“…and that is why devolution of powers leads to overall advancement despite obstructing radical change,” Jack ended his lecture. The feudal crowd was silent, trying to completely digest all of the post-enlightenment political theory he had just dumped on them. “This is normally where I would take questions,” the Gamer continued and reached into his inventory, “but I just got what you wanted.”

Reaching into his inventory, Jack retrieved what his original body had just put into it. An object of polished silver, the shape and size of a six-sided die. It had nothing in ways of direction, simply reflecting the light that fell in through the windows. Gazes inspected what he had just pulled out of thin air. Once the surprise that he had been able to even do that faded, there was only scepticism.

“That does not look like a silver fur,” Roykal announced.

“True, true,” Jack admitted and took three steps backwards and toward the door. “Don’t worry, I’ll prove it to you in a second. I just needed to give myself a clue where exactly the courtyard is.”

“What do you even mean by tha-?” the royal Kyr began, just as a cracking sound echoed from the outside. It repeated a second, then a third time, giving Jack all the time he needed to step off to the side.

With a fourth and final crack, the pavement broke. A red-scaled arm surfaced, grabbed the rim of the hole and widened it with a couple tears, before the entire body of the serpentine dragon fit through and Ssassathrax surfaced. The entire court was in uproar, as the earthbound creature approached the wooden gate. Several of the king’s guard went into movement, likely aiming to shut the dragon out, but Jack raised his hand in a dissuading gesture.

“Halt!” Ellaty commanded and her subordinates obeyed. She understood that he didn’t want to cause harm and wouldn’t need to call a dragon to kill everyone in the room. As intimidated as everyone was, the harpy with the crystal wings still managed to maintain a level head. The Gamer continued to regret he wouldn’t kiss those dark red lips.

Ssassathrax barely fit through the door, but a narrow fit still meant that he was able to enter. Lowering his head, the red dragon revealed, to the audience, the three beings sitting between the spikes along the monster’s back.

John held Velka in his arms, while Stirwin had been able to hold onto the back by his own merits. The Gamer and the infinity elemental jumped off the red dragon. ‘Don’t enjoy their confusion too much,’ Stirwin reprimanded, while John grinned at the almost unified left-right motions of the court’s heads as they looked from John to Jack and back. Even the spymaster, who already knew of the ability, looked bamboozled.

‘It’ll only last for a bit,’ John responded, while kissing Velka’s head. The feathered pet didn’t seem to overly mind her lower body dangling from his hugging hold. “Hope you enjoyed the ride?” he asked the Magryph, who chirped like a mechanized swallow in response. “Great.”

“Hello, me,” Jack greeted John, just for the show. They were two bodies, but no amount of character differentiation ever occurred. Even when John split his mind to make operation of one body not overly impede the thoughts and analysing of the other, it was impossible for him to hold a conversation with Jack that was different from thinking out loud.

“Hello,” John responded happily. “Want to switch?”

“Well, I’m sure Velka is happier with me,” Jack answered, which was based in fact. The Magryph almost always preferred to be around the valuable Mandala Sphere than just the regular Gamer. She was gladly handed over, but protested when John took the silver cube and walked away with it.

“To address your question, Roykal,” John addressed the court again, holding up the object. “This-“

“Forget about the silver fur, how dare you bring the great serpent into my halls?!” Roykal exploded with anger. A calculated move, John had no doubt about it. Now that the Gamer threatened to clear all obstacles, appealing to raw emotion to discredit him was the way to go.

“Ssassathrax and I agreed on a deal,” John told the court. “In which he will give his entire hoard to the kingdom and serve as the treasurer for the rest of his life, in order to make up for all his misdeeds in the past.”

“It’sss true,” the red dragon lied in support. The actual motivation were his life and the promise of more money, but to preserve the former and assure the latter, Ssassathrax had no qualms about making things up. “John Newman hass sshown me how heinousss my crimess have been. I ssshould have never agreed to the deal that Roykal’ss ancesstors made with me – wiping out villagess hiss dynassty deemed unwanted.”

