( Anna's POV, Vanaheim)
Anna teleported back to Vanaheim, the capital city of the elves as the moment she landed there she was royally escorted back to the palace.
The current elven king and the father of Ruby and Anna was a man who had never learnt to say ' No ' to his daughters.
Unlike his eldest son, whose life he strictly monitored and guided, he gave free reign to both his daughters as his only requirement in life for them was to be happy.
When Ruby decided that she wanted to marry Shakuni, the king was a little distressed, however, seeing the wealth and the power of the man he was assured that he would take good care of his Ruby, but unfortunately soon after their marriage, he died, leaving Ruby with a newborn child.
On the other hand, reports suggested that his second daughter was living the life of an adventurer, participating in fights and killing people on the Battlefront.
She was living a life on the edge, and not the comfortable, happy and carefree life the king had envisioned for her.
Hence when Anna landed in Vanaheim, she was escorted back to the palace where she was forced to have a word with her father.
" Greetings father, I see you are doing well " Anna said as she politely greeted her dad the king
" Anna my darling " The king said as he politely kissed Anna on top of her head and stroked her silky hair
" You smell like blood and vampires, unlike flowers and petals ". The king said as he took a jab at Anna's lifestyle.
" I'm doing fine for myself father, I'm truly having a lot of fun, I'm happy " Anna said in a soft voice as these words melted her father's heart.
Since childhood the king had never placed any responsibility of any sort on Anna or Ruby, neither administrative nor political. He did not marry them off to make alliances and did not force them to go on dates with men they did not wish to. However, his concern for their security was paramount.
" What is it about men who thirst for danger that allures both my daughters? Why can't they like tailors, artisans or blacksmiths?
That boy you roam with, Ravan, he's quite the shining star in the vampire community, very nice, but I can say from miles away he is a man enroute to make powerful enemies and be involved in a bunch of big messes
Mess, that he will drag you into, is that truly what you want? " The king asked Anna as he folded his arms behind his back
" I'm not allured by him, he already likes my other friend, and yeah, we will go through adventures together " Anna said as she denied being allured by Max.
" Your sister said the same thing you know, about the shakuni boy, he also had a wife and kids, but now she has his kids.
God bless Shakuni for that, my grandson is a smart and strong one " The king said as he denied Anna's act of playing innocent, he knew his daughter well enough to know that she would not hang around with the group if she was not in love with the boy.
In her heart Anna knew he was right, however, she could never bring herself to actually admit it.
" Wellllllll... on that matter, I need your help " Anna said as she hastily tried to change the topic.
"Ofcourse I know you are here for my help, that's the only reason you kids come home these days " The king said as he took another shot at his girls for not visiting him enough.
Anna stuttered for a second, but soon regained her wits as she said " We need a base of operations dad, we have been pledged an army but have no place to keep the troops and feed them.
We need functional infrastructure and we need it within the next 2 days….. "
" Wars and armies eh? The two things I absolutely hate in life, hmmmm, I can't give you a planet to store them, but there is an island on one of the planets we own that has an abandoned army camp not used in 5 decades.
It will need some mending, but it will easily store 500,000 troops, if you have no other options you can bring them there " the king said as within seconds he solved one of the biggest problems the group had.
Anna flew into the king's chest for a hug, as she was absolutely elated by this reply, and the king chuckled as he hugged and stroked her happy daughter's head.
Such a happy attitude was exactly how the king wanted to see his daughter forever.
While Anna did not hang around for long, leaving quickly after having lunch with the king and her elder brother, she left Vanaheim with a full stomach and a content smile knowing that while she might not have secured the best deal, she secured a deal enough for the group to make-do for now.
***********
( Meanwhile, inside True Elite City )
Max felt odd walking without his mask for the first time in public as he walked through the human settlement inside True Elites City on planet Radiance.
Very oddly, although Neatwit who was the current guildmaster of the True Elites Guild and the king of the True Elites Kingdom had a magnificent thunder palace ready for him, he chose to live amongst humans on planet Radiance as he worked from his old office in the guild headquarters itself.
At first, nobody seemed to care about Max, however, then when one person recognised his face despite his draconification and shouted " A- Are you Max Rajput? " Within seconds a huge crowd formed around Max as people lost their minds to meet the shining star of humanity.
Max was asked to sign autographs and take selfies with thousands of fans, as Max himself did not understand when his popularity grew to such great lengths.
The situation got so out of control, that the local enforcement officers had to provide Max with a special transport vehicle to take him to the Elite headquarters as he had managed to block the entire traffic for two blocks without it.
Images of his face swarmed the social media, as within minutes he was on the headlines of every major news outlet with titles such as
' The prodigal son returns '
' Our saviour's brother is back ! '
' Max Rajput has cat eyes? '
' Buff and handsome, Humanity's best youngster is back home '
—---------
/// A/N - Bonus chapter 6/10, 4 more to do today ///