Althea shuffled in her seat, using every bit of her training to keep herself from embarrassing herself as people poured into the room. The Vice Admiral. The other researchers. Even Matilda.

"What is it, Viscount Ave?" the Vice-Admiral. "Journeyman Jau mentioned that you had made a breakthrough with the ship."

"Yes, thanks to the Countess sharing information, we have figured out a way to make the ship float without propellers." the Adept researcher, Viscount Ave, replied. Althea knew that he was a landless noble, one that only had a title but not a fief.

The Vice-Admiral raised an eyebrow. "Oh? That is fortunate."

"I wanted to take advantage of the Countess being here and discuss the other issues so that we can make as much progress as we can." the smile on the Viscount's face made Althea suspicious.

"Are you going to ask about that ship of yours again?" the Vice-Admiral asked. "I thought we already discussed this."

"Yes, but now we have funds to experiment a bit." the Viscount said.

"The money could be very useful for other things, we doesn't lack things that need more money. " the Vice-Admiral said. "The city guard could do with some more funds. Or maybe we could pay your salary."

The Viscount waved his hand. "Just ignore my salary, I don't want it. And as for the rest...don't you think the ship would be a better idea?"

The other people in the room sat down, as if bored by the conversation. Althea had a feeling that this wasn't the first time this argument was taking place.

"Not really, no. The ship is still several years ahead of our technology, the defences you propose would need more mana than we can provide." the Vice-Admiral replied.

"That is why we need to make them more efficient!" the Viscount exclaimed.

"And where are we going to get funds for that? The million gold will not be able to cover it, Ave. Knowing you, even ten million could turn out to be too little." the Vice-Admiral.

Althea intervened before the researcher could say another world.

"How about you show me the plans, Viscount? Perhaps I can invest." she said.

The Viscount made a hologram appear eagerly as the Vice-Admiral just shook his head.

Althea looked at the slim ship in front of her, one with weapons arrayed through its length in a particular pattern. A pattern reminiscent of the Diery palace defences.

"This is Iqueria, my life's work. A ship that will dominate the seas for a century." he said. "The ship will have a 360 degree, defence array, a multi-millile, rotating auto refilling defence system. A fast rotating, reflecting, fast sensing target system. A magical sensory array that has not been seen before.

A multi ship command centre, a..." the Viscount explained, giving the ships many, many things that did not exist in any ship currently on the sea. Even the new prototype outside wouldn't last a minute against this ship.

The ship would be very, very, expensive to build and use, but it would be a huge naval power. A ship that could face an entire fleet by itself, if properly armed. And if it was protected by a fleet of its own...Althea wouldn't have to worry about naval protection in her life.

But from what the Vice-Admiral said...they hadn't discovered these enhancements yet? Or rather, they took too much mana?

"What exactly would you need to achieve these enhancements of yours?" she asked nervously.

The Viscount deflated. "A lot of trial and error...I would need to experiment. Develop the armaments and see them in action..."

Althea saw the problems. That meant that there would be more ships that these things needed to be installed in.

"Could you put these prototypes on the Diery ships?" she said. Althea feared that this might be an incorrect decision, but the temptation was too big. The Diery family had a lot of ships that needed weapons, and these would be very advanced weapons. And they would almost assuredly be seeing conflict as they travelled.

"The Garron family can repay the rest of the debt through this." There were still about five million of debt that the Garron family was going to pay back in arms. A part of those arms would be the ones equipped to the ships, these advanced weapons would be more expensive, but they would probably bring the Diery navy to equal footing with the Garron navy, at least in ship strength. The strength of powerhouses was a different matter entirely.

The Vice-Admiral just turned to the Viscount and emphasised, "That means that none of the weapons can burst randomly. And the limit for spending is five million gold."

Althea's face paled as the Viscount started sputtering. Perhaps this wasn't as good an idea as she thought.

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Nathan

Nathan looked at the party, trying to keep a smile on his face. This was perhaps the most boring party he had been to. Not that he had been to many. But still, the Countess had far more interesting and lively balls than this. The music was slow and barely audible, so were the people.

The ball had been going on for an hour, but you wouldn't know it. There was little mingling and more talking in hushed tones, no dancing as the guests of honor hadn't arrived yet, and pretty much a lot of boredom.

Isa and Vanessa were trying to mingle a bit, and were able to hold conversations with the other nobles. But he could practically feel that they did not welcome him.

The scorns that adorned their faces whenever they looked at him, like just the sight of him offended them was quite distasteful. And he was too wrapped up in his own mind to care much about what some nobles thought.

The party was going to go on regardless of what he thought though. And that also meant that someone would approach him eventually. Like that bunch of women heading towards him right now.

Hmm, would they go straight for the insult? Or maybe be a bit more subtle? Or perhaps they were trying to make him feel included? Nathan scoffed at the thought, trying to identify the ladies. The ball was an unofficial setting so it was not compulsory to greet them in the traditional manner.

