Floor 33 – Chapter 3: The Circle of Hatred

Whilst Koharu headed off to find the rest of the Concord, Jet found himself amongst the crowd heading back into the court, and to say it was a strange feeling was putting it mildly.

Some of the courtiers had come up to him, even pledging their allegiances to him, should he wish to depose the whore of a queen, as they had put it, though he had quickly shut them down and explained that the situation was never as simple as they believed.

Of course, they were the first leads he had on this mysterious group attempting to kill Ronie, but those were not organised movements, nor revolutionaries who would act on impulse. No, they were power hungry fools who had seen a chance to recruit someone more powerful to their side and had failed miserably at it.

Keeping a low profile amongst the court as they all went about their duties, he had eventually found himself called into Ronie's chamber, for something she wished to discuss with him. Apparently, he hadn't kept quite as low of a profile as he would've liked there, but still…

"Sir Jet, the Arthur to my Guinevere." She smiled, the reference throwing him for a loop. She knew of that story? He supposed it fit in with the aesthetic of the floor, but still… "The kingdom owes you a great debt, handsome knight… I owe you a great debt."

"Eh, think nothing of it." He dismissed. "Just doing what any good English nutter would do." He recalled the stories his dad had told him of his great-grandfather; a man who had gone into battle in North Africa, armed with a bow and arrow, bagpipes and an umbrella.

Against the Wehrmacht and Regio Esercito, who had, you know, tanks and guns.

Not only had he survived, but the man had killed an armoured car with a bow and arrow apparently, a story they had all thought was a fun story, but not a particularly realistic one… until it turned out to be real.

"So where shall you go now? And what of Lady Koharu?" Ronie asked.

"She's gone to go find our friends. Tell them we aren't, you know, rotting in a cell somewhere still." He deflected away from the truth – that Koharu had gone to get them, should they need to fight an organised group of plotters…

"Regardless, I wish to offer you something." The young Queen told him. "I wish you to join me, not as an ally, not as an adviser… but my King."

Had he been drinking at that moment; he would have spat his drink out. "Err… I love Koharu, and I think that's going to be one I have to discuss with her!" He stammered out.

"I am not so immature as to doubt your integrity in love. I merely wish for you to be by my side as King, my most loyal knight always with me…"

A symbol of what would happen if they – whoever they were – were to cross the rule of Ronie, no doubt; the knight who had bested the monarch before ready to handle his Queen's honour…

Oh, he was stupid! So stupid he may as well have been Mister Thick, of Thicky Street, Thickleton, Thickania!

And so was his dad!

No one was (well, had been anyway) plotting against Ronie! That "circle of hatred" was to do with the queen herself, and probably had to do with what she'd said before!

Before he could ask her about that though, one of the many aides had arrived to deliver a message. "Your majesty. The traitor's family are ready, and execution is imminent…" The young man informed them.

"Excellent work. I shall be down soon."

And this was how it began – punishing the former king with unrepentant brutality, not by harming him, but harming those around him. "Ronie, I know he deserves punishment, but spare their lives. Please."

"Why should I?" She asked, and he hated that it was a valid question. "Did he spare my friends, my family, when they begged for mercy? Did his advisors ask for clemency when he tortured and murdered unarmed men of God for their riches…"

"No, I bet they didn't, but that's on them. You don't have to be like him, you can be better!" He explained.

"The public expect that of me. To show I am no pushover, despite my young age and inexperience."

"Ronie, I know you don't want to hear it, and God knows I don't want to have to defend people like that, heck, I don't really care for what happens to him, but I do care for you. I don't want you to become like he did; a fat cat on her throne, watching as their allies do unspeakable things, but never punishing them for it. You are better than that, I know you are!" He begged her to listen. She was young, and he knew how being that age made you more emotional on many subjects, especially ones that affected you.

"You… you care for me?"

"Yes, even though you used us as pawns, I know what it's like to grow up surrounded by people who view others as nothing more than pieces on a gameboard, I have family like that too." He told her. "I want to help you become a better person than they raised you to be. You don't have to be ruthless to be a good leader, just inspire people." He told her, thinking of the dichotomy between his father and his uncle; both siblings, one leading through fear and manipulation, one leading through inspiration…

He'd take the latter any day.

