High Tea Room, Diplomatic Square Gardens, Esthirant, Parpaldian Empire
For the first time in quite a while, Kaios Richter booked the entire high tea room at the Diplomatic Square Gardens for foreign envoys. As Director of the Third Department of Foreign Affairs, usually the groups of envoys he met numbered no more than six-plus guards, so the envoys would all fit comfortably with him at a table or two. The American mission here had brought more than five times that not including their military escort.
Shimon and Volentine had stated that they brought four-wheeled cars armed with light mechanical cannon ashore, of which two had escorted the Americans here and now parked near the middle of the square across from the squad of dragoons stationed here. To his knowledgable eyes, the odd splotch painted green, brown, black, and tan vehicles appeared similar to the grey-wheeled cars the Holy Milishial Empire used. However, it did not seem like they were additionally equipped with any anti-armour-guided missiles comparable to the Milishial's light charge-cannon vehicles.
"Have you decided on the tea you want Mister Leach?" he asked in Lourin.
Once the female translator converted his question, the lead American envoy looked at the piece of paper in front of him containing the handwritten translation of the menu. As with all high tea establishments, Diplomatic Square Gardens' menu merely contained a large selection of teas, with the food that came with the tea always being the same set.
"I think I'll go with the gold tea here. Smooth and low bitterness without milk sounds fine." The American passed along the paper to his subordinates.
"You have good taste. Gold tea is the finest of the non-milk teas available. Of course, portions are smaller. From my knowledge of Lourin though, aurum is not the most exact translation describing the colour of the tea. The tea's colour contains more of a red kind of colour."
"Oh, I see. Dr. Banks here believes then the English term for it would be orange tea."
"Aah-range," attempted Kaios.
"Oh, Director Richter. Not aah."
Kaios took out his special personal crystal and put it on the table. He switched to its translation dictionary mode with some taps of his stylus before turning it towards them. Light blue characters appeared on the black display surface of the crystal.
"Madam, would you mind repeating your word for it into this crystal please?"
"What is that?" asked the lead envoy.
"A personal crystal. It's a crystal that runs spellware on it. The model I have is called the Thinker 3, and it can compile voice recordings into a translation dictionary. It can store line drawings and writing in what we call its memory engrams."
"So it can take notes just like my PDA." The American took out a black brick from his suit pocket. He pressed down on one of the circles on its bottom, and black text appeared on the object's green screen. Pressing another circle, he took out a black stylus and then wrote something on it. "This is a PalmPilot Professional, which I first got a couple of years ago."
Kairos was alarmed by the man's assertion that he had a mechanical device which could perform the same function as a crystal that fits in a pocket. The navy had informed him that American devices were so large that they were built into tables and walls. He calmed himself down and began asking questions.
"What's the black shell around the screen?"
"Ah, this is its plastic casing. It protects the internals of the Personal Digital Assistant."
"Is there a reason why the screen doesn't go all the way to the sides like with my PC?"
The female translator coughed before translating.
"Well umm, I think there are parts that stick out to the sides of the screen or something. I think only a hardware engineer could elaborate. Can your PC do math?"
"Do math?"
"I mean calculate for you. For example, telling you the answer of one plus one is two."
"Well no. I've heard other crystal models made in the First and Second Civilization Areas can do that, but not this one. For math, the most I can do is write out my calculations on it."
Kaios noticed the man seemed alarmed by his answer. "Is there something the matter?"
"I'm just a bit surprised."
Kaios compared how bulky the American object seemed compared to even his relatively non-advanced crystal. Did the Americans put a lot of parts into their devices to give them the ability to calculate math?
"May I hold it?"
"Go ahead."
Kaios picked up his PC and the PDA in his two hands. His PC was at least half the weight of the American device.
"...Anyways, can your PDA show other colours?"
"No."
Kaios smugly tapped his PC with his stylus, changing the colours of the text from light blue to purple. "I suppose mechanical means cannot fully imitate all kinds of magic yet. Still, I'm shocked you have something even remotely capable of replicating crystals of this size. The Muans, as another mechanical nation, have nothing of the sort."
