The Rex departed two days after the Day of Introduction. Reitz and Aerwyna negotiated the terms of the betrothal with the Rex and had it in writing. It was agreed upon that Ezra and his daughter would meet when they were five years old at Ezra's birthday as for the troops the Rex would send ten of his elites and Rietz could command them as he sees fit. Rex would also send some knights to the imperial capital but they would not become soldiers or guards there immediately, they would have to undergo some training before they were qualified. After the two days of discussion, Reitz and Aerwyna decided to tell Ezra.
"Hey there Ezra," Reitz greeted him as he was reading a storybook. Ezra was sprawled on the table, the book was too large for him to carry so he was reading lying down with his belly flat and elbows on the table with his hands holding up his head as he was looking at it. The couple was slightly accustomed to this already. They were happy at the site because they had not properly visited Ezra the past few days, they just went by to his room to check up on him but they mostly caught him sleeping because they were so busy with entertaining the other nobles and the emperor.
Ezra stopped and sat down on the table to greet his mother and father.
"Mother, Father," Ezra nodded. He was excited because today he would get to inspect some of the gifts given to him by the nobles. He was smiling a cute radiant baby smile.
Aerwyna and Reitz were happy to see their little boy smiling like this.
"Do you have my gifts? I'd like to have them I know mother won't give me the stones and cores," he pouted a bit.
"Well you can't have the crystals and cores but you can have the others, oh and you can't have the sword I gave as well but the other Items will be brought here later by a few servants. Or should we just let sir Evan get it? They might see you speak or do something out of the ordinary so it might be best for sir Evan to get. Oh, you can't get the cores and crystals because your mother told me about the library incident," Reitz said in under a breath, he was queasy because he did not know how Ezra would react at the betrothal.
"Well what your father is trying to say to you is that you are betrothed," Aerwyna interjected because she noticed Reitz was uneasy about telling Ezra the news.
"What is betrothed, mother?" asked Ezra as he twisted his head upward, he did not know the word Aerwyna used so he inquired.
"Oh it means that we have set you up to marry a wife someday like your father has your mother," Aerwyna said as she smiled awkwardly.
'Shit, I don't know how to react. What do I do? Common knowledge dictates that I should ask what that means. But I know exactly what that means. Crap, Crap crap, I don't know a thing about romance, I was a horrible introvert on earth. My colleagues said that my lab assistant from before liked me and kept giving me signals but I did not get the queues. They laughed at me then. I don't know what this means going forward. Probably this is a political marriage of some sort. I should ask who I would get married to. Wait no, I'm a baby and I should not ask that.'
At the end of this thought process, Ezra decided not to reply. But he still had furrowed brows.
Aerwyna decided to break the silence.
"Being betrothed is like having a friend Ezra it is totally good for you,"Aerwyna smiled as she said this.
"Okay," Ezra replied. In the end, Ezra decided not to say anything related to the betrothal, he thought that this was the best course of action for the time being.
Aerwyna and Reitz were relieved it seemed to them that Ezra did not fully grasp what it meant to be betrothed they did, however, feel a little guilty. They chatted a bit more after the betrothal discussion after which they left.
Evan then fetched the items sanctioned by Aerwyna to be put in his room. Ezra was ecstatic but he did not show it to Evan. The room was slowly filled with various trinkets but Ezra was not too concerned with them. What he wanted were the books. When they came he was dismayed that there were only two. The intricately decorated book was withheld from him because of the magic core centre which Aerwyna was ardently keeping away from him.
Ezra was a bit grumpy at this nonetheless he inspected the two books that the Rex had given. The first one was a resplendent book with golden leaves. There was no title in the cover. The contents were very colourful and were illustrated. The other book that had a tattered leather cover was really peculiar. It did not look like the writing style of Rex Imperium, It looked gibberish but there was an unearthly peculiar feeling that Ezra got from it. The writing did not seem to be handwritten at all, it looked like it was printed but he quickly discarded the thought. It was more plausible that the book was made using a primitive printing press. There were no illustrations inside at all. Why would the Rex give him something without meaning? He was thoroughly baffled at this.
