Chapter 4: A study in politics

THE MONTH OF NOEL DAY 15, YEAR 681 OF THE SECOND HOLY CALENDAR

After his awakening, Dominic expected that magic lessons would begin immediately. Now that he was awakened, he needed to start growing his Mana. But he was wrong; life continued as usual, except he was now living with the Neivuls. His lessons continued as expected, and he even had the same tutors as before. As per Luce's request, his music lessons went from every other day to daily to the exasperation of his music tutor, who would call Dominic a prodigy. Dominic actually just had prior experience with music from his previous life.

After coming to this world, Dominic found out that his memory had significantly improved, as well as his learning of the ability, although it was possibly just his kid's brain. On top of that, this world lacked any form of entertainment. There were no video games or TV, and Dominic couldn't even leave the house for most of his life. Because of that, he only had one real hobby: reading books. With the mentality of an adult, he understood that studying was important and that not having much else to do was all he did.

Eliana personally oversaw a part of Dominic’s studies at first. But quickly decided to leave the matter to the teachers without getting involved. Dominic was actually highly evaluated by his teachers because they were used to dealing with spoiled children of Nobles who used all their efforts to avoid actually working. This occasionally included using their Noble status to throw their weight around and avoid doing their work. In that sense, Dominic was a breath of fresh air and made a point to be polite to all his teachers. Dominic's studies included music, etiquette, dancing, reading and writing, the History of the Kingdom of Black, and the study of noble houses, families, and economic assets. At first, that last one seemed slightly out of place, and it was weird why he should bother studying the economic investments of noble families. But Dominic now understood why studying noble families' assets was so important.

After spending a lot of time with the Neivuls, Dominic discovered that Eliana was the one running the show. She decided that household affairs made the major political decisions, and every one of the houses adhered to her judgment. Alexander was almost treated like a glorified captain of the Guard who only really listened when it regarded military matters.

Eliana herself was a Troublesome person. She implied many things to Dominic while scheming behind the scenes. She would also take every opportunity to praise her children, the ones that Dominic had met at any rate to his face. Dominic had a reasonably good grasp as to what she was getting at and wanted. Her schemes would have been very successful for an ordinary child. But the Dominic reminded him a lot of his previous life's mother, and because of that, he could only see her tactics as the same old bag of tricks.

At first brush, this world resembled a medieval society filled with knights, barons, viscounts, counts, marquesses, dukes, and royalty, where social rankings were crucial and strictly observed. This was a key focus of Dominic's etiquette lessons. However, upon further study, he discovered that this perception was misleading. The world's nobles did not own land or maintain large personal armies. Instead, they served as knights and officers in the military, as bureaucrats and officials within the Civil Corps, and as mages and priests in temples and magic towers. They funded the education of their children and that of others, often providing knights and mages to the nation during wartime. Nobles actively pursued careers in the military and bureaucracy to gain honor and power for their families. In exchange for serving as knights and all educated positions in the country, they were granted tax exemptions and the right to serve on the council and in other high and elected positions.

The kingdom also gave certain political rights to the citizens. They were allowed to vote 50 of the council members. From Dominic's understanding, the council was similar to the Parliament of the United Kingdom or Canada. Of course, the other 100 seats on the council were all elected by the nobility. Even the 50 seats elected by the citizens had to be from the noble class. Although this system, both in terms of power and in terms of actual rights, was far from the equality of the modern world, it wasn't the repressive society of medieval times.

The monarch's power was limited by both the nobility and the people. However, the monarchs also played the people off the nobility and the nobility of the people to maintain their own power and authority. The Black Kingdom very successfully played the nobility off the people as they frequently directly or indirectly blamed the nobility for the problems that the kingdom faced, such as the disaster during the Golden Stallion’s invasion 6 years ago. Francis, a prince and member of the Royal Family, actually fled in the face of the enemy. This should have been a significant blight on the Royal Family's reputation. Instead, Veronica turned it around and blamed it not only on her political enemies but on the entirety of the council, securing for herself the right to command the Army without interference from the council. This allowed the royal family to consolidate power further and avoid any consequences caused by Francis's actions, which was their responsibility since they had failed to raise him correctly.

Monarchs were overthrown and replaced with oligarchies in many places, or like England, monarchs had limited powers and were basically just figured heads. For example, in the Kingdom of Triton, despite having a dual-headed monarchy, neither Royal Family held much power outside of their hereditary right to vote on the council. The main reason the monarchies continued was partially out of inertia but primarily because bloodlines actually matter in this world. The Black royal family had far more Mana than other people. Before Awakening, your Mana remained stagnant throughout your life, so those with more Mana would dominate those with less. Although Awakening changed this, having more to start with would give you an advantage over others. Similarly, religion has played a significant role in this world's politics. The Royal Family always associated themselves with divinity, similar to how the medieval and early modern royalties would claim themselves to be divine right monarchs.

