“Federalist and Royalist forces once again clash in the Grand Duchy of Ludendorf. For months, the frontline has been frozen along the Ludendorf river. The OHC however has initiated an operation to retake four counties of the Grand Duchy, using the bridgeheads established during shaping operations months prior. The local counteroffensive has now gained three thousand square kilometers of territory, alongside the capture of Uswelt City.”
- Liberty One Radio
+++
November Palace
West Orland
July 14, 2025
Amelie watched as the new batch of Royal Guard specialists arrived in her palace. They were the final piece to the reorganization of the Palace Security Unit.
“Theresa, how many are they again?”
The head of her security detail, Theresa Lubaine, spoke softly behind her.
“Four new operatives, Your Majesty,” she replied. “They’re all drawn from the best of the RIU and the RGO. Unlike the security personnel we placed here, they all have veteran status after black ops missions in Hebei, Orland, Gaul, Poznek, and even Kusari. And they’re not rank and file. They’re the best of the best.”
“Who have they been fighting against?”
“Mostly revolutionary intelligence agencies, Your Majesty. There’s even that woman there, Captain Helene Faust, who murdered two platoons from the Lieplatzan Secret Police alone. Don’t fool yourself of her simply using that blade. She’s an experienced caster, who utilizes body enhancement magic and a very powerful form of fire magic.”
So, they’re all like Marie.
She looked at the woman. Her hair was a flashy red, and she wore a black coat that she kept above her shoulder. She rushed out of the SUV that carried them, straight to the palace’s gate with her comrades.
“I…well, I guess we’re getting the best battlemages then?”
“It’s the best measure we can take at the moment. These girls should be able to match the best of the Keibeitai.”
Amelie smiled. That was what she asked for after all. She’d need to greet them well now.
“Alright then. Get me to these women. I’d like to see them face to face. And…well, introduce them to their brothers in the OPM.”
+++
“I am Baroness Theresa Lubaine,” declared Theresa over the gathered RGO operatives, all of them now in their white, knightly uniforms. “I am the head of Her Majesty’s security detail. From now on, you answer to me. Your job is simple. To protect the lives of the Royal Family. Even if it costs your own life.”
Amelie smiled at the four women in front of her. They were all, naturally, older than her. And they each wore some sort of colored armband. Theresa did say that she hired the best ones in certain fields of magic, after all. So the colors must mean something.
I wonder what.
Quite frankly, Amelie had already fully abandoned her studies in the field of magic. She was getting so rusty to the point that she’d probably screw up the most basic of self-defense spells. So they would be a nice form of protection for her. Especially if they had different specializations.
She looked curiously at their colors.
Red.
Purple.
Blue.
And White.
Perhaps, it meant something about the type of magic they used. When she looked at the four after all, they didn’t seem to have a uniform assortment of weapons with them. Perhaps they use the older style of summoning their weapons? It was one of the more advanced spells of dimensional magic after all—the ability to summon magical items out of thin air.
Though, only the two women with the blue and purple armbands held no weapon of their own. The woman with the red armband, who she knew as Captain Helene Faust according to Theresa, held a sword. While the silver-haired woman with the white armband held a white-colored custom-built submachine gun.
Lots of fancy decorations too. Amelie thought, noting the slight, golden ornaments on the gun. I swear, some women can get too serious about their knightly image.
Vanity was one of the things that was uniquely in the domain of the Royal Guard. So many special units in the service had countless women using specialized, custom weapons. In comparison, in the OIA, OPM, NID, and AFI, the men there were more uniform in their equipment. Regardless of specialization, every agent was a rifleman first and foremost.
“Well, Alpha Squad,” Amelie started, her voice cheery and welcoming. “Welcome to the November Palace. I believe that the four of you will be central to Lady Lubaine’s security posture here. So...I’d like to know names, please.”
The first one, a woman in her thirties, Captain Helene Faust, nodded and stepped forward. Amelie looked at her hair, again, a blazing red that waved freely. Even her eyes were red. She spoke clearly and confidently.
