L:  "Oh I'll discipline him, no worries," Iremacht said.

Wehrmacht clarified, "We don't mind walking to the park. Poldara can be our guide." He saw the kid's expression and added, "Just please don't get us lost on purpose."

Iremacht, however, winked at Poldara as they all returned to their rooms to get dressed. It was only when Iremacht reached for his vest and shirt that he realized he'd forgotten to wash them yesterday. They still had paintball stains, definitely not presentable for an important occasion.

Iremacht's first instinct was to go to his father's room for help. Then he thought better of it. He looked down the hallway and wondered if he'd be able to find the Mandarian wing where Poldara's room was. Perhaps he could get some Mandarian-style clothing and surprise everyone with it.

M:  The brothers and Poland went back to their rooms to change into their fancier clothes. MA had a dress uniform that was designed for special occasions, but it was sturdy enough to lead his flyover in, he had a general's hat as well but he typically gave it to Poldara to hold so it wouldn't get blown off. Poland had an old military uniform that he wore on the night he and MA rescued Mandara. Last but not least, Mandara was wearing royal clothes, they were custom made to resemble something he would have worn back in his prince years.

"Dad, when are Uncles Kaz and Rus coming?" Poldara asked when the adults came to the living room where he was waiting.

"They should be here around 10:00 or 11:00," Mandara said, "now I want you to be good for the guests ok, don't give them a hard time."

"I won't," Poldara agreed, he then hugged his dads and uncle goodbye and went to find Iremacht when they left.

L:   Iremacht decided to venture out of the guest wing to locate the Mandarians' private wing instead. He avoided humans for the most part because he'd rather not be seen wandering around all lost and confused in his nightwear - which he was.

He was soon stuck in the maze of the mansion, however. Honestly, if he ever thought of pulling a heist on the Mandarian estate - why was he thinking this? - he'd be sure to memorize a map of the place first. Even then, it was hard not to lose himself in this massive building.

That was another reason Iremacht wished he had wings. At least then he'd be able to sense for Poldara.

"But I'm not worthy of them," Iremacht mumbled to himself as he trudged along. "I'd turn into another Prussia." He chuckled bitterly.

M:   Poldara didn't find Iremacht in his room, which was strange since he would have seen him if he went to the living room. He decided to check the backyard to see if he was hanging out with Mandoria, he wasn't and the eagle said he hasn't seen him, so Poldara looked elsewhere.

He eventually bumped into Belarus and asked her if she saw him, "not since the pillow fight no." she said, "is there any place you haven't checked?"

Poldara thought for a moment, "I haven't checked near the library," he said.

"Well let's go look over there, maybe he's finished and decided to wander around."

Poldara nodded and he continued his search with Belarus joining him.

L:   "Seriously though, maybe the Mandarians have such a big house because they all have wings," Iremacht kept talking to himself. "They can't get lost in this maze."

He kept wandering and wandering and wandering and probably walked down the same hallway twice. At last, he reached an unfamiliar door and, eager to get out of this cycle, opened it.

He was taken aback by the number of books that greeted him. This place looked like something out of a fantasy movie, and the first phrase that came to his mind was "wizarding library".

He spotted movement amongst the bookshelves - it was the human librarian in charge of organizing the expansive number of books. Iremacht instantly ducked into one of the aisles to hide.

M:   Poldara and Belarus made their way to the library and found the door slightly ajar, which was a little odd but they thought nothing of it. They entered and looked around, they didn't see Iremacht at first, but he could have been hiding between the bookshelves, so they split up to search them.

"Hi, Mr. Dominic," Poldara said when he spotted the librarian.

"Hello Poldara," the man greeted, "what brings you here, shouldn't you and the guests be heading for the park?"

"Yeah, but we can't find Iremacht, have you seen him?"

"I haven't, but I'll keep an eye out for him."

"Ok, thanks," the kid said, then continued searching.

He eventually made his way to the medieval history part of the library and finally spotted Iremacht, he tilted his head in confusion when he saw that the German was still in his nightwear, "Hey Iremacht, what are you doing here in your pajamas?" he asked.

