giving you polite looks that screamed of ‘You better pick me or else.’

Regardless, you immediately announced your choices for who you would be dining with which you determined would be the right mixture of the powerful and mostly powerless from what you had seen. Florian could be a good potential ally and his connection with your brother could mean positive interaction for what you could see was another potential rival. Cyril Auille on the other hand if treated with kindness could be a possible friend...if his actions could be seen as cowardice.

The reaction to your decision was fairly interesting, as you watch as several nobles started yelling their swornsword’s but not at you for your decision. You were amused to see Florian in the crowd pumping his hand subtly before turning to you and bowing his head to you with a barely disguised look of excitement and pride for having been chosen. By contrast Cyril had frozen up even more with a look of fear on his face as he looked sideways into a fraction of nobles in the mob that were giving him looks of rage. You particularly saw Azarias give him a look of hate before turning to you with a sly smile on his face before mouthing something at you that you were sure was some sort of slur. Pelletier and Cermont both seemed surprisingly discouraged at your announcement but they appeared to be the minority of nobles that were taking the news like adults.

Regardless, both Florian and Cyril stepped forward toward you in order to kneel (rather awkwardly) in front of you praising you for giving them such an honor. Ser Bercilly with his unusually flat look turned toward you, before his face morphed into a more relaxed smile, presumably approving your choices.

The rest of the time was a blur as Ser Bercilly dismissed his students and their Swornsword from learning. You noticed the nobles who were bullying Cyril, Azarias, and at least half of the crowd giving you the evil eye as they dispersed into the still crowded courtyard. Your guards promptly walked to you to say that it was time for food or ‘roasted swan’ and at least a few other opulent foods that you forgot as your mind started to think about the food. Thus you, your beleaguered guards, and your two potential friends promptly turned toward the grand entrance to the main part of the Imperial Palace.

Just before you left you heard a whistle and you saw Ser Bercilly giving you his trademark grin.

“I hope your ready for the pushover training, you highness!” He said with a joking manner, “Because Ser Glace is more lenient with you lordlings!”

You respond politely to the waving man and you walk off to get some food when you see something.

You see the servant in the red, black, and yellow doublet talking quickly with the guard on duty at the gateway to the main palace before he was let in. You watched as he disappeared inside and you immediately started feeling worried at this turn of events.

You turned to grinning Florian and the nervous Cyril along with guards and you walked a few minutes to get in and enter the Imperial Palace. Ready for whatever challenges eating in the great hall would bring but you decided to do something while walking.

 

You along with you guards and companions were quickly ushered into the enormous gateway to the central area for the Imperial Palace. As you moved through the stony (but no less refined) protective control areas of the entrance to the palace you took the opportunity to look at your two young possible allies. Florian was clearly in his elements, happy that his Emperor had acknowledged him and had given him such an honor, clearly had a spring in his step as he happily looked around the second gate you passed through. Cyril on the other hand looked terrified, you felt a sudden tinge of concern as you watched him walk briskly while ramrod straight and as you looked at his panicked face you felt that you had to do something.

"Hey Cyril," you say with a casual voice as you passed through the third gateway. "Are you okay?"

Cyril turned to you with a look of terror and oddly enough confusion on his face after being asked the question, turning beat red as he slowed down. While your guards were oblivious to this event, you watched in the corner of your eye as Florian raised his eyebrow at your interaction. He may start thinking that you were playing favorites but dammit you had to reassure your you possible ally, no possible friend! You looked back to see Cyril's response.

"Yes your highness," said Cyril after getting through another gate. "I am just extremely confused on why you would pick me over my esteemed nobles of the realm?"

He nodded quickly to Florian who seemed more confused than deferential toward Cyril's sudden acknowledgment of his status. You realized than what you had to say, in order to make sure he was calm.

"You are an esteemed noble of my empire, Cyril." You say quickly with a smile on your face while your guards moved you past the final (Fifth gate) into the main area of the palace. You then move your hand into a flourish as you enter into a grand hall of the Imperial Palace, while Florian seemed to be less confused an actually smiling.

