Claiming Kingdoms RP

Claims thread here https://randomroleplay.forumotion.net/t790-claiming-kingdoms

In this RP, your lead character has been made into the leader of an entire kingdom! Not like the kingdom is that big, but everyone's gotta start somewhere. Using their subordinates and resources available, our heroes (and/or villains!) will go out on quests to explore the world, and perhaps even get into fights with other kingdoms.

THINGS TO DO IN THIS RP:

1) Have fun
2) Organize battles with rival kingdoms, Dog Days-style. Take something of theirs if you win!
3) Explore the world at large, but beware of strong monsters. Rewards can be won that will help out your kingdom!
4) ???
5) Profit

Makoto Naegi found himself pacing back and forth in what seemed like a small throne room. He felt really out of place in his high school duds. "Agh, what do I do, what do I doooo..."

A small ninja girl, clearly around his age, was kneeling beside him. "My lord, if you need any help, you need just ask-"

"I really... think me being a lord is a mistake..."

An old robed man, Rashk, stood by, smiling at him. Apparently he had been assigned as the court wizard. "Well, very few of us know the Will of the World, but she always has a plan, even if it sounds entirely crazy."

An energetic older girl- Cerebella- nodded in agreement. If Akatsuki was his bodyguard, and Rashk was the court wizard, Cerebella was the court jester. "Might as well just go with the flow! See where it takes ya!"

Naegi could feel his skin pale at the thought. "The flow always takes me places I don't want to go!"

"KAZUUUMAAAAA!" An all too familiar voice yelled, causing Momoka to sigh. How did she get herself into this mess. Suddenly she was a ruler of a kingdom and not only that...

"Oi, Dearche, what are you doing in my chair?" She asked, staring down at the physically younger girl.

The child only sneered in return, "I am sitting where I rightfully belong you lowly peon. Just because idiots saw fit to make you ruler, doesn't mean I will allow you to take the title that belongs to me. Now shoo, idiot, you're blocking my view of the fight."

"Who are you calling an idiot, you little brat?!" Momoka clenched her first and stared down the younger girl who only looked back with mild disinterest, "Tch, whatever, keep the chair."

Walking away purposely from Dearche as if proving a point, Momoka made her way over to her other subordinate who was monitoring the battle with a very annoyed expression.

"Yo, Beryl, how's the fight going?"

"They're ignoring all my rules!" The pink haired demon girl complained, "I carefully laid them out so they can have a truly badass fight then they go and completely forgo them! Ugh! They're acting like such honor students. I expected better from Ryuho!" 

All Momoka could do in response was laugh and rub her head, she didn't really get Raspberyl's obsession with rules and order. Nor why she consider them to be badass delinquency. 

She looked down below at the glorious battle of manliness. Both men had been at it for at least an hour and they were still going on strong. Though, you could see the sweat pour from Ryuho from all the exertion he was putting into the fight.

"I'll end this here, Kazumaaaa!" He once again yelled his opponent's name having Zetsuei shoot out a rocket punch toward Kazuma. It was the last attack he'd be able to do with his alter before he'd have to resort to just a bare fisted battle.

"RYUUUHOOOOOOO!" Answering in full, the other now very familiar voice shouted loudly. 

Minamoto was still coping with the fact that he was running the kingdom of Babel, which he felt that there was some sort of irony in but he couldn't quite place it, when he had been urged into starting trade talks with the neighboring Peche Kingdom. Realizing that if he was going to take this job seriously he'd need to do it, he had grudgingly gone along with it. But what were the chances that his new subordinate would decide to pick a fight?

"Are you two sure it's a good idea to let them keep going? It's almost getting old at this point," Minamoto asked the other two. Yang shrugged, and Diane shook her head quietly.

Yang was the one to speak, "Best to just let them get it out of their system now I think," 

"No Ryuho, I'll be the ONE TO END THIS!" Kazuma came at Ryuho with what was also his own final attack, a strong and straight punch with all the strength he had left. If this didn't work, he'd be left with his bare fists as well.

Rashk was in a corner for a minute, talking with a messenger as Naegi worried himself sick in the throne room. He came back with some news. "Well, it seems that some of the other nearby kingdoms have also had new rulers installed. Perhaps it might be... prudent, to ask to meet these other rulers? They might have more information on how this came to be than we do, and if they don't, it never hurts to make friends."

