Becca came back from changing with some light leather armor and her hair tied in a ponytail.
"Wow, you look great in anything you wear. I am a lucky man."
"You don't have to lie." Becca was being self-deprecating because the original Nicolas destroyed her confidence in her looks. I'm going to work hard to fill her with the confidence that her beauty deserves.
"I'm really conflicted about you being my assistant now…on patrol, I'll be so distracted by your good looks that criminals will be able to catch me off guard." I said playfully.
"Shut up, let's get going!" Becca ran in front of me, out the door. I could see the back of her ears were red.
"Wait for me!"
I ran to catch up with her. I looked around to make sure no one else was near by. Then, I gave her a quick reminder.
"Becca, James might say some rude things to you at first. I'm sure Nicolas didn't talk nicely about you, so James is probably used to that kind of talk.
I'll make sure to reprimand him whenever he says something inappropriate. It will probably take a little while for it to sink in though…please don't let it affect you too much."
"I am used to it Nick. I have thick skin, so don't worry about me. Plus, now I have you on my side."
As she said this, she leaned over and quickly hugged my arm.
Sadly, she only hugged my arm for a second. It was too sudden for me to fully appreciate it.
"Yes…I will back you up." I said with a slight pout.
We kept walking until we were in front of the door to my office. I held the door up for Becca and let her enter before me.
As I was following behind, I could hear James from inside the room ask confused, "what are you doing here?"
I walked in behind Becca and said, "I invited her here. We have some important things to talk to you about."
James scratched his head in embarrassment.
"Alright, come have a sit."
We both pulled up chairs at the desk James was sitting at.
I started the explanation, "James, last night, Becca and I had a serious conversation where I revealed to her that I had lost my memories since the time of our wedding ceremony."
James was shocked at my seemingly reckless choice. He turned to look angrily at Becca, "Nick, why would you do that? She hates you! She will sell you out to the highest bidder in a heartbeat! This whole Duchy is in danger now!"
As I was about to try to explain myself the best I could without revealing my secret, Becca put her hand in front of me to stop me.
She then spoke in a calm manner, "Nick was the highest bidder. He promised me three things during our talk yesterday. If all three are followed through on, then I will have no reason to ever Nick betray."
James put his head in his hands. "What ridiculous things did he offer you?"
Becca straightened her posture, "First, he offered to let me join the Royal mages as his assistant."
James turned towards me and exclaimed, "You have to be at least an intermediate mage to be in the Royal mages! They won't let a complete beginner to magic join just because you are the captain. Even if you try to use the assistant title to treat her more like a secretary, a minimum strength is required."
I could see a vein popping out of Becca's forehead.
"I am already an intermediate water mage. Don't go assuming that I am weak. I won't just be sitting around as Nick's secretary. My title as assistant means I will be teaming up with him to create a combination attack that will boost his already strong offense.
Also, you are talking to me right now, stop turning your head to speak to Nick. I am currently the Duchess, so you work under me as well."
I looked at Becca with a warm smile. 'She is awesome.'
James put his hands up in defeat.
"Ok I understand. I apologize for the disrespect."
After his apology, he turned his attention to Becca's claims.
"You really are an intermediate water mage with no formal training?! You must be a special talent! If you train formally for a year or two more, you could probably become an advanced mage!
In the history of this Kingdom, there has never been a couple that were both advanced mages. This is unprecedented! Our Duchy could be the strongest Duchy in the history of the Kingdom!"
Becca was still not completely happy with his words.
"Don't call me a special talent. Don't belittle my hard work by saying that I only became an intermediate mage because I was naturally talented. I worked hard every single day for the last 10 years to reach the level I have so far."
James was clearly annoyed by Becca's need to rebuttal. "Ok, I understand. Regardless, that is really impressive. If your level of dedication is that strong, maybe you could become an advanced mage even sooner.
Still, there has only ever been one woman Royal mage and that was a long time ago. There will be a lot of Royal mages against the idea of letting a women join. They will probably claim that Nick is playing favorites to let a woman, who should be naturally weak, join the Royal mages."
Becca held up two fingers, "that is where the second thing Nick promised me comes into play. He promised that he would doing everything in his power to change the laws and society of this Kingdom to better give women and other marginalized people the rights that they deserve.
I agreed to work with him to start making these kind of changes in the Duchy first. One of those changes should be that anyone can join the Royal mages as long as they are strong enough. I will pave the way for more women to join by never backing down and showing how valuable my strength is."
James did not seem completely happy with that explanation. "You are making it out to be a lot easier than it really is. People don't change so quickly…"
Becca nodded, "that is why we are coming here to you. You know the most about politics and administration, so we will need your help to set up all the new rules and regulations to slowly change people's minds.
I also strongly believe that there are more people like me that have been hiding their true strength because they knew it would not be valued.
If we publicly reveal our intentions to the whole Duchy, there will probably be lots of hidden talents that will come out of the woodwork for an opportunity."
James shook his head, "they will only reveal themselves if they trust us. Trust is not built in a day. They will stay hidden if they don't think we can follow through on our bold claims."
Becca smiled, "that is where Nick and I will work hard to change the minds of the people with our actions and you will work on creating laws that will help people trust our vision!"
"That sounds like a lot of extra work for me…"
"Yes, you are going to be very busy, but it is because Nick trusts you."