"Would you please leave that poor child alone?" Big brother Mael sighed while looking in our direction.

"But, I’m bored. Why don’t we go training? It’s been three months already. " My sister replied from behind me.

Ramia, big brother Mael, Uncle Mattew, and I were currently inside Edouard’s library.

You know, I can’t because of my parents, but if you want to do it alone, please feel free to go.

But that would be tedious.

"Ai-Ramia, it hurts!"

"Then stay still!"

"That’s what I was already doing. It’s you who- Aie~ai. "

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"So I thought. Now look at yourself; you look like a princess. " She said, handing me a mirror.

Seeing my reflection in the mirror, I saw myself with my hair in a complete mess, at least to me.

Earlier, while being bored at the library, she grabbed me and started to braid my hair, like some lady’s maid would. My hair was now braided into a ridiculous twintail.

"So how is it?"

"It’s horri-" I felt her grip on my shoulder tightening. "It looks great. It’s as Sister said, I look like a princess."

"Hahaha, right?"

"Ramia, stop bullying the little Elliel," Uncle Mattew said, finally breaking the strange silence he'd been in.

He had been reading silently for a moment now.

"But there is nothing else to do. I’m no good at secluding myself and reading books like you two. "

"I guess you’re too action-oriented for that. I guess I’ll finish this book later. " He said, putting down the thick red book he was reading. Then he went laying on the sofa he was on top of, then said, "Drop them."

"Drop what?"

"Questions, you said you’re not good at reading, right? I admit that with Mael's parents' arrival, I have lately gotten very bored, so maybe being questioned will unbore me. So ask your questions, whatever it is, I’m sure I have the answer. "

"Euh."

Unexpectedly, the one to ask a question first was not Ramia, but rather Mael, "Then, what do you know about the Empire, not what is commonly known but what you know through your unique position?"

"The Empire, huh? I do indeed know a lot about it, but may I ask why that question, so that I’ll be able to mention whatever you’re really interested in. "

Big brother Mael didn’t answer, but instead closed the thick red book he was reading, then waved it at Uncle Mathew.

"Oh, your parents, or more precisely your mother... huh. I guess I have one thing or two about them. Racking his throat as if he was about to start a very long story, he added, "First thing first, and for the sake of Young Elliel over there, let's start from the beginning. What do you guys know about the Meilen Empire? "

"That it is the largest country on the human continent." Both Ramia and I answered.

"With nearly three times the size of the Altaira Kingdom, the Meilen Empire is currently, by far, the largest country on the human continent."

"But do you know why that is the case?"

Without even giving us the opportunity to answer, he continued.

"Because throughout the past two thousand years or so, most of the church’s expansion plans were made northward. Because the Meilen Empire is located north, the claimed territory from the Monster Continent is naturally assigned by the Church and graciously accepted by the Empire as part of their territory. "

"The political organization of the Empire isn’t that different from the Altaira kingdom. There is a supreme leader: an emperor or an empress, as is currently the case; below the emperor you have 21 Archdukes in charge of 21 Archduchies, and just slightly below them you have the Grand-Dukes and their Grand-Duchies. "

"No need to overthink it. For those in the Empire, archduchies and duchies mean the same thing; it's just that the ArchDuke is the Empire's equivalent of a Duke.The power and responsibility the title implies are pretty much the same, with the exception of some little details. A Grand-Duke, on the other hand, is a title that is given to those of an Imperial lineage that has the bearing to ascend to the throne but didn’t, but it also mainly refers to a prince or princess that is destined to fight for the crown. As a way to prepare themselves for the ascension to the crown, the princes or princesses of the Empire who have a pretense for the imperial throne are given the title of Grand-Duke and a small territory to rule over. Regardless of the hereditary nature of the crowning in the Meilen, the fact remains that the empire highly values meritocracy and achievement, so princes and princesses who are given a Grand-duchy are expected to perform to the best of their abilities. It is exactly here that one of the things for which the Meilen Empire is very well known comes; fratricide and familicide. "

For some reason, Uncle Mattew's gaze seemed to pierce me.

I couldn’t help but swallow hard. The thought of a brother and sister killing each other for the sake of a stupid throne was something incomprehensible to me.

Suddenly, I felt fingers swiftly venturing to my armpits, then tickling me, "Aha! Beloved Brother Elliel, You’re full of openings; you can’t escape me. You’re done for. This duchy is mine now. Hahahaha! "

I was, it has to be said, very sensitive to tickling, so I helplessly rolled on the ground, begging her to stop, but couldn’t even utter a word.

"Ramia." Mael sighed.

