Chapter 171 - Explanations Finale – Playing the game (Patreon)

"I mean,” John gestured at the map, “you have all of this land, all of these resources, and the best you can do for your fighters are two random Americans?” he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “You’ll have to excuse me if I am sceptic about that, princess.” “Ja, it is kinda weird,” Rave agreed.

The map smoothed over and was replaced with hundreds of names and faces. “I have a multitude of loyal subjects that would be willing to fight for me, some of them are even stronger than you currently are,” Lydia told the couple, “However, there is a problem with all of them: Maximillian knows about their powers.” 

“And how is that a problem in a tournament?” John asked. It wasn’t like they could play off each other. ‘Unless the fights aren’t random but set-up in advance,’ John realized. “Because of the way the tournament is organized, let me show you,” Lydia confirmed his suspicion and the table changed surface yet again.

“To begin with each of the two candidates announces one of their fighters,” Lydia explained and her name as well as Maximillian appeared as the headlines of a table. “The announcement will be simultaneous.” The words Fighter 1 appeared underneath their names, “Then both parties have a day to choose their next fighter. The same repeats 3 more times,” Fighter 2-4 joined the ranks, “both teams arrive at a number of 5 participants. You understand yet why getting known people into my team would be a problem, John?” 

“It would allow your enemy to find a counter for the person you last installed,” he reckoned, “and I am going to assume that you both already have counter-measures for each other’s most likely picks.” “Indeed,” Lydia affirmed, “and having a person who is especially strong against one of your fighters in the tournament itself is likely to use you most of the standard matches.” 

“There are three types of fights inside the tournament. The first kind is a duel between two participants. There are three rounds of this: First the first candidate, being Maximillian, sends a fighter into the ring and the second candidate, that being me, sends a fighter in, in response. Each fighter may only fight once per round” “That seems heavily skewed in your favour,” John spoke his mind, “but I guess it is reversed in the second round.” Lydia nodded, “Correct. Finally, In the third round the electors get to vote on who they want to see fight. It is a stupid system, but at least it is not barbaric enough to result in death matches.” 

“Murdering is forbidden?” Rave asked, just to be sure. “Yes, as this a clash between some of the most important figures in Germany -or at least it used to be before hiring foreign fighters became the practice- it was deemed that in-fighting that leads to death is unworthy and weakens us needlessly,” the princess said with a heavy sigh, “that doesn’t make the tournament a great idea, but at least it doesn’t weaken the state needlessly.” John felt a lot better about all of this with that information in mind. At least he wouldn’t die. Was nice to know that for certain. 

“Anyhow, moving on,” Lydia said, “the second type of fights are group fights. Two to five fighters enter the ring. The team is assembled in advance; however, we have no knowledge about the enemies group until we face each other in the ring. These are held after a solo round is completed.” 

“Makes enough sense,” Rave said, “guess you wanna try to guess what the enemy is throwing into the ring to counter it.” “And then you will have to plan around their plan that is planned around your plan!” John exclaimed, he loved stuff like that. “What is the last kind, princess?” he asked after the noble in question became quiet for almost a minute.

Finally, she sighed, “games,” she just said. “”Games?”” Rave and John wondered in unison. “Can we get some clarification on that?” he probed further. “Hardly,” Lydia answered and blew air out of her nose, “they are random challenges that viewers come up with and then get checked up by a committee and finally enter a hat that somebody pulls it from. It can be whatever stupid or dangerous thing you can think off. A massive waste of resources and time.” 

“And you have that in your tournament, that decides who gets to lead Rex Germaniae, one of the most powerful organizations in the world,” John clarified. “Look I don’t make the rules!” Lydia, suddenly all flustered shouted out and slammed her hand on the table, the tea set rattled under the shock. “Stupid, old rules,” she added, “modified to the point of non-functionality as hundreds of years of noble idiocy has piled on top of them! The years fifty years before my grandfather assumed power had 6 Emperors die! Everything went into the gutter then!” There was a moment of baffled silence, as they watched Lydia’s angry stare, directed at whoever would challenge her on this.

