With the arrival of the good wine and food, laughter filled the banquet hall.
The guests sorted themselves into small groups. Most of them chose to talk to people of equal status as themselves. For example, a few advanced wizards went to have conversations with Emperor Aldous and Duke Chesterton. Prince Derek was with them, but he was just listening by the side with a smile on his face.
Again, Abel was the host of this event. It was only natural for him to take care of everyone that came here. With an overwhelming number of quests here, he didn’t have time to touch glass with every single one of them. Instead, while holding a glass of red wine in his hand, he walked around the room and made a greeting gesture with everyone.
That’s about when he saw a familiar face. Head Commander Markham. As usual, he had a very serious look on his face. Next to him was a young man dressed in high-class clothes, who was continuously stuffing food inside his mouth while a lady watched him at the same time.
Abel came to ask, “You’ve come, Head Commander Markham.”
Head Commander Markham bowed, “Greetings, Grandmaster Abel. Surprised to say, I’ve never expected K3516 to be you.”
The young man beside him swallowed a piece of bread, “So who do you think I am, Grandmaster Abel?”
Abel smiled back, “Good to see you out of Miracle City, K3308.”
“Ha! The pleasure is mine,” K3308 said as he looked towards Head Commander Markham for a bit, “I don’t think you’ll be able to recognize me without him, but oh well.”
Abel laughed, “You don’t know how special you are, don’t you? For all my life, I’ve never seen another wizard who, without wearing his cape, finds himself eating a bunch of food next to a roomful of noblemen. All the while talking to a lady, no less.”
K3308 wiped his mouth for a bit, “Come to think of it, pardon me, I’ve never given you a proper introduction, have I?”
“No,” Abel nodded.
“You might know me as K3308, but my real name is Ramciel. I’m here with my father Emperor Aldous.”
“Oh,” Abel went to tap Prince Ramciel on the shoulder, “I’ll call you Ramciel from now if you don’t mind. Remember to stay here for a few days after this banquet. There’ll be plenty of food and wine for you to have.”
Prince Ramciel giggled, “Generous! Very generous, Grandmaster Abel! I’ve heard this from the wizards, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve heard that it takes ten days of eating at the Land of the Forgotten to have an enhancement.”
Abel shook his head, “I don’t know who told you such rumours, but fine, stay here for ten days if you want. I’ve got my own things to attend to, though, so it’s not like I’ve got all day for you.”
Abel didn’t mind giving more food out to people. Actually, given how full of mana Prince Ramciel was now, it’d be very beneficial if he was given an extra dose of the rabbit essence. Being generous here would be very good for both sides.
While Abel was chatting with Prince Ramciel, Ramciel’s father, Emperor Aldous, looked towards them for a bit. He liked where this was going. After hearing that Ramciel, his tenth son, was going to the orc battlefield at the same time as the legendary Abel, he knew that there was a new chance to form new connections with a potentially powerful ally.
Within the thirty-something sons that Emperor Aldous had, six of them were blessed with the talent to become wizards. Ramciel was one of them, but his potential was just not enough to be worth much attention. Now that he became good friends with Abel, his father might just treat him with a little more recognition.
“Grandmaster Abel,” Head Commander Markham spoke to Abel, “Head Commander Bodley didn’t come because he didn’t receive an invitation. Also, there’s something he wanted me to ask you.”
“Sure,” Abel replied.
“He wanted to move his entire family to the duchy of Carmel, apparently.”
Abel was very glad to hear this. Head Commander Bodley was a powerful knight. With just Head Commander Hoover as the guardian of Bakong City, there simply weren’t enough elite soldiers to defend the duchy of Carmel. He wanted more men to come to him, and the timing was simply too perfect.
Abel asked, “I thought Head Commander Bodley preferred Miracle City. Why is he planning on leaving now?”
Head Commander Markham explained, “Ever since the great war, it is expected that there won’t be any major conflicts for the next several decades. There won’t even be much conflict on smaller scales because the orcs would try to do anything to de-escalate.”
“It’s going to be much harder to gain battle points on the orc battlefield, so what Head Commander Bodley thought wanted was to finally settle down somewhere. With the number of points he’s got, there wouldn’t be much problem for him to become a crested baron.”
Abel smiled in response, “You have my word, Markham. When you see Head Commander Bodley, tell him that I already have his title and domain ready. From this very instance onward, he will be free to move to the duchy of Carmel with his family.”
“Thank you so much, Grandmaster Abel. I’ll tell him as soon as he can.”
Head Commander Markham was very pleased to see his friend rewarded like this. The duchy of Carmel was probably the safest state in the world now. Also, given how close Abel was to Head Commander Bodley, it’s pretty much guaranteed that the rewards he gave wouldn’t be too terrible. Having his whole family moving would definitely improve everyone’s standard of living.
Abel turned to ask Prince Ramciel, “Have you heard from K3305?”
Prince Ramciel said with a grin, “He’s still at Miracle City, that man. He needs a little more points before he can say goodbye to that place.
Abel raised his brow, “But I thought he was better than you.”
Prince Ramciel crossed his arms, “Well, you’re wrong! I’m K3308, the most explosive man there is, and if I put my mind into something, no one can cross me!”
This was what Ramciel meant by “explosive.” Before the war, the wizards would only spend half a day on launching all-out attacks on the enemy orcs. The faster the wizards were at casting spells, the more points they would get for killing the orcs that were coming to the walls. By this logic, it’d be very easy for Prince Ramciel to take the lead. He did was to activate all the magic items that he had at once, and once he used them all up, he continued his attacks by using the rune cards he had.
It was a dumb plan, but it worked. After using all the items that he had, Prince Ramciel clumsily started drawing rune patterns to continue attacking the orcs. He was slow at it, of course, but since he didn’t have to spend much, he still managed to score a lot of kills in half a day.
While Abel was guessing on how much money Prince Ramciel wasted for finishing his service, he saw Carlos and Camille talking to each other with a gloomy look on their faces. He wasn’t sure what was going on, so after waving goodbye with Prince Ramciel and Head Commander Markham before he proceeded to go check on them.
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