The military update for the goblins and the Horned Rat was delivered fairly quickly, for the simple reason that they had already heard most of it. John was only informing them about what had happened, not about the immediate plans to advance. It would take a couple of days, at least, before he was confident that they had consolidated their lines enough that they could begin the operation to push into Alaska.
After the military plans came the question of recovering the city. It was a category 3 Abyssal city, complete with IBMA and infrastructure, so forsaking it would have been a hefty loss. It was their boon that this did not appear to be necessary. The goblins had been hit by regular wave tactics, and what few elites they had encountered, they had taken care of in costly engagements. Lucifrena had also guided them, which was really the defining factor. The angel was supposedly currently in one of the field hospitals.
John aimed to check on that later.
Since the city was damaged but not infected to the marrow, it was still recoverable and the surviving infrastructure made that a worthwhile project. Matters of his subjects resolved, John then managed to step aside with the Horned Rat.
“…and that’s how that went,” he concluded informing the god about Remus’ return.
“As well as it could have gone, I think.” The eyes in the blank skull were dimmed by his pondering. “I do not believe their brotherly unity can last. Their views are too opposed.”
“But you do not know that,” John guessed at the god’s thoughts.
“Remus was ancient history thousands of years before I rose to consciousness.” Claws clacked on the edge of the steel table they found themselves at. It and the chairs around it were the only furniture in an uncomfortably rectangular room. The corners were so perfectly measured that they felt like they were precision cuts into reality. “Unlike Romulus, he always had a scheming side as well. He might be pretending his affection.”
“He might,” John agreed. “This ball isn’t in our court… what has happened is that I am left with you again.”
“Which is not a situation that deserves the moniker of precarious,” Lydia pointed out.
Most of the harem had decided to make themselves useful in other ways after the war plan talks began. The women that stuck around were Lydia, Nia, Rave and Lyndell. Nightingale and Momo would have stayed, but he had sent them to take care of something else.
“As it stands now, Fusion has, among its allies, the Mandate of Heaven and the Illuminati. Rex Germaniae will not be able to stand with you, yet you can be assured that I will have your best interests at heart,” Lydia continued her report. “Three and a half of the Divided Gates aid you.”
“A good position to be in, broadly speaking,” John agreed, then let out a long sigh. “However, all Fusion will have after this war is me. The already low population has been further devastated. We have the Guild Hall and that’s it in terms of infrastructure.”
“You will suffice,” the Horned Rat remarked darkly. “You know this. Everything beyond the Guild Hall and your women is just an addition to your power.”
“Blunt and accurate,” Nia supported the god that had raised her.
Lyndell chimed into the conversation, quietly and sorrowful as she always sounded, “Dark as your days are, once my former kin and thrice-cursed Tiamat and Izha have met their end, your land benefits from its isolation. As I see, it is your ally to the west that is the worry.”
“That’s not wrong…” John agreed. “The Mandate of Heaven stands before civil war. Vinh intends to push the envelope.”
“And I assume that you are involved in that?” the Horned Rat asked.
Rave giggled before the answer even left her lips. “Balls deep.” There was a moment of silence. “Oh, come on, we don’t even have to pretend it’s a secret to the Rat anymore. Between how quick she was to aid us and all that we did in return it’s basically an open secret.”
“It will be even more open in a few seconds,” John remarked drily.
The Horned Rat tilted his head, only for the door to the room to burst open. In stepped two Asian women, behind them Nightingale and Momo.
‘Does that make it three Asians?’ he wondered. Momo had the aesthetics, but she obviously had no genetics nor cultural heritage to that end. ‘A question I keep asking myself and that I will never have a full answer to.’
The other two had more of his attention. They wore heavy winter jackets, obscuring their figures. Black hair had been styled in such a manner that their faces were obscured by bangs. For one, that was the usual state of affairs. Much as she tried to be invisible, Daiyu’s breasts stood out even in her plush attire. Alas, as eye-catching as the shortstack was, John’s eyes were pulled to the other woman instead.
Momo closed the door behind her and Lu Zhi threw the jacket off. She revealed casual clothes beneath, a full, Americanized get-up of sweater and jeans. Combined with her hair being down, it transformed the regal empress into the hottest tomboy the neighbourhood had to offer – except for all the other tomboys in John’s harem, of course.
