Dysfunctional Imperials
Copyright© 2025 by Ogreface
Chapter 19: Visitors
Olaf, Duchess Victoria, and Olaf’s three concubines were all waiting in front of an honor guard of the Ceres Militia when three marine shuttles slowly drifted down towards the landing pads next to the palace. Unlike the more direct route over the sea, the visitors obviously wanted to have a look at the city and the bay before they came in for a landing, so they approached from inland.
“Three shuttles?” Olaf asked Captain Kenworth, who was standing closest to him.
“The Empress Olivia has a full Imperial Marine platoon onboard, Your Grace,” Kenworth explained. “They also only have one marine shuttle with them, and a smaller gig. The navy at the space station supplied the other two shuttles, mostly for subterfuge but they have another platoon onboard the shuttles.”
“Do the imperial marines that are based up there stay there all the time?” Vanessa asked.
“They have two platoons in the system, my lady,” Captain Kenworth explained. “One platoon is on permanent readiness at the space station while the other platoon stays at their base down the coast. I think they swap the platoons ever few weeks.”
The lead shuttle finally settled down with its rear ramp facing Olaf and his party as the other two veered away to land at the militia base below the palace. Olaf watched as a group of black-clad people exited the shuttle’s front door as the ramp slowly opened.
“Remember, Your Grace,” somebody from the Ceres Protocol office said behind Olaf, “While Duke Jason is effectively the same rank as you, officially you are not a duke yet. He might not care but it would be best if you addressed him as ‘Your Grace’.”
“There is another difference between him and me,” Olaf responded without looking at the man who arrived at Olaf’s office and introduced himself two days earlier. He has been educating Olaf and the girls ever since on how to react and what to say. “His father’s photo hangs in the place of honor in Government Hall.”
Jason Taurus, Duke of Saturn, Viscount Moorefield, and heir to the cluster, was as tall as Olaf was. He was dressed in casual slacks and a button-up shirt as he came strolling down the ramp of the shuttle. Olaf had been warned that only the duke would be exiting the shuttle from the back ramp, everybody else, including the duke’s wife, Countess Erin, would be exiting the shuttle from the side door. As Duke Jason stepped off the ramp, Olaf stepped forward with his hand extended.
“Welcome to Ceres, Your Grace,” Olaf said to the heir of the empire. “I’m Olaf Ostrander, heir to Duke Wilbur. You can call me Olaf.”
“Thank you, I am Jason Cosgrove; you can call me Jason,” the imperial envoy said with a naughty smirk as he and Olaf shook hands.
“This young lady is my grandmother, dowager Duchess Victoria,” Olaf started the introductions. To his amusement his grandmother, who was in her sixties but looked at least ten years younger, blushed as she curtsied to Jason. Jason smiled as he bowed and then kissed her hand. Then Jason offered his condolences on the death of her husband, two years earlier, as well as her brother-in-law more recently as Olaf watched as a large group of pretty girls approached. One of them was carrying a toddler, who was really eager to get on the ground.
“My first concubine, Vanessa, daughter of the First Speaker on the council of barons,” Olaf continued down the line. “She tricked me into claiming her so I tricked her into agreeing to finish her studies before we would consummate our relationship.” As Vanessa, with a very red face, curtsied to Jason, the lady with the toddler joined them.
“My wife, Countess Erin, and also the future empress,” Duke Jason said as he took the toddler out of Lady Erin’s arms. She decided to curtsy to Olaf as he tried to shake her hand. “We met when I ran her over on the beach. She has been chasing me ever since.” Erin blew the future emperor a raspberry before she shook hands with Vanessa and then with Duchess Victoria.
Olaf and Jason took turns introducing their concubines, going totally against what the protocol officer had instructed Olaf to do. Since Jason had a lot more concubines and lovers, and all of them exited the shuttle at the same time, Jason suggested that the women introduce themselves while he and Olaf talked.
“Uh wait, I guess protocol requires that I formally introduce my half-sister to you,” Jason said as he waved at another beauty with long mahogany-brown hair in a braid that hung to just above her butt. She was not fashion-beautiful, but she was rather striking. With naturally thick eyebrows and a mouth that seemed to be made to smile.
“Wow,” Olaf muttered involuntary as the girl approached them while looking Olaf in the eyes.
