“Archaeologists from the University of Oxford just made a breakthrough in the discovery in the ancient Roman Empire artifacts.

The Roman dodecahedrons, which are the mysterious objects that baffled Archaeologists and historians for decades have finally learned its true function. While it was believed it was a piece of Roman directionation however it was revealed to be a containers with a secret map hidden within it. the object’s layout that led to the secret passage beneath the Colosseum in the lion dens of the . The secret passage led to a secret altar that contains the lost books of Livy, a famous Roman historian who wrote many books depicting the whole history of the Roman Empire. Most of his books had been missing for centuries after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

Further investigation and examination of the lost books of Livy are now in progress with cooperation of University of Oxford and University of Copenhagen as well as top Italian archaeologists and historians to discover what might be the lost history of the Roman era.” - Lotus Eaters

***

--- Fort Minick, Barracks Section ---

Date: April 12th, 2026(1)

Hamilton walks into the Rose Knights barracks. She sees everyone relaxing, some watching the television, some cooking, and others playing games.

"Welcome back Hamilton," Ginebra says.

"You were gone for a while," Jalin points out.

She looks to the left and sees Ginebra, Jalin, and Elison playing cards at the table. "It was not that long."

"It's been three hours," Jalin says as he plays a card. "You missed your dish duties this morning."

"I'm sorry," she replies as she puts away her jacket. "I will go cook what we are bringing tomorrow."

Tomorrow is the North American holiday 'Thanksgiving(2).' Each barrack is making something to contribute to the party. Part of the holiday is bringing food as a tribute to say thanks to your fellow neighbor.

"Are you ok, Hamilton?" Elison asks. "You've just been acting strangely for the past few days."

Elison came with Panache during their attack on the Haryo Tribe to rescue the enslaved Americans(3). When the Rose Knights were banished, her parents tortured her. However, this was a ruse to trick the Oprichnina into thinking that her parents were loyal to Zorzal's regime. They helped smuggle her out, and she regrouped with Panache before they left to rejoin Pina and the rest.

"I said I am fine," she replies and walks away.

She stops by the kitchen and sees Suissesse and Shandy cooking. "Sorry, I missed everything."

"It' is okay, Hamilton," Suissesse replies. "You can help me clean all these dishes once we are done."

She looks around and sees a mess. She nods. "Where is the Princess?"

Suissesse points down the hall.

"Thank you, Suissesse," she says. She walks over to the table and grabs some tea and a tray.

She then heads to Pina's quarters.

---

Pina is sitting on her bed. She is looking at the letter Sharpe gave her, crying.

It is a simple letter, saying only a few words.

Stanford hand wrote her a letter with a message from Giselle, Apostle of Hardy. It says she talked to her father, Emperor Molt, before he committed suicide to prevent Zorzal from using him as a living bargaining chip to Famulis and denied Famulis, the pleasure of torturing and killing him (4). Reading about his death didn’t bother her at all; however, what made her cry was the last part, a message Molt asked Giselle to tell her;. that her father said that he loves her and wishes he was more of a father than an Emperor.

All her life, she has never heard or read those words from him. She doesn’t understand why it is affecting her. She knew her father would never say such words. She has always tried to prove herself to him, to show that she matters, but never got the opportunity to hear those words. Assuming the letter is true, his final words were saying how much he loved her.

“Why now?” she asks herself. “Does he think that solved everything? That I just forgive him? Did he say that because he was close to death and felt regretful about everything a bit too late? What about your sons? What about Krysist? You tried to kill your own son, your own child, and now you want to say ‘I love you?”

She hears a knock on the door. She hides the letter in her desk and wipes her tears away. "Come in."

She sees Hamilton enter the room. She softly closes the door and stands there.

"I am sorry for my lengthy absence, Princess," Hamilton says and bows. "I had an appointment this morning, but I am here now. What can I do for you."

She can see this stressed out look on Hamilton's face. She can see something is up. "Are you alright, Hamilton?"

"I am fine, Princess," Hamilton says. She then walks over and sets the tea on the desk. "It was just a busy morning, but I am here now and ready to serve."

She grabs the tea and drinks it. The tea is cold, a mistake Hamilton has never made.

“We need to…,” she says, but suddenly stops. She stands up and leans forwards towards Hamilton. “What are you hiding?”

Hamilton freaks out. “What? Nothing.”

