A/N: And here we are. If anyone's out there, I'm glad you're still here 'cause it's not just any person that finds the will to read any fic after such a monstrous hiatus. Monstrous. Get it? Onwards then!

Do enjoy.

DISCLAIMER: The following is a fan-made fiction based on the Monster Hunter series. I own only the story and characters, Monster Hunter itself is owned by Capcom.

If you enjoy the story so far, please feel free to review and leave your opinion. I will be sure to reply to any questions.

"As you wish." He could see the morning sun rising in the distant horizon. There was a beautiful purple hue covering the skies and not a single cloud in sight. "Let's go then, I'd rather face Corr tomorrow. And besides, fainting in the middle of the road doesn't sound like a good idea right now."

And so it continues...

Chapter X

A Royal Pain

Max could hear the morning birds chirping by the time he got home. The area where he lived had been spared from the fires, luckily. He looked back across town at the distant rising light he saw in the horizon, wondering if he should wake his mother or go to sleep.

He could still trace trails of smoke in the cloudless sky. Away from the sunlight, he could barely make out even the unburned houses that were hidden in the few shadows that remained from the night. The entire town seemed to be engulfed in darkness.

"Kept you waiting, huh?"

He went inside.

Judging all he had been through throughout the day, Max was about ready to drop as soon as he hit the bed. Oddly enough though, as he came close to his bedroom on the far side of the small house he noticed three round shapes in his bed. It took him a while to remember the groups he had been relocating during the night until he recognized the siblings, two boys and one girl, sleeping in his bed. Homeless, all three of them.

Max sighed and simply kicked off his leather boots, took out his armor and Bone, put them all to the side against the wall and went back to fall on top of the big couch at the entryway. The softness of the couch felt therapeutic on his tired muscles as he got himself comfortable. It didn't take him long before falling asleep though.

To his annoyance, his underclothes still stank of smoke and ash.

He stood outside his tent in a late afternoon.

The open field where he had pitched his camp lay alongside a dusty crossroads in the middle of a large green meadow. He looked around in search of visible landmarks such as maybe mountains or trees but he found none. Not a single hill or river to mark his bearings. He felt a bit lost and exposed to the world in the middle of that field with only the grass and orange tones of sunset to keep him company.

Where am I? Am I dreaming?

He looked back at his tent somewhat as a reflex, somewhat looking for clues regarding his current location. To his surprise, he found no tent, just his childhood friend, Lucia, staring towards the sunset.

She said nothing for a while, she just stood very still as the sunlight slowly rose at slightly visible pace over her skin. He watched her for a moment when he wasn't sure what to say at first. Then he hesitated over disturbing her. And at one point he just gave up and patiently waited for her to notice him.

It wasn't many times that Max got an opportunity to get a good look at his childhood friend. And I mean a really good, slow, patient look. Over the course of the years he had seen her grow to be the strong person she was now but, in his eyes, she was still the same stubborn tomboy that would often yell at boys twice her age back when they were kids. He had always admired her determination but it surprised him how much she had grown as a person throughout the years.

And yet, now, looking at her sudden apparition, he couldn't help but notice how sad she looked. Not in the sense of a bad mood but mostly due to the fact that her physical appearance seemed different somehow. Lucia's very bone structure looked thinner than usual, her eyes were marked with small dark circles and even her hair seemed like a tangled mess which was quite different from her usually carefully tended appearance.

Lucia spoke without turning towards him, her lips barely moving, "It's not right. I don't care what you feel, it's not right and you know it. You sicken me."

What is she talking about? He thought. His friend didn't seem to have noticed him and had spoken almost as if entirely to herself.

"Lucy? What do you mean?" Max asked.

She ignored him, raised an arm and pointed to his side without answering him. "You're not doing him any favors, you're just feeding his and your own selfishness like the disgusting wretches you are!"

Max hesitated and then turned to the side where his friend seemed to be pointing but, before he could turn completely, he noticed a dark ball of red hair right in front of him at nose level. He could barely believe how the view behind it had also changed as he was now facing what seemed to be a gigantic lake of water that was about as wide as he could see. He couldn't stop his mouth slowly opening in shock as he realized what he was looking at might not be a lake, but in fact, the sea.

But his attention was quickly caught again. He saw the ball of hair move under him and reveal a familiar bronze-skinned face. Its gray eyes stared up at him eerily with an empty expression, devoid of emotion as if they couldn't see him. He recognized the teen's face.

The boy looked… younger though.

"Corr?" Max asked.