Naegi collapsed into his throne, giving his feet a rest from the stone floor. "Somehow I feel like I'd make enemies before I made friends..."

Cerebella gave him a thumbs-up and a smile. "Hey, you already made friends, so you can't make enemies first!"

Akatsuki appeared by his throne. It was scary how she could move without being noticed. "My lord, if you ever need someone taken care of..."

Naegi again paled at the thought. "No, no, let's... let's go with Rashk's idea, maybe? Looking at the bad side of things isn't going to get us anywhere. We should stay positive and do what we can."

The rocket punch collided with Kazuma's fist. There was a big explosion that kicked up the dirt and made Momoka and Raspberyl cough and sneeze as the dust flew into their lungs.

It took a few moments for the dust to settle and when it did, Ryuho charged forward. His fist was pulled back to deliver a punch to Kazuma. He refused to give up even without his alter, "HAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"HAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Kazuma roared out, no longer having his alter but it wasn't like he was gonna stop now. As he dashed at Ryuho with his bare fist, Ryuho was coming towards him as well.

At the last second neither of them had the strength for defense, and their fists collided into each others' faces, resulting in a double knockout.

"Ryu-... hooooo!" Kazuma with his last breath before passing out called out the name of his rival.

"...Well now that that's over with," Minamoto adjusted his glasses, brushing the dust off his clothes. He was rather frustrated with someone that was supposed to follow his orders yet did not, but this was nothing new for him. There were certain brats that he had to take care of that rarely really listened to him as well.

"I'm supposed to speak with the king here? Or would it be queen?" He asked, walking up to Dearche who had been sitting in the throne. Minamoto had mistakenly assumed Dearche was leading since they seemed rather full of themselves and was sitting on the throne.

"Kazu-... maaaa," Ryuho echoed in return as he too fell back onto the ground, unconscious. 

Momoka blinked, "Well, that was something. Pretty cool right?"

"Ugh, hardly," Raspberyl continued to complain, "They had no rules or structure. It was totally lame."

"Well, maybe the next fight can have a ton of ru-" Momoka began, but then paused as a voice caught her ear.

"Oho, you may call me king. Now speak, I don't have time to waste."

Oh no, oh no that little brat...

"DEARCHEEEE," The true queen of this kingdom yelled, stomping over to her subordinate, "Don't just mislead someone into thinking you're the ruler!"

"Hmph, but I am the true king here," Dearche replied, crossing her little arms over her chest. 

"Why I oughta...!" Momoka probably would have gotten into a fist fight with the younger girl if not for Raspberyl approaching them.

She placed a hand on her queen's arm, "I got this." She then approached Dearche and grabbed her by the ear, proceeding to drag her, "Come on, you're gonna help me with some community service!"

"WHAT?! UNHAND ME, WRETCH," Dearche flailed to escape about but the demon proved to have far more strength than her, "I refuse to do this community service thing, I serve no one! Let me gooooo!"

Minamoto adjusted his glasses again, "Ah, good. I was worried someone unruly was in charge," he was agitated but he put on a forced smile, "So, who actually is the queen then?" Rather than assume who he spoke to was in charge, he asked more vaguely this time just in case.

Diane absentmindedly followed Beryl and Dearche, and Yang watched her as she did. She looked back to Minamoto, then to Kazuma and Ryuho, then just shrugged and followed Diane. She wasn't really interested in the boring discussion Minamoto was probably about to have.

"I am," Momoka proclaimed, puffing her chest out proudly. Though she was obviously taller than Dearche, she didn't look much older than her, about three years older at the most, which would make one wonder why she was queen of an entire kingdom in the first place, "What can I do for ya?" 

Minamoto would notice she had a distinct accent. One that was quite common in rural areas, though that didn't necessarily mean she was from a rural area herself.

--

Dearche had finally given up in her struggles and only pouted as she continued to be dragged. It was at that moment she noticed two people trailing behind him. Well, one of them would be hard NOT to notice given her size, "What? Are you peons here to make a spectacle of me? Begone with yo- OW! Don't pinch me you little cow- OWOWOWOW! STOP THAT!"

