Vivid Stars Online

The atrium of the palace was buzzing as we walked in the door with more people than I had ever seen inside at one time before.

While many of these people were the usual well-dressed courtier types, the rest were more workmanlike in their outfits. The best I could figure was that hundreds of people had been called in to begin work on the spaceships that had only just arrived.

She doesn’t waste any time, I thought with a shake of my head. She must have set this up before she even arrived at the hangar in person. Seeing that made me very glad that we’d come to an agreeable deal.

If she had already set everything in motion, then she must have been determined to get those ships, regardless of what I said. I really didn’t want to think about what might have happened if I’d pushed her too far.

Shaking those thoughts out of my head, I moved over toward the receptionists. Luckily, most of the people seemed to have either already been served or were just moving from one part of the place to the other, as we reached the front of the line in only about fifteen minutes.

“Hello again, Mr. Hope,” the receptionist, who I had seen several times before, started. Then she glanced down at something on her screen and paled. “Oh, sorry my lord. Welcome to the Palace, Count Hope, how can I help you today?”

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” I responded with an awkward laugh. “I don’t mind. Anyway, we were directed to come here to the palace. Probably to meet someone?”

“Oh course, Sir,” she responded her face back to a rigid smile. “I have you down here for a meeting with Baron Henceforthe. Your companions each have their own meetings listed as well.”

“Do you require directions to the Baron’s office?” She finished.

At my somewhat bemused nod, she tapped a few spots on her holographic screen, and my watch beeped in response. Checking it showed a map of the palace’s lower floors with an overlaid route.

“Have a good day, Sir,” she said as I thanked her and turned to move off. “There is an expedited reception for nobles at the State Entrance if you do not wish to be delayed in the future,” she finished.

Thanking her again, I moved off, but not before I heard an audible sigh of relief from her. Better remember that other entrance in the future, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t used to serving nobles.

I could also hear her beginning to direct Linnea and Elana, so I was able to move on to my meeting knowing that she would take care of them.

I was still pretty surprised at just being handed a map like that and left to my own devices. It was a stark contrast from having to be escorted around the other times.

At first, I didn’t understand why they would just let me wander through a secured government building like that, but then it hit me. I was actually part of the government now.

While I still wasn’t entirely sure how I stood in the hierarchy of nobles, I figured I had to be fairly important from how the receptionist acted. Important enough to no longer be considered a threat, apparently.

Realizing that I was actually some kind of legitimate authority figure was jarring, even if it was just in a game, and it took me most of the walk through the palace to get my mind back in shape.

I had wondered if Baron Henceforthe might have been related to the Professor that I had met with a few times. Instead, I was surprised to find that they were the same person. Or at least I assumed so when I found myself at the familiar Chief of Archaeology office.

A familiar voice bid me enter after I knocked, revealing an office that was now filled with a multitude of holographic displays. Each of them depicted a different ship from the facility I had just come from, and Professor, or perhaps Baron, Henceforthe straightened up from in front of them.

The three other people in the room didn’t even react that much, instead keeping their focus on the screens. From the look of things, they were taking copious amounts of notes and cross-referencing them to something on their personal screens I couldn’t quite make out.

“Ah, Welcome My Lord,” Henceforthe’s voice rang out excitedly as he took me in. “Please, come this way. I’ve been waiting for you and have a meeting room prepared away from all this hustle.”

“Thanks, ”I said, blinking a little at the form of address. That’s going to take a lot of getting used to, I mused as I nodded in thanks. He took me around the side of the whiteboards, to a closed door marked ‘meetings’.

“We're just beginning to analyze the incredible find you made,” he said as he pushed the door open. “While none of us have the technical ability to work on the ships themselves, we can begin comparing them to the other examples of Arkathian tech on record.”

“That made sense,” I responded with a nod as I took the room beyond. It was much like the meeting rooms in the Explorer's guild, containing a table, four chairs, and a large holographic projector. “I have a few things I can share as well.”

“That would be amazing,” he responded excitedly, a broad grin on his face. “I’ve heard rumors about what your Technokinesis can do now, and anything you can share would be extremely useful. First, however, I’ve been asked to explain several subjects to you.”

“Is this about the new title?” I asked, a little surprised that it would be him you’d ended up with the job.

“Yes, the Title and land that you have been awarded for this wonderful find. Quite rightly too, the benefits this will bring to the Kingdom will be immense,” he started with a grin, before beginning to fiddle with the holographic projector.

“In addition to my own title and my considerable historical knowledge, I spent years as regent for cousin Count Henceforthe. Short of another Count themselves, I’m the most qualified to teach you,” he continued, before flicking a few buttons and bringing up a screen on the projector.

