Chapter 1: Forgotten Birthdays

Jason could remember when he was much younger, when his dad reacted differently towards him. He could remember sitting on his dad’s lap, riding on his dad’s shoulders, and accompanying his dad when he went visiting the farms and factories in the barony. That closeness evaporated suddenly around Jason’s seventh birthday.

His dad’s behavior changed overnight; he always acted in the same strict and aloof manner towards both Jason and his mom whenever they were alone. When others were present, when they visited the capital of the planet and met up with Jason’s grandpa and his uncle, aunt, and cousins, his dad acted much more friendly towards him, while still being aloof towards his mom. Without really thinking about it, Jason got the impression that his dad was scared of his grandpa, which was understandable since he was a scary old man.

The times when Jason and his dad were alone were when the sudden dislike came through most clearly. Then his dad would either blatantly ignore him or openly snub him. His mom seemed to take it in her stride. She never made a fuss out of his dad’s reaction.

Jason thought he knew when his dad’s behavior changed towards him. He had no idea what triggered it, except that it was when his other cousins and his other aunt came for a visit. His other aunt was his dad’s sister, who had two kids. Reginald was the same age as Jason, having been born a week after Jason, while Roxanne was two years younger than Jason. On that specific day, Jason’s dad took the two boys to go swimming in the nearby stream on the estate.

It was something that didn’t happen very often, and when it did, it was mostly unplanned, except for that day. Like they usually did when it was just the guys, his dad suggested they strip out of their clothes and swim in the nude, ‘since there were no girls around’. Jason and Cousin Reginald stripped and started splashing in the water while his dad sat on the edge watching them. When they all walked back to the house, his dad held Reginald’s hand but refused to take Jason’s hand. Jason was hurt but didn’t say anything about it to anybody. His dad never did things with Jason after that day. Jason had no idea what he had done wrong and had no idea how to even ask about it.

At the age of seven, Jason knew he was noble-born, unlike all the other kids in his class at school. He knew his dad was a baron. Not only did he know that his dad was a baron, but he also knew that his grandpa was the duke, the ruler of the whole system. His mom was the duke’s second child. His mom’s brother, Uncle Richard the Third, was the duke’s official heir. Uncle Richard had a son and two daughters. That meant that some horrible catastrophe had to hit the family before Jason could become eligible to inherit the title of duke. Jason was aware that, as the only son of a baron, he should eventually become the next baron since he had no brothers or sisters.

It was the custom that members of the nobility formally appointed an heir at a certain age. This custom was practiced throughout the entire empire. The formal appointment to the position of heir usually happened on the twelfth birthday of the oldest son. Sometimes this appointment only happened when the oldest son turned sixteen, if the nobleman happened to have a secondary title to pass on to his heir.

Sometimes the oldest son was not appointed as the natural heir at all. That usually happened when the oldest son was not mentally capable of acting as the nobleman; he would need to become to fulfill his future duties. It was even possible for a nobleman to withdraw the appointment of a natural heir if the heir ended up being disqualified, by being a criminal or by becoming mentally unstable, but at age seven, none of that was even known to Jason.

Jason had learned in school that in the early days of the empire, all nobility were appointed by the emperor and were usually based on some deed a person had done to promote the stability or progress of the empire. As time progressed, some of the barons got promoted to higher titles for various reasons. With titles being hereditary, it meant that if a baron became a viscount or a viscount became an earl, or an earl became a duke, that nobleman kept his original title as well.

That was what happened to Jason’s uncle, his mother’s brother Richard the Third. He was appointed as the natural heir of the duke at age sixteen when he inherited the honorary title of Viscount Moorefield, the duke’s minor title. Since Duke Richard the Second of Grendel inherited that title from his sire, Duke Richard the First, the title was purely an honorary title with no lands or responsibility associated with the title.

If there was a minor title of baron, Jason’s other cousin, Rick (officially Richard the Fourth, and don’t dare call me ‘Dick’), the older grandson of the duke, would have inherited that title when his dad announced Rick to be his natural heir. Since there was no title for Rick, he could be declared the heir to his sire at age twelve, but received no title at age sixteen.

Jason knew all these things; he learned them in school. He was also the only son of a baron on Grendel who attended the public school and suffered badly for it. Normally, the offspring of noblemen didn’t get bullied since they were taught by private tutors, but in Jason’s case, he was treated differently. Once the school bullies realized that his dad, the baron, was not going to interfere, they bullied him for a while.

Jason was not in the habit of complaining or of using his dad’s title to get special privileges. He thus also didn’t tell anybody that he was being bullied at school. He had some bruises which were noticed at home, but nobody said anything about them. Once Jason started fighting back, the bullying stopped, again without any repercussions.

That didn’t mean Jason’s life in a public school was any easier. The teachers still expected a lot more of him than from his classmates. He also received some awkward attention from the girls in his class. He was seen as the future baron and thus a prime target until they were taught that most sons of noblemen ended up in arranged marriages, and that commoner girls had no chance of ever marrying a nobleman, or son of a nobleman, even if she managed to trick the son into getting her pregnant.