"What harm comes from eradicating that stain on humanity though?" Ronie asked him, a fire in her deep blue eyes. "After all he has done, and as Queen of this kingdom, do I not deserve to close this book, and to put it to rest? Do I not deserve closure in the same way that he has given me?"

"And what about the innocent ones? The children like you, who had no say in what their family did, but who you'll sentence to death for the crime of being related to them. That's not justice, that's vengeance… no, that's hatred." He told her, and she scowled at him in annoyance. "Hatred breeds hatred, and one day, maybe not soon, maybe not even in your lifetime, that hatred comes back. Hat day, your descendant is murdered by their descendant for your actions now, and so that cycle continues."

He tried his best to get her to see how pointless this was but realised that she wasn't seeing it with the way he was explaining it to her. Changing tactics, he tried to appeal to her humanity instead. "Ronie, he deserves punishment, and I won't argue there, I agree even, but if you carry on like this, all that's gonna happen is that wheel keeps turning, that cycle of hatred keeps spinning…" She looked away from him, that fire replaced by guilt at herself. "So please, break the cycle."

Ronie, now on the verge of tears, sat back onto her bed and he sat beside her. "Why…" She asked him. He looked at her face, and in that moment, he didn't see the Queen who would punish innocents for the crime of being related to someone, but rather a scared girl who was in so far over her head. One that had resorted to unsavoury methods of backstabbing and scheming to survive in a court full of people who could play those games far better than she had ever learned to, and one who knew how tenuous her position here was…

"Because I think you know that's the right thing to do. The kids don't deserve to be punished for their parent's abuses, right?"

It was a low blow to use that analogy, especially given Ronie's background, but he hoped she would be able to see the parallels between herself and her would be victims.

"Of-of course not."

"Then do it. Break that cycle Ronie and be the monarch this kingdom deserves!" He smiled at her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Because you've got a chance to be exactly that right now, a chance to be the best monarch this kingdom has ever had, fair and just. That's got to stand for something, right?"

"What… what if I get it wrong? I might make things worse..." She stammered, and he gave her a reassuring look.

"That's always a possibility in life. Eventually, you just learn to take the plunge." He admitted. "But now, you've got that chance to be the best you can be, and there's people here who believe in you, you know? You've got a chance most would kill for!" He smiled at her briefly, before realising how he'd said that. "Uhh, bad choice of words there, but…"

"I understand what you are trying to say, yes." Ronie giggled a little at his minor faux pas, and he saw her as a bright young girl in that moment, someone with her whole life ahead of her, not tainted by the poisonous attitudes of loyalty and treachery she had been exposed to since her earliest years…

He wasn't so naïve to believe she would change in an instant – that kind of brainwashing and normalising took years to deprogram essentially – but he could see a much brighter future in her eyes in that moment, almost as if the fog that blanketed her mind was slowly lifting… "Messenger!" She called.

"Your highness?"

"Inform the executioner that his services will not be necessary this day and inform the former King that I shall spare his family. I want you to deliver this message to him for me, with these exact words: You have made a mockery of this throne, violated and defiled not only myself, but your sacred oath too, and yet I find myself sparing your life. I do this because I am not like you, I will not take lives for the sake of it, and because I know you shall suffer more in that cell than any execution. That, my love, is the punishment you deserve. To see the kingdom that you once ruled prosper without you, as you rot away."

"It shall be done your highness!" The messenger made a swift exit from the room, leaving just the two of them sat there in quiet contemplation…

"Everything you said, I accept, but in my soul, I am still conflicted." Ronie said quietly. "That such a monster should not be punished as monsters are want to do."

Jet sighed, a new understanding of Strea's explanations that the world was not quite so black and white as he'd like it to be. After all, was it wrong to take a life? In his eyes, yes it was.

Was it wrong to take a life after all the cruelty the King had inflicted; to want vengeance on such a man? No, it was completely understandable.

Absolutes were easy to deal in, at the end of the day, and morality was rarely an absolute.