"Do they have calculating machines?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but nothing compared to what you or I have on the table cloth."
"Before I forget, Madam, do you mind?"
The woman said the word 'orange' into the crystal. Kairos tapped on it, causing her voice to repeat from the crystal.
Kaios noticed the two share a glance. Perhaps their devices can't produce sound, or maybe if they do the sound quality is worse. It couldn't be better, could it? He picked up his PC and made a note to ask more about their crystal-like devices after high tea.
The servers came by and poured tea for everyone. Then three-layer towers of snacks, sandwiches, and deserts were placed for everyone.
Kaios noticed that none of the Americans were touching anything. They probably were waiting for him to demonstrate. How customarily polite and aware of them. He used the tongs provided to pick up a sandwich and place it on his small plate before returning the tong. Once he did so, one of the Americans started to follow but Mister Leach stopped them and said something.
The overworked translators meekly reserved their portions of food first, and Kaios admired how Mister Leach cared about his subordinates to be aware that translators had no time for eating during these meals with all the talking they had to do. At most, they were quickly taking sips of their tea during brief gaps of talking.
Kairos then remembered that it was likely the translators would pack up the food to eat after the meal. "Would you like for your food to be packed to go, Madam?" he asked.
"Yes, please, Director."
Kairos picked up the silver call bell and rang once. The waiters immediately came over and picked up the filled plates of the two translators and disappeared into the back, returning with small baskets they placed on a side table.
Kairos continued chatting with Mister Leach throughout the high tea. They kept to small talk such as about the paintings along the room's light green walls.
Meeting Room, Third Department of Foreign Affairs Building, Esthirant, Parpaldian Empire
"This briefing package on the Empire of Parpaldia is for you," said Kairos as he handed over a wrapped folder of paper.
"This briefing package on the United States of America is for you," said Mister Leach.
When Kaios took the yellow package and opened it up, he was surprised to find that the pages within were held together by a metal clamp. The handles of the clamp were thin but sturdy curving bars of metal weaving in through the black clamp. This made it much easier to remove pages later compared to undoing the string bindings that ran through the holes of the pages he had just handed over to the American.
Flipping through the pages, he first noticed that none of the words had been handwritten. All the pages must have been printed. Due to the trend of using crystals to transfer data when available, Parpaldian printing technology was limited to mass distributed newspapers and books rather than for limited copied things like these intelligence reports.
Surprisingly, there were coloured images on several pages including the cover, which showed buildings of glass reaching into the sky. Kairos was not sure if they were photos or cleverly made paintings meant to mislead him, but the images implied the construction of the Americans was ahead of even the Holy Mirishial Empire.
On the first few pages, Kaios had to take a moment to digest the claims made. He looked up to Mister Leach.
"Are you really from a different world?"
"Indeed, and you believe otherwise I would urge you to consider the fact that it would be rather stupid of anyone to show up with a fleet just to tell tales of elaborate fiction with way too much detail."
There were two maps beautifully drawn here. One was a world map filled with countries Kaios had never heard of on a planet called Earth. The other showed the United States on the planet Kaios knew and loved with the Philades continent produced with all the little bumps in the coastline as could be represented at the scale of the map.
"Director Richter, since we've arrived here by either an act of God or by magic, I'm afraid we never got to clarify whether you have a shared name for this planet that extends beyond just your language. The people we've asked previously weren't knowledgable enough to answer."
"We follow the elven word for that, Mister Leach. The planet that you are now part of is called Arda."
"...Did you say elves?"
"Are there no elves in this Earth you came from Mister Leach?"
"Assuming the word is not referring to just an ethnicity of humans, then yes Mister Leach. The planet the United States was part of is a planet solely occupied by humans."
"That is shocking to me. A world with only humans. I'm afraid to say that there is a small condemned group of people here in Arda that would only dream of such a planet. No doubt this Earth of yours would be free of wars based on innate racial supremacy."
The American envoy's face soured as soon as he heard the translation. "I'm afraid not Director Richter." His voice descended into almost a cruel whisper. "Perhaps it is in human nature to believe be hostile towards other people for simply exhibiting a different trait."
