Chapter 178 178 Reconnecting

Ciphilolia, who had remained standing quietly in a corner of the room, brought over some refreshments and gracefully put them on the table in front of Avery, Jasmine, Kasandra, and Regina.

The four of them were now sitting much closer together, and to anyone watching, would appear to be far more like a family than they had been just a few minutes ago.

Fortunately, Regina had ultimately decided that preserving a relationship with her daughter was more important to her than forcing Jasmine to go along with her ambitions and continue the family legacy.

She certainly found it a bit of a shame, but it was clear that there was nothing she could do to change her daughter's mind. Jasmine's path was set, and there was no way to change her course without breaking her. Something Regina could not bring herself to do.

Instead, she would try and build a stronger relationship with her daughter going forward. And perhaps in the future, when Jasmine was satisfied with her work as a mercenary and ready to retire, she would come back and stay on Azade as Regina wanted.

"And here's Jasmine at her first public event. She was so adorable I wanted to completely ignore the pompous old senator holding the party and just take pictures of her in her dress the entire time. Oh, I should also tell you about how difficult it was to get her into that dress." Regina said, holding a tablet out so that all four of them could see the picture displayed.

Now that she had taken off her mask as Azade's Chancellor, she was in full excited mother mode. Happily showing off her and Jasmine's past memories that had been captured.

Of course, Jasmine was extremely embarrassed by some of the stories that her mother was sharing. Especially the ones in her younger years when she was still hardly even aware of herself.

Still, her protests went on deaf ears.

With Regina having released her own constraints for the first time in so long, she could not hold back any longer.

For years now she had kept up the outwards appearance of a charismatic and strong senator, and then she had to keep her vulnerabilities even more hidden when she became Chancellor.

It had been so long since she felt able to confide in others like this and be herself. There was simply no one else other than her daughter that she could be this way with.

As for Avery, he considered this just desserts for the time the three of them met with his parents.

His own mother had shared embarrassing things about him with Jasmine and Kasandra that he would have much rather stayed a secret. So, he was more than happy to encourage Regina to reveal everything about Jasmine's childhood.

"Mother, I think that's enough about me. Why don't you tell us how you became chancellor instead." Jasmine eventually said, her face strained as they all looked at a baby picture of her with a bowl on her head and food all over her body.

Seeing that she was starting to upset her daughter, Regina decided it would be best to save any more stories of the past for another time. They were just starting to reconnect, and she did not want to make Jasmine too angry.

Avery and Kasandra were a bit disappointed, since they were receiving ammunition for some friendly teasing that could last for months, but there was no point in pushing Jasmine any further. Plus, they were interested to learn a bit more about Regina now that she was not trying to force them into anything.

"Well, once you left Jasmine, I had nothing else to do but throw myself into my work. Many criticized me for not being able to control my own daughter, so I think a part of me wanted to get back at them. I figured that if I could become the first Rhinelander in two centuries to become Chancellor of Azade's Senate, that that would show them. Plus, I needed the distraction. A goal to work towards to keep mind off of your leaving and your father's death."

Regina had a sad and longing look in her eyes when she mentioned her late husband, but she quickly continued talking about her path to becoming Azade's Chancellor to prevent the mood from becoming dourer.

'I guess now's not the time to be asking about Jasmine's father. I want to know what kind of person he was, but I suppose I'll have to wait. Since this is their reunion, I don't want to ruin it.' Avery thought, looking warmly at Jasmine and Regina.

When they had received the forceful invitation for this meeting, he had been expecting the worst. And it had almost come to that.

Had Regina been a bit stronger-willed and more controlling, they would not be having this peaceful conversation right now.

Thankfully, Jasmine's mother had been able to accept that negotiations had broken down, and that she was not going to lose her daughter if she only acted as Azade's Chancellor rather than as a mother.

"I got lucky that the previous chancellor had decided to retire. This made things far easier, since going against an incumbent is extremely difficult, and Leopold was quite popular. The other ten major candidates going after the chancellorship were easy enough to crush. I exposed the shady dealings two of them were involved in, and I got another to withdraw by breaking a tie on a vote concerning trade restrictions that heavily benefited her district. As for the other seven…"

Regina ecstatically recounted how she had beaten her competition and taken the highest seat of power on Azade for herself.

She had not been able to brag like this to anyone else, so she completely got lost in the moment. Revealing a few unscrupulous details that were probably better left off as secrets.

Still, this went to show how much she trusted Jasmine even after all of these years. And by extension, Avery and Kasandra.

"Okay, it think that's enough about me. How about we start talking wedding details. I'd like to at least get an idea of when you are going to marry my daughter." Regina said, suddenly turning to Avery and hitting him with an astounding surprise.

Yes, he had already impassionedly stated that he would marry Jasmine, but he had not particularly been considering any sort of wedding.

Normally, people merely filed marriage papers to make it official and held a small celebration among close friends and family. If they did anything at all.

Grand weddings were a thing of the past in most places in the Alliance, but not among the upper crust of Azade. It was traditional to have an elaborate and grand ceremony.

By some miracle though, as Avery was floundering for a response, Ciphilolia walked up behind Regina with a grave look on her face. It seemed that some emergency had come up to save Avery from a conversation he was woefully underprepared for.

"Madam, there is something that you absolutely must see."

Ciphilolia tried to usher Regina out of the room, since this was matter concerning Azade, but since the major event was already being broadcast by a national news agency, she felt there was no need to hide it from Avery, Jasmine, and Kasandra. They would easily be able to find out what was going on later anyway.

On her tablet, Jasmine's mother pulled up the news story and started playing the broadcast.

"We're here live at the scene. A large seismic event stated to have been caused by a device of some kind has leveled the central area of the new city that was under construction in the Werenis Region. The authorities have already made an arrest in this case. Having apparently found evidence that the organization known as Azade's Farming Heritage was involved. The leader of a group, Leland Glas, a known critic of the greater urbanization initiative sweeping through the planet, has been arrested in relation to this event."

Regina's grip on her tablet grew tighter as she continued to listen to the story.

The immense property damage was bad enough, but what really had her ticked off was the hasty arrest.

Leland Glas was a popular figure among a large demographic of the planet. Arresting him so hastily and publicly was bound to cause some amount of civil unrest. His followers were already preparing a protest in response.

"This doesn't make any sense. Leland is not the type of person to do something like this. We were getting closer to working on a compromise already. Knocking down a city center is not his style." Regina muttered.

At the very least, no one had been killed, but the act had been labeled as terrorist activity.

The fact that an arrest had happened so quickly and the story seemed to be spreading unnaturally fast smelled rotten to Regina. She had built up a strong intuition during her career as a politician, and she could feel with certainty that something more was at play here.