"Considering everything, I'm not sure either, but I know what I find right and wrong, and I'll stick to it." He told her.

"To have such a resolute moral compass… it must make decisions that much easier." She looked up at him, almost with stars in her eyes.

"Actually, it makes it much harder a lot of the time." He admitted. "Still, it's not like my conscience is clean. I've let people die; I got people killed…"

The boy that Morte killed to spite them, Strea, Mito, the ALS… Eydis. All of them died for mistakes he made, because he was so sure of his moral compass, and refused to take the sensible option!

"You speak like a man burdened by war…" She told him. "Yet, you aren't too much older than I."

"Outside this Kingdom, there's people fighting for their freedom. We never asked for that fight, but we took it up anyway, and… a lot of people have died for it. Good people, people I considered friends… my own sister." He sighed, trying to snap back to his earlier attitude. "And I've learned a few things out there – that no matter how dire the situation, there's always a way out somehow. That kindness works better than manipulation for getting people on your side, that being sure of yourself doesn't make you right…"

He had been sure of facing down the Dream Reaper after all, and that had gone so horribly wrong that he wasn't sure he could look Kibaou in the face anymore. It might not have been him that lead the ALS into the dungeon, but it had certainly looked like him, hadn't it?

They'd believed it was him too, and that fight had cost so many lives he tried not to think about it – the fact that Asuna had told him she didn't blame him hadn't helped either. She might not have, but he certainly did.

Would the creature have used his image if he hadn't taken the group into the theatre to face it down, or would it have found some other poor sap to drain instead?

He didn't know the answer to that, and if he was honest, he was sure he never would know the answer to that either.

"To be aware of one's failings such is the making of a good leader, I believe."

"Or a terribly indecisive one." He pointed out. "I'm no leader, Ronie. I can give good speeches and throw me into battle, I'll fight like nothing else. Leading people outside of that? Nah." He admitted that he was no leader like Diavel, Lind, Kibaou… or hell, Heathcliff, as arrogant and insufferable as the man was.

It was telling that the Concord had no real leadership structure and was nothing more than a group of friends prattling about the place. Heck, if they had a leader now, it was probably more likely to be Asuna than it was him!

"As I said, Sir Jet, the offer will remain on the table, even though I know you shan't accept it." Ronie told him, letting out a yawn. "However, I would ask that we continue this meeting tomorrow… it has been a long day, has it not?"

It really had – they had gone from finding a spot to picnic to overthrowing a despotic monarch in the space of only twelve hours, and as Jet left the young Queen's chambers, he found himself thinking about whether he really would be as bad at leading like that as he thought…

A thought that didn't get too far, before a tap on his shoulder snapped him out of his thoughts. "So Columbo, any clues on who's trying to kill the queen?" Philia asked, as the rest of the Concord caught up.

"I don't actually think anyone is. I think we both misinterpreted what the quest said, Ko – she took power in a bloodless coup, but how long would it stop that way?"

"Yes? How else would you read that?"

"You noticed it before that came up – I managed to convince Ronie to, well hopefully, anyway, break that cycle of hatred. She was going to have the king's family executed, and I think I convinced her not to."

"Wait… she was planning to kill the king's family? What had they done to deserve that?"

"Be related to a bastard." He answered. "She's a kid who was raised in an environment where treachery was rewarded more than loyalty, and personal benefits placed above all else…"

"Sounds like an unpleasant brat to me." Philia answered under her breath.

He offered a half-hearted shrug. "Nature versus nurture, Ginge. Imagine if your parents taught you that it was okay to go and beat someone up in the playground, because you wanted whatever toy they had… you'd be an unpleasant brat too, but deep down, there'd be some part of your nature telling you that you know what you were doing is wrong."

"So, you tried to appeal to her nature… and that worked?" Asuna asked, a sceptical look on her face.

"Long term, no idea. I don't think even she knows that, and it's her head." He admitted. "For now though, I think she'll try. Programming like that, it's not gonna be easy to break…"

/-/

The next morning, the group returned to the palace to talk to Ronie, and for the first time, they had chance to actually explore the palace a little more without the risk of being set upon by a lot of angry guards, and despite his earlier reservations about the styling, a lot of the building was actually rather tasteful in comparison to the areas they had seen.

