Earl Harrison’s birthday banquet and Young Master Hal’s wedding ceremony were right around the corner. During this period of time, the flow of people entering Atad greatly increased, and the entire city bustled. Numerous influential officials of Clark Alliance came to participate in both Earl Harrison’s birthday banquet and Young Master Hals’ wedding ceremony, especially the neighboring kingdoms and principalities.
Kruft Kingdom and Cromwell Principality, these two nations that had invaded the nearby Steinbeck Fief, had basically had all their royals and aristocrats participate in this celebration. Franconia Empire had also sent a special emissary to participate. Although Franconia Empire was locked in conflict with Adrian Empire at the frontlines, this didn’t affect the celebrations of these rear nations.
Regarding the marriage between Young Master Hal and Paladin Alicia of Grecia Principality, all people with discerning eyes knew that this was a political marriage to form an alliance. However, Miss Alicia was a well-known beautiful female paladin leading a knight regiment composed of fellow beautiful female knights. Allegedly, that knight regiment had been sent as her dowry, so the Young Master didn’t lose anything by accepting her hand. With Miss Alicia’s beauty and paladin status, when engaging in that kind of activity, there would be the bonus of having an inexplicable conquering feeling.
When the early morning sunlight shone into the room, Clyde rose from the big bed. Beside him, Knight Aike and Knight Ailu rested; they had already adapted to remaining in a bare state. Last night, after discussing the battle plans for attacking Atad with Princess Natalie and Miss Jenny, Clyde had returned to his room in Earl Harrison’s residence past midnight and accompanied Aike and Aiku to sleep.
“Master, you woke up. Do you want to sleep for a bit longer?”
“No, I have to make a lot of preparations for the celebration. You two should just quietly wait here. I will settle the matter of Miss Alicia. By the way, don’t leave the room; this place will be the safest area.”
“Got it. Master, we will follow your instructions. Besides, we can’t go anywhere with our current appearance!”
Aike and Ailu blushed and lowered their heads in embarrassment. Now, they didn’t have even a single piece of cloth to cover up their embarrassment. In addition, they wore the same red leather collars they had been presented to Clyde with, which could easily cause other people to have evil thoughts. If they were discovered by other people after leaving the room, then they would surely have tragic fates. It was better off staying here, waiting for Clyde’s return.
Clyde didn’t intentionally make Aike and Ailu maintain bare states. Because Young Master Hal was still monitoring these two knights secretly, Clyde temporarily couldn’t cloth them without arousing Young Master Hal’s suspicions, which would be detrimental to his plan of action. In Clark Alliance, slaves were normally not given anything to cover up their nakedness. Only after the battle of Atad would he be able to resolve the issue of Aike and Ailu’s clothing.
The palace of Earl Harrison’s residence was already overcrowded with people. The members of the imperial and aristocratic families who had come to participate in this celebration were everywhere. Just after Clyde emerged from his room, he saw Princess Halisi and Miss Vignia looking for him. After the night they had spent with him, these two beauties were already accustomed to looking for Clyde. Other than discussing the matters regarding trading with him, they occasionally also touched upon other matters while accompanying him to the banquet hall.
After conversing with them for such a long period of time, Clyde discovered that the arrogance of Princess Halisi and Miss Vignia was actually a disguise. In order to maintain the dignity of the magician profession, they had no alternative but to act this way. In fact, they were very sincere towards their acquaintances and only aloof towards strangers.
“Clyde, the banquet is almost upon us. The wedding ceremony will occur the day after tomorrow, but in these past few days, I haven’t seen Miss Alicia or any of the beautiful knights under her leadership. It truly is strange; the wedding day is almost here, but even brother is also not in any hurry to find them.”
“Vignia, Hal, he… he might have some other plans.”
On the way to the banquet, Clyde had to resist the urge to clear the doubts of Miss Jenny. She and Princess Halisi didn’t know the other side of Hal, so he didn’t want to break their beautiful illusions yet. After all, Hal had already seen Miss Alicia, that Miss Paladin, along with all the beautiful female knights under her leadership while they were practically bare. In addition to that, he had also imprisoned them in the basement, preparing to carry out a wicked ritual and trigger an Undead calamity by sacrificing them.
In the banquet hall of Earl Harrison’s palace, a marvelous feast progressed. This wealthy nouveau riche aristocrat seemed to hold a banquet every day from the time Clyde had initially come to the Earl’s residence. He entertained guests with a banquet every day as if he were afraid of not spending money. Butler Kenneth was in front of the banquet’s entrance, respectfully welcoming all the honored guests who had come to participate in the banquet. He also had an impression of Clyde; after all, he had once showed Clyde the way to this very hall. Upon seeing him, Butler Kenneth smiled and personally came over to guide Clyde’s party to some seats.
However, before the butler could talk to them, Clyde along with Princess Halisi and Miss Vignia sat together in a relatively hidden group of seats. These two ladies must have requested this seating arrangement beforehand. Before taking his seat, Clyde saw Miss Vignia warning the approaching Butler Kenneth about something in a low voice, causing the butler to head off toward some other guests. Originally, he had wanted to lead Clyde’s party to a couple seats located in the center area of the banquet hall.
“Clyde, we… we like a quiet place. If you would like a more bustling place, then I will let Butler Kenneth make another arrangement for you.”