"Don't be rude," Beryl remarked before turning towards the other two, "Don't mind her, I haven't taught her manners yet."

"Hmph, I don't need you to teach me manners."

Beryl ignored her, "I'm Raspberyl, number 1 badass delinquent in this kingdom, but you can just call me Beryl. And this girl here is Dearche."

Minamoto had to say that he was not impressed by her appearance, or her accent, and honestly he had to wonder who in their right mind would put a child in charge of a nation. But he had been told to expect anything, so he just sighed and put on a warmer smile, the kind that showed he knew how to interact with people.

"My name is Koichi Minamoto, though please just call me Minamoto," he said, and gave her a moment to introduce herself if she wanted, "I'm afraid I'm here on business, as my country is under some harsh times. Many people have been forced out of their own towns, and we have reason to believe similar things are happening to other nations. For now, Babel is looking to begin an alliance with the Peche Kingdom, starting with opening up trade routes," he decided to go right into an explanation of his situation, and a basic proposal of what he was looking for.

----

Diane tilted her head in a bit of confusion, "Delinquent...?" she asked quietly.

Yang found the duo kind of odd but she went ahead and introduced herself, "I'm Yang! This here is my friend Diane. It's nice to meet you," Diane waved at them, smiling warmly.

Aera was rather nervous at the moment; as she had recently been made into the Queen of Gamerah. She wasn't sure what exactly a queen was supposed to do; but she would apparently have to learn very quickly.

She hadn't even been a resident of this kingdom until a few hours ago. One minute she'd been at home in her village; the next minute she was queen of this crazy place.  

She found herself wishing her friends were here to talk to at the moment.

"You might want to stop pacing back and forth, your majesty," said the green haired woman who had introduced herself as the court summoner.

What had she said her name was? Oh yeah, Rydia.

"But but...I'm queen now! Of a strange land! And I don't even know how I got here!" said Aera. "I have every reason to be nervous!"

"I wouldn't worry about that," said Rydia. "The queen doesn't really do anything all that important around here anyway,"

"Really?" said Aera.

"Yeah, you just do minor stuff like appear at public events; give the occasional speech; and declare war. Nothing too serious," said Rydia.

"Oh, well in that case I guess I have nothing to WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT WAR?!"

--

Samus, meanwhile, waited outside the royal chamber. She had recently been "promoted" to the queen's personal knight. She didn't really care about such things as long as she was still being paid; but she would have preferred to be out chasing sky-pirates.

"So...Ms. Samus? That seems kind of informal. Can I call you Lil' S...wait, that's my friend Serena's nickname. Maybe Lil' A?"

To make things more annoying; the "Royal Pokémon Trainer" seemed determined to become her friend. She had idea why the girl was so insistent on getting to know her; but she had no desire to be the girl's friend.

"Call me Samus," she said. "I despise nicknames,"

"Um...ok Samus!" said Shauna. "See, we're already on first name basis! I think we're going to be such good friends!"

Samus sighed. This was going to be a long day.

Rashk now had in his hands a map of the area, showing both Naegi's kingdom (It looked rather pitifully small right now) and some of its neighbors. "The nations of Peche, Babel, and Gamerah are the ones that I've determined have new rulers who might be in the same situation. A little bird told me that Peche and Babel are meeting for a trade agreement. We can either send word to them both, or we can go meet with Gamerah first."

Naegi never liked looking at maps. Geography, history, politics, and so on weren't exactly his greatest subjects. "Well... if Peche and Babel are busy, it wouldn't hurt too much to check with Gamerah first, could it?"

Akatsuki appeared at his side again. "My lord, allow me to investigate Gamerah."

Naegi looked at her, contemplating the idea. "Well... so long as you don't get into any trouble..."

"I won't. I specialize in stealth and infiltration."

Naegi flinched a little at her choice of words. "There shouldn't be a need for that if they're friendly! Just... go up to them and ask to meet, I guess. Unless there's some sort of protocol that I don't know about..."

"Momoka Kibi is the name!" The brunette said, pointing her thumb at her chest, "Okay, uhm, let me get this straight, you want to form a partnership right? For trading or whatever? Sure thing, pal! I see no reason not to trade with a neighbor."

