Chapter 3

Just outside the Danish Ministry of Finance in Copenhagen, Denmark. One day later.

"You never did tell me who we were meeting here in Denmark," Bethany said, staring up at the large building before them. Men and women in business attire hurried around them, the pair standing out in their more casual clothes. They'd be standing out even more so if they'd brought their weapons along, but Abundy insisted they leave them back in the hotel room. Bethany felt…weird without Dimitri's lance. Like a part of her was missing. She just wanted to get the traveling part of their journey over.

"That's because I want it to be a surprise," Abundy answered, "But we're not going to meet him standing out here. Let's head inside." Bethany followed Abundy into the government building, speculating who they could be meeting. Could it be Fishy? Areku? Tambo? Bethany quickly ruled them out as Abundy talked with a receptionist at a desk. She pointed to an elevator, Bethany and Abundy stepped inside. The elevator quickly took them to the top floor, where the Financial Minister's office was. There's only one Danish person I know with any relation to Mangs. Abundy knocked on the door, and a few seconds later the short form of Høne Mor stood in the doorway before them.

"Abundy? Bethany?" Høne Mor asked in disbelief. "You two should be dead! Where the hell have you been for the last few years? Come in, come in, take a seat." The minister's office was clean and well kept, befitting for someone of Høne Mor's position.

"We're not the ones who should be dead,'' Bethan said, taking a seat, "That would be PH."

Høne Mor gave a dry chuckle, "I suppose what Tambo said was true then. You really would stop at nothing to see PH dead."

"To answer your question," Abundy said as he took a seat of his own, "It would be sheer dumb luck that I survived all of those imposters, and sheer dumb luck that I found Bethany when I did. After that day, we both trained until I thought we were strong enough to go find PH."

"Never punished, as Mangs would say," Høne Mor sighed, "What happened to him, anyway?"

"No clue," Abundy said with a shrug.

Høne Mor nodded. "When my receptionist told me that an old friend was coming by, I was expecting him. I take it you didn't stop by just to catch up after two years?"

"I'll cut to the chase then, Høne Mor. Where's PH?"

"And why should I help you? We might be old friends, Abundy, but so are PH and I." The Danish man stood from his seat. "Either you two are going to kill PH, or PH will kill the two of you. I don't want to see anyone get hurt, but if you go and seek out PH, it'll be your own damn fault and you'll get no sympathy from me. I won't help you find him."

"I was hoping we could do this diplomatically, Høne Mor," Abundy said. "Tell me, how do you like your job here in the Danish government?"

"I like it quite well here, Abundy," Høne Mor said with a suspicious glare, "Now what angle are you trying to play at here?"

"It's quite simple. I happen to know that you've been embezzling money from the Danish treasury," Abundy said with fake shock. Høne Mor paled. "Mangs told me so himself. After all, how else could you afford to donate all that money to Mangs? How else could Mangs afford to build his Dungeon? How much did you steal from the Danish treasury?"

Høne Mor grit his teeth. "I want you out of my office, and out of my country as soon as possible. What do you want?"

"First, we need some money-"

"Done." Høne Mor didn't even let Abundy finish his thought. The Danish man opened his wallet and pulled out a card and handed it to Abundy. "This is a little rainy day fund I've been building up. I'd be surprised if you managed to spend it all. Now what else?"

"And second," Abundy said, the annoyance in his voice at being interrupted clear, "Where's PH?"

"I can't help you there, I'm afraid. I haven't heard from PH in about a year and a half, and I don't think anyone else has, either. Now can you leave?"

"Who would know where PH is?" Abundy asked.

Høne Mor thought. "If anyone Mangs's circle would know, it would be Alfred. Wessex's spies seem to know a lot about what happens here in Europe."

Satisfied, Abundy and Bethany stood and turned to leave. "Hey Høne Mor, one last thing," Abundy said, looking back over his shoulder. The Danish man looked ready to pop a vein. "It was nice to catch up."

The tension left Høne Mor's body as he registered that Abundy wasn't asking for anything else. "It was nice to catch up with you too, Abundy. Now would you kindly get the fuck out of my country?"

The Court of Alfred, King of Wessex, London. Two days later.

Abundy and Bethany stood outside the door to Alfred's court. The former stood in a black suit, while the latter dressed in a blouse and knee-length skirt. It would appear as if they were going to any formal occasion, if it weren't for the lance Bethany held in her hand. Alfred didn't have the same weapon policy that Denmark did, and Bethany felt more comfortable with Dimitri's lance on hand, much to Abundy's chagrin. This was supposed to be a formal event, after all, and Alfred had plenty of knights to guard the court.

The two had been waiting for around fifteen minutes before a man opened the door. Inside was a long table. Alfred sat at one end, Hanakko, E-Tan, Creative Name, The Last Rebel, Nohrian Guy and Fire Lance filling seats in the hall. Alfred stood as the pair entered, rushing over to meet them. "Bethany! Abundy! It's been two years too long." He scooped the two up in a hug, surprising Abundy and Bethany. "When Høne Mor told me you two were coming, at first I almost didn't believe him. WIth how annoyed he sounded, though, I knew it had to be real."

"Jeez, Alfred," Bethany said as the King broke off the hug. It was a bit much, but it was nice to meet old friends again, especially when they were more friendly than Høne Mor. "Normally you'd be jokingly wishing me dead, and I'd return in kind."

