The last course of the banquet is winding down. The chefs made traditional desserts with a few ingredients from recipes that originated from a later time. Thanks time travel! Heh... Some of the other royals didn't seem too pleased when they were told the desserts had ingredients from modern recipes. The reactions on some of their faces looked like they thought these changes were going to make society collapse! They didn't say much, but didn't want to be rude though because the decision to tweak the recipe was the king's and queen's. I think it was supposed to be symbolic of being more open to change. A very bold decision. It may be dangerously so, but I hope not.
They're trying to be decent people, unlike a lot of their predecessors, and I'm not too sure about their successors. This is why anti-monarchist sentiment has been brewing a lot. Either the monarchs are a**holes who the common people desperately want to overthrow, or they're decent people and the common people are afraid that these decent monarchs won't last long and any reforms they pass will be undone...
In short notice, they planned out an exquisite banquet and entertainment! The last course of the banquet wound down. The king and queen gave a formal farewell before they left the room, which lead the support staff members to guide us out through the door to the hallway, and most of us into the front lobby. Eminence and I will be parting ways with the other guests, because our business here isn't done just yet.
Paige and Eminence waved goodbye to the Fontaine family as they were leaving with the other guests. They had pleasant conversations together that avoided the awkwardness of Eminence defecting from the group that the Fontaine family's renegade is a member of!
"Are you ready to head to the conference room?" The king asked Paige and Eminence.
"Yes, your majesty!" They said in agreement.
"Guards will be with us." The queen said. Four guards approached the group, and they had different rank insignia on their uniforms. Princess Mildred led the group and made her return in her uniform. The epaulettes with gold trim and fringes were adorned with three stars on each of the straps, and the collar of her uniform had the royal army insignia, which indicated she was a 3-star general. The gold-hilted, gem-encrusted saber and scabbard also demonstrated her high rank. In addition, the round epaulettes were purple in the middle, and her uniform had a purple cape. These insignia are only for royals. In one hand she wielded a wand topped with a large crystal surrounded by five gold petals in a similar arrangement as a nightshade flower; the style of wand only allowed to be wielded by royals.
Two of the guards that accompanied her were two-star generals. They also brandished gold, gem-encrusted sabers, but their uniforms' round epaulettes were red in the middle, and the straps had two stars, and they wore red capes. As they approached, Eminence, Paige, the king and queen noticed the fourth officer who had a much plainer uniform with no cape, no saber, no decorations on the sleeves, and the epaulettes were a plain white.
Around the new recruit, the air felt a bit chilly! This was a telltale sign that she's a ghost, but how she floats and how her hair, which was long, pink and flowing, but became a translucent white near the ends were other immediate signs. Her eyes were pale ghostly blue; they weren't reflective but faintly glowed under dim light.
"We invited our strongest new recruit to join us for this task, but I'd be content to be the one to throw you out for any impropriety." Mildred said to Eminence and Paige.
"I could still use my magic to throw out guests who overstay their welcome." Yumeko, the new recruit boasted.
"That's the confidence I like to see in a new recruit." Mildred said to her.
"I'm familiar with this protocol, General." Paige calmly said.
"General? I thought she was--" Eminence whispered to Paige.
"Are you saying anything against the state?" Mildred said threateningly as she glared at Eminence.
"We should let her explain herself." The king said to Mildred.
Mildred sighed but relented. "Speak now." She commanded.
"Of course... I would address you, and was asking Paige if you'd be addressed as 'general' right now instead of 'your highness'. That is all." Eminence said.
"That is correct." Mildred said. She didn't look much more cheerful. She looked stoic, but her tone wasn't threatening.
"With this issue cleared, let's make our way to the conference room." The king cheerfully declared. He and the queen stood ahead while Eminence and Paige followed and stopped a few steps behind them, and the four guards got into formation. Mildred walked a few steps ahead of the group, while the each of the two-star generals walked beside the group and the new officer closed the group from behind, and they began walking to the conference room.
As the group walked through the hallways, Mildred approached a pair of large ornate doors that had framed photos of diplomatic meetings on each side. Paige recognized the photos and which events they were from. The most recent of the photos showed the wedding between Prince Carraway and Princess Aliverti in 1876; the Gaglardi family served as bodyguards to the Mallory family for generations, and the marriage between two members strengthened the alliance between their families. This was a success after the past two attempts of a political marriage in 1872 and 1873 failed.
Mildred opened the door and led the rest of the group into the room. The king and queen sat in the chairs on one side of the table.
"You can do this one." Mildred quietly said to Yumeko.
"We have done this before and are offering this chance to our strongest new recruit." The other two generals said in agreement.
"Thank you, general." Yumeko nodded and saluted before she turned towards the guests. "Here are your seats." She said to the guests, and showed them to the chairs across the table from the king and queen.
We arrived in the conference room. It's the smaller conference room since Eminence and I are the only two guests. It's a bit crowded in here because of the recording equipment that was brought in beforehand. The equipment is bulky and built into wooden cabinets that are situated along the walls to the side. There are four microphones on the table that are connected to the equipment through long cords. These microphones look more like phonographs, but the horns or funnels are spoken into instead of being the speakers!
There's a larger room that the royals use when they invite media crews! It's a bit chilly in this room, but I'll manage-- I have a list of questions on hand for the interview and they'll guide me through this. Let the interview begin!
"This is Paige McWright, and it's an honor that our majesties invited me to interview them about the events in this new timeline! Your Majesties, how are you feeling now?"
"We are most thankful for our guards in stopping most of their soldiers. Their strongest soldiers and leaders snuck past and could have wiped us out, but the Renegades stopped them since they knew what was going to happen." The king said.
"Two groups that don't like each other --to put it lightly-- saved us and saved the day together without knowing it!" The queen added. "The celebration felt bittersweet though. It was not quite the same as in the previous timeline. We are thankful that you could make it, honored guest Eminence, but it is most unfortunate that Renegade Liberty could not also make it, and Renegade Midnight was nowhere to be seen." She said more somberly.
Paige nodded in agreement. "How do you feel about this?" She asked Eminence.
"It's a shame she still wasn't feeling well enough to attend the banquet. She was exhausted from the fight and I needed to teleport her back to the headquarters." Eminence confidently answered. Paige nodded to the answer and started writing this and the other answers on paper for her written copy. She could've typed using holographic screens, but the feel of pen and paper was preferable to her.
"This question is also for Eminence. How did you feel about seeing Renegade Liberty there when you intended to stop the Minions of Nemesis alone?" This pointed question nearly caught Eminence off-guard. She was nervous for a few seconds, but sounded confident when she spoke:
"I didn't expect to see her there since I told our majesties that I was going to be there to fight the Minions of Nemesis myself, but when I saw that she was fighting them and they weren't backing down at the sight of her supercharged weapon, I needed to help."
"It would've been a lot easier on all of us if they just surrendered again." Paige snarked.
"Absolutely. Our magic weapons gave us a fighting chance against these soldiers who have centuries of experience with combat, though I also had the element of surprise as a time traveler skilled in melee combat! However, those soldiers... the enemies caught on to one of the drawbacks of the supercharged weapon forms. I fought them so Liberty could launch her attack." Eminence explained.
To be continued in the next part...
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