Scavenged Restoration 52 (Patreon)

After three re-do's, here's the latest chapter of Scavenged Restoration.

And thank RoyalTwinFang for requesting an extra long chapter for this story's anniversary.

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Commissioned by RoyalTwinFang

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 52

-VB-

The race was on.

The Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation agreed to take on concubines from the Magistracy of Canopus as a sign of peace.

And that meant that every single ambitious bitch in the room began to compete with each other. 

Everyone from the lowliest of maids to the duchesses that tagged along with the Magestrix, everyone began to vie for the positions of the concubines.

For Duchess Allison Mambalay of New Abilene, now a duchess of the Capellan Confederation for however long she would hold the position, she was more concerned with being able to keep her title and fief than the concubinage. 

In her many brief talks with the magestrix, she learned that she was one of the top candidates. It helped that her territory would be incorporated into the Capellan Confederation proper and as such she will carry less of a stigma of being an outsider than the other Canopian nobles the magestrix brought with her. 

And that left her in a dilemma. 

She was not prepared for marriage. Hell, she was not prepared to be a concubine, either! 

She was still young and could find her own love and everything but …

She never had the time. 

Always managing her territory. Always scrapping to keep everything running just as her mother and father had.

Right now, it felt like the world was pressing down on her. She felt weak. She felt alone. She dreaded her future. 

Like all nobles across the Inner Sphere and the periphery, she learned about her neighboring nation’s noble courts and how different it was to hers. Like how the magistracy was a meritocratic matriarchy while the Capellans lived under an autocratic dictatorship that was only a confederation in name. How they were isolationists who lived by the command economy, which were two things that were antithesis to what a Canopian was. 

And she was the top candidate to become one of the concubines for the leader of that antithetical state. 

How? 

Why? 

She had been busy just trying to manage her planet before the sudden outbreak of the war and now she was going to become a bedwarmer for the Capellan Chancellor to … ensure the loyalty of her worlds or something? She would have been doing her best to stay down even without this concubinage. 

In fact, her sisters, both legitimate and illegitimate, might try to take over, completely disregarding the fact that both she and father were alive! 

This only created more problems for her because someone else wanted to use her to solve their problem.

At least in this case, the war was coming to an end.

She started to get a headache as the ladies around her began their usual pecking order games. Browbeated each other with scandals from years past, brought up humiliations and blackmails not even their opponents’ but that of their families and friends, and even got physically confrontational.

The room got louder and louder as indignant and pissed screeches, shrieks, and screams rang out. 

Her headache only grew when Capellan nobles joined in.

Apparently, plenty of them were pissed that “Canopian bitches were stealing the Chancellor.”

She shot up from her seat. 

Immediately, the room quieted down. 

Without even acknowledging them, she left the room. 

“Where do you think you’re going, Duchess Mambalay?” some useless fuck asked but Allison ignored her. “Duchess?!” 

She slammed the door close behind her.

The two Capellan palace guards took one look at her and looked away. 

“Am I allowed to leave?” she asked tersely. She wasn’t feeling very professional.

“No orders to prevent your leave has been issued,” one of the guards replied in fluent, if accented, Star League English. “However, if you approach restricted areas, then you will be told so by the palace guards nearby. It is highly advised that you do not make the guards issue the warning more than twice.”

“Why not?” 

“Because upon the third, they have authorization to shoot to kill.”

Oh. 

“... I understand,” she let out a huff. “Do you know where someone like me can relax?”

The guard speaking to her glanced at her and then looked forward again, reassuming his stance. “I believe the Eastern Jade Gardens will be up to your standard. It is out of the way, quiet, and very few courtesans and nobles bother to visit it. In their words, it is ‘too subpar.’”

She glared at him. “Are you assuming that Canopians are subpar?”

“The opposite, ma’am,” he replied with a military snap but quietly so. “I believe that you are not someone here to cause problems. You have the look of someone who just wants to go home.”

She deflated. 

“... Yeah. I guess a quiet garden is better than something too loud. I’m getting a headache from listening to my … peers.”

The guard snorted. “My condolences.”

She nodded and left the scene. 

