The journey to Denver Castle, the residence of the President-King, accompanied by Vice President Helena, was full of various disturbances.
When she ordered them to follow her, immediately pointing the muzzles of their cannons at them, Nightingale was already ready to chop the mechanical soldiers into cabbage. Fortunately, there was no direct confrontation: Elena reminded them in time that there were wounded everywhere and a battle would not benefit them.
"You'd better show prudence and go voluntarily," Elena said. "Do you really think I came here with just a couple of automatons?"
Hearing this clear threat, Mash lowered her shield. She perfectly understood the meaning of these words: if they continued to resist or refused the offer, not only she but everyone present would be in danger.
"Alright. We will go with you," she replied.
Nightingale, though she grimaced with indignation, also accepted the Vice President's terms.
"Industry and Dominion. Welcome back, Madam Vice President."
Soon they reached Denver Castle, where the President-King resided.
The snow-white fortress in the style of medieval Europe towered over the landscape, presenting a spectacle unimaginable for the North American continent. Wires and devices, suspiciously resembling light bulbs, were hung all over the facade.
"Where did Europe get a castle in America?" Ritsuka wondered.
"Well, you see. Our enemy is the Celts. Since we lost our capital, we needed a place to settle and monitor the course of the war. So we chose this. The President-King calls it White Castle."
At these words, Mash and Ritsuka involuntarily recalled the White House, the official residence of the US President, which in true history would be built a little later.
"O-o-oh... My head is splitting. Where are we?" Deadpool, who had been in a morphine stupor the whole way, finally came to. Seeing the majestic white fortress, he froze with his mouth open.
"Wait a minute... Is that the White House?"
"Mr. Pool, the White House won't be completed until the year eighteen hundred," Mash explained. "So it doesn't exist at this time."
"Patient, maintain silence!" Nightingale cut in. "And who allowed you to move? You are still under my supervision. Get on my back."
Noticing that Deadpool had woken up, Nightingale was beside him in an instant and hoisted him onto her back. He tried to protest, insisting that his legs were fine and he could walk himself, but after Nightingale's threat to amputate those very legs, he decided to remain silent.
"Vice President. Are these the people the President-King ordered brought?"
The castle gates opened, and a gray-haired man in golden armor with a golden spear in his hand came out to meet them. His face expressed no emotion.
"General Karna. Thank you for your service in guarding the President-King," Elena smiled, patting him on the shoulder. "Fortunately, these people came with me voluntarily. Otherwise, I would have had to call you for help. But it all ended peacefully."
"Wait, Karna?" Mash exclaimed in surprise. "The Karna from Indian mythology?"
"Huh? What? This spearman is from India?" Ritsuka chimed in.
The presence of a hero from the Indian epic in North America meant only one thing: he was a Servant. What Master could have summoned Karna, the son of the Sun God? Mash was finally convinced that the decision to obey Elena was the right one.
"He is a Servant whom the President-King summoned for victory in this war," Elena explained. "Just as your Master summoned you, Shield Bearer. We are lucky: the son of the Sun God is on our side. A huge asset in terms of combat power."
Karna responded to the praise with only a polite and restrained bow.
Following Elena, Ritsuka and the others entered the White Castle. They were led into a huge hall to meet the President-King. Familiar light bulbs burned on the walls, and behind the throne hung a three-colored curtain in the colors of the national flag, as if someone was preparing for a dramatic entrance.
"Uh… I'll warn you right away," Yelena whispered, looking somewhat embarrassed. "Try not to look him directly in the face. Our President-King doesn't particularly like it."
Ritsuka and his companions didn't immediately understand what she meant, but then the lamps in the hall flared brighter. Automatons, armed with musical instruments, began playing a discordant march, and the curtain parted.
"Behold! My people! Listen! My warriors! Feel! My constant current! The President-King of the Great American Empire has deigned to show his face!"
A tall man emerged from behind the curtain and began to make graceful, almost dance-like movements.