"Both you and our future Duke Castien," you turned your head to a smiling Florian while still flourishing. "Are what will make this empire and it's people move into the future."

While it seemed like it had the positive effect on Cyril and surprisingly Florian (who respectfully blushed while thanking you humbly and looking at you in a happy but more throughtful way) looking into the imperial crowd filled you with considerable worry. You gazed upon a large, incredibly opulent hall with a marble and granite walls and floors with tapestries and suits of armor flooded all around in the every aesthetically pleasing way possible. You also saw stain-glass put into areas that either seemed to filter candle and natural light in a variety of colors but amongst this luxury your stomach turned into a pit as you looked at the people. Well dressed courtiers wearing the latest in medieval fashions walked around near conservatively dressed elder noblewomen pulling along their daughters and their ladies in waiting who were tittering about useless things. You saw officially dressed men walking around furtively with or in shadowed alcoves and in all of this you saw worried servants both beast, human, and elf dressed in livery trying not to draw attention to themselves while the Imperial Guards of the palace stared at them from the various areas they were.

You looked at the nobles and you could see mostly the arrogant look of superiority, carrying themselves as a higher race. The looks that a few of the male nobles gave to the servants (mostly female) turned your stomach. This was who you had to prove to or outmaneuver in order to secure your place in this Empire.

As you walked away from the large open hall to dinner you could see the many giving you looks of hostility or smugness. Curiously enough you saw a far smaller amount giving it to Cyril too as walked behind you with a steely look of determination that before seemed rather uncharacteristic of him.

---

After walking through the repugnant luxury of your palace you stopped in front of the richly adorned door of the Great Hall of the Empire or the palace Great Hall. You raise your eyebrow as your older guards stands in front of the door with a stern look on his face.

"You highness, Lord Auille, and Lord Chastien." Begins the guard as his faced started getting more serious.

"You will have the pleasure of meeting one of the Empyrean Guard who will be representing His Radiance, the Emperor."

Well THAT bombshell made you instantly curious about the seriousness of this meal. You subtly turned around to look at Florian with an alert face and Cyril with his determined face looking much more serious. You heard an abrupt cough and you turned back to your guard to hear more.

"Your families will be expecting you to act like your nobility demands and you will be sitting isolated to keep it that way," said the guard flatly as he signaled for the adorned door to open while you were left with a hundred thoughts about what was required while you ignored the door being opened until the guard said that the door was open.

You and your two companions promptly walked into the Great Hall of the Imperial Palace, the purported 'heart of the Empire.' You looked around to see the semi-familiar hall open up to you again. The massive hall was made out of greatly smoothed stone carved into Gothic arches to support a slightly dome-like roof, while light danced through stained glass windows onto the crowd of nobles. You looked around and you saw nobility eating in extremely well crafted and luxurious chairs and tables while servants dressed in fine livery walked around with gilded plates with various dishes. while you had to come in here occasionally for 'important' feast days you were still impressed by the impeccable architecture.

"Please come with us Lord' and Highness," interrupted the guards awkwardly as it drew your attention from the vast hall.

"We would not want to delay Ser Levenmont," added the second younger guard as he pushed you and your companions to the most important area of the Great Hall.

You moved through a pathway through the various noble diners toward a large dais jutting out of the wall toward the end of the great hall. As you moved closer the few memories of it flooded back to you as you stared up and saw the empty, well-carved seat of the Emperor of Theoniel. You had sat up their once in your entire life which was at a Winter Feast a year ago when the war with Levornia had ended with a treaty. You sat alone while the majority of your family were either not present or like your father were purposely ignoring you. As you looked closer at the seats you saw a beautiful blonde haired woman eating morosely at her food to the right of the Emperor's seat and also surprisingly a blonde little girl that had an attending servant. You looked at the foot of the dais and you saw a pompous looking knight in silver armor talking to someone that shocked you.

