I held the Judgment panel of one Head Researcher Han Teramoto in my hands as I walked up the stairs to the palace, following closely behind Princess Lucina. Surprisingly, unlike all the other days in which I’d been in Ethia, I recognized the faces of the guards standing in front of the palace doors.
“Weren’t you two… the ones who brought me to the throne room a couple weeks ago? What were your names again?”
Lucina looked back at me and shook her head, not even sparing the two guards a glance as she spoke, “Whatever it is you think you’re getting out of this conversation, have it wrapped up in ten minutes. I’ll gather the other’s into the throne room. Expect a harsh punishment if you’re late.”
With a quick flick of her head, she headed in through the double doors, her hips swaying hypnotically as I-
Judgment, quick question. Why the fuck have I been thinking so sexually lately? Neither one of the Metron sisters I’ve had contact with have hacked me, have they?
There was silence on the other end of the connection between the AI and myself, and I thought once more, the two guards staring at me all the while.
“You really don’t know, Master?”
No, I don’t. Why do you sound like it’s obvious?
“You said it yourself, Antidepressants dull one’s thoughts and emotions. The old world medicine must have been too strong for some parts of your personality, and now all the suppressed desires have come rushing back. The only thing your body knows to do to deal with the emotions is to constantly vent them out in sexual fantasies.”
To be fair to me, sometimes this whole world feels like a sexual fantasy.
“If that is how you perceive Ethia, then I have no right to tell you otherwise.”
“Sorry, I got distracted. What were your names again?” I brought my eyes up to the two guards, who showed little restraint when it came to the undisguised distrust in their eyes.
“Why the fuck would you even bother to remember. You were practically shitting yourself in the jail cell when we carried you to the opportunity that brought you to glory.” The one on the left answered. He was tall and lithe, and judging from his scraggly beard, not too keen on personal grooming. His olive skin contrasted against his white armor, and made his face pop from the rest of his silhouette.
I had to physically keep myself from rolling my eyes at his accusation, and neither one of them had even answered the question of who they were.
“That’s quite the grudge you hold after I did nothing to earn your ire.”
“Starlords rotten foot did you ever! Do you have any idea how much we had to make in the colosseum and in underground arena’s before the crown would even look our way? Commodifying our bodies, our likenesses, our very existences! And what did it get us? A shitty job doing nothing while some wiry-ass kid from Starlords know where was usurping the good will we had built up with Bruce, only for it to vanish overnight!”
“That was still your fault Craig. I don’t know what possessed you to take your exhibitionism hobby on castle-grounds, but you should be happy you weren’t immediately dismissed. You can be mad at the boy for cheating his way to the top, but you can’t blame Bruce’s mistrust on him, at least.” The man on the right finally spoke.
“Shut up, Devin. I already told you I was hacked! That had nothing to do with my personal tastes or desires.” Craig scowled at his partner, but Devin just gave him a knowing look and said nothing.
While it would be fun to sit here and listen to Craig unleash his rage on me for the whole ten minutes that I have, I need to tell them about my offer. Judgment, if you wouldn’t mind, can you loop the camera feed from the last thirty seconds?
“Of course, Master. Just tell me when you would like me to release it.”
Thanks. “Well, if you two are done digging around in your own asses…” They both turned to me, Devin looking surprised, and Craig seemingly annoyed.
“I would like to extend an offer to you, to get you both out of this current demotion that you are in.” Devin raised a skeptical eyebrow, but Craig ate it up.
“Ha! I knew the boy would come through for us! So, what did you have in mind?”
“Craig, you barely know him, and even worse, he barely knows us. He probably doesn’t know anything practical about out military careers, just the fact that we were demoted to guard duty within the palace.” Devin said.
“Can it Craig! Should you even be speaking about that sort of thing before even hearing the boy out?”
“That’s… a surprisingly sound argument coming from you.”
“Hey!”
“Alright, young lord. What would you require of us?”
I regarded Devin, obviously the more cautious and realist between the two hulking guards. He met my gaze, and did not back down. A small smirk found its way onto my face as I began to speak.
“Right now, well, in a few hours, I guess, I will be heading off to Asia.” Devin’s eyebrows raised, but he said nothing, allowing me to continue. “I don’t know when I will be returning, but since my life is intrinsically bound to the Metron Kingdom now that I have become a Paladin, I would like to keep eyes here just in case something goes horribly awry.”
“You want us to be spies?” Craig asked incredulously. I thought for a moment. “Well… technically you could put it that way. It's more of being watchful eyes that keep me up to date on the kingdom, its politics, and the relation between the nobility and the commoners. You’re essentially spying for your own country. Plus, you wouldn’t have to be on gate duty all day.”
“I’m in!” Craig burst out, and Devin slapped him upside the back of his head. “Starlords asscrack Devin! What was that for!?”