“I am Captain Helene Faust, Your Majesty. My sword and wand is in service to you. Rest assured, any vagrant who’ll try to get to you will be consumed by flames first.”
She stepped back, allowing the second woman to step forward. Her hair was black, but her eyes were a deep purple. She wore a purple armband. Unlike the more cockier tone from Helene, she bowed politely and spoke in a more subdued manner.
“Greetings, Your Majesty. I am Agent Olivia Henze of the Royal Investigations Unit. Director Marie has always spoken highly of you. Thus, I assure you, that with the power of time, I’ll keep you alive.”
“Time?” Suddenly, Amelie’s eyes shone as she walked close to the woman. It was as if the Queen had been turned into a fan girl. “I heard that it was a field that only emerged five years ago! Aren’t the fundamentals there too hard? Whoah, can you do all of that…time manipulation stuff?”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Yes, Your Majesty, though, contrary to popular myths in the thaumaturgical community, I can’t exactly manipulate timelines, that’s beyond this field’s current capabilities,” she smirked softly as she pulled something out of her pocket. On her gloved hand was a simple, old-looking watch…that radiated way too much active mana than normal. “But, I can have your body blown open, and I’ll restore you to your previous state as long as your brain is intact. Though, it can get quite painful, and sinister.”
Amelie’s guts turned sideways at her warning. Oh, I didn’t know that type of magic was that scary. Then, she briefly imagined herself getting splattered on the wall. And of course, Olivia stepped in with that creepy clock and stitched her magically using time. Okay, nope, nope, nope. She stepped back a bit.
“Erm, umm, thanks then,” Amelie awkwardly said, turning to the next one. “Um, Miss?”
The woman, who seemed to be in her late twenties, with brown hair and blue eyes, bowed gracefully. Amelie looked at her armband. It was blue.
“I am Agent Elsa Gottfried. I have volunteered for the RIU as well. I know almost everything about water magic…that I can destroy a main battle tank with a single spell.”
“Y-you can do that?”
She smiled gently.
“Water can be quite powerful when you compress it in a certain way…and fire it at your desired target at extreme speeds and energy.”
“Oh…okay,” Amelie nodded. “That’s quite impressive.”
“I hope my service will be to your satisfaction.”
“I’m sure it will, Agent Elsa.”
Then, she turned to the last one, who wore a white armband. The silver-haired woman simply saluted Amelie stiffly as she spoke. She also seemed to be the youngest one, almost at the same age as Amelie.
“Lieutenant Eleanor Enzen, Your Majesty!” She reported. “I am from the Royal Guard. I’ve fought against special operations units from the Larissan Confederation and the Hebeian Republic. I promise that I’ll disintegrate any revolutionary cockroach that dares approach you at the atomic level with my enchanted bullets.”
“Okay…” Amelie nodded. This woman seems to be the ‘I only follow orders’ type. And atomic level? She had heard of that specialized field in thaumaturgy back then, and briefly considered it. Separating an object magically from its elemental components after all sounded interesting.
Then, she internally gulped, realizing what the woman meant by “disintegrating them at the atomic level”.
“Wait, you what now?”
“Shoot them until they melt into a puddle of molecular soup!”
Huh?! Goddess, why the eager smile while saying that?
“T-thanks then. I hope you’ll work well with your team.”
“I will, Your Majesty!”
“Now!” Theresa broke the introductions with her words. “Now that Her Majesty has acquainted you, you will now be formally organized into the Alpha Squad of the Security Detail. And Alpha Squad will be led by you—”
Theresa pointed her finger at Helene. The red-haired woman didn’t seem to be surprised. But the other three seemed curious with their reactions. Amelie even noticed a sudden slight scrounge of disapproval from the face of Eleanor. But it disappeared quickly.
“Commander Faust, make sure that these three are well organized, kept alert, and ready for combat at all times. We will present where you four will lodge in the Palace. Then, you’ll get to meet the rest of the Security Detail, and Director William Porter’s Salvo Company, the OPM’s side of the Palace Security Unit. Is that clear?”
