L

Wehrmacht got the call from an elated Iremacht that they'd found the Crown in the storage room. He rushed downstairs to meet them in the lobby, breathing out in relief when he saw Mandara carrying the Crown. 

"So it really was some stupid museum worker careless enough to misplace such an important artifact as this," Wehrmacht grumbled as he joined the group. "This just slows down the removal process even more, by at least an extra half a day." He looked around worriedly. "I wish I could let you just safekeep it but you can't take the Crown out of the museum until everything is finished." 

"Maybe you should guard it then," Germany said to Wehrmacht. 

Wehrmacht folded his arms and glanced at Mandara. "I could, but that depends on whether you're comfortable with that. I'd keep it safe and strangle anyone who goes near it." 

M

Mandara flinched a bit when Wehrmacht mentioned strangling, that was definitely not a pleasant image, but he shook it out of his head, "Thank you so much Wehrmacht, I am absolutely alright with it, other than Thunder, there is no one else I trust better." 

 MA then piped up, "Actually, there is something we need to do first." He turned to Wehrmacht, "You don't happen to know if a gemologist is here?" 

Mandara looked at him confused, "What are you talking about Thunder?" 

 "I'm not so sure this is the crown, while I was looking at it down stairs, I saw a small scratch on one of the emeralds, which are a 7 on the gemstone hardness scale." 

 Mandara looked further confused and started to look for the scratched emerald.

L

"7 what? There's a scale?" Iremacht wondered out loud. "What does that mean? Why are we measuring jewelry? Is it damaged?" 

 Hearing that, Wehrmacht immediately started analyzing the Crown in Mandara's hands too, angry that it had been damaged in any way. 

 "More importantly," said Germany, "why do we need to bring in a gemologist for a scratch?" 

M

MA turned to him, "Like I said, emeralds are an extremely hard gemstone, and therefore it is very hard to damage one. So that means one of two things, either someone purposefully scratched it, or the emeralds, along with the rest of the crown, are fake." 

 Mandara shot a glance at MA, "Thunder, why would someone want to make a fake crown?" 

 "I don't know, but I do know that if we get a gemologist, they can look at the jewels and tell us if they are real or not." MA looked back to Germany, "Of course, if that's alright with you."

L

Germany hesitated slightly before agreeing. After all, he couldn't exactly disagree; it was a fair, logical request. 

 The museum's front doors opened and in walked Bundeswehr with the museum curator. The curator was relieved when he saw Mandara holding the Crown but gulped when he saw the way Wehrmacht was glaring at him. 

 "You have been suspended until further notice," Germany said to the curator. The human tried to protest and beg that it wasn't his fault, but Germany simply waved him away with a blank face. 

 Bundeswehr watched the curator walk sullenly out the door. "At least he won't be hounded by reporters when he leaves," Bundeswehr said. "I've cleared them all out so we should be at peace for about two hours. So what did I miss?" 

 "Can you find a gemologist?" Wehrmacht asked. "We need one to analyze the Crown. I think MA might be on to something serious here." 

"O-Okay," Bundeswehr said, surprised since he'd only just got here and was now being sent away again. He glanced uncertainly at Germany for confirmation, who gave him a small nod. "I'll be back as soon as possible."

M

Mandara and MA watched him leave, then MA asked to see the crown again. Mandara gave it to him and he continued to inspect the crown. 

 "Here it is." He said, holding up the crown so the scratched emerald was facing up, "Now that we are in better light, you can plainly see that the 'emerald' is damaged." 

A thought then crossed his mind. "Now that I think about it, the place that Iremacht found the crown was odd too. Instead of being on a shelf or box, it was on the ground hidden behind boxes, someone was either incredibly stupid, or was intentionally trying to hide the crown" MA explained, putting emphasis on the word crown.

L

"This is getting kind of scary," Iremacht said. "Did you piss someone off enough for them to hide your Crown? Maybe it's someone from outside Germany, like another country? Do you guys have any enemies?" 

 Wehrmacht was also growing suspicious. If this was being done on purpose, then they had a serious trouble on their hands. But why hadn't the perpetrator taken the Crown before the Mandarians arrived? Why cause a commotion now, the worst time to do so? Were they not happy with the trade deal? 

 Not happy with the trade deal. 

 "EU," he whispered.

M

MA and Mandara turned to Iremacht. "Yeah we have enemies." MA said "but no one other than Germany and Wehrmacht knew we were coming." 

 Mandara nodded in agreement then faced Germany, "Do you know of anyone who would want to take the crown?" 

 While Mandara asked Germany, MA racked his brain to try and figure out the same thing, but then he heard Wehr whisper something, "What did you say Wehrmacht?" he asked.

