[    Author's note:
I've actually already posted this in my first random hermitcraft things book, but I'd figure I should reupload it here because I'm also uploading the other oneshot for it here.
Not the proudest of this, but I still like it enough.   ]

Original Published Date: 9/18/22

Word Count: 1852 Words

Warnings and Disclaimers:
 - Minor Character death
 - Vandalism

Major Characters:
 - Impulse
 - Gem
 - Pearl
 - Grian
 - Grumbot

Short Summary:
[    After enforcing new rules and claims that benefited no one but himself, most of everyone spited the king. Claiming an amount of profit from everyone's shops, making a currency only for himself, a lot of people had enough, and Impulse was one of them.
At first, he wasn't really planning on doing much by himself, but it seemed someone else had a different idea, and honestly?

He doesn't mind this.
But he did need some help.    ]
(Basically a rewrite of what happened in Impulse's EP 33 and Grian's EP 19)

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Walking along the pavement, he briefly paused as he reached the board of quests. Nothing new, all of the same, mostly boring, quests, but his eyes landed on the paper tied with blue ribbons. Subconsciously, his hand darted to his pocket, a feeling between dread and relief as he felt the paper still in his pocket. Pulling out the crumbled up note, he unrolled it just to recheck the contents.

Remove

King

Claim

His hand shook a bit as he held it up, and read those three words multiple times. Remove king's claim... to the throne?

His head turned back up to the board, more directly, to the statue of the king behind the board. The king statue showcased the monarch in his glory, adorning a golden crown, a pair of shining black sunglasses, and holding up two torches, but instead of flames they were filled with pure, crystalized diamonds.

His empty hand clenched ever so slightly. He looked again, between the note and the statue, the three words repeating in his mind. The cohesive side of his brain was telling him it was a bad idea, that it would get him in serious trouble, but the other side was more drawn to the idea than he'd like to admit.

Remove king's claim .

The king never had the right to claim anything from the very beginning.

***

"Here's your order, sir!"

The restaurant was as quiet as ever, only a few customers coming for lunch on the weekday. Pearl placed the bowl on the counter in front of her targ- customer, before her eyes widened, and she snapped her fingers.

"Oh right, I almost forgot!" Searching the drawer underneath the counter as they raised a brow, she pulled out a jar of black powder, opening the cap and sprinkling in a good amount. She put it back down, hand unsubtly covering the label out of view.

"What was that?"

"Pepper powder!" She sheepishly grinned. "Forgive me, I forgot to add it when I was making it."

They didn't seem to suspect anything. They never do . She watched with an almost unnerving smile as they took a spoonful, before their body froze entirely. And not a moment later, the corpse fell to the floor.

"And there they drop." She giggled lightly, before waving off as a signal to her employees. "Take him to the back."

She watched as the body got escorted away, before humming away as she got out her list and crossed another name with red ink.

As then, the door to the building opened, and Pearl looked up to see who it was, before smiling.

"Impulse! Buddy!" She greeted as the brunet took a seat at the counter. "Good to see you!"

"Heya, Pearl," He returned the small smile. "I'd like the usual. How are things holding up around here?"

Nodding, she shifted behind the counter, getting a bowl of water to boil. "It's going great! I've even been outsourcing some of my income to Gem, you know, her shop's doing well as well." As she took a spoon off the wall, she stopped humming. "But something I don't like," Her expression shifted as she used her other hand to search through her cash cabinet. She dropped the items onto the counter with an almost disgusted look. "Is this."

Impulse eyed the green jewels she placed on the counter. "Ah. The 'royal emeralds', right?" He mumbled.

"The royal emeralds!" She repeated, a bit more anger in her voice. She sighed, going back to the pot. "Does this king think he can just buy our stuff for free?" Mumbling curses as she shakes a can of spices, mixing it into the liquid evenly. "Yesterday I wasn't working at the restaurant because I went on my cleaning services instead, but then when I came back I saw these in my payment box."

"It's unacceptable. I do think that the king has gone too far." The brunet nodded with a frown, sitting straight on the stool. "Not only has he claimed a part of out profits, but now he installed a fake currency."

"I know, right!" Pearl agreed, taking the pot off the stove and shoving the liquid to a wooden bowl. "Good thing I sent someone to erase my shops name from the tax list, I can't have anyone taxing my money."

Impulse laughed as she passed the bowl of soup over to him. "Hey, you're also doing tax evasion now?" He half joked, taking a sip of the soup. "And as always, I love your cooking."

"Thank you!" She smiled warmly, before continuing. "And it's not tax evasion if it was never a valid tax to begin with." She shrugged. "Honestly, I don't even really recognize Ren as the king anymore."

Impulse merely chuckled to that. After a brief moment, he placed the spoon down, and suddenly looked her in the eyes. "Speaking of the king," He hummed, tone gone more cautious. "I have a small favor to ask of you, if you don't mind, of course."

Recognizing the glint in his eyes, a beat of sweat fell down her face. "What? You want me to assassinate the king?" She joked, though knowing very well that could be exactly what he wanted.

"No- no, nothing like that!" He laughed lightly, before stopping. He didn't even finish the soup, before standing up and searching for something in his pocket. "Well, maybe something like that- but no one's getting assassinated."

