Castacien ran into the throne troom once again remembering to bow deeply for Grenadeel and waited for Grenadeel to allow him to talk.
Grenadeel:"Talk but make it fast i have to train my new puppet".
Castacien:"Master we have seen Max and Haikou in the city are you sure that we should not kill them".
Grenadeel walked down and once again grabbed one of Castaciens arm:"This is the regrown arm that I ripped off a couple of days ago is it not",
Castacien:"Yes sir it is".
Grenadeel:"Do you wish for me to do it again and make you devour it yourself this time".
Castacien:"gulp No sir".
Grenadeel:"Good now tell every single one of our guards that if they lay a single hand on Max or Haikou I will single handed kill them".
Castacien:"Yes master". Then he bowed and walked slowly out.
Life is good Grenadeel thought to himself as he sat back on his throne. But even a king had no time to relax, he needed to take his daily watching of the town, but what if Haikou and Max saw him, the entire scheme would be useless, he had to think of a plan, how he could walk through the city without risking being seen. Grenadeel smiled, he had an evil idea.
Meanwhile
Max and Haiko had split up to search for Rex, Haikou insisted on trying to sniff him out again, while Max tried a more reliably approach and tried asking people.
Max:"He´s a big suit of armour, no. He likes to think of himself, no. He´s a living hunk of metal for crying out loud you must have seen something".
As a matter of fact everybody knew who Max was talking about, but they knew that what happened in Grenadeels castle stayed in Grenadeels castle, all but a little boy who didn´t know any better.
Boy:"Mister I saw a piece of armour walk arounf town earlier this day".
Max bent down to his level:"Where did you see him".
Boy:"I can´t seem to remember".
Max:"Here´s 300 kren".
Boy:"He walked out of the castle and three the town and looked at every house as if he was inspecting them".
Then the boy ran off before Max could interrogate him. Max didn´t know that inside the building that the boy ran into was actually a prison.
Boy:"Will you please let my parents go now mister".
Icle the snow owl demon flashed the iron tips of his wings that he used to angle though snow storms, but they could also be used as deadly weapons, rumour has it that he once sliced a man in half without any of the blood vessels being severed.
Icle:"You parents are safe at home, but I wouldn´t mention this to anybody, or you might just have to become an orphan".
Meanwhile with Haikou
Haikou was beginning to give up on his smelling tactic, he had instead chosen to use the same technique as Max and ask around, but he got just about the exact same answers.
Haikou:"He´s a big, stupid, not very attractive, piece of armour, no. He likes to eat and sleep, no".
But Haikou was stopped by a middle aged man.
Man:"The last couple of days there have been an armoured man walking in and out of the castle".
Haikou:"Wow thank you, if there´s anything I can do".
Man:"Give me 300kren and you're off the hook".
And Haikou did so. Then man then walked back into what Haikou presumed was his house. Inside there was a crying woman and the mantis Demon Mantistran.
Man:"Is our son okay".
Mantistran:"He´s at home but if you mention this to anyone we´ll make you a childless couple". The Man walked away with his sobbing wife, they were glad to have a ruler like Grenadeel, he helped his people, but this was one of the reasons that Grenadeel never earned respect by trust; he only ever earned it by fear.
At the castle: Rex´s room
Rex looked out the window, he could see everything perfectly from afar, but up close everything was just a blur, he had to guess who he was talking to and he could only get around the room because he had memorized where everything was.
Even worse than normal walking around was fighting training, Rex would have to fight an endless stream of well "something's", Rex couldn´t quite guess what they were but his best guess was that they where some kind of monkey demons, because they moved much faster and skilfully than a professional athlete. Needless to say Rex was black and blue whenever he was done training.
Rex wanted to remove the helmet and look around, but he hadn´t gotten used to being alive again, he kept on wondering if it was all a dream and if he removed the armour he would disappear. Max sighed and looked into the mirror, to him he looked just like a big blob of slime, Rex took his helmet off for the first time, he looked at himself standing in black armour, but soon the fear came over him and he hurried to put the helmet back on.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door and a beautiful young female fregat demon stood in the door entrance, she was wearing a maids outfit, just like Rex she had scruffs of beautiful feathers on the side of her head and hair, though unlike him she didn´t have talons for hands and had two magnificent black wings on her back.
Maid:"Good day Master Rex, my name Zaleilah, grand Lord Grenadeel has entrusted me to be your personal maid, is there anything that you wish of".
Rex:"... Will you marry me"?
Zaleilah:"I beg your pardon, my dear master".
Rex shook his head to get out of the trance:"Oh i asked, could you tell Grenadeel that i will go train with my Scimitars".
Zaleilah:"As you wish".
She then bowed before him and went away. Rex sank down on the closed door.
Rex:"Fregaficens what is this feeling in my chest".
Fregaficens:"Ah I see, you´ve sensed a demon in heat".
Rex:"What no I haven't".
Fregaficens:"Rex It´s called Love it´s a natural phenomenon".
Rex put his hand over his chest:"So this is what love feels like, all i really want to do right now is laugh, and cry, I want to get away from her, but I also want to hug her. Will this ever go away"?
Fregaficens:"I´m afraid not Rex".
To Be Continued