I found myself sitting in a chair at a large table in a mostly empty conference room. Lena sat in a chair at my left while Priss stood in a corner along with the centaur tigress, Wendy

Thanks to a combination of valor and timing, Wendy was promoted to Captain and assigned to Lena’s personal guard unit as a replacement for Captain Sunni. Sunni’s fate had yet to be decided, but the investigation had cleared the rest of the squad of suspicion of treason during the insurrection.

As curious as I was about Sunni’s trial, I was eager to find a means of charging myself and dealing with whatever plans Dezaraus had going. My plan to set out after the Emperor’s funeral was cut short by a summons from the Emperor Apparent. I had to admit that I felt a bit like an unruly kid waiting for the principal to chew them out.

The next to enter the meeting room was General Greevus and his attache, a bright red skinned demoness with eyes like burning coals and tongues of flame dancing across her large, black, ram horns.

“Uncle Greevus!” Lena squealed, jumping up from her seat.

Greevus wrapped Lena in his over muscled arms and squashed her to his chest, lifting her up and swaying gently. The eye-bulge of surprise at her weight was not lost on me. I figured she was somewhere in the ballpark of 250 to 300 pounds which, if you weren’t expecting it, was quite a bit for an athletically built sixteen year old girl in the five foot range. Given the size of his boobs, it was a lucky thing that Lena didn’t have to actually breathe.

“Your Highness, always a joy to see you. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to see you well after your ordeal,” he said, giving me a cautious side glance and carefully setting her down.

“Did you get to see the duel with Milli and me fighting Rau? I’m finally getting to put your training into practice!” she said, excitedly.

So I had Harvey the Wonder Rabbit to thank for Lena’s button masher style of fighting, eh? Having fought both of them, I could see the similarities in hindsight.

“No, sorry, I would have loved to. We arrived a bit too late, but the after party was a lot of fun. You know, I even got to tussle a bit with your boyfriend there. I know he wasn’t giving me his best though,” he said seductively, giving me a wink. I would have narrowed my eyes had I had the ability to do so.

“Yes, he’s kind that way,” she said, knowingly. “I’ve seen him fight several times now and I’ve only ever gotten a glimpse at his serious side for but a moment as I lay dying prior to my conversion. Even in my own sparring match with him, I could feel the weight of his shackles holding him back. I quiver to think what might be if he became serious.”

“Hey now, I’m plenty serious about not dying in a fight. It’s not like I goof around or play with my opponents,” I said indignantly as they yapped away as if I wasn’t sitting right there.

“My dear Prime,” Lena said, slightly condescending as she wrapped her arms around my head, “you may say that you are serious about not dying in a fight, however, that is clearly not the case. Whenever I’ve seen you fight, you limit yourself so as to only do the minimum required to stop your opponent from fighting. You do not use all that you have available to you.”

“Ah. My reluctance to kill people, you mean,” I grumbled.

“Just think how quickly you could end fights and not die if you were serious about killing your enemy first,” she reasoned.

“That might be true, but if I thought that way then your brother would be dead, you would be dead, half the Adventurer’s Guild would be dead, General Bun-bun would be dead... need I go on?” I shot back.

“This little runt of an Auto seems absurdly confident, wouldn’t you say?” the demoness quipped.

“He certainly talks a big game, I wouldn’t mind seeing first hand if he could back it up,” the General agreed.

“So annoying,” I complained.

“Oh shush,” Lena chastised, resting her weight on me.

“Who’s annoying? Not me, I hope,” Milliardo said, entering the room with his own guard detail and attendants.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Everyone stood and bowed, myself included, though mainly because Lena yanked me out of the chair.

“Sit, sit,” Milliardo motioned, flopping his hands downwards after finding his seat. “So let’s get to it. Minister Albus, if you would.”

A wizened old goat in long robes leaned on the table and stood up to address the room.

“Your Majesty. We have received reports from the eastern front that our Automata support units have begun to malfunction and behave strangely. A large group of one hundred or so civilian units integrated with our forces just before our units broke. All of the units then headed east towards the alliance forces. We don’t know what their purpose is or who may be controlling them or how, but our own Auto Handlers were unable to do anything about it. Many of them were, in fact, killed in the attempt.”

“How many Imperial units were lost?” I asked, wanting to crawl into a hole.

The Minister looked surprised to see me speaking up. He glanced over at Milliardo, who gave him a slight nod.

“Two thousand,” the goat answered.

I groaned and hung my head, burying my face in my hands.