She was simplifying things as the complexities of it flew right over her head. However, it seemed she had gotten the jist of it and readily agreed. That would be a good start for both kingdoms at least. 

--

"I have no need to remember the names of those benea-" Another pinch and the so called King of Darkness yelped in pain, shooting Beryl a glare full of contempt. 

"Yep, a delinquent!" Beryl nodded, going back to ignoring Dearche, "I do things like follow the rules, community service, making sure I'm always on time. You know, common delinquent stuff."

Dearche snorted, "Your ideas of delinquency still baffle me little cow."

The country of Peche. A small country with farmland surrounding it. Two blurs approached it. One red followed by rose petals and another blue that distorted the wind just by contact. Upon closer expectation - two figures could be made out. One was a young, black haired human girl wearing a black dress and red cloak. Another was an anthromorphic blue-hedgehog who's mouth sometimes moved faster than his legs. "Come on, Ruby!" he taunted her with a mischevious grin.

"Keep talking!" she replied. 

The two blew through the country side, completely unseen by those even paying attention.

While this happened, a large white bird flew over head by the name of Harlan. Harlan was Millhiore's own personal 'cercle' bird and mode of transportation. While Ruby and Sonic were much faster on the ground, the bird was Millhi's only way of moving from kingdom to kingdom swiftly. And there was another rider - a pink puff-ball. A very cute, rose-cheeked puff ball who rode on the head of the bird. 

"We're here, Harlan!" Millhiore said as the bird descended in front of the castle. Millhi got off and so did Kirby. Long story short - they entered the castle to meet with the Ruler Momoko. This is of course after meeting up with Ruby and Sonic at the entrance. 

Millhiore walked ahead with Kirby walking in pace behind. The puffball looked at the walls, the ceiling and actually went off on his own. "Kirby-san!" Millhiore took note that her beloved pink ball had went to explore on his own. 

"Ooooo." Kirby continued to walk down the hallway while making a noise. A strange noise that maybed pointed out his wonder?

"Looks like I win again." Sonic put a finger to his nose and smiled at Ruby.

"Yeah, you're faster, obviously." Ruby frowned then sighed. "Whatever! I'll get you on round two."

"Alright, I'm up for a race anytime you wanna lose."

Ruby stared at Sonic for a moment then folded her arms. A sigh escaped her mouth. Then - just then as she walked down the hallway, there she was. "Yang!" Ruby screamed out. Immediately she sprint toward her adoptive sister to give her a little tackle hug.

Minamoto sweatdropped at how simple Momoka took it, but if she was agreeing he wasn't going to fight it, "Alright, that's good. I'll be sure to let the necessary people know it on my end. I have some plans regarding the safety of the routes as well so you won't have to worry about that, hopefully, though help from your end will be appreciated," 

"In any case," He continued as he held out his hand to shake with Momoka's, "I'm sure our kingdoms will both flourish soon, right?"

-----

Diane giggled at the antics of the two in front of her, "Well, I guess that means I'm not much of a delinquent then," She stuck her tongue out as she rubbed the back of her head.

Yang was about to say something when suddenly she was tackled by a girl in red, "Wha- Oh! Ruby!" Noticing who it was finally she cried out in surprise, "What are you doing here?" she hugged Ruby back but looked a bit confused, though happy.

-----

Kazuma and Ryuho had at some point been dragged to separate infirmaries and are resting. (;D)

"I'll help in anyway I can, yeah!" Momoka grinned, giving the man a thumbs up and a wink. Such a childish gesture, but she meant well with it, "So, uh, what exactly do I need to do?"

It was at that moment that a messenger walked in and approached Momoka, "My liege, the ruler of Biscotti has arrived with her servants."

"Eh? Another visitor? I must be pretty popular today," Momoka laughed, rubbing the back of her head.

--

"I can always teach you you the best way to become a delinquent like myself," Raspberyl suggested, always eager to get new people under her wing. Of course, not everyone was as happy with the idea.

"Ugh, please don't get her started. No one wants to do something silly as be 'good' and 'well behaved'. It's complete nonsense," Dearche's retort was about to be met with another pinch when suddenly a blur of red tackled Yang, "Oh great, more peons here breathing my air." 

