After a huge goodbye ceremony that lasted several weeks, which put the Kingdom of... What? in even bigger decline, Queen Eve finally left. This would have normally been hugely celebrated by all the country's people, but due to the previously stated decline there is only eye for food and survival in general. So the villagers do nothing but "yay" and "woohoo" for a couple of minutes before they collapse from starvation. Fortunately no one turn to cannibalism this time around...

Servant: Look at the state of your kingdom, my Liege. At this rate the biggest part of our kingdom will be dead just like the last time she visited.

King Lacial: Yes... I suppose it's time for some drastic measures.

Servant: Do you mean...

King Lacial: Yes, our secret weapon... But first some foreshadowing and delay.

Servant: What do you mean?

King Lacial: Narrator? Do the honors, please.

And foreshadowing there shall be! What masterplan does King Lacial have to make sure his kingdom will not end up an empty shell that can be freely roamed around by high leveled monsters, and that the player heroes can continue to explore a few decades later because eventually everything here may or may not be deserted? Find out right... after we visit our own heroes!

Seth and Twig have been in hiding while Queen Eve destroyed the country with nothing but her good intentions. So they hid at the Pigeonary that will disappear again before spring, which... arrived just now! The Pigeonary instantly vanishes, and Seth and Twig are glad they left it just in time.

King Lacial: To prevent famine...

Servant: You created a law that skipped winter! Smart!

King Lacial: But that is not all. To the docks! The moment queen Eve was gone, I sent out a pigeon to someone we know.

Servant: Seth?

King Lacial: No, worse...

The removal of the beautiful winter overlay also means no winter holiday event, and no trees to cut down and slowly let die in the comfort of your own home. This angers a lot of heroes and heroines very much, which causes a substantial amount of 'flaming' at the town's forum plaza. 'Flaming' meaning: heroes creating huge bonfires of freshly cut trees to send a clear message that everything should suffer equally. So without any further ado, the world where Seth and Twig reside continues after three months of... Well, nothing really. Trees are being cut and burnt every day of the year.

Twig: So Seth...

Seth: Yes?

Twig: I get that you've been hiding for a whole season to evade death from being mistaken as the Evil Wizard that King Lacial wants everyone to kill, but...

Seth: I am actually still amazed how we just blinked away the winter and returned in spring. It is mind boggling.

Twig: I wonder what could have happened. Perhaps the gods that created this place deemed it necessary to do so?

Seth: Suure. It is not like you can blame the creators of this world for doing so, is it?

Twig: Uuhh...

Seth: I mean... I am not jealous at all that there are beings out there who can skip seasons like magic, add magical objects and artifacts, not to mention also making it so other people would not be capable of casting spells themselves.

Twig: Well...

Seth: And the people of this world are just supposed to worship the choices that the 'creators' make and trust that there must be a greater good in all this.

Twig: Um...

Seth: And just blinking away the people who are precious to us. Without any apology or afterthought. It is so unfair!

Twig: You seem to get a bit more resentful every chapter Seth. But look! A pigeon, and he is carrying a message!

Seth: So there is still hope. Yay! Maybe I will truly find some spells in the future!

Twig: Oh dear... Let's just move away from that slippery slope line of thinking and read the note!

Dear Twig and Seth

When will we be seeing you again Twig and Seth? We'll be working here at the Pigeonary. So you can return to us any time you like... When we are in existence. It seems the pigeon system still is up and running, so we will not be completely out of your lives.

Love,

Yuna & Leaf.

Twig: All right, we will be off then.

We return to King Lacial and his servant who made it to the docks on the north side of the city. The docks are empty and there isn't much more to see than a single rowboat at sea; and some lost shrimp in the water that is asking a mouse for directions. However, for the sake of the story this confrontation of creatures has no value, though what the mouse said was probably very offensive seeing as how the shrimp turns pale. And thus there is no reason to tell you about the terrible Shrimp-crusade versus Mice all over the world that would easily overshadow any war Humans could ever imagine.

Servant: So that secret weapon of yours?

King Lacial: He's already here.

Servant: Huh?

Richard: Indeed.

Servant: Richard? How did you get here? There is no one around for at least a mile.

King Lacial: Isn't it obvious?

Servant: No..?

Richard: I took a leave of absence.

Servant: Still not getting it...

King Lacial: He took a leave of his absence... from us.

Servant: Ah...

Richard: So the pigeon's brief told me you had something particularly vague and abstract I could get my hands on?

King Lacial: Yes I do, Richard. You see-

Richard: Leave it. I took the liberty to inform myself and exchanged it with the time it would take to explain it.

Servant: The law of equivalent exchange? Wow, clever.

Richard: Thank you. It's a big thing you ask of me, but you have sound reasoning and I do everything in my power to take Queen Eve's influences away.

King Lacial: Indeed. You may take your time doing it.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Richard: I see. In that case... It's done.

Servant: ... What the...

Richard shows Servant a little bag in which he holds the country's famine. Servant looks inside and nods as if that's the way he expects a country's famine to look like.