“Clear!” The four responded in a chorus.
+++
“Great, new lunatics that can beat my men one-on-one without a hitch,” William complained as he and Amelie walked through the hallways. “I looked at their profiles last night. They’re like monsters, Amelie.”
“Well, I did ask Lady Lubaine to get the best ones,” Amelie replied, a bit shifty. “After learning about that suspected organization from you and Marie, I have no choice but to steal talent from the rest of the RGO and the RIU.”
“Well, I’m just belly-aching really,” William replied. “My men are acquainted with the new goddesses in the ranks pretty well. I’ve even had the platoon commander of Order Platoon get himself asskicked by that Helene lady when they decided a silly duel was a good way to get a proper demonstration. She punched him ten feet into the air. Absolute bullshit. We got to watch Olivia stitch him back though with that magic watch thing. That, and a front-row seat of watching my guy screaming for dear life while his internal bleeding reversed itself.”
“They what? Hey! Who the hell permitted lethal matches in my Palace?!”
“Well, me? They told me they can handle being shot at by Order Platoon,” William said. “And they said they can stitch up anyone who gets close to dying. And my men were feeling all itchy to prove their worthiness compared to these new, shinier people.”
“That sounds stupid! And come on, William? Seriously?”
“Well, I also wanted to see how they’d do it,” William said, smiling deviously. “Reading about the dry reports was quite hard to visualize. Since the two teams were getting all stupid with each other, I let them go loose.”
“And they went berserk?”
“Yep. Lucky that things went under control though. But my men got their asses kicked,” William cracked a bitter chuckle. “See? This is what we men have to deal with if you women ever decided to pursue magic deliriously. We’d be splattered like cockroaches on the side of the wall. A red, sad, defeated, and bloody paste.”
Amelie felt her hand turn cold. It was true. One of the reasons why the Matriarchy held strong for centuries was that…well, many women were just too strong for men to even have hopes of revolting against. But in the modern age, most women were complacent. Many even practically avoided doing magic themselves, opting simply to just research theoretical thaumaturgy.
Most pursued mundane matters that usually lent better jobs. Like finance, business management, or law. Essentially, normal white-collar degrees for Orland’s highest-paying jobs.
Even Amelie was a part of that. She was bad at applying magic. Or at least, “average”. And she’d probably also get herself splattered in the wall if Helene did what she did to William’s guys. What Amelie was good at was amateurish spellcasting. And, well, reading about spells and entire fields of magic that she can never do herself.
She was, after all, more of an art studies type of a girl. Not that she ever created the best drawings out there. And she probably now was rusty at that too.
Ugh…I’ll grow old knowing nothing but how to run a country at war. No one’s going to need that in peacetime!
Not that anyone would give a crap about their Queen’s drawings anyway.
“Well, I also can’t do it,” Amelie replied to William’s doom and gloom. “I mean, I imagine just training to control your mana to support what they are doing requires quite insane mental and physical exertions over…years. Then there’s the studying of the theoretical, then applying them, then mastering them…most can’t do that.”
“Yeah, well, they can, and seeing it with my own eyes terrifies me.” William looked down. “You women have abilities we can never even imagine or reach. You…don’t understand, but…it makes me and my men feel even smaller. Like we truly are a lower form of life compared to you women.”
“William! Don’t ever think that way!” Amelie stopped, turning and chastising him. “That kind of thinking is what led us to this disaster. So, please, cut that out. I don’t want Salvo Company demoralized just because we added more ‘illustrious’ people to the unit. They’re all integral. You are too.”
“You’re right,” William said, nodding to himself. “Still, seeing it made me question equality for a while. It just reminded me again of that question that…quite frankly, held us back for centuries.”
“What?”
“What if, fundamentally…we’re not really equal, Amelie? Wouldn’t that be a painful pill to swallow, if you’re born a guy?”
She just fell silent. That did make her pause, for a while.
Pity. She pitied any man who thinks of himself and his brothers that way.
“...I…well, no, screw that idea,” Amelie adamantly said. “We have to be equal. That’s my position on the matter.”