Chapter 16: Internship

They all went ‘home’ to the condo each weekend where the three girls were all over Olaf. They quickly introduced Mona to Olaf’s tongue treatment when he got all three of his concubines off by licking them into submission. All three of the girls, as well as Alice, regularly made use of the opportunity to sneak into the shower with Olaf, especially after his morning runs. Despite the very close relationship between Olaf and Ruth, she never demanded that he give her the same treatment. Ruth and Alice were more like sisters to Olaf.

By the start of the summer break, when Olaf finished high school and formally received an invitation to enroll into the Ceres University, all the girls were still virgins. All three of the girls did well in their own studies and were invited back for their next year. Olaf had a talk with the school principal and the counselor

which resulted in Mona receiving permission to join Vanessa, Aster, and Ruth at the start of the new school year. Alice also did well and was also invited to join Olaf for their first year at the university.

Olaf’s subtle incognito status came to an abrupt and unexpected end just before their last exam.

“Lord Olaf,” Alec said as he walked into the dorm room which Olaf shared with three other students, “the duke requests your presence.” In the past, when Alec wanted to get in contact with Olaf, he used the official communicator which Olaf carried. This was the first time ever that Alec just walked into the school and into Olaf’s room. It was obvious that he had the authority to do it since he was in uniform.

“I knew it!” Peet exclaimed after he got over the surprise of seeing a militia officer walking into their room. “We always suspected that you were a nobleman.”

“Hey, Lieutenant, what is Olaf’s title?” Helm asked.

“He didn’t tell you yet?” Alec asked in surprise as Olaf started getting dressed. It was early in the morning, and the four students were actually preparing for another of their final exams which was to take place the next morning. “Sorry, then I don’t feel comfortable doing it either. Better ask Viscount Vasa himself.” Alec had a totally innocent look on his face as he looked Olaf in the eyes.

“How do we do that?” Bert asked as he frowned at Olaf, who was ignoring the interaction. “Wait, Viscount Vasa, as in the heir to the duke?”

“No way! We thought you were related to a baron,” Helm said as he stood. “We have been sharing a room with Viscount Vasa all this time?”

“Good job in keeping that under wraps, Alec. Let’s go,” Olaf said as he headed out of the room. Alec had a huge smirk on his face as he followed Olaf.

“You are done with school anyway, My Lord,” Alec stated, in spite of the few students they encountered in the passageway, who stopped in their tracks as they looked at Olaf and Alec in surprise.

Alec led Olaf out the main entrance, where they met a flustered-looking Ruth who wordlessly joined them. The school principal and the secretarial staff were also in the entrance hallway and all of them bowed to Olaf as he walked out to where the hovercraft was waiting with four of his troopers, also in uniform.

Olaf was curious about why he was being summoned to the palace in such a formal manner, but he knew better than to ask Alec, who most likely knew and would claim not to know, unless there was some emergency, at which time Alec would have said something at the start. He gave Ruth a questioning look, but she just stretched her eyes wide and shrugged.

“Alec sent me a message, that he is fetching you, on order of the duke, so I decided to come as well,” Ruth said as she gave Alec a glaring look. He just gave her a polite smile and stayed quiet all the way to the palace.

“Sorry to yank you away from your studies but according to the reports I received about you, you are about done with school anyway,” the duke said as Olaf walked into his office. Ruth had stayed behind in the antechamber with her mother.

“Not sure about that, Your Grace, I still have two finals to write,” Olaf said as he took the seat the duke pointed at.

“The University of Ceres already admitted you to start any program you want after the summer break,” The duke said. “Anyway, I need you here, and in Government Hall, over the summer. See it as a kind of internship. I am leaving for a meeting of the Imperial Council tomorrow; I will not be back before the end of summer at the earliest.”

“What exactly are you expecting me to do, Your Grace?” Olaf asked. The idea of an internship was interesting, intriguing. It could mean that he had to perform certain of the duke’s duties while the duke was away, but which duties?

“All of the duties I would have had to do if I was here,” the duke said. “Dirk is taking his family to the island for part of the summer. He is leaving his heir behind as well, to do an internship in his office.”

“Let me get this straight,” Olaf said as he sat up straight. “You are leaving for Secundus, and Viscount Dirk is going on vacation, and the two of you feel comfortable in leaving me and Herman in charge of the system?”

