"Why won't they think I am being taught anything?" I asked.
"I will convince them otherwise," said Mourastor, "I will tell them that the Princess is nursing her Magic Knight back to health. Technically true, since health is a measure of how well you are able to contribute to society, and teaching you makes you more able to contribute to society, and thus healthier."
I shook my head in disdain of Mourastor's mental gymnastics. I was somewhat impressed that he was able to bend over backwards to try and make this blatant lie even slightly true, but I was equally disgusted that he was willing to go to this length, as opposed to simply admitting to the lie.
The princess briskly clapped her hands.
"In any case, we should get started with your education of etiquette as soon as possible. We should start by describing the noble hierarchy, as well as all of our places within it," said the Princess, "The official hierarchy starts landlords, who are simply the rulers of a single city, town, village, or other settlement. Landlords swear their allegiance to barons or baronesses, who rule from 3 to 7 settlements, one of which they personally administer. After the barons –"
"Just so I'm clear regarding the barons," I interrupted, "A baron will have direct control over their own city, and they will have between 2 and 6 landlords swear allegiance to them, giving them control over 3 to 7 settlements total."
"Yes that is correct," the Princess nodded, "There are technically ranks within each rank that I am going to list. For example, baronet is a baron with 2 to 4 client landlords, and an arch-baron is a baron with 5 or 6 client landlords. I am skipping over that for now for the sake of time. Above the barons are counts, who will either have 3 to 4 barons as their sworn vassals, or simply the equivalent amount of landlords"
"Barons can have anywhere between two and six landlords sworn to them, so what would be "the equivalent amount of landlords"? Having six landlords sworn to me could either be the same as having 1 powerful baron sworn to me or 3 less powerful barons couldn't it?" I asked.
"Astute observation," said the Princess, "Glad to see that you are actively paying attention. Most people consider four to be the equivalent number of barons."
"Most people?" I asked, "Do people disagree on this?"
"Yes," answered the Princess, "Although very few do it publicly, as it is uncouth to do so. There are some who believe that some counts do not deserve to be qualified as counts, and some barons do not deserve to be qualified as barons."
"So what is the purpose of the titles if they are not meant to communicate how much power that someone has?" I asked.
"The titles do represent how much power someone has, just not how much land someone has. I am just using land as a way to represent how much power someone has. That does not necessarily mean that power and land are the same thing, despite how some people may think it is," said the Princess, "The truth is power can come from many different sources. More land means more tax revenue, which means more money, and thus more power. However, power can also come from other sources. My preferred source of power is loyalty. Even if someone has more money than me, if their tax payers are more loyal to me than to them, I can easily remove that income stream by asking or ordering the tax payers to stop paying those taxes."
"My preferred source of power is my stories," Mourastor chimed in, "With my stories I can move the hearts of the masses, without them ever knowing my name. I can make people stop paying taxes, make them rise up in revolt, make them pay their taxes without complaint. With the right story, I can do anything. Interestingly enough, I think that your source of power, currently speaking that is, is a mix of our two sources of power. People are loyal to you, because the stories of your heroic deeds have moved their hearts."
"While on the topic of your power," I said, "What rank are you Mourastor?"
"I am absolute proof that possessing land is not the only way to possess power. My family only has 2 small villages to its name, but my position as the Chief Poet ranks me as an arch-count," said Mourastor, "I have the ear of important people, and I also have the ear of the common people, which is more useful than some might think."
"Really?" I asked, "How powerful can the common people be?"
"Powerful," answered the princess, "When peasant uprisings happen, even if they are not absolutely successful, they are incredibly damaging to their lord. The peasants klling the soldiers obviously damages the lord's military power, but the peasants dying damages the lord's economic power. With no one to work for the lord, the lord cannot produce any resources and thus cannot export anything, losing crucial money in trade. Similarly, dead peasants cannot pay taxes, further damaging the lord's ability to make money. That's why lords must listen to their people, for their own benefit."
"I thought that lords would listen to their people for the sake of honour, rather than the sake of money and power," I said gruffly.
Mourastor gave a little snicker at that, and the Princess smiled thinly, "I think you will come to learn that things are not that simple, not that honest in the real world."
I grimaced. That makes it sound like I am a child, unaware of how things really work. But I am coming to realize that this may be exactly true. This world of nobility and governance is a whole new world for me, one in which I do not know the rules. I am essentially a child in this world, and I hate every second of it.
I sighed, suddenly very tired, "Alright, let's continue with the lesson. I need to understand the real world in order to survive it."
The lesson continued, and I learned about specific noble families, their major imports and exports, the reputations they worked to uphold and the reputations that they worked to conceal. Interestingly, some families worked to conceal reputations that other families will work to uphold.
Unfortunately, all I learned in this lesson was the internal politics of the kingdom. Little did I know that at the same time, one of my most dangerous and persistent enemies was trying to teach a lesson of his own, a lesson that we did not want our enemies learning