"Hehe, daddy look, we're finally here, look, there's my underwear!" The Emperor said excitedly.

 

Nick's face grew dark as soon as underwear got mentioned. He will never be able to remove the stain from his hands in the future unless he could somehow cut his arm off and regenerate a new one. And Nick was seriously considering this option...

 

"Don't call me daddy from now on, just calling me father will do!" Nick said sternly. A middle-aged man calling him daddy would simply give him nightmares!

 

"Yes, father!" The Emperor was very obedient this time, but it wasn't surprising since he has already tasted Nick's cooking, and in order to continue tasting this delicacy he needed to be an obedient little child.

 

 

"What are you doing?!" Nick screamed in shock and immediately moved ten meters away. He felt honestly scared when he saw the Emperor picking up the underwear from the ground and began approaching him calmly.

 

"Ahhh, I'm being a good child and picking up what I've dropped, since father has worked hard for his money then it doesn't make sense that I throw away a perfectly good piece of underwear right?" The Emperor was proud, with such thoughtfulness his father would surely praise him.

 

"Oh, then what were you planning to do with the underwear after you picked it up?!" Nick still didn’t feel convinced that the Emperor had pure intentions.

 

"Of course, I would keep it in your pocket until we arrive at our home where you can take it out and wash it!" The Emperor felt satisfied with himself. He was such a cute and understanding little boy!

 

'You little sly imp! You are still thinking of ways to taint my pure and holy body, huh? Well then, it's time for some good old-fashioned parenting!' Nick was furious but also thankful for his quick reflexive thinking. If he had been even slightly slower the Emperor might have already stuffed that shit-covered underwear into his pocket!

 

 

"Sweet baby duke, from now on there are some ground rules that you need to follow, these were rules set up by your deceased mother, and although I would love nothing more than to wash you disgusting, horrid, and musty piece of underwear, I can't because it goes against the set of rules she ran our household by!"

 

 

"First rule, all underwear, and personal clothing will get cleaned by the person who wore them! Secondly, no walking around buck naked, not even if we are alone, no, especially if we are alone! Thirdly, you will follow your father's commands...that's me, to the letter, and will protect me with your life!"

 

"And even though these rules are difficult for both of us, let's try our best to honor them, that will show that we also honor and love your saintly mother!" Nick sounded utterly devastated when he said his last sentence.

 

"Yes, father! Sob...sob, was my mother...sob...a good person?" The Emperor suddenly got reminded of how he remembered and knew nothing of his mother, which made him very emotional.

 

"Your mother was an angel! She had the best face, and what else, oh yeah, her arms were very long so she could hug you and me both at the same time, what else, her neck was like an ostrich's long and proud! And she was sticking out in all the right places!" Nick described the Emperor's mother to him.

 

"Really?!" The Emperor was excited to hear his mother was pretty.

 

"This...sigh, fine, I'll tell you the truth, your mother was hideous, she was an ape during the day, and an even uglier ape during the night, she had a head that was welded into her shoulders, meaning she had no neck to speak of! Her sleeping face is so scary that sometimes I stay asleep during a nightmare just to avoid it! Her teeth hated each other, so they always enjoyed time apart. So, all in all, your mother was...human, I think?!"

 

"But your mother had a good personality! Her personality was top-notch, in fact, people often said that it was her personality that kept her from being sent to the jungle to live with her own kind...and I see so much of her in you!" Nick walked over and patted the Emperor on the shoulder.

 

"Thank you, father...wait, father, when you said you see so much of my mother in me, did you mean personality-wise or appearance-wise?!" The Emperor got flooded with so much information that he had thought Nick had complimented him at first, but the more he thought about it the more he found out that his father could have just possibly called him, ugly!

 

"It doesn't matter now, all that matters is that you know that both you and your mother are similar in many areas, some good, some...different." Nick quite enjoyed this torture session, if he couldn't beat the Emperor using strength, then he might as well get his revenge this way.

 

As for why he was being so hard on the Emperor, and not treating him like a little boy, it was the Emperor that went insane, not him! He wasn't going to start treating a middle-aged man as a child. That would be the day that he had truly gone insane!

 

"Here! This is part of our pinky promise, eat it!" Nick wanted to get the mission done urgently, and to do that he needed to go and poison the only remaining Empress, the three-legged Empress! So, in order to get there quickly, he simply threw the Emperor some plates of food he kept in his storage space for a quick snack.

 

Of course, he didn't display the storage space function of the system as he used the storage ring around his finger as a disguise. He didn't know when this ticking time bomb of an Emperor would get his memories back after all.

 

"But father, this is so small!" The Emperor argued, he had gotten such a tiny piece of food when the last three beasts couldn't satisfy him combined?! Besides, he had already made plans to go capture a huge beast for this task but now, all the Emperor could do was stare at the plate of French fries in agony, so small, so few, so delicious, what to do?!

