Chapter Sixty-Two: Project "Gate"

It was time to officially begin the mission to save Tsukiko's daughters. Ren and the others have already boarded the ship. It was operating with a small crew of volunteers only.

Most of the crew were servants of Lucilia's household, and a few crew members that had served under her on her military ship. Her personal guards also had their knights loaded in the hangar bay, but they were no longer alone. Now several uniquely designed knights stood next to Ren's knight, Nemesis, and Lucilia's knight, Thera.

Ren and all of the others were standing shocked, looking at the knights on display.

"Lucilia... is this?" Scarlet said, looking at the red knight in front of her.

Lucilia smiled before turning around and saying "These are your very own personal knights. Each one designated to you. Of course they aren't fine-tuned to your personal settings yet, but that will be done soon."

"Our personal knights?" Eleonora said in front of a white knight.

"Why...why did you do this?" Tyler asked, standing in front of a blue knight.

"Technically, I didn't do this; I asked Mae to do it." Lucilia said.

"But why?" Lily asked, standing in front of a purple knight.

"Simply, Ren trusts each of you wholeheartedly, which means I can trust you, at least until you give me a reason not to. So I worked with Mae to create these special knights, each taking inspiration from mine and Ren's knights. We will operate as our own covert unit, not under the control of the Volarian Military. Instead, we react and operate wherever we want." Lucilia explained.

"So we're our own force?" Eleonora asked.

"Kind of... I guess you can call us an "off the books" squad, but we will receive support from my sisters Aurelia, Sienna, and Octavia and their forces if they are needed, and I also have a few others sending us support in secret." Lucilia explained. "I still need to think of what to call us officially, but that's a future problem."

Laelli looked confused and asked "What about us? Do we get a knight?"

"Soon, you three still need to learn a lot about our technology; we will have Mae let you guys run simulations and mock battles until you start to get the hang of things, but there is one major issue with this..." Lucilia said.

"What's that?" Sthora asked.

"We don't have a knight that can...accommodate Ashastha's height or your wings, Sthora." Lucilia explained.

"Oh..." Sthora replied with a disappointed expression.

Ashastha also looked disappointed but kept that feeling to herself.

"All of this...it's impressive, but when did you start planning all of this?" Ren asked.

"Since the party where you first met my father..." Lucilia said. "I knew he would act against you, so I needed some sort of deterrent. So after you won the fight in the arena, luckily you earned the respect of some high-profile people in Volaria who assisted us in starting this. One thing led to another, and here we are now."

Ren had a smile on his face as he looked at Lucilia. She did all of this, created a small faction with support from some Volarian people, and ordered the creation of several knights for his friends—all in an effort to stop her father from acting against him.

"I love you, Lucilia." Ren said, looking at Lucilia, who blushed immediately. "

Lucilia smiled and jumped into Ren's arms, asking him to "Praise me more! Praise me more!"

Ren patted her head and enjoyed the pure happiness on her face before looking at all of the new knights before asking "So since we are our own group now, what's the plan?"

"What do you mean?" Lucilia asked.

"I mean, if we are acting on our own, what's our stance on the empire itself? Are we allies, enemies, or neither?" Ren asked; he needed to know where exactly they stood when it came to the empire.

"That's...to be determined." Lucilia said.

"I see..." Ren said before diving into his own thoughts "There are both positives and negatives to being our own group. Positively, we can act however we want without permission from the empire, but negatively, if we do anything against the empire, the empire can order us and any supporters we have killed. The question is: how far does Lucilia's reach extend... and what does she have planned for the future?

Ren kept quiet about his concerns just for the moment, since right now wasn't really the time. That wasn't a problem as of right now but would be a future one.

After seeing the knights, Ren went to walk around the halls. Lucilia and Ashastha followed him closely since all of the others were getting their knights calibrated.

"Lucilia, Asha, quick question." Ren said as he turned around, looking at Lucilia and Ashastha.

"Yes Ren?" Lucilia asked.

"First, Asha, if we do end up becoming enemies with the empire down the road, what will you do? Now that your people are now being supported by the empire, it can't be easy to decide who you will side with." Ren asked.

Ashastha held her hand to her chin before smiling and saying "It doesn't matter."

Ren looked at her confusingly "What do you mean?"

"I didn't side with the empire, at least not yet. I wanted to discuss things with you two before I made my final decision, but now that I know where you two stand, I, along with the people of Versaerth, stand with you, Ren." Ashastha said.

"The Empire will be able to help your people a lot better than I could...why place their fates with me?" Ren asked.

"Because I know you, and you will do everything you can to avoid war coming to my people. You don't want people who aren't involved to be harmed, and I trust you for that reason in this endeavor. The Empire wanted my people to fight their wars for them. This is a better solution." Ashastha said.

"Will Laelli and Sthora agree?" Ren asked.

"Without question." Ashastha stated.

Ren nodded before saying "Thank you, Asha...for trusting me with your people's lives...I honestly don't know where we go from here, but we'll figure it out...together."

Ashastha smiled upon hearing his response.

"Now, Lucilia, a quick question for you." Ren said.

"Yes?" Lucilia responded.

"Once we rescue Tsukiko's daughters, what's next?" Ren asked.

"I have a few ideas; I just have to think about a few more things. Once we save them, though, things should come together for our next move." Lucilia said.

Ren nodded to her response and kept walking down the hallway. He wanted to ask her more questions, but right now wasn't the time.

Ren assumed that Tsukiko promised her support for their group if they saved her daughters; he also knew her sisters Aurelia, Sienna, and Octavia were also supporting them...but who else...and he also wondered how the emperor would react to such a move.

Ren walked to his room while Lucilia and Ashastha headed to the bridge to prepare for the space flight. Ren reached over to a tablet and read the personnel list on the ship.

Fighters were Ren, Lucilia, Scarlet, Eleonora, Lily, Tyler, Sakura, Serenity, Ceti, Aleyda, Silili, and one more fight Ren didn't recognize named "Elesis".

The engineers were Mae and her team.

Others included Ashastha, Sthora, Laelli, and Ivy

Totaling forty-three people on the ship, mostly engineers and ship staff. If they found their way into a major firefight, things could go bad quickly. They would need a bigger ship and more troops to even stand a chance in a big fight.

That's when a thought popped into Ren's head, but he decided to ignore it for now and save it for later.

All that mattered at this moment was rescuing Tsukiko's daughters.

*On Volaria*

Octavia was in her room, lying on her back, looking up at her ceiling with a giant smile on her face.

"Oh, the future is...interesting." Octavia said to herself, or so she thought.

"What do you mean, sister?"

Octavia turned her head and saw her sister Sienna walk into her room.

Octavia smiled and said "Tell me, Sienna...what did you think of Ren?"

Sienna was surprised when asked this question: "I think he's strong, even for someone from earth. I also think he truly loves Lucilia, but why do you ask?"

Sienna grimaced at hearing this before she looked outside of Octavia's door and saw nobody around, then closed the door.

"What did you see?" Sienna asked.

"I saw Ren sitting on the empire's throne, hand in hand with Lucilia...but that's not all. He was surrounded by other women, some I recognized and some I don't...but even more interesting..." Octavia said before pausing.

"What?" Sienna asked.

Octavia smiled and told her "Nothing that we need to worry about right now."

Sienna didn't buy it but didn't want to argue with her sister "Alright then..."

Meanwhile, Octavia was remembering what she saw; an image of her sitting on Ren's lap flashed in her mind with Sienna right next to them.

Octavia laughed and thought to herself "The future is so interesting...and Ren, you're the one making it so intriguing."

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