“What did you do?” Angela snapped as soon as Jackson returned. It was late in the evening by the time Jackson navigated his way back to the palace.

“I did my duty as a hero and freed some slaves.” Jackson spoke sarcastically as he moved onto the wagon.

“Seriously, what did you do?” Angela snapped again, not believing his story.

“I’m telling the truth.” Jackson looked back, wining. “Oh, hey Gypsy. Your eyes look amazing in this light.”

“Thank you dear, but flattery gets you nowhere.” Gypsy smiled, blushing slightly. She seemed to like the complement. “Now, what trouble did you cause?”

“I didn’t cause any trouble!” Jackson snapped, not wanting to talk about his day with them. “I saved some slaves, that was it.”

“Did they pay you?” Gypsy asked.

“No.”

“Did you get a reward?”

“No.”

“Did you get their names, so I could send them the bill?”

“No.”

“Lovely.” Gypsy stopped her line of questions there, taking a deep breath. Jackson moved into the crow’s-nest, taking a seat next to Barbara. The others didn’t follow, much to his relief. Jackson looked at his palm and said a single word.

“Cut!”

The blood oozed out, and Jackson smiled as it started to drip onto the wooden floor. Barbara watched; she didn’t seem happy he’d cut himself. Joy turned to horror as the blood started to harden. On his palm was armor, deep black armor. He scraped it off against the side of the basket and stared once more at his palm. The fresh cut was gone. He held his head for a long moment while trying to calm his mind. Barbara moved next to him, showing her concern for him by throwing an arm around him.

Gypsy then came up a moment later, giving him a devilish smile.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we got work to do.”

“Right.”

Jackson got up and began to follow Gypsy. The party wasn’t going to start for a few more hours, but the Madame’s girls needed that time to finish prepping. Jackson was being called in to help with not only the heavy lifting but to stand guard. Unsurprisingly a lot of the girls found his presence soothing.

Angela helped as well, scaring off some handsy noble boys and a fox girl. Barbara wasn’t allowed to help, in fear of her accidently cutting herself. Instead they had her patrolling the perimeter every hour or so. She checked in with Jackson often, double checking his hand each time.

After much work, Jackson was led into the ballroom by Gypsy. The party was going to begin in about an hour and guests started to be escorted in. Gypsy didn’t waste any time grabbing Jackson and guiding him in. He half listened to her talk about taking a night to relax and party.

“…I get the first dance tonight. Not Angela, not Barbara, not any other side girl, me. Understand.”

“Side gi- I mean, yes. Did I tell you have beautiful your eyes are?”

“No, please continue.”

Gypsy was wearing a tight, long green dress designed like most of her wardrove to emphasize her feminine figure. Jackson on the other hand was in his armer and cape with the hood pulled over his face. He was enhancing his eyes to look for danger and found it a little too quickly.

He spotted two young men, the same age as him to be exact, talking with some beast girls. Jackson knew them on sight and felt his heart sink. They looked a like, which was a surprise as they were twins, with brown hair and green eyes. One had long hair while the other kept his short. They were in tight tuxes, showing off their broad shoulders, of a greyish blue color. They were both handsome and were drawing many eyes. Jackson knew them very well, and it was hard not to simply attack Thomas, the one with short hair, and Daniel, the one with long hair. Afterall, they were his cousins.

Jackson stayed his hand, suppressing his anger as they hadn’t noticed him. Even if they did it was doubtful if they’d even recognize him in his current state. Jackson wasn’t the only one to spot them however, Angela, wearing a deep blue number, was glaring at them from a distance. It didn’t take long for Joseph to notice and go greet them along with his party, minus Kevin who was absent from the party all together.

“Can’t you enjoy yourself for once?”

Gypsy complained, noticing his grim expression.

“You’re right, how about that dance?”

“We can’t yet, there’s no music. We’ll have to wait for this party to start before I get to have some fun.”

Jackson continued to examine the room, looking for other possible problems. He found his former teacher in a golden dress that stopped just above her knees. Apart of him wanted to go talk with her, to let her know he wasn’t dead. But he feared that would create scene. Also, the sudden pain caused by Gypsy to his arm made him move on and continue scouting. Jackson then spotted Edward, who looked completely out of place. To describe him as a lost puppy wouldn’t be a wrong comparison. He carefully moved around the room, nearly being trampled by those larger than him. Jackson quickly moved Gypsy away from that general area.

Jackson spotted the beast folk summoned heroes. He’d seen a poster of them while scouting out the town earlier but couldn’t believe the poster made them look more human than they actually were. Two young men and a young woman, all three were large and beastly. They were dressed in formal wear that showed off their heavy muscles and well-defined figures. One, who seemed to be the leader, was bald with a cartoonist handlebar mustache. He was easily the largest of the three and gave the impression of being a bodybuilder. The woman could pass for an amazon, with flowing black hair and dangerous dark eyes. The final one was a short man with blond hair. What he lacked in height he more then made up for in muscle mass. Another group to avoid, Jackson thought.

