Violet held one of the carriage's horses by the reins and brought the convoy into the passageway so that the side on which Meia was standing remained free.

Meanwhile, Meia looked at the city guards. Except for one glance, they had not paid any attention to her so far.

The two city guards were men. One was a somewhat older man, short for a man and had a thick beard. The other was of average height, sturdy and clean-shaven.

Both had a dark red breastplate. A breastplate was a piece of armor for the upper body. They were usually made of metal or leather. They were not always the same length. They often covered the upper body up to about the navel, but sometimes they were shorter or longer. This decision also depended on the material and field of application. The shoulders were free. There were also breastplates where the shoulders were protected, but the shoulder protectors were often separate parts. Meia had occasionally worn a breastplate during training. They were usually padded on the inside, very light and not very restrictive. It was comfortable and easy to move around in.

Such a breastplate was part of the standard equipment of a city guard in Jena. Nevertheless, the piece was not always seen. In Wiestahl, the city guard only had five people who were actually on duty outside the city guard. The rest was administration. If you ever saw one of the five, they always just had their identification on their chest. It wasn't as if they didn't have a breastplate. It was more like they just weren't wearing it. They probably had to wear one though, but there was no one who cared.

The standard equipment also included a uniform and a belt with equipment. The uniform consisted of laced boots, cloth trousers and a button-down shirt. The trousers and shirt were beige. The belt and most of the pockets and attachments were black or beige. The boots were always black. Red and black were the national colors. Beige was a secondary national color.

What was on the belt was not always the same. The smaller man had two belt pouches and a telescopic baton. The taller man had three belt pouches, a telescopic baton and an arming sword. An arming sword was a straight one-handed sword. The telescopic baton was not visible. It was also in a bag. Meia only knew what the different bags on the belt were for. For example, the extra pouch of the taller man was for first aid. Especially in small towns, there weren't always other emergency services.

Compared to the city guards from Wiestahl, the two were highly equipped, but compared to a city guard from the center of Kiras, they had hardly anything.

Near the palace, the patrols sometimes had arm guards, leg guards, helmets, shields, leg bags, backpacks, more weapons and also things like pepper spray.

At the top of the shirt sleeve, the rank of city guards could sometimes be recognized even by laymen. Lower ranking city guards had nothing on their sleeves, but both men had a symbol. The taller man had six squares turned up on their tips and in a spearhead formation or in other words six diamonds in an A-formation. That man was chief commissioner. That was a pretty high rank. The smaller man had a single diamond in a circle. That man was a guard commander. He was the head of the Aoka city guard.

The convoy stopped. Violet let go of the reins and walked over to the two men. They stopped talking and turned towards her.

Violet beamed happily. "Hey, you scoundrel." she said to the commander, spreading her arms over the last few steps.

"Violet, how's it going?" asked the commander, beaming even more than she was.

The two of them hugged and kissed.

"Now excellent. How are you?"

Violet casually greeted the other man with a handshake. She only looked at him briefly, but the man only looked at her briefly too, then his gaze went on downwards, his eyes widened, then his gaze quickly went up again. Meia grinned. Because she understood. It was hard not to look.

"There's a new brothel in town, so I've got my hands full all day, hahaha."

The commander laughed. The other man laughed a little and continued to try not to stare. Violet only half laughed once again.

From one second to the next, the commander fell silent and then so did the other two.

"Don't tell your father I said something like that. I'm exposed to bad influences here."

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"I'm not a little girl anymore. I've done quite a few things."

Meia believed this statement...

"I don't even wanna hear it." The commander tried to change the subject. "This is Thomas Lander, my deputy and my best man. When I stop one day, he'll take over."

"Nice to meet you." Violet shook his hand again, this time placing her other hand on top. "My name is Violet Siobelga, but call me Violet." she said seductively.

"The pleasure is all mine. I've heard a lot about you."

"I hope only good things."

The commander made a shaking hand gesture as if he wanted to shoo them apart.

"Enough introductions. Are ya staying in the city too?"

"No, not this time." Violet shook her head. "In fact, I have to leave right away. I've got tons of paperwork to finish."

"Too bad, I had extra beer chilling, but I guess I'll have to drink it all by myself."

"You can save it for another day. I'll come back before the end of the summer."

"Ahh... I don't think it'll last that long."

