It was early in the afternoon when Marcus finally arrived in his rooms in the royal palace and as soon as he got there he dropped his bags on the floor and dove straight into the bed.

  “Heavens above, am I tired!” He said to himself.

  Just as he had predicted, the trip back to the palace had been an awkward affair, though luckily not as much as he had feared. Yasen's presence had indeed been vexing for him, but luckily the captain had avoided mentioning the events of the previous evening and they had talked about innocuous topics like the weather, their plans for the immediate future and other such things. This had kept the Vex Queen distracted enough to tolerate the trip, and when they had arrived Yasen had immediately excused himself, saying that he had work to do, so they had gone their separate ways.

  “Aaaaah.” He sighed. “It’s still early but I'm already dead tired! I really don't want to be bothered for the rest of the day... nay, for the rest of the week. I need some alone time to recover from all this.” He paused and then made a faint smile. “Though to be fair I did have a good time all things considered. Being with Yasen and Alya was tiring but also fun. And the places I saw were very interesting, not to mention that I got some samples to expand my genetic repertoire. Now I just need to recharge my batteries a bit before I get involved in anything else!”

  He laid in bed for a few minutes, face down on the pillows, until he heard his stomach rumble.

  “Hm, I guess that filling my stomach would count as recharging.” He thought. “And now that I think of it, I may be getting close to needing to lay an egg… I always get hungry when that time approaches.” He stretched his arms and got up. “Well, at least I didn’t need to do that at the Serrai… that would have been awkward. And since I got some new samples, I might as well eat them and see what kind of drone I can make with them.”

  He got out of bed and went to grab the bags he had left on the floor. One of them was a linen bag that contained the stuff he had bought in the Red Light District during his stroll with Yasen, while the other was a brown suitcase that Sevre had handed him.

  He carried the bags to his table and opened the suitcase. Inside, carefully wrapped in cloth, were a series of small bottles containing the samples from the Serrai’s employees, each meticulously labelled with the name, species and type of sample of the donor.

  Marcus searched the bag until he found the sample he wanted to try first. It was a small bottle labelled “Sevre, Half Elf, Saliva”.

  “Here we go.” He thought, opening the bottle and drinking its content.

  He then closed his eyes, waiting for the genetic information of the owner of the Serrai to be processed.

  He didn’t have to wait long, as only a few seconds later a flux of information about the half elf biology started flooding his mind. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to contain anything about the biomantic powers Sevre had talked about, or even if it did then it was hidden behind unreadable sequences of DNA, but on the other hand there were a lot of other useful genetic traits.

  “Impressive.” The Vex Queen thought. “I didn’t expect that Sevre would have such a finely tuned biology. She has one of the best digestive and immune systems I’ve ever seen, and her nervous system for precision movement is also top notch. I can definitely improve the efficiency of my drones with this. It’s a bummer that I can’t access her biomantic powers though, but given my experiences with similar powers I already half expected that.”

  Quite satisfied with these results, he turned to the other samples. Some bottles contained liquids that could be saliva or other bodily fluids, while others had hair, scales and other assorted body parts. Marcus consumed everything without hesitation, and then grabbed the beetle collection he had bought at a stand the previous evening and ate that too.

  While the insects didn’t really have any terribly useful traits, the samples from the Serrai proved to be a veritable treasure trove.

  Fur from Tawlee the Carnabog —the bunny girl that had been so hostile to Marcus the previous evening— contained a detailed genetic blueprint of her incredibly powerful and efficient leg muscles. Then there was a yellow liquid which had some info on the noise-making organs of Sam the Otibu —the cricket-frog musician— which could be used to produce basically any sound, together with the associated nervous system that allowed it to perfectly remember and reproduce any sound it had ever heard. Samples from the other girls contained many other equally useful traits, but perhaps the most impressive one was a petal from the head of Eelaa the Dryad. For starters, Marcus was surprised to realize that Eelaa was technically the flower and not the humanoid creature, since the plant had taken the place of the brain and puppeteered the body around. However the relationship between the two wasn’t parasitic but rather symbiotic, as both organisms benefited from it and had naturally evolved to facilitate this relationship. The flower had gained a body it could use to move and perform complex actions while the humanoid didn’t have to worry about sustaining a central nervous system and was free to focus more on its other functions.