He was clad in a tight-fitting leotard in the colors of the American flag, with a round emblem on his chest. In the eyes of Ritsuka and Deadpool, the outfit looked more like a costume from a cheap TV show, and they couldn't help but doubt: could this really be the President-King?
"Oh-oh-oh. Yes, yes. A truly spectacular entrance, Mr. President-King," Yelena said with a stone face and no hint of sincerity in her voice, clapping her hands lazily. "So magnificent that tears are welling up."
Under the mechanical applause of the automatons, the President-King, paying no attention to the lack of enthusiasm from his subordinate, majestically headed towards the guests.
"My intuition didn't fail me! It's the intuition of constant current! Hmm, a lady with quite a formidable weapon. And you, I believe, are Florence Nightingale, a volunteer nurse? A pleasure to meet you."
A giant well over two meters tall loomed before them. Ritsuka and Mash, completely taken aback, shook his hand firmly. Remembering Yelena's advice, they tried not to look up.
"Haha, no need to be shy! Lift your heads. It's an order from the President-King!"
Obeying the order, they slowly raised their gazes.
"Huh?"
Before Ritsuka was the President-King's face… Except it looked, to put it mildly, unusual.
"Is this some kind of hidden camera? A prank?" Deadpool reacted no less eloquently.
And no wonder: an animal's head adorned the President-King's shoulders. To be precise, the head of a white lion.
"A lion?" Mash, in her astonishment, forgot the warning and stared at him with wide eyes.
"Hahaha! Yes, my face is quite magnificent, isn't it? This luxurious mane! Majestic fangs! And these powerful, wonderful golden eyes! This is me – Thomas Edison, President-King and Lord of Constant Current!"
Seeing their stunned gazes, Edison, filled with a confidence that came from nowhere, pulled out a mirror. He began to admire his own lion's head, striking heroic poses and showcasing the might of his appearance.
"It seems this lion has a superiority complex," Ritsuka whispered.
"But he said he's Thomas Edison," Mash muttered. "The great inventor who invented the light bulb."
Ritsuka tried to reconcile the image of the genius inventor with this narcissistic white lion… and fell into complete confusion.
"Uh… So, is this really the Edison we know?"
"I don't even know… It's hard to say."
"Maybe it's a mask?"
While Ritsuka, Mash, and Deadpool were discussing Edison's incredible appearance in hushed tones, the President-King, overhearing them, burst into thunderous lion laughter.
"I quite understand that my current appearance may seem unusual to you. Who else would have been incarnated with a lion's head? But, as you can see for yourselves, this is the truth. For I, the king of constant current, am truly 'Lai' – he!"
Edison spread his arms wide, demonstrating his grandeur, and sparks danced in the light bulbs on either side of his head.
"Wait. Am I mistaken, or was that a pun just now?"
"Electricity in Japanese is 'rai', and a lion in English is 'lion'. 'Rai' – he… Pfft!"
Ritsuka, deciphering the wordplay, couldn't help but snort.
On the other hand, Deadpool, who had just climbed down from Nightingale's shoulders, found it utterly ridiculous that an American was making a pun in Japanese, and immediately chimed in.
"Hey, Mr. President!"
"President-King."
Edison didn't even flinch at Deadpool's finger pointed at him, merely correcting his title with an unperturbed expression.
"Whatever! Since when does an American joke in Japanese? 'Rai' – he, because electricity is 'rai'? Seriously? Even I, a Canadian, wouldn't come up with such nonsense, and this guy says it with a straight face! I should have been the first to joke!"
Ritsuka and Mash stared dumbfounded at Deadpool, who had suddenly started protesting in a completely unexpected direction. Was his entire dramatic protest reduced to someone stealing his initiative in making silly jokes?
"And anyway, if we're being nitpicky, the symbol of America is the eagle! The lion is Britain! What kind of cockroaches must have been in his head to embody himself in such a design? Who drew him? Huh? Pako? Did you decide to turn a normal person into a lion for a single pun? Was the setting and design drawn on a napkin or something?!"