Since the tattered book was indecipherable he decided to read the other book instead. The title was: The Histories of Rex Imperium. This was written in a goldish ink. He touched the surface and it seemed glossy, he was impressed at the overall finish of the book. He was excited since there was no actual book about the history of the empire in the castle library, the information archives mainly had minor histories about the surroundings of Bren. He began to seriously read.
It was said that the Imperium began with local tribes forming into groups against foreign powers two thousand years ago, at first there were disputes between who should lead the tribes against beasts and the elements. The tribal leaders were mages and were from different families. The ones with similar elements gathered together. Most of the tribesmen were not mages though and they discovered that intermarriage with non-mages led to less talented offspring and they decided to keep the blood within the mage's line.
There were four patriarchs that were the strongest among the groups of Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, at first there was a democratic consensus on how the people should lead, what settlements to build, the crops to grow, the hunting parties to form but over time there was a crisis that needed a strong leader.
There were enemies that kept on appearing with strange magic to them the magic it seemed were not in accordance with the four elements they tried to reason with these people but communication was not possible, they spoke in a language they could not understand they named these people arcanists. There was no note of what magic they used exactly which made Ezra curious about it. With no strong decisive leadership, the alliance crumbled bit by bit by the onslaught of the attacks, they decided that the strongest of the patriarchs would lead them so they organized a duel between the four wherein the winner would become the leader while the other three would become advisers to the new leader while the winner would appoint a patriarch for his own clan in his stead. In the end, the winner was the Water Patriarch.
It was because of his firm and wise leadership that the alliance began to flourish. This duel between the four tribes became the norm as the lands expanded cities were built. They then decided to declare of themselves as a kingdom. The new lands that opened up were decided to be given to appointed people by the Rex.
There arose a dispute when the Rex came from the same tribe again and again for four consecutive turns this would not have caused a problem but since the new lands were given to people appointed only by the Rex the other Patriarchs power grew less. They decided to break this tradition and challenged the Rex with their own forces. There was a massive uproar among the populous and most of the people did not like the move because they thought that the tradition was fair.
Since this happened the forces of the Patriarchs were halved. Civil war erupted as the three ganged up on the forces of the Rex. At first, it was evenly matched but then the three decided to go directly and assassinate the Rex and they decided to give the reigns of Rex to the Earth patriarch. The Rex lost and was executed and a massive restructuring happened. The new Rex then structured how the lands were distributed he proposed a scheme based on military merits of a person and also that the lands were supposed to be divided equally among the four aside from the lands that were reserved for the Rex. Thus the four patriarchs decided to make their own position in the government. This gave rise to the Primarchs.
The Primarchs then decided sixteen candidates to replace them in the future which gave rise to the Primarch Seat system. Primarch seats did not necessarily give you any land but it gave you status and prestige, it was still the prerogative of the Primarch above you to give you land as he saw fit. Normally it was the men who were awarded land as the women had husbands and their domains were already established
Due to disputes, the Primarchs decided that the scheme would be a duel, the strongest among their subordinates became Princes and those who were weaker became dukes after that Earls, viscounts and then finally barons. To prevent sudden upheavals one could only challenge their superior once every twenty years.
Over time the mixture of blood became more discrete and the Patriarchal system was eliminated, people no longer Identified to a certain tribe but to a certain House due to intermarriage between the elementals. Also because of strong ties between the subordinates and their superiors the kingdom stabilized.
The empire kept on expanding and the powers of the Rex and Primarchs became similar both could give lands to their subordinates and all of them could raise their own armies, however, it was decided that the Rex could get the most elite troops and give them a reward as he saw fit.
This became the current system that Ezra was living in. He was intrigued and enlightened at the book but he grew drowsy and slept dreaming of the book he just read.