  Marcus felt increasingly impressed as he —quite literally— digested this information. He had never seen a symbiotic relationship like this one, and the way the two species had evolved to combine with each other was seamless. Not only that but with just a few adjustments this “docking” mechanism could be used not just for the central nervous system but for basically any part of the body, from limbs to internal organs.

  “Now this has potential. I’ll have to think about how I can use it.” The Vex Queen thought. “I’ll also talk about this with Golam when I get back to Brettholz. He did say that he had some ideas about symbiotic creatures.”

  He quickly finished consuming all of the samples he had acquired. Though the traits he had absorbed were top notch the amount of food he had eaten was actually very small so his appetite was far from sated.

  “Hm. I guess I still have room for a light snack.” He said. “Guess I’ll order something.”

  He stood up, ready to ring the bell that would call for a servant, when someone knocked at his door.

  “Who is it?” He wondered as he walked up to the door and opened it.

  In front of him, he found Felix and Klara standing in front of the door. Somewhat surprisingly, he noted, they were holding hands.

  “Oh, hey!” He greeted them. “Hi Felix! Hi Klara! Nice to see you!”

  “Nice to see you too, Marcus.” Felix replied. “Can we come in?”

  “Sure.” The Vex Queen stood aside to let them pass. “I was about to order something to eat. Do you want anything?”

  “No thanks, we’re fine.” The boy said.

  After his friends entered the room and sat down together on a sofa, Marcus rang the bell to call a waiter and asked for some food to be brought to his room before sitting down with them.

  “Alright, so where have you been?” He asked. “I searched for you yesterday, but I was told you hadn’t come back to the palace.”

  “Well… while we were in the city it got really late, so we decided to spend the night in an inn.” Felix replied.

  “I see.” Marcus nodded. “So, how did the evening go? Did you have fun? And what were you doing that kept you in the city until late?”

  “Ehr… well…” The boy stuttered, blushing violently. Klara also looked a bit embarrassed, although she hid it a little better.

  The Vex Queen looked at them and noticed that they were still holding hands. After only a second he put the pieces together.

  “Ah, I see. So that’s how it is.” He said, grinning from ear to ear. “I guess that was a really entertaining evening then, wasn’t it? No wonder you were late!”

  “No! It’s not that! We were just…” The boy said, his ears now as red as his hair.

  “Calm down, Felix!” Marcus laughed. “I’m not judging you or anything. If anything, I’m just happy for the two of you. I’m just surprised it took you so long to get to this point.”

  “Same here.” Klara concurred sardonically. “Luckily I decided to listen to your advice and make the first move myself, because otherwise this dummy right here would have had me waiting until we were both full of wrinkles.”

  “Glad to be of help.” The Vex Queen bowed his head. “Though I was also doing a service to myself as well. The tension between you two was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It was honestly getting distracting.”

  “Well, we’ll do our best to keep that tension down from now on.” The girl said, shooting a teasing look at Felix.

  Meanwhile, the boy seemed like he was about to catch fire from how red his face was, his skin almost matching the color of his hair. Not that he could do anything about it except looking completely helpless, something that made Marcus start laughing.

  “Ah… to be young again.” He said, still giggling. “Anyway, as much as it is entertaining to poke fun at Felix, we better change the topic before he blushes himself to death.”

  “Alright.” Klara said. “Let’s talk about you then. What have you done this Toathal? From what I’ve heard you kept yourself busy!”

  These words had the effect of a cold shower for the Vex Queen.

  “Is she talking about my visit to the Serrai?” He wondered, almost panicking internally. “How could she know?”

  “What have you heard?” He asked, trying to keep his cool.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Well… yesterday we happened to come across a newspaper stall, and lo and behold we saw a familiar face on the front page!” The girl said with a mischievous grin.