“Idiot. You haven’t even heard the terms or conditions… sorry, what’s your name again?”
“Oh. I’m Joshua Cole. Nice to meet you properly.”
“Likewise. As I was saying, you haven’t even heard what his terms are. For all we know we could end up as mindless slaves.”
I almost laughed at that one, but remembering the cyber-steins and the threat of brain jackers, I could see that his concerns were actually grounded in Ethia’s reality.
“Rest assured, it’s nothing of the sort. I’d like to add an AI widget to your Judgment panels. Through there, I can replay video of the things you view, as well as communicate with you in subspace without having the restriction of being in close proximity. It’s through those means that I will give you missions, and we would discuss our next steps together.”
Devin looked up in thought, and Craig barreled past him. “Sign me up, chief! I’m sick and tired of sitting on my ass all day, doing one of the most thoughtless jobs on the continent to boot. Do you need me to detach it, or can you install the technology remotely?”
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“Remotely. Devin, I hate to break it to you, but I don't have much time right now. You’re either with me, or you should forget that this conversation happened.”
“Ah, screw it. I’ll join. It’ll sure beat listening to Craig complain all day.”
“Fuck off.”
Judgment, install the software and make sure the drivers are updated. After that is finished, restore the cameras to their proper usage.
“Of course, Master. Commencing installation from the cloud.”
Devin and Craig started to scream, and writhe about in agony on the floor. “Oh, so that was a side effect, huh? Oh well. I’ll talk to you boys later.”
And with that, I rushed inside the castle, leaving the two guards to deal with the problem themselves.
---
“Good to see you’ve finally made it.” Princess Reya’s mother was not in a good mood. And why would she be? She had told the newest Paladin of their kingdom to interrogate her youngest son, with the full implication that he be treated with more care than other prisoners may have.
Unfortunately for her, that was where she miscalculated. The newest Paladin to join the upper echelons of Metronian nobility cared nothing for the subtleties and niceties that politics often required. No, he had, in fact, went as far as nearly paralyzing her son, and Reya’s younger brother, just to obtain some information.
Granted, it was information that would aid them in the fight against Eastern terrorists, but Reya digressed. Seeing her child’s broken body being stretchered to the medical bay had caused some shift in the Queen’s mentality, but it was too subtle for Reya to make it out entirely.
And even then, it had been a rough week for Reya, herself. She had won the bet with her father, and had acquired the title of first in line for the throne, but without someone like Joshua by her side, she had no doubt that she would not hold on to that title for very long.
She remembered angrily accusing Lucina of stealing her man, to which the bewitching beauty replied that he hadn’t belonged to Reya in the first place, which made Reya quietly accept her loss on that one. Regardless, all her focus was now shifted onto the meeting at hand.
The Queen was still acting like herself, just with a newfound sharpness in her gaze, a weight which was, save for some special circumstances, almost entirely absent from her usual demeanor.
“So… I’m guessing this isn’t a simple check-up on the kids, huh?” Prince Raiden Metron, the oldest of Reya’s siblings at twenty nine sighed in exasperation.
A short, derisive laugh came from the woman sitting next to him. In her newly tailored military uniform, Princess Lucina Metron, age 26, met his gaze with one of her own. “Please, ever since Joshua showed up, when has anything been ‘simple’?”
“Come now dear sister, when has Joshua ever been a problem for you? In fact, I recently acquired a certain piece of video that shows exactly how much you’ve enjoyed him.” Princess Venus Metron, age 25, chuckled to herself.
Lucina’s face scrunched up in displeasure. “Ugh, disgusting voyeur.”
“Shitty masochist.” Venus retorted.
“Sisters, please. While I’m sure everyone would love to hear you two dig into each other a bit more, we have a meeting to get to.” Kuro, Princess Gina’s younger twin and older than Reya at 21years old, intervened.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself.” All eyes turned to the door of the council room and the lone figure that stood there: Joshua Cole. Alas, he was the bane of Reya’s continued existence.
He had helped her achieve what she believed impossible, and put her in line as the direct successor to the throne, but now that she was at the top of the mountain, he had abandoned her in search of another mountain to climb.
The fool, if only he would’ve fallen for her like he was supposed to, everything would have gone according to plan. She was a princess for Starlords sakes! Fallen were supposed to love princesses!
“Let us get this debriefing underway.” Joshua stood in front of the raised royalty, and snapped his fingers. In an instant, the whole room changed. The bright lights had been dimmed, and several of the chairs were now lowered to be at Joshua’s eyeline.
“Please, inform us of what you have learned.” The queen spoke in measured tones, clearly not over what Joshua had done, but also not so emotionally unstable that she would let it compromise her working relationship with him.