"Fufu, you'd better do the count."

On the side, Violet picked up a small box from her belt pouch. It looked like cigarettes.

The commander moves away from the two of them. "Getting ordered around here already." He came over to Meia.

Meia's posture tightened. She did it automatically. He was the commander, after all.

Meanwhile, Violet put a cigarette in her mouth and lit it. The taller man had his own cigarettes and did the same.

"I am Commander Gefgen of the Aoka City Guard. Meiandra Arvis, I presume?"

"That's right."

"You can ride in the back of our wagon. Is that okay with you?"

Meia nodded, then gathered up her bottle and followed the commander.

He led her up to the wagon, then held out his hand to help her up. "Miss." he invited her.

Meia accepted, of course. As she climbed up, the commander also held the bottle for her.

"Old flatterer." Violet chided.

"That's not flattery. It's manners."

The wagon was already facing the right direction to continue the journey.

Meia immediately sat down on the first piece of bench in front of her, in the back and on the bench closer to the middle of the road.

Next, the commander took care of the carriage. He knocked on the door, waited briefly and then opened it.

"Welcome to Aoka, Albert. You haven't shown yourself in a long time."

"I am a slave to my work. Where there is no work, my chain does not reach."

"That means there's work here? That's bad for me, ain't it? I would have liked a message."

"On the mark, as always, but I'm not here for your mistakes."

"Someone else messed up?" The commander wiped away the non-existent sweat with his sleeve. "Then the greeting is actually sincere."

The commander was silent for a moment, but didn't get an answer from Minister Schoppe.

"How are your wife and children? Do they still get on your nerves?"

"Yes, everything is as usual."

"I'm glad to hear that. Well, I'm sure you don't have time to talk right now. I'll see you around, I suppose?"

"Yes, I'll come around in the next few days and then l'll explain to you what the work is."

"Then I'll have someone clean up. I'll see you then."

In the meantime, the masked woman came forward on the other side between the wall and the carriage and went to stand next to Violet without comment.

The commander closed the carriage door and walked on to the wagon.

Meia couldn't help noticing that he hadn't said a word to the queen. Perhaps she was asleep?

The commander disappeared behind the wagon. Meia heard the tarpaulin. He was probably looking inside.

The commander introduced himself, then he spoke in a loud voice. "What about her? Should she stay there?"

"No, I'll take her right away."

"Well, everything's fine then."

The commander came back out and rejoined the group.

"This is Yuri." Violet introduced the masked woman. "She'll take over security from here, as per contract."

The masked woman nodded. The commander held his hand out to her, but she didn't take it, so he pulled it away again.

"It's an honor." The commander deftly covered it up and then turned to Violet. "So now I'm getting money from you. I'd like fifteen thousand Fee."

"I have a feeling you would rather go without it."

"Your intuition is off."

"You know, the month before last I ran down the stairs to my letterbox full of anticipation, but this year one person didn't send me a card."

"That's not a mistake. I haven't even got back what I gave you all your other birthdays."

"Fufu, All right..."

Violet reached into the front pocket of her pants and pulled out loose banknotes. The bills were folded up. Violet kept the cigarette in her mouth and leafed through it.

There were five bills of two different denominations. One bill was blue and there were pictures of swans on both sides. The other four bills were red with pictures of waxwings on both sides. The bills were part of Jena's currency the Fee. In the past it was still called: 'The Free Iron', but nowadays it was mostly just called Fee. There were birds on all the bills and coins of the Fee, but not all the birds originated from Jena. The Fee was a currency that was used by several countries. The bills and coins looked the same in every country, but each country had chosen its own birds for the currency. The swan and the waxwing were birds from Jena, but all the other bills had birds from other countries on them.

Blue and swan were 500 Fee. Red and waxwing were 5,000 Fee. So Violet had 20,500 fairies. To give you an idea of how much that was: Meia's 0.75l apple juice bottle cost around 260 Fee in the palace. However, it was a branded product. Maybe you could get cheap apple juice for half that price? Meia rarely bought drinks, so she didn't know for sure.

Violet handed three red bills to the commander and pocketed the rest. What she paid was probably admission. That was just a guess. Towns were allowed to charge admission, but this would be the first one Meia had visited that actually did it. Besides, the guards apparently didn't want to stay. There would be no one left to collect the entrance fee.

.../ End Part