--------------------
October 20, 1560
--------------------
"This way young master". Amy ran while griping Henry's arm. They soon climbed a set of stairs onto the second floor. Then they passed a set of portraits of the Greville House. Four portraits were hanging on the wall. Robert, Mary, Henry, and the oldest son and heir to the Barony- Ralph Greville. Unlike his younger brother, he resembled his father with a set of dark hair and brown eyes. Glancing at his portrait, Henry asked Amy,
"Amy, when will older brother come back? I miss him."
Hearing his question, Amy quickly turned around and crouched to look Henry in the eyes.
"Young Master, your older brother left for the Academy to learn more about how to be a noble and become a fit ruler for this land. He will be back in two years so don't you worry. Two years will pass by so soon, you won't even realize it."
"Really?"
"OF course, when have I ever lied to you young master? Now let's go, we late as it is."
"Okay."
They soon reached the study room and Amy knocked on the door to introduce themselves to the new tutor.
"Come in" a voice with a cherry tone responded.
Opening the door, what greeted both Amy and Henry had left them astounded. There was a 5'8 young man wearing glasses and reading a book that seemed to be the size of his arms. His sense of fashion looked especially strange to both of them. The scholar was wearing what looked like an oversized white t-shirt, baggy pants, and sandals with mismatching socks. But what looked the weirdest was his face. He was completely hairless! Looking up, he smiled saying,
"Ah, there he is. Good evening young master, my name is Sir Stuart. I was hired by the Baroness and I shall be teaching you the basics every noble should now." He stood up and performed a perfect bow, showing respect for Henry. Realizing the looks both Amy and Henry were giving him, Stuart quickly realized the issue and remarked.
"Please ignore what you're seeing. I woke up a bit late today and was in a hurry."
"Ahem. Very well Sir Stuart. My name is Amy and you may call upon me for any questions you may have."
"I see, thank you, Amy."
"Then I shall leave him in your care, Sir Stuart." Amy bowed and left to her duties.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"Come in young master. Take a seat."
Henry slowly walked over and took a seat on the couch opposite Stuart's and glanced around him. The study room was filled to the brim with books on bookshelves. 'It must have cost father a lot of gold getting so many books' Henry thought as even he know how expensive books of this quality were. The books are well taken care of, as no signs of dust or tear were evident. There was only one window in the center of the room barely bringing in sunlight.
"Ahem. Shall we get started, young master?". After receiving a nod from Henrey, Sir Stuart began by asking, "Young master, today we will be going over the basic world history, so can you give me tell me the basic rundown of how our world came to be?"
"Okay" replied Henry getting up to present. "Our world was created by the God Tapio, representing space and time. He then gave birth to the twins, Solis and Larvera. Solis was life and light while Larvera was death and darkness."
"Very good Henry. Now, do you know how humans came to be?" Seeing Henry shake his head, Sir Stuart began to explain.
"The twins had become bored after spending a millennium by themselves, so they came together to make us humans by combing life and death to create the ever first living creature. However, we were special in that no other species after us could match our natural talent. Slowly over eons, they created many other types of creatures like deers or rabbits for example to replicate humans, but none was successful." Saying this, Sir Stuart showed a proud expression on his face, proud of being human.
"Tapio, seeing what its children had created started to observe their projects out of sheer curiosity. He watched over many creatures, but none intrigued him more than humans. He saw our ingenuity and how special we were compared to other creatures. After a while, he could no longer sit and observe and wanted to interact with the humans, so he turned himself into a mortal human to teach humans, spreading his name across the land. Soon he felt that humans could do so much more so he blessed us with the Holy Tree. Placing it in the center of our world, its roots spread throughout the lands to bless us with what we call qi for cultivation."
"Woah" exclaimed Henry all of a sudden. "Is that how Father is so strong?"
"Of course, young master. Cultivation was created by Tapio to make us stronger and help us achieve our true potential as a species."
"Can anyone cultivate then?" asked Henry, eyes blazing with excitement.
"I'm afraid not, young master. Not everyone was blessed with the gift to be able to cultivate" Hearing this, Henry's hopes and dreams were dashed away.
"So who can cultivate then?" Henry asked quietly, afraid of Sir Stuart's response.
"That shall be a conversion for a different day, young master."
"Huh?"
"I'm afraid I haven't finished quizzing you on your basic knowledge yet, young master. Now tell me, who the 4 Major Powers are of today."
"But I want to learn about Cultivation!"
"No buts. Now hurry up." After glaring at Henry for several seconds, Henry began to talk.
"The 4 Major Powers would be the Gaul Republic to the South. The Otrov Kingdom to the West. The Farah Empire in the Center and our kingdom the Konj Kingdom to the East."
"And to the North?"
"Ah, the barbarian tribes!"
"Excellent work young master Henry. I didn't expect you to know so much at your age."
Raising his head with a proud expression, Henry exclaimed, " Of course, I know this much. I can read as well you know. My mom called me a genius!"
"Oh? Then shall we see how good you're at readying, young master?" Smiling, Sir Stuart promptly picked up a book the size of Henry's skull and dropped it on the table as if it was nothing.
"As your first assignment, I want you to try and finish reading this book before the next lecture next week. Shouldn't be too hard."
"Eh?"