“I knew it,” Milliardo said triumphantly. “I just knew that if anything strange was happening and it involved Automata, then you would be at the core of it, Prime. Come now, explain Master Artificer. What is going on, how are you involved, and how are you going to fix it?”

I lifted my head just enough to glare at the Royal, though I doubt it came across. I carefully told the room about Dezaraus and his ability to slave unprotected Automata as drones, and that he’d already claimed the people living in AutomaTown and moved on to Trone. I conveniently left out the bits about how I was involved in his creation or that a mix of Jhiax and Dragon were controlling him. I finished with my plan to visit the dungeon in Maxoria in an attempt to recharge myself to full strength in order to fight him.

Milliardo stared at me for a long time, long enough for me to grow increasingly uncomfortable under the glare.

“What will your full strength buy us?” he asked in careful, measured tones.

“Options? The ability to use God Armor Convoy for more than a few seconds? The power to deliver a patch to fix the exploit that Dezaraus is using to corrupt the Automata operating systems. I already have the patch written and installed on all the Automata within my reach, and I have a self extracting delivery packet that you’ve seen in action already. It’s just not practical to try to patch thousands of Automata one at a time.”

“I’ll be honest with you Master Artificer, granting you the means to power an Automata the size of a mountain makes me nervous to say the least,” Milliardo admitted. “What assurances do I have that you won’t turn that power against us?”

“Well... If you honor your promise to acknowledge the personhood of Automata and outlaw the forced manufacture and enslavement of them, then I pinky swear not to attack your country. Oh wait, I don’t have pinkies, but you get my meaning,” I tried.

“Pinkes? What are pinkies?” the goat minister asked. I noticed he had split hooves with a little thumb for hands.

“Nevermind him, he doesn’t always make sense,” Milliardo cautioned. “I’m afraid I’m going to need more than a ritual oath from you Prime. I believe you when you say that fully powered, you could level the city or annihilate the army and I don’t like having that sort of threat dangling outside of my control.”

“Even with the threat of tens of thousands of Automata drones marching against you?” I challenged.

Milliardo sighed and rubbed his temples with white gloved fingers. He looked like he hadn’t rested properly in a while.

“Why would you need to go to such lengths beyond the normal means of collecting mana? Just... just how much are we talking here? You fully charged as you say?” he asked in a tired voice.

I pulled a small notebook and charcoal pencil from [Inventory] and scribbled a five followed by nine zeros on a page, tore it out, folded it neatly and slid it over to him. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at the note as if I’d handed him a bomb. Carefully, he took the paper, unfolded it and glanced at the number. His eyebrows shot up into his hairline and his glare threatened to bore holes through me as he crumpled the paper and lit it on fire with a spell.

“This is real?? You are serious about this number?” he demanded.

“It is, and I am.”

“Your Majesty! Are you well? What was written?” the Minister asked, worried.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. The fewer that know of this the better. Prime, tell no one. Lena, that means even you, don’t ask. This does explain some things, namely your... longevity... and arrogance,” he announced, flustered.

“Um, yes? Okay?” Lena responded.

“Prime. I understand that any attempt to impose control over you would be fruitless... still, I ask that you at least allow me the illusion of some measure of control for the sake of my country.”

“What did you have in mind, your Majesty?” I asked, curious where he was headed.

“I’ve been considering this for a while as a means to hold onto you, but I’m considering giving you LeCrueset’s territory, Maulia, and an earlship to rule over it. This would impose certain court obligations over you... not that we would have the means to enforce them though...”

“Your Majesty, you can’t just grant the title of Count to a commoner, much less an Auto!” the demoness ranted, standing up at the table.

“No, that’s true I can’t, Lieutenant General Winx so I’ll have to start him out as a Baron. Prime, we’ll promote you once this business with your double is settled,” Milliardo said matter-of-factly.

“Even then, your Majesty. He’s not even a knight,” the Minister implored.

“I guess we’ll have to have him marry into royalty then. As much as it pains me to do so, I can see no better future partner for my little sister. Congratulations, Lena, you’re engaged.”

“Wait, what?” I said gobsmacked. “Shouldn’t I get a say in all this??”

“Isn’t this wonderful?” Lena squealed, nearly knocking me out of my chair.

“Make her cry and I’ll break you in half,” Greevus said with a smile, slapping an oversized hand on my shoulder.

Prime.Cyclone:// Mazel tov

Prime.IronHide:// I’m not calling Miss Lena “mom”

Prime.Ram:// Yeah no. That’d be too weird

“This whole thing is too weird! What in the fiery pits of Mount Doom is going on here?” I shouted, though no one was listening, not even those in my head.