We entered the large, well-kept foyer just in time to see a brilliant purple swirl appear in the centre of it. A few people gasped and a disgruntled adventurer moved out of the way, shooting the thing an annoyed glance as he returned to reading the quest board.

  Looking almost as disoriented as I had felt the last time I flew through a portal, Lucas and his retinue stepped out. The man was clad in golden armour and flanked by three individuals who I knew. Taylor, the catonid and Sally’s sister stood on his right. She was dressed in leather armour and a nice-looking cloak.

  On his other side was a man I’d only met once. Gonzo, the administrator from the back offices of the Havarian Adventure Society Branch. He wore a boring old suit, just like you’d expect a bureaucrat to. However, my eyes were drawn squarely to the person standing at the back and shooting me a fangy smile.

  “Nice of you to message me back,” I said, walking forwards and grasping Sally’s hand. “How are your injuries, you seem better.”

  “I’m here aren’t I?” She smiled, gripping me tightly. “Whilst you were busy sending me pathetic messages like a clingy ex-boyfriend, I levelled up to gold rank. Yet I sense that you still haven’t hit silver.”

  “Gold, really? That’s great. I’m nearly at level sixty but I’m not even near silver rank yet. I bet you can’t wait for the AS video induction.”

  “Yeah… well that’s some good progress, but not as good as mine. You’re slacking off, Gonads. Soon I might have to rethink that nickname if you don’t shape up.”

  I grinned at her and turned towards Lucas. The newly anointed king had been staring at me since I’d brazenly pushed past him to greet Sally.

  “Your majesty,” I said, bowing deeply and embarrassingly. “How very gracious of you to join us, and in such humble settings as these.”

  “Be quiet,” he said, blushing slightly and gripping my hand. “It’s good to see you again. How is the capital treating you?”

  “If by the capital, you mean your ridiculously overpowered father, then ok I guess. He’s already nearly gotten my entire party killed hunting down and murdering the upper classes in this rotten city, and now he wants me to attend this tournament to protect him from assassins. A job that makes no sense whatsoever considering that he’s the most powerful man around here.”

  “Sounds like he hasn’t changed,” Lucas said diplomatically. “The tournament is actually the reason I’m here. Perhaps we should talk somewhere more privately and catch up.”

  I nodded, “we can use the apartment Chonkers gave me, it’s pretty nice. Should be up to your royal standards just about, your majesty.”

  “Enough of that!”

  ***

  “Wow, this is nicer than anything we’ve got back home,” Taylor said as she inspected the balcony hot tub.

  Gonzo grunted and took a seat in the living room, brushing the sofa cushions with his hand, a slight twitch in his upper lip. “The rest of your guards will be here in about a week,” he said. “Until then, we need to make sure we set up somewhere safe.”

  “Give it a rest, Gonzo,” Lucas said wearily dropping next to him on the sofa. “This is the second most fortified building in the city. We’ll be fine.”

  “You have guards now?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I fetched drinks. Lucas batted his hand at me and leant forward as Chonkers jumped into the armchair opposite.

  “Long time no see brother,” he finally said. He hadn’t spoken a word since we’d left his office earlier. “Or should I call you, your majesty?”

  “Lucas is fine,” he replied. His eyes were tired and his face much more haggard than it had been the last time I’d seen him. “I hate to impose, but is it alright if we stay in Adventure Society whilst we’re here?”

  “It’s been nearly a century since the last time I saw you and the first thing you say to me is a request?” He huffed dramatically and shook his fury face. “Of course it’s fine you idiot.”

  “That is the king of Havar you’re talking to!” Gonzo said fiercely.

  “Oh give it a rest Gonzo you fat lout,” Taylor called, walking back in from the outside and pulling up a chair. She seemed even more beautiful than the last time I’d seen her, though I had to wonder why a tailor was travelling with a king and speaking so authoritatively. “We’re not even in Havar right now and this is his place,” she continued.

  “Of course you’d side with the cat wouldn’t you, I bet the two of you have the same mother.”

  “You mean your king’s mother?”

  Gonzo blustered, turning a deep shade of red. “Well… of course I… but I didn’t mean any…”

  As they continued to bicker like children, I sent a quick message to Panda.

  Panda: The position of royal tailor is a time-honoured tradition in Havar. It means spymaster, being the king’s personal tailor is simply a cover. Gonzo seems to be acting as chief bureaucrat. Basically, if Lucas wants something doing then Gonzo makes it happen.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Kaleb: I guess that makes sense. I wonder why he chose those two though. I like Taylor but that Gonzo guy is a bit of a prick.

  Panda: I would assume loyalty? He’s in a precarious position at the moment. As a new king his station has been raised exponentially at the whims of rich nobles back in Havar. With Sally gone, who else did he have to turn to? He needs people he can trust at his back and who will be more loyal than a peasant raised up by a king? Besides, Taylor is Sally’s sister and Gonzo worked for him before. I’m sure there’s more to it as well. Lucas has lived in Havar for a long time, you’ve only been in this world half a year. They have lives and relationships that we know nothing about.

  Kaleb: Fair enough. I guess it’s easy to forget that sometimes.

  “Just be quite for a bit please, both of you,” Lucas said to the bickering pair and then looked towards me. “How have you been Kaleb, apart from murdering the local aristocracy for my father you must have had quite a few adventures.”

