Aristia was informed that her history teacher had arrived, so she made her way to the drawing room designated for the history lesson.
She exchanged greetings with Viscountess Vasily and took her seat before her.
"We are moving on to the genealogy of nobles in Amberale. There are two parts of nobility in Amberale. They are the first generation noble families and the second generation noble families. There are twelve first generation noble families in Amberale..." Viscountess Vasily Hemsworth continued.
There were twelve first generation noble families in the Kingdom of Amberale. They were also called pure noble families.
There were two Duke families— The Anton and the Winston. Three Marquis families— The Eldridge, the Kiran, and the Oswalt. Two Count families— The Prescott and the Splane. Three Viscount families— The Hemsworth, the Everett, and the Essylt. And Two Baron families— The Tindall and the Easton.
Duke Maxim Anton— twenty eight years old, and Duchess Alistair Anton— twenty three years old, had three children; Liam Anton— seven years old, Lauren Anton— five years old, and Lilith Anton— three years old.
Duke Artem Winston— thirty two years old, and Duchess Matilda Winston— twenty five years old, had one child; Ian Winston— nine years old.
Marquis Kyle Eldridge— twenty six years old, and Marchioness Avery Eldridge— twenty one years old, had one child; Alicia Eldridge— five years old.
Marquis Wesley Kiran— twenty nine years old, and Marchioness Clarisse Kiran— twenty four years old, had three children; Paige Kiran— eight years old, Nova Kiran— five years old, and Juno Kiran— four years old.
Marquis George Oswalt— twenty eight years old, and Marchioness Charlotte Oswalt— twenty three years old, had no children yet.
Count Cedric Splane— thirty one years old, and Countess Eleanor Splane— twenty six years old, had two children; Landon Splane— ten years old, and Zachary Splane— seven years old.
Count Reed Prescott— thirty five years old, and Countess Cara Prescott— twenty seven years old, had two children; Rolland Prescott— eleven years old, and Colton Prescott— eight years old.
Viscount Ross Hemsworth— twenty four years old, and Viscountess Vasily Hemsworth— nineteen years old, had no children yet.
Viscount Harrison Everett— forty three years old, and Viscountess Amelia Everett— thirty six years old, had three children; Viscountess Vasily Hemsworth— nineteen years old, Irene Everett— fifteen years old, and Leon Everett— eleven years old.
Viscount Leonard Essylt— forty years old, and Viscountess Svetlana Essylt— thirty five years old, had three children; Richard Essylt—nineteen years old, Leticia Essylt— fifteen years old, and Priscilla Essylt— seven years old.
Baron Vadim Tindall— forty seven years old, and Baroness Loretta Tindall— thirty nine years old, had four children; Albert and Alfred— twins, both seventeen years old, Elizabeth Tindall— fourteen years old, and Olivia Tindall— twelve years old.
Baron Geoffrey Easton— fifty six years old, and Baroness Isabel Easton— forty eight years old, had four children; Countess Cara Prescott— twenty seven years old, Quinn Easton— twenty three years old, Knox Easton— fifteen years old, and Angelina Easton— thirteen years old.
The Anton family was Catherine's maiden family which meant that Catherine Amberale and Maxim Anton were siblings. Thus, connecting the Amberale and Anton families through marriage.
Alistair Anton was Maxim's wife and the older sister of Avery Eldridge. Alistair's and Avery's maiden home is the Kiran noble household.
Marchioness Clarisse Kiran, the wife of Marquis Wesley Kiran, was the younger sister of Marquis Kyle Eldridge.
Aristia was a little bit confused at the connection. It meant that the Amberale, The Anton, The Eldridge and The Kiran Families were connected somehow, though not directly, through marriage.
[It seems like the relationship between Aristia and Alicia just didn't work out, since their mothers are friends.] She thought of the sour relationship between them which was supposed to be the opposite.
Vasily explained that the families that had no males would pick an eligible male from the side branches of their family who would either marry their daughter and become the successor and head of the family, or be made the heir if their daughter had already been married out or betrothed or they had no children.
"We will talk about why there are two parts of nobility, and about the factions in nobility as our class progresses in the future." Vasily told Aristia and received a nod from the latter.
Next, Vasily talked about the businesses of the respective noble families.
Aristia focused on the information on her family's business; The Grand Ducal Amberale family (not the royal family) dealt on mining since their territory had a lot of precious minerals. They also had fertile and productive land.
This sparked a memory of an event in Aristia's mind. A famine!!! There was going to be a famine!! That was the start of the novel.
The food planted by the farmers was enough to feed the kingdom as usual but this year, they were eaten down by crop pests. The famine barely affected the nobles as they mostly imported their food from neighbouring kingdoms. Those who beared the brunt of the famine were the common folk.
The famine that affected the commonfolk was dangerous to the kingdom because a lot of lives were lost due to the lack of food, and people were weak.
This made their kingdom vulnerable to other kingdoms who wanted to take the opportunity to invade their kingdom, since the common folk made up the vast majority of soldiers who would go to war.
The problem though was that pesticides and insect mesh weren't available in this era and Aristia couldn't possibly find all the chemicals and equipment used to produce them.
Another problem was the storage. The novel world's residents hadn't yet adopted the process of storing. This made it even more difficult to survive during the famine.
For now, Aristia could only think of storing as a solution so she'd go with that until she thought of something better.
She continued to listen to her tutor as she educated her on the genealogy of the second generation nobles, who were also called minor nobles, which stretched on to the side branches. The minor nobles and aristocrats were numerous.
Soon, the class ended and Viscountess Vasily left. Aristia thought of the upcoming famine and decided to take some necessary measures.
There was still some time before the next class so she changed direction to her father's study. She knew that there was no time to waste and every minute was precious. She never dallied in matters of urgency.
She nodded at the Butler who was standing at the door to her father's study.
She knocked on the door and pushed it open when she received permission to come in. She was greeted by the scent of cedarwood as she entered the clean and neatly arranged study.
Her father looked up from the files on the table, "Come in, Tia. Your lessons are over?"
"Yes, Papa."
Aristia was surprised that Wilson wasn't even a little bit surprised to see her there and that he knew it was her, after all, she hadn't spoken and the butler hadn't announced her presence.
When she thought of it, he probably knew because his study wasn't a place anyone could casually enter, even the Butler only did so after gaining permission.
It was only Wilson's family who could enter the study at will, or even entered it at all in the first place.
But even so, that still didn't explain how he knew that it was her, after all, it could have been her mother or Alaric who was at the door.
Her father called for the Butler to serve them some tea and snacks, "What brings you to my study?" He asked curiously and closed the files.
Pushing the thought of how her father knew it was her at the door to the back of her mind, she decided to disclose the reason for her visit to his study.