Time is something very hard to keep a hold of in an multiple star sector spanning empire.
Normally when you refer to a day you usually mean an full rotation of an planet witch in normal circumstances consists of an alternating cycle of daytime and nighttime.
But what do you do when an rotation of an planet or even its rotation around the sun can have such discrepancy in their speed?
For that reason it is necessary to have an standardized time metric, having as reference a single planet to allow a much easier interaction between these various different territories.
And the one that has been used by humanity from its first ascension to after its collapse is the solar time system.
Of course, this just applies to the empire and its allies, there are many human hegemonies that have chosen isolation in their planets or systems, making use of their own time metrics.
After being told all of this you must be wondering right now.
Why suddenly start explaining such an random topic when nobody asked?
And the answer to the question that nobody in particular asked is...
I'm bored. And I am currently trying as best as I can to distract myself from this boredom by thinking about random topics in hopes they can make time pass a litle bit faster.
But unfortunately I can only evade reality for so long and a familiar voice reaches me, dragging me back from my internal struggle and back to my senses.
"Young lord, are you paying attention? The next subject is something that you must pay full attention no matter what. Don't worry, this time it's a completely new subject and one that is in your best interest in learning." I take a second to come to completely get my bearings, but this voice, I can certainly identify as being the head butler Jonathan, someone that I see just like family. Despite not having warm or casual conversations, we still have an mutual respect in wich we express our appreciation for each other.
Looking around for a bit, I see an small, neatly organized room that has been used for my lessons for years. And this is enough to remind me of what we were doing.
We were in the middle of one of our lessons as usual, and I was being taught something that I already learnt by myself as usual. But what is unusual today is that although I find it boring, I don't space out like this in the middle of his lessons.
This is thanks to something that happened recently and made me more restless than usual.
But I get rid of those unnecessary thoughts and focus solely in what he is about to say. He doesn't exaggerate when he say that something important and as long as it is something new, I am more than willing to learn.
"You have for the last couple of years been taught everything you need to as an lord of the empire, and you must already know everything that is expected of an noble about: the political system, the territory, the laws and the allies of the empire. but from now on you will be taught about our own territory, the von Graad household and as the only heir you will start to be prepared to one day inherit the territory."
That immediately gets my attention, I have been all this time learning about the empire or things I will need as an noble but my knowledge concerning our territory is very superficial since outside little bits of information that I got while traveling the territory and overhearing my parents, i have never had access to the more important information thanks to Jonathan and my parents holding tight to that information 'till I become an adult'.
I will have my 12nd birthday very soon and then I will be tested for my aptitude,'I guess that since my debut as an full fledged noble is near, he has finally caved in and started to give me an explanation of our territory.'
Unaware of his thoughts Jonathan continues his explanation in a very calm manner.
"Today we will only have time to make an quick introduction, we will explain each planets history and characteristics in an later date"
"We'll start at the founding of the von Graad house, as you know we are a very young noble house that has been established by your father 14 years ago, it was done when your father used his prestige as an war hero from the last incursion of the horde onto the empire and asked the imperial family to bestow upon him a noble title and an territory."
"After that he left the military, settled down with your mother and had you, since than the territory has experienced an enormous growth that is unprecedented for any territory without an external backer."
"That is due to your mother administrating the territory tactfully while your father still having the loyalty of many strong knights and soldiers wich he used to stabilize the territory and allow it to develop without the harassment from pirates."
'That is not completely true, as Beatrice's home planet was hit by pirates and by the time the von Graad fleet came they had already plundered everything and moved on being caught a while later.' He remembered while making sure he doesn't forget that even his father wasn't capable of providing complete safety to his people despite all his efforts.
"That also applies with your father's nobility titles, when he was first bestowed a noble title, he had to start as an baron and through his development of this Frontier territory and his aways punctual paying of tribute he was raised to an 2nd grade count wich he is currently almost promoting to an 3rd grade."
After hearing that I have to hold back my desire to roll my eyes. By far my father's greatest shortcoming is his straightforward attitude and incapability to scheme like other nobles and that has made him target of various plots by various envious nobles that sought to slow down his promotions and impede the territory from forming connections leaving us isolated. If wasn't for this my father may had already become a 3rd grade count or even an viscount.
And an noble title is important for more than just prestige. It also defines how big you can make your territory. Every territory is assigned an administration capacity, that is basically how much land and armies the empire can trust you with, and as they grant higher titles you are allowed to have a bigger domain, and although you are not forced to obey this limit, if you exceed him you will have to pay enormous tributes as an result. So except in very specific circumstances, lords tend to want to stay bellow the limit.
Though there are many ways to bypass this limit without having to pay any extra tribute.
