After Emile sent a letter to Amanda's contact in the Capital, he began devising more specific plans for the creation of Penicillin. He'd explained the basic setup to Denise and Amanda, though it was clear that neither fully understood everything. Knowing it would take time for any microscope to be created, Emile and Cher got to work drafting preliminary plans for the refrigeration system as well as the fermentation tanks.

The plans were going slowly, mostly because of their complexity and the need to calculate for this world's technology, and because Emile was going to need to rely on magic for part of what he wanted to build. He figured that things would be tough, but with sufficient preparation that he might be able to get something running within a year or two, though Millela was confident that it would be done sooner.

One afternoon after drafting up a set of documents, Emile and Cher moved into the dining room for dinner with the rest of the family, during which, Millela asked Emile an interesting question about his past. "Brother Emile. You had a family in your past life, right?"

"Yes, I did." Emile nodded. "I was married for seventy-one years, and I had a son."

"Wow, that's a really long time." Robert commented. People in this world lived typically didn't live anywhere near as long as those on Earth, though Nobles could have comparable or longer lifespans due to magic.

"Could you tell us a bit about them?" Millela asked. "They're basically like a part of our family too, aren't they?" She was interested in learning more about Emile's past and was curious about what he was like and how he lived.

"Millela! I thought we discussed not prying into Emile's past like that." Lawerance sighed as he scolded his daughter. "You don't have to discuss such things if you don't want to, Emile. We won't force you to awkwardly explain this to us." He side eyed his daugher, who looked up at him innocently.

"No, no, it's fine." Emile shook his head as he laughed. "I don't mind at all. I've not talked about it since I figured it would make you uncomfortable." He looked between Amanda and Lawerance.

{Hearing what should be their own son talking about his wife and child might be a bit strange for them to hear, especially since I'm in a four-year-old body and look like a child. I didn't want to cause them any strange feelings by talking about that part of my life too much.} (Emile)

"I'll admit it is a bit strange, but we're not bothered by it." Amanda shook her head as she gave a wry smile. "Please don't feel the need to hold your tongue about your past life. We've accepted you as you are, and no matter what, I consider you to be my son. So don't hold back, ok?" She smiled with a warmth that reminded Emile of his 'first' mother.

"I... I appreciate that." Emile got slightly embarrassed by her kindness. "As for my family, where to start?" He thought for a moment. "My wife, Louise, was someone I'd known since we were teenagers when she moved to the small farming town I lived in with her family. Before the war, we spent a lot of time together, and not too long before it began, we started dating."

{I remember how happy I was when she agreed to go out with me. Her Dad wasn't a happy that I was just a farmer's son, but then again no Dad likes their daughter's boyfriend.} (Emile)

"You weren't around yet, were you, Cher?" Lawerance asked.

"No, I was created and given to Emile around a year later." Cher nodded. "I have no memory of the time before my creation, and thus anything that happened with Emile before 1915 is something I've only heard through his stories." She'd heard a few things from before her first meeting with Emile at the military training center, but not much.

"Naturally, once I was drafted, I didn't see Louise too much." Emile gave a bitter smile. "On the few times I was granted leave, I made sure to see her, and she and my parents did write letters to me from time to time. So it wasn't as if we had no contact after I left for war." Soldiers received mail quite frequently, though, during the most brutal battles, they might go weeks or months without seeing the letters sent by their families.

"Some men actually got whole care packages filled with all kinds of goodies sent to them by their families." Cher chuckled. "That one guy's parents owned some kind of candy store, so his was always filled with sweets."

{The chocolate he had looked so good!} (Cher)

"Typically only Nobles send letters or other communications since most commoners can't read." Amanda commented. "When I was sent to fight against incursions from the North, I made sure to send frequent letters to Lawerance." She'd been away from home for weeks or months on end, so she understood how important those communications were.

"I was always nervous waiting back here for each one." Lawerance laughed. "It was nerve-wracking, but that's what happens when you marry a Knight."

{I wonder if it was the same for Mom and Dad? They probably feared that each letter I sent would be my last.} (Emile)

"I got lucky and survived that nightmare of a war, and once I got home, Louise and I got married. It wasn't much later my son Arnold was born, and we became a happy family." Emile smiled as he recalled that day.

"I can remember the big smile on your face when you first held him." Cher giggled. "I don't think I've ever seen you that happy."

"I had a child with the woman I loved. There's nothing in my life that's given me greater joy." Emile commented.

"I can agree with that!" Lawerance laughed, and Amanda's cheeks flushed red from embarrassment.

{Why must you say such things in front of the children?!?} (Amanda)

"Did you only have one child?" Millela asked as she wiped food from her mouth.

"Yes, Arnold was our only son. We didn't want anymore, so that was it. Not to mention, I was still a rather poor man at the time, so the meager earnings from working on the farm and at the steel mill was hard enough to raise multiple children." Not to mention that Emile was using part of that money to fund his education, and needed tuition and cash to go to medical school.

