920 Cool Banter
The room was quite pleasant.
While it was simply a guest room, it would have been the master bedroom for a prestigious Family mansion in Pelian. Maxim should know, she was the one who compared the room she was staying to the one her parents owned.
The thick, four-poster bed with a thin, silvery net around it, its size comically large, yet its comfort so unmatched that Maxim was always trying her damndest to resist its call. Even the current situation in Opungale didn't serve as much motivation for her not to lay down and cast her worries aside.
The pleasant scent that wafted from the walls which were draped with coiling roots that bore orchids; the sod-like carpet, purple in hue with a godly feel to the feet; the floral lanterns hanging overheard; the faint music playing from a strange plant growing from a white vase in the corner...
All of it...
All of this...
"You've been living in luxury," Skullius commented. He felt, heard and smelled all except the wonders of the bed, and he couldn't help but admire the high standard. "Wish my bed had been like that."
Darwel and Sevill grimaced.
The bed that Skullius burned with his reversion into the Eternal Storm Veil Penetrator after the Premium Age Royale... had been the same one he had woken up on minutes ago. No one had been able to move him into a different bed before Erlton sealed his body in order to contain the chaos that would have ensued. Besides, no bed sheets could survive the storm of Levin.
Awkwardly, the two Sif pretended as though they hadn't heard what Skullius had said.
Maxim, Skullius and the Sif pair sat on comfy chairs with a pretty table in their midst, elegant, pretty-faced servants serving them refreshing drinks in wine grasses.
"It IS luxury," Maxim said as she thanked the Sif servants who then took their leave. She raised her glass to her nose and swirled its contents. "I doubt even the crown prince of Pelian – if there even is one – gets better treatment than is."
She sipped her cool juice and smiled.
"Well, we take hospitality very seriously. My parents insisted on it all the more since we have an alliance with Pelian," Darwel explained as she too took a sip.
Skullius nodded.
As soon as he also grabbed his glass and put it to his lips, however, he felt everyone's attention on him. It was so bizarre and abrupt that he paused and lowered the glass.
Darwel gave him a sharp, subtle glance while Maxim showed her curiosity blatantly by leaning forward and staring intensely. Sevill was the same, though she depended on her veil to hide how rude her gawk was.
"What?" Skullius asked with a raised brow.
Darwel and Sevill staggered through their words but Maxim, of course, answered.
"We're just really curious if you're actually drinking and savouring or... well, faking it," she said with a shrug.
Skullius was puzzled.
"What... Wait, you mean... you think this body is fake?" he shook his head and downed his juice.
Maxim nodded.
"Erlton told us you used this body to fit in. That it isn't exactly... you know."
Skullius chuckled.
"That used to be the case. I couldn't really do much with this body back, when it was just a husk I wore to blend in and not be found out," the Hybrid Luman said with a hint of melancholic nostalgia.
Strange.
He had taken a trip to Deadmanland and relived the monotonous life of being a Moronic Undead sometime before the Royale, calling out the nostalgia too.
While Maxim nodded with a funny smile at the explanation, Darwel looked a bit concerned. Empathetic really.
"It must have been difficult. I was honestly a little... angry after I saw your true form. It was only after Erlton explained that I realised that I was being narrow-minded. The fact that you hid around so well without being found out is both incredible and... a bit sad," she said with a look of sympathy.
Skullius took another sip of his drink.
"This Erlton person must have done a fine job at explaining my circumstances if your takeaway from my story is feeling sorry for me," he said.
'...And that person knows a little bit too much. How much did he tell?'
"I laughed," Maxim said with a chortle while gulping down. "The picture of a large skeleton walking around Genhuis City with no one realising is hilarious."
While Darwel gave Maxim a scolding look, Skullius returned her chortle with a laugh.
"Oh, you should have seen the public opinion when I lost my flesh in the middle of a library in Inhone. The looks on everyone's faces were priceless. But then again, so was mine," he said. "I did end up getting the last laugh though. Killed everyone there and did a little bit of lying to handle the aftermath. I actually did a lot of that, now that I think about it."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Hmmm?"
Maxim shrugged.
"Well, with the way you killed some of those Masters during the Royale... I'm not too surprised. I should have realised you were more demented than I am," she said.
Darwel sighed.
"You're warping my view of you too much," she said with a false tear. Sevill patted her shoulder.
Maxim sniggered.
At that moment, the door to the room opened and another beauty, this one more voluptuous and unafraid to show it, walked in.
With her navy blue hair wildly wiggling down her scalp to her shoulders and then all the way to her butt, peppering the short, silk robe she wore, Valiant waltzed in.
"The dead man walks again..." she said with a vibrant smile.
Skullius sighed as he looked from her figure that took dainty steps, revealing generous portions of her blameless thighs with every step, to Maxim.
"Looks like everyone prepared some terrible line to throw at me as an icebreaker," he said and turned back to Vali.
She shrugged and found a chair to sit on, setting it right beside Skullius, much to Darwel's slight displeasure. A part of her thanked Listafelle that Skullius was blind... or pretty much a eunuch or... however his atrocious resistance to having such beautiful women at his side worked.
"It's the only way for me to feel as though I'm not crazy for sitting beside a former undead," Vali said with a sharp look in her eyes.
Skullius flinched a little. No one noticed.
'That man...' he thought, a little annoyed.
"What's with the robe?" Vali asked, pinching it to find that it felt like real, black fabric, which surprised her.
Skullius smiled.
"I'm going for a new look. Tired of the old," he said and sipped.
"How old is old exactly. For you, I mean," Maxim held down a laugh.
Skullius shook his head.
"If this Erlton hasn't already told you that too, you probably don't want to know," he said.
Darwel perked up.
"Your age would probably be the least worrying thing about you," she said with a smile.
"Speak for yourself," Vali said while grabbing the El Sif's glass.
Skullius drew back in his chair and leaned against it, hiding his hands in the sleeves of the robes.
"I admit, it's refreshing to see you all, though it hasn't been that long," he said, and the four women reciprocated similar feelings in their own ways – Maxim by raising her glass, Darwel by donning a brighter smile, and Vali by folding her arms and saying "That statement has odd context now, but alright."
Skullius then turned serious.
"Now tell me. Who is Erlton, and how much did he tell you about me, exactly?"
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