"Okay, okay. I'll stop it. See? "

"I'm glad to see you two getting along so well, but it is important to note that despite all of the repulsing nature of this fight for the throne, it is not like every prince and princess who killed each other throughout the years hated each other."

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"I mean that among those who killed each other, there were some who got along as well as you two. A good example of that is the Empress, the formerly Grand-Duchess Anne-Lorie Meilen and her late brother. I came from a generation nine years later than theirs, so I wasn’t given much opportunity to interact with the two of them, but from what I saw with my own eyes, these two got along very well, even while they were fighting for the crown. "

"I see... Did you say it with your own eyes? You mean you..."

"I knew them personally. There was even a time when I planned to marry someone from the imperial family. Too bad, it turned out that those of the imperial family aren't very welcoming of outsider blood, I should've eloped with her for a time and imp-"

"Cough, cough."

"Ah, sorry, I scattered too much. I wouldn't say we were close to them, but I got several opportunities to talk to both of them. Now that I think of it, the relationship between these two was very similar to Ramia’s and Mael's, with Anne-Lorre being the musclehead and her big brother the calm and collected one. "

"Then why?"

"Who knows, but the facts remain that she eventually killed her brother, whether for the throne or for other reasons, which will remain a mystery."But I’m sure these two would’ve been happier if they were born into another family, but that is something you can never choose. You can never choose the family you are born into. When it's your turn to join the Aurora Academy, I’m sure you’ll interact with those of the imperial familiy, so maybe you’ll understand them better than I did.

"I see,"

"As I said, there are 21 archduchies within the Meilen empire, but an archduchy itself is just like ours, divided into small counties led by a count family, which would be the equivalent of an earl, terms not so much used here in the Altaira Kingdom. Mael's mother and her sister were born in a small county within one of the twenty duchys of the Meilein Empire. Your mother met your father, like most nobles meet their partner, in the Aurora Academia. From what I heard, though, they didn't belong to the same faction, but they did belong to the same sub-faction, and yet they pretty much instantly hooked up.

"Faction?"

"I see Young Elliel doesn’t know about it yet. Let me explain. Once you join the Aurora Academia, you’ll have to enroll yourself in one of the four great factions.

"The first faction is the Noble faction. Try to think of this faction as the absolute dumpster. Almost every noble, with or without backing, can join in. Next we have the Cleric Faction. Think of this fraction as a faction made up of nobles wishing to make a career as a clergyman. Then we have the Leading Nobles Faction. This faction primarily consists of those born from a leading family, as stated in the title; future Kings, future Emperors, future future Dukes, future future Archdukes, future Earls, future Counts, or anyone born from a leading family is expected to join that faction.And last but not least, and without contest, the most powerful faction of all, we have the Seven Great Family Faction. Once again, as the title implies, this faction only regroups those born from the Seven Great Nobles Families. I won’t say much about this faction, Little Mael. After all, you’ll eventually learn about them from your father, or most likely, your great-grandfather, in due time. "

"So to sum everything up, you have at the bottom the Noble Faction, the Cleric Faction, the leading faction, and at the top, the Seven Great Families faction. At the end of the day, one could argue that the faction system is merely a reflection of the noble society's current situation, a foretaste, if you will. "

"The objectives of these factions are to create a concuratial atmosphere among young nobles and to permit nobles to create connections that might be useful once they depart from academia to take part in true noble society. Connections made there can be useful for building, or at least to back up something you intend to build in the future. After all, in their own way, these connections woven during the academic years remain, and can become, at some point, helpful or even life-changing in due time."

"Uncle Mattew, when you were in the Aurora academia, which faction were you in?" I asked.

"I was in the Se-no, I think it would be better to keep that to your imagination. To get back to Mael’s parents, aside from the four factions, there are several other smaller factions, or sub-factions, as they are called. These factions generally focus on a certain field in particular. It was in one of these small factions, in a faction focusing on medicine, that your father Philip met your mother Luna. He said to Mael, "I’m sure you already know about these." Right? But the thing is that it wasn’t only your mother but also her sister Moona and the man who later became Moona’s husband, Theodore Barbosse. You all met him once, right? "

Ramia and Big Brother both acquiesced, yet I was still clueless about who that man could be. I was curious, but I didn’t raise a question.

"These four naturally get along. Together, they even built their own subfaction, which was only focused on one thing: finding a logical explanation for the spawning of the children of light. Naturally, many believed their enterprise was a waste of time and resources, especially given how unique and precious Barbosse Magic was, but there was someone that saw a future in the quadro enterprise. Though I believe there were so many wisest choices in terms of patron, an Archbishop of the church took notice of their enterprise and decided to help them with their research by providing whatever resources they required for it. That person was the Archbishop in charge of the Authority of Kiady the Eternal, Loran Whiteley."

