They waited for each other to answer, causing the Gamer and the vacationing king to share an awkward silence. Not that it was actually all that quiet. All the people that previously spent their time waving the city goodbye were now lingering about, waiting for the heat to kick up to levels that justified using the pool.

“I am highly unsatisfied with you being up there.” “HAH! Look at you being beneath me.” Both of them finally spoke out at the same time. Stirwin squeaked in amusement, then darted forwards to try and jump at Hawpler.

‘Hole!’ the scaled puppy spoke in its thoughts. Not a wrong description of the black and dark purple mass of magical, pseudo-gravitational energy, but also not a particularly elegant one. The dive right into the lower deck was surprisingly graceful for Stirwin, even if he missed Hawpler entirely.

“You wouldn’t do me the favour and stop him?” John asked with a sigh as he stood up. Looking up to his former adversary, now leaning on the metal railing on the VIP deck above him, Maximillian furrowed his brows and gave John a deeply thoughtful look.

“Depends, buddy,” he said after a moment of thought, “would you let me up to where you are standing right now?”

“Well, you can get up here, but I won’t make promises about letting you stay right now,” John said, which was good enough for Maximillian apparently. Gradually, Stirwin slowed down in his charge towards the public pool until his little claws no longer carried him forwards. Taking that as a fun little challenge, Stirwin tried to resist the pull for as long as possible until he finally lost ground contact and flew straight at the unleashed Hawpler. The flight was intercepted by Maximillian’s hand, and the moment the hatchling was caught was the moment the pull also vanished.

The gravity mage nodded towards the fence closed staircase that allowed people to go up the VIP area, and they both made their way there. ‘So that’s what that key card is for,’ John thought and pulled it out of his inventory. The metal bars retreated into the surrounding fence like a hermit crab into its shell and allowed Maximillian to hobble up the stairs on his stick.

“I think this little guy already likes me more than you,” Maximillian mocked once he had managed to do that, Stirwin wrapped around the back of his neck. The bars closed behind him with a well-oiled sliding sound once John had removed the key card from the scanning surface.

“Nah, he just likes everyone… Want to come inside?” John asked, checked what his girls were currently doing through Aclysia’s eyes and then amended, “…in a few minutes?”

“Why not right now?” Maximillian asked with a raised eyebrow and looked at the left of the two apartments, in which John and group were currently staying. The windows were dimmed to the point where all that could be seen behind their dark shade were silhouettes walking around and getting rid of their clothes. “Ah,” the king made an understanding sound, “they are… what was the English word for ‘umziehen’ again?”

“Changing, buddy, they are changing,” John took a jab at the king. “Seems like you have to freshen up your English.”

Maximillian clicked his tongue, “That is no way to speak to a king, even less one who doesn’t have a chair. Speaking of which, will you offer me one or do I have to stand my sick leg into the ground?”

“Sure, knock yourself out,” John said and then had to dodge a chair and a table flying at them. The two pieces of furniture were drawn from the vast array of such around their private pool. There were about twice the amount of chairs needed for the maximum amount of people that could stay inside the apartment, probably to allow for guests. “What the hell, man?” John wanted know.

“Sorry, my English very bad is,” Maximillian remarked drily as he sat down and placed his drink on the table he had landed there himself. “I thought you said I should knock you out.”

“Very funny,” John answered in just as dry a tone as Maximillian slurped on what John presumed to be a cocktail, judging by the wasteful amount of ice inside. “You know you are cruising towards a nation where you are below drinking age, right?”

“Like I care,” Maximillian said, “not like that law can keep me accountable, I have more money than Bill Gates and not to mention am the king of a kingdom full of people that can literally create gold.”

John delayed his response to grab a chair himself and remove the vest of his suit. It was getting warmer, ever so slowly to not induce the collapse in some individuals weak to sudden temperature changes. If he had to guess, it had risen from about 3 degrees Celsius to 10 by now. According to the brochure, the heating was said to continue until they reached 24 degrees (average, it was going to shift over the course of the day). How many Fateweavers had they hired to get this cruise running smoothly? Couldn’t be easy to maintain a moving barrier of this size. Or maybe it was? John really wasn’t versed in the topic.

Once he sat down on the opposite side of the table, John continued their little word fight. “Vacant king, which finally brings me back to my current question: what are you doing here? Aside from the obvious answer of going on your announced vacation.”

“I am going on my announced vacation,” Maximillian answered with the smile of a smartass. “I guess you should ask why I picked the USA, and the answer is that I threw a dart at Hawpler, had him orbit that thing around him for a while and then fling it at a map and it landed on Hollywood. Guess I will try my hand at being an actor or something.”