“Sounds horrible and risky if you put it that way, but yes, that is what is going to happen,” The duke said with a smirk on his face. “Don’t worry, Dirk will be close enough to give both of you advice if you kids need it. Also remember that your grandmother will also be here to advise you. In fact, you might get more direct help from your father-in-law. Rudolf Rasmus thinks the world of you and would not hesitate to advise you if you ask for help. He might just like you even more, if that was even possible, if you ask for his help. I have made a list of regular tasks, and how they should be handled. There is not that much that needs to be done, most people take vacation over the summer so there will not be any formal dinners or such events. In short, nothing unusual has been planned until I get back. Let me go over the duties with you. We already talked about this in the past.” For the rest of the morning, Olaf and Duke Wilbur discussed the duties of the duke of Ceres. There was nothing unusual, like trade negotiations or new corporations wanting special dispensation from the ruler of the system.

Lunch was with both Duchess Victoria and Lady Thelma. That was when Olaf discovered that the duke had been convinced to take Lady Thelma along as his travel companion. In reality she just wanted to go explore the cluster capital, something which the duchess did in the company of Duke Eric when they were both much younger.

After lunch Olaf and Duke Wilbur had another joint planning session, where the duke gave Olaf more insight into the daily tasks of running the system. For part of the session, the duke had both Diane and Ruth join them and talked to all of them. The last part of the briefing before he let Olaf and Ruth leave for the day was when he gave Olaf access to the ducal computer accounts.

“Are we going back to school?” Ruth asked as they walked out of the duke’s office.

“We have to go write the final two exams, but Alec blew my undercover status this morning in a spectacular way,” Olaf said with a fake long face.

“I noticed,” Ruth said with a smirk. “For that alone we should go back even if it will be for the last time. Too many of the other girls, and a few female teachers, have been teasing me for wanting to get too close to you. Now I can explain why I always follow you around.”

When they got back to school, it was just in time for supper. When Alec guided them out of the hovercraft, the two troopers who had infiltrated the janitorial staff were waiting, in uniform. Ruth could barely hold back a giggle when she saw the looks of the faces of the few students and teachers they encountered on their way to the dining hall.

The dining hall was quite full, and noisy, when Olaf and Ruth walked in. Alec and the two troopers stayed just outside the door, after Alec glanced in and looked around. Not many of the students saw him but the noise level in the dining room dropped to nothing as Olaf and Ruth made their way to the seniors’ table, where Vanessa and Aster were also seated. Because there were so few girls attending the school, they usually shared the dining table with the senior class, of whom there were also not many. Mona and Vanessa in particular were quite popular with the male students with most of them trying to flirt with the girls. Aster kept being the mysterious one, the lone girl who never reacted to being flirted with.

“Olaf, where have you been all day?” Vanessa asked loudly when she saw him. Then she noticed Alec standing just inside the open doorway of the dining hall and her mouth snapped shut.

“Sorry, my uncle wanted to talk to me,” Olaf said in a relatively low and casual tone.

“Uncle?” Ingrid asked as she gave Olaf a questioning look. “So, it’s true, you are a nobleman?” Olaf just shrugged as he held Ruth’s chair for her. “Why do you have soldiers following you around?”

“Are you an heir,” Betta, Ingrid’s best friend said as she also looked at the doorway.

“Actually, he is,” Vanessa said as she gave Olaf a questioning look. “Why is Alec in uniform?”

“Ingrid, see if you can recognize his ribbon,” Helm suggested before Olaf could reply.

“My brother also has a ribbon,” Ingrid snorted dismissively. “His problem is that he has no medallion hanging on the end of it. Show us your ribbon,” she demanded of Olaf. Ruth giggled as she reached for Olaf’s chest. Olaf was about to stop her, but he knew it was too late anyway. Trying to hide his title and rank was generally a waste of time.

“I don’t recognize those colors,” Ingrid responded as Ruth pulled a piece of the ribbon from his shirt. “Wait, only two colors?”

“You are thinking too low,” Helm said with a smirk, followed by both Peet and Burt laughing softly. “He is an heir, and that ribbon has a medallion hanging from it.”

“A real medallion?” Betta asked with a questioning look as her eyes grew bigger.