“Olaf, meet my sister, Lady Lorena, oldest daughter of Emperor Jason Pleiades,” Jason said. “Lori, meet the new Duke of Ceres, Olaf Ostrander.” Olaf could just watch as the beauty curtsied to him. Then he shook himself out of the mental fog and bowed to her. She didn’t say anything, just looked him in the eyes as her eyes grew slightly bigger.
“How old...,” Lady Lorena started, blushed, and stopped talking.
“He is a year older than you are,” Jason said with a chuckle. Then Vanessa stepped closer, obviously hinting at being introduced as well.
“Lady Lorena, meet Lady Vanessa, my senior concubine,” Olaf managed without stuttering. The two girls gave each other a look and then curtsied at the same time.
“Let me introduce you to Olaf’s other concubines,” Vanessa said to Lady Lorena. Olaf and Jason kept admiring the two girls as they walked off.
“This is a beautiful planet, and a beautiful bay,” Jason commented as he allowed the toddler, who had had enough of standing around, to run off. “By the way, that bundle of energy is Helen, Erin’s daughter but not my daughter.” He didn’t explain further, and Olaf didn’t ask. Olaf noticed that three security people, dressed in black, and another slightly older lady were trailing Jason and him as they followed the toddler, who decided the sea-facing edge of the plateau was where she wanted to be.
“That is where I grew up, thinking I was destined to be a fisherman for life,” Olaf said as he pointed at the island.
“I have heard a lot about you since the assassination of your grandfather, but nothing about your previous life,” Jason said. “I would not mind hearing more about you growing up there,” The two men tried to stand still but that was not to be. The little toddler girl was eager to explore. Olaf noticed that the woman who was following them around, also kept an eye on the toddler while giving Olaf and Jason some privacy.
“I heard rumors about some of your life before you became the heir to the emperor,” Olaf smiled.
“Then we should exchange lies but we should first get the important stuff out of the way,” Jason said as the lady managed to snag the toddler and carried her off towards the palace where the other women were all gathering outside the dining hall. “That is Trista, Helen’s nurse,” Jason nodded towards the girl who carried the toddler away.
“Everybody around here keep reminding me that the most important task I have is to produce some heirs,” Olaf said. “I would have started already except my three concubines are a bit young and still in school.”
“That is the first important task I have been asked to take care of, besides declaring you the new duke,” Jason said. “Let me just remind you, I might make suggestions, and give hints, but there is at least one direct order to you from the emperor.”
“What would that be?” Olaf asked. Jason responded by giving Olaf a huge teasing smirk.
“I will get to that a bit later,” Jason said. At that moment Vanessa, Lady Lorena, and Lady Erin came walking towards them. The three ladies seemed to have become friends because they were giggling and talking softly to each other.
“When the two of you are done getting to know each other, come join us for some refreshments,” Vanessa said as she hooked arms with Olaf and gave him a big smile. Lady Erin gave Olaf a friendly smile as she hooked arms with Jason. Lady Lorena ignored the men as she admired the bay.
Olaf and Jason were sitting outside in front of the palace in the still warm air of the late afternoon as dozens of women and quite a few kids were making friendly noises around them. The one display of affection that caught Olaf totally by surprise was the presence and behavior of a cute young girl in a hover chair. She seemed happy and content even with her being in a hover chair. Then she charged down on Jason at full speed. Jason visibly braced himself but didn’t say anything. At the last moment the girl slammed down on the controls, causing the hover chair to come to a sudden and drastic stop. The girl, being petite, didn’t stop and was launched out of the chair, twisted herself around in mid-air, and landed on Jason’s lap against his chest. She giggled merrily as she wrapped Jason’s arms around her.
“Olaf, meet Lady Jade,” Jason said. “I had to sort out the succession of the system where her late father was the duke. After I made her brother the new duke, he gave her to me. She loves to launch herself onto my lap like that.”
Lady Jade didn’t stay very long. After a while Lucia appeared and lured her off Jason’s lap. Jason’s numerous concubines would mostly ignore him and Olaf but then the girls would walk past and lean over to give Jason a quick kiss before continuing what they were doing. Jason took all this in his stride.
The one constant was the small group of black-clad security people who always stayed relatively close to Jason. One of them, a cute girl in black was following Lady Erin around. There were also a number of people, men and women in Imperial Marine or Navy uniforms around. The women seemed to be military aides, but they were also quite intimate towards Duke Jason.
