Mood whiplash warning: This chapter takes place around the same evening as episode 26 of Anathema to Commonsense. They can be read in either order, but since episode 26 is very serious, and this chapter is silly it may be better to read episode 26 first, and then this chapter!
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.
"Did you talk with her or any of the Renegades about this plan in advance?" Paige asked.
"No. I was on my way out." Eminence flatly said.
"On your way out? Did you leave the Magical Renegades?"
"Yes. I left because our greater goals weren't compatible. I could overlook them thinking that pineapple is an acceptable topping on pizza even if I had to hold my tongue about it but--" Eminence began to rant.
"Pardon us for our interruption, and for taking over when Ms. McWright is supposed to be asking the questions, but if you don't mind answering, what's pizza?" The king asked Eminence, and she responded with a lot more excitement.
"A wonderfully versatile food that can be as simple or as fancy as you want it to be! The pizza maker lays out a ball of dough into a flat disc before applying the sauce and the toppings! The twirling of the dough into shape is an art form in itself!" She began to explain the art of making pizza; the king and queen ooh-ed and ah-ed in curiosity over this ubiquitous food.
"That's no problem. We shouldn't assume a food that's ubiquitous in one time period is in another! Are any of your chefs trained in this art?" Paige asked the king and queen. They had to think over their answer among themselves for a minute before they could answer.
"We're not certain about whether they have that specific skill. They work with dough a lot to bake the finest loaves, pies and pastries, but we haven't seen them twirl it and put toppings on it. We should ask them after this interview is over!" The queen said with a chuckle.
"They're usually topped with cheese, and on top of the cheese, you could put nearly anything on them!" Eminence said. "Anything but pineapple!" She declared.
Paige nodded in acknowledgement of Eminence's answer and continued to write them down, but quietly disagreeing with her opinion. "We should get the interview back on topic." Paige said with a nervous laugh.
"Pardon us for straying." The king said.
"It's no problem, your majesty. This talk gave me ideas for a cooking show." Eminence began to scheme, and quickly scribbled down some ideas in her sketchbook, on the next page from the one she sketched insignia ideas for her own organization.
"Eminence didn't tell the other Renegades of her plans, but did she tell you?" She asked the king and queen. They answered in agreement that she told them, and briefly discussed the conditions of the agreement they had.
"She told us when they would arrive, and offered to protect us if we abdicated our power and helped fund her plans." The king explained.
"We were hesitant, but it seemed to be for the best. There was always civil unrest during our reigns. Only when we abdicated in the previous timeline did we see commoners trust us a lot more." The queen added.
"What do you say to this?" Paige asked Eminence.
"I agree with them. For me to lead would be for the best. Our king inherited a terrible legacy, and our queen married into it! Most of the common people weren't accepting of the possibility they could reject this legacy foisted upon them, but many of the nobles allegedly don't agree with them either. How truly unfortunate if this is allegedly true!" Eminence said in a dramatic monologue that was pointed; Mildred felt the sting, but couldn't say anything since speaking out of line during a royal interview would be a terrible faux pas!
The king and queen nodded in agreement.
"That's consistent." Paige said before she asked her next question.
"Were you more prepared than you were before in the previous timelines?" She asked the king and queen.
"We were planning to fight them, and we were told the time that they would invade, but we overslept!" The king said.
"We were preparing for the possibility that we would oversleep, so we asked our engineers to adjust the built-in security system of the palace." The queen added.
Paige looked at her notes again before she asked the next question. "When Eminence got here, she told me that the security system activated in one of the hallways and nearly harmed her. Do you know if it was malfunctioning or sabotaged, or if any other guests could've been harmed?" She asked.
The three generals who were keeping guard looked wary, but Mildred had a quick scowl on her face. Saying anything would be stepping out of line in her role as a guard protecting the king and queen, or as a princess. To her, the royal family and their capabilities were being publicly insulted, and any known weakness would encourage commoners to attack. Her scowl didn't last long as she thought of the outcome of a revolt. The idea of crushing a revolt and sending an ominous warning to the rest of the commoners was enticing, and she almost hoped it'd happen again.
This gave her a quick smile, but she turned stoic and somber again.
"Oh my. We are terribly sorry that happened. They went a bit haywire recently, but no one was hurt and our engineers looked into it. They will examine the security systems again for any signs of malfunction or sabotage." The queen said.
"It would've been terrible for any of our guests to be injured, and a most terrible diplomatic incident if you were." The king said to Eminence.
"One last question to wrap up this interview. What will be your plans in this new era?" Paige asked.
"Our guards and military will still guard us, but their leadership will also report to Eminence. We will not be sitting on our laurels, and will continue to train more rigorously than we had been." The king said.
"In the near future, I'll be building a team of elite officers that'll have a great range of skills and experiences to strengthen us and our country!" Eminence cheerfully said. "It's in the planning stages now. I'll be seeking out recruits, but my next immediate plan will be putting together my inauguration party! It'll be grand!"
"Thank you for your time, Eminence, and our majesties. You have a lot of plans ahead for this new era and new timeline. I'll still be doing research and writing about events!" Paige said in her closing statement.
The guards were listening during the entire time. I couldn't pay too much attention to their expressions because I needed to ask the interview questions, but Eminence and I had to choose our words carefully, especially around Mildred. A royal who is also a general in the royal military police. How much were the king and queen actually calling the shots since their reigns began?"
As the interview ended, I turned off the recorder and ended the broadcast. I took the vinyl recording disk out of the recorder and put it in a paper sleeve. After we leave the palace, I'll be on my way to take the record to the Academy for Time Travel's library and report that my mission is complete. Outside of the conference room, Eminence and I waved goodbye to the king and queen as they left to the parlor room. They went in one direction and the guards led Eminence and I through the opposite end of the hallway and to the lobby.
Before Eminence and I headed out the door to go our own ways, we said some last words to the guards. I thanked them for helping ensure that the interview was a success, but Eminence's words were a lot more brazen!
"Aww... I wasn't even in office yet. If the security system was sabotaged just for me, you're going to have to try harder yet to take me down!" Eminence boasted. She stood boldly with her arms folded, and directing a daring and arrogant smirk in Mildred's direction. Am I going to have to investigate this incident too?...