---

Allison blinked as she stared at the garden.

After taking a few more directions from palace guards standing here and there along the corridors, she finally came to see the garden in question and …

“That guard must have been high as a kite if he thought that this garden is to my standard,” she muttered. 

The question shouldn’t have been if the garden was up to her standard but if she was up to the standard of the garden, because this garden dazzled her more than the one in Magestrix’s Palace. Aesthetically pleasing, opulent and rich in the diversity of flora, and powerful in their ability to maintain such a prestigious garden as not the main but a mere “lesser” of many, it showed to her not what she had already recognized when she and the magestrix walked down the dropship ramp.

The reason why the magistracy had lost hadn’t been just because there was a capable leader in charge of the Capellan Confederation. 

The Capellan Confederation was far too big. Yes, it was the smallest Successor State, but the smallest Successor State still employed more people, maintained a bigger army, and accessed a far larger pool of resource. 

The former magestrix had thought that an alliance with a mere duchy would have been enough to put this monster down. 

Madness. 

Utter madness.

Canopus would have been hard pressed to maintain this garden of this level in open air condition with just how diverse the flora was, but the Capellans maintained four main gardens and another three lesser gardens like this one. 

She hesitantly walked over to one of the benches close to the entrance of the garden and sat down. 

It was … pleasant. 

And then she felt a bubble of laughter ripping out of her throat. It was unladylike but it was one she couldn’t help. 

Pleasant. 

She felt more pleasant being in a foreign garden than she did with her peers and fellow Canopians. 

“I know that look.”

She blinked and looked around. She quickly realized that someone had come and stood in front of her in the middle of the main path of the garden. Dressed in a black garb from head to toe and wearing a smooth white mask with just two black slits for eyes, she didn’t recognize who this was. 

Was this some sort of a secret palace guard? The magestrix had a few of those, so certainly, the Capellans would do as well, right? 

“What do you know?” she asked as she tried to calm herself down. 

“The look of the lost.”

Her heart lurched. 

Lost.

Was that what she felt? She looked down at her hands. She didn’t even bother to keep the straight backed posture that all nobles were drilled to keep. This was just a guard. Whoever he reported to would report to the chancellor anyway, and if their Maskirovka was as good as she thought they were, then they would drag up even the most forgotten memories she didn’t know about.

In that matter, it wouldn’t matter what she said, would she?

“... Yes, I may be feeling lost,” she replied with a sigh. 

“I have time, if you want to share,” the mysterious guard hummed. 

“Do you?” she asked with a snark she felt surprised by. “Aren’t you with the Maskirovka or the palace guards?” 

“I am associated with them, yes,” he replied as he widened his stance a little and put his hands on his hips. 

… It was only now but she noticed just how tight his bodysuit was above his waist. She could see the contours and curves of his muscles. The baggy pants at the waist and below limited what she could see, but her mind could easily imagine the muscles there, too. 

“Milady?”

She jolted out of her thoughts before severely regretting those thoughts. Those kinds of thoughts were going to be the death of her in a foreign court. She needed to rein herself in and -.

“It’s nothing,” she sighed. 

She looked back up, but couldn’t even make eye contact with him. 

Instead, she sighed again. “I feel like I am being offered up to the confederation as a sacrificial lamb so that the magistracy can get away with the least reasonable loss.”

The Capellan agent hummed but made no comment about her words or about how the Capellan Chancellor thought about the circumstances. 

“You are not like others,” he said instead.

“Others?”

“The Canopian nobles and courtesans.”

She snorted. “I guess,” she muttered. “I am … I guess I’m no longer a Canopian noble, though. My fief and world is now part of the Capellan Confederation, isn’t it?”

“Assuming that the confederation does not seize your titles, yes,” he replied. 

“Personally, I believe it will not happen.”

“Oh?” 

“The confederation has no reason to forcibly remove the Canopian nobles,” she replied. “Aside from the fact that this will cause unnecessary unrest on worlds without military presence. Seize my lands, though, yes,” she sighed again. “I would rather be back home right now to consolidate and centralize my rule over New Abilene instead of worrying about this concubinage that everyone assumes I have a spot in.”