Richard: And I took the deaths from the fish in the lake, and I nicked the snow from the previous season and hid it in the lake.

Servant: I can see the lake from here. It's still empty.

King Lacial: Come on Servant... He even stated he hid the snow. Of course you cannot see it yet.

Servant: ... That made my nose bleed again.

Richard: It'll probably show up once it has melted.

King Lacial: That makes sense.

Servant: How though?

Richard: Anything else pressing your mind Sire?

King Lacial: Can you bring Seth down here?

Richard: Done. I merely had to go (and take) the distance. Trickier to fit in a bag though.

Servant: Just take the difficulty out of the equation.

Richard: Oh yes, of course. Yoink.

Seth: Huh? Why am I at the docks?

Twig: Uh oh, Goblin Hat Mode!

King Lacial: Don't worry Twig. We all know about you. Richard, can you give them their freedom back?

Richard: Sure thing... There you go Seth and Twig.

Seth: Yay!

Richard: Can I take my leave again Sire?

King Lacial: Richard, we both know you already did...

Servant: You're talking to the air Sire. He was gone before he finished his sentence.

Twig: Wow.

King Lacial: You know Servant, sometimes Richard really annoys me. I should never have outlawed him.

Servant: Soooo... Was there a reason you wanted Seth here my Liege?

King Lacial: Yes. Queen Eve and I talked, and we think it's time for you to retrieve my princess-holding tower from the dragons.

Seth: But I am only 10!

King Lacial: Still, apparently you're the only one out of those thousands of 'hero' nimrods who actually manages to complete things around here. To tell you the truth, their way of 'finishing quests' have had no impact on this world at all. They usually just come to me, claim they have killed thirty 'goblins' from the 'goblin sewers' and consider a whole menace suddenly 'solved'.

Twig: Not to mention that they just blink in and out of this world all the time.

King Lacial: That too. But that is a good thing. I never have to pay them if they do.

Servant: He merely has to claim the quest was time sensitive. So all their efforts are basically redundant, but they never seem to mind that much.

Seth: Sometimes I do not understand the psychology of these so-called heroes.

Twig: When you're as old as me and Lacial you'll get it Seth.

Servant: Shush about my Liege's age Twig. He's very senstitive about it.

King Lacial: Remember what happened the last time someone claimed I was older than a century Servant?

Servant: You set back civilization's progress by a century times seven, laughed out loud, called it poetic justice and went on with your life.

King Lacial: I recall Richard nicking his clothing from that 'french rennaissance' thingy people had going on at that time. He's so behind the times now...

Servant: We're talking like old men now my Liege...

King Lacial: Let's not then.

Twig: Right.

Seth: So... Dragons?

King Lacial: Yes, I made a little error with one of my laws a long time ago. The law stated Dragons would be expelled from towers so they couldn't kidnap princesses from them anymore, however... Someone unfortunately switched the position of 'Dragons' and 'Towers' in that law.

Seth: Let me guess... the Towns' Idiot?

King Lacial: Of course.

Twig: Ugh...

Servant: King Lacial made sure he never would write anything ever again.

Twig: Oh? How did he do that?

Servant: He put it in the last law he wrote.

Twig: Ghehe.

Seth: So we have to save the Princess?

King Lacial: Princesses. More than one.

Servant: The dragons did not stop with ours.

Seth: Woah.

King Lacial: And the towers... I rented them out to other kingdoms for their princesses and collected the towers as a set. I'd be very angry if anyone would break up the set...

Servant: He's very proud of it. He calls it his version of a stamp collection.

King Lacial: And?

Servant: And by 'Stamp' he means trophies from trampling over his neighboring enemies. He keeps the princesses hostage in the tower by law so that-

King Lacial: Shush! Ruling secrets.

Servant: Right... Princesses just looove King Lacials' towers.

King Lacial: So, that's it.

Seth: And what do you expect me to do?

King Lacial: You're the hero. Look it up in a guide if you don't know.

Seth: How do I...

Twig: We'll figure it out. Thanks King Lacial. I hope the dragons are kind to me.

Seth: Is there something I should know Twig?

Twig: Nah.

King Lacial: Just one more thing.

Seth: Yes?

King Lacial: My daughter is in one of those towers too.

Seth: ...

King Lacial: She's a sweet girl, just like her father.

Twig: Oh no...

King Lacial: Promise me Seth. No funny business with her. All right?

Seth: ... I'm ten!

King Lacial: No. Funny. Business.

Seth: I am already married and divorced, and I love my divorced wife!

King Lacial: No... Funny... Business!

Seth: ... Ok.

And on that note, Seth and Twig make their way further into the Kingdom of... What? with no clue which way to go, where to start, no guide, and a lot of questions.

Twig: I wonder if his daughter is cute?

Seth: Why did the King think I had a guide?

Twig: All normal heroes probably have one. Hey look! That shrimp and mouse from before are wrestling.

Seth: Aww... adorable. The little creature world is so much more innocent than ours.