Kismet’s Tale

      After speaking to Rene and Kristine. He got out of the Academy, traveled to the Webman Company where Rigel was. Driving to Webman Company, located in the business district of the city, he found a parking spot for his car. He got out and walked the sidewalk until he reached the Webman Company’s building.

“Sir Tomas,” one of the clerks greeted. “It’s an honor, Sir. Are you here for Sir Rigel?”

“I am,” Mavin followed the clerk. “Where’s he?”

“On the second floor, I shall guide you, Sir.”

The clerk started up the stairs. Plain walls, minimal decoration, and booths containing their office workers who were busily typing on their typewriters. The Webman Company was a minimalistic company that favored practicality over overbearing decoration. Above the first floor, the decoration changed with pictures and portraits of their dreams. On one big wall was the transcontinental dream. Mavin found himself next to a door. The clerk pointed to this room. Mavin nodded in thanks to the clerk, and knocked on the room.

Rigel opened up the room. Hair disheveled and eye bags under his eyes. His clothes were creased and there was a stain of coffee around the white collar of his shirt.

“Oh, Sir,” Rigel said weakly. He opened the door and let Mavin in. On his table were documents and folders. Mavin cleared the stuff on the couches and inspected one of the documents.

“It looks like you’re having quite the time.”

Rigel laughed weakly. “I would love not to have quite the time. Nonetheless, work must be done.”

“Hmm, do you need help?”

“Help,” Rigel examined the folders and documents. “I don’t think I should let you help, Sir.”

“Oh, good luck then,” Mavin said without hesitation.

Rigel gave quite a saddened look. “Well, uh, what are you here for?”

“They gave your own room. I had thought we would have our own company.”

“We do have our own, Sir. It’s just that the company is usually so busy and Old Fred doesn’t allow anyone to enter. Mimi’s helping so as you can see, I’m alone in this room.”

“How are the transactions?”

“Fine mostly, I won’t make the same mistakes. Most of these documents are just copies of copies. Most of the important documents stay with the company and are guarded by the  Hounds.”

“Good. You don’t know how stupid the nobles here or desperate they can be. Then again,” Mavin inclined his legs on the couch, “it’s not like you guys need my help.”

“I am glad that you are confident in our work, Sir.”

“Can you stop with that ‘Sir’ thing. We’ve grown together, Rigel.”

“Afraid not, maybe in the Ancestral House, but I mustn't let anyone misunderstand the hierarchy between us.”

Professional, Mavin thought. “And years ago you were still peeing on ants for fun and getting drop kicked by Mimi on ponds.”

Rigel snorted. “Those are fun days where things were still simple.”

“Oh please, we’ve grown old enough to understand our life in Lazon wasn’t so simple.”

“True,” Rigel looked up, his eyes wandering to the past. “I wouldn’t have known that I'd end up with this kind of work. Mimi’s even surprised when he saw me with a suit and briefcase of papers instead of a rifle.”

“You fought, didn’t you?”

“Only three weeks during the Fran’s attack on our borders. I was taking some important documents to Old Fred when they attacked. There was no time to think about their numbers so I had to join in and manned the emplacements.”

He looked far. “I talked with General Steelheart two days ago. When I told him of what I did, he looked at me with a rather sad expression. The General, he’s a good man, and we’ve seen him in the south of our region, but if there’s one thing that he doesn’t like about us.”

“That he loathes when children go to war,” Mavin said. “I’ve been in contact with him and when he saw me back then. He almost regretted the deal with us. Old Fred and I took him around Lazon back then, introducing us as a people. He understood our ways and customs and cultures. He had read about us and yet he remained firm in the belief that children shouldn’t go to war. That we shouldn’t throw them into the fray of war.”

Rigel leaned on his lap. “I’ve thought of it as well. When I saw the ways people outside of Lazon treat their children. I thought to myself how barbaric we still are despite the advances in our lifestyle. We keep the baptism and many of our people still have an unflinching belief that we should mend our ways.”

“Do you want it gone? That baptism.”

“No, as much as I want to keep children out of war and battle. They must learn how to fight themselves. That’s why we have our young being trained just in case a war like that happened again. We survive not because we have guns and artillery; but because we have people who know how to fight.”

Mavin stared at Rigel's face. His cousin had been wondering about their customs and beliefs ever since he sat on the throne of Lazon. Though there are many benefits in having a people that could fight and are well-armed. The idea that Lazon still had that ferocity scares the neighbouring lands. Lazon has shown in the war that its fangs are still intact. Not only that Lazon can sustain itself and have many allies outside of the continent. There are many who fear that one day Lazon would succeed from the Empire and form its own nation flying only one flag instead of two.

Their fear was understandable, and Mavin knew that his cousin was going to make sure that their awe and fear for Lazon was going to stay. Make them truly believe that they would rather be friends with Lazon than become its enemies. It was beneficial that Lazon’s strengths are bared to the world. To be strong was a virtue.

Mavin didn’t dare to imagine what the things that had to be processed before any work could be done. Rigel’s face showed the burden of his responsibility as the successor of the role that Old Fred held.