  She then nodded towards Felix, who smiled back and produced a folded paper sheet from his pockets, handing it to Marcus.

  The Vex Queen took the paper and unfolded it. It looked indeed like a newspaper page, and at the centre of it there was a drawing that looked like a satirical cartoon. It depicted a caricature of the king giving away pieces of a map of Medelan to a drooling, savage-looking goblin and another creature that had the body of a very well endowed woman in a black dress and the head of an ant wearing a small crown. The caption read: Giving the country away to monsters.

  “What the hell is this?” Marcus asked.

  “A newspaper page.” Klara replied.

  “From the Voice of Medelan.” Felix specified.

  “Alright… but what is this thing here?” The Vex Queen pointed at the drawing. “Is this creature here meant to represent me?”

  “Most likely.” The girl replied with a grin.

  “But… I look nothing like this thing here. Even as a parody it doesn’t make sense.”

  “Well, these sorts of newspapers are often rushed out quickly and do not really care about being faithful to reality.”

  Marcus quickly glanced over the articles on the page, and noticed that the one that was about him contained another mistake.

  “What the… did they get my name wrong too?” He cried. “Who the hell is Maar Kus?”

  “Eh, they probably thought that the name Marcus wasn’t exotic enough for the queen of a species of bug monsters.” Felix shrugged.

  “How is anyone supposed to take this newspaper seriously with all these inaccuracies?” The Vex Queen complained.

  “Most people don’t.” The young man replied. “Everyone knows that newspapers always embellish the truth to make their articles more entertaining.”

  “But what about people who want to know about what’s actually happening?” Marcus asked. “Where can they get accurate news from?”

  “Well, they can read bulletin boards outside of post offices. They do write up the most important facts up there.” Felix explained. “Meanwhile, people read newspapers because they want to be entertained. It’s not unusual for different newspapers to have completely different versions of the same events.”

  “I see.” The Vex Queen nodded.

  “So newspapers here work differently than the ones in my old world.” He thought. “They are more like satire than actual journalism.”

  As he kept reading, he felt glad that this was the case. The article about him was really scathing, giving a less than flattering depiction of marquis Eisen —or rather duke Eisen now— the Goblins and the Vex. The former two were respectively described as an “incompetent fool” and “beastly savages”, while Marcus’s race was given the epithet of “inhuman and creepy bugs”. The author went as far as questioning the King’s sanity for entrusting Rodenheim’s territories to these people instead of giving them back to the rightful heirs of Rodenheim’s past rulers, which apparently were all important Medelanian nobles. One name in particular from that list caught Marcus’s attention: it was none other than Count Jochel, the member of the Council of Nobles that Marcus had met during the Toathal banquet.

  “Geez! How subtle.” Marcus thought while smiling sarcastically. “ I don’t think they could have made it any more clear that the author is on the side of the Council of Nobles.”

  “Are you sure people won’t take this stuff seriously?” He asked out loud. “Cause they aren’t exactly saying nice things about me here…”

  “Don’t worry. No one takes newspapers seriously.” Felix confirmed.

  “Or at least no one with a functioning brain.” Klara specified. “So don’t worry about what it says about you. We brought it to you only because we thought it was hilarious.”

  “Well, yeah, I guess it is kinda funny.” The Vex Queen conceded with a smirk. “Especially the drawing.”

  “So, do we ought to call you countess now?” The girl asked teasingly.

  “Only if you want your butt kicked.” Marcus replied. “As far as I’m concerned, noble titles are a load of nonsense. The only good thing is that apparently I can expand my territories into the Caligare forest —which is what I was going to do anyway, so it’s not like there is much of a difference.”

  “Good to know.” Klara nodded. “I’m glad to see that you remained a commoner like us at heart despite your new title.”

  “That might just be the least flattering compliment I’ve ever received. But thanks anyway.”

  “You’re welcome.” The girl replied, not losing her teasing attitude. “Now, moving onto more important things… I’ve heard that you spent the night out with captain Yasen. May I ask what you did together?”

  For the second time during that conversation, Marcus felt as if he had stepped under a cold shower.