This world even had its own form of absolutism during the rule of the Lantar Empire or the Second Human Empire. Following the collapse of that empire, many states continued their absolutist rule until they actually faced a revolution like the French Revolution. The Republic of Elefsina had overthrown its absolute rulers and replaced them with a republic. This sparked a war commonly known as the Great War that consumed the entirety of the human race, even reaching as far as the Western continent, which usually had little to do with the affairs of the central and southern continents. Dominic also found proof that reincarnators had existed here before him in the constitution of The Republic of Elefsina. The founder had literally written, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal,” there was even the same irony in the situation as the Republic of Elefsina also relied heavily on slavery.

In the lands of the former Towers Empire, an Empire that had conquered many of the surrounding Nations, the monarchs continued holding absolute power due to the concentration of power in the Empire. The rebelling monarchs merely stepped into the role of replacement for the towers Empire rather than building an entirely new government. This formed the foundation of the political structure for the surrounding kingdoms.

Through this, Dominic understood that money was the most important thing in a country or a noble house. With money, a Noble House can pay for knights and provide them to the country. So long as they did that, they could maintain their Noble status, tax exemptions, and legal privilege. It was also important to a country as armies comprised professional soldiers rather than temporary conscripts. They required lots of money to feed and house them. Rather than being limited by manpower, a nation was primarily limited by its financial situation as it took years to train a proper soldier rather than the 10 weeks of an American boot camp. They couldn't quickly muster soldiers, and so all the soldiers that had trained were all the soldiers they would have. Although they could raise temporary militias, even though these cost money to maintain the Kingdom of Black, they gave various benefits to those who joined the militia, such as tax exemptions.

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Nobles owned farming land and the right to mine. They also owned merchant vessels, trading routes, workshops, and plantations. They married, adopted each other's children, exchanged gifts, and formed connections, creating a network of alliances, backers, and connections that strengthened them even more as a collective. This is what made the nobility absolutely embedded in society, entrenching them and preventing the crown or populist revolts from shaking their rule over the country as they essentially controlled every aspect of life, from taxation to religion. The royal family relied heavily on the Nobles, although they also relied on the people to keep them in check.

The mainstream political dispute in the Kingdom came from a succession conflict. Francis, named after their ancestor Francis, The Liberator, was the oldest son of Queen Veronica and her only legitimate child with her husband, Howard Towers, commonly nicknamed the emperor. The relationship between Howard and Veronica had always been stormy. Their marriage had come through a peace deal with the kingdom of Redtowers, Howard's home country; however, even after the marriage, there were wars between the two kingdoms. Resulting in his strange position within the country and are straining in their relationship.

The two's only child was Francis, who was an incompetent failure. He spent all of his time and money on women gambling and drinking. His biggest crime came during the Golden Stallions invasion when he had been appointed at the existence of the council who, had been bribed and convinced by Howard to Grant him the position of the general of the third division and move the first division elsewhere while positioning the Third on the border with the kingdom of Antlatur. However, during The Invasion, he fled in the face of the enemy, a crime which should have resulted in the death penalty, but due to Royal status, he was spared.

It was so easy for Howard to convince people to appoint as a competent son to command an important position in the military because of the threat the status quo faced from Valerius black, Dominic's biological father. Valerius black won great renown as a warrior and later as a general. His victory threatened the status quo as he was legally a bastard. This world's treatment of bastards differed from his previous medieval society. Rather than being harshly ostracized, they were treated a bit like spares capable of stepping in if the legitimate siblings died. However, many Nobles still hesitated to Grant the throne to a bastard. Under that threat, Howard convinced many council members to Grant him the position of authority to establish his Metal on the battlefield.

Valerius was a bastard, and Francis is disinherited following his shameful retreat. A new political order has been established. Both of them have two children, a girl and a boy. Veronica adopted those children, making them the new heirs to the throne. Due to their hair color, they are commonly called the Golden Duo Antonia and Anton and the Black Duo Nora and Dominic. It was also a subtle jab at Francis's children, as traditional members of the black family had black hair and golden eyes, but Francis's children only had golden eyes. The militant faction had always supported Valerius and became the foundation of the black Duo's support. Well, the traditionalist faction supported the Golden Duo under the leadership of Howard Towers.

Through this, Dominic understood how to gain power in this world, which was made easier because he was a royal. Gaining the support of the people in the Kingdom of Black would be easy. They had low demands, only requiring safety and food. The Nobles would find it much harder to get on the side.

