March Hare Pt. 02

"625, 9.052... 2.057.136? Bankrupt again and suddenly she starts all over. Good lord your highness what are you DOING?" Those were the thoughts I had as I went over the monthly fund reports of the queen's treasury. I held my head in my hands as I unrolled the seemingly infinite roll of paper. Sometimes there were patterns and other times it was completely random. From flat broke to having millions in a matter of days.

I mean I knew the reasons for those fluctuations but even after all this time, it still hurt my pride as a banker to see such irresponsible use of money. Well, it wasn't like I didn't know people like that from my old life but this... this was something else.

I might have to go back a little. One year ago, after I first met Floppy and after our fun little tour around Wonderland, she had to head right back to her service under the Queen of Hearts. Of course, being apart from me all the time due to that fact, Floppy asked the Queen if she could take me under her wing as well. Sure enough, I became her financial adviser and even a year later, I am still baffled by her spending habits.

The queen was... well... not what I expected to say the least. Then again, considering Wonderland I shouldn't presume anything. Life in Wonderland itself was incredible and certainly made every day way more colorful. It sure was a major improvement from back home. It's only when you're trying to manage madness that you're losing your mind. In a bad way anyways.

I kicked back in my chair staring at the ceiling. I had to confront her highness with this somehow, but I knew this wouldn't be easy. After all the Queen was...

knock knock

Someone knocked at my door. "Oh good. Maybe I can talk to her about this right away and... hopefully she's in a good mood today and listens to me for once." I was carefully optimistic and opened the door to my chamber.

"Your highness, I have an urgent matter that needs your... your highness?" I instinctively looked down because I already knew the Queen wasn't exactly tall and indeed there was someone standing there. A little girl with long, blonde hair in a frilly, blue and white dress along with white stockings and cute little black shoes. The only thing about her that could be considered as being off, was the pointy succubus-like tail that poked out from underneath her skirt.

She looked up at me with a pitiful, confused look and cocked her head in puzzlement.

"Oh, heh, sorry little girl. Seems I confused you with someone else. You sure look a lot like someone else I know. Why did you knock on my door?"

She gripped the sides of her dress anxiously and forced herself to talk. "S...Sorry, mister. But do you know how to find people?"

"Find people? I'm not exactly in that kind of field and finding people in Wonderland is kind of difficult. Who are you looking for?"

"My name is Alice! I'm looking for my big brother. Have you seen him anywhere?"

I rubbed the back of my head. "Huh, I don't think I know who your brother is even. What's his name?"

"Please, mister. I need to find my big brother. He's supposed to protect me but I can't find him anywhere!" She clenched her teeth and held back the tears that were welling up at the edges of her eyes.

I petted her head to calm her down. "Aww, don't cry. Do you live here in Wonderland, sweetie?"

"Mhm Mhm!" She nodded as she wiped her eyes.

"Alright, then you should know the big river that flows through it. Most people come through there. If you wait there long enough, I'm sure your big brother will show up too."

"Are you sure, mister?" She sniffed as she finally relaxed.

"It's the best shot you have. I'm certain you're gonna find him there."

"Okay!" Within a split second, her mood turned completely upside down. She put on a bright, cheery smile and skipped away. "Thank you, mister! I'll let you know if I find him."

I tried to reach out to her but she was already gone. "I umm... you're welcome!"

As she gleefully hopped away, I heard her humming and singing to herself. "Onii chan...Onii chan... I wonder what he'll be like... I hope he's nice to me..." And with those words she disappeared behind a corner in the twisted corridors of the Queen's castle.

"Wait, she doesn't know what her big brother is like? She... she's never met her big brother before? That's strange."

I leaned against the frame of my door and looked up in thought. "I never even knew that monsters this innocent lived in Wonderland. I thought only monsters that are influenced by succubi live here. Unless..."

I went deadpan. "She's going to be lewded, isn't she? Haahhh... and I sent her straight into the fray. Eh, if she really lives in Wonderland, I don't think she's going to see anything that would be new to her." I turned to head towards the Queen's garden when I doubtfully looked over my shoulder. I waved my thoughts away. "No, no, she's going to be okay. I think. Yeah... probably." I had to remind myself from time to time that nothing in Wonderland was as it seems and there was probably more to that girl than I thought. Besides, I had to take care of other issues and got back on track to meet the Queen.