In fact, he reckoned it felt almost two hundred years too early for some of the architectural flourishes he noticed – some of them being more Georgian in appearance than Tudor, but he supposed only the most hardcore of uber nerds would pick up on such a detail…

In other words, himself.

"It's a lot prettier out here!" And Koharu, apparently. "Doesn't feel like it's the same era though, does it?"

"Nah, it's like two ruling dynasties too early for stuff like this." He told her. "Still, it's better than gold plating the whole thing like the other parts."

"I do wonder what that says about a person, if they felt that appropriate décor for a palace…" Kizmel asked.

"I have unlimited power and wealth, so screw tact, I want gold?" Philia asked in such a way that she made clear it was an answer too.

Jet, on the other hand, took it as she'd said it, just to have a laugh. "Y'know, I'm calling you Magpie from now on, Ginge…"

"Why?"

"Attracted to shiny things above all else."

"Call me that, and I call you Jethro." Philia told him blankly. So that was how she wanted to play it, was it… Mutually Assured Destruction, it was then.

With embarrassing nicknames. Not exactly the end of the world, but it was certainly enough to get both to back down…

"Fine, fine, you win, Ginge. I won't call you Magpie…" He held his hands up in mock defeat as the approached the gardens where Ronie was waiting for them.

He supposed he'd watched far too many period dramas with his sisters, because far from being dressed as he imagined a queen would be, with all kinds of ornate dresses, she was clad in a relatively non-descript olive drab tunic, with some white relief, a similarly coloured skirt, and white boots. "Ah! Sir Jet, Lady Koharu!"

Regardless of her look, she ran up to them and drew them both into a hug.

"Err… she's the queen?" Rain asked, a little surprised.

"Apparently so…" Sanya too.

"I must admit, I was expecting someone more…" Kizmel paused as she tried to think of the words. "Regal, I suppose. She is but a child…"

"Oh, introductions must be in order – I am Queen Ronie." He couldn't quite pin down where on the sliding scale of NPC realism Ronie was sometimes. On one hand, he could honestly see her on the same level as Kizmel sometimes… and then at times like this, it became obvious she was at least somewhat scripted.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, your Majesty." Kizmel, having the most experience out of the group, went first. "I am Kizmel, Pagoda Knight of the Kingdom of Lyusula."

"My turn then. I'm Philia, the Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire of Aincrad!" Jet rolled his eyes at her introduction but couldn't help but smile a little at it.

"Umm, I'm Rain, and this is Sanya. It's nice to meet you, your highness!" Rain stammered, clearly a little caught in the headlights of how to deal with monarchs.

"And I'm Asuna. Your majesty, if you don't mind me asking, but… where's your security?" Asuna asked, pointing out something he had sort of noticed, but not really thought anything of.

"Oh, my guards? I want to be more open with the people I serve, and guards, well, they do rather get in the way of that." Asuna gave her a troubled look, before turning to him, and fixing him with a look that said: "just what did you tell her last night?!"

In his defence, he had told her that she shouldn't murder the families of people she didn't like just to get a point across, not leave yourself open to any nutter and bastard that might want to harm you, just to make a point about openness…

"Ronie, don't you think they might be a good idea, at least in public? You know, to keep you safe?"

"To tell the truth, the guards who defended the palace were all chosen for their loyalty to the previous king. Had I kept them around, I suspect I would have been found dead in my bed…" Ronie sighed.

He hadn't thought of that – you generally don't keep any old people around as guards, you keep the most loyal ones who won't try to kill you whilst you sleep… and if you overthrow their boss, then chances are, they won't be too happy, not least because you've essentially given them a P45 – and by the looks on the others' faces, they hadn't either.

"Well, maybe we can act as bodyguards until-"

"About that, Koharu. Argo says she's found the boss room, so I imagine we'll have to go for a little bit, and we can't exactly be spared to guard someone full time." Asuna reminded them both, and it was quite clear what Asuna was implying – they were not here to babysit NPCs, and that whatever this quest was, it was over.

