Chapter 9.

Incredibly, Kinoko, aka Selah has come back from retirement. 2003 to now 2025, to wrap up the works I started when I was in high school. Let's dive right in where we left off!

When Pan woke up, she found herself staring up at her uncle Goten, who fussed about her with a concerned expression upon his face. As her eyes began to focus she realized that her surroundings were far from the familar thatched roof of her humble dwelling, as the ceiling was so high that she was still trying to bring it to focus. As her eyes adjusted her hearing also became clearer as she heard the voices in argument, between two women and a young man… curious she picked out a few words—

"The proper training protocols and lines of communication were completely ignored!" A woman's voice scolded, followed immediately by an angry retort of a male, "I'm the crowned prince of Vegeta-sei, and I shall do as I well damn please regardless of protocols,"

Suddenly Pan remembered that she had been brought to the palace in the arms of the lavender haired crowned prince, who had managed to somehow knock her out shortly after she kicked his guard in the balls when they were flying en route to the palace.

"Hey there Goten, I bet you didn't think we would be reunited so soon, huh?" I sheepishly said, quietly so as to not interrupt the arguments being had by the prince, princess, and a regal woman that could be no one else but the Queen herself.

"I will not have my direct household acting like foolish children when it is my responsibility to make absolutely certain that I know of and control what happens in my castle!" The Queen said in a tone that left no room for argument.

"Mother, indeed, I was brining my servant to present to you in order to enroll him into our royal staff procurement program as you require," Bra the well spoken Princess responded to her mother to draw attention away from her brother and refocus the situation on herself instead.

"Yes I am aware Bra, however, your uncouth brother here comes into the palace with a young lady passed out over his shoulder like some third class barbarian, and I will have none of it!" Queen Bulma spoke with authority and finality, however Trunks failed to submit, and quickly interrupted, "I shall do as I please, however I please, and with however I please, my Queen mother,"

"Mind yourself Trunks, I am your mother and your Queen, and I am not above disciplining my overgrown prideful son," Bulma warned and garnered a snarl of anger from Trunks.

Thankfully however, that was where the disagreement ended as princess Bra approached Goten and Pan and motioned for an unseen servant to approach from the hallway. The servant spoke without the need of the Princess's direction, anticipating her highness's intentions and will before she spoke it, "Please, accompany me to the servant's quarters where you will both be acquainted with the royal staff, protocols, etiquette, and customs of palace life."

———

One month in the service of the royal family had passed by quickly as Goten and Pan both underwent a quick study of palace life, customs, etiquette, expectations and protocols. Soon those weeks doubled as they both mastered their roles and positions in their respective roles, Goten as the right hand of the princess and Pan as her attendant. Trunks was furious at his mother for taking away his play thing as he had originally intended Pan to be, but resigned his intentions with her when he noted how well Pan actually served his beloved sister, princess Bra. It wasn't until their fourth week into royal service that Trunks learned of exactly what had occurred in the third class territory, and he felt abhorrent regarding his actions following up such a heinous incident.

He had not yet the opportunity to speak to Pan to express his regret for how he had handled the situation, and while the crown prince would never apologize to a third class citizen, and a female at that, he did however want to make his regret known.

————

Bra was happy. Life within the past year since Goten and Pam's arrival to the palace had been made better and less boring with her newest staff. She enjoyed the company of Goten and Pan and relished the opportunity to educate them in private and learn about them and life as a third class citizen. While none of them was able to have adventure like her brother the prince was, they did seem to have fun and less stringent daily lives outside of servitude when they were each living their prospective roles as princess and slaves in third class territory. The difference between them and the young princess was wealth and power, she had both, but was required by protocol to submit to every rule and requirement at all times— a golden cage. Goten and Pan were similar but instead of a golden cage, they were familiar with the iron burns of shackles against their skin when they were toiling daily in third class territory.

Even though they were separated by birth and class, the three of them found a comradeship as they were consistently around each other in service to princess Bra. Occasionally they also interacted with the crown prince, who came and went as needed to carry out the Will of his father king Vegeta to expand the kingdom and advance the empire to increase its architectural style and integrity so that his kingdom would never pass away.

The high class areas were all palacial in aesthetic, and second class cities were in between, merging stone and wood in their buildings and houses, but the third class towns were all down trodden and lacking sanitary infrastructure. King Vegeta wanted everything to be a magnificent reflection of his fortuitous victories across the universe, and he wanted the entire planet to be worthy of his presence. In order to accomplish this goal within his lifetime, the entire third class areas of his kingdom would be leveled and rebuilt to match the same architectural style and structure of the 2nd class areas, however, many families were displaced as the progress of this goal was met with many roadblocks due to poor leadership and poor working conditions. Slaves taken as prisoners from conquered planets were used and abused in the building efforts and upon their bones cities were being raised. Because these prisoners were weaker than the saiyan race, they quickly would die upon arrival to the harsh working conditions of the planet. This meant that the brunt of the work still fell into the hands of third class families that needed to work hard to keep their properties and maintain their livelihood.

Prince Trunks grew frustrated with the efforts because for every two steps forward, they took three steps back in the progress of building his father's kingdom. His father, King Vegeta, would be away often on missions three weeks out of the month and be home for just one week to chew him up and spit him out because of the lack of progress in the time frame given to Trunks.

