The Gamer Chapter 1302 – Fusion Festival 9 – Foreign Royalty (Patreon)

John and Rave stood by the Harbour. There was a clearing around them, its outline marked by the presence of soldiers, who wielded quarterstaffs ideal to shove back an unruly member of the surrounding crowd. So far, those were unnecessary, the people kept a nice distance from the soldiers and in turn from the Gamer.

Their chatter was constant. The noise grating. However, compared to previous manifestations of his current intolerance for the volume of humanity, this was a bearable amount of noise. Most people were too busy staring at the ship pulling up to the dock to chat loudly.

It was a large yacht, about 80 metres, painted red and gold, the colours of the house of Habsburg. There were black elements as well, likely hinting at the seat of power the house had in Styria, as well as the white, repeatedly taking the form of the Austrian flag. The Hungarian flag was present as well, although only as cloth waving in the winds of the Guild Hall.

The yacht passed by John’s personal vessel, the Boating Seaquence. Although his boat was 20 metres longer, its paint job and overall design was less impressive. Even if the Boating Seaquence, in its blue, white, and black, looked nice and clean, it had nothing of the royal flair that Maximillian approached them with. That fact immediately annoyed John, who wondered if and how he could replace or upgrade his yacht.

‘Our local engineers aren’t good enough for that project yet… maybe I should reach out to the NTC?’ A poke in the ribs pulled him from those thoughts.

“Ya thinking about buying a new boat?” Rave teased him.

Answering that question was redundant, she knew what he was thinking anyway. “Weren’t you going to speak properly?”

“Nobody listening right now,” she whispered and kissed him on the cheek. He put his arm around her and returned the favour. Even just short contact with her skin sent happy tingles down his spine. She smelled of peppermint flavoured bubble-gum and joy. “Now, what do ya give me if I’m right and Max has a big surprise for us?”

“Hmmm, what do you want?”

“That’s an unfair question, ya already read every wish off my lips. Come up with something, tiger.”

“Oh, so if I already get you everything you want, I have to come up with something more?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not fair.”

“’Course not. I’m cute. I get what I want. Fairness was never an option.”

Any denial that he could muster was disarmed immediately by her smile. Like sunshine, her curved lips illuminated every dark corner of his soul, letting him forget that there was a world outside of her. “Fine… how about I let you pick the wallpapers for the bedroom on the farm?”

“Abyssal or mundane bedroom?”

“The Abyssal is the one that matters… so the mundane one.” John was softly jabbed in the side. All that caused was a giggle. “Alright, the Abyssal one.”

“Good man,” Rave purred, as if she was complimenting a submissive. While John did not count himself in that category, it did still have the effect of releasing a veritable stream of oxytocin.

The yacht came to a halt in front of them. Deckhands that were used to the normal motions of docking were busy on the yacht, and halted in confusion when the Harbour did most of the work for them. Ropes were tossed, the dock itself reshaped itself for optimum access, and all that really remained to be done was for the staircases to be lowered.

Modern boats of this size had solved the problem of landfall in a variety of ways. In the case of this yacht, there was a ‘tunnel’ that opened near the middle point of the vessel. A long staircase was pushed out, then slowly lowered, until it made contact with the pier. At that point, it was as stable as it could be.

“Seven… six… five… four… three… two… one…” John counted down to his chuckling girlfriend. When he clicked his tongue, as if on command, Maximillian stepped forward. ‘Always seven seconds with that guy,’ the Gamer thought, while the royal spread his arms out dramatically.

Maximillian was in an outfit that more than befit his station as a monarch (or monarch to be). A deep blue suit, with a white shirt and golden tie was the most modest part of his get-up. The red-white furry cloak that was stereotypically associated with European royalty hung from his shoulders. Knowing exactly how to wear it, Maximillian made sure it waved impressively, as he threw kisses to the crowd. A ring ornamented his head, a small crown, but a crown nonetheless. Around his head floated four spheres of gemstone, each in a different colour. Red, white, golden, and deep purple, a selection that could have been random or provided some deeper meaning. Maximillian’s deep brown hair was just long enough to be styled dynamically.

The crowd reacted with cheers to his appearance. Maximillian was relatively popular with the people of Fusion, particularly those of the Hudson Barrier. He had lived here for a little while and, even if he had a similarly debauched lifestyle to John, become chummy with many local businesses. Ever a patron of the arts, he had even acted in and written for the local theatres. Consequently, most of his renown lay with the elite, but that translated well enough to the broader public.

