A few minutes ago.
“You must be Zachariel Strom.” Prince Kane saw Zachariel sitting in one of the couches. Then he looked over the rest.
`What a bunch of waste, hanging around a guy like that.`
He was thinking about the three beautiful girls sitting with Zachariel. Women like them should sit with him, the Child of Destiny. The three girls frowned about the way the Prince stared at them.
Zachariel did not respond to him.
Seeing that the bastard had ignored him,
“Fine then. Let’s go sit over there.” He then signaled his goons to take the three girls along. He knew that he would not be able to force that guy in giving up his seat.
Noel, the senior Prospect, acknowledged the Prince’s intentions. He called two other Prospects and went over the three of them and invited them to sit together with the Prince. He offered his hands while bowing.
“Young beautiful ladies, would you be kind to come with us and sit together with Prince Kane Cromwell?”
Helena slapped his hands away. She was disgusted about their behavior of forcing them to sit together. They didn’t even ask for their names, nor considered their feelings.
Noel was obviously angered by her action. “You-!”
He was about to slap her when Prince Kane intervened. “Noel, what are you doing? Don’t slap a lady just because she rejected your request.”
He acted as if he was the good guy. “Tch!” Noel and his goons left them and returned to Prince Kane’s side.
Helena saw someone familiar. “Ho, a b*tch like you is actually fawning over a sh*tty guy like that? Priscilla Mason, did Prince Kane offered his hand in marriage to you even though you’re nothing short of a wh*re?”
The girl named Priscilla heard that and she was clearly infuriated about Helena’s remark of her as a wh*re. “What do you know, Helena? I’m not somebody like you born on a golden platter, acting like a spoiled brat. It looks like the Summer family is nothing but a blind band of clowns.”
“At least I’m not a loser like you, Priscilla. I heard that Dean Mason once had an affair with a wh*re in a brothel and she gave birth to somebody like you?”
Priscilla snapped. That was something that she never wanted to hear again. “Helena, don’t make me kill you right here, right now!”
“What can the daughter of a b*tch from a brothel be able to do anything to me?”
“Priscilla, ignore her and come back to me.” Seeing that they were about to engage in a fight, Prince Kane chose to stop the disagreement right there. Priscilla snorted; her fists clenched tightly with the nerves almost bulging out.
The door at the entrance hall was opened. It was senior Edward and the rest. Prince Kane did not act arrogantly this time. He narrowed his eyes and looked at Edward. `This guy must be the one titled Exalted Monarch, huh.`
“You’re Prince Kane Cromwell, right?” Edward approached their group. He asked tonelessly.
“You’re right, I am.” Prince Kane replied in a domineering manner. He would never back down even against a senior Prospect like the Exalted Monarch. Unfortunately, he was bound to receive some lessons from him today.
Edward kicked Prince Kane backward. The latter was unprepared and sent away in a disorderly fashion. He hit the wall, cracked it, then spilled blood through his mouth.
“Edward, you!” Noel stood up, but they were suddenly struck with fear when a wave of strong killing intent washed over them. They all kneeled on the floor.
“Would you look at that? They call themselves Prospects when they can’t even deal with something like this. You’re a bunch of wastes. You can’t even enter the top 1000 leaderboards. What a disgrace to the world of Prospects. No wonder those Eldens look down upon us.”
The door from the right side was opened. “Hey, what’s happening-?” The twins and Sabrina looked over the lounge room. They were bothered about the recent wave of killing intent. Seeing the scenario, it looks like Prince Kane had offended senior Edward.
He walked to where Prince Kane had landed from earlier, then said in a low voice. “Prince Kane, allow me to tell you something.” He grabbed the Prince’s hair and hung him in the air.
“A human Prospect is someone who leads the Imperium against the fight with the demon beasts and the three underground dark factions. We carry the pride and symbol of human strength, and the entire Imperium and the Circle have great expectations to us.”
“The Imperium did not give us these titles to act arrogantly in front of the common and noble people and oppress them as we see fit. Nor were we given such designations to visit brothels and f*ck with wh*res all day long. We have a responsibility to accomplish, and we should do our best to accomplish it.”
He tightened his grip on Prince Kane’s hair, making him groan.
“Also, a human Prospect respects those of the higher authority and seniority. Do best remember this, or else I’ll crush your head the next time I see your foolishness again.”
Edward let go of the Prince. The latter slumped to the ground effortlessly, as if he was dead.
“Hey Egg-head, you should’ve let them easy. Look at that, I bet they’ll form a grudge against you now.” Cody sarcastically remarked on the aftermath of the event. He let Edward took care of things such as punishment. Although Edward would act arrogantly at times, he was a man of loyalty, principle, and responsibility.
Edward snorted. He fixed his clothes then went upstairs. The rest of the group followed. Rainald gestured the five Prospect candidates to come with them. The twins and Sabrina also went behind them.
Luna creepily approached Zachariel from behind, then nudged him.
“Hey, hey! You’re Zachariel Strom, right? What about it? Wanna fight this big sister later?”
