THE GENEALOGY OF THE NOBLES OF AMBERALE

"Countess Prescott." Catherine nodded.

After exchanging a few greetings and pleasantries with the other noble lady, Catherine, Aristia and Alaric left the store. They went into a shoe shop. After purchasing the shoes, they went straight into the carriage where the coachman was waiting and headed home. All that they had bought today would be sent to the mansion later.

They had lunch together as a family and not long after, a middle-aged woman met Aristia with a sheet of paper in her hand.

"Here is a copy of your itinerary, Princess Aristia." Mrs. Jacqueline, the head maid, handed Aristia her schedule. She smiled lovingly like a grandma to her granddaughter.

"Thank you Mrs. Cedmond." Aristia smiled sweetly at the kind looking lady.

"Oh, it's nothing princess." Mrs. Cedmond responded, as Aristia waved at her and left.

"What a pure child." Mrs. Cedmond said as she turned with a sorrowful sigh, her eyes revealing sadness and longing.

***

After a while, Aristia was informed that her history teacher, Viscountess Vasily Hemsworth had arrived, so she made her way to the drawing room designated for the history lesson.

She exchanged greetings with the Viscountess Vasily and took her seat before her.

"We are moving on to the genealogy of nobles in Amberale. There are two types 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 Kiran, the Eldridge and the Oswalt. Two Count families– The Prescott and the Splane. Three Viscount families– The Hemsworth, the Essylt and the Everett. And Two Baron families– The Tindall and the Easton.

Duke Maxim Anton and Duchess Alistair Anton had three children; Liam Anton, seven years old, Lauren Anton, five years old, and Lilith Anton, three years old.

Duke Artem Winston and Duchess Matilda Winston had one child; Ian Winston, nine years old.

Marquis Kyle Eldridge and Marchioness Avery Eldridge had one child; Alicia Eldridge, five years old.

Marquis Wesley Kiran and Marchioness Clarisse Kiran had three children; Paige Kiran, Nova Kiran and Juno Kiran. Eight, five and four years old respectively.

Marquis George Oswalt and Marchioness Charlotte Oswalt had no child yet.

Count Cedric Splane and Countess Eleanor Splane had two children; Landon Splane and Zachary Splane, ten years old and seven years old respectively.

Count Reed Prescott and Countess Cara Prescott had two children; Rolland Prescott and Colton Prescott, eleven years old and eight years old respectively.

Viscount Ross Hemsworth and Viscountess Vasily Hemsworth had no children yet.

Viscount Leonard Essylt and Viscountess Svetlana Essylt had three children; Richard Essylt, Leticia Essylt and Priscilla Essylt, nineteen, fifteen and seven years old respectively.

Viscount Harrison Everett and Viscountess Amelia Everett had three children; Viscountess Vasily Hemsworth, Irene Everett and Leon Everett. Vasily Hemsworth was nineteen, Irene Everett was fifteen years old and Leon Everett was eleven years old.

Baron Vadim Tindall and Baroness Loretta Tindall had four children; Albert and Alfred– twins, both seventeen years old, Elizabeth Tindall and Olivia Tindall, fourteen and twelve years old respectively.

Baron Geoffrey Easton and Baroness Isabel Easton had four children; Countess Cara Prescott, Quinn Easton, Knox Easton and Angelina Easton. Twenty seven, twenty three, fifteen and thirteen years old respectively.

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 his wife and the 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.

[Then 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.

Aristia learned 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 head of the family or be made the heir if their daughter had already been married out or betrothed.

"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 Duke 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. 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. The people who beared the brunt of the famine were the common folk.

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.

The problem though was that pesticides and insect mesh weren't available in this era and she couldn't possibly find all the chemicals used to produce them. Another, 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 continued to educate her on the genealogy of the second generation nobles, who were also called minor nobles, which stretched on to the side branches.

Soon, the class ended and the 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 gently and quietly pushed open the door when she received permission to come in.

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, this was the first time Aristia was stepping into his office.

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, but even so, they rarely did so. But 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.

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.