Ronie smiled, but it was clearly a brittle smile, one hiding that she was clearly frustrated about finding people who cared for her for once, and for those people to be leaving so soon… he could understand her frustration. It was like having hope dangled in front of you, only for it to be torn away again… "I understand. We all have our duties, do we not?" She said sadly.

"Hey." Koharu placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "We'll come back; we're not going away forever."

Ronie laughed a little. "Lady Koharu, I know you aren't. It is just that I was hoping to spend a little more time with you both."

"Tell you what, when we get back, we'll have the whole day with you."

"Yes, I think I would like that." The young queen smiled. Considering what she was saying yesterday, it was hard to believe they were the same person in his eyes. "Before you go, I wish you to have this." She handed him something that looked like a brooch of some kind, with a strange looking crystal in the middle of it. "Think of it as my gift to you both, the sign of kinship between our kingdoms."

"Thank you, your majesty." He took the… whatever it was, graciously, as the young queen gave both him and Koharu one last hug.

"Now, I believe we all have our duties to attend to, do we not?" She gave a brittle smile as she walked back into the palace, leaving the group standing there.

"Do you think she will be alright?" Kizmel asked.

"I can only hope so." Sanya answered with a scowl that was aimed towards a specific member of their group – Asuna. "Because someone was lying to her."

"I wasn't lying, Argo has found information on the boss room." Asuna reminded her.

"Yes, information. Not that she has found said room…" He looked over at Asuna, as if to verify what Sanya was saying.

"We aren't glorified bodyguards for scared children, or have you forgotten why we're here?" Asuna asked, as if to remind them that they were here to work towards saving everyone else…

"And you will take the blame should it be discovered this quest was important then, I take it?"

Rain looked at them both as if she was looking for a solution to the incoming storm of an argument where both sides were far too stubborn to back down.

Unfortunately, he really couldn't see one here – he agreed completely with Sanya, as rare of a sentence as that was; Asuna was in the wrong here, in his eyes. Perhaps the quest may have been one that was just there to fill time, but they had no way of telling that until afterwards, and even if they did, it still involved leaving a scared girl to face a court that were probably circling, sensing blood in the water… and without any kind of security whatsoever.

"That wasn't your decision to make." He told Asuna. "Because Sanya's right, you don't know what could've happened."

"The same goes for you, Jet. We could have been wasting our time, time spent better searching for the boss room, or clues as to its whereabouts, rather than helping teenage delinquents to rule a kingdom…"

He felt something rising in him, almost as if he was about to enter a full-on shouting match with Asuna, but he bit back on his anger and let out a long sigh instead as he walked off.

Yes, it was a little immature to just storm off during an argument, but Asuna was much like his sisters in some regards – too bloody stubborn to listen when someone is telling you that you made a bad decision, and he had no doubts that the decision she made was a bad one.

He just didn't know how bad it would prove to be…

/-/

It had been almost two days since Sir Jet and Lady Koharu had left to continue their expedition of the floating castle, and the news had been positive in the days since – the Guardian of the Tower had been defeated, and they were making good progress onto the next floor.

And she was happy for them, even if she seemed like that wasn't the case. Sir Jet had made it clear that he valued his duty to the inhabitants of the Floating Castle, and to his friends, and she couldn't fault him for that; those duties took precedence over guiding her in her role as monarch, after all, and they had both promised to return to visit her whenever they could.

In the meantime though, she had her own duties to attend to – those of a courtly nature. Only, those duties were somewhat scarce since she had taken over; the court choosing mostly to carry on without her approval for most things and treat her as purely symbolic. It depressed her somewhat to know that she was essentially just there to sit still and look pretty, whilst the same nobles carried on ravaging the lands as they had under her previous husband…

Perhaps she could ask the Concord for advice when they returned…

Her thoughts were interrupted as a man walked into her chamber. Not unusual in itself, but this particular man was of the older kind, probably old enough to be her father, and seemed to keep himself well – if he wasn't a nobleman, then he certainly looked as if he should have been.

"Ahh, greetings your majesty." He spoke with a voice similar to Sir Jet.