“Cuddles, now!” Lulu demanded and threw herself at John. The chair beneath him tilted dangerously. Clutching the edge of the table, he barely kept himself steady, then returned the embrace. “Mwah! Mwah!” The imperial tomboy pressed kisses all over his cheeks in the meantime. “I am sucking your soul out of your dick later!”
“You were right, she did not mind you revealing this,” John said to Rave.
“Why do ya doubt me, tiger?”
“No ignoring me.” Lulu pulled at his ear, moving his head back her way. “Kisses, now!”
“What would I look like if I let a foreign monarch command me?”
“My future husband – now, kisses!”
The adorable annoyance was no longer worth resisting the pull of her pink lips. Tasting her was a sip of cold water after a long march. A bit of it was not enough, he needed to indulge deeply and completely. His arms wrapped around the petite, bottom-heavy Asian woman, pressing her against his chest with all he could muster. He could taste her lipstick. Groping her ass was his God-given right in that situation. The perfectly shaped cheeks were extra firm with the layer of denim over them.
The Horned Rat had the decency to wait until the kiss broke. “An unexpected arrival. I heard you were with your fleet.”
“Good, means the double worked.” Lu Zhi scratched John’s chin. It hadn’t been that long since they’d seen each other, yet she had all the kisses and cuddles to give. “Every good empress has some lookalikes prepared.”
“This implies that I am an empress of lacking ability,” Lydia remarked.
“You don’t have any body doubles ready, not even one?” When her question was met with a shook head, Lulu raised an eyebrow. “Genuinely surprising to me.”
“Part of that is that we don’t have the same tradition of curtains and distance between the governed and the governing,” John theorized. “A body double would be difficult to actually pull off when we are so commonly in front of cameras.”
“I’ll accept that answer. Daiyu!”
“Awawawawawawa…!” The lady-in-waiting was stun-locked by the display of her mistress kissing. Her hands were over her eyes, shielding her innocence from the view of John testing how much of Lulu’s mons he could feel through her clothing. The answer was: not a whole lot. Winter jeans were just too thick.
“Daiyu! Reboot, you adorable mess.”
“Wha-awawa-aat can I do for you, Luluuuuu?”
“Not nickname me in front of the French-rat.”
“H-huh?” Daiyu peered out between her fingers. Her black eyes fell on the Horned Rat. “Eeeep!” she cried out.
“An appropriate, appropriate first reaction,” the Horned Rat laughed. “I might eat her soul if she keeps staring.”
“Go get me some water,” Lulu ordered. “Or something else drinkable.”
“Y-yes!” Daiyu was out of the room for three seconds, before poking her head back in. “Uhm, where would I find water in this place?”
“I’ll show you,” Momo said, from one sassy maid to one nervous servant. “It will take us some time,” she said this slowly, for reasons that likely everyone but Daiyu caught.
“Can we discuss the matters in front of him?” Lu Zhi asked the second the servant was gone for good. “He is an untrustworthy one.”
“True as that is, we are finding ourselves in his sphere – plus, he already knows about Remus and Vinh.”
“Many most concerning developments.” The Horned Rat pushed stinking steam out between his teeth. “Did you flee from her challenge, then?”
“No, I separated from the main army in case there are any more assassins around,” Lu Zhi responded swiftly. “That I am also dodging that birdbrain – no offense, Gale – is just an extra bonus.”
“None taken,” Nightingale answered and sat down next to John. Her eyes expressed a visible distaste for their industrial environment.
“What’s so bad about what Vinh wants to do?” Rave asked. “It’s just a duel.”
“A duel that, according to his eyes, I may lose.” The Heavenly Jade Empress pointed at John’s face. “It is my view of the matter that, in the best of all cases, I stand victorious over her, but am heavily injured in the process. I just recovered and my part in this has scarcely begun. Izha has courted death and we shall unify them.”
Squeezing her shapely ass, John continued the conversation, “If Lulu refuses or, worse, loses, it will at least diminish the morale of her troops and at worst cause part of them to desert.”
