The dinner at the Director's palace.

Not long after you and your companions settled into one of the inns in Richloam, you left with Brittany, Rain and Valeria to do some shopping since you needed a formal outfit for the upcoming state dinner with the Director of the Republic of Florida that also included his own family and guests who are most likely representatives from the other countries.

The shopping trip in itself is short and uneventful but so safe and very normal nonetheless. And when you and the girls made it back to the inn, you found Elijah is taking a nap on the couch in his room while Eva and Natalie are watching something on the laptop. Curious, you told the other girls to head back to their rooms to get some rests while you joined your student and her mother.

And that is when you are seeing that they are looking at what else is in Canada aside from the Republic of Madawasaka, which resulted in you and three to learn that the Hudson's Bay Company has revived Prince Rupert's Land and has been in charge of the said territories within its borders for the last five hundred years while the same also applied to what used to be western provinces and northern territories of Canada that is currently under the banner of the North West Company as well.

And judging from how things are, they too claimed to be successors of Canada and they clearly intended on reclaiming Canada for the British Crown. However, they definitely do not wanted to have another Pemmican War with one another over this from the look of it, especially considering that they managed to maintain peaceful coexistence with one another for the last five hundred years.

Them, you, Eva and Natalie switched to looking at South America and learn about the existences of the Confederate Chiefdoms of Mapuche that located at the borders of what used to be Chile and Argentina, and the Kingdom of Cusco that located in the Andes Mountains. Nearby, the Amazon rainforest has been flooded to the point that Lake Pebas that used to exist 15 million years ago during the Miocene not only being revived but even go further to the point that the Amazon River nearby and the revived Lake Pebas ended up being connected and flooded the Amazon River itself, thus forming another one of the world's largest lakes and swamps.

But your session of learning with the daughter and the mother of the Moore family is interrupted when you noticed that it begins to get dark and that you needed to get to the Director's Palace to attend the state dinner soon.

So once you left for you room and get dress up in the new formal outfit, you departed for the Director's Palace. And when you arrived, you are seated on one of the chairs at the long table full of foods along with the other ambassadors, including the ones that you can clearly seen to not be from the Western Hemisphere.

There are ambassadors from the Republic of Texas, the Republic of Yucatan, the Free City of Alma, Petronius, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Emirate of Valencia, the Federated Realms, the Papal States, the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, the Confederate Chiefdoms of Mapuche, the Kingdom of Cusco, the Republic of Madawaska, the North West Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the British Commonwealth of Nations and the Japanese-Korean Empire and some others.

"It appeared that Florida is more connected than the rest of the North American continent, judging from the fact that so many ambassadors attended this state dinner. This also means that Director Ratcliffe must be in power at least for a while since he managed to establish contacts with even the British Commonwealth. Either that or the British Commonwealth introduced them to him as soon as he opened his country to the outside world after he won the election." - You think to yourself after observing your surroundings.

Once the Director and his family's members are seated, the feast begins. And as you are eating, you looked around to see and hear what everyone is talking about.

While you definitely missed some of them, you also managed to obtain some crucial information nonetheless. Among them are the facts it is not just the British Commonwealth is not the only strong state of this new world but there are also other great powers such as the Community of Portuguese Language Countries that is headed by Portugal and through the ancient alliance with the United Kingdom that is now based in Edinburgh and another alliance with the Japanese-Korean Empire, the Lusophone Commonwealth ended up rising to become one of the great powers also.

Another piece of information that you managed to obtain is that Spain is now the one in control of the Panama Canal, Guam and the rest of Northern Mariana Islands at the moment and that the Japanese-Korean Empire has concluded the treaty known as the Treaty of Friendship of Three Nations with Spain that Catholicism and the Spanish language in the Condominium of the Philippines that is being governed by both Japan and Korea will be protected and that the borders of both sides will be respected.

"Huh. So Spain is now once again ruling over Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, Guam and the rest of Northern Mariana Islands. And they also appeared to have good relations with Japan-Korea as well, indicating that an understanding about their borders had been reached before this moment." - You think to yourself as you are chewing the meat inside your mouth.

You also heard from the talk between the ambassadors of the British Commonwealth and the Lusophone Community, who are seated right next to Director Ratcliffe himself, expressed interests in trade with Florida and also wonder if the American Question will ever become a thing like the French Question in Europe and the Indonesian Question in Asia or not.

"The American Question? Like the questions similar to German and the Italian Questions back during the 19th century about who gets to be the ones that unify Germany and Italy?" - You think to yourself as you continued to eat your dinner while doing your best to hear more of their conversation.

"Ahaha! I wished that is the case. But considering the current state of the North American continent, that might take a lot longer." Montgomery said before he takes a sip of the red wine in his glasses.

"Dang it! Thanks to you, Dylan! The reunification of the United States will be so far in the future now because of you!" - You think to yourself as you are slicing into the steak once again with a bit of anger toward your former coworker for what he did.

But as you are eating, your mind begins to wonder what the North American continent be like in the far flung future. In the most likely scenario, it will be like Western Europe in the aftermath of the fall of the Western Roman Empire with a number of states appeared with some even claimed as the successors of Rome and kept playing games of politics, diplomacy and wars, until the strongest states made it out of the Middle Ages and began the global explorations.

"Yeah... not going to happen anytime soon. At the fastest rate, I would be a super old man by that point and that is only if all of those dangerous mutants that are threats to human civilizations are dealt with somehow." - You think to yourself in such an amusement to the point that you cannot helped but smile a little before quickly drop it and resume eating while listening to the other conversations around the table to obtain more information as much as possible.

However, someone noticed it already. And that someone was none other but the Director's female secretary of African-American origin.

Eventually, the state dinner ended peacefully and all ambassadors returned to their respective quarters once they left the Director's Palace while Director Ratcliffe and his family retired to beds for the night.

But as you are about to get on your carriage and leave, the Director's secretary silently approached you from behind.

"Excuse me!" The young African-American woman with her sweet and beautiful voice.

"Yes, Miss?" You asked as you turned around to face her.

"I know this might sounded insane and maybe a little too much but can you do me a favor by taking me back to my home, please? Handsome Sir?" The African-American secretary asked you with her beautiful eyes behind her glasses.

"Um... okay!" You said so since she is being nice to you.