Ch 3. Conversation.

Marianne Adelshtein was Julius's mother. the beloved 6th consort of the Emperor. Marianne unlike the many different consort of the Emperor was a merchant's daughter. She hailed from no noble family in the empire and her family traded in fish and other sea products along the Eastern coastline of the empire. Her identity was one of many reasons she was hated by the other women of the Emperor who felt she didn't have any noble blood and was too low of a status to be on the same level as them.

The emperor, Argus von Andromeda and Lady Marianne met on the annual founding festival, where it was celebrated the anniversary of the empire's founding throughout the empire whether they were a peasant or nobility. They met during such an event where his father was able to take a liking to her and pursued her eventually marrying.

Her Late majesty was well beloved by the people, she was a symbol of the peasant's believe that they were being represented by one of them at court, a voice for their pain. That in itself quickly became a problem, Marianne's popularity with the people led to many people feeling threatened and looked to suppress her before she could form her own faction, supported by the progressives ( A group of officials that believed in the advancement of the social structure beyond the stagnant one in use currently )

Lady Marianne didn't live long to participate in all this, she passed as soon as gave birth to Julius. The people mourned her passing, her many acts such as building orphanages and places for the less unfortunate as well as being highly charitable was shining beacon to the people, some even believed her to be a Saint because of her good and kind nature.

Julius remembering this, simply sighed. His predecessor's mother .. no his mother was truly someone he wished he could meet if the talks were to be believed of her. In his former life, he was a member of a founding family in the United States of America, a family so rich that they were practically royalty to the people. The Benedicts were a huge family of the main and side branches amounting to a total of 56 people. His father was the next head of house should his grandfather step down, making him and his siblings to fight for the position his father would vacate at that moment.

There was no family loyalty and love, everything was for the sake of profits and acknowledgement even at the cost of harming your own family as long as you are not found. Julius detested that life which led him to pursuing something as mundane as history due to his hatred of his family's way that money was everything. This led to him being banished and his name being wiped from the family register. He'd known little to no love from his siblings as well as parents.

Thinking about this, he chuckled at the irony of his current situation. Wasn't he in the same state and position as his previous life, everyone was vying for power and the throne just on a much larger scale and without any hiding of whose faction you were from.

" Haha, calm down Edward, I feel fine better than I did in a while. Perhaps a breath of fresh air and Healer James concoction might have worked wonders." He began. Healer James was the palace doctor and was part of the healers guild that was situated back in the capital. Accomplished healers were sent to prominent families to serve as an on-call doctor exclusively for that family. James was the one sent with him after his supposed exile from the capital, the healer had done admirably in his caring for the young man, with the two of them being closer in age, he was a nice company to have a friendless boy like Julius.

" Truly I'm fine Edward, please calm down and sit down. Let's speak as I finish this delightful meal." He continued, motioning Stella to serve him the food.

Edward sat down on the couch opposite to him as he started fidgeting thinking of what to ask or where to begin. Julius simply smiled seeing this sight, at least he still had people worrying for his sake.

He decided to change the topic in order to take Edward's mind of the matter before he asked him questions he can't answer. He thought for a while before beginning,

" Tell me Edward how is the situation of the land? Is there any particular benefits or is this just the wasteland it is said to be.?"

" The statistics taken from the land show a horrible figure, the people here can't farm or make their own produce. Most of them starve throughout the winter which usually goes on for more than half the year - approximately 7 cycles. The land gets so cold that no merchants or traders would dare come here as there isn't enough for them to risk their lives and goods for." Edward began, " Other than that, the monsters up the Woodhaven forest descend upon this territory right the winter's hibernation, attacking and killing any civilian the find. The lack of any military deterrence is one of many reasons people can't do anything than watch their loved ones die. Additionally, with the war going on between the Kovac kingdom and the Union principality, the amount of refugees migrating here has seen an influx." He finished his report.

Julius found the situation to be amusing, being sent to a land with no resources or any army other than his own personal bodyguards was simply telling him to go die off on his own. But he had to do something, winter would be upon the in three cycles and clearly he would starve out considering the amount of rations he brought with him.

He turned to Edward and asked, " What's the current population count in the territory?"

" Approximately 3.7 million sir."

" Seriously!" he exclaimed. Duchys were known to have a count between 1 to 2 million considering the large amount of land they sat on. This was an empire that ruled a quarter of the continent, the Eyish continent was home to many different powers; from kingdoms to empires to republics as well as many different species and races.

"Yes young master, as I mentioned earlier the war going on currently has forced people to run this south in search for a place to live." Edward pointed out.

The barren lands were situated in the southern corner of the Empire, the furthest point of the continent. The only thing that were near was the archipelago of islands, a number of islands distributed throughout the southern sea with each boating their own independent rule and laws. They were famously known to practice piracy and pillaging throughout the more prosperous lands of the empire along the Eastern and western coast, they didn't care about the poor, barren land that he owned currently.

With the population influx, he had to come up with new plans and methods to save those people in his lands. The reason so many people crossed all this territories in the empire to come to his was they practically had nothing of worth and many of these places needed money to able to live comfortably.