Chapter 538 A tricky event (part 1)
The group suddenly found itself in the dimensional tunnel, Daimon looked at the girls, compared to yesterday, the uneasiness that could be perceived from them was completely gone.
The Risha sisters were especially in quite a good mood, the crazy girl was even happier than normal and there was also Daphne who has recovered her usual cheerful aspect, since her mother had a nice night of rest and looked way better than before.
"Remember, no matter what happens, stick together, the global raid will be the main event of today, but I'm pretty sure something big will happen before that", said Daimon.
Normally, Daimon would have made it so not everyone arrived at the same time, since it is always better to not let others see what your allied front is like.
But unlike others, the "front" he is showing is not even close to what he has in storage for his enemies, so in this case it will be better for them to think that he has gone all out with two Maximum Stellar ranks at his side, as well as the queen and even the neo nobles who will be joining them soon.
And as Daimon expected, the moment the group came out of the dimensional tunnel, which left them at the entrance of the royal palace, a privilege that only Vincent and the Minister had, the gazes of all the other people who were invited naturally pointed at them.
If this was a usual event, the guests would have been taken inside of the royal palace, even before the main host came out, in this case that was the White ancestor who according to the declarations made by the king will be coming out only when the most important part of the event starts.
But, due to that same main host, things have changed, because the White ancestor is recognized as the strongest in battle terms in Neptune, so that much face is supposed to be given to him, not to mention he is also the second oldest Maximum ranked, belonging to the same generation as Armando.
That being said, none of them are the oldest beings alive in Neptune, that honor is on the hands of the magic beasts, and as one would expect they didn't like to be put on hold.
"Humph, I knew that the natives of the Mermen Sea weren't trustable, but not only their king isn't personally welcoming me, even their queen is arriving after the guests!", a loud rough voice came from one of the many groups that were waiting at the entrance of the royal palace.
Daimon and the others looked at the origin of the voice, and found it quite easily, which was understandable as it came from a wall-like full armored man, whose height reached the four meters.
It wasn't hard to guess the identity of the other party, especially with the aspects of the magic beasts that took a temporary human form, standing behind that giant man, not to mention his aura was ignored, but a masked young man bypassed him to go straight towards the gate of the royal palace, making the stage light rather similar to one that Daimon knew pretty well, it was another one of the rulers of the Maelstrom Sea, like Thea, not to mention it was a high stage Stellar rank with the qualifications to go against a Maximum stellar human expert.
Unfortunately for the giant guy, he was not only completely ignored, but a masked young man bypassed him to go straight towards the gate of the royal palace, making the stage light immediately change its focus.
"Halt, the king will open the gates once it is time for the event to start!", shouted one of the two guards, just to see the masked silver haired youth taking out a golden plaque to show it to the guard.
"That sounds good and all, but what does it have to do with the fact that I have come to get my reward from the royal treasury?", mockingly said Daimon.
Let alone the guards, many of the high ranked nobles, guests, the pirates and the Chaulioudus ruler who is the one that was looking for troubles earlier, all gritted their teeth, a mere star ranked knight wanted to claim the honor to be the first one to enter the residence of the host of the event!
"I-I'm sorry but the king has ordered that…", the other guard tried to wash his hands by using the king's name, just to be interrupted by Annete.
"How interesting, as far as I remember from the laws stablished by the founders, to deny a golden plaque holder its rightful reward, the king, the queen and the trident marshal all have to agree, and I'm pretty sure I did not such a thing".
"…", a sepulchral silence fell on the whole area, before an angered female voice broke the silence.
"Just to have your pet enter before everyone you are causing such a scene, and you dare to call yourself the queen!", said Irma, in other words the mother of the crown prince, speaking of which, Terry Malleus who had recovered during the past week was coldly glaring at Daimon as he stood next to his mother, his previous scholar fa?ade was nowhere to be seen.
Since this event involved Maximum Stellar ranks and those in equal standing from the four seas, even the royal family had to wait alongside them, only the king, the ancestor and the staff that would be serving during the event remained inside the palace, of course that included the personal guards of the king.
"Oh my, if it isn't Irma, why are you getting angry over something that has to do with the winner of an event, that is completely unrelated to you", calmly said Annete with a little smile on her pretty face.
