J Schlatt shouts through the microphone, catching everybody's attention.

Nia glances at Sara and Niki, both of whom are talking together and mostly keeping to themselves rather than conversing with anyone else.

Technoblade speaks to Fundy in hopes of getting some state secrets out of him. But it doesn't seem to work. Either because Fundy doesn't actually know anything, or because Fundy's good with keeping secrets.

Nia met a mercenary named Punz - also in full netherite! - only a few minutes ago, learning that he's paid by Dream, actually. Which she found surprising, thinking that Dream would never need a mercenary of all things. He's quite capable himself for it to be a necessity.

Technoblade separates from Fundy, deciding there's no point in talking to him if the fox won't give him any useful information.

Instead, he approaches Nia. She gives him a nod and smiles, the two of them making their way to the podium in silence.

They take seats in the front, looking up at Quackity, Schlatt and Tubbo.

The President sits in the middle seat with horns. Nia scowls at it, and it goes by unnoticed.

"Welcome everyone!" Schlatt announces as he watches everyone claim seats in front of the podium. "Welcome to the festival of Manburg!"

Schlatt clasps his hands together, his eyes scanning over the crowd of people. Half of it being actual Manburgians and the other half being people that were invited simply because. From the brief conversations Nia had had with some of the members, she found out that a big part of them lives in the Dream SMP.

Perhaps Dream was actually invited to the festival. But he won't show up. Not only because he dislikes Schlatt and is against him, but also because if things go the right way, Marburg is going to be no more.

George is also nowhere to be found. Which probably isn't the best, considering he's also a part of Schlatt's cabinet, but he's always had a talent for disappearing somewhere, making himself unable to find. It's a strange skill.

"It is so nice to see you all here!" Schlatt continues speaking, a smirk gracing his lips. "I've invited all of the citizens of Manburg and some very close friends of mine to enjoy the festivities that have- that this- eh . . . nation-something, I don't know . . ." He tries to make a point, but fails terribly, showing signs of actually giving zero fucks about Manburg.

Nia glances at Technoblade, the both of them scoffing at Schlatt's indifference to the country that he's president of. Fundy rolls his eyes at Schlatt, which Nia nearly misses. Fundy mumbles something under his breath, but she doesn't catch it, as there is no wind that could carry his voice.

Tubbo tries to whisper something to Schlatt, possibly to help him with the speech, but Schlatt swats the boy away with his arms, shaking his head violently. He berates Tubbo for trying to help him, and Nia narrows her eyes at the President.

"Anyways . . ." Schlatt starts speaking to the audience again. "Basically, I just wanna throw a party," he says, explaining the reason he wanted to organize the festival.

"You guys know me, I'm a partyer. I enjoy a good party, you know? So, I decided to put together one for you all!" Schlatt spreads out his arms, still donning the self-important smirk.

"YEAH!" Fundy screams.

Nia turns to him with furrowed brows, wondering if he actually believes in Schlatt, despite the fact that he revoked the citizenship of Wilbur and Tommy. Fundy's father, and friend. Schlatt destroyed everything that L'Manburg was, and that's the country Fundy was born in.

Does he prefer Manburg now?

"Well, anyways, thanks y'all for being here! We can just party now, because that's all that parties are about!"

"YEAH!"

This time, everyone shouts in agreement, including Technoblade, who is obviously trying his best to not stand out of the crowd. But considering he's one of the only three people with netherite armor at the festival, he already stands out as it is.

"Let me get a- let me get a democracy on three!" says Schlatt, his eyes flying over the entire crowd. "One . . . two . . . three!"

"DEMOCRACY!"

Nia stays completely quiet, while Technoblade makes noises that are definitely not the word democracy rather than something to make it seem like he's on Schlatt's side and definitely not planning to take down his government.

The princess stands rooted in her place quietly, eyeing Schlatt. The way he presents himself and acts. She can see- no, she can feel there is something wrong with him physically. For some reason, he's not at full physical strength, and that in itself can mean a lot if she also plans to destroy Manburg.

Schlatt is a confident individual. If anything, power has made him more egotistical and self-absorbed than anything. That much Nia can assume, considering the opening speech he just gave.

The festival moves forward as Schlatt, Tubbo and Quackity leave the stage to join the guests that have arrived. They all head to a small island in the middle of the lake that's conveniently named Party Island, where they dance and get to talk more.