“U-hu,” John blinked, and then a fancily curved glass was placed in front of him, filled with an orange liquid. He couldn’t help but remember that one time he thought that a career in Hollywood did sound like something Maximillian should chase. “Thank you Aclysia.” He winked at his artificial guardian.

“A pleasure to serve, Master,” she bowed, hands holding her mithril salver in front of her crotch and thus pressing her cleavage together between her arms in the process.

“Hamena, hamena,” Maximillian showed an equally thankful reaction, checking out the new arrival at the table. The weaponized maid had switched from her usual outfit into a black and white chequered bikini, leaving her supermodel body to the view.

“Don’t touch, only watch, or you will lose a hand,” John warned in a ridiculing tone; he couldn’t wait to see the king see the rest of his harem and drool over them similarly, unable to have them.

It didn’t look like Maximillian would let him have that kind of satisfaction. Clearing his throat, he stirred his drink instead of giving any sort of reaction to the arrival of everyone else in their swimwear. Few of them had big changes in the way they dressed, such as Gnome who was wearing a real, sunflower-yellow bikini or the aforementioned Aclysia.

For most of them there were only little changes, such as the texture of Sylph’s green leotard being slightly different; Eliza lost her robes, and Undine just kept her legs as legs for the minute to show off. The slime girl obviously didn’t have a lot of skill in modelling her feet though, seeing that she didn’t have separated toes. Of that middle group Metra stood out the most, wearing pieces that were basically just strings with the tiniest bit of cover for her sensitive areas. Even as a bikini it failed to be decent.

Lastly there was the group of Salamander, Siena and Nia that were virtually unchanged. The nightmare and blaze elemental always covered their bodies in a latex like, manifested shadow and localized fire respectively while Nia was holding her bikini and stretching it like it didn’t fit her quality standards. Well, when you were usually wearing realized nothingness, no other material could really compare.

“Where did you leave Jane?” John asked and as his answer got Eliza pointing over the pool and at the apartment.

“Sissy said it’s still too fucking cold,” Eliza announced and looked over to Maximillian. “Speaking of sissies, what is that arrogant shitmuncher doing here? Shouldn’t he be helping Mario polishing his sword?”

“You are small, and you need to stop sounding like a chipmunk every third word,” Maximillian retorted and calmly took a sip. “Also, can you do me the favour and come closer? I want to see something.”

“Oh, I will come closer, alright,” Eliza said and walked towards them while laughing maniacally, “I WILL COME SO CLOSE THAT MY FIST WILL CAUSE AND SIMULTANEOUSLY FILL A CAVITY WHERE YOUR HEART USED TO BE!”

When she was about only two more metres away from Maximillian, the gravity mage suddenly began shivering, at which point John shouted, “Stop, Eliza,” and watched the situation quite carefully.

“Whu, okay, still some trauma… can you take one step back, please?” Maximillian, skin fallen about one shade, from healthy to frightful, requested in a tone that was devoid of his usual showy arrogance. Mumbling some curses about herself and Maximillian alike, Eliza obeyed and stomped her way to the pool.

“Asshole, I am not Thana! AU!” Eliza shouted with her back turned and then held her head as the name caused her a minor headache.

“She really isn’t,” John underlined that argument as he watched Maximillian slam down the entire rest of his drink in one go. Then the king reached into his vest, pulled out a pocket flask and emptied it as well. “…I hope that wasn’t too strong.”

“It was very much strong,” Hawpler answered in the background. “Do not worry, he has security around to carry him back in emergency cases.”

The Gamer wasn’t sure if worried would be the right word for what he would feel, but it also wasn’t wrong, so he didn’t refute it. “Anyway, what was that about?”

“She isn’t Thana, but try to tell that to a traumatized brain,” Maximillian answered after having put the bottle away again. “I see her shattered, violet eyes, and then I see that mask again. I fly through the air, my body broken. Then I hear that scream...” he shook his head, “the scream is the worst part. Did you know it actually ruptured my ear drums? To answer your question though: exposure therapy. Can’t even hope to beat this whole thing unless I face it voluntarily, I guess it’s a blessing in disguise that you are here as well. Speaking of which, why are you here and why are you the reason I didn’t get the VIP area?”

“Long story short, Amalia wants to get on my good side and I am supposed to fight whatever could potentially jump at us at the Atlantic Fuse,” John gave him the gist of it. At that point Stirwin finally jumped off the gravity mage’s shoulders and joined everyone else in the pool. Everyone save for Rave (still in the apartment waiting for things to become warmer) and Aclysia (standing right at John’s side).

“I see… you mind giving me that cocktail, buddy?” Maximillian pointed at the curved glass in front of John.

“That’s just orange juice,” John answered. “Also it looks like you are trying to drown your problems in alcohol.”

