“Welcome to Castle Academy’s 44th Student Council Roundtable meeting.”
All the members of the Student Council were present and the server was temporarily disconnected for “maintenance” kicking out all players to prevent any unwanted surprises. The roundtable in the council room had been replaced with a rectangular table, so that the student council members sat on either side, and I would be facing our guest.
Before the meeting I warned the student council members not to misbehave or lose control of their emotions because the man whom they would meet had the authority to order me to delete them, if he felt like it. Of course, I had my own feelings towards our Prime Minister, such as wanting to beat him close to death, but I needed to hold myself too just as I had asked the others to.
Rina was in charge of the presentation that I had made. She was also maintaining her total surveillance of the academy too, though of course all functions of the academy had been suspended, all the halls and rooms in the three identical towers were empty, and students were sent to their homes within the academy’s walls and there was a curfew in place. Only the welcoming party was left outside. Why wasn’t I outside as part of the welcoming party? Well, although I could contain my anger I couldn’t really pretend to be happy to see him either.
The large gates to the Castle Academy’s walls, which had hitherto not existed since the intention was never to let anyone through, opened and a black carriage drawn by two horses entered, along with some guards from the City Guard.
Soon enough there was a knock on the door and the top performing student opened the door letting in two people. The prime minister and a smartly dressed woman. I half-expected it to be the PM’s wife but I froze as soon as I glanced in her direction.
Chamberlain took off black gloves and reached towards me to shake my hand.
“Mr. Raynar, I am impressed by what you have achieved so far. I am looking forward to…”
Chamberlain noticed I was looking in her direction and then smiled.
“Oh, but of course. Some re-introductions are in order. Mr Raynar, this is Helen Baker, my trusty secretary. And Helen, I am sure you have already seen Mr Raynar in your capacity as a subject recruitment agent for the Ministry of International Trade and Industry at St Maynard’s Hospital.”
“Yes, sir. I was associated with Mr. Raynar very well.”
There was no attempt to look away from me and her voice sounded much more cold than I had remembered it. Did she perhaps not consider me as human anymore or had I always been a potential test subject to be honey trapped into this project from the start?
There was no attempt to look away from me, no guilt, and so after the initial shock I too calmed down. Of course, after I had gotten here I had found some pictures of Helena, the nurse who had looked after me in those final months of my life. Though it wasn’t just me who was confused in that room because Helena looked almost exactly like Lain. They looked at me for an answer but that would have to wait.
“It’s been a while. Let’s hope we can work together.”
“Yes, Raph.. I mean yes, Mr. Raynar.”
There was so much I wanted to ask her, like if she had intended to save my life, but this was not the occasion and Chamberlain reminded us of it.
“While, I don’t want to get in the way of this fateful reunion. I think there are matters ahead that I’d like to hear about from you.”
“Very well Prime Minister. We shall begin. Please have a seat both of you…. The people in this room are my faithful lieutenants, and they will give us a brief on the current situation of various aspects of the new administrative district of Britain, Jerusalem. If there are no objections to this plan then we will go ahead…”
I took a seat and looked towards Arthur who got up and started speaking through his unmoving visor. As he did a report suddenly popped into existence in front of each of us. I decided that the reports would have to be on paper because they are easier to sift through during a meeting. A series of screens with the same image with graphs and information from the report appeared floating all around us. The lights dimmed in the room except for the tables which were backlit allowed people to read anything that was placed on it.
“Hello I am Arthur Pendragon, as you are aware I am in charge of information and security. As such I have been the main means of contact between the Castle Academy Student Council and the PM’s newly formed MITI, or Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The report I’ll be discussing will be on outside interference to the Jerusalem virtual administrative district.”
The screen started to display a video montage of me and others trying unsuccessfully to break the door to enter the inner chamber during the White Dragon’s subjugation quest.
“The report contains the technical details on how I tracked the source but I’ll keep it short.”