Gesturing toward it with a laser pointer that he’d pulled from somewhere, he drew my attention to the bottom of the screen. “Since you’re from off-world and have only recently arrived, I thought we should start with an overview of noble titles and work from there.”

I nodded in response as he hovered the pointer over the bottom box, eager to find out where I stood.

“Knights are the lowest members of the peerage and are always unlanded. While this title is often awarded for service to the kingdom, it is also the default title for members of noble families who do not stand to inherit. Second and later children, for example.”

“While I do not know for sure, I suspect that Her Grace would have granted you a knighthood for your service to the Kingdom if you had not found such an incredible bounty,” he said with a nod in my direction.

That makes sense, I mused as he flicked the pointer up. There must be a ton of knights, so giving it would have been a sign of respect that didn’t cost her much. A very sensible addition to my reward if she hadn’t had to buy all those ships off me.

“Next comes the title of Baron,” he continued, drawing my attention back to the screen. “While some Barons are symbolic titles only, the vast majority of them are landed. The most usual example of this is a Baron who rules a village and its immediate surroundings, though other examples exist.”

“So they, what? Provide protection in exchange for taxes or something?” I asked, extremely curious about how this part worked.

“Protection, administration, and the right to use the land, yes,” the professor nodded in response. “Though we will get into the exact mechanics, and remunerations, shortly.” At my responding nod, he continued, flicking the point up to the third box.

“Next is the Viscount, who has the honor of not just owning land, but also of having others swear fealty to them. The traditional example of this model would be a viscount who owns a town that acts as a central hub for several surrounding baronies.”

“They would provide additional protection and services to the area and in return would receive a portion of their vassals’ proceeds.”

He paused for a moment and when I didn’t ask anything, he moved on. “Then comes the Count, such as yourself,” he said with a gesture toward me.”

“Much like a Viscount, a Count has vassals as well as also owning their own land. The usual setup would be a regional city hub and a number of viscounts spread through their territory. These Viscounts would, of course, have their own Barons as well.”

While I had kind of been suspecting that after he went through Viscounts, it was still a little shocking to hear. It seemed like counts were quite important, and that I would end up with quite a few people answering to me.

It was hard to process, and I couldn’t help but worry about messing it up. I didn’t even have any experience with leading a team, let alone such an extensive collection of other important individuals.

Thankfully Professor Henceforthe seemed happy to pause for a few moments as I got myself under control. It will be fine, I thought as I began taking several deep breaths. There has to be some kind of training you can get for it.

That helped, and I got myself under control and nodded at Henceforthe to continue.

He smiled graciously, seemingly unsurprised at my reaction, before speaking again. “Next comes the Marquess, though we needn’t cover them or Dukes in as much detail now. Suffice to say that a Marquess is expected to have a well-developed city, as well as multiple other cities in their domain ruled over by Counts.”

He flicked his pointer up again and continued moving on quickly. “Finally a Duke rules an entire province of the Kingdom and usually has a number of Marquesses.”

With that, he flicked the laser pointer off and turned to me expectantly.

Realizing that he was waiting for questions again, I asked the one that came to mind first. “How many Marquesses and other Counts are there within Duchess Milena’s Provence?”

As if expecting that, he flicked toward another screen showing Duchess Milena at the top, with lines leading down to four other names beneath her. One of them was mine.

“Currently, our province is still extremely new, and rather underdeveloped,” He began with a gesture toward the screen. “So far no one has met the requirements to be raised up to the level of Marquess, so you and the other three counts are her direct vassals.”

I blinked in shock, suddenly realizing why the receptionist had been so worried upon realizing I’d been promoted. I would probably have been worried about meeting one of the five most important nobles in the whole province just a few days ago too.

“Just three others?” I almost shrieked, my voice high from surprise.

“Indeed,” he commented with a smile. “As I said, we are underdeveloped and also underpopulated with vast tracks of unexplored territory. While the more developed provinces have dozens or even hundreds of counts with Marquesses above them, we currently only have four.”

“Right,” I muttered, still trying to get over just how high up I apparently now was. “OK then, I think I would like to see my lands now.”

“Of course,” he nodded with a slightly strained smile before clicking through several more slides quickly. “If you have any more questions in the future, you are, of course, welcome to contact me with them.”

I hoped that wasn’t a subtle jab and me asking him to skip a bunch of information, but honestly, there was only so much I could take in right now. There would be plenty of time to find out the rest later.

A moment later he settled on a slide with a highlighted section of map on it. At first, I was a little disappointed at how small it looked, then that changed as I realized just what kind of scale this map was on.

“That much?” I muttered incredulously under my breath. How the hell am I going to manage all of that?