With the ever so slightest amount of smugness did John note that the ship the Horned Rat arrived in was smaller than the Boating Seaquence, John’s own yacht. The amount of satisfaction he drew from that was dampened by the weaponry the vessel displayed, however.

It wasn’t an Abyssal warship per se. With its white hull and birchwood decorations, it was definitely a luxury piece, but the tesla coil-like protrusions at the side plus railgun on the roof just below the bridge were all clearly military grade weaponry. The ship wasn’t a lot smaller than John’s either, so even that initial gloating was barely justified.

“You’re totally thinking about installing weapons on our ship right now,” Rave used her impossible mind reading powers on her boyfriend, who shrugged.

“I might,” he conceded immediately, somewhat wary as the vessel drifted past the open entrance gate and into the Harbour proper. It would be a snug fit, between the two super yachts. ‘Maybe not upgrading the Harbour to Tier 2 was a mistake,’ he thought. In the past he had opted out of it because he didn’t think he’d need the space. Evidently, he had not been considering larger powers than the Little Maryland visiting. If more than Richard would come here today, that would clog the Harbour up completely.

He glanced around. The red carpet had been rolled out for their visitor, connecting the Harbour to a stage that had been erected. It was the standard metal construct one would find at any kind of event, decorated with banners that showed Fusion’s logo hanging from both sides to hide the bare frames from direct view.

Behind a metal fence, people were lazily hanging around and waiting for things to start. The journalists were allowed past most restrictions. A concession John had made in the starting effort to get a bit cosier with the press at large. A blonde catgirl in particular caught his gaze and waved towards him. He waved back, although that was the current limit on communications. Neither he nor Cindy could leave their positions.

To his interest, he saw the catgirl then turn and address a small, green-skinned girl. She had red hair, pointy ears, glasses and extreme curves. A very short and very stacked girl, in the boobs and butts department. Still within reason, though. It was like someone had taken Sylph, amplified the green filter, shaved 10 centimetres off and then slapped Salamander’s curves on the resulting product.

John wasn’t big into shortstacks, he preferred the tall and athletic types, but her attractiveness was undeniable. Given that she was, quite clearly, a goblin and her body type, the Gamer made the educated assumption that she was from the SSSN network. The Shortstack Sluts Searching News was the favourite program of the Gobbo Nation, with whom he had contact recently.

Whatever Cindy had said evidently ticked the goblin off, as she began gesturing in accusatory ways. The blonde grinned down with equal parts contempt, ridicule and predatory supremacy. However the rivalry between the two monster girl porn networks had started, it was clearly alive and well. John would engage with that at some point. If not to get himself in better standing with both the Catto and Gobbo Nation, then because the opportunity to bang a shortstack was in it for him.

It was one of the few body types he had not yet had fun with. Just because it wasn’t his absolute favourite body type didn’t mean he wasn’t attracted to it. John was a simple man and loved basically all shapes the female physique came in. Things like morbidly obese aside. Anyway, it was, all in all, a pretty shallow reason, but given the name of the network, nobody there was likely to complain.

He returned his gaze to the Harbour, not that the Mandala Sphere had stopped looking over that general area. The ship had come to a halt and the Harbour was doing its thing and stretched out its piers and fuel pipes to connect in the most convenient way. Soon, the first people stepped down a flight of stairs that had been gently lowered.

To John’s surprise, he saw neither the Horned Rat nor his suit façade amongst the five people that went off board. Four of those were bodyguards in a blue and red uniform, nothing John had to pay attention to. Only the one at the centre was a person that caught his attention.

She was gorgeous, even amongst Abyssals. She had a particularly cute nose, well rounded and just the right level of narrow. Amid a face of healthy, tanned complexion sat a pair of dark red lips, evoking wonderful desires. Her hair was a sleek black cascade, combed thoroughly and parted unequally at her forehead, the larger half held by a jewel encrusted barrette. Eyes of a dark brown reflected intellect and discipline, their colour harmonizing with the similarly dark azure of her silky dress, flowing from her shoulders to her ankles.

A basic Observe yielded no result, and John didn’t want to be too rude by prying it open by utilizing the Reveal part of things. She approached with slow, measured steps. John had seen photos of her in a briefing session before and she also seemed vaguely familiar in other ways.

“Is that the daughter of aristocrat Celeste?” John asked Lydia, when he got a clue. The black hair and general shape of her face reminded him of the noblewoman that had attended the meeting that had concluded the Five Days War.

“That is Marie, yes,” Lydia confirmed his suspicion, the queen narrowing her eyes. “I do wonder what she seeks.” Along with her and John, only Rave was standing in direct meeting position. The maids and Metra were nearby, but not close, while the elementals had dispersed for the moment. Scarlett and Eliza had retreated to somewhere less public.