“Hamilton,” she says. “I've known you for a long time. You are not a good liar. Tell me what is going on. Has something happened between you and Andrew? Did you two break up? No, that can’t be. You would be crying. Was he mean to you? I cannot see him getting mean.”

She thinks of what the reason could be. Hamilton has a soft personality, and she always protected her from the world.

Hamilton takes a nervous breath. “Well…, I was at the hospital today. I was feeling sick, and I couldn’t stop throwing up last night, so I went to the infirmary.”

Hamilton looks away shyly, poking her fingers together. “I am pregnant.”

She could not believe what she just heard. She knew Hamilton and Andrew were mating or, as the Other Worlders say, dating, but she didn’t know it would go this far. She is happy for her.

She hugs her tightly. “That is wonderful! I knew something was going on.”

“Please don’t tell anyone yet,” Hamilton says. “I still don’t know what to do yet. But I promise I won’t neglect my duties to you Princess.”

She looks at her. “I know. We can deal with that when the time comes. Come on, we need to finish cooking. Let’s go help.”

She suddenly stops and places her hands on Hamilton's shoulders. “Everyone, our Hamilton here is going to be a mother.”

Hamilton looks at her nervously and then looks out. She is then tackled by a wave of her fellow Knights.

---

Andrew is walking down the sidewalk with Sharpe. His nerves are beginning to get to him.

He just finished telling Sharpe that Hamilton is pregnant.

Hamilton told him only an hour ago, right before she left for her barrack.

“Congratulations, Andrew,” Sharpe says.

“Thank you,” he replies quickly. “I was not expecting it, especially so soon after Delilah. I just thought I would come to this world, bust some heads and go home as a war hero. When we played poker that night, I didn’t realize it was going to lead to something(5).”

He remembers the first time his people ran into the Rose Knights. When they captured Sharpe, Vanguard-7 stayed at Italica an extra night. Hamilton was ordered to serve them as a way to protect the treaty. It was a fun night, everyone blowing off steam from all of the recent events.

He taught Hamilton poker. He thought she was cute, but never thought it would lead to where they were now. . While not underage, he knew there was a small age gap between them, which made him uncomfortable at the time.

“I just didn’t think this is what would happen,” he says. “I don’t know what people are going to think back home.”

Sharpe waits a moment to reply. “Let me say this, Andrew, who cares. When I was in Delta, everything was simple. I woke up, and I knew what my life was like for the next month.”

Sharpe stops and places a hand on his shoulder. “When I was put into the Rangers and came to this world, do you think I planned or expected everything that happened?”

He reflects on that. “Of course not.”

“Exactly,” Sharpe says. “When I rescued Selina from those slave traders, it never crossed my mind that she would be in my life forever. I have never even thought about kids, let alone adopting one, but then Selina appeared. And let me tell you something, I regret dragging my feet. I was looking for all the reasons not to.”

“And then there are the Girls,” Andrew adds. “Who saw that coming?”

“Yup,” Sharpe says. “Who saw all that coming, and now I can’t imagine being without them. Each brings their own headaches and I wouldn’t trade them away for anything.”

“I understand sir,” he replies.

“I don’t think you do,” Sharpe says. “Let me make this clear, who cares what people are going to think. My right-hand woman is a girl in the body of a twelve-year-old. My support is a seventeen-year girl who is smarter than me and there is a dark elf who keeps making me look like a slave owner. I hear degrading comments all the time, I don’t care. Life's too short to let little things like that get in the way.”

He thinks about that. While he agrees with Sharpe, it is easier said than done. He wouldn’t say that Sharpe doesn’t care what people think about him. However, he always controls the situation. It is something he always admired.

He takes another breath. He then directly faces Sharpe at full attention. “Under the Military Courting Regulations sir, I request permission for Hamilton to be Mrs. Steele.”

The US Military Courting Regulations is a set of social regulations for soldiers taking romantic interests with natives(6). The laws are based on medieval Europe, where men would request permission to enter a relationship with a woman. The idea was to create a level of standard to keep both men and women honest.

The reason the US and Alnus Command implemented this was to help protect both its troops and the natives. If a soldier wants to date a native, they need to request permission from their superior officer. The idea is to make everyone commit more to the relationship. It also lists responsibilities the soldier has to maintain, and if a child is conceived, they are responsible for it. Breaking these Courting rules won’t land someone in jail because of the Constitution, but there are still very weighty penalties within the military should a soldier break the rules.