Nia gets to converse with the people she's only met today, but also BadBoyHalo. Though most of the questions he has she's unable to answer as he asks about where she was.

Frankly, she'd like to know as well.

When they move to the boxing ring instead, that's when Nia joins Sara and Niki, the two of them talking of the fact that they've spotted Tommy and Wilbur somewhere around Manburg, watching the festival from a safe distance.

Nia hasn't seen them, but it makes sense to her that they'd be here.

The first boxing match is between Technoblade and Fundy. No armor, just their fists. Technoblade wins, but Fundy leaves more or less unharmed.

Tubbo then fights Sam - he wins - and Quackity - also wins.

Quackity raises his suspicions of Tubbo possibly using drugs to win, but Nia shoots him down, pointing out that Tubbo is a minor. So, unless Quackity himself didn't sell him the drugs, then she doesn't see where Tubbo would acquire them.

Nia's left impressed with the young boy and his boxing skills. He approaches her with a big grin on his face afterwards, and Nia smiles back at him, patting his shoulder.

"You did really good!" she tells him.

"Thanks! I didn't even know I would, if I'm gonna be honest." The boy shakes his head.

The following match after Tubbo's is said to be the last one, and that's between Schlatt and Fundy. It's a fast match, however, as Schlatt cheats. The President takes his bow in hand, kicking Fundy in the crotch and decking him in the head with the wooden weapon.

Tubbo and Nia's eyes widen as they watch the fox fall to the ground and squeal in pain. They run into the boxing ring to help him, while Schlatt leaves, unbothered.

"Are you alright?" Nia questions.

". . . yeah, I'm fine," Fundy replies unconvincingly.

Nia rolls her eyes, glancing around. She spots Sara and Niki both looking at Fundy with worried expressions. They still care about him, despite their opinions clashing.

"Just- just give me a second," says Fundy, trying to shoo Nia and Tubbo away with his arm. "I'll be fine . . . yeah."

"Tubbo, where the fuck are you?! Your speech!" Quackity scolds the brunette boy for staying behind.

Tubbo's head perks up as he remembers that he has in fact prepared a speech for the festival.

"Oh, shit, yeah!" says Tubbo, hurriedly standing up to go and catch up with Schlatt and Quackity.

Nia stays by Fundy's side with a raised brow. She puts her hand on Fundy's shoulder, wondering whether she can help him up once he's in less pain.

He sits up eventually, eyeing Nia with interest. His tail raises up, wagging in the air.

"What?" she asks bluntly, uncomfortable under his scrutinizing gaze.

"You touched me," he says.

"Really? I didn't notice," says Nia sarcastically.

"No, I- no, that's not what I meant!" Fundy exclaims defensively. "I mean, you- you touched me and the pain just went away!"

Nia gives Fundy a look of disbelief, scoffing at the ridiculousness of his statement. Shaking her head, she denies it.

"That's impossible," she says.

Sure, she can regenerate and therefore heal herself, but heal others? That seems unlikely . . . right?

"I'm not going to argue with you," Fundy states, pursing his lips. "I- I don't want to be in more people's bad books . . ." He shakes his head, averting his gaze to the ground. "We should get to the podium. Tubbo's about to give the speech."

Fundy points to Tubbo, Schlatt and Quackity all standing on the podium together. Nia nods in agreement, helping Fundy up although he seems to actually not need it anymore.

However, while Fundy tries to argue his way into being seated closer to the podium and the other cabinet members, Nia goes back to her spot next to Technoblade, who acknowledges her presence with a nod.

Nia wonders if Wilbur's actually going to blow up Manburg. And if so, she'd rather leave as soon as possible, so as to not get blown up with everybody else.

Fundy doesn't succeed in getting his seat on the podium, having to come back to the front line of the seats in front of the podium, next to Nia.

Schlatt clears his throat in the microphone to get everybody's attention. "Alright, so," he starts, once again doing the thing that regular public speakers do - looking into the crowd and sometimes holding eye contact.

"I do like to make fun of Tubbo for all the shit that he does wrong, like, setting up the microphone and stuff . . . I mean, like, well, he fucks up a lot. We can all agree that Tubbo fucks up a lot, but . . . I mean, at the end of the day, Tubbo's- he's the guy who made this entire thing happen. Tubbo- this guy's slaving away . . . he's- he's mining, he's crafting, he's building all this beautiful stuff, and uh- you know, I- I don't know if we'd be where we are today without him."