“Excuse my sudden outburst,” she apologized, her tone still strained, and took her hand of the table. “I am only annoyed by the lack of reforms that have taken place.” “Annoyed, yeah,” Rave giggled, “more like hella pissed.” Lydia shot her a poisonous glance before taking a calm breath and regaining her composure. “Aclysia, would you make me another can of tea, please?” she asked. “Of course, princess,” the artificial guardian agreed and took the porcelain can next to the tea set. 

“And how do you determine who has won in the end?” John asked as he looked after the artificial guardian leaving the living room. “A point system. Winning a duel is worth one point, winning a group fights is worth three, winning a game is worth whatever,” Lydia said and mumbled, “just another showing of how stupid that game thing is.” 

“So, let me get this right. This a non-lethal tournament with five fighters, the candidate plus four other participants, on each side that compete in three different kinds of challenges for points and the winner is then appointed emperor of Germany,” John summarized the conversation. “Correct,” Lydia said, “you should know one more thing however,” she stated and pointed at the returning Aclysia. “You may only take one golem into the arena with you and you have to choose which one at the start of the tournament. We have that rule to prevent people just hiring alchemists with armies of living stone and making the tournament a war of attrition rather than skill.”

Aclysia and Mono looked at each other, then at John. His mind was pondering about that bit of information. Both of them had drawbacks and advantages, he could do without one of them, his elementals could fill the vacuums they left. Which of the two was he more effective with? “As that is the case I have suggestion,” the princess said before he had come to any conclusion, “Allow me to pick Aclysia as a fighter.” 

That surprised John, but he heard her out before commentating. “There is a high likelihood that there will be some sort of almost purely physical fighter on the enemy team like Rave claims to be. A golem of her quality would be great to counter such a person,” Lydia explained and John quietly nodded. He skipped the question from where she knew about Aclysia in such detail, Magoi’s report would have included details like that as well.  “That sounds okay,” he agreed but turned to the servant before agreeing. “What do you think of this, Aclysia?” 

The artificial guardian was busy pouring the next cup of tea. “I would be happier to fight at master’s side,” she said, “however it makes sense and I will cooperate.” “In that case I am okay with that plan,” John agreed. 

“Great, you three will provide a well-balanced team, it should be hard to find counters to all of you. Especially as there is no information on you,” the princess looked at Rave, “how did you manage that feat, by the way?” “My dad works at the auctions, he won’t let info about me stay there,” the techno-lover answered. “I see…” Lydia said. “What about me? There is tons of stuff SecretBlonde uploaded,” John said, but then corrected himself, “but I guess none of that is very precise about my powers.” 

“Indeed,” Lydia agreed, “and while the powers of a golem are recognizable the fact that I will come with one as a fully-fledged fighter will be surprise enough, I will announce her last.” The princess of steel showed a toothy grin full of conviction. 

“And -assuming you pick all three of us- who would be your fourth?” John wondered. “I will keep the details about her a secret,” Lydia said and picked up her fresh cup of tea. She took a few seconds to gently blow on the steaming hot liquid before taking a sip. “Her name is Nia Fae, she will be my trump card against Maximillian himself.” 

John didn’t wait for the clarification to never arrive, she said she would keep it a secret so it was better to move to new topics. “How much time do we have until the next vote occurs?” he asked, “three days, the tournament will be a week after that,” Lydia answered the next question he would have had as well. “When the vote fails to elect either me or Maximillian, and it will fail, we will have to move to Italy after the three days of announcements have passed.” 

“Why is that?” Rave asked. “Where do you think the tournament will be held?” Lydia countered with a question on her own. “Oooooh,” John’s girlfriend exclaimed a moment later. He himself just got wide eyes, “we will be fighting in the grand colosseum of Rome? That is pretty epic.” “Don’t let it go to your heads, you are there to win, so that I may succeed in my goals,” Lydia reminded them, “this is the basis of our current relationship.” “Mhm, you maybe want to advance that?” Rave suddenly asked.