When Deadpool's complaints finally moved into the realm of common sense, Yelena tried to stop the red servant, who was offending the President-King's feelings, but Edison raised his hand, interrupting her.
"You should be angered not by my face, but by the state of affairs in the war tearing this land apart."
Anyone else in his place would have already started a fight over the insult to his appearance, but Edison magnanimously ignored Deadpool's jab and shifted the topic to a more practical matter.
"Actually, I ordered you to be brought here without much fuss. Join my army and fight as part of the great American Empire."
So much fuss for a simple recruitment. It would seem like a simple matter – go to the recruitment office and sign the papers. However, Ritsuka's group and Nightingale represented a force capable of significantly influencing the course of the war, given that the President-King himself had deigned to extend a personal invitation, and thus, the approach required was appropriate.
"Our great American Empire has lost half of its lands to the onslaught of the dirty Celts. Therefore, the presidents who should rule America have united their forces in one vessel, and I, President-King Thomas Edison, have incarnated in this world."
Edison immediately ordered the mechanical soldiers to bring a map of North America with the current operational situation. The vast continent was divided almost in half, and the front line constantly shifted east and west.
"Currently, the Celts are commanded by a queen named Medb. Due to Cú Chulainn Alter, who leads battles that resemble massacres, our situation has become dire. But fear not! For we have legions of mechanized infantry!"
Edison introduced the mechanical soldiers standing beside him, painted in the colors of the American flag. The appearance of these machines, resembling Charles Babbage's models, in such numbers on the battlefields of North America was made possible solely by the genius of Thomas Edison.
"Thanks to my incarnation, our great American Empire is producing mechanized corps at 160% of the twenty-five-hour production cycle – that's more than half of our goal of 210%! Of course, the working conditions are appropriate: ten minutes of heavenly rest and a social package of stale bread and bland soup. Everything is perfect!"
Some details sounded, to say the least, strange, but Edison continued his speech with such fervor that Ritsuka and the others decided to listen to the end.
"However, even our titanic efforts are not enough against the Celtic hordes, which multiply with frightening efficiency. Moreover, they have Servants on their side. We, of course, also have three, including myself, but that's not enough. That's why I, the President-King, personally offer such strong Servants as you to join our ranks!"
Indeed, facing them were Cú Chulainn Alter, possessing monstrous power, Finn Mac Cumhaill of the Fianna, Diarmuid, and quite possibly many other Servants they had yet to encounter.
The joining of Ritsuka's group and Nightingale would be an invaluable asset. However, there was a far more effective path, and Mash did not fail to offer it to the President-King.
"We have a better way. It's the Holy Grail. Once we find it, the anthropogenic order in this time will be immediately restored, returning history to its true course. This will be the final victory in the war."
Instead of getting involved in a protracted war of attrition with an uncertain outcome, obtaining the Grail, which was at the center of the conflict, would avoid unnecessary sacrifices. This fully aligned with Nightingale's beliefs, who sought to cut off the very "bacteria of war" that caused soldiers' wounds.
"No. There's no need for that."
However, Edison's answer was different.
In the past four searches for the Grail, friendly Servants had almost always agreed with Ritsuka's plan and accepted the predetermined history. But President-King Edison flatly refused to search.
"But why?" Mash asked.
"Once we get the Grail, everything will go back to normal? No! That's not what I, the President-King, desire!"
It seemed he had other plans. Nightingale, displeased that Edison wasn't supporting Mash's plan, spoke up:
"In that case, President-King… With what ideology and system do you intend to rule America?"
To her question, he merely puffed out his massive chest and proclaimed as if it were obvious:
"Work hard and play hard! That's all I desire. But it should only concern our great American Empire. As for the rest of the world, let it crumble or burn to ashes – I don't care!"
Pausing, Edison walked to the throne and, overcome by a sudden surge of patriotism, raised the star-spangled banner, shouting with all his might:
"Let's make America great again!"
At the sight of this slogan, Deadpool, with an expression of extreme skepticism, covered his eyes with his hand.
"This is insane… Is there even a piece of [T] mixed in this guy?!"