  “He was just my chaperone.” He managed to reply more or less calmly. “He accompanied me while I visited the city. We went to the Arena, met Alya there and then we went drinking together. Afterwards, since it was pretty late, we decided to spend the night in town instead of coming back to the palace, so we booked some rooms in an inn and slept there.”

  He kept for himself the exact nature of the establishment they had slept in, hoping that Klara wouldn’t inquire further.

  “Wait, you met Alya?” The girl asked. “What was she doing here in Rennhafen? Didn’t she go back to the Federation?”

  “Well, apparently there wasn’t enough fighting going on there for her tastes, so she’s heading for the north to look for more opponents there.” Marcus explained. “She stopped on Rennhafen for Toathal, and we just happened to meet her at the Arena.”

  “I see.” Klara replied. “But if I may ask… what’s the Arena, exactly?”

  “Oh, that’s Medelan’s biggest fighting venue.” Felix chimed in. “I’ve heard about it. They say that the fights there are really fun to watch.”

  “They are.” Marcus confirmed. “They had something similar to it in my old world called wrestling, which was pretty popular. The fights were staged, of course, but they were made to look cool and flashy.”

  “Alright, so it’s a place where people pretend to fight.” Klara said. “So, what was Alya doing in there? She doesn’t seem the type that would enjoy looking at stuff like that.”

  “Oh, she was actually fighting in the ring, not watching..”

  “Oh, I guess that makes sense then.” The girl paused, and then asked: “Anyway, you spent the night with both Yasen and Alya, uh?” Her smile turned mischievous once again. “I hope it was a pleasant night.”

  “We slept in separate rooms.” The Vex Queen immediately replied. He then mentally cursed himself because this was basically an admission that he had picked up what Klara had implied.

  For a moment, he struggled to find a way to steer the conversation in another, less awkward direction, but luckily at that moment someone knocked at the door, sparing him the need to do so.

  “That must be a palace servant with my meal.” He said, internally thanking the heavens for this interruption. “Wait a moment.”

  He then went to open the door. He did indeed find himself face to face with one of the palace servants, a dignified old man in an elegant butler suit, but he wasn’t carrying anything resembling a meal with him.

  “Greetings, countess.” The man bowed slightly. “Sorry for inconveniencing you, but I have a message for you from his majesty.”

  “His majesty? Do you mean the king?” The Vex Queen raised an eyebrow in surprise.

  “Exactly. His majesty would like to invite you, Duke Eisen and sir Trakk for tea in the winter garden, tomorrow at five in the afternoon, and I’d need for you to confirm your attendance.”

  “Uhm… I personally don’t have any problem having tea with the king, but I’d like to ask Eisen before I give you an answer, if that’s not a problem.” Marcus replied.

  “Duke Eisen and sir Trakk already confirmed that they will attend.” The old man replied. “In fact, his grace strongly urged you to participate as well.”

  “Well, in that case I guess I’ll attend as well.”

  “Very good. I’ll inform the king and the duke of your decision then.” The old man said. “Have a good day, countess.”

  “You too.”

  Marcus closed the door, and turned back to see both Felix and Klara smiling at him.

  “Well, would you look at that.” The boy said. “It looks like our friend Marcus really is getting ahead in the world.”

  “Indeed.” The girl replied jokingly. “I wonder what’s next? Maybe he’ll be invited to dinner with the Empress! And then he’ll start drinking his tea with his pinky finger raised like a proper nob.”

  “Oh, shut up you two!” Marcus snarled. “I already told you what I think about all this nobility stuff.” He paused for a moment, and then decided that this was actually a good chance to move away from the topic they had been discussing before. “By the way, what can you tell me about the king?"

  “King Leopold? Not much.” Felix replied. “We’ve never seen him in person, only his face on coins and newspapers.”

  “Yeah, but do you know what kind of king is he at least? Is he a good king or a bad one, in your opinion?”

  “Hard to say.” The boy replied. “I mean, it’s not as if the king really matters to us commoners.”