“Lies and slander!” Roykal shouted and rose from his throne. “I will not have any more of this! Guards, remove him! Better for us to die gloriously in service to Kyrkind than listen to this snake!”

The king’s guard wasn’t sure what to do. Disciplined as they were, they couldn’t have been enthusiastic about running into certain death. Regardless, several put their hands on the handle of their weapons and visibly contemplated. “Wait.” Once more it was Ellaty that spoke up, truly demonstrating why she was head of the military.

“Wait? WAIT?!” the queen spoke up for the first time in all of this. “Ellaty, are you betraying your king? Roykal gave an order and it is the duty of the king’s guard to carry out his demands.”

“It is the duty of the king’s guard to protect the monarch and his family,” the athletic harpy returned, her naked chest proudly pushed out. “A duty I have met over the past four years and will continue to uphold. However, King Roykal gave his word to abscond were John to bring him the silver fur. If it is true that he has done so, I am under no obligation to obey your orders.”

Roykal’s head went from the red of acted anger to the deep red of genuine rage, but kept himself under control. Simply smiling and posturing his confidence, John let attention drift back to him. “Then it is on me to prove I have succeeded in the trial,” he said and held up the die. In his deep voice, he went for his best Gandalf impression and shouted, “Awaken, silver fur!” Pushing mana into the object, he then quickly tossed it to the ground.

The die bounced off the stone twice and then came to a halt in the open space between John and the gathered court. Kyr stared curiously at the object. Those that supported Roykal, for traditionalist or selfish reasons, had fear in their eyes. Fear that grew when the die liquified. The cube lost all edges and expanded in size several times, until it was about as large as a teacup. The metallic surface shaped itself into several segments. A fuzzy body, with four legs, the hind ones clearly larger, a relatively large, round head and two long, spoon-shaped ears all formed. Whiskers extended from a pink-tinted button on the front and above to slits that opened to reveal to round, black eyes. All of the whiskers began to quiver, as the small bunny raised its head and looked around, sniffing and looking awfully adorable.

“The Silver Fur,” John now spoke of it not as a simple description but a proper name, “as promised, I have brought it to you. Now, uphold your end of the bargain and let me pick who shall sit on your throne.”

Roykal looked to the people around him. To the expectant gazes of his supporters, the curious expressions of the uncaring or hostile, and the hard determination of Ellaty. Ultimately, he realized that there was no way for him to go but down. “Fine, have your way, intruder,” the soon-to-be-former king spat out.

‘Doesn’t even have the courage to do what he demanded of his guard,’ John thought and looked over the crowd. Quickly, he found the person whose Stats and personality Observe had to be revealed to be the most suitable candidate. “Marikyr, you will be the world’s next monarch,” the Gamer declared.

The black-haired man seemed surprised, but anyone would have been in that situation. Stepping out of the crowd, he gestured for his wife to follow. Both were well-tanned people with dark hair and good looks. “Why me?” he asked.

‘Because your portfolio looks the best,’ John thought, which wasn’t exactly a great answer. “Gaia has revealed to me that you’re the best choice,” he instead said. “Do you refuse the crown?”

“No, I will do what I think is best for the kingdom,” Marikyr responded, the ambition plain in his voice. He was young, but not so young that he was naïve and not so old that he was too set in his ways. His Intellect was a bit lower than John would have liked, but his Charisma was good enough to prevent the reforms John was about to propose from being torn down by rebelling traditionalists.

Marikyr and his wife wandered over to Roykal, who begrudgingly handed over the crown and walked away with the former queen in tow. Not just from the throne, but the room at large, leaving the new queen to pick up the Silver Fur. John wasn’t too worried. The only being that he left behind that could, on its own, smash the system he was setting up was Ssassathrax.

The precautions John took against that were simple: lies and the dragon’s own self-interest. As long as the monster remained convinced that the Gamer would come back whenever their agreement was broken, Ssassathrax would remain loyal to it. Hopefully, noticing his own profit margin would keep him convinced beyond doubt. If not, well, the people here had lived with the monster before and they were going to after. Every system failed eventually, there was no avoiding that.

As Marikyr placed the crown on his head and sat down on the throne, two windows opened.