“Also, it seems like you are trying to drown eighteen years of bullying in as much pussy as you can find,” Maximillian retorted and quickly found the edge of a mithril dagger travelling in the general direction of his throat. “That’s what you sound like,” he still dared to add.

“Do not speak that way about my master,” Aclysia warned, having only stopped because John grabbed her by the other arm. Mentally assuring her that this amount of protection really wasn’t necessary, John calmed her down until she changed the way she held the dagger and triggered the transformation back into a salver that way.

“Okay, looks like I struck a nerve there, sorry,” Maximillian said, “but seriously, doesn’t need to be strong, just something to drink. Please.”

“No problem, it was a good one,” John, who in no way felt that, if it was true that he was subconsciously doing that, drowning it in sex was a bad way to deal with 18 years of bullying, answered. ‘Not entirely sure I trust this,’ he mentally convened with his elementals, seeking some advice about the latter half of Maximillian’s statement.

Salamander was the first to jump in with her opinion, aside from Sylph who was safely ignored. ‘I say give him what he wants, guy obviously knows roughly what he is doing if he is facing Eliza of his own accord.’

‘I am against it,’ Gnome let them know, ‘alcohol is really evil.’

‘I would love to see the guy shitfaced and tumble over the railing,’ Siena wasn’t helpful whatsoever in this situation, ‘it would be pretty funny.’

‘Let him have it, he isn’t an alcoholic,’ Undine backed up Salamander’s side.

‘Yeah,’ the blaze elemental spoke up again, ‘I mean, why the hellfire not? That’s the same guy that fought in the war with us; if he likes getting drunk, let him.’

‘I am just afraid he doesn’t like getting drunk but will just be someone who hates being sober,’ John let her know.

‘Sucks to be him then, but he is his own guy, and if he goes there, that’s on him,’ Salamander stated her opinion, ‘and really, someone who is trying to beat a trauma induced by facing a walking apocalypse with his own willpower probably earned himself a few drinks.’

‘I agree on both of these points,’ Siena said.

‘Same,’ Undine agreed.

‘I still think he would be better off not drinking,’ Gnome kept her stance, ‘b-but I can concede that it’s not going to be that bad for him… but is it really us that should be providing him?’

‘Yep, yep, alcohol is weird,’ Sylph finally broke into the conversation. ‘Maybe he shouldn’t, maybe we should? How should we know? We can’t, we can’t, how sad. Making decisions for other people is hard. Let’s not do it. Let’s just have him have his fun, fun is good.’

‘Too much fun kills a man,’ Aclysia gave her thoughts to this as well. ‘Too much fun drives one to mindless self-indulging misery. Alcohol is dangerous.’

‘Ah, yes, probably?’ Sylph didn’t have a counterpoint, ‘but too little fun is baaaaad.’

‘Again, the same guy who was with us in the war and he is just a little shaken from facing his fears like a minor badass,’ Salamander said, ‘give the man a drink, for fuck’s sake.’

John had heard what he needed, as the argument devolved into Sylph chirping her usual nonsense and Salamander berating her for it as the rest of the clique dropped out. “Sure, Aclysia, would you be so kind?”

“At once,” the artificial guardian obeyed and took Maximillian’s order of a drink.

“So your elementals were mostly for me getting that drink, huh?” he then asked and smirked at John’s surprised face. “Hey, I have seen my fair share of people communing with their contracted spirits in my day. Comes with growing up in a culture where elementalism is the traditional path.”

“…Yes, they were. For the most part their arguments made me realize that you aren’t even close to a state where it would be justified of me to intervene in your decision making.”

“Glad you are such a wise man, buddy,” Maximillian teased. “Anyway, I am not getting shitfaced, I just want to maintain a level where I don’t… remember that too vividly.”

“Just beat that before you actually need to be drunk as all hell to not remember that,” John warned, causing Maximillian to roll his eyes.

“Sure, ruin the very start of my vacation with moral bullshitting.” Okay, now John actually felt like he was just overthinking things. “Other question, do you need all this space?” now it was pretty easy to guess where this was going.

“I don’t, actually, the whole second apartment is empty,” John admitted, “Which I guess you can stay in, but don’t come over without a warning unless you want to see me balls deep inside one of my girls.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I will get my own ones,” Maximillian leaned back in his chair and looked at the Bloody Mary that was placed in front of him. “You will see, someone of my charm and handsomeness won’t have any problems getting laid around here.”

“Sure, charm and handsomeness,” John mocked, “totally not that giant stack of money with which you can lure all the single mothers you are so attracted to.”

“Don’t mock the MILFs, mate,” Maximillian warned him by wagging his finger and then took a sip from his new drink. “Holy mother Sol, this is the best Bloody Mary I ever tasted!”

“You will quickly learn that Aclysia is the best,” John said to the king.

Who was yet another person on ship to banter with.