He wasn't wrong. Soon, one after another, Mason and Chris arrived, bumped fists with him and started to feast on pizza as well. They didn't say anything just glanced at YunYun and all four of them cleaned the table. When only few pieces were left, Mason sat back and sighed.
"You bastard! Two hundred and twenty nine days! What took you so long?"
"Oh? You were also counting?" Nick grinned.
"The whole damn country was counting! When "Queen Elizabeth" returned unexpectedly with over thirty ships escorting it, the king was almost gathering his army to invade the Nestri empire. Thank god the old king managed to calm him down."
"It was that bad?" Nick was shocked.
"Sigh, you don't even have the slightest idea." Chris sighed, but then smiled at YunYun, "Why don't you introduce us. She's one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen!"
"The most beautiful!" Nick corrected, "YunYun, please meet my friends Chris Evans, he's Kate's little brother, and Mason Meyer, the owner of this fine establishment."
He barely finished his sentence when the doors were blasted open and Kate with tears in her eyes stormed in, sat down and grabbed a piece of pizza, and started to bite it furiously.
"Well, you have already met Kate …" Nick tried to joke when one after another three princesses entered and without restraint, took their seats and the last pieces of pizza as well.
"… and you know Conny and Beata. But this is their sister, Belia – another princess, of course … and you probably remember Steven – he hung out with us for some time."
Nick got increasingly shocked as more people kept storming in and in the end called waiter and ordered more food. The small room was overcrowded and for some reason everyone decided to come at the same time. Nick was expecting his two friends who came first, but the arrival of others really surprised him.
Mason, Chris and YunYun were similarly surprised, but politely greeted each other and looked at Nick as if expecting for him to solve the current awkwardness.
"What's the big deal?" Nick shrugged after thinking for a moment, "We had it much worse. Cheer up, we're all home!"
But for some reason only he and YunYun were ready to move on, the faces of others were displaying feelings of pity, anger and sadness when they looked at Kate.
"Can anyone please fill me in?" Nick couldn't take the atmosphere anymore. They just returned, feasted on pizza and should have been happy. No one died either, so what was going on?
"He recalled our marriage while I was away!" Kate angrily said with a full mouth and tears in her eyes.
Nick finally understood why all of them arrived. While auntie Maria was hugging him, everyone else was catching up on the events that transpired while they were away. As soon as princesses heard their friend's engagement was broken off, they knew she'll rush here and Steven was the same. Their small company had developed quite deep level of understanding during the past months months and knew everyone will gather around Nick as soon as a problem rose and there was only one place in the capital where he could be at this moment.
"Hahaha! Great!" Nick laughed, "These are really great news!"
The eight other people stared at him in shock. What? How were those great news?
"Remember our conversation about the arranged marriages? Now you see my point!" Nick explained, "And you are fortunate, because that idiot broke off your engagement before you married him. Imagine you would've spent your entire life together with someone who can't even wait few months for you!"
"But … but he said that … I … I ... am not pure anymore after being captured by pirates for so long … and I'm old as well ..." Kate was in tears.
"So what? You are pretty and smart. There are many who will want to marry you. I stand by my earlier statement and definitely can confirm that these are good news." Nick confidently said, "And for being old? What's the deal with children getting married? You are couple years older than Conny! How are you old in any way?"
"Kate," YunYun suddenly said, "You're looking at this in the wrong way. Don't you realize you are strong now? Just grab a young, strong and handsome general to be your husband! You can finally choose by yourself and are strong enough to whip his *ss if you don't like something as well!"
If friends were stunned at Nick's explanation, then YunYun's ideas shocked them completely.
"I can't say I agree with YunYun, but I agree with Nick." Conny said while holding Kate's hand, "I never liked that young duke Belington. You'll see – you'll find someone you love and have a happy marriage."
Others, one after another, expressed their agreement. If in the beginning they were upset and angry, just like Kate, than now it really seemed like they got great news. She didn't have to get married to a bad husband!
Few minutes later Kate calmed down as well, "But how do I get back my reputation? That bastard already spread the news of me being raped and supposedly dead."
"Kate, those are just opinions of people. Don't you already have enough experience to manipulate them?" Nick shrugged.
"But it's not that easy and it might take years!" Beata argued, "It is hard for a girl to prove her purity and even us, princesses, currently have to bear a lot of gossip."
"Didn't you learn anything during this trip?" Nick sighed, "And don't tell me you don't remember how you conquered the capital back then."
"Nick, I understand you have an idea, but I'm on the edge! Speak!" Kate got angry.
"They conquered capital?" YunYun was confused.
"You should've seen that." Mason explained, "It was how long … five years ago? Nick was eight at the time and designed revolutionary dresses and shoes for the 'five flowers of Aurora'. In those outfits they put all the men in the capital to their knees. Thank god I was only a boy at that time or I would've ran after them salivating just like all the other youths at that time."