"I don't want to go." Corr whispered in a determined tone. "No. You can't force me, I won't go." He slowly turned his back on Max to face the great ocean behind him. "I don't belong there. I will not be left alone in that hellplace."

Another rambler. Max was beginning to feel invisible to these people.

"Oh, not you too, damnit!" Max huffed. First Lucia and now even Corr? He thought."Just what the hell is going on?!"

He felt a strong and dry afternoon wind spread sand grains over his hair, raining on him with a strange smell of cinnamon. He was surprised by how out-of-place the fragrance felt out in the open meadow. What he didn't recognize though, was the strong and hoarse voice behind him.

"You're a monster hunter, boy. Killing is within your jurisdiction."

It wasn't long before dawn came. No less than three hours had passed since Max had finally been able to rest and already he could still hear the irritating chirping of birds just outside the window. The loud and sharp noise sent waves of headaches coursing through his brain. He tried to ignore them but eventually gave up.

Ah, morning already? I coulda sworn I had just lied down five minutes ago…

He struggled with the sweaty bed sheet for a moment before he was free from the tangled position he had assumed in his sleep. He didn't bother to lift his eyelids just yet though, he felt too comfortable as he was, at the moment.

Slowly and very carefully he raised one leg after the other, his eyes still shut, and blindly tried to drag himself out of the warmth of the entryway couch. He could feel the fairly displeasing scent of smoke on his skin.

After a few attempts at dragging the rest of his body out, he managed to get up and then stumbled towards the kitchen where his mother was expecting him. He would've seen her too, had he not been too lazy to actually open his eyes. He also wouldn't have collided with half as much force with the short legged wooden table the family used for breakfast either, shaking every plate and mug on it. He felt his shinbone connect violently with the edge of the table shooting painful bolts of agony up the rest of his leg. He didn't manage to hold back a very loud 'OW!' before curling immediately around his aching leg as he cursed every Elder God he had ever heard of.

"You're going to break the table if you keep doing that, one of these days." Jeanne observed before she took a sip of her dark red tea. "And the expenses will come from your own salary, my dear, you can be sure of that."

Finally opening his eyes, Max mumbled a few words, got up and moved to sit beside the breakfast table before digging into his chunky rice and morning tea but, before he had even sat down properly, he heard someone knocking by the door. He got up and went to see who it was.

"Hellooo? Who's there?" He asked. He opened the door seeing as there was no reason to be suspicious inside his own village and found his friend Lucia breathing harshly just outside the doorstep. "Lucy? What do you-"

"It's that bastard Corr again! He's trying to leave the village without even telling us a thing! They say he can't leave without his Guild card or a permit but he's trying to force through anyway." She was red-faced and seemed just about ready to yell at someone or break something. She went on with her rant. "I swear, if he gets through those guards and we do nothing, I will personally chase him down and bring him back by force! And you'd better not stop me!"

Losing not even a second longer, gentle old Lucia turned her back on him and started marching down the road with the urgency of a soldier into battle while she headed towards the main gate leaving Max no time to even think of what to say. Foreseeing a catastrophe, he ran back inside, got some warmer clothes and a pair of shoes on and went immediately after her.

Corr is leaving? Running away? What the hell?! So far, the guy had brought nothing but trouble and yet Max had thought he would at least have shown to have some principles. He either had none of them, or he had a really really good reason. He has to have a reason, it just doesn't make sense for him to just leave like that!

It felt tempting to expect the worst and just fuel himself with rage but Max wasn't that kind of person especially since he still found it hard to believe that people could be capable of such dishonorable acts. Truth be told, he had never left the town further than a couple of miles so most of the people he had met throughout his life were just the same town's residents that had always known so Corr's recent actions were starting to leave a very negative impression of the 'outside world'.

As soon as he stepped out of the door though, Max saw his tall father slowly walking up the short ledge to the house.

"What the… Dad? Haven't you slept yet?" He noticed Rick's white hair was all a gigantic mess, more so than usual. He also noticed that his father's eyes seemed to alternate between focused and unfocused in an almost comically rhythmic back-and-forth. They seemed to stabilize somewhat as soon as he stopped to answer, though.

"No, and I don't plan to. And where are you off to, boy?" He asked.

"Lucy and Corr, I need to talk to them." He hesitated. Technically it wasn't a lie.

Getting split between getting past Rick and telling his father all about the mess he was in was too much of a time waster. He had to get past his dad.

"You think Corr had something to do with all the chaos going on?" Rick asked him in a distant tone.