“The emperor activated it in person,” Ruth said. “I was there, I saw it all,” Her comment resulted in the two girls’ eyes grew wide.

“Think Vasa,” Helm muttered.

“Viscount Vasa?” Ingrid gasped. She looked at Vanessa and then as Ruth before her eyes settled on Aster. “Where do you three fit in, if he is..., heir to the duke?” She squeaked.

“My father is the First Speaker for the council of barons,” Vanessa said casually. “Aster grew up with Olaf. We are both intended to be his concubines when the time is right.”

“What role do you play, Ruth?” Peet asked. “I know your mom works in the palace.”

“I’m Lord Olaf’s personal assistant,” Ruth said. “Where he goes, I need to go as well, and no, we are not lovers. I just work for him.”

“Mona is not here, she is studying privately,” Vanessa said. “She is Olaf’s third concubine, the daughter of another baron.”

“How about we keep doing stuff like we did for the past two years then,” Olaf said between mouthfuls of food.

For the next two days Olaf and his immediate group continued as normally as the time of year allowed; they studied and wrote exams. The same could not be said for the rest of the student body or the teachers. Even the adult female teachers had a tough time to not curtsy when Olaf walked past them. At least they were not attending classes but by next morning the entire school knew that the tall shy dark-head guy from the islands was Viscount Vasa, the next duke of Ceres. Before Olaf or the school administration could figure out how they were going to handle the situation, the school year ended, and all the students left for home for the summer.

“Like during my first visit to Secundus, I could have put Dirk in charge of the system,” Duke Wilbur said to Olaf. They were outside the palace, watching as the Imperial Marine shuttle floated closer to the huge ‘H’ embedded in the stone paving behind the palace. There were three such landing spots but only one shuttle was landing, to pick up the duke. Another shuttle was hovering about a kilometer towards the sea and about half a kilometer above the palace. “He would have done it as well; he is eager to let his son run the Asgaard office for at least part of the summer. That is what made me decide to put you in charge, with Dirk and Rudolf to back you up. It is better to get your feet wet while I’m still around to fix any messes you made. Don’t worry, I have confidence in you.”

Olaf didn’t respond. He was both excited and nervous about being in control of the entire system. His biggest concern was not so much about making wrong decisions, he was more worried about making some decision and the people who are supposed to act on it decided to ignore him. Even with Viscount Asgaard and the entire Ceres Militia to back him up, if he needs the military to back him up, he already failed as leader.

“Look after him,” Diane said as she pulled away from hugging Ruth. Then she glanced at Olaf and winked. Both Diane and Derick, Ruth’s parents, were accompanying Duke Wilbur on his second official visit to Secundus, which resulted in Ruth being nudged into the formal position of personal assistant to the substitute ruler of the Ceres system.

Ruth was standing behind Olaf’s left shoulder, close enough to him that her shoulder would touch his back when he leaned back slightly. Vanessa had hooked her arm into his right arm with Mona and Aster in line with her. They were all watching as the two huge shuttles drifted around each other in some weird circular pattern before they headed out to sea and upwards. A short while later they lit their boosters and went orbital.

The next morning, the first working day after the schools closed for the summer, Olaf and Ruth were flown to Government Hall. His three concubines were still sleeping and had plans to go back to the condo where they planned to stay for most of the summer, because of how close the condo was to the beach and the main shopping district of the city.

“I called Gwen and told her to come in today,” Ruth muttered as Alec and four troopers in uniform escorted him into Government Hall via the back entrance.

“I guess she gets to learn how to be the receptionist to the duke from the duke’s current receptionist,” Olaf responded.

Gwen was waiting for them in the grand lobby on the ground floor. She seemed to have arrived on foot at the same time as they did but from the grand entrance side. She smiled and curtsied to Olaf before she fell in behind him. Olaf liked her and noticed that she looked much more relaxed and attractive, nearly pretty, from the first time he saw her. She was still slender but not so gaunt looking anymore.

Olaf had had a few formal meetings with the duke but always in the duke’s office at the palace, never in the duke’s formal office at Government Hall. Alec led the way into the elevator but this time the elevator went all the way to the fifth floor. Olaf already knew that all the elevators stopped at the fifth floor, and that the duke’s office was on the sixth floor.