Sharpe looks at him carefully and then pokes his chest. “It isn’t about you anymore. You are a man now, your number one priority is protecting and providing for Hamilton and the baby. Your needs come second from now on. Every day I think about what the Girls need and what I can do to make their lives better. There isn’t time for anything else. Do you understand?”

He can see that Sharpe is making a point, setting an expectation for things to come. While he finds Sharpe a bit intimidating because of how strong he is, he knows it is from experience. He witnessed all the times Sharpe had to go above and beyond to protect Selina, Rory, Lelei, and the others. “I understand, sir.”

Sharpe nods. “Good. Permission granted. Congratulations, son, I'll buy you a beer.”

He nods, feeling more relaxed now. “If you don’t mind keeping this on the down-low, sir. We don’t want the word out yet.”

Sharpe looks at him and then laughs. “Andrew, there is no way this is going to remain a state secret. Let's go.”

***

--- Apex Liberty Bar ---

Date: April 13th, 2026(1)

Sharpe stands there and takes a drink. He watches everyone enjoying themselves and giving Andrew and Hamilton as well as Bailey and Delilah a garden time. After the incident in the strip club, Bailey ‘stood up’ to Delilah a bit for her roughness in their relationship, causing Delilah to learn to be a bit more gentle as a wife.

“You know what this means Alicia,” Rory says as she drinks a large beer mug. “Andrew and Bailey didn’t just get a mate before you, now they knocked up both Delilah and Hamilton before you found a man.”

“You little bitch!” Alicia yells and tackles Rory, and starts strangling her.

“Those two are something,” Sarah says.

“Tell me about it,” he replies as he watches Alicia and Rory wrestle.

He sees Tuka and two of her tribesmen playing violins in the song Victory by the violin band Bond. Tuka and her people have recently taken up Earth musical and instrument lessons. To make the natives within NATO controlled territories more civilized, sophisticated, and modernized than those in Imperial territories, many artistic programs have been organized and promoted by the military and volunteer university students from art schools to teach arts to the natives, ranging from painting to music to dancing. Many Alnus native civilians and militia members have taken up playing instruments, singing, and dancing. The most notable are the high elves as their affiliation to the goddess of music, enabling them to form an orchestra within the militia; some Volraden start to have a hobby of painting pictures and, shockingly, making poems, and some demi-human like the Bunnies and Cats even learned how to do ballet dancing.

“Can I speak with you?” Yao asks as she walks up.

He sees her and takes a quick drink.

“As long as you're not going to strip this time,” Sarah says with a strong tone.

Yao gets scared of Sarah and looks at him shyly. “I am sorry for what happened with Selina. Wood Elves are a dark spot on elf kind.”

“Thank you Yao,” he says. “They are a problem and…” He stops himself before saying how he truly feels. “All the matters now is that Selina is alive.”

“Is there something else you wanted to say?” Sarah asks.

“Well yeah,” Yao mumbles nervously. “I was going to tell you earlier, but I was scared to bring it up. Your ways are different and-.”

“Spit it out, Yao,” he orders.

Yao takes a nervous breath. “There was once a Wood Elf tribe in the Tube Mountains. Two-hundred and seventy-three years ago, we… removed them. They were aggressively attacking our tribes, and, in the way we saw it, it was them or us. I was afraid to bring it up because your people are against such things.”

He quickly understood what Yao was implying. Her people committed a genocide against the Wood Elves. Usually, this is something the US would look down on. However, he understands how dangerous the Wood Elves are, and his superiors do too. As far as he is concerned, Lord Lashin started it, and he will end it, one way or another.

“Let me be clear on our policy Yao,” he says. “It is against all of our values to commit a genocide, purge, or eradication against people.”

He sees Yao's ears bend down.

“However,” he says. “We have no such policy against monsters so we are on the same page. We will talk later Yao, thank you and your people's support.”

Yao smiles and nods. She then walks away to the dance floor.

He looks to Sarah expecting to get lectured.

“What?” Sarah asks. “They shot Selina. I would be a terrible mother if I let child killers run free… oops.”

He smirks, knowing Sarah was trying to fill that role in Selina life. “Knew it.” He then takes a drink.