When the cheers first started to decrease, Maximillian half turned and made a beckoning gesture towards the inside of the ship. Irielz stepped forwards and the cheers rose in volume once more.

The succubus was in a dress that was just a tad simpler than Rave’s. It was black, a one-piece, and covered more of her than John was used to of Irielz. She was regular levels short, had light grey skin and a pair of curved, goat-like horns whose colour was between her skin and the black of her long hair. She was curvaceous, equipped with a notably large pair of chesticles. Her hips looked like they could single-handedly revive the future of a house. Decoratively, a spade-tipped tail curved behind her. A pair of bat-like wings was folded behind her back. A specially forged diadem sat on her head, working nicely around her horns.

After waving at the crowd for a little more, the king and the queen-to-be joined hands and elegantly walked down the steps. Irielz wore rather intensely high-heeled shoes, John noted.

While the royal pair continued their display, the Gamer’s attention was pulled to the gold-furred feline that tapped his way up to them from the crowd. Copernicus passed the soldiers without issue. The military knew who was affiliated with John and who wasn’t especially the segment of the garrison responsible for crowd control.

John could feel Rave suppress her instinct to dash towards her light spirit and scratch him behind the ears. Instead, she greeted him, “How unlike you to join me.”

“I felt like it,” Copernicus responded, embodying the selfish attributes of cats as honestly as ever. He sat down next to the two of them and relaxedly licked his paw a couple of times, before rubbing his head with it.

Following the red carpet, the couple soon arrived in front of John and his First Lady. Switching his vision, John saw the manifold presence of Laralia around his friend. Both of them were of a harem lifestyle (Maximillian maintained it, against previous plans, because he had unexpectedly found a queen in favour of it). Regardless, both of them deliberately only presented their foremost women in this gathering. It just made things easier, for a ceremony and for approval of the entire public.

Letting go of their partners, John and Maximillian went in for a handshake. There were smiles on their faces. They squeezed each other’s hands. Their smiles became more aggressive. ‘You can’t win this,’ John spelled out with his face.

Shaking his head, Maximillian laughed, and pulled John forwards. Indulging his friend, the Gamer answered the pull. Their other arms patted their opposite’s back. “I hate you,” Maximillian greeted him, in a brotherly tone.

“You shouldn’t have bothered,” the Gamer responded, in kind.

Their embrace actually lasted longer than that of the women right next to them. Rave cleared her throat, teasingly, and the buddies separated. Hugging Irielz thereafter, the greeting was practically complete.

Maximillian had to do one more dramatic showcase. Esoterically, he moved his hands in circles. The gemstone spheres responded to his gravity manipulation. They looped three times around him, before all entering his personal pocket dimension. The moment the last had vanished from existence, deep purple energy steamed out of the royal’s body, consolidating into a black and purple sphere. Moving with a wavering sound akin to electronic bass, Hawpler hovered down to Copernicus. “Greetings.”

Copernicus gave his fellow elemental a slowly blinking stare. Then, he raised one paw and put it on the sapient black hole. That was more of a metaphorical categorization, as it was with all elementals, otherwise everyone around would have been incinerated by the presence of the solar feline or crushed in indistinguishable particles from the presence of the gravity well.

“For real though, you shouldn’t have bothered. I could have just brought you in with the teleporter,” John told Maximillian. The crowd was pretty silent now, their presence limited to murmurs and the snapping of photos. Even if they were silent, they were too far away to really hear what the rulers were saying.

“And deny myself the proper entrance?” Maximillian decried, his shoulders pulled back. “I would never!”

“He, indeed, would never.” Irielz playfully rolled her eyes. Her hand found that of her betrothed. “You know how addicted he is to his drama.”

“I would guess you get enough of that at home,” Rave said.

Maximillian and Irielz stared blankly at the pink-haired Lightbearer. Elegantly, she smiled back. “You’re getting really good at impersonating people, Undine,” the gravity mage complimented.

“Ha ha,” Rave laughed drily.

“…I think that’s truly her, darling,” Irielz suggested.

“Impossible.”

Rave crossed her arms. John swallowed his amusement. “See, this is how I feel when people tell me I can’t do anything without Aclysia.”

“You can’t do anything without Aclysia,” Maximillian immediately responded. “And this is not Jane.”

“You should watch what you say when standing on my property,” Rave threatened in a quiet, slow voice. “Otherwise, I’m upping the thermostat to my preferred temperature again.”

“…It is Jane… wow,” Irielz mumbled.

“Unbelievable… literally, I can’t believe it.” Maximillian bowed down to his succubus and was swiftly pinched in the cheek. He let out a small pained sound. “I’m not dreaming. Jane can talk like a normal person.”