“Truly?”

“I’m… interested in men, yes, but right now, I can’t even think about what my life will be like if I become the chancellor’s concubine.”

“Are you saying that becoming the chancellor’s concubine is not an honor for you?” he asked, his voice getting deeper. 

“I’m a Canopian,” she replied quickly. “It’s been ingrained into me culturally to be the head of the household. Becoming a concubine is … culturally speaking not something a Canopian looks forward to.”

“I see,” the man hummed. “Do you think it will be a problem for the other Canopian nobles?”

“Honestly?”

“If you are willing.”

“All of them are going to fail.”

That made the man lean forward. “Oh?”

“None of them have foreign relations experience. I would even wager that most of them haven’t even met a foreigner outside of the pleasure tourists and mercenaries. Those people aren’t exactly the cream of the crop, either. In their specialties perhaps?” she spoke. She realized that she was starting to rant, which was a sign of stress for her. But could her key to not becoming the concubine be in ranting the ears off of this mysterious guard? The chancellor might not like a woman who talks too much. A capable and serious man like the chancellor who grew up in a traditional household like that of House Liao definitely wouldn’t like that. “Honestly, you are better off pulling a noble from any of the Canopian border worlds. At least they are familiar with other cultures. But nobles from worlds like my New Abilene and Canopus? They are arrogant and believe themselves to be on top of the world. If the chancellor takes any of the Canopian nobles currently in his palace as his concubine, then they will try to use their ‘womanly willy’ to push themselves up the chain of command until they hold too much power for the chancellor to remove them.” 

Then she snorted. “Most of them are smart enough to worm their way into the court. You can’t advance through the Canopian court without knowing how to do at least that much. But that’s the problem for most of the courtesans; that’s all they know how to do. The ones you want to keep an eye out for the concubine position is Baroness Sophia Muhwara and Countess Shilji Ekkenii. Baroness Muhwara is both an accomplished mechwarrior and businesswoman while Countess Ekkenii is one of the few planetary governor and nobles whose realm has been growing steadily thanks to her wise investments.  If you want a concubine with actual leadership, then those two are it.”

“And if the chancellor doesn’t want such concubines?”

“You mean bedwarmers? Then he’s better off pulling a random cute noble girl from the most periphery Canopian worlds. None of those courtesans and nobles who came with Magestrix Centrella will accept being reduced to that.”

“And you?”

“Me?” she asked. “I’m sure that I won’t make a good concubine.”

“... No other words?” 

She shrugged. “I just don’t think I will,” she replied. “I have no interest in Canopian governance. All the power I want lies in my own world of New Abilene. Personally, I think that for someone to be a concubine, they need both ambition and spine, and those two things are not what I have in spare.” 

There! She said good things about someone else and then downplayed herself. Once this guard makes the report to his superiors, they will push her out of the candidate list in favor of the two she praised. 

“Is there truly no one else who would be suitable?” 

She frowned. “Not in my opinion. I am also the wrong person to ask,” she said, emphasizing the phrase to continue to lower her own grade. “I have little to no courtly experience. So little, in fact, that Magestrix Centrella needed to keep me away from most of the other noble ladies and courtesans. They would devour me alive.”

… Well, that was mostly true. She did have some experience with courtly life. It was just that she was the head of her own court back home in New Abilene, and part of her job as the duchess had been to maintain that court and prevent it breaking out into a planetary political struggle.

“And your own experience as the governing duchess of New Abilene?” he asked.

He was determined to get as much information as possible, wasn’t he? 

“All I did was continue my mother’s good policies and make low risk investments. Both Baroness Muhwara and Countess Ekkenii achieved more than I did.”

“I see. Thank you for your … candor, Duichess Mambalay.”

Just then, one of the guards at the entrance of the garden ran up to them. 

Then he bowed. To the man.

“Your Grace, there’s been an incident with the Canopians!” 

The masked guard(?) turned to face the other guard. “Explain yourself.”

“A maid working for Baroness Muhwara tried to poison Countess Ekkenii in what looks like a factional struggle, Your Grace!” 

Allison’s jaws dropped. 