"Wha- no!" Max exclaimed albeit a bit too loudly. "I mean, no. How could I think like that? I mean… sure, he can be an ass to deal with but he would never have caused any of this. I think… right?" He was now more mumbling to himself than rationalizing an answer. Time was short.

"…But what if he could?" His father inquired again with a somewhat quizzical look. Rick's eyes were starting to lose focus again, it looked like he could faint at any moment.

"I… Don't know." Max started. "I think he's hiding something and it's driving me mad but... We still don't know if he had anything to do with whoever it was we saw in the mountain. He might just be a victim like us." Lie number two.

Rick seemed to fall into deep thought for a moment. He didn't say anything for a while but as Max was about to excuse himself and leave, he blurted out a sudden piece of news.

"Oi listen, I am off to find out who was behind this, alright? The Research Department has given me enough information to track down our major suspect and I volunteered to go deal with it, hehe... So don't worry boy, we'll have answers soon enough." Rick said with a smirk on his face as he moved past Max towards the door.

"Wait, you're leaving already? But… it's only the fourth day you're here! I thought you were staying for at least a whole month!" Max said in shock.

His father stopped on his tracks as he slowly turned his head back. "Hmm? Oh, that. Well, seeing as you're a big grown hunter now, I think it's time we saw some changes, dontcha think? You'll take good care of your mother, won't you Maxie?" Rick chuckled as he turned back again and went for the door. "Eh, champ?" And just like that, after one final wink, his father went inside the house.

Another month alone.

"Dad, that's… not the point." Max muttered. He felt disappointed with his father. It wasn't often that the leader of the family was home and whenever he was, it was always for a short time. This habit had only gotten worse in recent years due to Rick's current obsession with the search for newer species to hunt in faraway locations. It took him longer to go and longer to return but the time he spent with his wife and son was only getting shorter. Not to mention the recent fad of going on 'binge hunts' where a hunter went for several contract targets in one single go to spare unnecessary travelling expenses that would be required to travel back and forth to the same area.

"Damn."

He realized he had wasted too much time, it was time to go. Who knows what ridiculous scene Lucia could be making at the gates in front of the whole village? He thought to himself. I need to hurry.

He rushed off.

Finally arriving at the town gates, Max was surprised not to find a single sign of his two teammates within sight. He had run as fast as he could and yet, it looked as if nothing had happened since everyone else in the village seemed to just be going about their daily lives peacefully with no signs of a scuffle or a fight. This was even more surprising given Lucia's mood not five minutes prior.

He looked around and thought of where the two might be and how to find them. The Guild Outpost was a possibility and so was Lucia's house but they could be pretty much anywhere.

Several minutes of searching around later, he finally went to Lucia's house and found the pair patiently sitting inside. They had breakfast on top of the wooden table they were sitting at but it didn't look like any of them had touched their food.

Lucia, sitting opposite to Corr and the entryway, was the first to talk. She turned her head towards Max and spoke.

"Finally you're here. Had you taken another minute, I suspect there would be nothing left to talk about. Sit down, Max." He checked her voice tone looking for traces of her usual 'mood' but she sounded surprisingly… in control.

Max approached the table looking at Corr as if there was any clue he might give as to what might've already happened but even the red-haired Loc Lacian seemed calm. It took Max some time to quickly go through all of the reasons why he should be punching Corr in the face but all of it was kept in check by a healthy dose of both skepticism and curiosity. He sat down slowly on the wood bench right beside Lucia.

"So." The girl started. "Two days of disaster after disaster later, here we are at last. Finally face to face with the one individual connected to it all. I have to say, I never expected it to be you, Corr. Not for a second." She stopped for a moment to let the words sink in. "After all, why would anyone bother with killing someone like you is beyond me."

Corr shifted in his seat, he looked uncomfortable.

She continued. "We don't condone or approve of violence, here in Pokke. And, as strange as it may seem, I don't wish you any harm Corr. You may be a liar but I wouldn't hurt you without reason." She leaned forward onto the table. "But you're going to have to start talking. Now."

The boy shifted again, this time away from the table. He crossed his arms over his chest and took one deep, slow breath. "Alright. And what do you want to know?"

"Everything you know about the letter you received in the mountain. And the woman." She replied.

Corr took another breath before beginning his explanation. Drawing his hand from behind his back, he produced said letter, its broken wax seal perfectly visible in the weak candlelight that got through the small stone windows of the house.

"You want this letter? Take it. Draw your own conclusions." He said as he slid the letter onto the table.

