Chapter 355 – Monday – 15th of January, 2018 – The day of two changes 1

Chapter 355 – Monday – 15th of January, 2018 – The day of two changes 1

“Announcing Lydia August the Fourth of House Hohenzollern, Marquise of...” the herald started rattling down titles as they made their way in. It was one night later; John had had a chance to reapply his oils; everyone had gotten a good night’s sleep; Lydia had gotten to do some paperwork. The world was largely back to normal. Although there was a Russia shaped hole on the map of powers that needed to be filled.The court was as packed as was expected of a historic peace deal, people of all kinds and professions stuffing the giant hall. The last two occasions on which John had been here, first for the trial and then for the deployment orders, he had been rather hastened, but this time he took a moment to take it all in.

There were rows upon rows of long benches running away from the central walkway. They stood in a slightly diagonal angle and were made from sand coloured wood, a colour John began to think Romulus was in love with, seeing how much he used it. Even the very last rows, from which one could basically only see little figures gesturing in the distance, were packed to at least hear what would happen here.

Every twenty metres or so, there was a small series of steps that lowered the next aisle enough that the one behind it could easily look over. From a certain height upwards, flying platforms allowed the most influential or wealthiest of the onlookers to make their private areas in the otherwise public hall.

The design got more and more luxurious the further in he got, a myriad of eyes following him as he walked down the central way behind Lydia, together with Rave and Aclysia. Momo and Metra were watching this from the sidelines.

‘These people look like they need a fun conversation,’ Sylph chirped into his mind; ‘Can I have one with them? Can I? Can I?’

‘S-sylph, now is really not the time,’ Gnome carefully said.Geett the latest novels on no/v/elbin(.)c/om

‘It’s never the time! I am bored, these political stuffs are stupid, you are stupid, I wanna talk to people!’

‘You can wait over there with Momo and Metra if you promise not to bother anyone,’ John said.

‘What? Really? Coooool!’ Sylph materialized and flew off. Salamander, with an annoyed expression, flew after her to make sure the tempest elemental didn’t go about and do stupid stuff.

Looking after them, John felt the princess’ glare and looked at the grey eyes that were peeking over Lydia’s shoulder. ‘Do you need to make a scene?’ they seemed to say. In response he just shrugged; it was just Sylph having fun, he cared fairly little about the crowd, aside from the fact that he wanted to get out of it as fast as possible.

At the end of the hall, there was a large flat area and then the podium with Romulus’ throne on it. Behind it stood still, unmoving since the start of the war, the casket of the former king of Germany together with the two-headed eagle that was Rex Germaniae’s patron god.

The throne was vacant, the emperor was instead sitting at a round oaken table. It was big and separated into several segment for seats by the carving on it, each segment going to a seat.

There were three parts that had the image of a three-eyed owl sitting atop a fleur-de-ilis, the iconography of the Illuminati. These seats were filled by the Horned Rat and two other people John didn’t know apart from the fact they had to be the other two members of the triumvirate that led the guild. They didn’t seem to be interested in John’s arrival, but he was very interested in them. One of them seemed to be a similar person to Maximillian, albeit a bit older and female. Wearing modern clothes but with the addition of certain noble things (such as an extraordinary number of rings and other jewellery as well as the red and white cape), the raven-haired woman had a diligent expression. The last of the triumvirate was a guy that John could only describe as a mad scientist, complete with hair that seemed to be mid-combustion, dirty goggles and oil-stained clothes that may have once fitted the occasion but had been sacrificed to science.

They were a... diverse bunch of people, and John was itching to Observe them, but he didn’t want to risk offending any of them when he got caught. With the Horned Rat around, there was no if to that situation.

Next up were four seats that had the emblem of a man holding the sun and the moon close to his chest, filled by Rodaclam, Sol, Romulus and Luna in that order. The emperor sat with his back to his own throne and waited for everyone else to get into their seats with closed eyes and crossed arms.

In a seat single to her and without any emblem sat Justitia. The blind goddess was here to ratify the demands that were made to her as placeholder for the now destroyed Blood of the Proletariat more so than she had the seat to negotiate.

Then he took his seat again and was left the only grinning person in the hall. Even the Horned Rat seemed confused about what had just happened. Now John also understood what Nariko was seething about; with Maximillian forfeiting the throne, her last chances, however, slim to win the gamble she had taken when siding with him were eliminated. That, in turn, put her future in the Abyss Auction into question.

John started working on a plan to funnel money over to Nariko in a way that would get him on her good side. Would be a nice change of pace, and he would become protector of a den of (presumably) hot Japanese girls. Everyone won.

The happenings at hand took precedent though. The Reichsadler acknowledged the leaving king’s decision. Stretching his mighty wings with a screech from both of his beaks, he suddenly was set ablaze, the fire quickly spreading to the casket bearing the old king.

Nobody moved as both the massive form of the eagle as well as the corpse were consumed over the course of several minutes. John watched in awe as the past king was sent off in thoughtful silence. John had only shared one conversation with the man, during which he had already warned him that the Gamer would have been one of the last persons to get to know him. He probably would have been an interesting person to know.

For John that was the extent of his feelings, but for Lydia that obviously wasn’t all there was to it. This was her grandfather, the man who had picked her up after her normal family had crumbled. In a world that had seemed harsh and cold, he had given her shelter and a new path. Nobody could have blamed her for the single tear that rolled over her face as the fire burned, although she wasn’t the only one who cried.

The pyre eventually became naught but ashes.

“Your regency has begun,” Romulus ended the universal silence, standing up and walking over to the ashes, staining his hand with black as he reached inside and picked something up. He went back to the table and sat-down, opening his fist to reveal a tiny hatchling rearing his twin heads. “He will grow with your time as governor, as monarch, as queen of Rex Germaniae,” he spoke in a soft voice, watching as the hatchling spied its new queen and slowly tapped his way over the table.

It took weak steps, a struggling bird too young to fly and yet too old to remember how to walk with such a tiny body. Slowly, it made its way over to Lydia and finally sat down in front of her. The newly ascended queen raised her hand, hesitating for a mere moment, before finally gathering all of her strength as more tears began to fall from her blue eyes.

“Join me, people of the world,” Romulus roared as Lydia placed the hatchling on her shoulder; “Join me in congratulations for the ascendance of Lydia Augusta the Fourth of House Hohenzollern - Queen of Steel!”

The crowd screamed the newly appointed queen’s name out in unity, three times. John joined them for the first, but then he got distracted by a bunch of windows.











John accepted the quest without hesitation.