Lydia raised an eyebrow, “Is that a polygamous offering?” “If that translates to whether or not I’d let you fuck my boyfriend the answer is yes,” Rave said and bowed over the table in a conspiratorially way, “his skills also increase how good his dick feels,” she whispered loud enough for everyone to hear and winked.

Even the stone-faced Lydia blushed under that kind of directness. “I will…think about it,” she promised with slight hesitation. “Great, whenever you want to replace that stick in your ass with a dick, tell us,” Rave smirked.

“My what now?!” Lydia clenched the cup in her hand so hard John was afraid that it would shatter. “That massive piece of wood between your butt cheeks that keeps you this formal and all disciplined. Come on girl, you are younger than me, stop behaving like my grandma!” 

“I will have you know,” the princess said in a heated tone, and slammed her cup back on the small plate it belonged on. The tea almost spilled out. “That I am a well-disciplined member of the German royalty and I will not put up with such disrespect!” 

“well, excuuuuuuse me, princess,” Rave said and John could not repress his laughter on that one. Even Aclysia got that one and she, Mono, Gnome and Undine giggled quietly while Salamander had no such qualms and openly cackled. Worst of all was when Sylph broke from her prison, her voice turned up to an almost painful volume as she guffawed and rolled over the table. 

Lydia shot all of them glares that could have killed, “what is so funny?!” she demanded to know. “Just -pff- an internet thing,” John answered after having calmed down a bit. “Anyhow, sorry, Jane is a bit direct at times,” “But am I wrong?” his girlfriend wanted to know. “This is hardly the time…” John tried to persuade her. To no avail. “Disagreed, this the perfect time, if we are going to hang out with her for the foreseeable future I want this out of the way A-S-A-P,” Rave spelled out. 

John sighed and gave in to Rave’s demand. “Okay, yeah…princess, you are a bit…overly uptight.” “…” Lydia kept staring as if she could make his head explode if she only tried hard enough. She might have succeeded if she kept trying a bit longer. “Explain,” she commanded.

“Well, first off: That,” John said, “I may be indebted to you, so you have enough reason to order me around, but as Jane said we are going to hang around a lot if we are going to fight in this tournament together, so maybe we shouldn’t be this distanced. In short: You are bossy. Furthermore, you held me a lecture about the importance of time because I called you a bit too late, so you can add preachy to that list too.” “Time is a valuable resource!” Lydia defended herself. “I don’t have a lot of it,” “Yet you are here enjoying your fifth, I think, cup of tea,” John drily stated. “I freed up my schedule for this,” the princess explained, “are you telling me I shouldn’t enjoy an orderly lifestyle and instead laze around like you plebeians?” 

“Nope, just maybe you should loosen up a little,” John suggested, “This is not a business meeting, unless you make it one. Being in constant meetings will get taxing on us though.” Lydia tapped on the table, staring at her hands, her face slightly reddened from both anger and embarrassment. “Fine then, I am willing to relax my standards a bit for you,” she conceded finally, “but don’t expect me to just let you laze around because of that! I am not interested in becoming a frivolous noble, I have the reputation of house Hohenzollern to uphold!” 

John kept the World War One comments to himself and just nodded. He saw Rave at his side open her mouth and pinched her in the ass. The result was a surprised yelp, followed with a questioning glance. The couple had a silent conversation. ‘Dude, what?’ her eyes said. John slightly shook his head and glanced at Lydia, ‘this is about all we will get from her,’ he tried to relay. Rave raised her eyebrows, then nodded, ‘Fine,’ by biting her lower lip she added, ‘but I really want her in my bed tonight.’

“Now, I will take you up on that offer,” Lydia spoke and caused the couple to look back at her. Her tone was still stern but she let some open interest swing in her voice, “If you are going to make demands I will state terms off my own,” she checked her watch. “I have about 12 more hours before I need get back into office. We will take my bedroom,” she stared at Rave, “and you will not be part of it.” 

Terms accepted?