Of the remaining people of note, there was three. Two of them were together. A young ‘human’ woman with long black hair and purple eyes. Jackson’s danger sense was going off just by looking at her, and if he learned she was a demon or some kind of monster he would not have been surprised. She wasn’t ugly, far from it. In fact she was gorgeous with long arms and legs and an attractive build. It was her aura that scared him. That, and she was one of the few carrying a sword. Two swords, six knives, a pocket crossbow, several darts and a bomb? Her companion was a young man about Jackson’s age with black hair and pale skin. He was also tall and slender, like the girl, with model like features. However his dark eyes never seemed to leave the girl he was with. There was something eerie about him, especially as he had no weapons.

The final person of note was a girl in full armor. It was the armor that drew Jackson’s attention, and the fact she was sneaking around on the second level with a cloak masking herself in the shadows. From what he could see, she had long blond hair tied back and fair skin with familiar facial features. She had a sword on her belt, a hand rested on it as she quickly moved above the crowd. Jackson told Gypsy, who brushed it off as a palace guard or some other harmless nonsense. Jackson tried to push the point, but Gypsy had already started drinking and was giggling at his panic. Jackson tried to keep an eye on the armored girl but to his surprise she simply vanished. If she’d casted an illusion or turned invisible he’d been able to see through it, but that wasn’t the case. She was simply gone, like she teleported. This only made Jackson worry more.

As the start approached, Angela and Barbara joined Gypsy and Jackson. Much to Jackson’s surprise Gypsy swung herself around him, preventing the other two from getting too close. Angela glared at her but said nothing. Barbara, in a borrowed red dress that didn’t fit, just looked confused then started to watch the grand stairs as the queen began her descent.

“Welcome honored guest. I welcome you to my home in a gesture of peace. Peace and the future of our world. I have summoned you all here for two reasons, the first as some of you might have guessed is to find a suitable mate for my daughter. The other is to build good relations with the other countries of our world and start moving forwards.”

The room clapped. Jackson quickly scanned the room, expecting now to be the perfect moment to pull something. In his search he spotted Joseph standing with the Kingdom’s princess and her brother clapping, he found Franklin was in a corner smiling with one of Gypsy’s friends hanging off his arm. Jackson continued to scan, finding more familiar faces but not out right threats. No ambush, no trap. This didn’t make sense to him and his guard only went up.

“Without farther delay, I give you my daughter: Luna Kaiser.”

There it was something bad to make the world seem normal once more. The daughter was none other than Luna, the snow leopard he’d just saved a bunch of slaves with, who was being escorted by her father. For some reason Jackson wasn’t even mad, surprised and shocked, but not angry. In fact, it somehow made a lot of sense to him. He should have seen it coming. Having dealt with her for a few hours, Jackson didn’t have any problems riddling out why she struggled to find a partner.

“She will now say a few words, and we will begin the selection process for her future husband or wife.”

“Thank you, mother.”

Luna didn’t look happy at all to be standing in front of them. She clearly wasn’t happy that she was being forced to marry someone, and her face was turning slightly red from anger. This brought smile to Jackson’s face.

“I have been asked to pick out a future mate. A person who will stand by me through thick and thin. A person that will rule beside me when I take the throne. This is a difficult decision. Being my partner will be difficult and only the strongest will survive. I was tasked with coming up with a way to select my lover. So I came up with a little came to test the strengths of all those that want my hand. A little game that will be open to the entire city.”

At her words, Jackson watched as the queen turned white and her father laughed. Jackson didn’t much care, as he had no plans of entering this game. He did secretly wish Edward luck thought.

“The game is simple, really. For starters, I will pick a champion in just a moment. Starting at midnight, anyone who defeats the current champion in combat will become the new champion. Whoever holds the title of champion at midnight will win me as a bride. Of course, to stop a war from breaking out, there will be killing in this game. A fight will be decided when one is knocked on consciences or otherwise unable to fight. Anyone who kills another in this game will be disqualified. The title of champion can only be passed by an actual victory and can’t be passed to another any other ways. If I feel the person threw the fight, then the title won’t be passed.”

Jackson smirked slightly. Basically it was reverse tag. Whoever was ‘it’ would need to keep running or winning fights until midnight then they’d win. If they lost, then another would become it. The no killing rule was smart, as it prevented others from taking out high valued targets under the premise of the game. Jackson was amazed she thought this little game through to that extent. The only thing that made no sense to Jackson was the no throwing fights rule. Surely who ever was champion would want to stay champion until the end, not just give it away. And Jackson noticed there was no rule against fighting other participants, even those that weren’t champions. Jackson could already see many ways of cheating at this game, ways of taking advantage of the short sight of the rules, if he wanted to be stuck with that brat for the rest of his life. Jackson laughed, perfectly happy with Gypsy and Barbara.

“The game will officially start in an hour, which will give the initial champion plenty of time to prepare himself. I gave a lot of thought to whom I would choose for my first champion. So, I picked the strongest man I’d think I’d ever met.”

Jackson watched her father blush slightly. Jackson thought it was cute and wonder if he’d be able to steal some food before the fight broke out.

“My champion is: Jackson Ripper.”

“What?”