The Queen's castle was a winding, confusing mess. Believe it or not, she designed it herself. She got the opportunity to build this massive construct as a gift from her father. The husband of the currently reigning Demon Lord. I've never even seen him, much less his wife. The only thing I know for certain is that they are immensely powerful and influential. Definitely enough to supply their daughter with her own realm and a castle.

With my report in hand, I entered into the garden. A wide spanning yard inside the castle walls filled with white, red and black rose bushes. It was a marvel in itself. It was regularly visited by various monsters within Wonderland. Sometimes just to relax, other times to meet the Queen herself. Whenever the Queen held "meetings", balls and some of her... play sessions the castle was filled to the brim with people. Incubi and other monsters alike. Most of the Rooms are made available to them so that couples could have some privacy but others had no qualms about just doing it out in the open.

You'd think an opportunity like that would give me and Floppy some time for ourselves as well, but as servants of the house we were supposed to keep the service running as well as the food and drink. And you have no idea how hard that actually was. Let alone while constantly being close to each other. All that pent up tension... and no pay off.

"Huh? Hey! It's Lucius! LUUUUUCIIUUUUUSSS! OVER HERE!"

"Hm?" Suddenly I was taken out of my thoughts, called by an all too familiar, squeaky voice.

I turned my head to see two people sitting on a blanket in the middle of the lush, green garden. "Oh, my apologies your highness. I wasn't aware that you were here." I chuckled off the embarrassment and bowed before her.

The Queen was a very odd specimen, even for Wonderland. Due to her parents she had both part of a succubus, namely a Lilim and part of the Wonderland's own inhabitant, the Alice. She was a loli with the habits and personality of a succubus sprinkled in. The literal embodiment of a wolf in sheep's clothing. Her body was very slim and tiny, though she did sport a decent bust of at least the upper B-cup size, though they might as well not be there if they are placed right next to Floppy's lower E-cups. That small body was dressed, similar to the formerly mentioned Alice monster, in a frilly, cute little dress. But instead of innocent blues and whites, she preferred blacks and reds with a little white mixed in. Red hearts dotted the hem of her skirt and red bows tied up her silvery hair into deceivingly innocent pigtails.

"It was about time you got here! We need one more player! Come here! Come here!" She flailingly waved me over and excitedly smiled, hoping that I would play with her. Like I said, she could be deceiving in how cute she could be sometimes. As I came closer, I saw who was sitting alongside her on the blanket... and it was the reason I was ready to put up with all of this.

With a blushed smile... I saw Floppy sitting on the blanket, holding a cute small doll in her hand. When her eyes met mine, she clutched it to her chest and looked over at me with visible hearts in her eyes. I could tell from the first look, that she was really holding back to not jump up and tackle me. "H...hey, Lucius. L...long time no see..."

I held myself back as best I could as I tried to respond casually. Just seeing her made me jittery and restless. "Hey, Floppy. It's been a while, huh?"

"Yeah..."

"Yeah... long time..." Floppy tugged on her collar as a visible sweat spread over her forehead. She must've been restraining herself like crazy.

Since we started working together under the Queen, we only rarely bumped into each other ever so often. Floppy was always at the Queen's side while I was mostly bound to my bureau. Off work of course, we were all over each other but at this point it was never enough to satisfy us. Over the last year, Floppy and I used every opportunity to sneak off and meet in secret and fuck somewhere away from the public eye. I don't know if it was to tease us, but the Queen ruled that her servants were not allowed to have sex on duty. If I didn't know her better I would say it was to keep a professional image among her staff but... come on... she's the Queen of Wonderland AND part succubus. Despite her image, she was just as, if not even more perverted than the rest of us.

With a smug smirk, the Queen crossed her arms and chuckled in a haughty manner. "Heheh, you two sure seem tense. Fun! Looks like you're just longing to spend some time together!"

We immediately blushed as we noticed we were staring at each other and averted our eyes. Not that it made us any less tense. I cleared my throat, trying to ignore my hot, reddening face as I adjusted my tie. "Hrmmm... You're just imagining things, your highness. It's nothing you need to concern yourself with. But there is another matter that I needed to talk to you abo..."

