Chapter 371: Out Of Uniform
Lapins Van Montmorency sighed as she stepped from the platform of her ship, followed by a pair of angelic guards as she bundled herself against the slight chill of the wind.
She cut a princely figure in a uniform of deep black edged with Montmorency red - a color made from using dye made from the kingdom’s cherries. Silver buttons completed the look, as well as a cloak of silver-grey lined on the inside with black mink fur.
She sighed because she’d held out some hope that she’d be able to put off getting summoned back home from the Academy, but the assassination attempt had put her parents on edge, and the disappearance of Kordia and Kassin had been the straw that broke the dragon’s back. So as soon as the equinox holiday ended, she left her friends and colleagues behind to take a boat back home.
Her parents had even gotten Heaven’s ambassador involved. She’d spent the last couple of days in the company of the man’s odious nephew, Jasiel, who insisted on talking down to her about the superiority of Heavens armies. A large contingent of that army was presently "peacekeeping" the operations strip-mining the hills and fields in search of the soulstones of dead spirits, for which Montmorency was surveyed to be a graveyard of such.
"A carriage, how quaint," Jassiel sneered as the vehicle, towed by destriers, came to rest. Emblazoned on it was the escutcheon of the Montmorency family, three lines of gold against a black backdrop, with a golden sun, a green and a red moon atop the three lines. A cherry tree grew in the center, a glowing sword stabbed into the ground before its trunk.
"Not all of us are so blessed as to have wings, good Angel," Lapins said diplomatically, a subtle hint that if he was riding, he should put emerald green wings away.
"Serve well and perhaps Heaven will remedy that for you," he reached over and brushed her chin with his thumb, like she was some sort of pet.
"With respect, I prefer to remain a princess," Lapins replied.
She wanted to slap the man, but she put up with it and pulled away toward the carriage, greeting the Captain of the Guard, Lacelotte Cidetty, a monkeykin woman dressed similarly to her but with the addition of weapons, including a knife at the tip of her tail which was sheathed. A childhood memory of discovering that her tail had a finger at the tip brought a slightly embarrassed blush to Lapin’s cheeks as she accepted the woman’s bow.
"Princess Lapins, you have grown," the Captain said.
"Thank you Captain Cidetty. You look stronger than ever," Lapins complimented. In physical terms, Captain Cidetty looked the same as she had three years ago, but through manasight, Lapins finally had a gauge for the Captain’s dense, orange strength.