Kaede leaned against the headboard next to a still-comatose Pascal as she read through the parchment containing a portion of Robert’s will:

“Kaede, if you are reading this, then I have already left to face the Lord’s judgment. I know we have not known each other for long, and during this short time, I have already laid several unrealistic expectations upon you. Yet, as an armiger sworn to the service of the Gaetane dynasty and Rhin-Lotharingie, I have no choice but to make one last selfish request.”

Cheater, Kaede thought as her gaze grew teary. Robert no doubt knew that she didn’t have it in her to simply ignore his dying wish, not when he had twice saved her life.

“Of all the people close to Her Highness, you are one of the few without any personal ambition. The Princess may still be envious and suspicious of you. However, I have no doubt that you are a person of integrity. You only fear for your own life, perhaps because you do not have any of the protections that nobles like Pascal receive through their status. Well, I intend to give you a basic guarantee. It is not much, and it comes with a heavy burden. But I am certain that Her Highness will not deny my final wish.

“Would you please take my place on the Grand Council and be a voice of caution and reason to Her Highness?”

“Grand Council?” Kaede looked up at the Princess with a puzzled face.

“Finish reading, and I’ll explain.”

The familiar’s gaze returned to the parchment:

“I also leave behind directions that may help you in this. My parents, in their recent travels, discovered a spring near a village settled by veterans. It is said that drinking from the spring helps with traumatic episodes. Father tested the water and found it to yield an unusual concentration of minerals, particularly lithium salts. Unfortunately, I have not had time to journey there myself. It is my greatest hope that this discovery will yield results to calm Her Highness’ mood swings.

“Please remember — Her Highness’ bipolarity is not a curse. All personality aspects have both benefits and drawbacks. It is the responsibility of those close to her to ensure that the detriments are minimized while the advantages are maximized. Her episodes have bestowed upon her an appreciation and understanding for perspective and bias that most people live their entire lives yet never attain. Such a gift must not be squandered, especially for the future ruler of a realm as diverse as Rhin-Lotharingie.

“I sincerely pray that you will take my place in advising Her Highness. That you and the Princess become good friends.

“Farewell.”

I guess you were right about me and the Princess after all. Kaede wiped her eyes with a bittersweet smile as she pictured Robert’s boyish grin.

“He left this map attached to it.” Sylviane passed a folded piece of parchment to Kaede next. “Also, did Robert ever say anything… strange, to you?”

“Strange?”

The Princess looked awkward enough to fidget, as though she didn’t know how to approach the topic.

“When an individual falls in combat, we look through their possessions for any mementos to be sent home. Letters, wills, valuables and private items. But Sir Robert’s belongings were… abnormal, to say the least.” Sylviane sighed, before deciding to simply say it straight. “He had a lot of girls’ clothes. And I mean… enough to fill a wardrobe. Definitely not just a piece or two intended for a lover. Not to mention the accessories, wigs, cosmetics, even underwear…”

Kaede’s eyes grew. Thinking back, there had always been one statement from Robert that left her puzzled:

“By the way, is it true that you were a young man before being summoned?” The Armiger had asked that day beneath the yew tree. “You know — I’m kind of envious.”

Are you kidding me? Kaede thought.

At the time, Kaede passed it off as the ‘psychiatrist’ having psychological quirks of his own. She would have never thought that Robert… had serious gender-identity issues. The man was certainly pretty enough to pass for a girl when disguised. The fact that Robert did tailoring and possibly even designed his own clothes — as Kaede remembered seeing him with a sketchpad back in Nordkreuz — likely helped to keep the secret.

It was clear from the Princess’ reaction that none of his close friends and coworkers had ever found out.

“I’ve been puzzled over what should be done about this.” Sylviane added, clearly asking for help because Kaede really was a boy transplanted into a girl’s body. “Should I send this back to his parents along with the rest of his belongings?”

“No,” Kaede rejected it outright. “I doubt even his parents knew.”

The fact that Robert kept it with him, hidden in his extradimensional storage, highlighted how he didn’t want to risk anyone finding out. After all, crossdressing was a sin by the tenets of the Trinitian Church — a fact that had forced Kaede to adapt since her first week after coming to Hyperion.

