Reconnecting

The day passed quite quickly, and in no time, it was dinner time, though Felipe really spent his time showering and giving himself a long well, done bath; he didn't miss anything; in other words, he was smelling like soap.

Felipe went down to the dinner table, dressed in a formal dress tailored to him. Finding clothing that fits him was hard, so he would always travel for all occasions possible.

The table this time was short; the meal was only for the two of them, though Felipe was astonished by seeing another person, not someone he knew but a pregnant woman in exquisite clothing. It was Henry's wife.

"Enchanted." She said politely.

"You royal highness." Felipe didn't want to create problems; he would keep it polite.

"…Please, call me Julliete; you are an excellent friend of my husband." She said elegantly as she sat down.

"Yes, please, we pass honorifics," Henry said as he shook his head while smiling. They all were speaking in French now due to the lady's arrival.

"Okay then… It is a pleasure to meet you, Julliete." Felipe said with a bit of awkwardness. "Congratulations." Felipe didn't have to state the obvious.

"Thank you." She said with a smile.

Juliet is 19 and 2 years younger than Henry; nevertheless, she is pregnant with her first child.

She was not from a distinguished family but a commoner. Henry fell in love with her when he was studying in France. She is also white, which surprisingly was received well by the Haitians.

"I dread the day when I have to have my first child." Felipe chuckled as he sympathized with Henry.

"I am indeed terrified," Henry said in a light laughing mood.

Felipe smiled as he saw the multiple servants arrive with the dishes and long pieces of cloth.

"Ah. I made sure this dinner will be a dinner of kings." Henry said with pride.

"…" Felipe just smiled; he wouldn't really care about food; he had spent enough time hungry to ever care what he was eating; as long as it was good, Felipe would not argue about it.

The servants slowly opened the trays and showed the beauty of a stake and many other fancy prepared things. The aroma invited every inch of his nose cavity, making him feel as if he had already savoured it despite not even taking a bite.

'Indeed for kings.' Felipe could not argue much as the gravy was calling him. 'Hypocrite.' Felipe accused himself as he no longer cared and looked anxiously for the host to begin so he could also start digging.

All in all, it felt fabulous, maybe because Felipe has just been through a death experience recently, and it has made reconnecting with Henry much more enjoyable; even though the battle of Meta happen more than a month ago, he still has it clear in his mind.

He remembered that the first time he pulled an unconscious person was Henry. He dragged him below a burning trunk to keep him away from rain and maintain him warm; questionable choice, yet it worked. The last time Felipe had to pull unconscious bodies was from the people that survived a battle in which the odds of winning were against him. Some of those people are dining in other rooms.

He remembered how they devoured a crocodile in the middle of the night, much more different than what happened there. He didn't have to kill the lamb or had to roast it. He then realized that it was not as good as the crocodile meat. The lamb might be a king's meal, but the croc was an Emperor's meal.

Julliete excused herself halfway done; Felipe could not blame her; her moods would change due to pregnancy and her appetite.

"Henry, have you ever considered making Haiti a colonial power?" Felipe asked as he was finishing the last of his dinner.

"What do you mean?"

"Colonize Africa, we colonize Africa." Felipe said, "But I need your help."

"Hahaha, so you think it will be easier to manage and legitimize because my people are black when we create a colony in Africa?" Henry looked at Felipe with a severe eye.

"... Yes?"

"…"

"…"

"What is the plan?" Henry considered and quickly decided to jump on board.

Slavery was not a racial thing until very recently compared to human history. The same races would constantly enslave themselves due to debts, criminality…etc. Primarily including Africans, they would mostly hand over their own people to the slave traders in exchange for guns and other weapons.

Plus, they were not speaking of slavery but of conquest and Colonialism.

"A joint venture, of course. Even though my empire has everything, I am not satisfied." Felipe said.

"…" Henry nodded. He could not care about what Felipe was thinking about; after all, he also wanted more.

"The expansionism of your country, plus the expansionism of my Empire." Felipe explained, "Though I am not sure how I will be able to scramble for Africa itself, all I know is that there are only kingdoms with speaks, shields and no guns. Living under a huge amount of resources. I want to mine them and, of course, create an empire there."

"… And you will be emperor?" Henry asked.

"Yes, of course. The possibilities are quite endless if you think about it." Felipe said while spreading his hand over the tablecloth as if underneath his hand was Africa.

"So then I would be under your empire, would I be?"

"The Prussians had a part in the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth while having a part in the Holy Roman Empire," Felipe said, smiling.

"As a matter of fact, we can name the colonies the Colombo-Haitian Commonwealth." Felipe made it in the spot. Nevertheless, it had an excellent sound, which he liked.

On the other hand, Henry was overthinking it, while Felipe was under thinking it. In the mind of Felipe, he only needed to arrive at Africa and conquer; in the eyes of Henry, he needed to worry about diseases and the amount of money the whole venture would cost him.

"You expect to use my men to die in the thick forest of Africa? Dying of Malaria," Henry counter argued as he put his case together.

"No, my army will also accompany your troops, of course. I want to create a joint commando; our militaries are proficient in Guerrilla warfare. Though we have more experience on it. Much more battles." Felipe chuckled as he remembered how each of those battles cost him.

"… They will still die. Do you think because we are black, we are immune to Malaria? People here in Haiti die of Malaria every year."

Felipe couldn't help himself but chuckle. "No, my empire is unique; it has many native plants, including the Quinne. I have organized the creation of an industry to plant, process and fully isolate the beneficial parts of the Quine… it has yet to start producing. Still, in very little time, we will start producing more effective tablets than the bark themselves from where they came from. No soldier will be dead, at least not for Malaria." Felipe said as he put one of the last parts of the meal in his mouth and began to savour the food while Henry weighed the cons and pros of such a preposition.

"Aside from that, I will get personal funding in a bit. A lot of personal funding. Moreover, the number of new things I will use in our military will make conquering tribes easy." Felipe mentioned after swallowing his food.

"If you can do all this… don't you have black people alone?"

"Why not? It gets lonely if you are too high, don't you think?" Felipe smiled.

"…"

"…"

There was an awkward silence between them; Felipe just offered Henry the chance for Haiti to become a powerful country like England—a colonial power.

It would be a defining moment in Haiti and world history; Henry didn't know it yet.

"How would the distribution of land and wealth happen? How much of that will be reinvested in the private wealth vs. the commonwealth?"

Felipe smiled.

"That can be settled another, don't you think so?" Felipe asked as he felt full; the amount of food on the table let him fill his own gut.

"Well, indeed," Henry said; he was also feeling lazy as his bloodstream was jammed with food making his heartbeat slow down and thus making him lazy.

Both laughed lightly.

Felipe felt somewhat happy there as someone who had been through things and had the same burdens. He had enough maturity to sustain a conversation with him. There was someone! Someone who he has been able to call a friend.

Ever since he was reborn, he has not been with people his age with similar maturities; he was an adult inside a child's body. Any adult that speaks with him can't see the fact that he was a child; any child he tries to befriend gives Felipe a headache, and to add salt to injury, almost every adult he has met has either been about business and politics, nothing more.

All he knows is that he has created an unspoken bond with Henry after a meal. Friends, allies.