"Thank you, Schlatt," says Tubbo with a smile.

Nia doesn't find much in that speech that Tubbo should be thankful for, but she guesses Tubbo is too nice to point out that Schlatt's whole speech started off with him saying Tubbo does a lot of things wrong. Sure, Schlatt's giving credit where it's due; but he's already been taking credit for the festival as it is, anyway.

"I really feel that way, Tubbo," says Schlatt, gazing at the boy. "I mean, I- I do consider you my right-hand man. And so, when Tubbo said: 'Schlatt, I'd like to say my peace, about how great this country is, and about how awesome you are,' I mean, who am I to say no to that? Right?"

There are so many things that Nia wants to question, but she chooses to stay quiet and let the events unfold.

"So, without any further ado, I think I'll put the big man Tubbo, my right-hand man, my - uh - my protegé up on the mic and let him spit some bars." Schlatt starts clapping.

"Let's hear it for Tubbo!" Fundy exclaims, joining in. And so does everyone else.

"Yeah, Tubbo!"

"Tubbo!"

"Woo, Tubbo!"

"Talk about how you love the president!" says Quackity.

"Yeah! Talk about how awesome I am!" Schlatt agrees.

"Talk about cabbages!" shouts Fundy, earning a few questioning looks. "And the future of our great nation!" he adds after he notices the attention he's receiving.

"What about state secrets?" Technoblade adds into the many things Tubbo could speak about.

"No!" Schlatt shakes his head violently. He turns to Tubbo, holding his gaze. "Tubbo. Do not give away any state secrets during the speech. I swear to God. If you say any state secrets during the speech, it will be the end."

Nia narrows her eyes at Schlatt, disliking the tone in which he speaks to Tubbo. Something that terrifies her is the fact that Schlatt is being serious. He means his threat. And she knows for a fact that something is about to go wrong.

"I don't have any state secrets in my speech, I promise," Tubbo affirms, avoiding Schlatt's eye.

"Alright. Good." Schlatt nods approvingly. "Go ahead then, give your speech."

"Yeah, okay, okay," says Tubbo, smiling at the crowd. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! I'm- I actually am too short to reach the microphone, so it doesn't, you know, quite like Schlatt, but . . ."

Nia chuckles, watching Tubbo struggling to at least somehow get the microphone to detect his voice and play it back to the crowd louder.

"Uh, A wise man once told me that Manburg was like a lettuce," Tubbo starts, being cut off by Schlatt.

"That was me!" he boasts.

"There's so many layers of tasty and healthy goodness, and once you wash off all the caterpillars and worms off the surface, it's a pretty goddamn good meal."

People start cheering, and Nia holds back her laugh because of the metaphor.

"Schlatt has successfully washed all of the insects off our great nation. And with that, he's allowed the goodness and tastiness to shine through."

"Right! Yeah, oh, my God. Those- those two numbnuts . . ." Schlatt shakes his head.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like you to look around at what we've built today. Look at each other. All of this, thanks to democracy and the leadership of J Schlatt." Another round of applause follows suit.

"And isn't that what this festival is all about? Democracy. Our people have been beaten down by rulers and dictators for so long. Now, we are finally free! Free to elect who we want. Free to live how we want, and most importantly, free to go wherever we want without the confine of those huge black walls. So, with that in mind, I would like to thank everyone for coming to this wonderful event-"

Schlatt starts laughing, interrupting Tubbo's speech once more.

"Wh- what's wrong, Schlatt?" the boy inquires.

"Nah, I was just- I was just thinking about it, Tubbo. You know how we like to have fun?" Schlatt looks at Tubbo.

"Yeah, we like- what's up, Schlatt?"

"You got anything else in the speech, big guy?"

"Um, no, no, uh, let the festival begin! Yeah."

"You done with the speech?"

"Y-yeah, I'm done with the speech, Schlatt." Tubbo nods.

"Alright then," says Schlatt, staying quiet.

The only thing he does is cross the podium. With the help of Quackity and a gulp of a strength potion, he brings out walls (entire fucking walls) of concrete, putting them around Tubbo in a way that ensures he cannot get out of the newly created box.

"Tubbo, Tubbo, Tubbo," Schlatt tuts, shaking his head in disappointment.

"I know what you've been up to."