The Illuminati were ruled by a triumvirate that represented three segments of society. The fantastical creatures, headed by the Horned Rat, the nobles that inherited their powers and obligations, headed by Celeste, and the meritocratic workers, scientists and whatever else there was, headed by a man named Norahnon. Marie was, therefore, next in line to inherit a place on that council. Not only was a standing member visiting, but also an heir.

Marie walked the rest of the way and stopped before John. Her hand moved up ever so slightly, and John, although he wasn’t familiar with that sort of greeting, took a small bow and greeted her by kissing the back of her hand. A whiff of parchment tickled his nose and he spotted the faint remains of ink on her otherwise clean hand.

“Welcome to Fusion, milady,” John said as he straightened back up. “I did not expect other visitors than the Horned Rat.” He saved himself the question where that mischievous god was, he had already found the answer. As always, Richard was aiming at bothering him in some small way.

Right now, the Horned Rat was at the back of the stage John was supposed to have his festivity opening speech on. John was able to see him there by a lucky glance with the Mandala Sphere at the right time. Of course, John could have turned this situation around by appearing there as Jack, but doing so would have revealed his new toy, and he was going to keep it under wraps for a little while, lest some enemy caught wind of it.

So, he played along, begrudgingly. At least he had a beautiful guest to distract himself with.

“I am not surprized he failed to mention me,” Marie responded, her accent was clearly French, but not overly thick or difficult to understand. “I assume you will need no explanation of his reputation, no?”

“I really won’t,” John agreed with a warm smile. Although it seemed Marie herself was of a more regal demeanour, his Charisma managed to make her mirror the expression in a small way. “I trust he will appear to bother me soon enough. Until then, I am more than happy to meet you for the first time.”

“We have communicated in zhe past, you and I,” Marie let him know, and he furrowed his eyebrows as he quickly burrowed through his memory. That was something he thought he would certainly remember. Was it before he got his powers? Very unlikely. A second clue she gave tipped him off. “Although we have never met, that much is true.”

“Minerva?” he quietly asked, and she seemed pleased that he had unravelled this so quickly. Next to him, Lydia tensed up a slight bit as the name caused her to come to the same realization as he did. At the very start of his adventures, when Herman had been spying on him, there had been a chat room for all those that had bought the highest tier information package. Members of that chat that he had met during his time were Lydia and Maximillian, both going by their court titles, Magoi, under the alias Anathema, and now Minerva, of which he had only known that they had been French so far.

The world was quite large, for it to have taken that long for him to meet her, but also quite small for that meeting to happen at all. ‘Things loop back around,’ the Gamer thought, as he stepped back and gestured down the red carpet. “Shall we, Lady Marie?”

“Just Marie will be enough, President Newman,” she said; although her outward appearance was noble, her character seemed quite easy going.

“Please, call me John,” he replied in kind.

“I like ya,” Rave chimed in, and the four of them walked down the carpet to the sound of clicking cameras and the occasional waves of cheers. The Artificial Spirits made sure the reporters respected the rules and didn’t approach them. “What brings you here, aside from Richard’s request?”

“Richard?” Marie asked, not in the know.

“It’s a name I gave the Horned Rat,” he was quick to explain.

Intrigued, Marie probed further. “Why?”

“Because it shortens to Dick and I was tired of calling him Rat all the time,” John answered, hoping she would giggle in response. Instead, there was a short pause.

“Richard shortening to Dick makes little sense to me, but languages have their quirks,” she ultimately said. “As you asked, however, my path brings me here in pursuit of my curiosity. I am a historian at heart and have been unable to follow your path for a little while now, since SecretBlonde mysteriously vanished. If you have the time, I would appreciate chronicling your story in detail at some point.”

‘Not exactly a mystery to me,’ John thought, but what had happened looked like a mundane incident, Gaia had made sure of it. Regardless of that, Marie’s interest seemed genuine. There was the sneaking suspicion that the Horned Rat had picked her to meet John carefully though. Whether she was in on it or not, there was a chance Richard was using her to get a clearer picture of John’s journey and character. “How long will you be staying?” John considered it regardless. History would be written about him and it was best to define oneself before others defined him.

“For now? A week,” she answered, and John couldn’t help but wonder what that first part was alluding to. Any further questions he had were interrupted as the Horned Rat decided it was time to pull the trigger on today’s annoyance.

“Listen.” The one word boomed over the area. It didn’t come from the speakers. The Horned Rat was foregoing the odd sight of a three-metre-tall rat humanoid holding a microphone in his claws and just used his magic to carry his words where he wanted them. “I am the Horned Rat, I speak for the Illuminati.” Only that initial utterance had carried the spell and every further word was simply loud. “And today I am here to congratulate John Newman, your president, on his birthday.”