The room was entirely silent. Kaios honestly found this man frightening, and it took him a few seconds to even just respond. "Perhaps you Americans have better insight on the human condition… On the subject of elves, they are well, a different race. Tall, graceful, and with sharp ears both figuratively and literally. They can see well in the dark, and most notable of all is that if not killed by disease or force then they may live perhaps forever. They're not fertile forever as they can only have children for about fifty years. Humans are capable of creating viable children with them, though their half-breed children are not themselves immortal."
Kaios got the distinct feeling that the lightly bearded male translator was taking in his words with closer attention than anyone else in the room.
"Perhaps if you visit this core area of our city enough you will see a full-blooded elf. Elves are working from the embassy of the Holy Milishial Empire. I would advise you to be cautious if you decide to approach one though, as elves are rather sensitive regarding the sub-peoples they've self-categorized themselves into. To confuse an elf of the Holy Milishial Empire with one with the Principality of Qua-Toyne is to shut yourself off from any ability to have friendly relations. Perhaps once our negotiations are completed later, I can arrange for an introduction."
With the subject over, the two parties read through the multiple copies of the packages in silence, only asking questions for clarifications on the contents of each other's report. Kairos had much fewer of his staff in the room, as only those who knew Lourin were present.
After several pages of history leading up to the founding of the American state through revolution, he skipped over the rest of the history section. As he skimmed through the package, he eventually came upon some heavily edited descriptions of the capabilities of the American airforce.
"Mister Leach, did your country per-chance send one of your planes over Parpaldian airspace recently?" he asked.
"I believe that would probably be us," said the American.
"The Parpaldian Empire does not condone such activity and requests you cease them." Scarily for Kaios, he knew even Parpaldian lord wyverns were incapable of attacking such high-flying machines.
"I'm afraid the United States cannot heed your request, Director."
"And why is that?"
"The United States government has a long-standing policy of maintaining the freedom of navigation for its aircraft. The ability to gather aerial intelligence while remaining unmolested is key to protecting the peace of the United States and the nations its friends with."
Kaios frowned. "What happens if a country destroys one of those planes to protect its airspace, Mister Leach?"
"Then they will be destroyed, Director. Unless of course, they agree in time to give suitable reparations and agree to forevermore allow our overflights."
Kaios blinked as he attempted to understand the older man's ominous warning. He put the topic aside for later and continued reading.
Later in the military section, he turned over to the glossary section to look up the definition of several unknown terms.
'Nuclear Weapon
A weapon that derives its destructive force from nuclear energy. The force created can be large enough to destroy entire cities.'
Next, he looked up what a kiloton of TNT meant. As he did the calculations on his personal crystal, he glanced over at Mister Leach. The destructive power listed was insane, and the only comparable magical weapon that existed was the core magic bombs of the Ancient Sorcerous Empire.
"Mister Leach"
"Yes? How may I help you?"
"Are these nuclear weapons you describe here real?"
"Absolutely. The United States government does not lie about the capabilities that it chooses to distribute. The long-standing policy of the United States is that it does not fight wars against foes that would result in a high loss of American life. Instead, the United States will utterly destroy its enemies."
Kaios started sweating at Mister Leach's casual affirmation. The envoy was so nonchalant about it that Kaios was convinced he was telling the truth. By the four stars, meeting here with this country was above his pay grade. There should be as many people here as in a meeting in the First Department with the Holy Mirishial Empire.
Kaios needed an audience with the Emperor. He stood up. "If your team has no further questions regarding the Parpaldian Empire. I would like to suggest we end this meeting now and return to formal negotiations in about a week."
"A week?"
"I'm afraid that it is clear that I alone will not have the sole authority to deal with a nation as great as yours on behalf of the Parpaldian Empire. I am sorry. I will have to coordinate with the other Departments of Foreign Affairs and escalate this matter to the Imperial Household, and this will take time. A week is the fastest I believe it will take for us to prepare to properly conduct wide-ranging and extensive negotiations."
"Would you like to have a list of topics we most wish to discuss?"
"That would be very much appreciated."