Zachariel was dumbfounded again. `Why is there another one challenging me to a match?` Lina covered her face embarrassingly. Her sister was on it again. Jeremias was disturbed about this too. `Aren’t our seniors a little bit too weird?`
“Come, come. Don’t be shy. Big sister Luna will take care of you gently later. Hehehe…”
Luna was becoming creepier every second. She resembled that of a stalker wanting to hang out with the one they were stalking around. Lina had to step in and grab her sister by the arm. “Sister, stop it! We’re about to eat now! We’ll fight them later, okay?”
Noel came over to the Prince, helped him up, and left the building. They were not in the mood to share a table with Edward and the others upstairs. Helena smirked at Priscilla, plastering a ‘See that, loser?!’ look on her face. Priscilla bit her lips in frustration and followed Noel.
Upstairs, the tables were already served with food. They glistened while releasing an aromatic scent that stirred their appetite.
“Hello everyone and welcome to my banquet. I am Vittorio Rizzolo, your wonderful chef for today.” Vittorio posed victoriously, his mellow voice was a mix of femininity and masculinity. His golden hair and green eyes could bewitch any person, further highlighted by his tall stature and long fingers.
The girls widened their mouths in astonishment. They were filled with joy when they saw how delicious the food looked. They had already started to drool incessantly. Everybody took a seat.
“Oh, Edward. I bet you’re tired from teaching that Prince Kane earlier. Why don’t you try my-? “
He was cut off by Edward.
“Vittorio, enough. I know about it already.” Edward was annoyed about how this Vittorio would keep on introducing the same dish to him every time. `You think I’m that old to easily forget about such things?`
“Oh my, Edward. You’re such a heartbreaker. You’re disregarding the magnificence of my culinary arts that is perfected into perfection! My beautiful creations, oh I’m sorry. Your value has been devalued. I have carefully crafted them all filling them with love. Yet you just sullied such wonderful creations into oblivion. Oh, I can’t take this. My heart!”
`Here it goes again…`
The other Prospects were used to this and simply rolled their eyes and ignored him. The level of Vittorio’s imagination and narcissism was unbelievable. He would sometimes ramble all day long about how they would overlook his creation’s beauty that could rival the most beautiful person in Pandragea.
He had also boasted that one day, Pandragea would be ruled by him through his creations. They would bow down and ask for his hand to cook their dishes, and he would serve them with the most delicious and incredible food they could dream of for their lifetime.
Amelia was worried about Vittorio’s mental health. “Uhm, senior Rainald, about senior Vittorio…”
“Are you worried about that guy? Don’t mind him, that’s his usual self. Just continue enjoying your meal.”
Seeing how everyone was ignorant about senior Vittorio’s actions, she let the matter at the back of her head and continued eating. “Senior Rainald, can I ask you a question?”
“What is it, Amelia?”
“Why did the other senior Prospects follow after Prince Kane? Is there something going on? Shouldn’t the Prospects be united?”
“Ah, about that. We and the other seniors just had a misunderstanding recently. That’s why the other seniors did not go to us. That’s all, that’s all.”
Rainald’s mouth twitched. Her question was so sudden, he almost had blurted out the revolution movement to her.
“I see.”
He sighed in relief when Amelia accepted his explanation. After eating their meal, they went back downstairs and sat on the lounge.
The seniors said that they were waiting for somebody. They briefly exchanged names with their juniors then went back to their own world.
The Prospect candidates were speechless. `That’s all? No ceremonial proceedings or something?`
Seeing their seniors talking to themselves, the Prospect candidates could only conform to it.
Luna kept on pestering Zachariel about going for a brawl all the time. Amelia, Helena, and Victoria talked about various topics for women.
Jeremias kept silent all the time. He wanted to talk to one of them. Unfortunately, Zachariel had senior Luna on his side. The three girls were somebody he wouldn’t want to offend.
Lastly, that Sabrina has such a fierce expression on her face. She was actually jealous of Zachariel because senior Luna kept on nudging him to fight her.
Sabrina and Luna fought earlier at the training area, but she easily lost to her senior. She was being ignored by the seniors, while her rival was in the limelight. She swore that she would train harder and surpass him someday.
During this time, the other Prospects discussed a lot of things. It varied from the attack on the Medullan Forward Camp a few days ago, Zachariel’s strength, up to rumors about a revolution against the Imperium.
Amelia tried asking senior Rainald and Zito about the rumored revolution, but their response was vague. Helena certainly knew what was going on, but she had kept silent about it. Miraculously, Edward and Cody were silent all the while. Edward was thinking of something, while Cody took a nap.
The door on the right side of the lounge opened. The Prospects stopped talking and behaved themselves. Even Cody woke up. The six Prospect candidates wondered about the sudden turn of events.
A figure emerged behind the door. It was a familiar figure for Amelia and Zachariel.
His long blond hair fluttered in the air, producing a spectacular scene of a legendary warrior appearing in the field.
Edward stood up and bowed to the figure while he saluted.
“Welcome back, Sir Matthias Van Houten.”