“And you can walk like a non-cripple, would you look at that,” Rave hissed.

“Ouch.” Maximillian shifted his weight from one leg to the other and back. Ever since his quarter-elemental achievement, the previously unhealable injured appeared to have been taken care of. This was fantastic news all around and it made John wonder if he could quarter-fuse with Stirwin to fix his blindness. Considering how little was known about the process and what drawbacks it might have (for all he knew, it would limit the number of contracts), John did not actively pursue it.

Besides, if he could get it, then only through his Perks. That was the advantage and limitation of his abilities, after all.

“Well, since you can walk, shall we?” John asked and gestured towards the rest of the Guild Hall. There was much to explore. He was already half a step towards turning around when he noticed that Maximillian was stroking his chin. “Something the matter?”

The gravity mage looked back to his yacht, then let his eyes wander over the Harbour. “Did anyone tell you that you put up an absurd number of flagpoles?”

“If I’ve learned one thing, growing up as an American, it’s that there’s never enough flagpoles,” John responded, only half in jest. “Also, why do I feel like you’re stalling?”

“Told you he was up to something.”

“Well, I’d like to know what that something is.”

“It was quite a stir when I returned home. The news that I would marry a demon was taken… in a mixed way,” Maximillian changed the topic in a very overt way. “Luckily, I had some backing. Lydia was quite happy to support me, doubtlessly because she can use me to weaken the traditionalists, who I align with relatively closely.”

John raised an eyebrow and slowly nodded, wondering where this was going. “I have heard of that, of course. Still, they much prefer you over Maria.”

“…Better to have a demon-lover than a spending-happy technocrat,” Maximillian grumbled. “The coffers are practically empty. Twelve decades of frugal living, evaporated in a single year. Ria may still have the crown officially, but she’s been relegated to her workshop… for the good of the nation.”

“Hey, your capital looks a lot cooler now, if that’s any consolation.”

“Her projects will return a profit, in time. That is the only good that comes out of this,” Maximillian sighed.

“Let’s not get side-tracked, dear,” Irielz told her betrothed.

“Whatever stalling I do, I’m not-“ He cut off his response when the yacht suddenly tooted its horn. The attention of the entire crowd, John and Rave included, was pulled back to the ship. “There’s the signal.”

John did not ask what the signal was for, he just let this next part be a surprise. He expected fireworks, a gift, perhaps even Maria getting ferried out to be offered as a haremette just so she got out of Austria’s treasury. What he did not expect was, perhaps, the most obvious of all potential options.

Gold and silver light cascaded out of the tunnel that Maximillian had emerged from. It was so bright that, despite the sun still providing daylight to the Guild Hall, it made looking into the ship borderline impossible. John, with his magical eyes, did not have any issues staring directly into the light as three shapes emerged. Two female ones, one about Irielz’s size, the other as tall as Nathalia. They were on either side of an even taller, male outline, with broad shoulders, leading the small procession.

The light dispersed into slowly scattering rays, forming a halo around the man as he planted his sandal on the edge of the staircase. Rather than move his hulking form down the comparatively puny looking steps, the man leapt. The white cloth of a toga fluttered in the wind. With a quake, he landed shortly in front of the young rulers.

The Apex of the Abyss straightened up, his aura silencing the entirety of the crowd. Power, charisma, and authority radiated off the middle-aged, Mediterranean man. His short, brown hair was decorated with a gold and silver leafed laurel, woven into a triumphant wreath.

Sol, in a golden dress, landed next to her emperor, while Luna followed on foot, wearing a midnight blue garment that was covered in scattered stars. The goddesses of sun and moon took their place right and left to Romulus, who raised his deep voice, “People of Fusion. I have seen many empires rise and fall in my time, and it is with great honour that I attend the first anniversary of this one. Let it be that your Federation knows even greater prosperity in days to come!”

The short speech was all that was needed for the crowd to go wild. The energy in the air was near overpowering and John finally found his voice again. Across from the Apex, he was reminded that he wasn’t the biggest fish in the pond – yet. “Honoured to have you here.” The Gamer extended his hand in greeting.

When Romulus took it, it almost vanished in his palm. “I have not come alone,” Romulus announced, his voice carrying much further than one would expect. He stepped aside, to gesture at more and more people pouring out of the ship. Representatives from the Sons of Odin, Prometheus, and the Great Sultanate. Together with Romulus, the ruler of the Sons of Rome and overlord of Rex Germaniae, there were power holders of five of the current nine Divided Gates present.

John was flabbergasted.