Chapter 123: A Royal Funeral and Visit. 1901 CE

A solemn yet noisy atmosphere filled London. It was a cold and stale day like usual, the smell of smoke and excrement plagued the city, the masses were gathering in the streets, jostling around, trying to see what was happening.

Queen Victoria had died.

The event made the royal family confused and shocked. No servants inside the palace had witnessed a monarch's death, so they were naturally confused on what they were supposed to do, many family members even flatly denied that the queen had died, showing how out of touch they could be. They quickly arranged a military state funeral as per the queen's request, along with her other strange requests. Her casket will be paraded across London, and sailed through the river, to her resting place.

Along the way however, King Grodd and his entourage arrived at the palace with their steel dragon flies and landed on the garden of the palace. The servants welcomed them politely, but the royal family didn't come, as they were mourning for the queen.

King Grodd looked solemn, and offered his condolences, surprising the servants. The staff offered them rooms to stay, but King Grodd told the servant if he could pay respect to the queen.

The servants were a bit hesitant, they contacted the royal family, but they surprisingly agreed.

And so, King Grodd was allowed to escort the casket to the queen's final resting place, besides her husband.

Grodd was now waiting at a train station, along with some of the elders that came with him. They brought their staves, and all of them wore black, respecting the nation's tradition. A train then soon arrived, the smoke pollution entered Grodd's nose, and he coughed just a little bit. The train's compartments soon opened, and men started to flood through, and with them, the queen's coffin.

A lot of men were surprised at the sudden appearance of Grodd and his representatives. The public was not here anymore, only representatives of nations and royal families were there. The soldiers soon aimed their weapons at Grodd, but the newly appointed king stepped in.

"Calm down everyone." he said calmly. "It's my mother's funeral. I do not want a bloodbath today."

Grodd nodded to king Edward VII, to which he nodded back. The soldiers then soon calmed down, and continued the procession. Soon, the coffin was dragged by horses again, towards her final resting place.

Grodd and the representative walked behind the coffin, they were the most eye-catching of them all. Even though the Kaiser was there, even though the King was there, Grodd and his entourage caught all of the guests' eyes, after all, an ape that could talk? It feels like it's the end of the times.

It was a slow and solemn journey. The King and his family followed the coffin right behind it, they looked… sad… Grodd had heard the royalty of Egypt from Cleo, Anna's family, Kojirou's homeland, Jeanne's story, but he had never seen the likes of humans so up close like this.

"Why are you here on this mournful day, ape?" questioned a man beside Grodd. It was Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German emperor.

"I've come to talk, human." Grodd whispered calmly. "But it could wait, you can mourn all you want."

Wilhelm hummed at his words. "I thank you for your patience." he said, still looking at the coffin solemnly. "I wonder… how is your view on death, king of the apes?"

"I have seen many of my subjects come and go…" Grodd answered. "To us, death is just the beginning, for an endless war towards freedom, so that our descendants may live in peace, without interference of higher power."

"Higher power? But you believe in gods, are you not?"

"We do," said Grodd. "But Eshu and Ifri do not interfere with our lives, they only taught us how to live, how to prosper, in exchange, we will fight with them, so that he and she, along with us, will not be bound by higher power, so that this mother earth may prosper continuously."

"It seems that our definition of 'god' is not the same." murmured Wilhelm.

"No." said Grodd. "I find your belief quite interesting, Kaiser Wilhelm. If your god created you, so that you may serve him, why do you have free will? Isn't it just easier if your god erases your free will, so that you won't rebel?"

"I do not know, King Grodd, I am not a theologian." said Wilhelm. "But I trust God's plan."

"God's plan… Arishem's design…" Grodd murmured, thinking.

"Pardon me?"

"I'm sorry, I was talking to myself." Grodd said.

The entourage then proceeded to the chapel where Prince Albert rested. As the coffin entered, Grodd and the other representatives weren't allowed to enter, which he accepted. And The others then came back to the palace, to wait for the mourning days.

—

[Weeks later]

Grodd was sitting with two rulers of nations. He was sitting with King Edward VII, and Kaiser Wilhelm II. they were tapping their fingers to the desk, thinking about what Grodd had just said.

"It is… a rather… insulting demand," said Edward grimly. "After everything we've built… you want us to leave Africa?"

"And you want us to help to contact the other nations?" Wilhelm raised his brow.

"Yes." said Grodd calmly. "You have no right in those lands."

"So are you," said Edward.

Grodd smiled. "So you recognize that what you're doing is stupid." the Gorilla chuckled. "Yes, I also have no right to those lands. It belongs to the people living there."

"You said your nation has an absolute neutrality rule, but this isn't neutrality, King Grodd." said Wilhelm, standing, walking around the room.

"My only interest is the safety of my subjects, and my neighbours." answered Grodd. "My nation will be neutral, and we will not interfere with human conflicts, but when it comes to Africa it is an entirely different thing. Zimera will always be Zimera, deep in the Congo basin. When I asked you to leave Africa, I will not take the land. I will protect it, but I will not take it."

"What about our territories that we got before the scramble?" questioned Edward.

Grodd sighed. "Let me ask you, do the colonies make any profits for you?"

The two rulers were silent.

"No, correct?" hummed Grodd. "The exception is Congo, which is our land. You only do this because of your petty and childish competition with each other. I will only ask once again, to decolonize Africa."

"And if we refuse?"

"War." said Grodd calmly.

"You think you could win against us humans, ape?"

"You have no idea what we're capable of, Kings," said Grodd. "You could try, but your neighbours will probably smell opportunity."

Edward frowned. "We can't accept this. It's either all of us, or none of us."

"Then call them," said Grodd rather demandingly. "I want answers in a year, if you don't answer, then I will attack. Think about it, humans. It is more profitable if you trade with them, rather than colonising them. Religion? You could spread it using trade. Influence? Again, trade."

"And you won't care about it?"

Grodd smiled. "As long as your army doesn't step into Africa, then I won't interfere."

Edward and Wilhelm raised their eyebrows. "We will think about it. At most, we may be able to reverse the scramble in Africa. But the rest, I have no promise."

Grodd nodded. "I appreciate your clear thinking, kings." said Grodd as he walked away from the room. "May we never meet on the battlefield."

Grodd left the room, leaving the two rulers alone, talking about the looming threat.