Chapter 4 Awkward Celebration
The atmosphere as the Koopa family returned to the castle was… interesting. Nobody talked much except for Bowser, as he kept expressing his ever-growing disappointment over the fact that the prisoners had escaped. Honestly, Ludwig didn't blame him for that one. If the prisoners escaped, that meant they could think of a plan. They could retaliate and come back swinging, ready to beat Bowser up extra bad and make sure he learned his lesson. So… yeah, this wasn't the best-case scenario, and everyone on the ship realized that.
With that said, while he wouldn't admit it, Ludwig was glad Mario and the princesses escaped. Holding them hostage in this scenario just… wouldn't feel right. It really wouldn't. Sure, the knowledge that there were going to be DIRE consequences to this conquest didn't sit right with him, but… eh, he might as well look on the bright side.
(Never mind the fact that the bright side wasn't that much brighter than the dark side).
When the Koopas got back to the Castle, and as they walked into the throne room, Ludwig decided that now was the time to delve back into his own little world. Knowing Bowser, he was going to try and organize another attack within no time at all, so Ludwig might as well take advantage of the quiet while it lasted. He got his phone out, smiling when he looked at Aria's name in his text messages. What a beautiful name; he didn't appreciate it as much as he should. He went into his messages, ready to start texting the beautiful woman who went by that beautiful name when…
"King Bowser, what do you say about us throwing a party to celebrate our conquest?"
Ludwig nearly dropped his phone. He and the rest of his siblings looked over at Bone Mage, questioning whether or not he had actually heard that. BONE MAGE of all people was suggesting a party? Bone Mage? The ruthless guy who seemed intent on making life more difficult for the Mario Bros? Even at a time when the Koopas were trying to maintain an era of peace? What?
Bowser turned to Bone Mage and blinked. "Even though our prisoners escaped?"
"The prisoners escaping is only a minor setback in the grand scheme of things," Bone Mage said coolly. "We still have made a ton of progress in other areas of our mission. We've enchanted your minions. We've sent a message to the Mushroom Kingdom that we are a force to be reckoned with. So what if Mario and the princesses are running free? They won't get the better of us in the end. We have more than enough resources at our disposal to defeat them in the end." He chuckled, the sound crackly. "A celebration is more than earned on our part."
Bowser blinked before smiling. "Yeah. Yeah! You're absolutely right!" He turned toward Lemmy. "Lemmy, what do you say you help your old man out so we can throw a party this evening?"
"This evening?" Lemmy asked. He hung his head a little. "Uh… that sounds like a bit of a challenge…" He noticed Bowser's disappointed gaze and Bone Mage's glare, so he smiled. "But I'm always up for a challenge!"
"Good!" Bowser laughed as he went over to Lemmy, picking him up and placing him on his shoulders. "We're gonna bring this house down tonight! Just you wait!"
…
Much to Ludwig's surprise, the party that Bowser and Lemmy set up was pretty nice in spite of the short timeframe they had to prepare. Standing next to the punch table and taking careful sips of the drink, Ludwig observed the room. Servants and soldiers who usually worked in the castle were all taking part in the celebration (Ludwig couldn't help but notice that some of the soldiers were part of the group Bone Mage had enchanted). His siblings also seemed to be having a good time too. Based on the way they laughed and danced, one could easily make the assumption that they had completely forgotten about the questionable decisions that led to this bash.
Well, that was true of all of the Koopalings except for Iggy. There was a type of doom and gloom on his face, and he refused to join in on the festivities. He came over to Ludwig with the deepest, most pronounced scowl of all time. As Ludwig took another sip of his punch, Iggy let out a frustrated grunt.
"This is not the time to be celebrating." He shook his head and turned to Ludwig. "We disrupted and spat on the Peace Treaty we established between our Kingdoms, and for what? The words of encouragement Bowser got from that Bone Mage guy? Bone Mage is a stranger! Bowser didn't even know he existed until a few hours ago! So why in the flying FUDGEPOPS would Bowser care about his plans, opinions, or anything else about him?"