L

Wehrmacht pursed his lips, wondering if he should continue to raise his suspicion since he wasn't sure if he was following any solid leads. 

 "EU," he finally repeated. "Besides Germany and I, he's the next person who knew you were coming. Whoever did this only took the Crown after the trade deal happened. And since that deal didn't exactly please him one hundred percent, my thoughts are he might've gotten involved. But how would we prove it?" 

 "Let's get the full suspect list first," Germany suggested. "MA, Mandara, who are the enemies we should watch out for?"

M

MA and Mandara thought for a bit, they both thought of someone and exchanged nervous glances. 

"Um ... well, there is one country-" MA started, but Mandara cut him off, "Thunder no, we can't suspect him, we would know if he was here." 

"Trigger, the reason why we are here in the first place is to replace him with Germany as a trading partner, he has the motive." 

Mandara sighed, MA was right, "I just want to say he is not a enemy, but-" he closed his eye and pointed to Iremacht, "The country who looks like him."

L

"PAPA?" Ireland exclaimed. "How could you accuse him? He's my father for crying out loud!" 

"Calm down Machty," Wehrmacht said but he was also giving the Mandarians a skeptical look. "Ireland gets angry sometimes but he never takes it this far. It can't be him." 

 "Worth giving him a call," Germany said. 

 "Can we at least wait until the gemologist comes?" Wehrmacht sighed. "Confirm that it's a fake crown first before we start pointing fingers?" 

 Iremacht huffed in agreement, although he was still kind of glaring at the Mandarians for even accusing his other dad. 

M

Mandara looked away from Iremacht, he felt so guilty of accusing Ireland, especially in front of his own child. MA was also feeling guilty, he decided it was best to explain. 

"There is something we haven't told you guys, the reason why we decided to trade with you" he took a deep breath, "Our country and Ireland have been trading partners for a long time before we came here, but tension has started to arise between us ever since Ireland hasn't been keeping up his end of the deal, so we came here because we were looking for a new source of trading goods. We have nothing against Ireland himself, he is a nice guy, but he does have a motive." 

 MA lowered his wings slightly, explaining only made him feel worse and he could only imagine what the Germans were thinking about him and his brother.

L

Wehrmacht had never heard of Ireland's problems with Mandara until now; he'd never mentioned it at all. Considering Wehrmacht and Iremacht had only been visiting Germany for a month, Wehrmacht guessed that the tension either started recently or Ireland had been keeping secrets. He really hoped it wasn't the latter. 

 "I...I think we should call him," Wehrmacht finally decided. "After seeing the gemologist." 

Iremacht was shocked. "You really think Papa did it?" 

 "Nein, I think I need to have a chat with Papa about keeping up with trade," said Wehrmacht. "So I hope our discussion about the Crown can be brief." 

 Bundeswehr returned with the gemologist. The human looked speechless at the idea of handling such a precious case as the Crown - fake or not.

M

Mandara and MA looked up as Bundeswehr and the gemologist walked into the museum. Mandara immediately straitened up and took on a more professional stance, with MA doing the same. 

 "Ah, you must be the gemologist." Mandara said as he walked up to the man and shook his hand, "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance sir." 

 "Thanks it's a pleasure to meet you too Mr. Mandara" the gemologist greeted, switching to a professional demeanor as well, "And might I say it is truly an honor to work on such a valuable case." 

 Mandara smiled at the man's enthusiasm, Mandara then thanked Bundie for bringing him here, and led the gemologist to the group where MA was still holding the crown.

L

Bundeswehr stood next to Iremacht, noting how the teen looked agitated. "What's wrong?" he asked as they watched the gemologist approaching the crown. 

 "The Mandarians think Papa is a suspect and now Dad is thinking of calling him," Iremacht huffed. "But Papa has to be innocent. What would he want with a stupid crown anyway?" 

 "Keep your voice down," Bundeswehr whispered furiously. "That crown is important to Mandara, don't insult it. Let the grown-ups figure it out." He pointed to where Wehrmacht and Germany stood around Mandara, MA, and gemologist. 

M

Mandara heard what Iremacht said, but he turned a deaf ear, he understood completely why the kid was upset, there was no point in acknowledging his insults. He instead focused on the gemologist, who had taken the crown from MA and placed it on a flat surface so he could better inspect it. The gemologist was exceptionally thorough with every jewel on the crown, leaving the scratched emerald for last. When he got to the emerald, he hummed with interest then took out a small flashlight,.

"So what I'm going to do is shine this light at the emerald, a real emerald will not have a rainbow sparkle like other gemstones do, so if it sparkle, then it is a fake." he explained.

The brothers nodded in understanding and held their breaths has he shone the light on the emerald. He looked at it for a second before straightening up and turning to the countries and entities. 

 "The emerald sparked, it is a fake."