“Of course, your majesty.” To Reya’s ears, the esteemed title might as well have been the nastiest insult for all the venom that Joshua said it with. The queen’s eye twitched, clearly annoyed by the paladin, but despite that she smirked.
“You’re much more interesting than I thought you’d be. Fallen tend to be more meek than you’ve shown yourself to be.”
Joshua shrugged. “Not like I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting another. Regardless, we’re getting sidetracked. I’ve uploaded the relevant files to your family’s encrypted cloud server. Please open the first file.”
Reya, and she presumed the rest of her family did the same. The file opened to reveal a transcript of a conversation between Teramoto and another person.
“Is… is this real?” The queen’s gaze focused back from the AR transcript and onto Joshua.
“Absolutely. As you’ve all read, Mr. Teramoto was in contact with an agent from Tengu, the largest Yakuza group in Japan right now. He was trafficking downloaded human consciousnesses from the Metron Kingdom citizens, and selling it to Tengu. On their orders, he conducted human experimentation, an act that was banned by Judgment when it started to control… maybe that’s too strong a word. When it started to regulate the world.”
“Japan?” Lucina asked, and Joshua snapped his fingers.
“Oh yeah, different names here. What did you call it again? Oh, that’s right! Asahi.”
“I see… and?” The queen didn’t look too impressed, causing Reya to nearly groan at her mother’s ignorance. If only her mother would see how helpful Joshua would be to achieve a prosperous future for the kingdom, she would concede that mind-breaking Brice wasn’t bad of a price to pay at all.
Plus, he was kind of a prick.
“I am going to go there and eradicate the problem myself.” Queen Metron’s jaw slackened at his declaration, and a bevy of confused looks were exchanged around the room.
“Excuse me, erase it yourself?” Gina shot Joshua an incredulous gaze, to which he only responded with a confident smirk.
A smirk which fanned the flames of Reya’s jealousy, yet simultaneously made her desire for the man that much stronger. He’d make such a good piece once he finally matured… ah, but she was getting ahead of herself. Sure, younger men were nice as well, but there was just something about some good, old fashioned, rugged facial hair that really completed the picture for her. Just imagining that on the paladin’s face…
“So we are in agreement then?” Joshua spoke, and Reya, to her dismay, realized she must have missed the climax of the meeting.
“Yes, please make sure to take your… supervisor with you.” The queen hesitated at the word, no doubt already knowing the true relationship between Lucina and Joshua already.
“Of course, I wasn’t planning to leave without my belongings.” Reya’s eyes shot to her sister, who shuddered but kept on a poker face. The queen just sighed, and motioned to adjourn the meeting.
“Then, without further ado, I conclude-”
“Wait a minute!” Reya shouted, and all eyes in the room turned to her. Not realizing she had spoken that loudly, Reya sheepishly sat down before starting again.
“I would like to go as well.” Joshua looked shocked, but said nothing and allowed her to continue. “As a princess, and first in line to the throne, I have a duty to my people to protect them from harm, even if I put myself in the way.”
Reya grinned. She knew that Joshua had no right to refuse her, as his position wasn’t higher than hers, he didn’t have the necessary political power to do so.
Reya waited, but was just met with a shaking head from Joshua. Looking around, she saw several of her brothers and sisters trying to hold back their laughter, and she pleadingly looked to her mother for answers.
The queen sighed, and shook her head as well. “Joshua just said that he was surprised that you didn’t try to force your way onto the mission, and thirty seconds later you do just that.”
Reya’s cheeks lit up crimson, and the queen officially adjourned the meeting. “By the way, where's the king?” Joshua asked.
The queen looked shocked he would ask about King Metron, but she responded kindly. “Oh, he had a meeting with the King of Leones. Something about setting up the time and location for the next war games.”
“Leones… ah, Europe.” Joshua muttered. Reya was about to ask what in the Starlord’s seven hells a europe was, but she was forced to sit and partake in a separate debriefing about the mission that Joshua was planning.
---
After going over the general plan, Reya, Lucina, and I made our way to the top of the castle and onto the private airpad, where a sleek, eight winged plane was sitting.
“Do you find the Skyquake fascinating?” Lucina asked after they boarded the vehicle. Lucina was sitting immediately to my right, while Reya was across the aisle, asleep on my left. She pressed a button, and a small hologram machine came up from the ground in front of us.
“Only royal families have access to the machines, and they travel at the speed of sound. It’ll take us to Tokyo in about 8 and a half hours. In the meantime, you can look at shots of the city to familiarize yourself with the changes from this world in your own.”
I nodded, and clicked a button on the podium to view the first picture, but froze upon seeing the image.
Seemingly able to intuit my issue with it, Lucina pointed to the hologram. “See that dome there? That mass of human technology spans the entirety of the country of Asahi- the one you called Japan. Welcome to the Aegis of the East.”