“I will deal with it after vengeance, not before,” Lulu decided.
John kissed her hair. “You have my utmost gratitude that you did this for me,” he whispered to her. He had thanked her for it before, right after she had been coherent enough to speak to. Repeating that thanks was only appropriate, given the depth of her sacrifice.
“Personally, I believe it might have been an overinvestment,” Lydia shared her thoughts.
“Looking at the situation now? Probably,” Lu Zhi agreed. “At the time… I did not know how bad this could be and I was unwilling to take my chances.”
Lydia nodded understandingly. “That is admirable.”
“For my services, I demand a ring on my finger – at a time of my choosing.” Butt wiggling, she got a bit more comfortable in his lap. She leaned in for another kiss. They both barely managed to pull away from the pull they had on one another. “If that is to your agreement?”
“Sure thing,” Rave chirped.
“Do I get any say in this?” John asked with a crooked smile.
“The final say, technically,” his first fiancée responded. “Can’t get on one knee if ya don’t wanna. I’m treating that as a foregone conclusion though.”
Which it was. The silky smoothness of Lu Zhi’s hair trailed through his fingers, giving him just another reason to become the emperor-consort of China. There were many worse fates. “I suppose since the four of us are here,” he looked between the Horned Rat, Lydia and Lu Zhi, “we should cover our bases?”
“It would be proper to coordinate our approach to the likely outcomes of this war and Remus’ return,” Lydia agreed.
“Should I inform Momo to keep Daiyu busy?” John had a mental eye on those two and their quest for water, just like Momo had a mental eye on the talk and the potential comments she would have on it.
“No need, she knows that ‘water’ is code for ‘wait until I call for you’.” Hesitantly, Lu Zhi moved out of his lap and towards one of the chairs. Now that the discussion was moving fully towards the serious, she wanted her mind focused on it. “I trust her to accompany me and to keep secrets. It’s just that she’s weak, so her mind could get read.”
“Could it now?” the Horned Rat cackled.
“Oh, shut it you overgrown rodent, you need us,” the Heavenly Jade Empress stated. “Which brings us to matter one: the upcoming civil war.”
“Asia is about to become a hot mess,” John agreed.
“Which I ain’t enthused about.” Rave plopped down on her man’s lap. “I still got grandparents in Japan, ya know?”
John had never met them nor seen photos of them. Given that Rave always talked fondly of them, it was strange. The explanation she gave was that they were technology averse to the extreme and they just hadn’t taken the time to visit them in person yet.
“Japan would certainly be affected by the civil war in the Mandate of Heaven.” Arms crossed, Lydia summarized the situation in her head before formulating it with her red lips. “With the overseer distracted, the Dangun Clan is likely to go on a greater scouring than their usual excursions. Unless they will provide aid to the Mandate of Heaven?”
“I assume they will declare their neutrality,” Lu Zhi responded. “The Dangun Clan is the eternal ally of the Mandate of Heaven, but they owe us no direct fealty. My alliance with Fusion, who has made their opinion on the raids of Japan clear, has displeased them.”
“A political misstep,” the Horned Rat pointed out.
“Admittedly, all my plans have gone… what do you westerners say… haywire?” Shrugging, Lu Zhi continued, “I prepared to have the Mandate of Heaven be isolated when Fusion and the Dangun Clan came to blows. That this robs us of their direct support as well is only natural. That being said, we cannot perceive a world in which they would support Vinh.”
“I doubt she will be completely alone though,” John said. “The other South-East Asian guilds and Tibet will likely weigh in, at the very least.”
“Their efforts will shift the scales, but not tip them,” Lu Zhi declared. “With you and yours by my side, we will have the might to crush this insurgency.”
John gave that a solemn nod. “I will repay you in full for the aid you have summoned for Fusion at this time.”
“Personally, I consider the matter of the conspiracy to be more worrisome than the insurgency,” Lydia stated. “As described, Vinh might be a fool, but at least she is an honest one. Those that plunged the dagger into you were prepared and lie low still.”
“Indeed and it is to this end that we wish to enlist your help.” Jade green eyes snapped to the Horned Rat. “I need not your boots on the ground, merely the aptness of your spies.”