Max extended his arm towards the letter and unfolded it on top of the table to get a better view. Here go the contents of this letter:

Greetings dear Corr,

How fare things in the distant town of Pokke? We worried that you might have lost your way there but our eyes tell us you remain safe and on the right path to the village. I can only assume you must have already arrived by now.

Your father has been occupied with matters of the Loc Lac Guild but I am sure he misses your company. You do him proud.

Do reply as soon as you can. We long for news of your new life.

Your faithful friend,

Sarah

Max strained his eyes for a moment to make sure he hadn't missed anything but there was no mistaking it. The letter was worthless.

"There is literally nothing in that letter that might raise any suspicion nor incriminate me of any crime. Why am I a target? I do not know." Corr hung back on his bench. "Can I go now?"

"You wish." The amber-eyed girl showed no lack of resolve in her voice. "You're too calm for someone who's being targeted by hitmen. You must have some idea of what to do, spill it."

Another exasperated sigh. "Listen, whatever it is, it's got nothing to do with you. The longer you keep me here, the longer the village will be in danger. Let. Me. Go."

The conversation went on for another hour and then yet another before Max stood up. It had been two long hours, many brain cells had been sacrificed and still no progress had been made. So he stood up.

In one swift movement he pulled his arm far back and spun his body as fast as he physically could. The punch hit Corr with brute force, knocking him right off the bench and onto the floor with a satisfying crash.

"I'm tired of your shit, you hear me?" Max said. "You caused the problem, now you fix it!"

It felt good letting off that rage. Every word felt liberating as if he had gotten rid of a weight off his shoulders. He was genuinely tired of waiting for Corr to confess and now he was going to say what he had to say.

Or at least, that's what Max thought he was going to say.

His vision suddenly went completely black and he was starting to feel physically uncomfortable, almost as if he was bent down in an awkward position. He opened his eyes and slowly realized he was still sitting on the wooden bench, right next to Corr.

A dream?

"I see. So you're saying this 'Obsidian' group has been linked to the murders?" He heard Lucia's voice ask.

"Aye. And it seems increasingly more apparent that they are to blame. The way their representatives abandoned the Loc Lacian Council leaves little doubt as to what they are capable of. Let's just say that death threats were commonplace that day." Corr's replied.

"Interesting. So a group of anti-conservative Hunters fails to acquire support within the Council and thus leaves the political scene in a tantrum. Weeks later, the rivals of their opposition start dying like flies. I'm surprised the current Loc Lacian government is so incapable of self-defense."

"Like I said, these were some of the most powerful Hunters in Loc Lac. To think that they would resort to assassination… Oh, it would seem that our friend here is finally awake."

Max slowly got up from his painful sitting position and rubbed his eyes furiously. Lack of sleep from the previous night had put him in a foul mood and he could barely hear what was being said in his presence anymore. He suspected that he must have had fallen asleep for a few minutes until he noticed how dark it was now. Hours had passed.

He bluntly excused himself and got up to go to the kitchen area where Lucia and her father usually kept bowls of cold water. He washed his face vigorously as he thought about what he had heard. Something about politics and Hunters. He couldn't piece the two together so he just gave up upon it. His tired brain thanked him.

Meanwhile, inside Max's house.

Rick was already asleep by the time Jeanne noticed that he had arrived. She found her husband snoring loudly in a face-down position, one boot still attached to his foot and hunting jacket covering what little of the bed he wasn't already occupying. Rick wasn't too muscled of a man but he was quite a bit taller than most so there was barely any room for her to lie down.

She went in closer and sat by a small corner of the bed as she saw his large back rise and drop with his slow breathing.

"To return home and not even greet your own wife? Have you no shame, sir knight?" She smiled as she pulled up an open letter into the weak daylight with a more serious expression. She eyed the dark symbols drawn across the letter. The town seal of Dondruma could be seen in the lower corner of the paper, imprinted by dry seal.

"Though I wish I could've told you about this, Rick… you would never have allowed it to happen." She sighed. "At least you will be able to visit Max as often as usual and keep him some company."

Back to our protagonists.

"I still don't see why they would come after you. Especially if your dad is the main threat to whatever plans they had. And anyway, what WERE their main plans?" Max complained. The recent flux of information had left him confused and his headache wasn't helping at all.

Corr shrugged his shoulders not for the first or second time that day. "All I know is that my father's actions have unnecessarily put me in danger. Why is that? Because he voted on the wrong side and has now put his family in harm's way. Of the 100 Council members that Loc Lac had, it was his personal pride that forced him to vote alongside the 87 that opposed Obsidian's wishes. And now I pay the price."