"No! No! No! I didn't mean to pry. It's actually quite convenient. We still need another player. So why don't you take a seat? Look, I'll take the cute little doll over here, Floppy has the bunny girl doll and you can have this one."

As I reluctantly knelt down and took a seat on the blanket across from Floppy, the Queen handed me a male figurine. It was smooth, pink and had no a single feature on it. Not even a face or hair. It was confusing since the dolls that the Queen and Floppy held frighteningly resembled each of them. Almost to a T actually.

"Umm... your highness? I'm honored you would consider... letting me play with you but... this figurine is kind of bland, don't you think?"

She leaned over and facepalmed herself. "Oh right! Hihihi, I almost forgot." She said as she snapped her fingers.

The sound rang out in the garden and faded into silence. At first I thought nothing happened but suddenly I felt something tickling inside of my arm. I looked down and saw the doll in my hand transforming. It was absorbing something from me. A dark essence that permeated from my hand and was sucked into the doll.

The more it sucked up, the more it started to shape into a form that looked almost exactly like me. My face, my hair, even my clothes made it onto the doll. It was an almost scarily accurate copy of me. Except small and lifeless. At least I hope it was lifeless.

I turned the figurine in my hand and had to admit that I was impressed. "Huh, you always manage to surprise me, your highness."

She shrugged smugly. "What can I say? I'm your ruler for a reason. So! Now we can finally play!" She clapped her hands together excitedly and childishly hopped up and down in genuine happiness. Floppy seemed to share her excitement or rather maybe she got used to it and was simply taken by her cuteness like most people in Wonderland. And despite her quite sadistic and toying side of hers, I had to admit that she could be pretty adorable from time to time.

I repressed those thoughts though as I addressed the elephant in the room. "Hrmhrm! Your highness!"

"Yes, Lucius? What is it?" She said nonchalantly as she was more focused on setting up her doll than on me.

"Your financial situation, we need to talk about it!"

"Naww! But that's soooo booooring! As long as I still have some, it's fine!" She shrugged, completely unbothered.

"That's the problem, your highness! Most of the time you don't have any. Just over the course of the last month you spent your money on a tea party for the hatter, 200 cakes made with every fruit from every realm, a top hat made of diamonds and a full set of oversized tea pots."

"So? Where's the problem?"

"You can't spend your money this recklessly! What would the people of Wonderland say if their Queen wasn't worth a penny?"

The Queen cocked her head and motioned as if I was making a fuss about something trivial. "Pshh, then I just ask them for more money of course."

I was baffled. "Y...You... you can't just ASK your people to give you money and..." I stopped myself and turned to Floppy. "She can't... right?"

Floppy cluelessly shrugged her arms. "I 'unno."

"You don't know?"

"I mean it's worked for her so far."

I cocked my head in disbelief. "You're kidding, right?"

I was hoping for a denial, but instead Floppy just ashamedly shook her head and hid her mouth behind her bunny doll. "Sorry."

I turned to the Queen again after rubbing the bridge of my nose. "Your highness, this is not a way to lead your kingdom. How did you even get them to go along with something like that?"

She innocently put a finger to her chin. "Well, most of them just handed it over willingly though I had to cry sometimes to convince them." She cheerily explained. "Oh, I had to step on some of them. That was fun for a while. But then some of them started enjoying that, so I had to move on to tickling it out of them... but some of them started liking that too now that I think about it. Hehe!" She continued and shot me a sweet little smile like that's make it better.

I sighed. "Haah... listen, your highness, I know you want to have fun. And you have all rights to use your funds like you see fit, but I'm worried about you here."

"About me?" She asked curiously.

"If you continue to garner your money like this, you are no better than the humans I used to work with. You'd be just as shady as they are."

She jerked up and gasped with a wide open mouth. "LIKE HUMANS! But humans are so lame! I'm not lame! Take that back!"

I smugly shrugged, just like she did before. "It's not up to me. I just say things as I see them. If you change your ways, I might consider taking it back."