Seeing the current unimpressed look in my face he can only sigh bitterly and continue without even trying to refute what I was obviously thinking.
"The current size of our territory is a bit small for an County, but the few planets that we have, are being very well developed since we are not having to deal with the costs of colonization."
"The current planets that make up the core of our current territory are in total 8 and they are..." He is interrupted by the sound of an chime, that means that the lesson has come to an end. "It seems that our time has come to an end without me even realizing, we will come back to this topic after your aptitude test"
I make my way out of the room feeling a bit bitter for the class having ended just when it was starting to get interesting and without much to do right now, I directly head to do some training.
And as I'm on my way, Beatrice caches up to me and starts following me as aways but this time things are much different.
She is quiet, much more than usual and the most concerning thing is her face, she shows no expression only maintaining an icy and aloof aura around her.
It started a few weeks ago when she started to avoid me at all costs, then she suddenly became like this, not a trace of the previous shy and curious girl to be seen and nothing I done could bring emotion to her face.
At first I thought that she was only doing this to not fall victim to my pranks but as weeks passed and her usual temperament had no signs of coming back I started to think that there was something wrong. But no matter what I do, she refuses to tell me the reason for her sudden changes and that was making me have an bad mood.
And my mother seem to know something about it but refuses to tell me and all that she says is that 'She made her own choice' and 'you can only wait until she is ready to speak about it'.
With her acting so cold, detached and unresponsive to whatever I do to her the boredom that her presence was warding of came back in full force and I found much harder to stay focused on my training and studies.
With her refusing to ask for me to help her in the academics, I have started using the afternoon to do more training.
After a few minutes of walk I reach my destination. An open field with various devices witch generate realistic holograms a certain distance from an area with many guns and ammo; it's the firing range of the guards, while I enter it Beatrice stands at guard a bit farther.
While inside I immediately head towards my weapon of choice and load it with some ammo.
The weapon that I choose is an high caliber magnetic propulsion precision rifle.
The weapon is vastly different from the hunting rifle I use while hunting, the main difference from an magnetic propelled and a chemical reaction propelled gun is that the former is more powerful, quieter and leaves less of an trail that can be tracked after firing. Overall it's an upgrade, for a much steeper price for both the gun and the ammo of course.
The rifle itself is too big for an 12 year old to wield, and its recoil would brake my bones so I mount it in a support to be able to use it.
Getting myself ready I select the hardest setting and start the holographic training program.
[STARTING TRAINING PROGRAM /DIFFICULTY:VETERAN]
[SENDING FIRST WAVE]
immediately various human shaped figures moving erratically, ducking in and out of cover making it more realistic and taking a shot as challenging as possible
His accuracy is quite badly affected since the gun is fixed and he has to move his whole body in order to be able to aim it, but he can still hit accurately about 60% of his shots.
Like that he continues firing away and reloading in a trance, as if it was automatic and as the time passes he can feelhimself feeling a bit better.
He uses this not only as a training for his accuracy but also as a way to de-stress and be able to sort all the things that are on his mind.
Beatrice, that he has been seeing as an friend started to grow distant and turned their relationship a purely professional one, although she is still loyal and dedicated, having that part of his life changed has shown him how important it was.
The aptitude test, that could significantly change the course of my life depending in what type I turn out to have, even if my chances are quite low since both of my parents lack aptitude.
Heck, even the conversation about fate and the future ruler of the galaxy still bothers me to this day. Since that day I have been trying to get more information but even knowing better what I wanted to find i still could only find bits and pieces of information.
After a few hours an buzz goes off signaling the end of the last training simulation of the day.
[LAST WAVE CLEARED/EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE...]
[YOUR SCORE WAS (64/100)/ PERFORMANCE:ADEQUATE]
Ending the simulation and feeling refreshed I go back to the Manor while Beatrice follows me still completely quiet and I make my way to eat dinner, this time it is only me and mother since my father has gone in an excursion yet again to destroy a cult that has shown itself inside our borders.
After a bit of small talk, I leave the table and return to my room to start my reading section, this time I have gathered all books pertaining to conductors, void energy, aptitude classifications and how to best train them in preparation for the ceremony.
Unbeknownst to him outside of his room, there can be found an girl staring at the door while swaying, as if considering if she should enter the room right now.
The girl shows herself to be Beatrice but without her cold facade this time her amber eyes show shame, hesitancy, loneliness and sadness.
But after a few moments she stands straight and her hesitancy vanishes leaving a look of resolve as she turns around and leaves, but not after muttering to herself in an almost inaudible volume:
"This is for the best, I have to create some distance so that nobody finds out, specially you Master."
With this she goes back to her stoic face that she could only pull of due to her desperation, the need to hide the feelings she has very deep inside her heart.