"That reminds me of that time where Louise threatened to sell me to pay for your tuition, and you threatened to divorce her if she tried it." Cher laughed.

{I've never seen Emile get truly angry with Louise other than that one time, and the look in his eye was something I can't imagine she thought he'd send her way.} (Louise)

"Yeah..." Emile shook his head. He'd always regretted his attitude that day, but Louise never held it against him. "That woman really knew how to push my buttons, and at the time, she didn't exactly understand my attachment to you. Hell, I don't get it even all these years later." He shrugged. "But getting rid of you wasn't going to be possible, as doing so would have made me go crazy." He'd dealt with severe nightmares and other PTSD issues ever since the war ended, and the only thing that could calm him down was Cher. Even if she was just an inanimate object at the time, she was an important member of his family, and he protected her as he would his own son.

"Whenever you mentioned her, you always say she was a handful." Amanda chuckled. "I imagine she was quite the spirited woman."

"Oh, that's one way to put it." Emile rolled his eyes. "She was a very strong woman, and she didn't take anyone's crap, especially mine. I imagine that was her father's genes, as she would always fight tooth and nail for what she wanted, and she was just as stubborn as her old man. Though I loved that about her, so it worked out quite well." He chuckled. "Once I got my medical license, and was a practicing physician, we moved to Paris and she put her acting talents to work."

"She was an entertainer?" Amanda asked. "That's an interesting profession..." Those people were seen as the dregs of society in this world, so she was trying not to let her biases show on her face.

"An Actress." Emile corrected her. "She was no mere entertainer, and was anything but the common street performer you're imagining.” Emile figured that profession would have similar stereotypes in this world that it used to on Earth. “For as long as I could remember, Louise always loved performing in plays and doing Opera, and she was damn good at it." He continued. "After she got her big break at one of the Paris opera houses, her fame skyrocketed and she was the lead on many major productions." She'd became a minor star in the Paris Opera community, and her natural talent helped jumpstart her career.

"She used to practice in the house all the time, and it was really cool to see how she got into her roles." Cher smiled. She always loved watching Louise recite her lines and having Emile practice with her.

"Indeed she did, and I never missed an opening night. I'd take Arnold with me and go see her perform on the big stage, and it was always a treat. There was never a time when those places weren't packed and so many people loved watching her shine." Emile loved watching his wife perform either on stage or in film, and he always told her that she was born for the stage and encouraged her to push herself and strive for success. "She drew in all kinds of attendees at the parties we'd go to, and in 1928 she and her team were invited to perform at the Belgian King's Birthday. They put on an impressive show, and that was the moment I knew she was destined for the big time."

{To be invited to perform for Royalty is quite a high honor! Most entertainers are nothing more than street performers, so his wife must have been a special woman.} (Amanda)

"Even during the Depression, she kept performing, and people kept coming. I recall how she and her team did a free event for people who couldn't afford it during some of the worst days of the whole disaster, and people cheered something fierce." Emile recalled how they shut down an entire street in Paris to perform, Hamlet.

"And what about you're son?" Lawerance asked. "What did he do? Was he a doctor like you?"

“I'd bet he was a soldier!” Robert declared proudly.

"Well, he was a soldier, but that wasn't his career choice." Emile shook his head. " Nor was he a doctor, and by the time my son was old enough to figure out what he wanted to do in life, the Second World War was already brewing, and in 1939 he was called up." He remembered the day they got the letter in the mail, and how he and his wife's hearts sank.

{I thought that I was feeling the same thing my parents felt twenty years prior.} (Emile)

{You were so angry and sad. I thought you were going to take your family and run away.} (Cher)

{Part of me wanted to, Cher. Part of me wanted to.} (Emile)

"I remember that day well." Cher gave a nervous laugh. "You told the poor postman that if anyone showed up to take your son, you'd shove my bayonet up his-"

"That's enough description, Cher." Emile glared at her. "But yeah. My first instinct was to take my family and flee to Britain. I'd fought in the first war, and I didn't want my son to experience that hell." He sighed. “I suppose my parents must have felt the same thing, though I never imagined that I would be in that position myself.”

"I can understand that feeling." Amanda smiled. "Millela and Robert may be training to become Knights, but the thought of them going to war still worries me." She was always wary of her children going to war, but couldn't bring herself to stop them. Mostly because to do so would be supremely hypocritical.

"We'll be fine, Mom!" Robert tried to reassure her that they were fully capable. "We're going to be strong enough that nobody can hurt us! So you won't have to worry about us one bit!"

"Indeed." Millela nodded.

{Though I don't want to have to step onto the battlefield as there are better ways to do gain power and influence than via combat. Emile's lecture on the 'Steam Engine' as he called it has given me all sorts of ideas.} (Millela)

"But in the end, Arnold wanted to go. No matter how much Emile complained." Cher continued. "And ever the worry wart, dear old Dad here used his military connections to go along with him." She giggled.