  “I have,” I said, carrying a tray of drinks into the room, placing them on the table and ducking out of my chat with Panda. “After we left you we got attacked by a crazy island of cultists, we killed them by unleashing a demon lord who left behind a fragment which is now my familiar. Then we helped start a revolution in Cali Port which led to the total destruction of the capitalist government followed by mass civil unrest. After that we killed a monster called The Winter Shogun, then we saved a duchess and her town from a group of lycanid mercenaries who just so happened to be led by Rex’s uncle and are now his mercenaries. Oh, and we got knighted.”

  Lucas blinked a few times and Gonzo looked at me incredulously as if I was a small child telling lies. “Who is Rex?” was the question he eventually settled on.

  “A new member of my party, you’ll meet him later.”

  “Well it seems you’ve had quite the eventful time of it. I dare say it’s a tad more than most rookie adventurers get up to in such a short time, but… you never were a typical adventurer were you?”

  “I guess not.”

  “By the way,” Sally said, leaning forward and taking one of the drinks I’d prepared. “We finally killed the last gnome, got him just before we arrived here. Cali Port’s civil unrest is behind it now.”

  “Good,” I nodded, “I’m just sorry I couldn’t help.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Gonads, we all got played by those gnomish bastards.”

  “I doubt the locals see it that way.”

  “Fuck the locals, you were acting on Freja’s orders and you did what you thought was right. Both me and her are just as much to blame, and I don’t think I did anything wrong. That means you didn’t either as far as I’m concerned.”

  I nodded again, smiling at her and then turning back towards Lucas. Panda had taken a seat next to Chonkers and the two of them were sharing his pipe. I’d never realised just how fond animals were of smoking. The dog I’d had growing up always sneezed whenever it smelled smoke.

  “So, tell me, how’d you end up king?” I asked, “last I remember, the previous king was assassinated and the nobles were up in arms about it, but surely you couldn’t have been next in line?”

  “I wasn’t,” Lucas said. “In fact, they didn’t even consult me before appointing the position to me. Havar is a socialist state and as such the monarchy isn’t inherited as much as it is voted for by a council of elites. They decided I would do the job because I was the most powerful one there and I had experience running the local Society branch. That was all there was too it.”

  That still didn’t sound anything like the socialism I knew but I’d already learnt that the words the system used to translate things to me weren’t always accurate.

  “And then you went and blew all their money on creating a standing army that we don’t need,” Gonzo grumbled.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “He literally never shuts up about it, don’t pay him any mind,” Taylor replied. “Our king decided to put together a Havarian national guard to defend the island from invasion and also to keep the monster populations low.”

  “Excuse me,” Chonkers said, a fierce look in his eyes. “After all the time you spent at the head of a Society branch and this is how you choose to repay it?”

  “It’s not like that,” Lucas said, raising his hands defensively. “The Society may be good on the continent but ours has almost no adventurers to speak of. There’s no money in low level quests and you know as well as I that the Society cares only for profit these days. I made this decision to protect the people of Havar from what’s coming because our branch won’t be able to.”

  “And just what exactly is coming dear brother?”

  “War,” he sighed. “The first one we’ve had in centuries.”

  “Don’t be preposterous!” Chonkers yelled, jumping up in his seat. I stayed silent, I was pretty lost by their conversation. “What grounds are you basing this on?”

  Lucas remained silent for a moment and then calmly replied, “I can’t say. But I’m certain it’s coming and I mean to protect my people.”

  “What?” Chonkers looked outraged, I hadn’t seen him like that at all in the short time I’d known him. He began tutting and huffing as he marched back and forth. Panda stayed oddly silent, exchanging glances with me.

  “He won’t tell us either,” Gonzo stated. “But he is the king and he is allowed to be privy to facts that we don’t know.”

  “That’s right,” Taylor agreed,” we trust him.”

  “Well bully for you,” Chonkers said. “But I think he’s lost his mind. A war? Poppycock. Adventure Society was built for the very purpose of preventing such things. That’s why we exist, that’s why no one has a standing army. Well, until now.”

  “The Society of today exists only to make a profit,” Lucas replied. “You know that as well as I do. There’s not a militaristic bone left in its body. Not since he took over. Adventure Society doesn’t protect anything anymore, there’s no cohesion and the little that’s left is controlled by a conniving, scheming, businessman using you all as puppets to further his own agenda. Something big is coming and I just want to make sure that my nation, small as it is, can weather the storm.”

  “Watch your mouth! I dislike these changes as much as you do brother, but the Society will always be the pillar which protects the people. It doesn’t matter if the interior structures change, the exterior has and will always be for the people. Countries don’t even have their own armies. How could war even be possible?”

  “Countries don’t have armies from what I’ve seen,” I said looking around the room at the confused faces who stopped their bickering to look at me. “But gods do. We’ve seen it already. Chrysus had a full compound of guys in Havar, Clive the elder lich had a town’s worth of people at his beck and call who fought in the name of their god. Isn’t the entire pantheon about to descend on this city in a matter of days to decide who has the best high priest? I bet each of them has an army of worshippers.”

  “Gods don’t involve themselves in the matters of mortals, Kaleb,” Chonkers said. “What reason would they have? They have all the power already and we don’t disturb them. There’s nothing we have that they could possibly… want.”

  He slowed as he talked, coming to an abrupt stop as he realised, eyes bulging, he stared at me. He’d realised something I’d known since the beginning. There was one thing that we mortals had that the gods wanted. Something they wanted pretty badly from all I’d seen. And a whole lot of it was inked on my back.