Bones creaked as the grin of the skull-headed creature distorted into an even wider one. “What do you offer me in return?”
“The official formulation of our triangular alliance upon completion of the war,” Lu Zhi responded. “You desire protection against Romulus and we offer to you the might of the Middle Empire. With us, you will benefit not only from my personal might but also the manpower that the Chinese realm can provide.”
“…I shall not make this deal yet, but I assure, assure you that I am interested,” the Horned Rat answered. “What of Romulus and Remus?”
The topic changed to the European theatre, which was more of a mystery. “Fusion will stand with the Illuminati, should you be aggressed upon… or if it becomes evident that Romulus is attempting to tear down the Abyssal veil again.” John paused for a moment. “In the immediate political reality, the three possible outcomes I see are a brothers’ war, an overall neutral relation, or an alliance. Most of them will impact us negatively.”
“In the case of a brothers’ war, it will be Prometheus and Remus’ other, hidden preparations versus the Greater Empire,” Lydia stated. “A matter that will pull Rex Germaniae into the hostilities.”
“Which will oblige me to take a stance, but my support goes to Remus’ cause.” The words felt sour on his tongue. He still considered Romulus a greater person, yet the idea that the divide between Abyss and mundane could just be abolished was so shortsighted that he could not support it. “That would be a whole mess. The obvious recourse is to try and pry Rex Germaniae out of the Greater Empire.”
Lydia remained quiet at the thought of treachery. That she had been born mundane shielded her from the worship of Romulus that many of her people had. Regardless, contemplating this kind of political break could not have been easy. Rex Germaniae had been part of the greater polity of Romulus’ empire since its inception.
“Neutrality has the advantage of time,” the Horned Rat continued the conversation. “This state cannot last, as neutrality never does. Time is our most precious resource. Fusion is in for a long recovery and then ascendancy. The Mandate of Heaven will need a similar opportunity after the civil war concludes.”
“It may very well be the case that Vinh agrees to fold into our ranks, depending on the manner of her defeat and the concessions given,” Lu Zhi remarked.
That was a future John could indeed see. As long as it was a fair and square loss, there was nothing that kept Vinh from swearing her fealty on her own terms. The Black Turtle was already loyal to the Heavenly Jade Empress. The White Tiger was with Fusion, a fact no one but them was aware about, which was another boosting factor. Only the Azure Dragon remained unaccounted for.
Even if it was just Vinh and the Black Turtle’s chosen, that would give the Mandate of Heaven two more people around Lu Zhi’s power.
John rubbed his chin. “In the case of neutrality, our most advantageous strategy would thus be to appease both sides and prolong the peace for as long as possible, barring other developments.” He looked at Lydia again. “I believe even in this case, we should work to pull Rex Germaniae out of the Greater Empire.”
“A diplomatic solution to this would be preferable,” Lydia stated. “Legitimacy for this desire would be easily created through the personal union that exists through your marriage with Lu Zhi and I.”
“A three-continents empire,” Nightingale chimed in.
Nia tilted her head. “We would have to find a neat name for it.”
“The Unity of Souls,” Lyndell suggested.
“Beautiful, but a tad much?” Rave hummed.
“Let’s keep the banter until we’ve wrapped this up.” John scratched his first fiancée behind the cat ears. “What do we do in case Romulus and Remus ally?”
“Pray,” the Horned Rat answered, only half-joking.
“It will not be an insurmountable obstacle, yet our ability to become the new hegemonic power bloc would be greatly stifled.” Lydia stood up, one hand placed on the bland table. “It appears to me that even in this case, it is in the best interest to loosen Rex Germaniae from the Greater Empire?”
Nods all around, although reluctantly from Lu Zhi. The European theatre was of little concern to her, only her personal connection to Lydia really spurred her into action there.
John also stood up, carrying Rave across his arms. “Then our joint external policies after this war will be as such: In Asia, we will support Lu Zhi and aid in the recovery of the Middle Empire. In Europe, we will attempt to lever Rex Germaniae out of the Greater Empire.” He gave everyone a light smile. “I will enjoy it when it’s not my continent that everything is happening on for a change.”
That was met with weak chuckles all around.