Territory 18

12. Convergence in the Homeland

According to the records, the Emperor married the Empress and Imperial Consort Abigail when he was 16. It was rumored at that time the Emperor's real love was actually Consort Abigail, but the Consort's birth right was not as good as the Empress, and thus the Empress became the main wife. When the Emperor had already ascended the throne, he met a young lady known as Lady Marilyn Arcand who became an important part of his life. At the age of 25, he married the young lady who was 18 at that time, and she was the mother of Prince Alexius and Princess Aioria who unfortunately died after giving birth to Princess Aioria.

Alexius being Alexius was extremely reluctant to attend his father's wedding, and had to force Princess Donnia to get people to attempt to lift him onto the transport vessel before actually walking on himself.

Just as the transport vessel took off, in less than an hour, the alarms rang. The terrorists were attacking, hoping to catch the military unprepared immediately after sending off the Vicereine. Hopping onto Celestine, Reia noticed a sudden ease in using Celestine.

"Mr Leon! Your alterations are great!" Reia said excitedly over the communicator.

"Ah, glad you like it. It took me and Amelia quite an amount of work," Mr Leon was clearly happy with the praise Reia was giving him.

Heading out, Reia knew she was going to have to do well. Eliminating her enemies out in the field, she felt exhilarated with the new additions to Celestine. Tugging hard against the handles, she swung her sword about, and plunged it into the joints of her enemies' machines.

By the time the enemy retreated, Reia was still overflowing with energy. Returning to Hangar 01, she sat on the cushioned bench remaining on standby while the staff replenished Celestine. Taking her bottle, she sagged leftwards and lowered her head onto the bench, sipping the water like a baby drinking from a milk bottle.

On and off, the enemies attacked, as Reia watched snippets of the wedding at her free time. As reported, the girl was just sixteen turning seventeen, but she was beautiful all the same. Feeling slightly jealous of the new Consort's sheltered life, Reia threw herself into work.

Five days later, Reia had already fought in eight small battles, three medium scale battles, and a single long drawn large scale battle, adding fourteen won battles under her belt, perfectly defending Territory 18, as new of the other Territories losing some ground to the attacks that were placed against them especially Territory 17, with the Free Nations Federations main operating base situated there.

As she had expected, she was tired. Being continually on duty for five days straight, fighting battle after battle with at most three hours of break between. Laying down on 'her' spot on the bench which became 'her' spot over the span of the five days since she hogged it during the breaks, Reia closed her eyes for a while wondering when will Alexius return so that she could return to her more or less normal life of a school student.

The new Consort was indeed a blushing new bride. Watching the reruns of the wedding, she found Prince Alexius scowling as the ceremony went on. It was only when the camera was focused on him, then he revealed a brilliant smile as a Prince should. As the media was trying to earn some profit using the wedding, they produced many specials, introducing people to the Consorts of the Emperor, and his children, giving the current situation of the Imperial Palace, like which Consort was expecting and when she was due, and their predictions of the new addition of the new Consort, what rank was she to be given, where will she live and all sorts.

As the broadcasting went on, Reia fell into a tired slumber.

It was another two days later, which the rank of the new Consort was released to the media. She was given the rank of Third Rank Imperial Consort, and the people were to address her as Imperial Consort Third Rank Catherine ve Azalea. Unable to bring herself to smile at this new due to her extreme fatigue, all Reia wished was for a bed and a proper sleep of at least seven hours. Instead over the past few days, all she got were just battles that lasted seven hours. Sitting in the cockpit of Celestine, Reia struggled to keep her eyes open.

"Sleeping in the cockpit?" came the smooth voice of an extreme familiarity, which lowered all her guard, and made her think that there would be no more battles.

"What?" the girl asked in a coarse voice, in her state of extreme tiredness.

"Are you not going to come out and welcome us back, Miss Reia?" a young girl's voice asked.

"No..." she shook her head, "Sleep..." she trailed off, and her eyes closed.

"Sigh, and there she goes into lala land," the Prince sighed over the communicator. Jumping down, the Prince got the staff to open the cockpit, and they retrieved the deeply sleeping Reia.

"Reia has been on duty ever since the day Your Highnesses left, please excuse her behavior," Miss Amelia said with an apologetic tone.

When Reia awoke, she was immediately dragged to attend an address by Princess Donnia. "The Emperor will hear of this good news," came Princess Donnia's voice, "You all have done well protecting Territory 18 in my absence. You have my gratitude," the Princess nodded at the troops lined up neatly before her, with Reia still drowsily standing at the corner of the contingent.