Location: Office of the Governor General of the Northern Territories
Time: 5:00 PM, 12/30/2107
Why was I standing in the office of the most important person in the Northern Territories, a person capable of one day becoming the Empress of the entire Pacific Empire?
That’s what I wanted to know. Didn’t she realize all three of my part time jobs were super busy right before New Year’s? I should have been at work, making some extra cash. If I wanted to be even remotely close to safe I had to work now more than ever. Forget high school, the tuition for college was ridiculous. Even with a family friend footing most of the bill, I was deep in the red.
But for some reason, my shift at the Flying Pig was rudely interrupted by a member of the military police, and he escorted me to the capitol building.
Waiting inside the room he escorted me to was a young woman with pink hair, styled into two long drills.
Elodie Esterhaert. The Sanguine Princess herself.
Despite my best efforts, at some point I became aware of Elodie’s Background. Turns out I was right about her genetics. She’s one of the Emperor’s children. She should have been living the easy life in the capital, but she drew the short stick and when her augmentation actualized she became an aberration.
Rules are rules, so she was exiled to the Northern Territories. From here she started her brilliant rise to prominence in an attempt to regain what was taken from her. I can’t say I really care about that part. I’d spent the last four years trying to stay uninvolved.
“I’d rather not, I’ll have to decline, no thanks, I’ll be fine, there’s no need.” I rejected anything she might say before she had a chance to say it. “Can I leave now? I’ve got work to get back to.”
“Henry, you know, you’re the only one who has the nerve to treat me like that. Are you trying to get arrested for lèse-majesté?”
“I’d rather not.”
“Then I’d suggest you start reconsidering how you act. I need you to do something for me.”
“I’ll have to decline.”
“Don’t you want to be on the Governor General’s good side?”
“No thanks.”
“Do you really think taking that kind of attitude with me will end well for you?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Say something else already! It’s like I’m talking to an answering machine!”
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
“There’s no need.”
“Just shut up!”
She balled up the paper on her desk and threw it at me. I swatted it away as soon as it got in range.
“You were supposed to catch it!”
“Never. I’m sure it was some kind of contract.”
“Can’t you just make this easy, even once? It’s important this time. Eren is finally leaving the capital, this is probably my best chance to use him. Just help, come on.”
She stretched out her arms and laid her upper body over her desk.
“Do you act like this in front of anyone else?”
“Obviously not. My natural charm effect makes most people see me as a perfect woman. Besides, there’s just no reason to keep up appearances with you.”
Her natural charm effect? It was probably too late to ask her if that was an actual power that she had, so I decided to ignore it for now.
“That’s good.”
“Why? Hmm? Would you get jealous? Ahaha, I see how it is. Too bad, but I can’t waste my marriage on someone who isn’t politically valuable.”
“No, that’s fine. I was just worried about you giving the Northern Territories a bad reputation.”
She clicked her tongue.
“Fine, be that way, but know this: you’re going to help me this time. You always talk nonsense about your cursed fate, well, it’s time to pay your dues. Meeting me, getting turned into an aberration, all of it has been leading up to this. It’s time for you to get mixed up in the fate of this entire continent.”
After that she called the military police officer back in, and he escorted me off the premises. After a quick sprint back across town, I managed to finish my shift at the butcher shop.
I had almost managed to forget about my meeting with Elodie, but that night I received an ominous letter from my university.
‘Your application has been approved. As of January first, your study abroad program will begin. You are to start classes at the private university wing of Evergreen Academy, a private school in the Free City of Velstand. You will also take part in the newly formed Augmentation Training Course.’
Short, but it got the point across. She was trying to force me to go along with whatever plan she had in the works.
If that was all, I could have ignored it. It wouldn’t be easy, but I probably could have gotten my ‘study abroad’ canceled. That wasn’t an option though.
Why? Because the name of the person the letter was addressed to.
It was my name. My real name. My family’s name. The only people who should have known about it were my benefactor and myself.
Having her know my name wasn’t a problem in and of itself; it was the implied threat that came with her letting me know she knew it.
She was using my strategy against me. She put her cards on the table in a situation where I couldn’t respond. My only options were to disregard the whole thing; potentially causing her to get my family mixed up in this, or to play along with her plan.
I didn’t want to admit it, but the safest choice was obvious. If my family got involved I probably wouldn’t make it out alive. That might seem like an exaggeration, but I meant it very literally.
Henry Helsing.
A name I tried to leave behind. A name that tied me to the most prolific family of aberration hunters in the Western world.
Something tells me they wouldn’t take too kindly on one of their own becoming an aberration. They’d take me out before any rumors could spread.
I had to play her game.
I’d have to go to Velstand while still trying to remain as uninvolved as possible.
Were any bakeries hiring in Velstand? Honestly, over the years I’d gotten pretty good at baking bread.
I hated to admit it, but Elodie might have been right. Everything so far was probably building up to whatever she had planned in the Free Cities. Well, that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. From before the beginning, this was nothing more than a flashback on vampires.