Trunks for all intents and purposes was a prince with a complex mission of accomplishing his fathers commands but with tools that were consistently being diminished. The slaves from conquered planets that came in once a month were quickly wiped out within a week and the third class saiyans were also being depopulated by the tasks at hand. Combine that with blood thirsty 2nd class task masters, and there was no sustainable way that Trunks could meet his father's goal without figuring out a solution to the surmounting problems that loomed over his head.

A loud sigh escaped the prince's lips as he leaned back in the massive chair at the enormous desk he had in his library as he contemplated these problems.

"Are you well brother?" Bra questioned, slightly surprising Trunks from his deliberations over the problems he needed to solve.

"I'm surprised to see you here sister, what brings you to the library?"

"I simply was looking for you since you have been spending so much time away from the palace, not to mention that I am also taking the liberty of teaching my newest staff on the history of our people and brushing up on our political agenda for our corner of the universe, which by the way, I hear father may have a few marriage propositions coming your way soon," Bra remarked, adding unintentionally to the stress that Trunks was experiencing in that moment.

An un princely moan of displeasure escaped the prince and he could not hold back his emotion, "Dear princess, never would I burden you with the issues of state affairs and universal conquest," he began to say, "However, why must you burden me so eloquently with your incessant reminders of the weights that I must bear alone as our father's sole heir to the throne and all its endless responsibilities. In your efforts to offer me comfort you have accomplished the opposite," As he spoke he ran his fingers through his hair and began to pace towards to large windows overseeing the royal gardens.

"Brother, forgive me, I was only teasing, I am concerned for you, perhaps I can help? Two heads are better than one after all," Princess Bra offered in a kind voice, gone the teasing playful tone she had adopted earlier.

"How exactly do you propose to help me? The problem is that we are working with a diminishing resource. The interstellar slaves we bring in from conquest end up dying within a week of arrival under the conditions of work needed to build our empire and the third class citizens are also becoming depopulated due to the work load and low birth rates," Prince Trunks explained, frustration in his tone.

"Look, I do not presume to know more than you regarding the issues you are attempting to solve, however, I propose that you bring me with you on your excursions so that I can understand the difficulties and help you brainstorm to resolve them," the princess offered in a kind even tone. "I know I'm not a man, and I know that I am not dad's favorite, but I do read a lot, and I'm analytical like our mother, and I am confident in my ability to help you brother," She added to her speech with a smile, resting her hand on her brother's shoulder blade as she joined him to also look out towards the immaculate palace gardens.

Trunks sighed out loud, "When did you become so persuasive and wise little sister?"

"I have always taken after mother,"

A loud laugh erupted from Trunks first and then Bra joined him as they agreed that their mom was the most clever woman in their corner of the universe. While their planet and culture was distinct in that male strength and dominance spearheaded everything, the science, wisdom, and intelligence was not always present in all males. Coincidentally, women matched and exceeded their male counterparts in these higher learning areas, which was why women on their planet often were classed at a young age to be fit for reproductive and workforce labor purposes only, or to enter the science and technology academies to join the medical, engineering, and science fields on the planet.

"Let's agree on this before I decide on allowing you to join me," Trunks began to say to Bra as he met her gaze, "while we are outside of the palace, you must submit to my authority without question, and do not offer your thoughts unless invited to do so, and you must make sure your staff understands that my authority supersedes yours outside the palace, and they must keep a careful eye on everything around them, especially you."

Bra scoffed and playfully smacked her brothers arm, "Since when do I ever give you a hard time brother?"

"Shall we revisit what happened the last time you went into theirs class territory and we lost one of our high ranking taskmasters? Now that sector is backlogged because of the lack of leadership taking care of the progress of that entire area of the city." Trunks reminded Bra as she looked playfully scorned.

"Need I remind you dear sir that I helped you solve a few problems that day," Bra began to explain in a sing song voice, "As a matter of fact, getting rid in that task master was the best thing that could have happened for our kingdom because that bad Apple would have infected the other task masters into believing that torturing and killing our third class citizens is the answer to obtaining the empire daddy wants to build. Taskmasters like him are speeding up the destruction of our diminishing resource by beating the men and raping the women to death. What citizen in their right mind would want to start a family under those conditions brother? That's why the birth rate is declining, the people are being slowly exterminated under the weight of the empire and the task masters beating them to death to build it." Bra stated her thoughts with thoughtfulness and passion.

"When did you become so insightful little sister?"

"It's been well over a year since you began your campaign on father's behalf to build the empire to its rightful glory, I needed to catch up to you brother so I could help our family continue to build our legacy, the only way I could do that was to study,"

"I see, well then, prepare your house and staff for an extended leave from the palace and only take your essential staff, the castle we will be staying at is much smaller than the palace and does not have nearly the same infrastructure or technology, we will not have any modern commodities other than our aircraft transport for our supplies."

The prince said as he bowed to excuse himself from the library.

"Wait brother, you mean we won't return when father returns home once a month?"

"We are loosing the one resource we will never be able to replenish sister: time. It is against us and we must solve this without concern for father's visits, he can beat me to a bloody pulp whenever he returns but he will have to come to me if I ever mean to finish his blasted empire," Trunks said as he continued to walk away,

"Now that's the wisest thing you've said all evening brother," Bra laughed a she followed him to exit the library and walked in opposite directions as they headed towards separate wings of the palace where they resided.

They both mutually directed their staff accordingly and agreed that they would depart for third class territory after breakfast with their mother the next day.

End Chapter 9. Chapter 10 coming soon.

Kinoko.