The militant faction already supported Nora and Dominic's Ascension to the throne. They were formed primarily by a Lepetra Old Guard of Nobles. Many of these Nobles either served during the Black Rebellion or the children or grandchildren of those who did. This faction also had firm control over the military and had multiple generations. Because of this, people like Francis and his children discussed them. Their primary source of Revenue came from a series of farms built immediately outside the walls of Lapetra. They had also been one of the first to invest in the construction of the Plains of Francis, not out of any deep economic understanding but rather out of patriotism for the country. The plains of Francis had since become one of the most important bread baskets for the kingdom and a major source of their wealth as a lot of the food was sold to the Uscan Union, a diplomatically and economically isolated country.

The traditionalist faction was the faction that supported the children of Francis, his uncle, and now his major Rivals for the throne. A group of Redtowers Nobles had come with Howard Towers, The father of Francis and the faction leader supporting his grandchildren when he first married Veronica. This faction hadn't been able to purchase much in the way of land as it had already been bought up or was the more difficult to develop areas on the Black Knife River. So, the group used their existing capital to build businesses previously lacking capital in the Kingdom, such as banking, transportation, and alchemy.

This put the traditionalist faction in a direct collision course with another group of nobles, the Lapetra merchants. This group of registered Nobles gained noble status following the Black Rebellion. They owned various workshops and business investments throughout the kingdom, particularly Lepetra, the Kingdom's capital. Lepetra Nobles originally had minor conflicts with the militant faction as the two were Polar Opposites. However, when faced with a foe they hated more than each other, they unified, and this foe just so happened to be the traditionalist faction. The militant faction hated them because they were from an enemy country, and despite their marriage to Queen Veronica, they continued to be an enemy nation. The Lapetra merchants hated them because they violated their invested interests.

There was a faction of merchants and Nobles within Lepetra who weren't as angered or directly impacted by the traditionalist faction. These nobles were the neutral faction.

The final group of nobles within the kingdom was the Grastide nobility. This group had the most awkward position in the entire kingdom as they had been collaborators during the occupation of Antlatur. They benefited greatly under the reign of Claymor, the first Archduke. The city had been the center of the repression of the occupation. The other towns and villages were forced to provide vast amounts of soldiers, military supplies, and money. Meanwhile, Graside and its nobility benefited the most from the occupation, receiving preferential treatment.

Claymor had used Grastide and its nobility as a bass of operation and a club to keep the rest of the country down. However, under the reign of his incompetent son, Theamor, the city had gone from perpetrator to victim. His father had used tyranny as a weapon to gain wealth and power for himself and concentrated it in his most loyal city. Although it was neither a noble nor wise thing to do, it worked. His son had instead tyrannized the city, kidnapping many of the noble daughters and using them as playthings. Similar things have been done to Nobles from elsewhere, but turning the nobility of Graside against him undermined the basis of his power. He also repressed the city in general, large and huge tax waves, forcing the inhabitants to do manual labor to build him a grand palace.

Five years later, in his last mad act, he had raped a daughter of House Magenta who killed herself and confessed to being raped in her suicide note. House Magenta were an ally of the Noble House of Black, which had constructed and ruled the city of Lepetra since the beginning of the occupation. Lapetra had surpassed the city of Graside in terms of population and wealth primarily due to the Theamor tyranny. This had kickstarted the Black Rebellion, the war that would ultimately lead to the crowning of Francis Dominic's great-grandfather as the first king of Black.

Many of the Grastide Nobles had sided with the Black family during the Rebellion. Many more were purged following the capture of the city. Those who sided with the Black family primarily moved to Lepetra even if they maintained their properties within the city of Grastide. Those who were neither purged nor moved formed the foundation of what was now the Nobles of Grastide. They were Nobles who had survived because they weren't criminal enough to be purged, bright enough, or bold enough to side with the rebels or their descendants. Because of that, they were treated a bit like outsiders within Black politics.

All of this was made worse when, during the Golden Stallion’s invasion, five Noble houses were found to be colluding with the Antlatur. This resulted in the Nobles of Lepatra becoming far more vigilant and wary of Grastide. In the end, they sent Valerius, the Kingdom's hero and a military man, to the city to repress any thoughts of the local nobility rather than actually manage the place.

Domestically and internationally, the kingdom and the region had enjoyed relative peace for the past six years. But everyone understood that this was just a calm before the storm. The nature of the succession war had been decided by the faction that pulled more neutral nobility or the Grastide Nobles to their cause would win. As a result, for the past six years, they had been negotiating with the neutral nobles and raising the successors they favored to show them off to the other nobility. All of this was just Dominic's understanding, but he felt it was rather accurate and allowed him to formulate a plan targeting his political enemies.

On the 15th of Noel, Dominic Black officially turned 6 years old. It was also the date of his official baptism, the day he would first be presented in front of the entirety of the Black nobility.