"Those kinds of jokes really lose their punch when you actually were dead, Bethany," King Alfred said.

"Give him a break, Bethany," Abundy said, "He thought we were dead the past two years." Bethany shrugged.

"I'd love to sit here and talk the night away, reminisce on the good times," Alfred said, "Things have been going good here in Wessex ever since the defeat of the Burger King and his interesting maneuvers. I wish Arashi could join us today, but she's currently patrolling aboard the HMS Drake." The King sighed. "But business must be done first. Høne Mor said you had something important to discuss. Tell me what you need, and I'll see what I can do to help."

"Ever to the point, Alfred," Bethany said, "We need to know where PH is."

Alfred grinned. "I think I can help you there. I never trusted the priest, and so I tried to discreetly keep a few eyes on him after the events of the dungeon. It was easy for the first six months, and just when I was beginning to think I was being paranoid, he tries to drop off the radar."

"Tries being the key word, I presume?" Bethany asked.

"Why don't I let some of the field agents take it from here." Alfred waved a hand to the assembled members of his court.

E-Tan was the first to speak up. "Ni siquiera sé por qué estoy aquí, solo me gusta enviar demasiadas cosas en español al huevo. Este es solo un bonito huevo de Pascua por si alguien se molesta en traducir."

"English, please?" Abundy said.

E-Tan sighed, restarting. "Originally, I was trailing PH in Paris. Then one day, out of the blue, he decides to get on a train to Barcelona. I tried to pick up the trail from there, but he bounced around Spain for a few months before eventually staying in Seville for a bit. He was taking notes on something, but I wasn't able to tell what the notes were before PH got on a flight to the US."

The Last Rebel picked up where E-Tan left off. "I was in the US keeping eyes on Tambo at the time, so I was able to catch up with PH pretty quickly. Unfortunately, he spent the least amount of time in the US. He was only there for 3 days, during which time he broke into the Innersloth Headquarters building."

'Innersloth?' Bethany thought, 'I know that name from somewhere, but where?' It was on the tip of her tongue, er, brain.

"After the break in, PH went to Japan next," Hanokko continued after Rebel, "He spent nearly a month in Japan exclusively going to Nintendo's HQ. That gave me plenty of time to look through his room, but unfortunately, it didn't provide much. PH must have kept any information he was trying to hide on his person at all times, and I wasn't going to risk a confrontation. It was a month after that PH broke from his schedule for the first time. I broke into his hotel room, but he was gone and the faint smell and residue of warp powder was all around the place."

Nohrian Guy finished their report. "It took us 5 months to find where PH ended up. It turns out, he went right back where he started: France, though we found PH in Bordeaux this time. He bought an abandoned building outside of town and had it restored. I've only been able to sneak in there one time, and the place reeked of warp powder. I didn't get too far inside, though, before PH almost found me. I haven't risked anything besides reconnaissance since. Plenty of people have gone inside that compound, almost no one goes back out. It's been quiet since." He sat back down. The air hung silent, the occupants of the hall contemplating the new information.

Abundy let out a long whistle. "That's some impressive spy work, Alfred."

The King sighed. "Not impressive enough, it seems. Why did he go all across Spain, or Innersloth, or Nintendo's Headquarters? What's he planning? There's still so much we don't know."

"Don't sweat it, Alfred," Bethany asserted, "That's still so much more than what we knew before."

Alfred gave a smile. "That's true, that's true. What else can Wessex do for you?"

Bethany thought for a moment. They had plenty of money from Høne Mor, and she didn't know of any equipment that they might need until they could do further recon on the compound. She shot a glance at Abundy, and his face said much the same. "Only things I'll think of when we're already in France, Alfred."

The King chuckled. "That's always how it goes, is t it? I can't let you leave empty handed, but I already thought ahead. FireLance is my finest soldier, and I want him to accompany you on this journey."

The Vanguard stood, hefting his ax and walked over to Bethany and Abundy. "The three of us, together again? It's beginning to feel like old times."

'Old times indeed,' Bethany thought, feelings of her old eye returning. She could feel the spark of magic between her fingers again, unused for the past two years. Of Mangs. Of Faolin. Of Dsnoon. Of PH, that rat bastard.

And of Dimitri. Dimitri. Oh God Dimitri why-

Bethany felt the calming hand of Abundy on her shoulder, breaking her from her thoughts. She blinked away the tears forming in her eye. Bethany's hands stopped, she was so wrapped up in her own head she didn't even realize they'd been shaking. It had been awhile since she was this badly affected by what had happened. She looked at Alfred and his court. It didn't look like any of them had noticed, except for FireLance, who said nothing.

"Now come on," Alfred said, "You surely can't intend on leaving right now, and the night's still young. We have plenty to catch up on. I won't keep you longer than the night, though my doors are always open." Alfred waved some servers in, who began to set out platters of food. It looked like the best food either Abundy or Bethany had seen in, well, ever, and it smelled like it too. The thought of good food helped beat the thoughts back further. Bethany knew they'd be gone for the night, at least, and she would enjoy it while it lasted.

Chapter 3 end.

Author's notes: You may be wondering why there was such a time gap between the first batch of chapters and this one. Three reasons, Finals the Holidays, and other personal projects I've been working on. We're at the halfway point now, and hopefully it should be finished before the end of January. I'm going to be focusing on this over other personal projects for the time being, so there hopefully shouldn't be another huge gap between chapters.