Beryl shot Derche a glare for not the last time today, "Ignore her," She told the visitors, turning towards the others who had just entered the hallway, "You're here to see our Queen, right? Dearche, why don't you escort them?"

"Why me? You do it little cow."

The pink demon smirked, "It's either that or community service~"

"Grrrrrr, fine," All the dark magical girl could do was grumble as she grudgingly accepted the alternative, "Follow me."

"Is this your sister, Ms.Ruby?" the pink princess wagged her tail. This was probably the first time she was meeting with Ruby's sister. From what Ruby spoke of her - she was adopted. Millhi, being the considerate girl she is, never pryed into Ruby's own personal affairs so that's the only thing she knew about her family. "It's nice to meet you! I'm Millhiore F. Biscotti, Princess of the Biscotti Republic." she introduced herself politely as she usually does.

"U-uh, yeah, Millhi, this is my sister! Yang!" Ruby embraced her a bit harder than the before. Her grip loosened then her hands found themselves folded behind her back. She put pressure on her feet then rocked back and forth on her heels. "Well... Millhi wanted to come over to Peche and organize another social event. And - being part of her personal guard - I came along." all was said with a nervous smile.

"She's not bad at her job, so you should be proud of her." Sonic put his two cents in, probably intercepting any questions on how Ruby has been doing at her new job from Yang. "Breathing your air is one thing, smelling is another." Sonic clenched his nose, wafting his hand in front of his face.

"Mr.Sonic is right." the Princess affirmed his statement. The dog princess turned toward Dearche and Beryl. "Yes, please, lead the way."

"Ooooo." while this happened - Kirby continued to wander the halls.

Minamoto scratched his head, "Ah, if you have other guests, should I be on my way?" he asked, trying to be polite.

--

Yang gave her sister a big smile, "That's great sis! It's good to know you're finding your way in the world," Yang pat Ruby on the back maybe just a little too hard, before turning back to the grumpy magical girl, "Honestly it'd almost be better if I showed them the way than her,"

Diane shook her head at the offer of being a student of delinquency, which actually just sounded like it'd be boring work, "Nah, but thanks. Uhm, maybe we could find something else to do until it's time for me to leave though?" she offered, figuring they could at least maybe find something to do.

"WHAT WAS THAT YOU BLUE FURBALL?!" Dearche's eye twitched and she had to resist the urge to ragnorak everything in sight. A sharp look from her comrade reminded her to keep her cool and she merely fumed silently. Until, that is, a certain blonde had the nerve to imply she was incapable of doing a simple task, "Listen here, Goldilocks, I am perfectly capable of escorting someone to our acurst ruler and I don't need some foolish girl doing my job for me."

With a loud, indignant 'hmph', Dearche trotted down the hallway, motioning for Millhi to follow. 

Beryl could only sigh as she watched her comrade's retreating back, "If any of you would rather come with me, I can show you around the castle."

--

"Leave? Well, if you want, but you're not intruding or anything! No need to leave just because I have a visitor!" 

There was a knock at the door and the unmistakable voice of a certain ill tempered child, "You have visitors, Bakako."

"Who are you calling an idiot, you brat?!" Momoka yelled back at the door before catching herself, "Nevermind, come in, I already know they're here."

The door was then opened and Dearche ushered whomever had followed her, "If that's all, I'm leaving." Without waiting for Momoka to reply, the girl stomped out, clearly in a foul mood.

"Good riddance," The queen muttered under her breath before turning her attention to the guests, "Heyo! I'm Momoka Kibi, ruler of this Kingdom. Is there a reason for this sudden visit? Not that I mind, ahaha, I'm always open for guest but uh... yeah."

"Furball? That's a new one." Sonic put his hands behind his head. A cocky grin came across his face as he looked at Dearche. Before the hallway became volatile with insults, charred fur and snipped hairs, Millhi wanted to get a move on! 

oh wait, it seemed Dearche started to move. Millhi followed after her while bidding farewell to Ruby and Sonic. 

"Show us around the castle? Nah, I don't think we're going to be that long." the hedgehog crossed his arms while looking to Ruby.