"You were tailor's apprentice at eight years of age?" YunYun exclaimed in shocked voice.
"Hahaha!" Everyone laughed while Nick blushed all over.
"No. He has never been apprentice to anyone." Kate explained, "He invented a unique a design for Zia's outfit and we thought maybe he could give us an idea or two as well. But we didn't expect him to create a whole new design and even a walking technique for us to show off."
"What?" The girl from the Eastern continent got shocked even more. They have spent so much time together, but this was her first time hearing about this.
"Indeed, it's called 'Catwalk'. It's quite hard – I'll show you later." Kate explained, "Now! Nick! Explain your plan!"
Nick sighed and helplessly looked around.
"Alright, but we'll need a bit of Clayton's help as well."
For the next hour he explained his idea and even drew some sketches. Then together with Beata, Belia and YunYun hurried to the palace while the rest went home.
Nick was a bit depressed. Even after they successfully returned, he still had to live a life full of stress. Of course, he didn't shy off and did his best to help his friends, just like always.
King sat in his study and smiled widely when Nick and YunYun entered.
Both bowed, but king waved them off and said, "Let's keep it short. I understand you want to rest for a few days."
"Your majesty, I think that even the short version requires the presence of the old king, general Sanders and Simon Den as well. Not sure, maybe even Ling should come if he's around." Nick sighed.
King looked at him for a few seconds, "Ling is still looking after Zia, but I'll call the rest."
After king gave out few orders, he turned back to the two youngsters.
"While we're waiting, why don't you introduce me to your beautiful friend."
"My apologies, your majesty, this is YunYun. We managed to save her alongside your daughters. YunYun, this is his majesty, Alexander Maxwell." Nick formally introduced.
"Are you from the Eastern continent?" King asked.
"Yes, our ship was seized in an unexpected pirate attack. For some reason they braved to cross the sea and managed to capture me." YunYun answered, "Your majesty, you have regular contacts with the Lethe kingdom, right? May I ask you to send a message to my mother?"
"It's not a big deal. Where should I send it, which city?"
"My family name is Li."
"Your name is Li Yun?" King got startled and looked at Nick in confusion, "'THE' Li family from capital?"
"Yes." YunYun smiled and king exhaled a long breath while still looking at Nick.
"Alright. I think there might be someone in the palace who would want to meet you."
Nick didn't pay much attention to their conversation. Albeit king did act a bit strangely, YunYun was same as always and the surname Li also sounded a common one, at least back on Earth.
"Let me guess, your ship didn't have that many valuables, correct?" King asked.
YunYun nodded and Nick had explanation.
"The slave trade is blooming on the Nestri continent. The most beautiful girls from around the world are being captured and sent to the castle. It's even the common knowledge that the emperor had some perverted tendencies and tens of thousands of wives. I'm not surprised the pirates went to the Eastern continent just to capture her."
"Right …" King wanted to say something, but the old king arrived and soon after the other two people who were dealing with the matters of the Holy Order.
Nick introduced YunYun to them and started his story.
"Gentlemen, I am sorry for the disturbance, but the very beginning our trip started with me encountering Holy Order's people and in the process there were multiple further encounters, therefore I suggested your presence even in this short briefing."
Everyone invited nodded in understanding since there was only one reason for Nick to call exactly this group.
"First, I hope you dealt with the narcotics crisis, but we can talk about it later. I'll go over our trip touching on the main points and after I'm finished, you can decide which part you want to hear more detailed now and what can we postpone till tomorrow. I promise you'll have a lot of work."
YunYun was surprised seeing this side of Nick. He often was serious, but as it turned out he was on very familiar, extremely close terms with the king and other big-shots of the Sun kingdom. Still, it was interesting for her to experience this so she just smiled and listened.
"After the ship's hijacking we were brought to the pirate base called 'Paradise city' when I encountered a couple of old alchemist masters. It's possible that under the emperor's orders they were researching new explosive substance that might revolutionize warfare as you know it. It was already pivotal to kill them so I could keep my cover and after I managed to do that, I destroyed their research as well. As you already know, before I released the captives, pirate king Red sent the girls to the capital as a tribute to the emperor, but what you don't – she sent the research material archives of those two alchemists and that was the reason why the girls were sent away so urgently."
Nick grabbed a bottle of water from the air and took a sip, but no one payed attention to that and continued to attentively listen to his story.
"On our way to the capital we encountered a rank six flame wolf that the Holy Order was trying to seal with the slave rune formation they got from emperor Osman those years ago – you might remember it from my report I told the last time. We managed to stop them and rescue the wolf, but killed only a part of the people they sent for the event."
The eyes of everyone widened. The men were shocked about the kid encountering another rank six beast, while YunYun noticed the subtle 'from my report I told the last time'.