Ludwig swallowed his punch and sighed. "Can't help but agree with you there, Iggster." He frowned as he set his cup back down on the table. "I know Bowser doesn't always make the best decisions, but he HAS to know this is a bad idea." He paused for a second when he heard Roy let out a loud whoop from the middle of the room. "I mean, forget ignoring the Treaty and attacking the Mushroom Kingdom for a minute. Doesn't Bowser know how horribly his plans about this sort of stuff impact US?" His frown got deeper. "I mean, yes, attacking the Mushroom Kingdom today was a horrific atrocity. But Bowser doesn't actually have to care about Mario and Peach's opinions. He has no real relationship with them, so nothing is stopping him from saying 'screw it' and spitting in their faces. With us, it's a different story. We're his family. This means that Bowser not only cares a lot about us, but also knows us well enough to know how much we despise these missions." Flames started to form around his fingers. "He knows that we hate doing these morally questionable actions, so why the fuck is he making us do them?"
"Precisely my thought process!" Iggy agreed. He scowled some more as he looked back at the party. "And yet, here we are, attending a party celebrating his morally questionable actions." He gripped his hands into a fist. "This is actually disgusting.
"It is!" Noticing the flames growing higher, Ludwig took a deep breath to calm down. "But… what can we do? Bowser's more boneheaded than Bone Mage, who is a LITERAL dry bones. Talking to him isn't going to do much."
"No. No it won't." Iggy frowned and tapped his fingers against the surface of the punch table. "He only learns lessons the hard way." He cringed. "I just hope the hard way this time around doesn't involve anything too… messy."
Ludwig snorted as he picked his punch back up. "We more or less started a war with the Mushroom Kingdom today. There's no such thing as a non-messy solution."
Iggy let out a long sigh. "Yeah…"
"Okay! Okay everyone, quiet down for a second!"
Ludwig blinked when he heard Bowser calling out from the front of the throne room while standing next to Bone Mage. The party quieted down, with everyone turning to look at the Koopa King and his new… minion (Ludwig didn't know what Bone Mage was at this point, to be honest)? Bowser had the biggest smile on his face, and Bone Mage's expression wasn't too far off.
"Bone Mage and I have done some talking," Bowser said. "And we decided that, while the Mushroom Kingdom is definitely great, we want to aim our sights a little higher." He chuckled. "So, we're gonna expand our invasion."
Ludwig almost spit out his drink. No! No, no, a million times no! Bowser couldn't be serious right now!
"And one of the first places we want to expand our invasion to is a far away kingdom, one that, while out of the way, has a ton of resources we can take advantage of." Bone Mage grinned as he twirled his wand around in his bony hands. "The Metal Kingdom."
Ludwig blinked. The Metal Kingdom? He had heard about that place, but never really thought much about it. For one thing, like Bone Mage said, it was really far away. It rested on an island in the Mushroom World's southern hemisphere, and for the most part was completely cut off from the rest of the world. This was both in terms of geography and in terms of influence, as the Kingdom was the only nation in the Mushroom World that was strictly isolationist. As such, Ludwig's knowledge of it was very lacking. He wasn't even sure who ruled it at this point.
"The Metal Kingdom?" he asked out loud.
Iggy cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Uh… begging your pardon Bowser, but I don't think that's a good idea. Sure, the Metal Kingdom does have a wealth of natural resources, but it's the only nation in the world that's truly neutral in terms of what sides it takes in conflicts. Attacking it and forcing it to take part in a war would just be… well, it would be disrespectful!"
"Yeah!" Ludwig said as he too stepped forward. "Besides, we have more than enough resources here in the Koopa Kingdom! Why do we need more?"
Bowser and Bone Mage exchanged a look before laughing. "Oh, my dear Koopaling," Bone Mage said in what was perhaps the most condescending tone possible. "There's no such thing as enough resources."
Ludwig held back a growl. He wanted to punch this dry bones. He really did. He wanted to teach him a lesson, show him that all the steps his big-shot self was forcing Bowser to take weren't right. He bit his tongue as flames formed all over his arms. At this point, he really wished he wasn't a special, as that made his rising anger obvious to everyone in the room. Including Bone Mage.