You grimaced as you saw the servant in red, black, and yellow livery talking hurriedly talking with the Knight before he seemed to noticed you and your little group and running off so fast that it honestly impressed you. So you turned to look at the Knight whom you were meeting, and you weren't very thrilled at what you saw. Firstly he was an older but much more ugly noble that seemed from a distance to have a near perpetual sneer. The one thing that you could say positively for his physique was that it was at least much more in shape than a lot of the nobles you had passed to get to the great hall despite the typical higher noble look of arrogance on his face.

Spoiler

"Your Highness," said the Knight as his sneer morphed into a slight smile as he spotted you and your companions before bowing slightly. "I am honored to be able to assist you on this day in the name of the Emperor."

He promptly began talking with your guards rather hastily while seeming to forget that you or your two companions were standing to the side of him. You started hearing words of needing to ensure 'interaction' while also making sure that the 'poisonings' didn't occur. You looked at Florian who seemed to now be giving off still a positive vibe but with a definite edge of worry in his eyes. Likewise it had seemed that the determination demonstrated by Cyril was still their despite the same worry in their eyes.

"You highness, we will be discussing your placement," said Ser Levenmont in a thin voice as he turned away from your guards.

"Okay?" You said with some confusion at the serious looks of your guards and the noble that were looking at you.

"We for starters," interrupted your older guard who then pointed to a small table close to dais. "You will be served by sitting over next to His Radiance's place of eating."

You looked at the table befuddled for a second before you asked why this was the case for you. Your guards started to talk about how your needed to learn your table manners by order of the Marquise Coursonny in a more controlled polite setting. You could feel your companions confused stares even though you didn't turn to face them before you started to ask why.

"To be quite blunt your highness," interrupted a Ser Levenmont with his sneer now on his face again. "The Marquise and your father wanted you to earn your right to sit at the table of the Empire due to your....condition."

You suddenly felt a flush of rage as you suddenly realized what he was implying but you quickly pushed your anger down as you looked at your possible allies giving you a surprised but childlike look of naivete at the action.

"You Highness, " opened the younger guard with a nervous look on his face. "May you come with us to sit?"

"Oh yes," interrupted the member of the Empyrean Guard as he adjusted his cloak without looking at you. "We have ensured that your food has been tested for all types of poisons."

You shuddered at the thought of poison before mumbling a very forced thank you as the Empyrean guard moved to stand at attention in front of the dais where the Empress and the girl whom you remember from somewhere, dined oblivious to your problems.

As you walked over to your "esteemed" seat with your companions you looked around to see several nobles looking at you with curiosity or the familiar glare of contempt, you also saw a bunny beastman serving around the area of where you were, and you saw several other polite nobles before you arrived at your seat. Your guards quickly mentioned that your course would be ready in a minute and surprisingly you could go over to the Imperial dais after eating your food. After seeing and hearing your information your guards moved a bit farther away from you and your table to allow you to talk with your potential allies.

"Well, that was rather interesting," chirped Florian as he moved his well-crafted chair up the table.

"Indeed, " said Cyril who seemed to more relaxed from when you met him. "I hope that people haven't been poisoned."

"Oh please," chuckled Florian at the insinuation. "Nobody would dare poison his highness, even if he is an orc!"

"Oh well I guess you would like to talk about something?" You say trying to moved the conversation from your Orcish blood.

"Hmm well I guess that would be prudent," agreed Florian before he turned his head to the now silent Cyril.

"Okay then," said Florian before he pointed at Cyril. "What is up with that swornsword of yours?"

You grimace silently as you could feel the lack of social awareness seep out of Florian Chastien as he bluntly asked about the drunk swornsword without a care in the world. Cyril for his part had frozen and now looked like he was about to go back to the panic he had been feeling when first entering. He gave you an almost desperate glance as Florian rambled on without a care.

"I mean you could always replace a swornsword like that if they dishonored you," said Florian with a flippant tone in his voice before scrutinizing Cyril much more thoroughly. "Also where do ya live? Do you live in the High City? Palace? the Cathedral District? Uptown?"

"You sighed a bit as you watched this and the various nobles looking at your table with a confused look on your face and you realized that you would have to deal with a rather troubling meal in the great hall.