“Then let us hear what more you have in store for our world, John Newman,” the new monarch declared. “Tell us exactly how you envision this separation of powers to look like and what role the great serpent is supposed to play.”

“Sure. Whenever you hear something that won’t work with how things are set up, do tell me. Also, someone bring me some paper and a pen please, I need to draft a constitution.” With those words said, John began the lengthy task of negotiating the exact form of the new state with Marikyr. The black-haired harpy male gave pushback on several occasions, which was good for his image. Disagreement undermined the idea many would have that he was a mere puppet.

Sometime through the discussion, Velka was let down to the ground and walked over to the queen and the silver fur in her lap. She allowed the Magryph to take it away and play with it on the throne room’s floor. Despite having the shape and intelligence of a bunny, the Silver Fur didn’t have the fear of predators, so it joined in the play quite happily.

Negotiations ended successfully, with both Ssassathrax and Marikyr seeming content with their obligations and the constitution John had drafted up. Once things were signed, the Gamer got the final window of the Adventure Quest chain.

‘Fantastic, now I just need the Class Challenges done for the last level and I got it,’ he thought with a large smile on his face. “I suppose that marks the end of my visit here then,” he announced and gestured over to Jack. “I’ll send one of my many secondary bodies here every now and again. If you worsen the situation of your people, expect to see me.”

“Your warning is heard,” Marikyr stated.

“Loud and clear,” Ssassathrax added.

“Good,” John said and looked over to Stirwin. His infinity elemental had had nothing to say for quite the while and just gave an approving nod. Then he raised his claw and pointed over to Velka.

The Magryph tapped over to John, likely having noticed the change in the mood. She seemed ready to leave herself, but there was a slight problem. On her head sat the Silver Fur, fitting nicely between her ears. The metallic colour of the bunny harmonized nicely with the black and white of Velka’s fur and feathers.

“That’s not ours, you will have to leave it here,” John told the Magryph, who put a beak to his belt and beggingly pulled while making big eyes. Really big, red eyes, with miserable little sound accompanying it. The effect was doubled by the, likely clueless, bunny on her head also looking at John with its black, button-like eyes. “Greedy bird,” John grumbled, wrestling with his heart as to whether or not he fulfilled Velka’s wish. With a sigh, he decided to give in. “If you lose it, it’s your fault,” he stated and turned towards the new king. “Can I take the Silver Fur with me?”

Marikyr shook his head, “No. The Silver Fur is a long-lost symbol of royalty. Handing it over to you for free is a service beyond what I’m willing to give you. For all the advancements you brought Claryles today, I thank you, but you seem to have gotten things out of it yourself already.”

He wasn’t wrong, but John still felt somewhat slighted. The presence of Stirwin entered his mind, ‘He needs something in return, are you willing to give something valuable up to please Velka?’

The question was distracting enough that the Gamer was able to push aside his annoyance and think about it. Continuing to pull on his clothes, the Magryph was a steady display of pity and she was really cute with that bunny. At the same time, the only things that John had with him were emergency foods, some test Tokens and his own equipment. In that situation, there was only one thing he could give away that would satisfy the new king.

‘I suppose it will also aid this government in being stable,’ John tried to sweeten the deal for himself, as he pulled the Talon of the Ravenlord out of his inventory. There was basically no comparison between the practical worth of the weapon and the bunny. ‘I should just get out of here and buy her a golem made from silver,’ he told himself, even as he presented the bladed glove to the ruler. “This is a weapon from my own arsenal. It can cut anything I have found on this world and possesses protective and aggressive enchantments. An acceptable trade, right?”

Marikyr was silent. He probably couldn’t believe this either. “May I…?” he asked and tested wearing the weapon after John gave the go-ahead. With a swatting motion, he cut through the armrest of his throne. “…Yes, this trade is acceptable,” he muttered, looking at the smooth trenches in the stone.

“Great, fantastic,” John grumbled, still not believing he just did that. Before he could regret it, he took the bunny from Velka, put it in his inventory so it would come with him guaranteed and, along the happy warbles of the Magryph, left the Kingdom.