{I'm pretty sure he threatened to shoot one of the military commanders if they said no.} (Cher)

"If my son was going to war, then by god I was going with!" Emile nodded. "I might have been a forty-something man, but I was by no means of out of shape or incapable. So I used some leverage to get myself assigned to his unit."

{All it took was a little persuasion, and some vague threats of death to get what I wanted. No big deal.} (Emile)

"I still remember how both angry and proud Louise was when she found out." Cher laughed. "She was mad at you for placing yourself in harm's way, and happy that you were going to protect your boy." Louise was afraid that she'd lose both her husband and son in the war, but Emile told her that they had a better chance of surviving if they were togther.

"She understood why I was going, and why Arnold didn't want to flee." Emile gave a proud smile. "The boy inherited his old man's sense of duty and patriotism. Neither of us wanted to flee and let our home be overrun, so I respected his decision, even if I was terrified of losing him."

{That boy. When he told me he wanted to fight for France as I did, I was so proud of him. Though I wanted to smack him upside the head...} (Emile)

"Sadly, things didn't go all nice and happy..." Cher sighed. "High Command decided to be stupid, and the Germans quickly overran France because of idiocy." It was a fast collapse that only lasted six weeks, and after that was nearly five years of occupation.

"Yeah it was a cluster, and I still want to punch Gamelin in the face for his massive fuck up." Emile growled.

{So many idiots made so many mistakes in such a short period of time that the Germans crushed us in such a humiliating manner! Instead of putting the Lion in as Deputy Prime Minister, you should have just made him Commander when the war broke out! Either that or actually listened to reports that the Germans were piling into in the Ardennes!}

"The scramble out of Dunkirk was not fun either." Cher sighed. "I remember the panic, the fear, and all the chaos. Not to mention the constant German attacks on the transports, the explosions and the impending dread as the Panzers got closer." The whole operation was nothing short of a miracle, and the fact that the Allies were able to get 300,000 men out of the seaside town was incredible.

"Yeah, and that whole mess ended up causing the entire country to fall." Emile sighed. “It was the single biggest disaster in French military history. Even Napoleon's mistakes weren't anyway near as bad as that.”

"T-The entire country?" Amanda gulped. "Was one battle that bad?" She couldn't imagine one battle ending an entire war that fast.

"The Germans trapped the allied army in a massive pocket that cut us off from the rest of France. The troops they cut off were basically the best part of our armies, and while we got most of the men out, we left basically all our equipment behind. I had to threaten to shoot a man when he told me to leave Cher, saying they had no room for an antique." Emile scoffed. "So yeah, it was bad, but that's what happens when you have fools leading your army." He rolled his eyes.

{The entire high command structure was a joke, and it was as if they hadn't learned a damn thing in the proceeding twenty years. It didn't help that most of the higher ups failed to understand that war had changed, and that the second war wouldn't just be a repeat of the first.} (Emile)

"Yeah, Emile hasn't ever forgiven the French high command for that blunder." Cher sighed. "Not like I blame him, since they deserve all the heat they get."

"As far as I'm concerned, those men should have been sacked, stripped of their ranks, and forced to live a life of shame. But sadly that didn't happen, even after the war." Emile shook his head. "Once we were evacuated to London, I called my wife and told her to flee, since it was only a matter of time until France fell. My parents were too old and stubborn to leave, and they stayed even after the country was occupied."

{I didn't get to see them again until we liberated France four years later. I'm just happy they lived long enough for us to liberate the country, and for them to die in a free France.} (Emile)

"After that, my boy and I went back into the fight with what little remained of a Free French army. We fought together in North Africa, Italy, and then finally in the liberation of our homeland." Emile explained. "Things were rough, and both of us nearly died at several points during the journey, but we managed to pull through. After the war, Arnold went to Law School and eventually became a politician. Quite a good one, I might add!" He laughed.

"His time fighting alongside you helped shape him into quite the tough man." Cher chuckled. "I think he might have been even more stubborn than you by the end!"

"Perhaps, but I'm proud of him. He took that fighting spirit to the National Assembly and Senate floor and pushed for major reforms. The military was always on his mind, and he wanted to make sure that something like the Summer of 1940 never happened again." Emile smiled. He was always proud of his son and what he accomplished in his life, and he missed him everyday since he was reborn.

"He even managed to become Prime Minister for a time." Cher mentioned Arnold's biggest accomplishment. "I remember when he called you and told you that the President Appointed him to that position. You were so happy that you were practically jumping for joy."

"What Dad wouldn't?" Emile smirked.

{Prime Minster?!? His son managed to get to such a high position?!? Just what kind of family was this? A famous actress, a General, and a Prime Minister all from the same family?!?} (Amanda)