  “Well, personally I think he’s an alright king, all things considered.” Klara said. “The fact that we commoners don’t know much about him is actually a point in his favor. I mean, a king shouldn’t really get involved unless it’s an emergency. Kings who meddle too much in the lives of their subjects are usually the bad ones.”

  Marcus raised an eyebrow, quite surprised. He would have expected kings to be more influential in the lives of their subjects, but to be fair he was born and raised in democratic states so he wasn’t really an expert on the matter.

  “I see.” He said. “Well, I hope this king turns out to be a good one since I’ll have to work with him.” He paused and then asked: “By the way, do you also want to come to this tea party? I think I could make some excuse to bring you with me and it would be a chance for you to see the king with your own eyes.”

  “Thank you for the offer, but I’ll pass.” Klara replied without hesitation.

  “Same here.” Felix agreed. “I’m not used to having tea with kings and I don’t want to make a fool of myself.”

  “I get it. I’m not used to kings either, and I’m still going to meet him despite the fact that I’m as likely to make a fool of myself as you are, if not more.” Marcus grumbled.

  “Well you’re a noble now, so having to meet kings and other important people is kind of your job.” The apprentice sorcerer replied. “Try to think of it as the price of success.”

  “Not really the kind of success I wanted.”

  “Then let this be a lesson for you. Never get involved with politics!” Klara commented with a sardonic smile.

  “Eh, that's good advice.” Marcus nodded. “Wish I had been able to follow it a year ago.”

  “Well, what’s done is done.” The girl shrugged. “Besides, nobility seems to have its perks.” She added, gesturing towards the luxurious room they were in.

  “I can’t deny that.” The Vex Queen conceded. “But still, the associated politics are a pain in the neck.”

  “On that we agree.” The girl nodded.

  “Definitely.” The boy concurred.

  Someone knocked at the door, and this time it was the servant who was carrying the meal Marcus had ordered. The man brought several trays full of raw meat and vegetable dishes, like carpaccio, tartare and salads, accompanied by a pot of warm tea, and put it all on a table before bowing and heading out of the room.

  “Aaaah! Now this is the stuff! It makes all the headaches of politics almost worth it!” Marcus said, staring excitedly at the food before turning his eyes on his friends. “Are you sure you don’t want anything? Not even a cup of tea?”

  “We’re fine, thanks.” Klara said. “We had lunch only a short while ago.”

  “So did I.” The Vex Queen commented. “But I still have room for a snack or two before dinner.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me.” Felix noticed. “You’ve always been a big eater. I’m quite sure that you could do well in an eating contest.”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think I eat enough to be a competitive eater.” Marcus replied as he wrapped tartare and vegetables inside a carpaccio slice and devoured it in one bite. “Anyway, speaking of dinner, do you have plans for this evening?”

  “Well… we wanted to spend some more time in the city and dine there, if that’s not a problem.” Felix said rather bashfully, nervously scratching the back of his head. “There is a Beccan restaurant we wanted to visit.”

  “If it’s good, take me there too with you another time.” Marcus said, washing down a rather large portion of tartare with a cup of tea. “I’d like to taste different cuisines from this world.”

  “We’d be happy to have you.” Klara said. “But are you sure that you would enjoy it? You always say that your taste is different from that of us humans.”

  “I forgot about that.” The Vex Queen admitted. “Well, it’s not as if normal food tastes bad, it’s just that raw food is better for me. Besides, if I keep trying I might eventually find a cuisine I like.

  "Oh yeah, that’s a possibility!” Felix said encouragingly.

  They kept talking about food and their plans for the immediate future, all while Marcus kept wolfing down the rest of his food. As the minutes passed, the Vex Queen’s stomach got full and his mind got taken away from his problem by chatting with his friends, and when they left, about an hour later, he was feeling very much relaxed, like he hadn’t been ever since his arrival in Rennhafen.

  “It’s nice to have friends.” He said once he found himself alone in the room. Then, since he had nothing better to do and he was feeling rather peckish again, he rang the bell again to order another snack. As he had another serving of meat, he thought that maybe Felix was right, and he could indeed try to participate in an eating contest.