Placing a few diamonds on the counter, she noticed he also slipped a small piece of paper along with the payment.

"Meet at the written location, tomorrow." He said, voice swirling into something more serious, though also mischievous. But then, as if a switch flipped, he went back to normal, and his smile went back to friendly. "Well, I gotta go seek Gem now. Later, Pearl! Thanks for the soup."

Pearl blinked confusedly, looking at the paper. "Oh- um- bye!" She said, maybe a moment too late as the door shut closed.

Taking a brief moment to think about what just happened, she leaned onto the counter. Weird. He's a bit more suspicious than usual.

"Now... what is this curious piece of paper..."

***

Flick!

As the lights turned on, a figure in red sweater with golden tips entered the cavern-like room filled with wires and screens. None were turned on, and the lights were flashing almost ominously.

"Grumbot!" He called out. "I'm here!"

...

No response.

Grian blinked. "Grumbot?"

And then, simultaneously, all of the screens lit up. Most of them showed static, but the big monitor in the middle of the room showed what resembled to be a pixelated face.

"FATHER 1." The noise was almost crackled

He took a moment to collect where the robotic voice came from, before turning around to view the face on the big screen. "Yeah?" He started carefully. "What's up? Why do you sound like that?"

"REMEMBER THAT TIME WHEN YOU SPOKE FOR ME?"

A bit of dread pooled to his stomach.

"Oh god- about this again-" He almost grumbled, taking a step deeper into the lab. "Look, I'm sorry, it won't happen again, I thought you would've been cool with it."

"NO. NOT ABOUT THAT." Grian blinked in confusion, before the AI continued. "THE GENERATOR."

It took a moment for him to register what that meant, and then he beamed. "Did Impulse remove the claims?" He asked. "Already?"

Grumbot didn't reply to the question. "THE STATUE."

"The... statue?" He raised a brow, now not fully understanding. "The king's statue? What do you mean by-"

For a second, Grumbots's screen flashed binary, and then a screen nearby lit up, showcasing a camera view of the quest board in the shopping district. Three people stood near the bottom, looking up at the king's sta-

Even for someone that doesn't go there often, he immediately got what Grumbot meant, eyes widening in either surprise or awe.

"Oh, wow." He uttered after momeng. "Wow." Moving to take a closer look, he noticed all the details had changed about the king's statue. The statue was stripped of its kingly attire, the diamonds held on the scales gone. Even the crown wasn't there anymore.

The three figures shortly walked away, away from the camera's view. "They... vandalized the king's statue?"

"THEY INTERPRETED YOUR MESSAGE AS TO REMOVE THE KING'S CLAIM TO THE THRONE."

"What." No question mark, just what . And then in realization, his jaw almost dropped. "Oh. Wait. So are you saying they're resisting against the king!?"

"THEY'RE TRYING TO DETHRONE THE KING."

"Oh no no no no no-" He stopped. "I mean, oh yes, if they actually succeed in doing so, but oh god." Grian pondered around for moment, and then froze in his tracks. "Wait, if I, leader of the Not A R- National Affiliate Renpublic Committee, amd claiming to be affiliated with the king," He turned back to Grumbot, "Does that mean I have to go against them?"

As a response, Grumbots's screen just showed a big white question mark.

"Aw come on, that doesn't help." He groaned. He looked back at the camera view of the shopping district for a second, before sighing. "Whatever, I guess. It doesn't really matter to me." Taking off out of the lab, he shut the door behind him. "I'm simply just not going to bother with this, it's none of my concern, they're the ones doing the resisting, not me." He tried convincing himself as he wandered through his corridors, laughing out a hollow laugh. "Yea, Grian, you're not a rebel, you're just a really bad citizen that's rich. You're not going to be resisting, it doesn't matter how bad the king is, with his rules and... claims."

He stopped midway, going completely silent.

With robotic sigh, a screen popped through the walls, Grumbot coming out seeming exasperated.

"YOU'RE PLANNING ON JOINING THEM, AREN'T Y-"

"hUSH NO I'M NOT." He snapped defensively, shoving the AI's face out of his way as he continued walking, arms crossed. "I'm an upstanding citizen, thank you very much. I would never, never , never ever, in my whole entire life, go against the rule."

"..." Grumbot didn't reply, but as Grian took a few steps away, "SO WHAT ABOUT THE FALSE TAX REPORT CHECKS YOU'VE BEEN MAKING ME D-"

He shut his ears, and turned back to his son with a face of irritation. "How about you stop talking for a while." He sighed, before dusting off the nonexistent dust off his clothes.

He continued down the hallway, with Grumbot still sort of following him. Then, a small grin appeared on his face, and he hummed. "But it's kind of amusing, isn't it? If they succeed, that would mean-"

***

Looking over the mess they've created, Pearl shot a smirk as she played with the blue jewelries that definitely weren't hers, but also didn't really belong to the king anyways so is it really stealing?

Gem was slumped over the wall of the alleyway, seeming conflicted, while Impulse smiled as he viewed the vandalized statue from the cracks.

"The king," He mumbled, "Will no longer be our king."

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