It took about twenty minutes for Maximillian to get to a state where he was fine with going out. This included, for the most part, a shower and a choice of clothing that actually refreshed his image as a 21st century king.

Mario took his leave at that point, leaving Maximillian and John to find the court themselves. The gravity mage adjusted his red cape with a typical white, fuzzy rim decorated with black dots by pulling on the golden cord holding it together. He managed to wear that thing over his highly fashionably and body-tailored black suit with the yellow shirt underneath. His whole suit had the black and yellow theme, the colours of the house of Habsburg. Same for the walking cane he got for himself.

His leg was in a state, according to himself, that was inhibiting enough to be annoying but not so bad that it hindered him in every action. It was rather fortunate, however, that he was an astonishingly capable magic user who didn’t need to rely on his body in fights. Otherwise, this would have spelled the end of his fighting days, which was a pretty rough position to be in in the Abyss, no matter how civilized an area of the world it was.

“Personal differences aside, I rather like your fashion,” the king let John know, his reddened eyes (no number of showers could have fixed that) scanning over John. “Although you should lose the hat, in my opinion.”

“My eyes are down here,” the Gamer said in acted offence.

Maximillian raised an eyebrow, “Sure, but your eyes I don’t care about. Listen to me, buddy,” the word quickly became some sort of mocking tradition between them, “gay jokes are extremely bad. Seriously, get some better humour going.”

“Oh shaddup,” Rave chimed in, “if ya two insist on being this playful, I have no other choice but to make a joke about how gay you are being.”

“Could you try to get into a speaking habit that does not make my ears bleed with such profuse conviction as to clean my hearing facilities of your filth?” Maximillian requested.

“Could ya be just a bit more of a picky dick?” Rave returned.

“…How do you have this attractive of a mother while being this obnoxious?” the king shook his head as they door came into view.

“Gross!” Rave shouted out. “A!” she raised her index finger, “Don’t ya call my mother hot while I am around.” She raised the index finger of the other hand, “B, don’t compare me to her, I don’t wanna hear it.” Finishing the list, she kicked his shin. “3, your taste in waifus is bad and you should feel bad.”

Maximillian shrugged it off, “I like older women, sue me.”

“If ya touch my mother, maybe I will,” the pink haired technolover declared. “The judge being me, and the judgement my fist up your ass!”

“Relax,” John said and fidgeted with his own black and white suit. He still couldn’t get himself to wear a tie.

They didn’t, and despite his best advice, neither did he as they bickered over another topic next.

When they finally managed to get into the court, they did so in the middle of a discussion. Romulus, now a giant again, sat on a throne of massive gold. The thing was hammered into such artistic shapes of animals and plants, inlaid with gemstones of all rarities and further decorated with lesser gemstones, that John wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that it was heavily enchanted.

Actually, John didn’t need to learn that. It was absolutely apparent by the stream of mana that poured down the three stairs leading up to Romulus’ throne. The typical blue and purple light of the magical energy pulsated through endless lines between the tiles on the floor, in erratic fashion.

As John stepped closer through the gigantic court, seemingly empty even with the several dozen people and creatures buzzing through it and gathering at the feet of the podium, he noted that the casket bearing the late king of Germany was still where it had been the previous day. Romulus seemed intent to not bury his old friend until this war was over.

“Finally,” the voice that called out to John was one that had regained much of its owner’s former deepness, but it still sounded immensely squeaky. For that owner’s location, John had to look at his feet.

The Horned Rat had grown quite a bit in the few hours since John had last seen him, but he still only reached up to John’s kneecaps. Comedically enough, his skull had grown back to the normal size, however. The fact that the god supported his head while he waddled over to John made it pretty clear that he was in anything but a healthy state right now.

“Was worth a try,” John defended himself. Everyone else was confused as to what he meant, even as, or especially because, Richard started giggling in response.

“Could ya not do any of that ‘look at me, I do things in the background ‘cause I am a magician and a massive dick’ stuff?” Rave requested as her long-time exposure to John’s bullshit let her guess what was going on.

“Duly noted,” the Horned Rat waved her off and looked over to Nia. The blank was upon him and patted his skull. “What are you doing?”

“You look like a crossbreed of a penguin and a rat,” she told her patron god and instructor in her usual passive voice. That was all she had to say while aggressively running her hands over the smooth surface.

The red flames in the eye-sockets flared up, “Listen to me, young lady, I am your god and you will… this feels rather nice actually.” The Horned Rat shrugged, causing his oversized head to bop, “Sure, whatever, pat me. Gives you something to do while I take you with me.”

“Pardon?” John stepped in. “What gives you the right to tell Nia what to do?”

“The part where she is a member of the guild in whose leading council I happen to sit,” Richard drily presented a very compelling argument. “We will fight in this war, but I have uses for her on other fronts than you will be used on. Nia, would you come with me?”

