The royal capital. A place where all of the wealth of the world lies and all of the important people either live there or gather there, the royal capital is also the home to the high king and high queen of the world, they live in a large fortified castle that is in the middle of the expensive looking city, beast people, human, and dwarfs are scattered around the streets, some owned shops, others carriages, and some even walked, but they all had one thing in common, the wore fancy suits, it wasn't his favorite place to be but he had no choice but to walk among the tall building and the rich people that he so much despises
'Why did Midas call me here? We had a meeting last month so having another one seems kind of useless to me'
Tokkou thought as he walked towards the castle, he was wearing a long coat, and he didn't want to attract attention to him since that would have only delayed his trip
After walking he came across a protest full of demons, it wasn't so big but it was enough to block the road for carriages and people, the ones protesting were demons, no other race in sight
"WE WANT EQUALITY! WE WANT EQUALITY!..."
They screamed over and over, Tokkou peacefully approached one of the protests and asked
"Why are you protesting?"
The demon looked angry
"Don't act like you don't know! The entrance for demons in this capital is strictly prohibited for no reason! You are discriminating against our race throughout the years but you are still taking advantage of us! Things need to change and fast or this kingdom won't last!"
The demon said with a furious voice, Tokkou laughed a little
"I agree with you but the last part was just a bad joke, anyways scarp before I use force! People are trying to go to work unlike you"
Tokkou said as he released his aura, Tokkou's purple aura quickly attracted the attention of all the bystanders and protestors
"IT'S THE GRAND JACK! RUN!"
A demon screamed, all of the demons then broke their formation and started running away left and right, Tokkou then flew above the building and started to fly towards the castle, he didn't want people to start talking to him
'What's wrong with the royal guards? This protest would have normally stopped at the first five minutes but looking at the mess they created they did it for long, I may have to have a word with the king about this'
Tokkou thought as he picked up the pace
It didn't take him long to arrive at the castle, Tokkou identified himself to the guards and entered the castle, he walked across the big hall that was built near the huge garden the castle had, Tokkou could see countless flowers that varied in color in this huge garden
"Beautiful aren't they?"
An old maid asked Tokkou, she talked to him in a casual tone
"They are, especially this black rose, it's a very special kind of flower that requires little to no care"
Tokkou said as he approached the flower
"Did my daughter teach you about flowers?"
The maid asked, Tokkou smiled
"Who else but Becka could teach the grand jack?"
Tokkou said, the maid smiled too
"I'm glad that Becky has someone like you as her owner"
She said, Tokkou got up and started walking towards the throne room with the maid
"I'm honored that she still chooses to stay with me even after all this time, honestly, it feels kind of bad to order her around but so much time has passed, my house might as well become hers"
Tokkou said as he laughed
"A house without a husband is useless to a woman"
The woman said
"Are you still talking about this idea of yours? You know well that Becka doesn't look for a man, but if she found one I would gladly provide them with a house and money at the start"
Tokkou said as he lighted up a cigarette
"She has already found a man but the man doesn't seem to do something about her..."
The woman said as she stared into Tokkou's eyes, he sighed
"I can't marry Becka and you know it, I can die any time of the day and I can also be executed if a better replacement for the jack card appears, I wouldn't want to leave a child fatherless, would you?"
Tokkou asked the woman with seriousness, the woman laughed
"Just say that you are a coward when it comes to women! Everybody knows that you are the second-strongest man in history! There is no way someone can replace you while you are still alive!"
The woman said, Tokkou felt a bit embarrassed by the woman's reaction
"Y-You never know..."
Tokkou said with an embarrassed voice, after all this talk the two of them reached the door that lead to the throne room
"I will be leaving you here, make sure you don't cause any trouble"
The woman said, she then returned to her maid duties, before entering Tokkou threw the cigarette on the ground and stepped over it, he then entered the room, and after taking some steps in he noticed that nobody was inside, but in a flash, a man attacked him from the darkness of the room, the man tried to attack him multiple time with his spear but Tokkou easily dodged the attacks, the man then walked up closer to Tokkou and used a rotating attack of his spear that landed, the attack launched Tokkou to a pillar but he wasn't damaged even a little, the man then tried to stab Tokkou with the spear but Tokkou easily grabbed the spear and restrained the man with his power
"Cheap trick for a captain don't you agree?"
Tokkou asked the man with a smile, he was the same man who led Tokkou's knights
"It's not my fault, I have to test the sharpness of my leader once in a while"
The man replied with a smile, Tokkou then released the man and gave him the spear
"Where is everyone Fin? I don't sense nor see anyone"
Tokkou asked as he looked around
"They are still not here, Enyo refuses to come, Rigel is on his way, Erebus is probably already here, hiding somewhere around and our king and queen are still in their bedroom, they are waiting for everyone to arrive"
Fin told Tokkou
"If the others are late then that means that the meeting won't start right?"
Tokkou asked
"Precisely, that's why I don't like those meetings, everyone simply refuses to come on their time and we end up waiting here for over two days, I'm telling you the king should make the rules more strict or else things will remain this way"
Fin said in an angry tone
"I will consider this Captain Fin"
Someone said as he entered the room
"M-M-My majesty welcome!"
