New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth indulged in the clapping for a few moments, before raising a hand, motioning to simmer down. The clapping came to a slow stop, the representatives all sitting back down in their seats and murmuring to each other.

Meanwhile, Phoenix gave a discreet punch to Astaroth’s arm, giving him a death glare.

She sent him a private message, so no one could hear her complain.

‘Was that truly necessary? I just told them moments ago you wouldn’t install a reign of terror, and you barge in here, trying to crush everyone with that stupid strength of yours.’

Astaroth chuckled in silence, before responding to her through the messaging function as well.

‘It was mainly to make sure all the hard-headed fools understood who was boss. The rest of this meeting will be more civilized.’

Phoenix still looked at him disapprovingly, as the chatter finally died down. Now came the time to talk to everyone.

The meeting lasted many hours and only ended as nightfall settled in. Everyone left there somewhat satisfied with the answers they got, or content with the king and queen.

The results were excellent for them, and the pair also felt glad they could lay things out correctly with everyone. If they had done nothing or waited too long, the unease might have spread further into the populace, or become more than just unrest in the long term.

Now they could at least rest easy.

And rest they would, as Astaroth and Phoenix headed to their private room inside the palace. Reaching the room, Astaroth spoke to the guards.

“Please do not try waking us up tonight, as we will most likely not be present or available.”

The guards nodded in understanding, closing the doors behind the royals, and setting up before them, making sure no one disturbed the monarchs.

Once the doors had closed behind them, Phoenix sighed loudly.

“This week has been so busy. Even outside here, during our normal days, I spend more time thinking about this darned kingdom than anything else.

“I had to cancel a thing I had with my mother just because I was busy here. And you had it easy all along, at the other end of the continent, fighting to your heart’s content.

“If only you hadn’t disconnected over there before the patching started…”

Astaroth listened to her plight, fully aware that he had left her with an incredible burden. But he also knew that without his help, the shelter would have fallen, and everyone would be dead or gone missing.

He hugged Phoenix from behind, taking in her sweet perfume, and kissed her nape.

“It’s not like I wanted to be away from you this much. But if I had gone from there, my family would all be dead. Surely you can understand that.”

Sighed loudly again, Phoenix pivoted in Astaroth’s arms.

“Of course, I understand. I’m just ranting because I’m tired. Now that you are back, we can share the burden for a while. And then, we can dump it all on Leon again for a while, and go wreak havoc inside a dungeon or something.”

She grinned as she said those last words, already thinking in glee of enemies burning to cinders before her. She was just as much of a maniac as Astaroth, but she hid it better.

He chuckled at her face, knowing full well what was happening behind those eyes of hers.

“I promise I’ll help you for at least the next week. Plus, there is something that I can’t do alone, and can’t let you do alone either, that needs to be done.”

Her curiosity took her out of her burning reverie, and she tilted her head cutely, peering into Astaroth’s eyes.

“Hmm? And what is that?”

Astaroth pulled out the Property Deed from his inventory, reminded that the meeting had extended too late for him to ask Nalafein the question that was vagabonding his mind.

Phoenix took the scroll, unrolling it before reading its contents. Her jaw quickly loosed, as she understood the value of this parchment.

She spun around, freeing herself from Astaroth’s grasp, sitting on the bed.

When she lifted her eyes from the scroll again, she locked them on Astaroth’s gaze.

“You got another one?! What kind of golden finger luck do you have?! How high is your luck stat?”

“Believe it or not, it’s at zero,” Astaroth replied, scratching the back of his head.

“But I don’t intend to keep this. The tower itself cannot be called the beginning of a kingdom, or a stronghold, but I still intend to give it to Nalafein for him to start taking back what is rightfully his. Do you oppose this?”

Phoenix frowned, her face scrunching up thoughtfully. This was a golden opportunity to expand their kingdom elsewhere on the continent.

But it also came with many problems that they couldn’t possibly manage right now. His idea of relinquishing it to someone else wasn’t so bad at all.

Her mind was already calculating the possibilities of this transaction. But Astaroth cut her train of thought.

“I don’t want to trade it. I want to give it to him, free of attachments. I believe he deserves the right to a chance at taking back his throne.”

Phoenix looked at Astaroth, dumbfoundedly.

Then she thought of the future implications of gifting this instead of tying strings to it. The idea wasn’t bad and would garner a lot of good faith with the Ash Elf prince. 𝐨𝘃𝗹.

But her mind halted at a major problem.

“Even if you give this to him, how is he going to march on his father’s kingdom without an army? I’m sure you noticed he only has the mage with him.”

Astaroth grinned.

“That’s where we come in. A few of my trusted friends and family are over there already, ready to give a hand. But I think we can gather him an army faster, or at least the start to one, if we play our hand right.”

Phoenix looked at Astaroth with curiosity apparent on her face.

“And how do you intend to do that?”

“Pretty easily, actually. We have a resource that he lacks. Manpower.”

Phoenix giggled lightly.

“I’m sorry, love. But we barely have enough players in our guild to manage here. I doubt we can send players over there, much less an army, to help the prince.”

Astaroth grinned wider.

“Who said anything about our guild members?”

That’s when his intentions became clear to her. He was proposing something that would indeed require both their efforts, but that could yield returns so high that their guild would raise even higher than now.

“See, this is why I like you. You are much smarter than you let on.”

Phoenix brought herself up into Astaroth’s arms, and kissed him fervently on the lips.

“Thank you. Hey, wait a second. Did you just say I look stupid?”

“See? Smarter than you let on,” she replied, winking at him, before disconnecting, and leaving him alone in the room, his face a sour grimace.