Yesterday Mom told me that I could get the information that I wanted from Mother’s personal maid. If I remember correctly her name should be Hilda. I asked Mom about the schedule of the maid so I could talk with Hilda but she said that she would get Hilda to come to me instead since it wasn’t proper for a noble to be the one who came to the servant. 

Anyway, that meeting was scheduled for the afternoon after I had my lesson with my tutor however what’s important is right now. I’m currently having breakfast with Father and Brother. This was the first breakfast ever where I could eat with the both of them. I could eat breakfast with Brother sometime but I don’t think that I did with Father before. The fact that this is the first time that we had a meal together really showed though, as the atmosphere in the dining room is really quiet. The three of us didn’t speak at all and of course the servants were trained to stay silent at the time like this. The only sound that could be heard from the room was the occasional ding from silver striking the plate. 

The breakfast continued in silence for another few minutes. After we were done with our meal the maids picked up all the tablewares. The table was back to the state before the breakfast yet none of us was standing up. Father, Brother, and I were looking at each other without saying anything, it seemed that we wanted to talk about something but we didn’t know what to talk about.

“Ahem. Stefano, how’s school?”

“Yes? Yes, uh… It was fine.”

And just like that the conversation was over. We really should learn to communicate with each other better. Seeing that the conversation between him and Brother was over much faster than he predicted Father turned his attention to me.

“Then, Charlotte, how about you and your tutoring?”

“Um, I learned about the history of the royal family recently and also their connection with other royalty from another kingdom.”

“Ah, I remember learning about that too when I was your age.”

“I see.”

And another conversation was over. It was longer than the one that Father had with Brother but definitely not long enough to fill the air. We stayed quiet and stared at each other yet again. Brother then gave me a signal. I think he was trying to tell me to start the conversation with Father. I realized this after Brother opened up to me but Brother is really lazy, everything about the planning and the execution was done mostly by me so far. With no other choice I tried to think about a subject that I could talk about with Father.

“Father, what is your work?”

“My work? I work as the Duke, just like my title.”

“I know that but what are you actually doing.”

“Well, if I am to answer simply my job is to rule the duchy and to support the current royal family.”

“Ruling the duchy?”

“Yes, every noble has the duty to take care of the land that was bestowed to them by the crown. We need to make sure to take care of every single aspect of the land. It may sound simple to do but there are many things to pay attention to. A land will not prosper by itself, it needs the people of the land to take care of it and our job is to make sure the commoners have enough of anything to do just that.”

“Charlotte, do you know what the item that our duchy is famous for?”

“It’s farm stuff and animal stuff.”

“Hahaha indeed, our duchy is famous for its wheat and the cows that roam on our land. While we are not the best exporter in terms of quantity we can definitely say we provide the best quality. Also the location of our duchy is near the capital making them the perfect market. I could confidently say that at least 70 percent of the wheat that was available in the capital came from our duchy.”

“Is that how we get our money?”

“You mean our family?”

“Yes.”

“Not really, while we do get some portion from the sale of the products our family as a noble family rely more on the taxes that the citizen pays.”

This is the first time I heard Father speak this much. It seemed that work was the subject that Father was really passionate about. I felt the irony yet again, the thing he loves the most is the thing that will kill him. No, I can’t think like this. I still need to find another hobby for Father so he has even more reason to step away from his overworking habit. What kind of activity that a man like him would really enjoy? I looked at Father, he was still talking about the management of the duchy like he was talking about a masterpiece made by some famous artist. Meanwhile I could also see Brother yawning again and again. I suppose he must be bored by the talk about the duchy since he already received this kind of education to ready him for the duke seat. 

Talking for quite some time took a toll on Father, he really wasn’t used to talking for more than a few sentences, even with people that were in the same room as him the method of communication he preferred was text and documents. He grabbed a glass of water from the maid and drank it all in one go. Using the moment when Father wasn’t talking I asked him a question,

“Father, are you interested in gardening?”

“No, I can’t say that I do. I hired the gardeners to take care of problems like that.”

Father didn’t appear to realize the meaning behind my question. I asked him about a few other thing that I know other nobles liked to do, things like fishing, reading, and many other stuff  however his answer was still the same, it was either ‘I can hire someone for that’ or ‘I don’t know’ or simply ‘I have no interest in that’. We continued the back and forth until the butler came in and informed Father about the schedule for him today. This is another way for us to reduce his workload, butler would create a schedule for him and he needs to follow it and no more. We were planning to eventually hire an assistant for Father since butler already had his hand full with other stuff, I don't want to save Father from overworking just to throw butler to the same pit. 

With that the first meal we had as a family, minus Mother, ended. I think we were closer after that, even if only by a little bit. I didn’t get any more information that I needed though which is disappointing. I got up from my seat after Father left the room and headed back to my room to prepare for my class today.