Fin said as he quickly bowed to him, the king was a tall grey-haired man with ocean blue eyes, he was wearing heavy armor with a long red cape, and he also was wearing a golden crown, Tokkou was still standing even after the king's entrance
"Long time no see, what's the problem now?"
Tokkou casually asked, as he was asking he signaled Fin to leave the room so he quickly did
"Would you mind waiting for my lady to come? I would like to discuss matters such as this with her, not just you two"
'Two? Didn't Fin left?'
Tokkou wondered as he looked around
"Are you looking for me?"
A man said standing on the side of the pillar, something like a shadow was helping him stand on the side of the pillar without any problem
"So you were here the whole time, Erebus?"
Tokkou asked the man, Erebus was a man dressed in all black with black hair and dark-brown eyes, the man then jumped from the sides of the pillar and landed on his feet with no problem at all
"Rigel will be late my majesty so I suggest we start when your queen arrives"
Erebus said as he bowed his head
"No way Midas! We have to wait for master Rigel too, I don't know what the problem is about yet but I know that Rigel and you are one of the wisest people so having you two think over the problem makes me feel more comfortable in my own choices"
Tokkou said as he walked away from Erebus
'Did he just call him by his first name?'
Erebus thought as he stared at Tokkou
"I wasn't planning on starting without him anyways, now sit down on the chairs in front of the throne so we can have a talk"
The king said with a smile, both of them took a seat and waited
"So how was your search? Did you find any clues of HIM yet?"
the king asked the two men, Erebus took the lead and answered first
"I didn't find any clues yet, I searched at the capital and in the spade kingdom but I couldn't find anything, next up is the clover kingdom"
"As for me I searched at the location we last saw HIM but I couldn't find anything either, only a... never mind"
Tokkou said, he was thinking of telling them about Teras but he had nothing to do with HIM
"I don't care if it's silly Tokkou, any piece of information can help"
The king said, but before Tokkou could reply the queen came in the room, she had long blonde hair and beautiful golden eyes, she was wearing a long white dress that barely didn't touch the ground, and she also looked very young
'Every time I see her I forget that she is about the age of Midas, I guess that is how angels age'
Tokkou thought as he admired the queen's beauty
"I saw Rigel coming in from my bedroom window so the meeting will shortly begin! Thank you all for coming here"
The queen said as she sat on her throne
"You look very beautiful my queen!"
Erebus said as he kissed the queen's hand, it was a policy that everyone had to keep but Tokkou didn't do it, suddenly Rigel came in
"I'm sorry I took so long to arrive! I met an inconvenience on the road to here"
Rigel said as he fell to his knees
"Stand up! I only just got here so you don't have to feel bad"
The queen said
"Thank you queen Haniella!"
Rigel said, he then proceeded to sit on the last remaining chair but not before kissing the queen's arm
"Now that we are all here let us begin! The reason I called you here was to discuss about the demons, lately, many parades and riots about demons have started occurring in the royal capital, we can send knights to take care of them but the problem will still be there, you see demons have been demonized for a lot of years and I am tired of this too, but it's hard to change the mind of millions of people like that, so what is your suggestion about making the demons satisfied?"
The king asked, Tokkou couldn't help but laugh a little
"Sorry about that! About the problem, I want to say that on my way here I came across a demon protest, they were asking for equality, meaning they want to access the royal capital like any other race, for me, this doesn't sound like something so hard to provide to them"
Tokkou said with a serious tone
"As I said earlier the whole world hates demons, so letting them roam free in the capital will only inflict more hate and argument against them, we have to act in a way that honors the demons but gradually so the people can adapt to the change"
The king said, the queen then suddenly stood up, and everyone turned their eyes on her
"We have four unused cards, so how about we give them to the best demon fighters, this will surely bring joy to the demons in a way that doesn't affect the majority of them"
The queen said
"That's impossible! The cards aren't a small deed, people will become furious if the demons get ahold of 3 of the 13 cards"
Erebus replied with passion
"Then how about we give them only one card? The fire card is a very powerful yet weak card but it resembles their land, so I think this card may be the best choice we have"
The king said, everyone, seemed to agree to his proposal
"Then it is set, in a week we will call upon here the strongest demon warrior to get honored with a card, make sure you stay in the capital during those seven days and try to spread the news as fast as you can, you are dismissed"
The king said, Rigel and Erebus quickly left but Tokkou stayed
"I think Erebus was convinced about this choice and doesn't suspect anything"
Tokkou said with a smile
"Well the plan was to give them one card from the start but suggesting it firsthand wouldn't have worked, we had to make him believe that we were planning to give the three cards and then downgrade it to one so he could easily agree"
Judas said
"So... do we really need to keep this a secret from him? I mean everyone knows except him, so what's the point of hiding that The Joker is around? Calling Joker HIM doesn't suit me right, plus if he was actually searching for the Joker and not a non-existence person then things could have been a bit smoother"
Tokkou said as he placed his hand in his pocket, he then headed to the door but before leaving the king told him something
"There is not a wrong or a right answer in this world Tokkou, we may use a method that you don't necessarily support but that's the only way we can retain peace"
Tokkou didn't say anything, he simply got out of the room so he can have a proper smoke...