One of the Americans placed another package on the table.
"Well, there you go."
"Thank you. I once again apologize. You're welcome to forward any inquiries to my office."
"And if you need to make inquiries, you know where we are."
They shook hands before slowly leaving the room. Kaios saw the American mission off and then returned to his office. Now alone, he sat down at his desk, then buried his face in his hands in the thought of the possible existential threat to the Parpaldian Empire that had landed on him.
Director's Office, First Department of Foreign Affairs, Esthirant, Parpaldian Empire
"You truly believe the details listed here, Director Richter?" asked Director Elt Wolff of the First Department.
The beautiful black-haired middle-aged woman was Kaios' protege before he got transferred from the First to Third. Her sharp wit and intelligence quickly endeared her to him like the daughter he never had as she deftly navigated both internal and external politics with a quite centrist and realist view. Once he got sidelined due to his disagreement with the Imperial Liason to Foreign Affairs, she managed to prove herself worthy above the multitude of other candidates to succeed him as First Director.
Unfortunately, her traits proved to be her undoing in attaining a fruitful marriage. Parpaldian men of suitable wealth and standing as determined by her parents would quickly excuse themselves after their first arranged meeting with her. She was simply too intimidating for them as they all failed to even match her as an equal in intelligent conversation. At her age now, her parents gave up on her future, instead focusing on their grandchildren sired by Elt's younger brother.
In Kaios' opinion, she would only be able to find a partner through her line of work, but unfortunately, all the prospects in her life thus far were either ambitious rivals or foreign envoys. When she was younger, her complaints about her love life were a common subject during their shared tea breaks.
Kaios nodded to her. "Indeed I do. A nation that possesses advanced technologies that in my opinion outstrips that of the Mu has no reason to overstate their power."
"Mu is your department's concern, Director Huet. If what's written here is taken at face value, would you agree with Director Richter?"
Director Rius Huet took a moment flipping in between a couple of pages of the Parpaldian translation of the American intelligence documents. He then consulted the figures referred to in the original copies.
"It is quite possible," finally said Director Huet. "The supporting detailed nature of their documentation leads me to conclude the Americans are at least on the level of a superpower even if they've added an extra zero to some numbers.
Let me direct your attention to its section on their economy. Figure 16-2 here depicts a pair of buildings labelled as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. These two buildings are notably some of the tallest in the United States, and their one purpose is to hold the center of worldwide trade.
Imagine the greatest merchant houses and companies of the First, Second, and Third Civilization Areas all holding several floors in a single building. That is the World Trade Centre of the United States. The expense and expertise of constructing such mega-structures proportionally match the scale of the United States economy before their transference event as they call it. With a large enough economy, they would be able to put a lot of resources into creating superweapons."
"That all just tells me the Americans seem to be obsessed with trade along with maintaining overwhelming military might to protect their democracy," observed Director Wolff.
"Such a government structure seems unintuitive for maintaining such a large country. What prevents the nation from flip-flopping on policy every time they pick a new leader?" asked Director Huet.
"I think this all means that we must prepare for the possibility that their eagerness to negotiate with us may decrease dramatically four years from now," said Kaios. "Perhaps we should demand that any trade agreement should only last for four years before requiring mutually agreed renewal or renegotiations. This will allow us to get the best deal for the Empire with a favourable American leader and ensure hostile ones are not threatened by what they see as a bad deal that might be worthy of war."
"Would the Empire even be able to defend itself if such an event came to pass?" asked Director Wolff. "You said the envoy boasted that the United States destroys its enemies as casually as one might squash a fly."
Kaios was unable to hide his worry from her. "The history section of the package tells us they've snuffed out millions of lives before which belonged to a murderous empire that advocated for 'racial supremacy'. They butchered the innocent child to eliminate the abominable father. We best not give the Americans an excuse to think the Parpaldian Empire is evil."
"We'll have to meet with the Imperial Liason to Foreign Affairs. All three of us at the same time," said Director Huet.
