Scavenged Restoration 56 (Patreon)

Commissioned by RoyalTwinFang

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 56

-VB-

Things changed. 

Things always changed. 

Just as her life changed when her parents gave her the title of countess, so to did her life change when she took the gamble to deprioritize her world and her people to seek … love. 

It made her feel vapid. 

Made her feel weak. 

She had always looked down upon women who fled their responsibilities in search of love, or because of love, but now that she was here and experiencing it herself… she owed them an apology. 

‘But am I really running away from my responsibility?’ she asked herself as she stared at the small gathering of noble ladies from across the Capellan Confederation. 

The one that stood out among them and interested her the most was none other than High Lady Kamea Arano. Not only was she a previously foreign ruler but she also submitted herself and her people to the Capellan Confederation.

It was a story that was a mirror of hers. Here she was, a concubine from the conquered province while High Lady Arano, who was a rank higher than her, was not the concubine and even tending to her needs. 

Because things happened, and Allison was pregnant with the chancellor’s first child. 

It was only confirmed a few weeks ago, but it changed so much about the palace intrigue that it left her feeling jittery and stressed. 

Whereas before she was a foreign concubine, she was now a foreign concubine with the chancellor’s baby. Servants who have been cold but not unkind before became … almost warm? There was a lot of envy as well from many noble ladies who came to the palace for one reason or another, but ultimately, they kept their distance. 

That was what she found out. 

In Canopus, competition among women was fierce. It wouldn’t be hard to spot women of all social ranks fighting within not just their own ranks but those above and below them to maintain their position and climb higher. While assassination and poisoning weren’t rare, there were worse ways to ruin a woman. And this competitive nature was all throughout Canopian society, though it was decidedly less so in the edges of the magistracy than at its heart on Canopus itself. 

Here in Sian, it was a different kind of competition that both women and men played for: the chancellor’s favor. It was not an overestimation to say that the entire confederation moved in lock step under the chancellor’s direction, and the past decade showed exactly how efficient that could be when the culture of a nation and its people were aligned to such centralized authority. Here, rising through the ranks depended more on measurable results than beating one’s rival. 

Because, under Chancellor William’s rule, there was always room for a capable individual. 

And the chancellor considered her to be capable, if her palace job as one of the lesser ministers of the Department of Citizens was any indication. 

It also led to her position as one of the leading noble ladies of the palace, which came with the expectation to hold tea parties and the like.

Like right now. 

And High Lady Kamea Arano had been dragged into this because, well, it was expected of her to greet the future mother of the confederation’s future heir. 

Lots of expectations.

Lots of responsibilities. 

… It was a different kind of stress from developing her duchy, but it was one she gladly worked with because … staying with William was worth it. 

“So what brought you to Sian this time, High Lady Arano?” she asked the only other woman who held a similar rank. 

Kamea sighed. “If I have to be honest, then it’s to ask the chancellor for help.”

“Oh?”

“The half of the old families who used to make the political elite of the Aurigan Coalition do not like the constant inflow of Capellan migrants and are fighting me. The other half are making demands about allocating more funds for their planet’s development since they were welcoming.”

Allison knew about that, partially because that was also what was happening back in the New Abilene Commonality. As part of the integration program for New Abilene, the confederation moved many people with skills and experience needed to further develop New Abilene worlds up to a certain standard. This program hired the same people to upgrade spaceports, militarize and harden certain communication equipment, and build defenses. However, many of these individuals were people who weren’t wanted back in their world, which meant that after their part in the program was over, most of them chose to stay. This didn’t include the new citizens who gained their citizenship during the war. The chancellor gave those new citizens lands, and then gave them even more land if they were able to work together to develop the lands further. It was why her world of New Abilene experienced a consistent 5% population growth for the past two years. 

But, like what High Lady Arano said, it was causing conflicts. 

“Is it because of culture…?” she asked. 

Kamea shook her head. “Partially. All Capellans will follow higher authority until they see something that runs counter to what they know about how the confederation functions. The old elites want something else, and the new Capellan migrants stand against them, which is causing ... tensions."

Some of the ladies tittered. She glanced at them and noticed Lady Arano doing the same. 

And for an instance, she felt a connection with the Aurigan lady. 

A kinship.

They were women who wanted to do their jobs well for their people… and all other women around them looked like bitches who do nothing. They weren’t helpful, and all they did every day was gossiping and scheming. 

Because, of course, she couldn’t get away from scheming.

“Do you ladies have something to add?” she asked them.

That made them shut up very quickly… except for one. 

“Perhaps,” Yolanda Ling, the youngest granddaughter of the current Maskirovka Director, smiled. Dressed in a monocolor Beijing-styled cheongsam, she was basically an agent of the Maskirovka without being a member. Because she was here in this tea party at the behest of her Maskirovka grandmother. However, this wasn’t to say that Yolanda was an unnecessarily or stifling member of the party. No, if anything, she was one of the most helpful ladies. “While it is normal for everyone to talk about work, is it truly the appropriate topic for today?” she asked coyly. “After all, all of us got together for something else, didn’t we?”