John himself was now walking up the stairs and waving at the cheering crowd. There were several hundred people here, probably one or two thousand in total. Quite a gathering for the Abyss. The Horned Rat looked somewhat disappointed by the Gamer’s lack of surprise. “No, the beautiful woman did not manage to distract me completely,” John told him, while being handed a microphone by Aclysia.

The private communication via the window done, the Horned Rat continued his addressing of the crowd. “Now, now, all of you, the Illuminati has made a pact with John as you were all parts of much lesser guilds. That being said, this Fusion thing he created, it is working quite wonderfully. My compliments to all of you working people.”

‘This is actually quite nice,’ John thought. ‘Maybe Richard isn’t going to fuck me over in any way this time… maybe I am jinxing it.’

“As it is, as it stands, the Illuminati is happy to show its friendship with your leader and extend it to you people at large. We would like to create an embassy on this very island, showing our future alliance.”

‘And there is the selfish motive,’ John sighed internally. He could have spoken out against that, but that would send a bad signal. Not only would it seem like he had no control over the program, which was the case but the people didn’t need to know that, but he could also make himself a bit unattractive to future allies by so publicly denying a nice offer by a current one. ‘That also covers what the ‘For now?’ meant,’ John thought, as Marie would doubtlessly be that ambassador.

He had no reason to refuse any of this, no good one anyway. All he had was a general cautiousness towards things the Horned Rat did, no matter how nice they looked. Sure, none of what he had done had been to the detriment of the Gamer so far, but that was no excuse. Giving power to the most benevolent of actors seemed like a super great idea, until that benevolent actor turned out to be a fraud, a traitor or a normal person that could make mistakes. Better to keep one’s cards close to the chest.

“That is a nice birthday present,” John joked into the microphone, just to seem like he was in control of this situation. “The Horned Rat and I will be further clarifying things in private talks later. No need to bother all of you good people with it.”

He stepped up to the edge of the stage, just as a sunray peeked through the clouds and only hit him and his direct surroundings. A great dramatic timing, as John appreciated, watching himself from the air through the Mandala Sphere. He was still lanky, long limbs on a slim person, but his arms were now decently muscular and no comparison with a twig would be met by approving laughter from a group of bullies. His new suit also did its part, sitting on him with such utter perfection that the outline of his chiselled chest was roughly visible, all while being absolutely comfortable.

“I didn’t plan to make a huge fuss out of this initially,” he started the speech he actually wanted to give to kick things off. “But things and reasons and vanity convinced me that I should have a large festival for my birthday. Today and tomorrow, you all shall feel the concentrated wealth and fortune I bring to the lands I call mine. Food and drink will be free, works of art and souvenirs I have no control over, so don’t haggle with me for the prices,” he made it sound like a joke and enough people in the crowd laughed to make it satisfying.

“You will find programs pinned all over the place. For the sake of our sanity, I would ask you to not approach me, my girls or any higher officials you may recognize outside of Q and A sessions. There is a lot of you and we, especially I, want to enjoy the day as well. During those events, you can come and ask whatever. A reminder to my friends in the press,” again, he made sure to make it clear by his tone that it was a joke, “that they have their own interview timeframes, so leave the Q and A for the public. That’s about all I want to say to start things off. You will see me again here in the evening! I wish you all a wonderful day!”

There were chaotic cheers all throughout the crowd. Jokes were shouted back, along with congratulations. Just as John was ready to go, crowd mentality suddenly showed its prettiest side. Someone started singing ‘Happy Birthday to you’, and within seconds it had spread throughout the entire crowd.

John wasn’t exactly old, but he was certainly old enough that he felt a bit awkward when at the receiving end of a song usually reserved for children’s parties. However, he would have lied if he said that awkwardness was the first thing he felt. It was just a tad different however, if it wasn’t children and parents singing it but a large crowd.

The level of appreciated he felt left him speechless. They actually went through all of the verses in the sometimes bumbling, incoherent but steadily progressing way only a crowd could. He noticed his girls, who were mostly as dumbfounded by this as he was. Then Sylph suddenly dived down from somewhere and sang along while dancing in the air over the crowd in her carefree voice. Rave laughed and also went in. Lydia joined, a bit hesitatingly. One by one, all of their voices mingled into the chaotic choir. In the distance, Undine’s crystal-clear voice also reached him. Even the Horned Rat became part of it, although he was singing in an unserious tone.

It was all so incredibly genuine that John felt… odd. There was the sort of lump in his chest that he normally associated with crying, but his vision was clear even as the last notes of the simplistic song echoed away. “God dammit, you people are too good for me,” he said, realized he had lowered the microphone and then repeated himself. “WAY too good!” he insisted when they jokingly booed at him.