“I heard you gave Andrew the talk,” Sarah says.

“Some things I picked up over the years,” he says. “I think he will be fine. Might get overwhelmed at times but he's a good guy.”

“That brings up another issue,” Sarah says. “At this rate half of the unit will become casualties through pregnancy.”

“That crossed my mind,” he says as he looks around.

Because of the courting regulations it has become an official US policy to allow relationships, to help deepen the roots of US presence in Alnus. However, his command is about forty percent female, most of that are natives like the Rose Knights.

While it hasn’t been a massive problem now, he already lost Hamilton and soon Deliah for combat duty. Having men and women working this close together under stressful and life-threatening situations, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what will happen next. Biology is a powerful force.

“I was thinking of getting the female soldiers on the pill,” Sarah proposed.

“I agree,” he says. “This came up today with my meeting with Colonel Yang. It was surprisingly easy to convince him.”

The whole of his command is to show how NATO and native forces can work together. To help train and support native who wish to fight against the Empire, Pina is the figurehead.

Sarah giggles. “That’s because he took an interest in Beefeater. You miss the obvious sometimes.”

He didn’t expect to hear that, but then realizes he has seen them in the mess hall together.

“All right,” he says. “Get them together before the trip and introduce them to the new rules. We can’t risk the war effort. After that, they can do whatever.”

“Very romantic, Jackson,” Sarah says. “And I think you should explain the pill to them. Consider it the last part of your punishment for being at that strip club, after the pink belly and Indian burns that Rory gave you.”

He groans at that idea and thinks back of the quite painful experience when Rory sadistically disciplined him after the strip club fight, which she made him to be bare chest and she slapped his belly with her strong hand, brushing his tummy. Despite not being as painful when she punched his ribs in the raid of Darlko research facility but it was still painful like Rory wanted to hammer him in the belly. After that, she squeezed his arms causing him to feel like she wanted to cook his arms. Luckily, Rory still has not learned the concept of wedgie or wet willy. He then gets a text message from Lelei, saying she is outside. He then gets an evil idea.

“Got to go, Lelei’s outside,” he says. “And your right. I will teach the female soldiers sex next. I totally don't abuse my power in this situation. What’s the worst that can happen.” He then winks at her.

Sarah groans and takes a long drink. “Never mind. I don’t want you to give them bad habits or stories. Knowing you, you would switch out the pill with candy.”

“It worked in Guam,” he quickly replies and leaves before she can react.

He heads outside and sees Lelei pull up in a HUMVEE. He is glad that she has gotten comfortable with driving. He sees Selina and this other boy in the passenger seat.

Selina bursts out and then tackles him. “Hi daddy!”

He rubs her head. “Hey squirt.”

“Stop it!” Selina says. “Do you like my dress?”

He never understood why she loves dresses so much, but he is fine with it if it makes her happy. "Not really." He then feels a playful slap. "All right, you look pretty, sweetheart."

He looks up at Lelei. "Thank you very much, Lelei, for picking her up." He then sees the boy walk around. "Who’s the boy?"

"No need to worry, Colonel," Lelei says, rolling her eyes. "His name is Jaleoa Wa Algon, a friend from Rondel. He wanted to see Alnus, and I ran into him during Halloween. He is more of an entertainer than a fighter."

He looks at Jaleoa, who is poking the HUMVEE in amazement. He knows people give him a hard time being overprotective, but history showed him to be careful. He has invested a lot of energy, time, money, and love into her and just wants to protect her from thriving to become the woman he thinks she could be. "As long as he's just a friend. He is welcome."

Jaleoa walks by. "Thanks for letting me come, pops."

“Pops?” he asks, confused.

“Don’t worry,” Jaleoa says with a smirk. “Lelei told me all about yeah. She speaks very highly of yeah for a quiet girl. Don’t worry; I will give you guys a show for your ‘Thanksgiving’ event.”

He watches Jaleoa goes inside. “Hmm. I like his boldness.”

Once he walks inside, he sees everyone celebrating Selina's recovery.

---

Lelei is sitting at the table. She is watching a small poker termounent between Vanguard-7 and 3rd Recon.

“Ha! You lose again,” Shino yells as she stands up.

“God damnit,” Andrew says. He then pulls out twenty bucks and tosses it to Shino. “Don’t tell Hamiton.”

“If I do then I won’t make money off of you,” Shino says.

