4:00 AM, September 13th, 2000 CE
After spending the rest of his lucid time finishing the first book in the fundamental list, Michael woke up and went through his morning routine - exercise, shower, breakfast, run, shower, library. He was somehow growing fond of his routine - or at least the fact that he had one. It made his mornings much more predictable. Granted, it would soon be changing shortly, as he would be able to shower downstairs without having to go all the way up, but still - the routine helped, especially when he lacked motivation.
"I haven't had much success in adding in the yoga or internal martial arts stuff in the last few days - maybe I should consider doing them in the morning, before the morning exercise," he mused. The exercises were relatively low impact, and while he'd tried them in the morning before that had been after the current workout. Why not try flipping them around?
"I'll have to try that tomorrow," he decided as he walked into the library. Today's targets for collection: Chess, Piano, Music Theory, and a whole lot of Art books. Unfortunately, sometimes the world has other plans.
"Ah, Mr. Prout. Perfect timing. We're swapping out our collection of periodicals - here's an empty crate, and there are all the full ones. You probably won't finish this morning, but I'll need you to move the ones you haven't completed before the next class starts. You can pick it back up at lunch. Take as long as you need to to complete the task, but I trust that you won't do anything else during your library time until it is completed. Best of luck!"
"...Good Morning, Mr. Maddox. No problem, Mr. Maddox..."
---
A slightly bedraggled Michael stumbled into Latin class just before the bell rang. Jeremy and Valeria had saved his seat, so he walked over while nodding his head appreciatively. He was too tired to even speak! Jeremy eyed him sympathetically.
"Wow, that library job is really putting him through the wringer... and I thought running a cyber cafe was hard...", he thought.
Little did he know that the only reason Michael was exhausted to this extent was because he'd tried to rush the job and finish this morning! He simply didn't want to lose his precious library time, and though he hadn't finished the job completely, he only had around 10% left. Even Mr. Maddox was surprised by his young assistant's zeal, though he simply chalked it up to the young man's zeal for books!
Seconds after Michael finally sat down, the bell rang and the lecture started. Today's discussion was about the various paths to citizenship. This was a topic of great interest to most of the people in the room.
The first and easiest method was to inherit citizenship from one's parents. If both parents were hereditary citizens, their children would also be hereditary citizens, and very little could change that fact. In fact, only imperial decree was able to rescind hereditary citizenship, and in only very specific instances - for example, treason.
The second method was closely associated with the first, which was to own land in the area of Italia, 'omnium terrarum parens' - the motherland of all lands. Oftentimes, if the Empire wanted to reward particularly meritorious service, they would grant a small parcel of land within Italia - these weren't hereditary and would be returned to the crown upon the holder's passing, unless the grantee was able to prove they were putting the land to particularly good use and contributing to the Empire.
Naturally, this led to a number of new innovations, and competition to hold and maintain that land within the Empire was quite fierce. Furthermore, while most families wouldn't let their land in Italia go unless it was pried from their cold dead hands - accidents happen. So when land did come up in the private market, serious battles could break out.
The third method to gain citizenship, and the one most relevant to the students in the room, was serving with distinction during their military service term. Once one had gained a sufficient amount of merits, they could be redeemed for citizenship. However, the mandatory term was only two years, and there were very few positions in the military that would allow someone to earn sufficient merits in a mere two years - and even fewer available to individuals from the territories and colonies like them. The few that were were all incredibly dangerous.
Since many wouldn't be able to gain citizenship in two years, they could either give up on that dream, hope to contribute to the Empire in some other sufficiently significant way - as an artist or scholar of great distinction, for example - or they could enlist for another term. This happened more often than not, especially for young people without families. The downside was naturally that the longer you were enlisted, the greater the risk. Many people would eventually give up their dream of citizenship, settle down and start a family.
Without citizenship, though, they were restricted in how much they could grow - they could only move about, work, and start businesses in the territory of their birth, and they wouldn't be able to participate in the imperial democratic process. Therefore, very few were willing to give up on their dreams until they were in their late twenties at the earliest.
The final method of gaining citizenship was rarely heard of in the modern day, and that was being responsible for new lands joining the Empire. If a land had been undiscovered and either uninhabited, conquered, or convinced to join the Empire, the individuals responsible would be granted citizenship and often some level of control over the new territory. This had enticed many explorers, would-be conquerors, and diplomats to adventure out in the world, hoping to discover some new unknown land.
The eyes of many students in the class were bright with longing - not only for the promises of citizenship, but also glory. Everyone wanted to be the protagonist of their own great tale - unfortunately, the real world didn't work that way. Only a few people didn't seem as excited - namely Michael, Jeremy, and Valeria.
At the end of the lecture, most of the students left the class sharing excited murmurs as they discussed how many enemies they would defeat or what fantastic lands they would discover.
Michael got up from his seat and joined his friends as they went out into the hall. He was anxious to get back to the library and finish his work. Unusually, his friends followed him. He looked over, puzzled. "What's going on?"
Jeremy shrugged. "Not much, we just decided to keep you company today. We've both brought our lunches and want to get some work done on our outlines - we've scheduled time with Mr. Maddox to review them and give us feedback today."
Michael nodded in understanding. "Cool. I won't be able to chat much, though, as I have to finish swapping out the periodicals. That and I have a bunch of reading to do."
He then made his way towards the stairs down to the first floor with his usual pace. His friends had to half-jog to keep up.
"Don't get too full of yourself - we can take care of ourselves," Jeremy countered playfully. "What are you reading on? Looking for summary notes on the book? You should know that the library won't let you look at them, I already tried."
Michael shook his head. "No, nothing like that. It's just that I've taken an interest in playing chess and am looking for some new ideas."
"Chess? Wow, I didn't think you could be any more of a geek, but I stand corrected!", his friend beamed. His smile quickly turned mischievous, though, as he slyly continued. "However, you're in luck, because I just so happen to know an excellent chess player. In fact, you just met her last night..."
Michael immediately turned red and his head shook even more violently. "No way!", he declared. "I'm just getting started and I don't want to look like an idiot."
Jeremy burst out laughing. "Wow, man, Ms. Blackice wasn't enough? You've got another crush already. I can't wait to tell Ben. You better watch out, he's pretty protective of his big sister!"
"Shut up!", Michael sighed, exasperated. "And what do you mean Ms. Blackice? I don't know what you're talking about."
At the mention of a certain Mathematics teacher, Michael had begun to turn a shade of bright red. He feigned ignorance, poorly.
"Oh please - it doesn't take a genius to see those big moony eyes you make whenever she's teaching. Don't tell me you're just a fan of math, either, cuz you never look that way when Mr. Richard is teaching!"
"So what? Maybe Ms. Blackice is just a much better teacher!"
Michael's flimsy retort wouldn't stand up to the slightest inspection, and Jeremy was having too much fun at this point not to let him know it.
"Suuuuure--"
Suddenly, a rarely heard voice interjected from between them.
"I play chess."