L:   Iremacht jumped an inch in the air when he heard Poldara.

"P-Polds, don't sneak up on me like that!" he hissed quietly. "I am NOT in the right moment to attract any attention."

He noted that he looked very suspicious himself since he was technically sneaking around the library. He pretended to sift through some books in the medieval section and took out a random one. He flipped through it like he was browsing, but he didn't realize that he had taken out a book about his great-grandfather.

"Hm, this is a nice fashion style," Iremacht commented about the pictures in the book. "Do you have any clothes that look like this? I'm hoping to try on something new or more traditional for the celebration."

M:   Poldara was pretty confused about Iremacht's behavior, but he decided to turn a blind eye for now. He walked over to look in the book, "Well, I don't think we have any German-style, but I think dad and Uncle MA have a lot of royal outfits for special occasions, I'm sure they won't mind if you borrow one."

"There you are," Belarus said when she happened upon the two, "what are you doing?"

"Iremacht wants to try some royal clothes for the festival," Poldara answered, "I said we could probably find some of dad or uncle's."

"Why do you want to wear royal clothes," Belarus asked Iremacht, but a lightbulb clicked and she crossed her arms, "your clothes didn't get washed did they."

L:   "German-style?" Iremacht frowned at the book, then looked at the title. His eyes widened when he saw that it was about the Prussian kingdom. "Ah, sorry, that was a miscommunication." He put it away.

"No, I didn't wash my clothes," he said to Belarus. "Though I wouldn't mind trying on Mandarian-style. I can probably fit in Mandara's or MA's clothes."

He peered around to check if the librarian was nearby. When he didn't find the human, Iremacht said to Poldara, "How about we go now? My father might hyperventilate again if I'm gone for too long."

M:   Belarus snickered at the mention of Wehrmacht, "maybe you shouldn't keep disappearing then. Don't worry, I'll go tell him what's going on while Poldara takes you to get some clothes."

Poldara nodded in agreement, then the three left the library and made for the Mandarian wing, with Belarus breaking off to go find Wehrmacht. Poldara led Iremacht to a room that was in between MA's room and Mandara's office. The inside looked like a fancy walk-in closet mixed with a dressing room, many outfits were hanging on both the walls that looked like they came from all over the globe.

"This is where dads and Uncle MA keep the clothes that other countries gifted them," Poldara said, "the royal-style ones are in wardrobe bags in the back left-hand corner, I'll wait for you outside, just please try not to touch anything else, I don't want us getting in trouble for getting something dirty."

L:   Iremacht whistled at the amount of high-quality clothes in the wardrobe. He could only nod at Poldara's words, already transfixed with the various choices. He felt like he was shopping at the mall and it might even take as long.

"Hm, black is too funeral," Iremacht muttered under his breath as he sifted through the clothes. "White is too innocent. Green? Or red? Why am I thinking like a Christmas tree ..."

He came upon a dark blue one. Prussian blue.

"Fuck you," he said, resisting the urge to rip the cloth. Iremacht could try to be himself all he wanted - but his personality would always be compared to Prussia.

He moved on and searched a different part of the wardrobe. He selected two clothes of the same style, but one was green and the other was red. He wore the green one first but took the red one with him as he stepped out of the wardrobe to meet Poldara.

"This one?" he asked the kid, not feeling weird for asking him for advice. "Or this one?"

M:   Poldara looked up from his phone, he was texting Mandara to let him know about Iremacht borrowing the royal outfit, which the country said was fine. Poldara looked between the outfits for a bit then pointed to the green one.

"That one, you look good in green and I feel like the red one will make you look like your trying too hard to impersonate a noble." He walked around Iremacht to get a better look, when he got to his back he hummed, "shoot, I forgot that it has the slits in the back for wings, but we can fix that, come on."

Poldara grabbed Iremacht's arm and took him back into the room, he had him stand in front of a mirror at the back and he started rummaging through a few chests of drawers. He eventually found what he was looking for, it was a short black cape that had gold trim along the edges, "this should do it," the kid said.