“Why do you keep gambling?” Lelei asks. “You don’t seem to be good at it. Have you learned nothing from losing to me?”

“Gambling isn’t always about the money Lelei,” Jerry says as he shuffles the cards.

“And besides, shouldn’t you be more worried about the fact your boss was at a strip joint?” Takeo says.

“I don’t see the big deal,” she comments. “Not like the Colonel wouldn’t do anything inappropriate. He fought off those pricks, and besides, wasn’t your Captain there too?”

“You are so innocent, Lelei,” Mari says. “But she is right; our Captain was there.”

“And got his ass kicked last time I checked,” Scott points out. “While ours kicked ass.”

“And then they all got their ass kicked by Sarah, Delilah, and Rory, I heard the colonel got the worst punishment, as Rory gave him a pink belly and an arm burns,” Tomita points out.

She watches another round of poker, fascinated by the game. She has learned chess and checkers quickly however this game seems to require far more luck than the other two. She managed to beat Sharpe, Rory, Sarah, Selina and Tuka all the time in chess.

She sees a flash and looks over. She sees Jaleoa use his magic to create magical birds, flying around. Selina's friends are enjoying the show and many of the soldiers.

“Lelei,” Andrew says. “Why don’t you show the mage what you have learned. We all know you could do better than him.”

Normally she would say no, that magic should be treated with the respect it deserves. Since joining these people last year she has learned that logic doesn't work with them.

“I have been studying some interesting magic and it might surprise or even shock everyone,” she says. “I think this would be a good time to try some of it out.”

“That is cool,” Jerry says. “Show us what you got!?”

She gets up and walks over to Jaleoa. “Good magic. I see you have been studying your craft.”

“I am here to entertain,” Jaleoa replies. “What is the point of having power if you cannot have a good time with it.”

“I would like to join in if it is ok with you,” she asks.

“Totally,” Jaleoa replies. He then gets out of the way.

“Attention everyone! I will now perform a spectacular magic trick that will blow your mind,” she announces.

Everyone in Vanguard 7, 5, the Rose Knights, Alnus Militia, Third Recon and some of the Alnus MIlitary Police gaze their eyes.

She takes a step forward and raises both of her hands in the air, which her entire body turns into a swarm of butterflies flying across the bar. The butterfly swarms then transform into a flaming phoenix that glides across the bar, splitting into many tiny phoenixes. Then all the small phoenixes accumulate together to reform back into the original phoenix.

The phoenix eventually explodes in the massive flaming explosion, leaving only ashes. However, the ashes are then being reformed back into Lelei. As the final act, Lelei conjures her hands with a strange magic spell that causes the floor to collapse, causing all people to scream as they fall hundreds of feet to some hard surface, but they then realize that they fall gently right back to their seats and everything is normal.

“Don’t worry! The collapsed floor is just an illusion,” she states.

As everyone calms down, they give her a very big applause for her spectacular performance.

“That is so awesome, Lelei!” Selina cheers.

“That was the most wonderful stuff I have seen so far!” Rory amazingly states

“I thought you hate magic being used for fun? That kinds of magic you just pulled out was extraordinary! No mages or alchemists can perform transmutation like you do!! Those magic must be derived from those scientific principles!” Jaleoa acclaims with a smirk.

“You really outdid yourself this time Lelei! Once again you amaze me and everyone with your magical innovation,” Sharpe states, giving her a prideful look.

“Actually everyone! I didn’t make up this type of magic based on any scientific principles. I learned this from the book of Shadow, the grimoire of the Wiccans sent to me by the Wiccan Coven in Pennsylvania. They are the mages from Earth! That's right, everyone! Magic does exist on the other side of the Gate and there are mages on Earth!” Lelei loudly states.

Everyone shocks at Lelei’s statement, especially the NATO personnel. She can feel the mood change in the bar from happy to tense.

“You people have magic all this time?” Pina shockingly asks. “Your extraordinary advanced technology is shocking enough but magic.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Tyuule inquires. “If Earth has magic, why don't I see any mages from your world in Alnus or in Philadelphia. I thought you people said there was no magic on Earth.”

“Is it true dad?” Selina asks. “I thought you said magic doesn't exist on Earth.”

“Calm down everyone,” Itami says. “I think Lelei just made a big exaggeration to make her magic more interesting.”