“Clyde, a quiet place is very good, but if you don’t like it, you don’t need to force yourself to accompany us here.”
“Halisi, Vignia, it’s okay. I also like quiet places, so this seat is fine. In addition, it’s comparatively better to accompany you two since I don’t recognize other people. I feel a bit bad about being so frank.”
When Princess Halisi and Miss Vignia spoke, their voices were very quiet. But, in actuality, they didn’t like quiet places. Although the dresses they wore today were very conservative, they were still wearing those gem series appealing undergarments gifted to them by Clyde inside. Halisi and Vignia were worried about other people noticing them; thus, they asked Butler Kenneth to choose a quiet place to reduce the possibility of their being discovered as much as possible.
The styles of those two set of gem series undergarments Clyde had gifted to them were simply too open, and their appeal attributes exceeded the endurance limits of ordinary people. In addition, as if these clothes had indescribable magic powers, Halisi and Vignia were unable to control themselves and were unwilling to take them off after wearing them. While wearing them at a public occasion, they had the indescribable ** feeling of eating forbidden fruit, and Halisi and Vignia unconsciously began to crave this hidden feeling.
Despite being in a secluded location, the food and drinks served were not any inferior to those at other seats. Because there were less people, this table which had originally been for ten people looked very spacious. With only three people taking seats, many seats were left open. The cooked dishes served in this banquet came from the hands of Atad’s well-known chefs. Earl Harrison who had wealth equivalent to that of an entire nation was very particular in all aspects. Basically, his standards were equivalent to those of Adelaide Kingdom’s King Halid the Second.
Princess Halisi and Miss Vignia were already used to eating rare delicacies from land and sea. They didn’t have much interest in these wonderful-smelling dishes adorning the table. They just symbolically ate a few mouthfuls and watched Clyde eat while giving him brief introductions about the honored guests in attendance. Clyde was uninterested in the royal and aristocratic members of Kruft Kingdom and Cromwell Principality, these defeated opponents, so he didn’t really pay attention to any introductions about them. Nevertheless, he paid close attention to the members of Earl Harrison’s family.
Altogether, the Earl had six children: three male and three females. Other than Miss Vignia in front of him and Young Master Hal, Clyde had not yet talked the other four beyond a few passing greetings, so Miss Vignia just happened to point out several people present to him. After Miss Vignia’s introductions, Clyde learned to his surprise that she herself was not Earl Harrison’s biological daughter. As it turned out, she was an orphan adopted by a servant of the Earl’s residence. Because of her extraordinary talent in magic and her advancement to Apprentice Magician at such a young age, Earl Harrison had made an exception and turned her into an adopted daughter.
The other five were all Earl Harrison’s biological children, so their statuses were much higher than hers. Although their cultivations were inferior to Vignia’s, their blood lineages were the crux. Hal was the Third Young Master, so there were two older brothers in front of him. Eldest Young Master Harman innately had a back like a tiger’s and a waist like a bear’s. He looked very valiant and had short black hair, but he couldn’t be regarded as handsome. This guy liked violence. He was a tyrannical master. Allegedly, he regularly beat slaves to death. He was a berserker by profession.
Second Young Master Harriet was a standard profligate son. His chubby stature greatly resembled fat Earl Harrison’s. He didn’t have any specialties, and his only interest was money, which meant his money-grubbing nature had been inherited from Earl Harrison. Compared to these two young masters, Hal with his refined and frail appearance would appear to be an even better person. Naturally, Clyde knew the inside story. Hal, in fact, was the darkest. One should never judge a person by his appearance; he was a lot darker than his two older brothers who seemed more evil.
According to the arrangements of Earl Harrison, the first in line to inherit his rank of nobility was Second Young Master Harriet who would guard the wealth and continue the Harrison Clan for hundreds of years to come. Eldest Young Master Harman was too boorish, and as for the Third Young Master Hal, he had the appearance of a frail scholar. Basically, they were not suitable candidates to deal with important matters. Hal hid himself too deep. If he had not been obsessed with Undead magic, then he would have definitely become the most suitable candidate to inherit the Earl’s rank of nobility.
Among the three daughters, Vignia was the youngest. The first daughter was Miss Sophie, and the second daughter was Miss Rebecca. Sophie was a golden-haired blue-eyed standard western beauty with a tall figure. She held a full-time position in Light Church and was an intermediate priestess. Because she rarely came home, this beautiful priestess definitely didn’t know that Hal was actually an Undead Shaman preparing to trigger an Undead calamity. At the banquet hall, Hal deliberately chose the farthest seat from Sophie. Clyde guessed that he didn’t want Sophie to discover anything unusual before those final critical moments.
Second Miss Rebecca was an alchemist. She was a brown-haired brown-eyed beauty. She was occupied with reading alchemy all year round and rarely concerned herself about outside matters. She was the model “different world’s female geek.” That tall onee-san figure of hers was simply wasted on her. She would just research in her laboratory for long periods without coming out. However, because she had already advanced to become a high-level alchemist, Earl Harrison also couldn’t say anything to her.
“Clyde, my two big sisters are slightly strange. They don’t like to communicate with strangers, so I can’t help you become introduced with them!”
“That’s fine. That beauty over there… Who is she? Her temperament is extraordinary.”
“Eh, how come she is here!? Why isn’t she in Franconia Empire at this moment. Why did she run over here?”
