Chapter 103: Support Staff

Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon System; Benson Moon; Amelia Benson’s office

I turn to Vic in shock. “You’re my cousin?”

She shrugs. “Technically not… We’re further apart than cousins, but it sounds nice, so yeah, I guess cousin it is.”

“Vic is the great-granddaughter of my brother if this helps,” Grandma Amelia chimes in.

So Vic’s right. I don’t think that even counts as related anymore. But still why not? Cousin has a nice ring to it, and I do like Vic.

I shrug. “It doesn’t matter. I like cousin better than great great grand whatever…”

Vic chuckles. “Yeah, me too.” Then she looks at Grandma Amelia. “But back to the actual topic… I’m joining Sara on her expedition to Earth?”

“You are,” Grandma Amelia replies. “Don’t tell me you don’t want to see Earth.”

“Of course, I want to see Earth! But Sara’s going to be all in Sara Green mode… How do I fit in there? And what about Tim? You know I hate to disguise myself.”

“Well, you won’t join as Sara’s cousin, of course. And you won’t be under a disguise either.” Grandma Amelia seems to be enjoying the moment, as she grins broadly at the confusion on Vic’s and my face.

“You’ll be joining the expedition as an official from The Empire to look after Sara and her team and ensure that they play by the rules. This means the two of you have to get to know each other again.” She makes air quotes when she says the last part.

Vic looks completely flabbergasted. “I… I’m going to be there as an official representative of The Empire?! That… But I’m just a secretary?”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Vic. You’re more than qualified. Why do you think you are my secretary? You’re already doing half of my job most of the time. Combine that with your magic and then tell me again that you aren’t qualified.”

“Oh!” She looks lost for words for a moment. “Thank you, Amelia!”

Grandma Amelia stands up. “You’re welcome, now come here, both of you.”

We both stand up and she hugs us. “I’m proud of you both!”

After that, she also has to say goodbye, as her next appointment is waiting. I talk a bit more with Vic, and we exchange contacts. Then it’s time for me to leave as well, as Vic also has a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, Grandpa John is completely busy for the remainder of the week, so I jump back to the Stargazer and collect Lucy and Lydia. Then we all teleport back down to the planet, after a short stop in the disguise chamber, of course.

There, we get some food and get to bed early. Everyone’s pretty exhausted after the day.

The next two days pass pretty much the same. There is still no trace of Tim, and I take Lucy and Lydia up to the Stargazer to train their spells. This time, I join them, and get some work done with the Video Call spell. It’s annoying that I can only practice it when no one besides Lucy and Lydia is there as it’s a Master level spell. This makes my progress very slow. At least the weeklong holiday speeds things up considerably.

Things get boring after a while though, and so I finally manage to convince Alina to leave her room and join us the day after. Lucy also pulls Nick along, and I teleport the five of us to the ship. As we’re now more people up there, we obviously find more chances to talk with each other, and the training falls short… It’s still fun, so absolutely worth it.

On Sunday we take things a bit slower and decide as a group to ask Dave and his friends about the idea Lucy had a few days earlier. We invite them over to our room, and when they arrive, everyone immediately starts talking about Earth.

I should have expected it… Especially Toby talks with a level of passion I hadn’t imagined at all from the big and muscled guy. Anyway, when I finally manage to change the discussion to the actual competition, they all just shrug.

“We’re not really looking into it,” Kylie replies. “Not that we have a chance anyway.”

I shake my head and grab her shoulder. “None of that, Kylie. Lucy had an idea, and I think this will work out beautifully.”

Now they all look at me with interest. I point at Lucy. “It’s your idea, go ahead.”

She lets out a short laugh. “Sure. Well, I was thinking that Earth has to be in ruins, right? So that’s perfect for archeologists. Then why don’t we join our two groups for the competition and compete together? That way we’ll probably have much better chances for the grand prize.”

Dave grins back at her. “That sounds amazing, but we’re all still facing the issue of even being allowed to join…”

“That’s right,” Lena chines in. “Think of all the rich Noble kids from RMA.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I nod in reply. “That’s true, but we’re working on it. In the meantime, try to be the best students you can be. Especially in the Archeology course.”

Fabio looks at me with wide eyes. “How can you be so confident? Do you have connections that high?”

“No, but apparently Tim has, so we’ll see once he returns.”

“Oh, okay…,” Fabio replies, still sounding unsure.

Kylie rallies her friends. “Come on guys, we’ve got this. We even have the best Space Mage ever for our Archeology course.” She winks at me, and I have to laugh. At least the others now look a bit more confident. They also leave soon after, and I decide to relax for the rest of the day. I take a lift to the rooftop of building 14 and lie down in one of the loungers that stand up there for just that purpose. I close my eyes and doze off.

I dunno how much time has passed, but I’m awoken by a spell ringing in my head. I just accept the call without checking who it is.

“Hi, Sara!”

I sit up straight. It’s Jack!

“Jack?? Hi! So nice to hear from you! How are you doing?”

I’m good, thanks. Oh, and the others say hi as well. Anyway, you can probably guess why I’m calling, right? And sorry for not calling earlier but things were kinda busy with us starting a company and all.”