"Oh, come now!" Bone Mage said. "There's no need to worry! This is for the best!" He cast Bowser another smile. "This is for the good of the Koopa Kingdom! By expanding our influence, we will be able to take down any threat that comes our way! The Stupid Mario Brothers won't ever bother Bowser again!"
"That's right, Bone Mage!" Bowser exclaimed. "You are absolutely right!"
Ludwig sniffed. Funny. I thought we set up a deal where the Mario Brothers already weren't bothering us again. He… he was really close to exploding. The flames were covering his entire upper body now. He noticed everyone staring at him, some of them even having frightened looks on their faces.
"Ludwig," Iggy said with a soft tone. "I think you should probably leave. As much as we dislike Bone Mage, we can't send anyone to the hospital tonight."
Ludwig nodded. "You're right." He walked toward the exit, trying his best to keep his flames from flaring up. That was extremely difficult though, as Bowser let out one more triumphant yell.
"WE'RE MOVING ON UP, EVERYONE! NOW LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!"
Ludwig shook his head. Him leaving really was for the best.
…
Well, if there was one legitimately excellent thing that came out of leaving the party, it was the fact that Ludwig managed to resume his text chain with Aria. The two chatted well into the night, making plans for their trip to the Palace of Spice, talking about Aria potentially coming to the castle so they could have some valuable one-on-one time together… overall, it was just pleasant. It was the perfect breath of fresh air, one that Ludwig especially needed after all the frustration and craziness that was going on. Sure, the frustration was still there, and probably wouldn't go away for quite a while, but… eh, he would take what he could get.
I hope to see you soon, Aria. Ludwig thought about what to say before smiling and finishing typing into the text box. I'm gonna make you feel like the queen of the Koopa Kingdom.
Lol, Aria texted back. There hasn't been a queen of the Koopa Kingdom for close to a millennium.
Exactly. That's how special I'm gonna make you feel. He sent her a winky face emoticon for good measure, giggling to himself as he did. Was this corny? Yes. Was it campy? Oh, absolutely. Was it cheesy? Enough to top a pizza. But Ludwig really didn't care. He was in Heaven. Aria had always been close to his heart ever since he met her that day in the forest. She had always mattered to him, and if this conversation was any indication, she always would.
After Aria sent him one last text thanking him and wishing him a good night, Ludwig decided that he was going to take a walk. He was in a much better headspace now than he had been at the party, so it wouldn't hurt to get his body moving. He rose out of his bed and walked out into the hallway. He smiled at how still and calm it felt. Sure, it always felt still and calm at night, but that didn't make this experience any less special in Ludwig's eyes. He smiled to himself as he walked down the stairs. His smile only got bigger as he walked past the entrance hall and into the portrait hall. Looking at the various kings of the Koopa Kingdom delighted him, even with the fact that the current King was trying to win the "who can make the stupidest decisions in history" contest. It was all around really nice.
However, that niceness faded when Ludwig noticed Bone Mage in the throne room. He was talking to a red bob-omb, who Ludwig was pretty sure was named Matchstick. Matchstick had a pretty nervous voice as he spoke to the wizard. "Do you really think it'll work?"
Bone Mage chuckled. "Well, it's working right now, isn't it?"
Ludwig pressed himself up against the wall behind the door What were they talking about? Whatever it was, it sounded important, not to mention suspicious.
"I… I get what you're saying, but we don't have the kind of power to…" Bone Mage shushed Matchstick before he could finish his sentence. All the while, his skinless face showed more joy than Ludwig had ever seen before.
"Trust me. We will succeed. It's only a matter of time. But not a word about this to anyone, understand?"
"O… of course, Bone Mage."
"Excellent." Bone Mage stood up to his full height. "Now, come on. We should go to bed. Want to be well rested for the invasion of the Metal Kingdom."
With that, both minions left the room. All the while, Ludwig just stood there racking his brain.
"What in the world are they up to?"