"But wasn’t"

"I’m coming to it. Having received more than enough resources for their enterprise, they started to invest themselves in their research, but then it happened. I don’t know what process it was made of or what sort of black magic was involved, but Luna, Moona, and Renata, who also happened to be their friend, all got pregnant at the same time. From here, you know how it went. Renata gave birth to Ramia, Luna to Mael, and Moona to a boy named Arte, if I don't get it wrong. Have you ever heard of him, Mael? "

"I had heard from my grandfather that I have cousins on my mother's side, but I never got to interact with them."

"Well, that isn’t surprising. Your parents had an engagement with the church. Well, to be exact, it was Barbosse who had an engagement with the church, as a sponsorized vicar, but your parents felt it was as much their engagement as it was his. Your Uncle Damian must have understood that, which is most likely why he immediately came over to take care of you in your parents' stead. The book you’re currently reading contains the result of their research, or at least those ready to be released to the public. " He declared, referring to the red book Big Brother Mael had in his hand.

Mael didn’t say anything. Instead, he just inspected the cover of the book, then the name engraved on the back of the book.

"To continue the story, something happened two years after your birth to Ramia and you, Moona fell pregnant for the second time and gave birth to a second boy, which also sadly cost her life. Barbosse took care of the child with the best of his ability and with the help of Mael’s parents, but as the years went by, he realized that he couldn’t go on like that forever, which is why he married into that person’s daughter, an action which to me is akin to enrolling a rope around one’s neck, but hey, who am I to judge. Now do you two understand how he came to become that person’s son-in-law? "

"Yes, I understand." Big brother Mael and even Ramia seemed to have understood something out of this discussion, whereas in my case, I was still completely lost as to who they were referring to by "that person."

"Sorry, Little Eliel, you seem to be lost."

"Well, I admit I am."

Putting a finger in front of his mouth, he said, "Don’t worry, you’ll eventually know who we are talking about once you-"

A livid knock on the library's door reverberated.

Mael made his way to the library’s door,

"What?!" Mael shouted, clearly frustrated by the person’s sudden intérruption.

I then faintly heard the man telling Mael something in a very low voice to not anger him any further. But then another "What! "Are you sure of that?" reverberated across the library.

"Prepare a carriage, we’re going there immediately, "

"Yes, Sir."

Clearly in a hurry, Mael returned to us.

Ramia, no longer able to hold her curiosity, prepared herself to ask, I believe, "Did something happen?" But before she could say anything, Mael vanished.

"Yes, Ramia, we’re leaving right now. Something happened in the Common District. "

***

Immediately after Mael’s announcement, we hopped in the first carriage and made our way here. Big Brother Mael personally asked Ramia to come, but Uncle Davence and I tagged along.

So here we are in the North Common District. It was my first time being in a common district. It wasn’t really how I expected it to be.

"Is it always that crowded?" I asked, referring to the road.

In our carriage, people were rolling in the same direction as our carriage. The road was so crowded with people that if it weren’t for them, this trip would’ve been at least ten times smoother and faster.

"No, it isn’t like this, generally." Mael answered.

Soon, our carriage arrived at a vast, crowded plaza, and parked not so far away, we saw carriages belonging to great families of Beaumont;

We descended from the car and headed to what appeared to be the center of the attraction.

In front of us was a massive tree, which I could see from my room in the castle, but today something was different about it; I had never seen the tree so close up before, and I knew it shouldn't be like this.

"Why?", "How is this possible?" Both Ramia and Mael described seeing that sight.

The yellow-brown leaves of the Hazo, The Eternal Tree, had withered, as spring had turned to autumn in a matter of hours.

From the castle, I knew that that tree’s leaves would never lose their green, even in the coldest and harshest winters,

Yet today, in front of us, the tree was clearly dying at a very rapid pace. Almost all of its leaves had fallen onto the ground, and the trunk was shrinking and drying at a visible rate.

From what I heard, I knew that the tree provided a shade that was believed by commoners to be miraculous, but today, even in the middle of the day, there was no shade that could be seen, and the burning sun above us was vividly reminding us of that fact.

"How can this be?" Ramia said in a voice that I rarely ever heard from her.

It was only then that I noticed the look on her face; it was shock, incredulity, but also clearly sadness. Glancing at Mael, I saw a similar emotion painted on his face.

At the time, I didn’t know the reason for their reaction upon the death of this tree, yet I knew that these two must have shared a dear collective souvenir dear to their hearts at this very same place under this very same tree.