"And their wishes?" Max insisted.

"To completely fuse together the Loc Lac Hunter's Guild with the Loc Lac Council thus taking political power from all other Guilds such as the Judge and Merchant Guilds. Not sure how they hoped to achieve over 50 votes with such a proposal but father should've known it would only have benefited us." Corr huffed in disapproval. "Now there are only 52 living Council members not including the thirteen that supported the Obsidian Hunters. Or at least there were the day I left."

Only 52? But then… 35 people have already died? Max still felt odd after hearing such a story being told in connection to the recent incidents. Just the day before, he had had to deal with murder, attempted murder, a monster attack and the near destruction of a large section of his village and now he was starting to realize that at least half of this was related to a political conflict happening in the other side of the known world. Maybe more than half judging by the sheer coincidence of things. This stuff doesn't just happen.

"What about the fire? A cousin of mine told me that a man who died in the Rathalos attack seemed to have been tortured somewhere outside the village. Think it could be related in any way?"

Corr shrugged his shoulders again. "Who's to say? Now, I won't blame the Obsidian Hunters for every crime and felony committed in the world but I'd also hardly consider a wyvern attack to be something even they would plan."

Max went silent for a few moments as he took his time to go through all he knew about the attack. Truly, nothing aside from coincidence and bad luck seemed to be out of place.

Corr however, was beginning to feel tired of the whole topic. "Anything else? Am I finally free now?" He asked as he turned to Lucia, his most silent inquirer.

Who, in turn, replied with a question. "Where will you go?"

Corr just chuckled. "Why, wherever my feet take me of course! Can't go back to Loc Lac now and there's certainly no point in staying here so I suppose the famous city of Dondruma will have to take me in. I'm certainly expecting a warmer welcome there, if only for a climate change. Though to be quite honest, I don't have much of a clue of what I should do now aside from leaving this damned village."

"Can't go back? Are you that afraid of your pursuers?" She sneered.

"My pursuers? That's probably another good reason not to go home but it's not the main one." Two sets of eyebrows were quickly raised at the sentence. "It's personal. A story for another time."

That said, the red haired Loc Lacian got up from his seat. "I'll see you around before I go. It'll be another week before I manage to hire a passing caravan to protect me on the way to Dondruma so I suppose you haven't heard the last from me. I sure hope you enjoyed meeting me more than I enjoyed meeting you. Goodbye."

And just like that, Corr turned away towards the door and simply walked out. What's more, Lucia didn't even try to stop him.

"Do you really think we should just let him go like that? How do we know he's telling the truth?" Max questioned.

Lucia then got up from her seat as well and left for the kitchen. "I don't think he would've come up with such a story even if he tried. As for whether we should or shouldn't let him go, honestly Max, I think I've had enough of him."

She soon began to start cooking dinner and Max remembered that there was his own meal expecting him at home. He said his farewells and left for his house.

It wasn't a long walk from her house to his but he took his time thinking about everything that had happened in the last few days.

Going up the same ramp he always had to climb up in order to reach home, Max was beginning to feel how underwhelming the story had become. The wyvern had struck the town by coincidence, Corr the arrogant Loc Lacian noble was set to walk away and never be seen again, assassins had been scarce and too easily dealt with and now even his once uncertain future was under his total and absolute control. He had achieved his dream of becoming a Hunter and now he was going to spend his life doing what he had always wanted to do. Hunting.

But why then did it feel so disappointing? All of it? Well, to be perfectly fair, his life was now much safer and secure now, wasn't it? And besides, who needs assassins anyway? Or dragons? Or strange foreign friends?

"…"

He walked inside the house. Strangely enough, he felt no scent of food. Instead, he found his mother, Jeanne, facing him just as he went in. There was a letter in her hand.

Post-chapter Note:All these months with no updates do make me feel a little ashamed. A little. Spent a piece of my summer with my family, another piece working at a fancy five star hotel and a much, much larger chunk of it just procrastinating. It was good.

But anyway, what do you guys think of the little bit of plot in this chapter? The Obsidian Hunters? The politics in Loc Lac? Was it all too little or too much information in your opinion? Tell me what you think in the review section!

Also, there is currently a very important poll in my profile page I would like your help with so be sure to vote there!

Hope you enjoyed it and, as always, thanks for reading. I do apologize for the wait and hope to compensate with the upcoming chapters. See you there!