It did take a few hours to retrieve Shrignold's vessel, but all things considered, things went as well as they could have. Things couldn't have sped up much and Malcolm really didn't want to keep his guest waiting.

The court whatever people basically just dragged the butterfly across the ground all the way back to the kingdom, just as a little extra spite against Micheal, even though he was already dead. It was in a god or spirit's nature to be petty after all, especially in the modern day. All in all, what this accomplished was breaking even more bones than the fall had, but it was fine. Everything was fine. It was even more fine when they dragged him all the way through the streets of the kingdom and all the way up the stairs to Malcolm's throne room. The looks on people's faces reminded Malcolm why it was so great to be king.

The king had grown particularly impatient and let out a bit of his anger on one of the court whatever people. However, he was a just king, he didn't do any permanent damage. Malcolm simply threw him down 6 flights of stairs. But he'd be fine.

Malcolm was so terribly good at healing the body. His magic was simply wonderful to look at for a commoner. Of course, he was the "god of love" after all, of course he'd be powerful.

He wouldn't be this strong if he wasn't feeding off of his subjects love, but no one else needed to know that but him.

The butterfly's corpse soon returned to an habitable state and Malcolm ejected Shrignold from the void of cerebral nonexistence, into his precious body. As Shrignold readjusted to being, Malcolm glanced at his nails and fidgeted impatiently.

"Thank you very much my king," Shrignold bowed. "You know I'll always be eternally grateful to-"

"Yeah yeah yeah that's very nice. Listen, we have more important matters to deal with. There's a human waiting for you in the lobby. He's going to take you to his abode and provide instructions to you, and you are to do EXACTLY what he says."

Shrignold blinked slowly in confusion, then broke out of his stupor. "Excuse me?! My king, I say this with the deepest respect, but have you gone mad? Me, obey a human?! GO TO SOME RANDOM STRANGER'S HOUSE?! And just do what he asks?" Shrignold motioned wildly, his large sleeves flying everywhere.

"I know it sounds bad but you have to trust me, this is a very sound decision I've made."

"How- what on earth are you talking about?! Is THIS what you brought me back for?! I have STANDARDS!" He flexed his fists agitatedly. "Did this human play some sort of mind trick on you? Did he use hypnosis, is that it!?"

"Well if by hypnosis you mean give me £500,000 in gold, then yes. Yes he did."

Shrignold's jaw dropped. "I- Uh- That's-"

Malcolm floated down and ran a thumb under Shrignold's chin. "Listen, don't worry about it. Think of this as your opportunity to run wild and do some crazy shenanigans with your godhood," he smiled oddly warmly. "I even heard from Kronos that this man hired his son Tony. The things he told me were QUITE interesting. Do you really want to pass this up?"

"Hmmph. I'm just concerned for your reputation is all. The son of the *eugh* TIME god is one thing. But we're much more important than that. What do you think would happen if word spread that you were being bribed by mortals. By HUMANS especially?"

Malcolm shoved Shrignold to the ground. "I said don't worry about it. Now go make me money, I'm gonna buy a PS4 for every household."

"I still don't know what that is," Shrignold shouted as he was shoved down the stairwell and out the castle.

Malcolm pointed to a court whatever person and he yelped in fear.

"New rule, people are gonna have to feed gravel to the effigies of my face as a sign of their love."

"Er- um okay... why gravel?"

"What's the number one rule about my rules?" Malcolm snapped his fingers.

The court person sighed and whipped out a quill and paper. "...Don't ask questions."

...

Oh dear.

It was one thing being bribed by a mortal. It was another being bribed by a HUMAN mortal. But one as delusional as this? Shrignold had to wonder how this crusty man even acquired 500,000 of anything, especially brain cells.

His face was hideous to look at, even for a human, with that disgusting drooping skin and thinned out blue hair. His limbs dangled at his sides as if they didn't even work. Still, Shrignold was sure to put on a smile and play along with the madman.

The car ride to his house was cramped and awful, with the man rambling on in droning tones about how his children were so terribly disrespectful and horrid, especially that tall one... what was his name again, Rob? Rex? Ah, whatever, Shrignold didn't care to get invested in this man's family matters.

The tiny, dilapidated apartment the two arrived in more than confirmed that this Roy creature was a complete and utter nutcase. The place he'd described was surrounded by trees and similar to a suburban area. This was... not that.

Until Roy pressed a button on a weird machine and the two of them appeared in what could only be described as a picture perfect neighborhood. Now, they were getting somewhere!

It was almost reminiscent of the land surrounding the kingdom of love, and for a moment Shrignold felt at home. He soon knocked on his head and reminded himself that this was nothing but the illusion of a crazy old man with exorbitant amounts of money. He shook his head and followed Roy into one of the houses. The man eased himself into a chair and motioned for the butterfly to come forward.

Shrignold certainly didn't expect to be handed a play script. After reading through it on the couch, he was actually quite surprised. The lines in the song seemed almost perfectly aligned with the rules of the kingdom of love! But...

"How did you... this is almost word for word our doctrine!"

"I do my research," Roy bluntly replied, his eyes glazing over.

"So what, am I just supposed to follow the script? Is that really what you got a GOD to do?"

"Well, gods can warp the world better. Stronger. It'd be more efficient to hire just one of you so you can create replicas of your subjects than to hire all the subjects."

"Warp...?"

"Normally, no one can create life here. I have high hopes for you."

With that, Roy stood up and shambled towards the door. He stopped before exiting the room and turned his head slightly.

"One more thing. I'd advise you to be careful. I don't want you hurting my son in the wrong way."

Shrignold was left alone in the room to ponder what "warp" and "create" meant, and to figure out how well he could break the rules. After all, he was a god. This man needn't tell him what he could and couldn't do. Perhaps he WOULD hurt this mysterious "son" of his. Just to prove him wrong. Just to have fun with his godhood, as his king had recommended.

Besides, he'd had quite enough of children getting in his way.