Irma's eyes saw red, how could she not know what Annete was insinuating, "your son lost, so you don't have a say in this matter", as always, the queen's tongue was really sharp.
"How dare…", before Irma could lash out, Annete's eyes glowed as she said with a smile that wasn't smile.
"Not to mention I'm only fulfilling my duty to enforce the law, I'm sure you understand right?".
Irma's body trembled, over the past week the devilish woman in front of her, basically uprooted all the low and middle noble families which she has been raising in the shadows, for the moment when the succession war starts, basically destroying twenty years of efforts like it was nothing.
To everyone's surprise, the doors of the palace opened and Triten accompanied by the captain of the royal guard came out, the king had a black expression on his face as he said.
"The queen is right, which is why I have decided to start the event early, since one of the stars has somewhere else to be and it might overlap with the first dance".
Not all the guests were elegant or even educated, so Triten could feel the mocking gazes of the pirates and the disdain from the magic beasts, as he was forced to change his schedule over the whims of a member of the younger generation, well, they attributed this slap on the face to Annete, at least until they saw Daimon walking until he was a few centimeters away from the entrance.
"Y-You…", Triten felt his lungs filled with anger, the idea of him coming out was so that he could save up the situation, he thought that with this Annete will take a step back, but the silver haired youth was now standing in front of him, waiting for him the king himself to open the gates personally.
And the worst part is that he had to do it, because he tried to use Daimon as the excuse of him having to start the event early, but the captain of the royal guard took the bullet for him this time, as he extended his hand to open the gate.
"I thank the king and all the esteemed guests for their consideration", casually said Daimon as he crossed through the gate, not without making a gesture towards his group, which caught the attention of the other guests.
"Are they going to…", the crowd was speechless as they saw Daimon keeping the gate open so that all his group could enter, only then he moved aside leaving Triten whose eyes were spewing fire and the captain of the royal guard who was coldly glaring at him, behind.
"Hahaha, that kid surely knows how to start a party", the thunderous laugh of Dominic broke the tense atmosphere, following him all the neo noble faction moved forwards and then the other guests were all waked from their stupor, meaning they rushed towards the entrance, being the last to enter would bring shame to their family, force after all.
"Tideus, please escort the champion to the royal treasury", said Triten as he turned around to walk towards his wives and the princes.
"What a coincidence, it was going to ask uncle to lead the way, it would be a problem if he gets lost after all", Triten felt as if someone was kicking him in the balls, as he heard Annete speaking, but he swallowed his anger and didn't say anything else.
And that's what led us to the current scene, in which Daimon had separated from the group, and was accompanied by the two strongest members of the Malleus family as they walked towards the royal treasury.
"I have to say Vincent, that I didn't think you'll ever allow yourself to be used to throw dirt at the face of the royal family, what a disgrace, has that crazy woman corrupted that so called steel moral of yours", said Tideus as he glared at Daimon.
The old trident marshal limited to shake his head before saying.
"Face, disgrace, what nonsense, the honor of a leader is determined by how they protect their people".
"Humph, that stupid belief is what ended making you lose everything you worked so hard for", coldly said Tideus only to see Vincent smirking.
"Losing huh… do you think that you would be the patriarch if I hadn't given up the position, all you have today was gifted to you by me".
"What did you say!", Tideus couldn't help but raise his voice only to feel his body going cold the next second as Vincent looked at him from the corner of his eyes.
"Traditionally, the strongest "Malleus" is the one to lead the royal guard, in other words no matter what you do, you would have been the vice-captain now if I had any attachment to being the patriarch of the family, luckily for you, my duty is not with the royal family, nor the king, the trident marshal protects the people nothing more and nothing less".
Daimon who was walking next to Vincent couldn't help but clap a couple of times.
"Well said", he said, making the old man bitterly smile.
"Sorry for the rambles of this old man, let's go get you reward, now if you could guide us, please, captain of the royal guard", he said.
Tideus who had a vein bulging on his neck, wanted to refuse and challenge Vincent to a duel right here, but even if he didn't believe he will lose right away, this wasn't the time for that, so he ultimately swallowed his anger and walked ahead of them.