"OH! Another castle?" Ruby immediately thought back to the large complex that was the Biscotti Castle. Really, it was an architectural marvel. She had a thing for weapons, yeah, but it was still an experience to look at how different buildings were made. "Sure, sure! Yang, come with us!" now she started to drag her sister into this again. It was like they were kids again!

-----------------

The pink-haired girl bowed, smiling as she had introduced herself. "I'm Millhiore F. Biscotti, the Princess of the Biscotti Republic. I come here on behalf of my nation for a proposal. I would like to enlist your help in organizing war games for the nation... um." she realized how big of a request this might have been... but she believed that everyone could benefit from it. "It's a suitable alternative to the bloody wars of the past and it's been a common practice within Biscotti as well as the neighboring nations. In fact, it's been tradition for the past few decades. I was... asking if you would like to be a part of that tradition." her ears twitched, her tail wagged and she bowed low.

Minamoto shook his head, "If you don't mind then, I can stay," as the other queen showed up and introduced herself, Minamoto had to think back to what he knows of Biscotti. It was further away from his nation than even Peche, so not all that much. But as she spoke, he thought a bit harder, "War games..." oh wait, he knows what those are.

"I've heard of those. They're a little odd but definitely better than people dying," he looked at Momoka, wondering what her answer would be.

------

"Wah-" Yang let out a shout as she was pulled, "Alright alright," she wasn't against a tour but her sister sure was forceful. But it was only to be expected, they hadn't seen each other in a while. She was kind of excited herself.

Diane nodded her head enthusiastically to the idea of a tour, "Sure! Lets go~" her steps were a bit less careful since she was in a good mood now, probably creating a bit of noise though not damaging anything. She's used to her size.

"War games...?" A peaceful way to settle wars with games, huh. It sounded kinda fun actually. She was all for things like this. She looked down at Millhi who was bowing, her twitching ears and wagging tail. Momoka found her hand moving towards the dog girl's head. Things like decorum or permission was foreign to the girl as she didn't resist the urge to pet the other girl on the head. Scratching her behind her soft pink ears, Momoka decided to answer, "I'm totally up for it! It sounds really interesting! What about you Minamoto-san?"

--

"Okay! Let's go!" Raspberyl pumped her tiny fist into the air as she led the group down the hall. She ignored Sonic's comment about them not being there long as she had already single mindedly decided to become the official tour guide of Peche. That would surely increase her rep as the number one delinquent, "Now to the left here, is the royal library. Our Queen doesn't really see much use in it so she crammed a bit of training equipment in it, so it's a bit of a mess in here now." Raspberyl explained as she opened the big wooden doors to show them.

A cloaked figure flew into the room through an open window. She slunk over to the shadows and sat down. After pulling off her hood, she stared at the group of people speaking to each other. Her long dark hair covered some of her face, but her very sharp teeth were still visible.

"Do you guys have anything for me to drink?" she asked with bared fangs. She smirked at the boy with the ahoge. 'He has funny looking hair. Is he in charge around here? Well, I suppose my leader's hair isn't any less strange.'

"Guess we're going on a tour." Sonic shrugged his arms while Ruby continued to hoggle Yang all to herself. RECENT information has suggested that Ruby and Yang are blood-related so now we shall go with that point. No objections? Cool. 

"Lead the way!" the younger sibling pointed toward Raspberyl. Before Ruby knew it, the royal library had opened up in front of her. "Ohhhh." books, books everywhere. Did they have any Weapons Monthly? Probably not but they did have training equipment. No weapons either. Wait, couldn't she ask that? "What kind of weapons do you guys use? Probably different from Biscotti since we're so far away." Ruby said as she continued to cling to Yang's arm.

"So many books..." Sonic took a step into the library and half-heartedly observed the place. "Oh well, nothing here interests me." Sonic really wasn't the type to read. Well, there was that one incident where he turned out to be King Arthur with the legendary round table. Then there was the time when he was sucked into the Arabian Nights and had to fight an evil genie. The thought of that made Sonic shake his head. Moral of the story? Books are evil.

----------------------

"Ehehehe." Millhi wagged her tail from left to right. Her ears dantily danced to the rhythm of Momoka's hand as she pat her. The ultimate plus side to all of this was that both accepted her proposal instead of just one of them. "Thank you very much~!" the dog princess said. Her face turned red. This felt so good!