The Queen grumbled and pouted as she settled again. She stared holes into the ground until a bursting grunt escaped her. "NNNAARGHHH..." And with a dejected, pouting lip she answered quietly. "Fine... I'll try to manage my funds better. Are you happy?"

I didn't even need to answer and instead reached over to her to pat her head, making her pout a little more but tickling a smile out of her. But even so, she was still puffing her cheek and annoyedly grumbling.

And that's where Floppy chimed in with the softest, most understanding tone I've ever heard her speak in. "Your Highness, I know it's hard to act responsibly sometimes, but you should listen to Lucius on this one. It's one of the things he's really smart with and he's only being so strict because he cares about you and wants you to make the right choices."

"But making responsible choices all the time is so... normal. I'm not supposed to be normal! My kingdom is not supposed to be normal!" She huffed in a dejected tone. She crossed her arms and ground her teeth like a spoiled little child. But just as she was about to go back into her pouting mood, Floppy shimmied over to her, snuggled her and let her touch her incredibly fluffy ears which lifted her mood immediately.

Like a mother consoling her daughter, she continued to explain to her. "You know, a little normal is okay sometimes. You can still be as random as you want other times. You wouldn't be the Queen we all love if you weren't."

While her head was being rubbed, the Queen looked up at Floppy with glossy eyes. "Everyone in Wonderland will still love me?"

"Of course. You're our Queen and we're all very happy in Wonderland. Mad and happy."

It was hard to imagine that this girl was running an entire plain of existence sometimes but... then again it would be hard to imagine anyone else doing it. Seeing Floppy know exactly how to handle her mood swings put a wide, stupid smile on my face. Instead of the Queen, I started admiring Floppy and her ability to effortlessly weave through all of the craziness of Wonderland. Even in a realm like this where you could never be certain of anything, she managed to have a grasp on everything that was going on. It made me glad that she was the one to pick me up when I came here. And still, there was one thing that she was not aware of. Today would be the day I repaid her an old favor.

When Floppy noticed I was looking at her, she started smiling with a warmth that almost melted my heart. It was the kind of smile you expected to see on a loving mother assuring her husband that everything was sorted out. My heart felt warm and beating softly. I got these feelings every time I looked at her. I think that's when you know you found the right one.

"Hey, your highness?"

"Huh?" She looked up confused, barely coming back from the daze she developed once she petted Floppy's ears and legs.

"There was a game you wanted to play with us if I'm correct. Am I right? I'd love to see what you came up with."

Like an excited kid on its birthday, her eyes lit up. "You're really going to play with me?"

"Of course. Having an excuse to spend more time with the Queen of Hearts? Sure, I'll play with you. I think you'll still have to explain the rules to me though." I readied my figurine, still freaked out by how live-like it looked and along with Floppy prepared myself as the Queen cleared her throat in a manner befitting of royalty yet still kind of adorable.

"So... hrrrm hrrrm... I am the princess. Princess Theodora."

I leaned over and subtly whispered to Floppy as the Queen was engrossed in her presentation. "She wants to be a Princess? But she's a Queen already!" She said proudly as she presented the doll of herself.

Floppy chuckled and nudged me playfully. "It's her fantasy. Let her have fun with it."

I chuckled in return and paid attention to the story.

"I live in a beautiful castle of course, cared for and looked after by my parents, the King and the Queen. King Lucius and Queen Floppy. The rulers of the Wonderkingdom."

As her narration carried on, something formed between the three of us. A pink orb of light that slowly increased in volume and brightness until it shaped into a luminescent, see through castle. It was like tinted glass but lighter in tone and the walls weren't physical. I reached out to it and my fingers just slipped through.

"Now, place your dolls inside of the castle."

"Do we move them with our hands or..." I asked, not understanding how we were supposed to play.

"You don't need to use lame things like hands. Hands are so basic! My dolls, you can control with your mind. Just think about what you want them to do and they'll act it out."

"Really?"

"The Queen of Hearts doesn't make jokes about her infinite power." She proclaimed with a puffed out chest and a haughty gesture.

I looked at my doll. It felt weird. Like looking into my own eyes. "Well, what do you say buddy? Ready to play King?"

And even before I finished my sentence, the doll started moving. Flying out of my hand, it phased into the castle and settled in the throne room.