Kaios frowned. His relationship with the young, stubborn, foolhardy, and brash Imperial Liason was unsuitably strained. Inevitably a meeting between him and her would most likely become another disaster. If it was not for his standing among the other members of the imperial family. He very much would like to avoid participating, but his central role in this matter meant he could not avoid it.
"I'll arrange for the meeting myself," said Director Wolff. "It is better that I bring this to her attention."
"Send us a crystal message once it's set up," replied Kaios.
Kitchen, Residence of the United States Envoy, Esthirant, Parpaldian Empire
It turned out the Parpaldians had a burgeoning news industry.
By the time the envoys returned to 7th Avenue, there was a small crowd of people attempting to talk to the Marines guarding the gate of the mansion. As Vlad quickly found out thanks to the one reporter amongst them who spoke Latin/Lourin, they were members of the local press. In response to questions about who they were and the fleet now visible offshore, Vlad only responded with 'no comment' before he was bundled by the Marines past the gates.
"There go our relaxing times," said William as he sipped some precious coffee, "from now on we'll be hounded by reporters as well as the secret police."
Vlad saw the people who attempted to discreetly shadow the team without notice. Unfortunately for them, anyone on the delegation with security training clocked them as plainclothes agents soon as they showed up three times within the same day.
"The three stooges and the maid right?" he asked as opened up his food hamper on the large table meant for use by the servants of the mansion. The hamper fit the ideal image of a rectangular picnic basket.
William's eyes widened slightly. "Damn, NSC doesn't mess around. You're more than I thought, Doctor."
Vlad smiled. "I wonder if other tails will show up now that our presence is widely known." He picked up a triangular cut sandwich.
"Well, that would depend on how important this part of the world is to the other powers. I'm not sure if being the number one supplier of wind gems merits a lot."
Vlad bit into the sandwich. The bread had a good amount of crunchiness with a soft filling of cream, cheeses and some type of thinly cut dried meat on a light bed of something that looked like purple-coloured lettuce.
"Enjoying your meal?"
Vlad swallowed and looked to see the FSO eyeing the food. "This is way better than Wonder Bread. The bread is harder than a British finger sandwich, but that's a plus rather than a negative. It gives it kind of like an al-dente quality."
William sipped some more coffee. "You should try the biscuit they have with the savoury and sweet jellies they have."
"You mean the scone-looking thing?"
William shrugged. "Biscuits and scones taste nearly the same anyways. There's a weird brown powder on whatever the Parpaldians call it which gives it a richer taste."
Vlad just nodded as he continued to devour the rest of his meal.
William looked over at the other untouched hamper on the table. "Doctor Banks must be absolutely starving now. Poor gal, still stuck continuously working with Howard with no lunch."
"Do you think Leach will give a statement to the locals?" asked Vlad as he started adding the spreads to his scone.
"100% he will. A favourable relationship with the Parpaldian press will enable us to attain publicly known non-official information their government is not so keen to talk about. Plus, it would not hurt to light a bit of a fire under the government's feet to talk with us soon. Speak of the devil…"
Howard Leach walked down the stairs into the kitchen.
"William, do you mind reading over this statement here?"
William took the printed page in his hands and focused on the page for a couple of minutes. "It all sounds good to me. It fits the big stick diplomacy."
"Good." The lead envoy took the page back. "I'll be at the gate with Doctor Banks then."
"Have fun," called William as Howard ascended the stairs. In response, Howard simply raised a thumb as he moved on.
"Good thing Howard did not decide to make a whole speech out of his statement," commented William. "Doctor Banks will soon be able to enjoy her food."
After all the other good food of Parpaldian high tea, Vlad was disappointed to discover that the confection that looked almost exactly like a French macaron tasted like what he remembered of macarons, rather bland.
Outer Pavillion, Imperial Palace, Esthirant, Parpaldian Empire
Lady Remille, the Imperial Liason to Foreign Affairs slammed down the newspaper onto the round table of the Outer Pavillion, a gazebo located in the outer gardens of the Imperial Palace.
"What in the stars is this?!"
The three directors of foreign affairs looked at each other, silently battling to not be the one to answer. With his reputation with Remille already bad, Kaios soon found himself the center of attention and therefore Remille's wrath.