What? 

The masked man sighed as he took off his mask and -.

Her jaws dropped even further. 

T-T-That was the Chancellor. 

Why was Chancellor William Liao in front of her? Why was he running around in a skintight top with a mask?! 

“It seems, Duchess Mambalay,” he spoke. And his voice. Oh, it made her shiver. It was rich and deep but without the heaviness of bigger men with such voices. “That the two candidates you pushed forward have just eliminated themselves from the race.”

Her jaws moved up and down as she tried to come up with an excuse to pushing candidate who were apparently fucking dumb enough to poison someone on a foreign world but no worlds came out. Instead, she stood up and gave him the deepest bow she could muster in her current dress. 

“I apologize, Your Grace,” she began. “It seems that my eye for character needs work if I cannot even discern the nature of my own peers.”

“Indeed,” he hummed but didn’t dismiss her or even move from the spot. “And yet, you are the only one who has not caused me grief.”

“... The only one?” she asked quietly. 

“Yes,” he hummed. “What you just heard is but one of many incidents that my guards have kept track of. Perhaps one of the most grievous, yes, but in the past week since the conclusion of the negotiation, your peers and lessers have been… extremely competitive, shall we say?”

No.

No no no no no.

The one time she needed them to be competent, they were doing this to her?! Why?! 

“Even Magestrix…?”

“Emma Centrella is the second least troublesome of your group,” he chuckled. “And this lack of cohesion and her inability to keep her own miniature court in control speaks bad of her future as the magestrix. However, that is not my problem. Something to continue to observe, yes, but ultimately not my problem.” A pause. “Please, raise your head. You cannot fault yourself for people attempting to take advantage of a situation that inspires such greed. I would say that had it not been for my own distaste for marriage, then I would have found the struggles of those women trying to become my concubine to be entertaining.”

His distaste for marriage?

“You do not wish to marry, Your Grace?” she asked as she slowly pulled up from the bow. 

“... Needs must, duchess,” he smiled.

Oh. His smile. 

It looked good on him. 

He also looked so sad. Why did he look so sad? 

She decided that changing the subject might be the better option. “Why are you walking around in your current outfit, Your Grace?” she asked. It was a blunt and forced change of topic, but the chancellor looked rather happy with it, actually. 

“Oh, this?” he grinned. “I normally exercise in these. But I decided that since most people have not seen me in this attire, I threw on a mask and decided to interview you and your peers while masquerading as an ‘eccentric Maskirovka agent.’” He grinned. That one made him look boyishly charming despite his age. “And let’s just say that everyone but two people failed the interviews.”

Two, right. 

Two-?

“Two?” she repeated in surprise. 

“Yes, two,” he nodded. “A poor maid who goes by Cathy and you, Duchess Mambalay.”

Her heart lurched.

Her?! 

“B-But I gave you bad consult,” she objected. Politely. She was still talking to the Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation. “Baroness Muhwara and Countess Ekkenii -.”

“You didn’t say anything wrong about them,” he deflected with a shake of his head. “My Maskirovka already knew most of what you told me by the time the negotiation came to an end. It is their own actions that led to their dismissal. Nothing more, nothing less. In fact, had she not acted in such a manner, Countess Ekkenii would have been a candidate on par with you.”

“But isn’t she the victim in this incident?”

He snorted. “From what I’ve read about what they have been doing, this may be a retaliatory strike for a previous incident from yesterday.”

Huh? 

Just what has been happening behind her back?! 

“What should we do about them, Your Grace?” the guard asked. 

“Director Ling should have a protocol in place. Follow her direction.”

The guard saluted and left in a hurry.

Then he turned back to her. His eyes searched her, looking for something. And totally unlike her usual self, she locked up.

“Tell me about your home, Duichess Mambalay,” he hummed. “Just what could be in New Abilene that a capable woman such as yourself is so eager to abandon an opportunity like the one in front of you.”

Her mouth opened and closed but she couldn’t speak as her mind raced a mile a minute. 

Did she have a choice? 

“I… I guess I can start with my family…?”

And she sounded so timid. 

Great first impression, Allison! Really great!