Duchess Victoria was the official hostess, and Olaf could see she was in her element. She clearly loved the large crowd of noble visitors. She had the dining room transformed by having the round tables brought out. As a result, Olaf, Jason, Vanessa, Lady Erin and Lady Lenore shared one of the tables.
Another beauty, introduced as Lady Clarissa, the daughter of Jason’s uncle, the previous Viscount Moorefield, joined them as well. Olaf searched for Mona and Aster, and found them with some of Jason’s concubines, girls of about the same age.
Jason saw where Olaf was looking and commented that the one girl was a commoner whom he took as concubine since they grew up together and Jason didn’t trust the girl’s uncle, a baron, to provide for the girl. The other girl was the granddaughter of a baron on Grendel. She was only twelve and still a virgin and loved to look after the younger kids. There was another shy skinny girl sitting with that group but when Jason didn’t mention her, Olaf assumed she was a servant or companion of one of the ladies.
Of the ladies sharing Olaf’s table, Vanessa and Erin were obviously friends, while Lady Clarissa was quite friendly. Lady Lenore confused Olaf a bit. He was sitting between Vanessa and Lady Lenore and for some reason Lenore either ignored him or kept challenging him about comments he made, especially when he told Jason that he felt that him and his concubines needed to attend university before he could fully take on the task of ruling the system. It was nearly as if Lady Lenore was trying to start an argument with him. Vanessa found it amusing and Jason just shook his head. Lady Erin and Lady Clarissa had tolerant smiles on their faces as they watched the interaction between Olaf and Lenore.
After a drawn-out and relaxing and fun supper, Olaf invited Jason and anybody else to the library. At first all the women, except those clad in black and obviously guarding Jason, deserted them to go somewhere else but some of them ended up joining them in the library a while later.
“Let us get the first of my required tasks out of the way,” Jason said. “After the death of your uncle, Duke Wilbur, his IPS agents were reassigned. Being a new duke, and since you are a member of the Imperial Council, you have to have IPS protecting you as well.”
“IPS?” Olaf asked in confusion.
“Imperial Protection Service,” Jason explained. “Generally known as body protectors or just BPs,”
Jason’s response was to turn to the obvious leader of the black clad guards, who came closer and sat down when Jason pointed at an empty seat.
“Your Grace, I am Lieutenant Ron Bright, I am the head of Lord Jason’s security detail,” the man said. “IPS is the Imperial Protection Service, and we specialize in keeping our primary alive under all circumstances. While Lord Jason is away from his home, he has to have all of us guarding him. At home there is usually only one who is on duty at all times.”
“They make sure to assign me a female or two as well,” Jason said. “The reason for that is, if the primary, not me, finds himself in the situation of taking a girl to bed, somebody not related to the primary, then the duty IPS has to stay in the room at all times, to make sure that the visiting guest does not harm the primary.”
“Well, if the primary is male and prefers men, then a male of suitable orientation will stay with the primary,” Ron Bright added. “The duty BP will obviously not stay around if the primary takes his wife or concubine to bed.”
“I have a number of Ceres Militia who insist on protecting me,” Olaf said.
“They can continue doing that, Your Grace,” Ron said. “The problem is that they are not specially trained to do it. Lord Jason also has imperial marines claiming to do the same thing, but they usually specialize in securing a location, not the body of the primary.”
“So, I have to get a few IPS agents?” Olaf said.
“The emperor sent you a few,” Jason said. “You can introduce them now,” he said to Ron Bright. Bright stood and walked to the door but didn’t leave. A few seconds later he returned with four more black-clad people, two men and two women. All of them were young and athletic, and obviously fully on guard from the way they kept looking around. “The higher one’s rank, the more BPs one gets. Barons only get marine guards. Viscounts are entitled to one BP and some marine guards. As the duke of Ceres, you are entitled to two BPs, plus a spare. The extra female is for your future duchess,” Jason explained as Ron had a quiet word with the four body protectors.
“Your Grace, this is Lieutenant Ham Rider, the leader of this group,” Ron Bright introduced the four. “Sergeant Tom Riddle is the second in command. Corporal Sue Wilder and Corporal Deana Sultan are completing the allocation. Either of the two women can act as protector of the future duchess.” Olaf stood and shook hands with each of them as he repeated their names.
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