Chapter 985: Whip It Out!

Dickon was purveying the room from his throne. He might have overindulged this evening as he was struggling to stay awake.

To keep himself awake, he looked over to the most beautiful woman in the room and smiled.

Hailey was sat alongside the Hyllus’ Due to the scrunts’ involvement with them, he had begun to find them distasteful. Clearly their choice of character was poor, but that wasn’t an issue for now.

Dickon then once again registered who else was sat with Hailey. Hailey’s longest friend, Milanna Greyard.

He has liked Milanna ever since he met her. She was respectful, polite and had a a deep spring of love for his treasure.

He remembered the joke Milanna made once about marrying Hailey to her diplomatically. It was a cute idea and honestly, if his princess had to be with anyone, he liked the sound of the two of them together the most.

But he couldn’t do that anyway. Hailey would rather kill herself then be forcefully married and he couldn’t lose the last thing he had left of Bellona.

’Bellona...’

The memory of his former wife always appears when he has had one too many. He needed a distraction, even all these years later her passing still ached his heart.

It seemed his thoughts were rewarded as a modulated voice suddenly spoke to him.

"King Dickon. A moment of your time?"

Dickon turned to the voice and raised an eyebrow at the woman. "Lady Jocasta? This is unexpected. I don’t recall the last time you chose to speak to me of your own volition."

"Yes, well I find you extremely tedious and boring to talk to, so I avoid it. It is nothing personal." Jocasta declared.

’Sounds personal...’ Dickon couldn’t help thinking. "I see. Then what do you want? I wouldn’t want to bore you would I?"

Jocasta ignored the tone in Dickon’s voice and refused to roll her eyes. "I need a favour. In return I will offer you one in exchange at a later date."

Dickon leaned forward in his chair, his previous drowsiness disappearing. Jocasta was fiercely loyal to Sigismund. That was just a fact. She was not corrupt in the slightest. The chance for a favour... This was a very big opportunity for him, even if he had no idea at this moment in time what to do with said favour.

"Is that so? Then ask your king and he shall aid you." He said, trying to sound magnanimous.

"Great, then sign here." Jocasta stated, pulling out a data pad from her arm.

Dickon blinked in annoyance. He didn’t mind paperwork, but his eyes were not exactly trustworthy at this moment in time. He took the pad from Jocasta and was reading to sign the signature when he asked. "And what am I signing?"

"You are giving consent and pardoning Sentinel Lambdason to be able to use Psionics for the next hour within palace grounds.

"Oh, Ok, wait what? Absolutely not!" Dickon said, throwing the pad back to Jocasta, his face turning red with rage.

Jocasta didn’t care. "Ok, well, I will just ask your wife then, I know she will be happy to do so. I thought you would want to make Hailey happy. Considering what Sigismund told me about what happened at lunch yesterday, I thought you could use some good favour. Enjoy the rest of your night."

Dickon tensed his body so tight a vein looked like it was about to explode on his forehead, but he managed to stand up. "Wait a moment." He declared to Jocasta and strode forward towards her.

He then snatched the data pad out of her hand and wrote his signature upon it before walking away towards the bar. His head literally steamed as he did.

...

Jocasta looked at that and would have smiled if she could. The ’hard’ part of her task was all too easy. Next up was Sigismund.

Walking over to Sigismund, she tapped him on the shoulder while he was talking to some Lochagos’ and before he turned around she spoke. "My King, I am writing your signature on a consent and pardon document.

"Alright." Sigismund replied, not even fully paying attention as he was listening to a decent war story.

...

"Good things come to those who wait, my purple haired companion. Just trust Apollo and wait for the magic." I said to Gabrielle who was curious about what I whispered to Jocasta.

"But I want to know~ Come on, spoil the magic for me. Please? I took a war hammer to the body for you after all- I’m sorry that was too far, don’t be mad at me."

I shook my head at Gabrielle, if she could joke about it, then I was fine with it, she got into her own head too much, so I pulled her into a hug.