“Lelei never jokes about magic,” Rory states.

“I don’t think Lelei is joking,” Tuka states. “I think she was telling the truth because we did meet mages from Earth the last time we visited Philadelphia.”

“At the mall when we bought a gift for our friends in Alnus, a Wiccan witch, a shaman women and a voodoo man came to us and we detected their mana signature,” Yao adds

Their words cause further confusion among everyone. Sharpe then take a step to clear thing out

“Ok,” Sharpe says, taking control of the situation. “To make it clear there is no magic on Earth. People have claimed to be in the past however they always proven to be con artists who use tricks to make people think they have magic to con money from people. Tuka and Yao must have been subjected to hallucinated agents from some con men much like Lelei when they are on Earth to believe that they are mages. If we have magic and mages on Earth then why are we so interested and amazed in magic spells that so mundane and normal to the people of Uros? Why were we so ignorant and naive about anything magical when we first came to this world? But most of all, why Vanguard 7 and I have to rely on Lelei here to be a magical expert every single time?”

Sharpe’s words make everyone rethink and they then admit that Sharpe was right, his reasoning made sense.

“I think the Colonel is right,” Myuute says. “His words make a lot of sense to you people naivety about magic so that makes sense that magic does not exist in your world.”

“Are you sure Master Cato isn’t pulling some prank on you?” Alicia asks.

Lelei breathes a long breath and raise her voice

“Sharpe! I know you and everyone in NATO and even on Earth will tell me what I said about Earth mages and magic are jokes but I don’t blame you all! You people's lack of awareness is caused by the Witch Hunt centuries ago,” she states as she pulls out her tablet and reveals some pictures of the dreadful events.

“The Witch Hunt?” Jaleoa asks. “What is that?”

She can see all the natives looking at each other, confused by what she said.

“It might be shocking to all the natives here but despite all the marvelous, awesome and godly technological advancement achieved by the people of Earth, they actually shun magic and despise mages to the extreme. The witch hunts was an event that happened many centuries ago on Earth in which the vast population of Earth started hunting down mages and burning and decapitating them,” she then shows everyone the pictures of witches being burned on the stakes

“Unlike here, where mages are treated with respect as revered members of the society in civilization development, mages on Earth are treated as demons that need to be eradicated. The root cause for all this to happen was the action of the few evil mages which caused mass hysteria among the population, causing them to generalize that all mages were evil and demonic. Coping with religious influence, the majority mage population were hunted down and the knowledge of their existence and magic were lost through time. Fortunately, the mage populations survived the Witch Hunt and went into hiding to avoid persecution from the population for the next centuries, with several witch prosecutions re-appeared and being forgotten later on. Until today, the mage population is still in hiding to avoid the fear and hate the mass population gonna subjected to them until the Gate opens and my magic performance and Tuka’s appear favourably on the internet. This event makes the Earth mages decide to finally come out of the shadow and to be accepted into society and live in harmony,” she passationly says.

Everyone comprehends what Lelei says and no surprising NATO people scoffs harder at what she just said. Itami and the third recon clap their hands to applaud Lelei for making up the most fake but the most fantastically interesting story ever. However, it is not the same for the natives and they seem to believe what Lelei said to some extent most due to the existence of magic in their world and the fact that the vast majority of Earth advanced technology is like powerful magic to them in the first glance and they still not even comprehend all of the aspects of Earth technology.

Sharpe takes a stressful breath. “That is a very interesting theory Lelei but, let me explain why we find this hard to believe. You have to be very careful what you read and what people tell you. They were called Witch Hunts because people believed they were witches however, they were just normal people looking for reasons to kill.”

“I am not lying, Sharpe!” she says. She can understand why the others don’t believe her but she cannot understand why Sharpe won’t, after everything they've been through.

“I don’t think you are lying,” Sharpe says. “If there's this Wiccan group hiding in plain sight then why has no one ever recorded them? At some point one of these mages would have been caught doing their magic tricks somewhere.”

“They are hiding because of the witch burnings,” she responds. “They are scared to come out.”

“So there has been a secret underground society of magic users for thousands of years?” Sharpe asks. “With these witch huntings, people will find any justification to kill someone. It was a backwards time where they thought a woman knowing how to read was proof of being possessed by the devil. All of it was the church maintaining its control and power over people.”

“But I met a few of them!” she states.