He walked over to Iremacht and placed it over his shoulders, he then tied the golden string in the front to secure it and took a step back. "Much better, what do you think?"

L:   "Hm, you know my color scheme," Iremacht hummed approvingly. "I like it. The cape is very majestic." Iremacht tapped his chin as he gave Poldara a once-over. "What will you be wearing? You're technically a prince, aren't you?"

-----

Wehrmacht got dressed in the black uniform that he'd arrived in since he was sensible enough to remember to have it washed. He went to check on Iremacht's room while he waited for Germany and France. Of course, his son wasn't there.

"Calm down, Wehrmacht," he said to himself. "At this point, you should stop worrying. He knows how to take care of himself." He smiled distantly. "He's all grown up and I trust him."

Wehrmacht was eventually joined by Germany and France, and they went downstairs together. Since Mandara and MA were already gone, they waited for their esteemed tour guide Poldara.

M:   "I'm just going casual," Poldara said, "though Uncle MA lets me wear his hat so it doesn't get lost during the flyover, I left it by the front door so we can get it on our way out."

The kid then started leading the way back to the living room since it was clear that Iremach could get himself lost easily.

"As for the prince thing, I don't know," he said as they walked, "I mean, dad and uncle are princes, but Prussia killed grandpa three days before dad was going to become king, so he never got the chance. I personally don't think I'm a prince because we are not a monarchy anymore, so it doesn't count."

As he thought about it more, he asked Iremacht, "if we are following that logic though, doesn't that make you and Mr. Wehrmacht princes?"

-----

Belarus was waiting in the living room when the others came out, she looked up from petting the dogs and smiled at them.

"There you are, I was wondering how long you would take," she said, she whistled off the dogs and stood up from her armchair, "Poldara and Iremacht will be out shortly, the kid took Iremacht to get some new clothes since he forgot to wash his yesterday."

L:   "That idiot," Germany sighed. "Always goofing around all day and forgetting what's really important."

Wehrmacht and France, being parental figures, chuckled. It was part of the deal with having children.

-----

"I'd love to be a prince," Iremacht mused. "My vater doesn't care for royalties though. Sure we had emperors back in the empire days, but we stopped calling it monarchy during Reich's time - we called it dictatorship instead. Supreme leader. Fuhrer. Whatnot. Vater was Supreme General but he doesn't like that title either." Iremacht's mouth twitched. "It sounds fancy. A little pompous, but fancy."

As they started heading for the living room, Iremacht flashed out his new cape and raised his eyebrow at Poldara. "I don't know, criminal mastermind sounds cooler, don't you think?"

M:   Poldara frowned, "not really, I've seen enough movies to know what happens to those guys, either blown to bits or fed to their own pet sharks. Uncle MA once tracked down the 'criminal mastermind' of a smuggling operation a few years ago, the guy tried to blow up the warehouse that he was storing stuff in with Uncle and other soldiers in it, and when it didn't work he tried to run at them with a suicide bomb vest, which also didn't work. So as far as I understand, if you're a criminal mastermind, you always go out with a bang, literally."

Eventually, the two made it to the living room where everyone was waiting.

"Well look at you Iremacht," Belarus said, "you look like you're ready to go to Mandara's annual renaissance festival."

L:   Deep down, Iremacht knew it was true; criminals never met happy endings. He regretted bringing it up with Poldara - he really needed to check his bad influence meter. At the same time, he was also pleased that Poldara didn't jump on the bandwagon and wasn't afraid to challenge Iremacht despite being young. Who was he kidding, he'd literally had an argument with the kid yesterday.

Iremacht was still turning over Poldara's words in his head when they arrived and almost missed Belarus's comment. He kept his tone flippant as he said, "I dress to impress. Perhaps I will be painted."

"You'd scare the painters away," Wehrmacht laughed.

Iremacht rolled his eyes. "Shall we arrive at the celebration with equal style or fashionably late? I'm fine with either."

"We will do none of those things," Germany scolded. "We're going to follow Poldara's lead like normal people."