The princess stopped as they arrived before the king and separated herself from him before taking a small step back. “This is your glory,” she said quietly to Lucas. “I do not want to interfere.”

Lucas shook his head, not wanting his plan to collapse at the last minute because of this small interruption. “No, I insist.” He motioned for her to stay by his side and checked that both Bonnie and Nick had their healing scepters in hand. Lucas also caught sight of Malik and Valerie behind him as he was looking at his friends. The pair was still glaring at him. “You were right there fighting beside me, and your spells kept me alive when I was facing certain doom.”

“Modest as always,” the princess said, re-attaching herself to his arm.

There were several other players receiving gifts for helping out, and Lucas liked the fact that most of them hadn’t gotten there as quickly as he did. His group was third in line out of what looked like ten small parties. How come there weren’t this many on the beach? Two more groups showed up behind him, and it occurred to him that they probably weren’t all there for the same thing. He was there for the defense of the city quest, but everyone else was probably there for an entirely different quest. This was the only Alfar quest hub on the whole of noob island, so it just made sense that most people would be turning in completed chains to the head of the small tree city.

In one sense, their presence here was a good thing. The more witnesses he had to what he was about to do, the faster the story would spread—and, inevitably, the larger it would grow with embellishment after each telling. Lucas had no doubt that, by the time most people heard of this stunt, he would be a lunatic demon, ten times larger than he actually was, with hooved feet and curved horns growing out of his head. It also meant that the risk involved and his chance of failure grew with each new addition to the room. No matter his strengths or how many plans he had in place, if enough players worked against him—in fact, if they did little other than stand rooted in place with mouths agape in shock—there was a good chance that he would fail. Like most villains in society, he was counting on apathy and inaction from the populace.

“So, you’re the man that the princess was telling us about,” the king said, drawing Lucas out of his silent calculations. He and the Queen were both tall, thin, and lanky and clothed in green-and-brown outfits. Their wooden crowns were comprised of oaken bases and studded with flower-shaped jewels across the top. “She rarely mentions men, so you must color me surprised that she would so quickly bring one before me.”