“It looks like I was bothering you.”

“Not really,” Rigel picked  a snack laid on the table. A coffee candy that he threw on his mouth. “It’s nice seeing you lately, Sir. Especially when you have been rather well. If our people could see you right now, they’d be happy that you reclaim some of the light in your eyes.”

“I’ve been hearing that from people, lately.”

“It’s hard not to notice, Sir.”

“I swear this ‘Sir’ of yours is pissing me off.”

“Sorry, I have to follow it here,” he grinned. The bastard’s going to continue it huh.

“I’m sure that there are many opinions about how I look. Not that I complain about it. It’s true that I have my face frozen solid. But the war...it gave me some hope that things can change. Not that the bloodshed gave life to me. No, I rather not spend time in the field again. You heard what happened in Flost?”

“Yes, Old Fred told me about what you and that Miss did. Miss Wilde, she’s odd, isn’t she?” His face told him that he wanted to ask something.

“What is it?”

“She scares me.”

“She’s Lady Death of her country. It’s natural that you’d be afraid of her. She could kill you six hundred meters away and you wouldn’t know about it.”

“How did you defeat her?” He was eager to know. That rabid curiosity that everyone held.

Mavin told Rigel of how they fought. How time passed and how he finally got her. He thought that he had killed her right then. To his surprise she was still alive and breathing according to the intelligence officers. For two years she became a propaganda model. Running around three alliances acting as a model of bravery for men and women. She had hidden her identity, wore a wig, and dressed so differently that it  was hard to identify her without it.

Mavin had heard of many rumors about Natalya. He mostly ignored anything about the Lady Bellatrix and the Lady Angelus. They were a pair that have reached quite a level of respect.

“She’s...no wonder she doesn’t feel like the usual Lady.”

“She’s more than that,” Mavin said. He could feel his face hardened. “I fought with her in Flost and I know that she’s dangerous. She hides behind that mask, but you shouldn’t treat her like the usual lady. No woman that goes to war stays like the usual lady. It’s best if you assume that she’s a soldier more than a woman.”

“I’ve been trying to strike a conversation,” he said. “She doesn’t seem to interact with anyone other than, Sir and Old Fred. I guess it’s hard to speak with someone who usually isn’t around the Ancestral House.”

“She’s busy nowadays,” Mavin inclined the back of his head on the couch. “You know how it is about people here in regards to Fransians and Noradians. Old Fred told me about how she had to inquire with a bank about her pension.”

“That’s right,” Rigel opened his eyes. “I had to deliver our seal on one of her papers. I think Old Fred personally handed the recommendations to the Imperial Bank so she can receive her pension here.”

“Oh, I admire that,” Mavin said. “That reminds me, I never really bothered with my pay and pension.”

“Ah, I took care of that. Most of it is going to your account, Sir. I think you should check it once in a while so that they won’t keep sending letters about your account’s inactivity. Old Fred keeps sending me, ah!” Rigel crawled out of the crouch and took a letter.

“A bank’s notice,” Mavin reached out to one of the pens on the table and wrote his signature on him. It was rather odd to Mavin, having not taken care of any documents and papers for a while now. “I used to write signatures all day and create documents. Do you even have your own Clerk?”

“Mimi helps me. Old Fred says that I should do most of my work for now since it builds calloused with my fingers.”

“Do you not have a typewriter?” Mavin scanned the room.

“Mimi uses it.”

“And you don’t have a spare?”

“Eh, they are kinda weighty, especially the cast-iron ones.”

“They only weigh 35 pounds,” Mavin threw a glare. “Don’t give me that ‘they are kinda weighty’ shit on me.”

“No, it’s more that Old Fred wants me to keep it that way for now. He does have his own typewriter as well. But like I said he wants me to have calluses on my fingers. I am not that weak.”

“Says the man who finds typewriters tiring,” Mavin doubted. “Anyway, if Old Fred told you to do that, then be my guess.”

Mavin leaned forward. “Tell me truthfully, how are the things in high society?”

The lax manner that he conducted himself disappeared. There was sternness in his eyes and face. “Everything’s going smoothly. The tech that we want from the Holmians is going to be delivered straight Jorvi Sir. They’ll use the lake as a landing point and deliver the Vulcan Frames.”

“Good. Does Old Fred know about what’s happening in the East?”

“We have ideas on the demikins because of what the Emperor told them. Sir, I think they might use the nest south of the mouth of pustalo to flank the Empire. We can’t go in there unless we have the flyers deliver a payload and drop the storm vanguards directly to the nest.”

“Are they eager?”

“They...are willing to pay the price. Most of them are being trained to operate the machines with their prosthetic. The Emperor seems to have known what we are planning as well.”

“I see,” Mavin leaned back. “We’ll destroy those vermins south of the Empire. It’s a price that we need to pay. We cannot allow those pests to still remain. They are an insult to the good people of this Empire.”

“As you have wished, Sir.”

There was a certain darkness in his face. It was the darkness that Rigel had known the moment the young master became the Marcher Lord of Lazon back then. That cruel and calculating Lord who loathed the demifiends was before him again.