I have already left to face the Lord’s judgment, Kaede read again from the beginning of his will. She would never find out just how much this guilty pleasure weighed upon his conscience.

“What do you suggest then?” Sylviane asked.

“Is he getting a casket burial?” Kaede questioned. She knew that few would receive the privilege after such a horrendous battle.

“I’ll make sure of it,” Sylviane nodded. “But it would be the chaplains, not me, who perform his final rites.”

The Samaran girl scowled. There really were no good answers.

“Then maybe we can bury him with some of the more… inconspicuous items. The rest should be burned,” Kaede determined despite the ache in her chest. “I’m sure he would have preferred that we never found out to begin with.”

 

…

 

Lithium salts… Kaede considered as the two girls returned to Robert’s will some time later.

If her fuzzy memories from years of reading encyclopedias as part of her hobby were correct, ‘lithia water’ had been one of those ‘weird American consumerist fads’. It was a rare mineral water that helped stabilize moods. Except the market proved yet another example of capitalism gone awry — as most ‘lithia water’ produced were chemical-additive fakes that profited off ignorance, no different from many of the ‘healthy’ supermarket labels in the modern world.

Kaede filed a reminder to herself before she pocketed the map. Her mind then returned to the much bigger question:

“So what is this ‘Grand Council’?”

“It’s a legal oversight committee that I am assembling,” Sylviane explained as she pulled out a large roll of parchment. “When I am Empress, the last thing I want to do is have one of my episodes — when my judgment is compromised — and order something irreversibly harmful to the Empire. Therefore, I need a framework in place that would have the legal authority to challenge my decision-making, and not just for my episodes either.

“The idea is still very much a work-in-progress,” she admitted. “There’s a delicate balancing act to consider — the Grand Council needs enough independence and legal protection so they may voice their objections without worrying about temperamental backlashes from me. Yet, at the same time, there is no way to guarantee that everyone who gets in has Rhin-Lotharingie’s best interests at heart. Therefore, it must not allow factions with ulterior motives to destroy royal authority.”

Kaede’s pupils couldn’t stop growing. She’s talking about political pluralism.

The Samaran stared as Sylviane unfolded the table-sized piece of parchment. She fell to an amazed silence as her eyes took in its complex charts and paragraphs of text, most of it in the Princess’ own delicate handwriting.

The ‘Grand Council’ effectively brought legal oversight to the powers of the monarch and the state. It was a body of up to fifty members, including:

• Twenty-four Royalists, seats chosen by the five monarchs of the Empire and likely to include the four Kings and Queens. This is distributed as ten handpicked by the Empress, four each by the monarchs of the larger kingdoms (Gleann Mòr and Garona), and three each by the monarchs of the lesser kingdoms (Avorica and Ceredigion). Each royalist council member will serve appointed terms of ten years.

• Eleven Oriflammes, seats effectively chosen by the phoenixes. This included every Paladin apart from the current ruler. These members serve for life.

• Fifteen Tribunes, seats elected by citizen voting. These individuals cannot be nobles and must have held a civil administrative position from the approved list, such as town chiefs or city mayors, for at least ten years. The various duchies of Rhin-Lotharingie will be grouped into fifteen constituencies for this. Elected terms last five years each.

The primary role of the ‘Grand Council’ was to vet new laws, edicts, and royal decrees from the monarch and the ministries. At least two council objections could block new decrees and trigger a vote, to be enacted within twenty-four hours by any council members who could present themselves in person within twelve hours. If the vote passes with a majority, then the blocked motion would be halted until a second vote, to be carried out one week later if the sovereign still decrees. All council members who represent themselves in person are eligible, and a two-thirds supermajority is required to overrule a law or decree.

Perhaps most importantly, council members cannot be legally detained without royal authority. They also cannot be harmed, or stripped of their rank before their term expires, without a similar council vote. Of course, this was only on paper, and provided no real guarantees against men with swords.