Daimon could see the old man sighing in silence, he didn't miss that Vincent called Tideus "captain of the royal guard" for the first time, the old man has determined himself… to kill Tideus if he tries to attack them later, because he won't have attention to spare if he has to fight with another Maximum Stellar, so this was his way to steel his heart, by listening to what Tideus believed in, though he already transportation array, Tideus used his personal token to unlock the knew the answer to that.
They didn't take long to arrive at a closed room with a transportation array, Tideus used his personal token to unlock the array and then turned to see Daimon before saying.
"I already did my part, use the golden plaque to enter the treasury, you have one hour and you can only take one thing, try something and I'll cut your head, once you decide just use the plaque to be taken out, your hour starts now so piss off".
Daimon smirked in response to Tideus stopping even the feigned courtesy he had in public, he nodded at Vincent before doing as he was told not without thinking.
'Words are empty, let me show you how to really insult someone'.
Seeing the silver haired youth's smirk, the captain of the royal guard felt a certain unease in his heart, but he couldn't put his finger on it, so he shrugged it off and instead glared at Vincent.
'I was going to ask his majesty to keep you as a slave, but you can go and die, I'll become a Maximum Stellar and guide the Malleus to the glory!', he thought.
…
At a completely different part within the royal palace, there was a black robed figure moving like a ghost through the shadows, maids and guards were bypassed like nothing by said figure, who then heard Aisha's melodious voice in his mind.
'Everything went as planned darling, I'll look around and tell you if I find any of the things on the list you gave me, still to think you'll "replace" me with another vampire girl, I guess I'll have to be the bigger person and teach her what are the customs of our race~'.
Daimon nearly tripped down, which wouldn't have had any real consequences as he was using both the effect of the hollow suit and the bracelet of the god of mischief to turn himself into part of the environment.
'Ahem, we actually have a pending matter to discuss regarding her, but leaving that aside, the aura of the three Nelapsi do resemble yours', he said.
'Mm, I was surprised too, perhaps it's because the purity of their lineage is on a similar level to mine, which makes sense as they are first generations too, but don't believe you can divert my attention from the real issue, are planning to drink her blood?', cutely asked Aisha with a slight tinge of jealousy in her voice.
Daimon who was flashing through the many guards and detection arrays, while avoiding physical restrictions thanks to blink, couldn't help but inwardly laugh.
'Well, vampires are judged by the number of "brides" they are able to have, or does my Aisha want to be the only vampire of the family', he jokingly said.
'Humph, I'll think about it, she is as easy to read as Jasmine so at least she isn't a scheming backstabbing blood sucker, like those bitches from the Naktis family branches', said Aisha referring to Victor's wives.
'Oh, I'm finally at the stupid treasury, I'll contact you later, don't forget that your first dance is mine darling~', with that, Aisha stopped communicating through the mental connection.
Daimon chuckled, this was expected as he asked Aisha to change her appearance into him to then go inside the royal treasury, she normally wouldn't ask for something in return, but all the girls seemed to be discussing about who should take the first dance with her darling, you can imagine the rest.
As to why Daimon asked Aisha to take his place, while he erased his presence and turned into a ghost that was moving through the royal palace, the answer is quite simple, he was going to pay a secret visit to the White ancestor.
'Flirting while under the mana sense of that old monster that is recovering under the castle, you truly are something my dear host', said Evangeline with a sleepy voice.
'I don't see the problem, he didn't notice Rita counter-tracking him, not to mention his attention is focused in a specific place, I doubt there will be a chance to regain something once the war breaks out later', said Daimon as he reached a dead end at one of the corners of the basement of the palace.
'Rita, can you scan where does that hidden array take you to and then open a portal to that place?', he asked.
'I'm already on it!', enthusiastically said the undead head maid, which made Daimon nod, it was time to get some answers.
'To think I would find someone with a similar quantity of laws as Calvin's grandfather, oh well, his lifespan is ending so he is older and still stuck in the Stellar rank, old Vincent will have it hard but I don't see him losing easily', thought Daimon.
'It's done Daimon, the array leads to a space deep underground that is not even below this palace, but at the north side of this city', said Rita.
'Well, that makes sense, since the mansion of the extended White family is there, take me there please'.
'Mm', with a little nod, Daimon's invisible figure sank into the shadows as he was transported through a shadow portal.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