Year 3455 after Rostdor's foundation, duke Von Schaffgotsch private mansion, only daughter's chamber.
There she stood, royal blood flowing through her veins. 2 meters tall, and muscular as the title required her to be, the second princess of the empire was reaching now 22 years of age. A military powerhouse, she was the captain of the knights of the eternal peace, the second most important order in the empire. Claudia was the first Knight of royal blood, and a firm follower of the heiress of house Von Schaffgotsch. She watched the fated to be archduchess Selina talking to another woman of equally important tittle: She was one of the consuls of the empire, elected by the people for the people. She was the representative of the plebes of Rostdor. Cassia.
-Lady Cassia, it's a pleasure as always to have such an honoured guest visiting our abode.
-Pleasy your greatness Selina, although we are theoretically equal, my term only lasts five years, there's no need to be so formal.
-As you wish then, lady Cassia. I can't help but wonder, what brings such a battlehardenned and important person such as yourself to visit this half-blood noble house.
Selina was in a very weird spot. She was the daughter of two "pure blooded nobles". Yet her mother's family was a patrician house that only got their titles through marrying the last woman descendant of a noble house 100 years ago. This meant that virtually, she was related by blood to a noble house, but in patrician society it was a house that sold their tittle for money. Having only 100 years of history in an empire which the oldest patrician houses like Von Austfen dated back 4 thousand years, preceding the empire itself, made it abundantly clear that they were seen as impure. So, a house as important as Schaffgotsch to marry a house as young and despised as the Salon were, meant that people didn't really consider her as a pure blooded noble. Just like a bastard child would be. The fact that she was the heiress made it a deterrent from straightforward displays of disdain, but the rumours and her spies told her all she needed to know about her opinion between the noble societies.
-I'll get straight to the point, your Greatness. The people are reaching their boiling point. And it's not a good time. We have been oppressed for thousands of years, but with the recent advancements in technology, is abundantly clear that the world is changing. And even our world is changing. Another civil war is looming.
Staring cassia with a smile, and putting aside her short brown hair, Selina told the consul of the people:
-I know, my friend. But we can't rush right now. Even if the people were to take up arms, that would only make the patricians and the bourgeoisie ally to defend themselves from us. I need time. I'm starting to get quite a following from the patricians, and even some merchants see the benefits of changing our ways. Only ... The emperor's influence over the unity of our people needs to be weakened. But I need time.
-And I'm trying to get across to you that we don't have it! -she sighed- I know what you mean, but the recent taxations meant as a warning for the wealthy did more actual damage to the common people than to the already rich. For them it was an annoyance, for our people meant some have to eat their shoes to survive. We are getting to a boiling point and I'm only going to be in power for 5 years. No more. After that ... I believe no one is going to vote me again. They are already seeing me as a weak passive consul, I'm not even managing to keep my people fed, let alone my promises!
Claudia, the second princess of the empire, flinched and frowned upon such clear lack of manners towards Selina. But stayed put. As a knight should.
-I know I know, but I only need... At most ten years. In five years my little sister will be 15 and she'll get enrolled in the Weichster academy, and every single noble who made a debut will attend as well. She shares my vision and will try and get patricians to understand our ways. We just need a little more time.
Cassia raised her hands in a clear display of resignation. Then, she looked at Claudia.
-We'll need her to protect your sister. I'm sure the followers of that old cunt are aware of what's happening as well, they might take... Rash actions.
-Will you do that for me, Claudia? -The 42 year old lady who to Claudia was more of a mother than her real mother asked, to which she just nodded. No more words were needed.
At the same time, fifth Prince's Imperial private chambers.
Marcus was today the one providing a lecture on etiquette to the young fifth prince who had barely reached his tenth year. Although now 56, Marcus had been trained his whole childhood to serve the royal house of the Empire, one of the greatest honours a citizen of common blood could ever achieve. He had been serving the house for 40 years, he remembered the old emperor, and how naïve and easygoing the new one had become due to the nobles. He had seen what virtue was like, and he understood from books that the glory of the emperor's of the empire long had gone, while the new ones were more like... Flags.
He never dared voice those thoughts, but he had seen it through his years. The current emperor was someone who just did not care, barely showed to ceremonies and spent most of the time with his wife, going around opera houses, watching theater displays, or just doing feasts in celebration of banal and mundane achievements on common things, like a new mine being discovered or a noble managing to hunt some pirates. He wasn't interested in governing at all.
Which made him perfect for the current nobles, because the emperor delegated all tasks to them, so they exerted much power on the senate.
He had served the new emperor, and taught all of his children: the first prince of the empire and heir if it's greatness was a lazy, warmongering psychopath who was easy to flatter and manipulate, albeit a bit damaged in the head. The first princess was a weak doll that averaged in every single aspect, not really smart but not dumb, not athletic but just slightly above average (which, by being of royal lineage was kind of a disgrace) and not really shy, but not social either. The second prince and princess were twins, but whereas the second princess was a hotheaded muscle head whom he tried and failed to get the most basic of noble etiquette (despite not being a noble himself) or any kind of theory in her head, she was exceptionally talented in bashing people with things, and cutting people with other things. Even more so than any single person he had ever seen. Although she was more on the rational side, unlike the sadistic first prince, she gave up her royal position to serve an Archduke. Not even unthinkable but incredibly shameful for the whole royal family. How could a ruler serve it's servants?
The second prince, twin of the second princess was... Well, he was a smart fella. Unimpressive but hard worker, his only fault lay in... Well, his obsession with gold. He was more of a merchant than a ruler, which, in it's own way was a big flaw. Money moves the world but the intricacies of politics were deeper than just money.
And when he thought all hope was lost... The fifth prince was born. At first, the fifth prince felt... Incongruous. He felt like he was the smartest child alive, and the next second he was just an average kid. He had mixed feelings about it.
That was, until one day, he was going to check the fifth Prince was sleeping, when he overheard some mumblings about "the state of the empire" and the "unreasonable difficulty of a royal surviving the years to come". That's when he started to suspect something.
In Marcus' classes, the fifth prince always managed to get slightly above average in the exams. But after he heard those mumblings, which should not belong to a 7 year old from the prince, Marcus had a thought: to test the prince. He started, slowly but surely, amping up the difficulty level of the classes. He started teaching the young prince things one year above his grade, but the prince kept scoring just slightly above average.
Then, everything clicked. The fifth prince was a genius. Marcus began teaching an 8 year old kid things that a. 14 year old kid would be learning, and although the prince questioned him sometimes about why was the difficulty suddenly increasing, Marcus managed to convince him somehow that it was just how the curriculum for the royal house went, and Caesar somehow bought that lie, and continued averaging about slightly above of what was expected... Of a 14 years old teen.
Marcus finally understood: for some reason, the absolute genius of the fifth prince had decided that it was best for him to "not stand out", so he was trying to make it seem like he was just slightly above average.
And now, with the fifth prince having reached ten years of age, Marcus was teaching him everything he knew, and even convinced the other professors to follow him on that, and although many did not understand at first, they did after a couple months.
Caesar was a prodigy that you could only see once in a generation, and while thinking he had fooled everyone, he was being fooled by his professors to learn more than what was expected of a kid his age.