They were taken to the guardhouse and offered chairs and tea. It wasn't the average treatment for prisoners, but the status of the two players still wasn't clear for the captain.
He grew up with stories about the players, after all. Though it had been a long time ago, there were still some individuals from long-lived races who still remembered that mythical age, so the stories still lived on.
For a substantial amount of people in this country, a player was an existence similar to a god. And one won't just go arresting gods.
"Well, I will begin by hearing your names. Oh, I am Wilhelm Trauenhof, captain of the city guard. I take it both of you are players?"
((What the… I remember the lore we wrote, drinking a lot from German names, but to think that the world would come to such names…))
While Cecilia was thinking that, Jules presented himself.
"I am Jules Petit, and yes, I am a player. My player name is Grosfou."
"Oh, and I am…"
"Mother! I knew that you would handle it perfectly! Good day, Wilhelm, this is my mother, Morielen. I think you remember that name?"
Wilhelm's face contorted as several emotions tried to express themselves in it, but the final result was just an ugly grimace.
"Q-queen Aelindra?"
He quickly fell down to one knee, which was promptly followed by the other guards that were in the room.
"Oh, spare me the formalities, please. Get back to your feet, everyone."
"Aelindra, I thought that you were going to write those guidelines…"
"I went, but I thought that it would be silly to write guidelines before coming to talk to a player myself. I want to understand what caused this good man to go wild on my guards in the first place."
((I don't know who is more lost right now, if Jules or Wilhelm… Huh? Why are they looking at me like that?))
"Are you really Morielen? THAT Morielen who soloed dungeons and topped most event leaderboards???"
"Wait, Morielen? The founder of the Ephemerys church and first Oracle of the Cycle? The queen's mother???"
The two talked at the same time, firing questions at her in rapid succession, their eyes oozing admiration.
((Ugh, what a pain… this is the reason why I've been only using my RL name, Cecilia, instead of my character's name.))
"Yes, that's the one, my one and only mother, and the most powerful player of all!"
((Please, I want to hide in a hole…))
:::
The commotion takes some time to die out so Cecilia can steer the conversation back to the topic they needed to discuss.
"So, Jules, how long has it been since you arrived here?"
"Oh, it was earlier today. By the way, would you mind telling me where 'here' is? I remember you from the game as being from the same nation I was, which is Drakenstadt, but there weren't any queen… Only King DarkLord92."
"Well, about that…"
She told Jules about the time that had passed since the time of the players, how they were considered mythical beings now, and that DarkLord92 was just the username, but his name was Martin.
"Five hundred years? That's… And what about the outsi-"
Cecilia quickly gestured for him to stop, interrupting his question.
"We don't know what happened yet, but we're looking into it. I take it that you used to have a house in Drakenhof, then?"
"Yes… that's a good point. What happened to it? Are all my things inside gone?"
This time Aelindra was the one to answer, with a question of her own.
"Don't worry about that for now. First, I need to understand why you attacked our guards."
Her question made him remember the confusion and injuries he caused, so his excitement cooled down, and he stared guiltily at the floor.
"I'm sorry for that. I questioned some guards, but they made fun of my claim that I'm a player, so I became a bit too aggressive in my demands. It was all a misunderstanding, but it was on me."
Aelindra listened to him, then turned to look at Wilhelm.
"Yeah, my boys got afraid because of his reaction and attacked first. That was our bad."
"I see. So both sides acted thoughtlessly, and it quickly escalated. But, Wilhelm, I have to say that I'm disappointed in the guard's behavior. They shouldn't mock a citizen like that for no reason. And everything escalated just because the claim they were mocking was actually the truth."
Wilhelm bowed to the queen, taking the blame.
"You are right, my queen. I will do a new training with the guards and punish the ones who did the mockery."
"No need. Let the injuries they suffered today be the lesson. For now, just tell them if anyone appears claiming to be a player, bring them to the Obsidian Keep. I will set up a way to properly receive them.
For you, Jules. As the guards were the ones who provoked you and then attacked you first, and no lasting damage was caused, we can let it slide with just a warning. I hope you understand."
"Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you for your indulgence."
"Good. Now, about your house… All player houses are considered state property, and they have been used to house government facilities and, sometimes, personnel. But we stored all the things that were inside safely.
After we identify your house and your belongings, we'll hand them back to you. But it might take some time to make the arrangements. In the meantime, we'll pay for a room in an inn for you. Is that all right?"
"Thank you so much, really."
"It's no trouble at all. The house and items always belonged to you, after all. In truth, I never really expected that the players would return, but I had to take precautions in case that happened."
((I'm not among the ones who worship the players. But I lived in the time when they walked in this world. I know enough about their powers to not dare risk making them my enemies.))
Being Cecilia's follower, Aelindra rubbed shoulders with the only guild in which all players had broken the character level limit. In fact, half of the limit breakers of Hyperborea were part of the Dead Nerds Society.
The extent of the powers she witnessed back then played a major part of the decisions she made about whatever was left of the players' property.