Sharpe takes a frustrated breath. “Those Gypsy’s. Gypsy’s been around for a long time Lelei. I know about them, most people do. You have to be careful what you read on the Internet. A lot of people make bold claims online. This isn’t something you can hide.”

Sharpe looks around. “Alright, this conversation is over. Everyone go back to what you were doing.” He then looks at her. “Lelei, a moment outside.”

She takes a frustrated breath and follows him outside the bar. As she leaves she hears people going back to partying however she can still feel that the mood has changed.

“What you did in there was inappropriate,” Sharpe states. “I expected that from the others, but not from you.”

“It is the truth though,” she states again. “I cannot understand why you can’t see it. I saw what I saw. Tuka saw them too.”

“Crazy people do crazy things,” Sharpe replies. “I once saw someone jump off a roof and got up like it was nothing. He was on an extreme drug that prevented him from feeling pain, nothing more. You've been on Earth, three, four times now? I was born there. Same with Alicia and the others. What you are saying is that everything in my planet history is a lie. It just doesn't make sense. It was probably some people who recognized you as a mage so they said they were to. They might believe they are mages but that doesn't mean they are.”

“When I was in Delta I went to places that had been cut off from society,” he continues. “I have seen some of these tribes claim that they can do supernatural things. Each time it turned out to be bogus. Their people say that they are psychic’s but they are just scammers, manipulating people's emotions to make them think what the guy wants them to think.”

“I felt mana,” she replies. “I know this is true. It isn’t fake news from the Internet. I wouldn’t be saying this unless I was certain!”

Sharpe takes a deep breath, looking directly at her. “You really believe this?”

She glares at him.

“Alright,” he says. “I think someone is pulling a fast one on you Lelei. People make insane claims like this all the time on Earth but this is what I will do. When we go to DC you can show me all of your evidence and I will tell you if it is legit or not. I will give you that chance.”

“Fine,” she replies. She then storms back inside.

---

Sharpe walks back inside the bar with a headache. He has never seen that from Lelei before. It is not like her to burst out like that.

If it wasn't for the fact that he knows there's no Earth mages he might have believed her. When he introduced Lelei to the Internet, he was worried that she would believe fake-information online. Some websites can be very convincing at pretending to be truthful. Even credible sources have been shown to lie at times.

She clearly hasn’t figured out how to sort out what is true and not true.

“Everything ok?” Sarah asks as she walks up. “Lelei is pissed.”

“I know,” he says as he looks around. Everyone is hanging out however the mood has changed.

“Well, the party has officially crashed,” Sarah says.

“Looks like it,” he replies. “I better go make a fool of myself.”

He walks up to the empty dance floor. “Hello everyone. Happy Thanksgiving. First let me say congratulations to Delilah and Hamilton for being ready-to-be mothers. When we first came to this world we thought we were just going to fight, wanting payback. No one could have expected everything would have led to this.”

“There are many different groups in this room celebrating with us today, many used to be enemies. I know it has been tough over the past year however we always pulled through them because we always had each other. No credit goes to one person but to all.”

“Getting here hasn’t been cheap, we lost many people on the way. While not all were directly with us, many were with us in spirit, like General Krysist and Legatus Propraetor Muilk. Both of them died in the attempt to bridge our two worlds for peace.”

“While today isn’t the exact anniversary, that being April 25th, it is close enough for us to remember where everything began. It all started with us meeting at the Coan Forest during that exploration mission, fighting a Flame Dragon. While none of us understood at the time, the direction and meaning of the war and why we are here changed. This is the only reason we have different types of people from all over Falmart, different classes, culture, races, everything in one room. This only could happen at that one moment.”

“While sometimes we don’t see eye to eye and or struggle to understand each other,” he says as he nods his beer at Lelei. “We are always family.”

“It has been one year since I met Rory, Selina, and Lelei. From that point we met more friends along the way. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that every step, the good and the bad, has been an honor and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

The crowd cheers.

“Take this evening to think about your deeds and where you want to go in the years to come. We will meet new challenges, new threats and allies. We may have differences of ideas, culture and kreed however we are always stronger together and lets be thankful for what we have today.”

Another ground of cheers.

“One last thing,” Sharpe says. “I have an official order from the President herself. She is holding a summit at Washington DC next week. Be ready to go, this will be a diplomatic meeting.”