“A moment,” the pariah hesitatingly stopped patting Richard and then turned to John and wordlessly kissed him. “We will meet again, and then I will have an answer,” she promised, grabbing the card that said ‘Honesty’ on it before following Richard back to the crowd at the feet of the throne.

“Just us, huh?” Rave finally said, looking at their group. Lydia, Nathalia, Eliza and now Nia, all of them had been removed from John’s group in one way or another. Now it was just him, his familiars and Rave. Also Maximillian.

“Just us,” John confirmed, and they finally went over to the mass of people. Time to find out what exactly was getting energy from that throne. John sincerely hoped that it wasn’t some sort of navigation network; Romulus was too much like the god-emperor already, as he sat there with an eye-patch on his golden god-couch.

The answer was a giant map on the floor that depicted the current state of affairs in the war. It coloured all provinces that were under the empire’s control white while putting all enemy controlled provinces in red. Everything unrelated to the current war was grey. Apparently, the throne was some sort of information gathering device.

‘That doesn’t actually look that bad,’ John thought. Sure, the encroaching red menace from the east was something to definitely worry about, but he had expected worse for the inner stability of the empire.

John took his place next to the Horned Rat. “Care to give me a summary?” he asked.

“Widespread rebellions have mostly been crushed within the first few hours with most pockets of resistance being encircled. Romulus took the freedom of going ahead and quelled a rebellion in the Illuminati territory of Wallonia… Although nobody asked him to!” Richard said those last words loud enough for the emperor to pick it up.

“Reduce your stress levels, Muris, the land will be returned to you after the war,” Romulus declared.

“How gracious, you mind if I take a few things out of your library? Don’t worry, the books will be returned once I stole all your secrets from them,” the Horned Rat growled.

“You have practice in that,” the emperor stated.

“I do.”

“Beloved Styria,” Maximillian looked at the red dot in his home area.

“Oh yeah, that is one of the areas we have major problems right now, together with Kaliningrad-“ The Horned Rat tried to continue his report but was quickly interrupted by the elector of Saxony and Maximillian correcting him at once.

“”Königsberg!””

“-Whatever you want to call what your overworld comrades lost,” Richard mocked them, “Anyway, and the isles of Sardinia and Corsica.”

“Where do you intend to go?” Romulus asked John now that he was up to date.

“Any sightings of Lydia or Gehnigm or anyone else who should have been with her?” the Gamer asked first. That was the primary thing that his decision making hinged on. He would have mentioned her father in that list, but he wasn’t quite sure how many people were in on that dirty secret, and he didn’t intend to spread it further. That could only have led to sullying Lydia’s name in her absence.

“None, I am afraid,” Romulus answered with genuine annoyance, glancing over his shoulder at the coffin. “If we had, I wouldn’t even be asking you.”

“Why is Styria in its entirety…” Maximillian mumbled, then it hit him; “The whole Zeritr-dynasty rebelled, didn’t it?”

“Most of it, only a few loyalists managed to escape,” the emperor said.

“I am almost impressed by their secret-keeping capabilities,” the Horned Rat added; “If they weren’t on the side of the people who I hate the most, I would totally recruit them.”

“I will head there to defend my country and its people. They need their king!” Maximillian declared and whirled around, immediately going. Nobody stopped him in his way to the door. Looking to Romulus, John found the Emperor’s eyes already anticipatingly resting him.

The implication here was clear. It was John’s charge to look after Maximillian, and he had taken that job upon himself for his personal reasons as well. Now that the king had made his decision, John was to follow. He didn’t like it, but if he wanted to keep Maximillian safe, which he did, that was his only line of practical approach.

“I will be heading to Styria as well,” John therefore said and turned around to haste after Maximillian, who had already left the room. Halfway expecting to need to find the guy again, John was surprised to find him waiting right around the corner. “Aren’t you in a hurry?”

“I am, but I need you for this, so I took the liberty to wait the three seconds for you to catch up,” Maximillian grinned in a way that made it clear that he was very well aware of how he had John on the ropes.

“I really hate to be manipulated,” John growled as they started walking again.

“I am not a great manipulator myself,” Maximillian shrugged; “Just thought you ought to know that I am very much capable of it. You know, aside from being a glorious public speaker, a wonderful ruler and a gifted mage, I am not exactly untalented.”

“Although he is clearly lacking in manners,” Hawpler, enjoying his ability to show himself whenever he could after his reveal in the tournament, added.

“Man, I like that reality hole more than I like you,” Momo said.

“You are welcome to become friends,” Maximillian said. “You also seem to be in the category of friends that make continuous nagging remarks.”

“She really is,” John mumbled; “That aside, how are we getting there?”

And what once they got there?