Kaede was speechless. There were far more details written down, including how these rules interact with the existing system of courts, notes of possible loopholes, and ideas for closing them. But for a first draft, this document was nothing short of amazing.

It was truly as Sir Robert once said — that “what makes her a little bit insane actually leaves her saner than most of us.”

In an era when rulers believed themselves infallible and empires moved toward Absolutism, Sylviane’s bipolar personality allowed her to recognize the most terrible human flaw. The mind was deeply biased, and it was difficult, even for the wisest of rulers, to not stubbornly adhere to only one limited perspective. Because of this, even history’s most enlightened monarchs have been known to make terrible mistakes that tarnished their illustrious careers.

Though by the same token, too much delegated power also risked political deadlock. From the Late Roman Republican Senate, to the infamous ‘Liberum Veto’ that doomed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, to the modern day United Nations Security Council, political assemblies were always prone to manipulation and paralysis due to entrenched interests. Factionalism was inevitable, and open discontent — like the assembly of nobles that ran the Lotharin army — could lead to outright disaster.

In the end, only a strong reformist leader could purge corruption from a political institution. Though to do so they must centralize power upon themselves first, often leading to accusations of dictatorship and tyranny, such as the criticisms of Julius Caesar and Franklin Roosevelt by their contemporaries.

This created a balancing act that Sylviane now faced: she needed a body that could restrain her temperamental impulses and situational biases, yet not become so overpowering that it would be impossible to reform the Rhin-Lotharingie Empire to a more effective state.

“So, what do you think?” Sylviane asked with a worried expression. “I gave Sir Robert a royalist seat. And while I have no intention of establishing a precedent that someone could inherit another’s position, I would honor his request and grant the open seat to you. Furthermore, Pascal also holds a royalist seat, and as his familiar you may act as his executor.”

This meant that by acting as Pascal’s proxy, Kaede could raise the two objections needed to block Sylviane by herself.

“What did Pascal think about this?” The familiar asked earnestly as her eyes blinked.

“He thought I was making an already difficult job harder.” Sylviane sighed.

He is an Absolutist, after all.

“Well, he’s not wrong…” Kaede admitted with a head-tilt. “This will make your job more difficult.”

“You don’t approve then?” The Princess frowned.

“Are you kidding me?” The Samaran stared back. “I think you’re a visionary!”

Not even the Magna Carta that the Anglos enshrine could pretend to be this enlightened, she thought. That was just a bunch of treasonous barons forcing the King to bow before their petty ambitions.

Meanwhile, Sylviane was looking thoroughly confused.

“Elder sister, what you are doing here is a revolution that my world has already gone through.” The familiar explained with a broad smile. “We call it ‘Constitutionalism’, when laws are enshrined to apply a universal set of rules which clearly define the authority of leaders across every spectrum of society. In essence, it creates a safety net for the social contract between the rulers and the people — to help maintain rightful governance while halting the wrongdoings that your country may regret down the road.”

“Then…”

“I’d be honored to accept the position,” Kaede beamed with pride. “When do you plan to start putting this into practice?”

“Once we relieve Roazhon,” the Princess replied with an appreciative nod and smile. “King Alistair and Vivienne already know, and I plan to tell Queen Katell and Edith then. After that’s done, you can bet that Saint who follows Holy Scriptures to the letter will declare herself its enforcer.”

Kaede nodded back. She could picture it now — the two arguing over how a future law would better serve the nation.

“In that case, we better start drafting the biggest piece still missing from this.”

Sylviane puzzled. “And that is?”

Kaede lifted the giant parchment and tapped it with a broad grin.

“A legal framework to modify this — because even aside from further changes that you will want to make, there is no law that does not need to adapt to the changing cultural attitudes across lifetimes.”

The Princess was now smiling as widely as her tired face could muster. Yet, before Kaede could go further, Sylviane waved her hand to stop the familiar. “Before we start delving into the details, Kaede, there’s a second important question that I must ask you.”

Her Highness then paused for a long moment. And as Kaede’s anticipation and curiosity grew, she resumed with a question that the younger girl would never have expected:

“Do you want a fief?”