Chapter Text
Smoked Cheese paced back and forth in the dungeons, biting his nail.
She knows. She knows everything. He’s certain of it. His plans are ruined! All these years he’s been infuriatingly waiting, biding his time, secretly building his resources in order to be able to save them from this virtual delusion, save them all from this hell that fool trapped them in with sweet words of safety and opulence, meanwhile with each error eating away at their doughs with no cookie besides the 4 any the wiser. The general was finally about to enact his plan, take control. Enact order! Be the saviour of the Golden Kingdom he so cherished! But alas, thanks to those needlessly meddlesome outsiders, it’s all been destroyed. His plan, his escape, his freedom.
He was sure about it. Ever since those nefarious batch of pathetic-looking biscuits entered their kingdom, they have done nothing but endlessly cast suspicion onto the general, oh-so-helpfully voicing their concerns to his queen. He doesn’t know how that scruffy batch managed to catch onto his plans of all cookies, but regardless, the problem was that they did. And now he’s sure she knows. She’d have to be an utter fool to not at least suspect him a little bit. And a little suspicion was too much suspicion for his plan to work. Perfect plans demand perfect execution, after all.
His queen was going to catch onto Smoked Cheese’s plan for rebellion if he were not careful.
He would have to change his plans! Wait a little further, lower suspicion. It was an inconvenient change to the scheme, with not much time being left to enact it, now that war was once again on the horizon….
Smoked Cheese shuddered at the thought. War. War . War was awful. War was what got them into this situation in the first place. Whenever the general closes his eyes he can still hear the screams, the ripping of flesh, the cries of cookies, the patter of feet, the roar of monsters, the crumbling of buildings… the…. The ringing in his ears and… worst of all…… the lack of noise as the world around him starts to dim and fade as his body works against him. His eyelids try to stay open, but the weight of exhaustion, the unending pain and the drowning out of the world around him starts to get to him. Making him feel isolated, tired, burdened by the mere thought of existing. Even then, he still tries to push— but it isn’t enough. And after that he…. He—
No.
This wasn’t the time.
He needed a new plan.
First, he needed to ease his queen’s suspicions. Easy, he thought. He’ll just suck up to her. That usually does the trick. To be certain though, he’ll do it more. Intenser, bigger. He shall get close enough to earn her undying trust, and then, when she’s lulled into a sense of ease, he’ll rip the Souljam from her where she stands.
Perfect. The general smirked, toothy and threatening. Nobody was around to see it, which only made it all the more raw.
This time he will save the golden kingdom.
********************
Golden Cheese was in her audience hall, sprawled across her throne. The green glow of flames coming from the room’s decorative perches of fire bounced off of the queen’s face, making her shine with gleaming radiance. She was accompanied by her general, who she had called upon to discuss the kingdoms current safety and to inquire if any new monsters had managed to break into the digital city since they last met.
Smoked Cheese steadied himself under her piercing, lustrous gaze.
This was his chance.
“Your radiance. You look even more brilliant than usual today— I heard you called for me?” He started off simple, his usual smooth-tongued effortless praise, of which every cookie who knew him well enough would know that he didn’t mean a single word of it. Golden Cheese being one of them, of course. He didn’t want to incur sudden suspicion by acting too boldly from the start.
“Ah! Smoked Cheese. Yes, I called you to discuss matters regarding my opulent kingdom? Has any news of monster attacks reached your ears since we last adjourned?”
“No, your radiance. All seems to be in order as of late.” Though probably not for long . Smoked Cheese bit back the thought.
“Everything is going smoothly under your bountiful rule.”
As if. There’s been more errors ever since those outsiders showed up than there has been in the cumulation of years. Not that the general was going to say as such. Usually, he wouldn’t hesitate to speak his mind, offer counsel and actual reason to his stubborn ruler, but right now the priority was sucking up to Golden Cheese— gaining trust.
“Oh? You are being…… Nicer than usual today?” The queen narrowed her eyes. “Usually you would prattle on and on about how we should expand the kingdom and take over innocent nearby settlements and distract ourselves from the upkeep of our current glorious kingdom…. Did…something happen?”
Smoked Cheese’s eye twitched. He pushed back the retort on the tip of his tongue— that it wouldn’t be distracting for them to take over nearby settlements to grow the kingdoms strength. How their settlers should be honoured to become part of such an abundant kingdom, and it would be for the greater safety of the kingdom to expand their forces now that war was once again on the horizon— Of course, not like she would listen to any of that. The general is all too used to being waved off, commanded to drop the topic and even one time being sent to the colosseum!
It still angers him just thinking about it. The monsters in the colosseum are of no match for a great general like him, of course, but it was still infuriating to have the entire kingdom aware that he had fallen out of their queen’s favour. He vividly remembers Mozzarella making a show of his punishment, making fun of him in front of the audience of denizens who should be adhering and admiring their unrivalled general rather than laughing along to jokes about him. He thinks back to the memory with bitterness.
He sighed. Alas, he must persevere with the plan.
“Not really, your radiance. I’ve merely come to realise that perhaps your divine judgement was simply superior to my own foolish ideals. After thinking it over, the current golden city is thriving and powerful. There really is no need for any reckless expansion. I must’ve been lost in a period of anxiety before, but you needn’t worry- I’ve now returned to my senses. You can rest easy knowing that I will continue to follow your future commands with my utmost devotion.“
Smoked Cheese held back the gag he wanted to release upon spewing the sickening babble of brown-nosing nonsense that reluctantly came out of his mouth. It was for the plan , He reminded himself. But that didn’t make it any the less aggravating. Regardless, he had to ease any possible suspicion that had been cast upon himself, and indirectly pledging his loyalty seemed to be the best course of action going forward.
Golden Cheese blinked. She seemed surprised, almost startled, by the sudden declaration. A strange, searching, almost skeptical look flashed upon her face for a second, before visibly loosening up, and being replaced with a pleased somewhat smug expression.
The smugness made Smoked Cheese’s brow twitch, but he remained composed for the sake of his credibility.
Golden Cheese let out an approving hum. “Well, I am glad that you have finally seen reason!”She chortled, “I am willing to forgive your earlier impudence. Despite our differences, I am forever grateful for your undying dedication to our kingdom, my friend.” Her expression lifted into a soft smile. Something about it sent a sharp pang throughout Smoked Cheese. He quickly shook off the strange feeling.
“Of course. I am your most trusted general after all.”
******************************
The sun began to set in the desert horizon.
Black raisin frowned. They had failed to convince the final Ancient Hero to join their cause, and now they had to return to the vanilla kingdom unsuccessful. Looking back one last time upon the digital kingdom, she felt a feeling of reluctance. As if she had done something wrong. As if she needed to go back, that she was only a few careful words away from convincing the queen to help protect Earthbread. That if she left now, something would go very, very wrong.
She felt something was missing. A big event of some kind. The last straw.
“Black Raisin?”
Black Raisin snapped out of her thoughts, looking back to her company. An archaeologist, an adventurer and the ones she came with originally to relay Pure Vanilla’s message- A trio of peculiar but brave teenagers. Gingerbrave looked back at her, awaiting the answer to his call.
Black Raisin smiled.
“Sorry. I… got lost in my thoughts for a moment. Let’s go.”
She was sure it would be fine. Even without this so-called Hero, with the combined power of the Pure Vanilla, Hollyberry and Dark Cacao kingdom, they would be able to save Earthbread and protect their homeland. Her village most of all.
She walked together with her group, leaving behind the glowing, glitching kingdom in the desert’s horizon as they continued back on their journey home.
It would surely be fine.
Right……..?