“Hey, don’t worry, Jack. I understand. I mean I didn’t call you either, right? We’re both shitty friends.”

I try to say that with a straight voice, but a laugh immediately bursts out. Jack starts chuckling as well.

“Oh, we are!” He replies between fits of laughter.

It takes a while, but we manage to compose ourselves again. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about Earth,” Jack says and jumps onto the obvious topic.

“Who would have guessed?” I reply with an amused voice but keep my laughter down this time.

“Right… What I wanted to ask is if you’re joining the competition. You are, right? I mean it’s your discovery… Kind of an idiot question now that I think of it.”

“Hey, it’s not an idiotic question. Spots in the competition are limited. Only the best get to join. But you’re right, I am joining. I asked Grandma Amelia, and she told me that the wheels are turning in the background to get me and my team in. Don’t worry, Lucy is part of my team.”

“Grandma Amelia?” Jack asks.

Oh, right, he doesn’t know about her and Grandpa John yet.

“Ah, sorry, I forgot you don’t know. It’s the Empress…”

“The hell…? Of course, you call the freakin’ Empress Grandma Amelia…”

I get the impression of a head shake over the spell, which causes another few chuckles.

“But I’m glad that Lucy gets to join as well. This will be good for her. Now I kinda hate myself for not going to college though.”

That’s sad. I mean how cool would it be to include Jack, Alex, and Greg on our team? Hell, why not Ronja as well? I mean a doctor is always nice to have. And what about Maja and the others? Man, I wish this would be possible.

Actually… Grandpa John said students from the Peacekeeper academies get to join as well. Is it possible to include some support staff from external sources as well?

“Sara? You still there?”

That shakes me out of it. “Sorry, Jack… What you said got me thinking. Maybe it is possible to get you to join as well. Do you know how to group call with the Communication spell?”

“You think you could? But yeah, I do know how to do it. Why you’re asking?”

“Yeah, I do. Let me make another call real quick and let’s say you connect to it in five minutes. Just call me again, and I’ll add you in.”

“That’s amazing! And yes, let’s do it. I’ll call you again in five minutes.”

He cuts the spell, and I immediately cast my own Communication spell and aim for Vic. She’s gotta know if it’s possible to include Jack and the others on my team. She’s going to be our referee after all.

As I don’t know how to group call myself yet, we have to set it up like this. Otherwise, I could have added Vic to the previous call right away. Now I have to start a regular call, and Jack has to jump onto it as a secondary anchor.

Luckily, Vic picks up quickly. This would have been embarrassing if she hadn’t.

“Hey Sara, what’s up?”

“Hi Vic, I’ve got some questions about the Earth competition. Do you have a few minutes?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“I’ll add a friend to the call in a few minutes, it’s actually about him, so we’ll have to wait a bit.”

Vic voices her acknowledgment, and we wait while doing some small talk. Even faster than expected, Jack’s spell knocks at my mind. It’s a bit of a struggle, but I manage to weave the spell together. Then I hear Jack in my head as well.

“Looks like it worked. Hi Jack, this is my Cousin Vic. Vic, this is Jack, one of my friends from way back.”

They both exchange pleasantries, but soon the topic switches back to Earth and the competition. I clear my throat and start to explain my thoughts.

“So Grandpa John said that both students from the colleges and Peacekeeper Academy form teams to compete against each other for the grand prize, right?”

“Yes, that’s what he said…” Vic replies with a bit of a confused voice.

“Perfect. So, Jack here owns a small transportation company, and he really wants to see Earth as well. Especially after all my talks about the planet during our travels to The Empire. Now here’s my question. Are we allowed to include more people as something like support staff? I mean having Jack to get us some supplies or his ship as additional storage space would be amazing.”

Vic is silent for a moment, and I can imagine Jack holding his breath in anticipation.

“I guess that should be possible,” Vic replies. “The only real requirement is that everyone must be of college age, as the competition is only for the current generation. So that we can get some real-life experience in addition to our studies. And even if it wasn’t intended to include external people as support staff before, I’m pretty sure the Emperor will change the rules to accommodate you.”

Hmm, yeah that sounds like Grandpa John. He’d do anything for me now that I’m finally back.

“That’s amazing, thanks Vic!”

“Yes, thank you,” Jack calls out as well. “I’ll take that as a preliminary yes. Alex and Greg will love this!”

Vic leaves the call soon after and I’m alone with Jack again.

“Seriously, thank you, Sara. You didn’t have to do this. I get to see Earth! Can you believe this?”

“You’re welcome. And I absolutely had to do this. You’re my best friends and from how things are looking, you guys and Ronja would have been the only ones left out.”

“Right, Ronja. I guess you want to include her as support staff as well?”

“Yes, could you go ask her? I think it would be easier if she were part of your crew once it’s time to go to Earth.”

Jack agrees. “I can do that. We’ve got a delivery back to the Valterion System soon anyway. Oh, and by the way, we’ll be in the Magicon System in a few months as well. We should meet up then!”

“Yes, absolutely! I’m looking forward to it.”

After that, we talk about a few other things until we finally have to say goodbye, as Jack’s ship arrives at a wormhole. I lean back in my lounger until another thought has me sitting up straight again.

All my friends will be united again when we go to Earth!