While this was going on...

"Poyooo." Kirby moved out of the room that Minamoto, Momoka and Millhi were in and wandered into the hallway. The pink fluff ball followed Dearche. After catching up...

"HIIII!"

Rashk turned to the girl that made her way in. "Oh, good, I was wondering when you'd decide to drop in. You've been sneaking about for a while now... What sort of creature might you be? I'd love to study you."

Naegi, on the other hand, was quite surprised. "E-eh?! Rashk, you're supposed to tell me when people are sneaking about...!"

Rashk merely smiled at his lord. "If you had known, Akatsuki might never have left! Then when would things get done around here?"

Cerebella laughed at his jest, and turned to the intruder. "Well, it's kind of rude to ask for a drink without introducing yourself... ya mind?"

Aera was still in discussion with Rydia about what exactly she was supposed to do as queen.
 
"I suppose you should introduce yourself to the neighboring kingdoms," said Rydia. "They're probably curious about who's in charge over here,"
 
"So, I should just go to a neighboring kingdom and introduce myself just like that?" said Aera.
 
"No," said Rydia. "You should send someone to the neighboring kingdoms to ask them to come meet you. Don't go to them. Make them come to you! Show them your strength of will!"
 
"Um...ok, yeah, sure. I'll go with that," said Aera. "So, I guess I should summon my most skilled diplomats to..."
 
"Your options at this point are pretty much just Shauna and Samus," said Rydia.
 
"So it's the guy with the hand cannon or the...energetic girl?" said Aera. "Why don't we have more diplomats?"
 
"Oh, our previous ruler exiled all of our diplomats," said Rydia. "Our last ruler was kind of nuts...but that's not important right now. Just pick someone,"
 
"That seems pretty important!" said Aera. "But I guess if I have to pick someone to represent us..."
 
--
 
"Congratulations Shauna," said Aera, several moments later. "You're now our court diplomat! And I will be sending you to a nearby kingdom to arrange a meeting with their rulers!"
 
"Wow! This is such an amazing honor! There must have been so many candidates!" said Shauna.
 
"Er...yeah. You totally won there," said Aera.
 
"So, which kingdom do you want to send me to?" said Shauna.
 
"Uh, which one is closest?" said Aera.
 
"Kibougamine Kingdom," said Samus.
 
"Go there then!" said Aera.
 
"I won't let you down!" said Shauna.
 
The girl then brought out her talonflame; jumped onto it's back; and flew towards the kingdom of Kobougamine.
 
"...Well, tell me if we're at war tomorrow," said Samus, walking away.
 
"Oh, come on, surely it can't go that badly; can it?" said Aera. "Oh why did I just say that?"

"Shouldn't you have given her some ID or something to identify her as a diplomat?" said Rydia.

It was at that point that Aera's face met her palm.

--

Shauna, meanwhile, landed somewhere near the door of the royal palace; and walked confidently up to the doors; and knocked on them.

"Uh, hello? I am a diplomat from the kingdom of Gamerah! I have come to speak with your leader!"

A guard opened the door. "Oh, uh, come in. I'm sure the king will see you shortly... I don't think he's exactly busy..."

---

Rashk, meanwhile, looked concerned. ...looks like we sent out Akatsuki for nothing... oh well, surely this is a form of fate as well.

"You noticed me, huh? I guess I should have been sneakier, but it's a little hard when you're trying to stay out of the sun." She pushed her hair out of her face. "I'm Marceline, the Vampire Queen." She stood up and stretched a bit. "I hope you don't mind me dropping by without any notice," she said as she floated around the room, inspecting everything.

She quickly stopped in front of the short high school boy. "I, uh," she started as her eyes dropped to Naegi's shoes. "I don't suppose you have anything red in here that I could borrow, right?"

Naegi somehow felt ultra-embarrassed by her stare. "U-uh, maybe...? Rashk...!"

Rashk was moving around her, looking her over. "A vampire... never heard of one of those, but you clearly aren't human, and your soul... Ah! As for something red, there are some apples in the kitchen if you'd like. Red isn't exactly one of our national colors." He made a gesture to a nearby flag, which was more of a black and white design, a bit at odds with the colorful people who lived here.