Allison bit her lips. “Yes, well-.”

“So how is he?”

This time, it was Kamea who froze.

Oh. Right. 

She hadn’t been told what this was about. Or why the ladies looked like hungry hyenas. 

“I -.”

“Is he … big?” 

Allison felt her face heat up. “I would rather talk about work,” she whined. 

“Oohh,” another lady smiled. “So he is big, isn’t he? I mean, it was kind of known among the ladies…”

“How was it known?!” 

“Our chancellor likes to run for his exercise when he isn’t practicing with his battlemech,” Yolanda smirked. “And on very hot days… let’s just say that he takes his clothes off, and the best exercise attire here on Sian are all skintight.”

She felt her face heating up. A lot.

“It just … kind of happened, alright?” she whined. “We were watching a movie -!”

“And it happened on a movie night?!” someone squealed. 

She covered her face. 

She wanted to run away. 

She wanted to run far away. 

“But it couldn’t have been just one night, right?” Yolanda asked this time, and Allison threw her erstwhile ally a half-hearted glare. “I mean… everyone knows the chancellor and you have been getting it on.”

“How does everyone know?!” Allison asked hoarsely. 

“The chancellor looks slightly dazed the day after,” the may-as-well-have-been-Maskirovka Ling curled her lips. “Happier, too. He smiles, you know? You make him smile, and I think that’s very very cute.”

… This felt more and more like an interrogation than a tea party. 

Oh wait.

That’s what tea parties were. A very polite interrogation. 

And these hungry lionesses digging for information were her interrogators. 

“He’s… very well built,” she allowed herself to say. 

“Pfft, everyone knows that, dearie,” the oldest among them all, a local Capellan noble lady who looked like she was in her 50’s, tutted. “Back when he was a younger man, though… woof. You should’ve been here. There were women and men lined up to take a peek at him wherever he went. Too bad his sister fucked it all up for us.”

“Ah…?”

“Ten years without that eye candy!” she bemoaned. “Can you imagine what it was like for us? Left thirsty and dry for a full decade!” 

Allison wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear this any longer.

But then again… 

She remembered what it was like to embrace Chan… no, what it was like to embrace William for the first time. 

When he wasn’t sure, he was very gentle. Almost too gentle at times. 

But once he got a rhythm of what she wanted… he was a monster. 

She blushed as she remembered how roughly he made love to her. 

“Ooohhh, what are you thinking about?” Yolanda crooned as she leaned forward. 

“Nothing,” Allison said quickly. 

But the grins and smiles didn’t go away, and the intense interrogation continued. 

-VB-

William glanced down at where his concubine and other ladies of the court had gathered, and Pavel Ridzik, recently returned from Necromo, stared at the chancellor. 

The man had grown more relaxed. 

This was good. 

While Liaos tended to live long lives, they also tended to go mad if they were under too much stress, even if they didn’t start off as a madman. 

And maybe that was what turned Max into what he was towards the end of his life. The loss of his first wife, the ever constant pressure of the state, and the fact that he was expected to solve problems that couldn’t be solved with the resources at hand…

“I have a concern I wish to speak to you about, chancellor,” he said once the naval report came to an end. 

William turned to look at him. “What is it?”

“... It’s about Project Guardian.”

The chancellor paused for a second before he put his elbows on the table and tented his hands in front of his lower face. 

“Oh?” he asked. 

“I find it to be … dangerous,” he clarified. “Giving it any kind of authority without human control is…”

“It would be dangerous if it were any other, yes,” William replied. “But its authority will be, for now, limited to the Necromo System and won’t be allowed to access jumpships or warships. But that’s not what you are worried about.”

Pavel took in a deep breath. 

“What if it betrays us?”

The chancellor’s eyes … smiled. 

“Is there something I don’t know?” he asked the chancellor. 

“Perhaps,” he began. “But maybe you should, seeing as you are the Strategic Director of the confederation.”

Then William pulled out a handheld computer, which wasn’t a noteputer. It was sleek. Slim. Glassy. He turned it on, pressed down on the bottom center of the soft blue light screen, and then handed it over to him.

As he received the keyboard-less computer, he saw files opening up in an aesthetically pleasing manner. 

“These are the relevant files about Project Guardian. Take a look, but I want you to focus on the summaries offered by our newly designated ‘intelligence software engineers.’”

And he did. 

By the time he left the chancellor’s office, he felt slightly more assured than before. 

‘... After hundreds of tests, we have confirmed that Project Guardian has not only been aligned with humanity but aligned with the Greater Capellan Confederation. With how complicated its codes are and with its inability to alter its own codes, we can be assured that once its programming is locked in, it will serve as a true Guardian of Necromo instead of the Reaper that we had originally feared it to be. But it is recommended that no copies of its core program are made and shipped over FTL due to the inherent incompatibilities between hyperspace and inorganic intelligence until such a time that we can devise an organic core for it.’