"Mmh. It’s ok, Apollo isn’t mad. Apollo is just glad you are safe... Gabrielle, you give the best hugs. Mmmh~"

Nerissa rolled her eyes looking at the massive grin Gabrielle had as she hugged Apollo tight. ’I thought she was finally telling him tonight?’

"Am I interrupting something sweet?" Jocasta suddenly asked, announcing her presence.

I pulled away from Gabrielle, who began to pout. I ignored it and asked. "Did you get what I need, beautiful?" I asked, stroking where her chin would be with my finger.

"Yes. Both gave you permission. You can do whatever it is you want with full legality. It was no trouble at all."

I stepped closer, pulling Jocasta in by the hip. "No. It was. And you went out of your way to help Apollo. Apollo won’t forget this. Thank you." I then leant down and gave her a friendly kiss on the cheek, or rather the metal where her cheek had once been.

Jocasta proceeded to make a few beeping noises which I assumed to be her laughing at my friendly act... Or maybe anger as what was left of her skin was turning red.

I was about to apologise when she suddenly sprang up on her metal tendrils and announced. "I have some data I need to analyse. Excuse me."

I watched as Jocasta then scurried away through the crowd on four tendril arms like some type of insect or something.

’Hot... Dude, come on.’ I shook the thoughts out of my head and turned to Nerissa for the next phase of my plan.

"Alright Nessy-Bear. You are up!"

"Apollo... Don’t call me that in public." Nerissa declared, her body language unmoving, but I smirked, I seriously embarrassed her.

"Sorry, my Shrinking violet, Apollo forgot how shy you are. Don’t worry though, Apollo thinks it’s adorable."

"Apollo, what do you need from me?" Nerissa replied, a formal edge in her tone.

"Ok, Ok. Apollo gets it." I said, putting my hands up in the air, admitting defeat at her cuteness.

I then clapped my hands together in front of me. "Ok then, whip it out for Apollo."

"Pardon?" Nerissa asked me.

"You are pardoned. So come on, whip it out!" I said with great enthusiasm.

Nerissa stammered for some reason. "A-A-Apollo? What do you want me to ’whip out’ exactly?"

I guffawed and rolled my eyes with exaggerated flair. "Oh come on, we both know. It’s awesome and it Begins with ’P’"

Gabrielle, hearing that, suddenly glanced down below the Praetorian’s waist line, her eyebrow raising with curiosity.

Nerissa noticed that glance and it took everything in her power not to correct Gabrielle’s thinking. Instead, she turned to Drunk Apollo and spoke very calmly.

"Apollo, I am afraid I don’t know what you are talking about, please can you speak plainly before, some of us, think outlandish things."

I shook my head, slightly disappointed she didn’t get the obvious hint. "Alright, fine. Nerissa. Will you please create a Psialtherion for Apollo?"

"Oooohhhh~" Gabrielle exclaimed in understanding before suddenly becoming elated. "Wait, Apollo, have you made a full song for us?!?"

I smiled and nodded, tapping my temple I replied. "The amount of nonsense rattling around in here? You better believe Apollo has a song for every occasion."

I then turned to Nerissa and gave her a playful wink. "Plus if there is one thing me and my old founders namesake has in common, we both appreciate good music."

Nerissa closed her eyes and took in a deep deep breath. So what if Apollo also knew that fact about her goddess? Rhapso was right, just accept what she knew and resist the urge to go full research mode.

’Resist!’

"Ness? Anyone home?"

"Yes! Huh?"

"The Psialtherion?" I asked.

"Oh, right. Apologise, Apollo. Here you go."

Nerissa then reached out to her right and in no time at all, a flat, ornate, rectangular, three stringed instrument appeared in her hand. She then handed it over to me. The moment I took hold of it, I could feel the telepathic pull of the instrument, it wanted to make a connection. But it had to wait a moment.

I smiled, tucking it under my arm.

"Right, go tell Serena to have Elaine do whatever needs to be done. Apollo has spotted a foxy redhead at the bar holding a nice pint of beer that has his name all over it. Apollo will go and inhale that quickly then you should get ready to have your socks knocked off."