 

"This is French fries son, it was a meal created by your father while he was touring in France, or was it Belgium, its name has created a lot of dispute over this matter, but what everyone knows universally is that French fries have too many calories, and too much of it will make you fat, so eating this much is enough!" Nick explained.

 

"Yes! Father!" The Emperor replied through his gritted teeth, he had already tasted a piece, and he knew how heavenly it was, but now, because he wanted to keep on enjoying this taste he would have to resort to saving!

 

The Emperor then seriously began to stuffing pieces of fries into his pockets one by one, he had already planned on how to eat them, he would eat one for every mile he traveled!

 

But sadly, it was easier to make a plan than to follow through it, so by the time they had flown half a mile the Emperor's pockets were empty. And no matter how hard the Emperor searched and searched; he couldn't find a single extra one!

 

Finally, Nick could see the village Peter and the kids were staying in coming up on the horizon, causing him to involuntarily speed up.

 

"Sweet baby Duke...wait, it will be Duke from now on! Duke, stay here for a moment, I will be going into that restaurant alone! But don't worry, I will bring back your brother and sister soon." Nick couldn't let the Emperor see his three-legged wife, lest it triggers some memories.

 

"Okay father, but remember, I'll be watching you." The Emperor spoke seriously with a pout, trying his best to come off cute and scary, but was only able to make a face that tempted Nick to throw his fist at.

 

"Good boy, stay, stay, remember, if you come in without permission, I will make sure you never taste my cooking again for the rest of your life!" Nick came up with the only threat that could scare the Emperor and scared he was.

 

After Nick walked into the restaurant, he began looking around the place to find Peter and the kids, but a little part of him was scared, usually, when the main character deeply needs something and it's within his reach, something or someone happens to come by and make sure that he wouldn't have it easy!

 

So, considering how awesome he was, it was practically set in stone that he was the main character of this world, now all he could do was hope that he was wrong and he was just some side character that wouldn't have to face such setbacks.

 

"Big bro, Nick, hurry uncle Peter is in trouble!" Suddenly from out of nowhere a tiny figure appears and grabs Nick's palm and began dragging him out of the restaurant and into the main street, and Nick didn't resist once he saw it was little Maggi doing the dragging, in fact, once he heard Peter was in trouble, he picked her up and began storming in the direction she was previously leading him to.

 

"Duke, follow me!" Nick told the Emperor to follow on the way.

 

"What exactly happened?!" Nick asked with a frown. If he knew Peter even a little which he did, he knew that the man was quite steady most of the times, and only acted out when he saw Nick was there to back him up, so he didn't understand how he got himself into trouble this time.

 

"It's horrible brother, Peter took us to a fancy restaurant in the city for our lunch, but who knew that the food bill would come and scare him to death, he was caught trying to sneak out the back door, trying to leave us there?! So now he is being beaten up by the chefs, waiters, the manager, and the customers!" Maggi explained.

 

"What?! Pffttt! But wait, why the customers?!" Nick wasn't the slightest bit disappointed in Peter, in fact, he quite admired him, and the only thing he would have done differently was he wouldn't have been caught.

 

"Because while being beaten, he kept on yelling, 'How dare you hit me, I am the person that smacked the crown prince's bottom, the Lord of Pettersvile, Lord Peter himself! Even the head chef of the palace has to kowtow three times whenever he sees me!' And all the customers were apparently patriots, so they didn't like how he was making a mockery of the Nova Empire, that’s why they are beating him up."

 

"Peter did not say the part about the Head chef did he?!" Nick immediately knew which part of the story Maggy had made up, Maggi was a very vengeful girl, and wouldn't let the matter of Peter trying to abandon them slide, so she threw in that story about the Head chef needing to kowtow just to make Nick punish Peter, apparently, she didn't feel Peter being beaten by an entire restaurant enough.

 

"Ahhh, no, but he thought it! I swear on my favorite brand of chocolate...no, my second favorite brand...no, forget the chocolate, I swear on Peter's life that he definitely thought it!" Maggi didn't want Peter to escape from punishment.

 

"Hmmm, still insist on lying, then fine, from now on, you shall never lay your eyes on your favorite brand of chocolate!" Nick saw blood as he ruthlessly took away what Maggi considered her soul!

 

"Uhhhh..." Maggi pretended to faint. If she couldn't have her favorite brand of chocolate anymore, why would she help the culprit responsible by bringing Nick to be his savior?

 

"Hm, it seems you don't think losing your favorite brand of chocolate is enough should I also take..." Nick hadn't even finished when Maggi woke up and began to lead the way, lively as ever.

 

But as they ran, a question popped into his mind. Where was Dean in all this? Yet before he could ask, they had arrived at the location, which was a large four-story restaurant with a golden spider as its logo, which Nick found incredibly off-putting.

 

Nick then barged into the restaurant and began looking around calmly. But what he saw drove him to just stare dumbly.

 

In the middle of the restaurant...