"Who are you, and what business do you have here?" She asked, trying not to panic internally. With no guards, she couldn't be sure what he wanted to do, and why he was here, and so, she did as she always had – attempted to project strength and virtue…

"At ease, your majesty. I come on behalf of a certain knight…" Oh, he was one of Sir Jet's friends? Perhaps he was her guard until they returned? "Now, shall I make us a nice cup of tea?"

"You needn't, I shall have my handmaiden do it for me." Not least because she really wasn't sure she trusted him. He clearly knew Sir Jet, but unlike he, this man had an air of… she hesitated to call it evil, but whatever it was, it made her feel uncomfortable.

"Nonsense, your majesty, it is the least I can do for you!" She watched as he used the sacred summoning to pull out two cups and poured a dark red liquid into both of them. Whatever it was, she could smell the berries that went into it, and that seemed to put her at rest just a little bit as he handed the cup to her. "There really is nothing like a good cup of tea, is there?" He asked, and she nodded as she took a sip of it.

"Which is a shame, because this is nothing like a good cup of tea." He told her as her arms began to tingle slightly.

"What is this?! Who are you!?" She asked, trying to stand up to run as her legs refused to…

"Poison, your majesty. A nerve agent in the tea… I'd take the credit for it myself, if I didn't think the FSB would ensure I was drinking it too." The man shrugged.

"Y-you drank it too though, I saw you…"

He seemed to be almost amused at the prospect of being poisoned, almost as if he used it for some kind of recreational use… "Oh yes, if in the right doses, it gives you an enormous tingle through your nervous system, and us players are very resilient… yourself though, young lady? I honestly don't know how long you have left… it could be thirty minutes; it could be thirty hours. That fool Black was never very good at labelling his concoctions…" He told her, as he stood over her. "Now, I am nothing if not merciful, so I shall give you an option. I have the antidote on my person, and I shall give it to you…"

"For what price?"

"I am offended you think I would extort you like that…" He commented, retrieving a vial from his pocket, and pouring it into a needle before he jabbed the needle into her arm. "However, that will not save your life, merely extend it. What may have been thirty minutes may now be thirty hours, and you will die as your muscles contract, your airways close up… and the best part? You remain conscious right until the end…"

"This… kingdom… is not… yours." She hissed, as she fell to the floor.

"Oh no, you misunderstand, Queen Ronie, I don't want to rule this kingdom… I want to burn it."

She tried to speak, but even breathing was becoming difficult now, as she could no longer move anything more than her eyes in order to follow the man's movements around the room. "But I shall offer you an out. The rest of this tea will kill you before you suffer too badly, or I could just leave you here to watch as your kingdom burns… oh, I'm sorry, you can't answer, can you? Such a shame."

She looked over as another man entered the room, this time one far less noble in appearance – an almost demonic like image with his cloak and cruel smile as he sauntered over to her. "Ugh, she's giving me the creeps just looking at her like that – cold, dead eyes…"

"My lord, she isn't dead yet."

"She isn't?" He asked as he kicked her in the stomach to test his theory. "Eurgh. Put her out of her misery, will ya?"

"I'm sorry, my lord? This is art at its finest, a perfect exhibition of the human form in its final moments…"

"Fuckin' artists." The man in the cloak rolled his eyes. "Just kill her an' stop pissin' around, Albion."

"As you wish, my lord." He stood atop her, and muttered something that sounded like he was more annoyed at having to disrupt his "art project" than kill her, but she had almost drifted into complete failure of her body functions in the final moments before he wrapped his hands around her neck, and she drifted away finally…

{Author's Comments}

Yup, this one got dark.

I've been watching a lot of a show called Inside No.9 recently, and I can see why the show got released at 10pm (well past watershed in the UK), as it gets properly dark and disturbing in places. Why do I bring this up, other than as a recommendation, I hear you ask?

I may have been channelling it a little in that last section. Albion may be a "saner" member of Laughing Coffin, but he is still a high ranking member of the murder guild...

Also, there's no boss chapter for this floor - to be quite honest, I couldn't think of a boss that fit this floor thematically, and so, I'm skipping straight to the next floor and the aftermath of this...