He gingerly pulled the newspaper towards himself and flattened the crumples against the table. On the front page of The Parpaldian Times was a stamped drawing of the American fleet in the South Parpaldia Sea and several battleships of the Home Fleet guarding the way to the naval wharves. The caption read, 'Foreign Warships Arrive at the Empire: New Previously Unknown Country Seeking Trade with Us'. The article described the composition of the American fleet and how one Howard H. Leach, envoy of the United States of America, stated to the press how his country was looking forward to establishing mutually beneficial trade with the hospitable empire.
Kaios silently cursed the older man. If it wasn't for the fleet and the sheer amount of gold the Americans brought to quickly establish a respectable temporary residence, journalists would have laughed at emissaries from beyond the civilized areas and not produced a single article about them. Now with the amount of attention the Americans created, news agencies would be following every step the Foreign Affairs Departments made.
"This would be the United States of America, Lady Remille."
"I've heard of them from the Imperial Navy, Director. I'm asking why in all the columns of every news article, there is not a single statement-" Remille's eyes stabbed each director in turn. "From any of your departments stating the Empire's position on this matter."
Kaios briefly glanced at the other two directors before locking his eyes back on Remille's. "We had a delay arising from the need to transfer jurisdiction for negotiations from my department. The power wielded by this new country exceeds the normality of the nations the Third Department deals with."
"Then why have neither you-" Remille pointed at Elt and Rius. "Nor you responded. You have contacts with the press. Did no one get wind of the imminent printing of this?"
"Our staff must have failed to notify us of requests for comment from the press," admitted Elt.
Kaios grimaced. It was a fact of everyday operations that journalists were making excessive inquiries to the Departments of Foreign Affairs. The secretaries of all three departments must have had a lapse in judgement when filtering out requests.
"Correct this immediately," hissed Remille. "Since you can't handle it," she directed to Kaios. "Which of you will be leading negotiations?"
"I believe the First Department will be most suited, Lady Remille," said Elt.
"Why? Shouldn't the Second Department handle this with their experience in dealing with a mechanical nation?"
"Lady Remille," replied Rius. "The Americans have let us know that they possess weapons akin to core magic." He took out a Parpaldian translated copy of the intelligence package and handed it over to her. "This is for you. The relevant information is in 6-2."
For the first time in the meeting, Remille paused. She silently flipped through the pages to the relevant section. After a couple of minutes of reading, she asked a question. "Do you believe these words written by the Americans?"
"I do not believe it would be prudent for any government to spend many hours coming up with a comprehensive detailed description of the effects and history of such a weapon if it's fictional. Following the trend of mechanical weapons, instead of an implosion, an explosion is generated by their claimed nuclear weapons," said Kaios. "We know from our dealings with lesser nations that it takes a certain level of civilizational development to even imagine such forms of destruction."
Remille took a moment to consider his explanation. "Director Wolff."
"Yes," responded Elt.
"The First Department is hereby ordered to lead negotiations with the United States of America. Your first act must be to release a statement to the press. Emphasize that the Empire will seek to attain as many advantages as possible in any trade deal for its citizens. The United States must attain recognition from the other civilized areas if it wishes to be considered on an equal level."
"As you command, Lady Remille."
"You have until the end of winter to present a satisfactory agreement to the Emperor. The Emperor needs the American fleet to be out of Parpaldian waters before the arrival of spring. You all know what for."
The trio of directors nodded.
"Dismissed."
Kaios quickly left with Elt and Rius as they hurried to get out of Remille's sight behind a trimmed hedge.
Author's Note
Looks like I underestimated how long we would remain in Parpaldia. Next chapter, we finally move on back to the Lourians.
I'm not sure about how I'm pacing the story so far. I feel like moving the plot along at this pace allows me to give a lot of interesting (in my opinion) detail often left out in the writing style of Minorou for Nihonkoku Shoukan. Then again I'm worried some of you may find this a bit too slow, especially since I don't write and post new chapters at DrDoritosMD's frequency for Summoning America. Let me know your thoughts on this.
From,
WellBattle6