So for several days I decided the best way to make things consistent in this story was to actually make a timeline of the game plot.

The timeline I made was for reference and therefore probably a bit off base on some places and doesn't factor in side quests and the optional skirmish battles. This fic will most likely end up with an extended version because some side quests will be referenced.

Will I ever release it into the wild via tumblr? Maybe but I'm kinda terrified of causing a fandom war.

I partially regret making it and it almost killed my drive to write but I have persevered to deliver some...dad jokes.

(PS: I updated the previous chapter a bit. Only changed a date, that's all)

The Chief Consul's Diary

By Bilbo-sama

Entry 2 - Some things are universal

Day 50/May 12, 20XX/?

It's been five days since construction began. At first it appeared that it would take at least several months to build a few houses, some stores, and a castle. But for the past couple of days, it was like Grimalkin and humans with a Dellian accent were just popping up from nowhere.

It turned out that after the coup, many people managed to flee Ding Dong Dell before Mausinger intervened and had soldiers posted around all known escape routes. According to some posts on Leafbook, nobody is allowed to enter or leave Ding Dong Dell.

Batu had ordered his men to allow people to have safe passage through Cloudcoil Canyon. The air pirate base became a half-way settlement and some air planes carried passengers to the Heartlands.

A few curious mercenaries from Goldpaw traveling through trip doors had came by yesterday and offered their services of patrolling the construction site's perimeter to ward off monsters and bandits.

Evan had been beside himself since construction began. He had been wandering about, as if in a daze. It lead to a few close calls at the site and at the Base where everyone would go to rest for the time being. As a result, some have taken to follow him around. Lofty was grateful for the 'greatly needed assistance in keeping the flippin' tuna-for-brains alive' since the Kingsbond between him and Evan is brand new and thus he was limited in what he can actually do.

Today, it was Tani escorting Evan and the two preteens watched as Batu, Roland, and ten other people focused on building Gerel's shop. There was some conversation going on before a Dellian Grimalkin said something that made the others groan.

"That pun is terrible, Gene, and you know it," said one of his countrymen.

Gene laughed, "Ah but puns can lighten up the spirit!"

"I see," said another Grimalkin, shaking his shaggy head, "let's just make sure we don't go too far and darken the mood, hmm?"

"Ya gotta be kitten me," grumbled Batu. The Dellian builders laughed and clapped his shoulder.

Tani sighed and stepped up to her father, "Oi! Be more serious!"

Batu crossed his arms before a small smile formed, "Hello, serious. I'm dad." Roland coughed in a way that meant he was disguising a laugh, catching the others' attention.

"Ah! I see ye got those from where yer from!" grinned Batu, "C'mon, tell us one!"

"Well..." Roland rubbed his chin in thought for a moment.

And then he smirked, "How do you make a bandstand? By taking away the chairs."

There was a moment of silence before the men started roaring in laughter.

"I got one!" said a sky pirate, "Why didn't the Skeleplasm go to the party? Because it had no body to go with."

Tani raised her arms in defeat before grabbing Evan by the arm as the adults laughed, "Let's go before it gets worse."

"O-oh. Okay..."

"Crrrrikey," Lofty finally spoken up, "these puns are the cuttin' edge, mun!"

Tani sighed.

In the end, the jokes seemed to spread and Tani lead a few youngsters back to the Base. She and Evan hid in the Chief's hut where Evan pensively gazed at the distance mountains, as if in deep thought.

"You know...Father used to do that too," he said, finally.

"Oh?" Tani absently replied as she ran a hand along the small stack of books Batu had by his bed. A couple she recognized as storybooks her father had read to her when she was five.

"He used to tell jokes like that. Some of my tutors would scold him if they were in the same room with him and me. Something about confusing language, I dunno." He shrugged.

Tani felt awkward, "That's...weird of them." Oh look, there's dad's old Leafbook Viewer. She opened it only to find it password locked.

"Towards the end, he couldn't speak much without getting incredibly tired," Evan added quietly, "I wouldn't have minded if he could tell one last joke to me."

A sniffle was heard and Tani tossed the Viewer aside before hugging the young king.

"I'm sorry."

Evan silently cried it out and the two children sat on the floor side-by-side for a half hour, not speaking. It was starting to get awkward, fast.

Fortunately, Evan broke the ice by grumbling that his tail was falling asleep and carefully stood up. Tani followed suit and paused as she noticed a small treasure chest at the other side of the large room. Curious, she opened it as Evan watched.

Inside they found Roland's cleaning cloth, a sack containing the weird suit Roland was wearing at the trial in Goldpaw, and a book.

"Oh, that's Roland's diary," whispered Evan as Tani opened it to a random page.

Entry 10

May 6, 20XX

Goldpaw is fascinating yet nerve wracking. I am glad we will be returning to the forest of Niall tomorrow to tell him the good news. I must remain diligent and keep the kids in sight at all times, however. I'd rather not be the cause of Miss Aranella coming back to haunt us all if a shady casino dealer ignored the adult-only gambling laws. The dice incident Palace's gatekeeper was enough.

("What a dad," grumbled Tani.)

It is fortunate that the trial ended favorably and did not jeopardize any future relations with Goldpaw. I still am concerned of Mandarin, if that's his real name. How did his disguise earn Pugnacious' trust so easily? How and when did he learn how to weaken an established Kingsbond? Will he be targeting Evan and Lofty as well?

And why does he feel so vaguely familiar to me when the two of us have never met before? Just who is he?

"Oh, flippin' heck! This again?" said Lofty suddenly. The king and the chief's daughter jumped and yelped.

Did you hear about the fire at the circus? It was in tents.

A little 3 AM research showed me that a small castle can take years to build but considering that the world NNK2 is set in has a) magic and b) possible deus ex machina potential in the form of Kingmakers, I went 'screw it' and so the initial level 1 version of Evermore Castle took like a month to build for the sake of my sanity.

Also I have attempted to format things so Roland's journal entries would be in Lucinda Handwriting font (aka, cursive-y font) but ff dot net's doc manager doesn't allow it. Oh well.

(Edit note 5/24/18: Rewrote the journal entry to more accurately reflect chapter 3 and the fact that they didn't learn of Doloran until they talked to Niall)