"Are you truly a half-breed?" one of them asked, fanning herself in this chilly room.

"Yes, your ladyship." Nathan replied, keeping his voice level as he answered. The lady's tone was friendly but her words weren't. Calling a hybrid a half-breed was a very rude thing to do. But there were few polite words for hybrids to begin with.

"How curious." the lady said. "Do you have wings? I hear even your kind have those. Show them to me. I want to see what Fae wings feel like."

The other ladies hid their giggles as they looked at him. Nathan was familiar with the look. The kind where the person saw him as little more than an object. The caravan had a lot of such gazes.

"No, your ladyship. I do not." Nathan replied. Showing his wings was out of the question, royal Fae wings would cause too much of a commotion. And draw the Fae royal family's attention.

The lady's face froze. "I see. How unfortunate. Perhaps you were just sent to make up numbers. Countess Diery must be quite desperate to send a creature like you to a place like this."

Nathan just kept silent, letting the lady stew on it. There was no point replying, a hybrid's words would not matter here. This was why he didn't want to come here in the first place. The caravan did not hide the fact that they had hybrids among their 'children' and he had seen things like this play out many, many times.

The lady was one of the more polite ones. A lack of ability probably. A noble lady could not insult as well as a sailor, and certainly not a retired one.

"What exactly gives you the right to question the decisions of the Countess Guarding Diery, Lady Astoria?" Isa's voice emerged. Nathan suppressed a sigh. Isa would not let this one go, she had far too much pride for that. And a bit too much of a nationalistic fervour.

"Why? Is the Countess so high and mighty that we can't question her?" Lady Astoria's scornful voice replied.

"Yes, in fact. A member of the royal council is not someone you can talk about, Lady Astoria. Even your uncle will have to bow and greet her." Isa said. Nathan had no idea who this lady's uncle was, but apparently he was important enough that Isa mentioned him.

Lady Astoria huffed. "Well, we will see how long you can keep up your arrogance, Viscountess. Even the Diery family will fall eventually."

Nathan wondered why she was backing away, but it became clear very quickly.

"The Marquis and Marchioness of Bern." the herald announced as an aged couple entered, their arms intertwined. The nine young marquises followed, the herald announcing them.

The ball was already gossiping when it was revealed that Lord Johren had indeed dropped the title. The rumors had to have spread through the mansion, but not every guest was personally greeted by the Marquis' eldest son.

"Prince Hirlen Solerian of the Solerian Empire." the herald announced. Nathan was surprised. A Prince...that was an unexpected guest. Lady Astoria looked very pleased about that.

"Lady Astoria's uncle is the Minister of Noble Affairs and a supporter of the second prince. The Minister must have something to do with the him being here." Isa whispered to him as Vanessa walked towards them. Lady Astoria smirked at them as the herald announced another dignitary.

"Count Terant Zerolian."

"The most talented grandson of Duke Zerolian, a talented space message." Isa muttered. "There are rumors that the Duke title will skip a generation again. Terant is a candidate for heir."

"I would like to congratulate Lord Johren on his breakthrough to the Master stage, truly a spectacular talent." the second Prince said. The other nobles including the Count congratulated Lord Johren and attention was diverted from them for a while. Lady Astoria practically ran towards the crowd, eager to mingle with the higher ranking nobles.

The three of them stayed back, the Countess was clear about the plan. If they could fade into the background, it was good.

But if that wasn't possible then they had to leave an impression. The Diery county had to show itself to be above the common nobility. The Countess probably didn't expect a Zerolian heir and the second Prince to appear.

The two of them complicated things. The nobles mingled among each other and the two girls began mingling again. Nathan kept an eye on Lady Astoria. The lady was quite entertaining. At first she tried to strike a conversation with the Zerolian Count, but was utterly ignored.

The higher ranking nobles were entering the ballroom one by one and Lady Astoria was losing importance. The nobles had a hierarchy and she was at the bottom of it.

Then she went to speak to the second Prince, but even that wasn't much of a success. The Prince didn't outright ignore her, but he did pay less attention to her than was strictly polite. Nathan watched, trying to hide his laughter as the Prince only answered when she talked to him.

What they spoke of wasn't quite audible, even to his enhanced senses, but her face told him what he wanted to know. A few minutes later, she stepped away, an ugly expression on her face.

The starters started to be distributed as Lady Astoria huffed herself onto a chair. Nathan took a piece of some kind of chicken from the waiter, chewing on it as he looked at the lady. The waiter continued on in the ladies direction. Lady Astoria looked at the waiter, then at him standing there by the wall.

Then waved her hand as the waiter tried to present the dish to her. "Take it away, I don't want to eat some mongrel’s leftovers."

The lady unfurled her fan just as the waiter lifted the plate. And then, a very, very unfortunate thing happened.

The fan hit the plate as it was unfurling, causing the waiter to lose his balance and drop the plate. The clinking of the fallen plate echoed through the quiet hall, and suddenly Lady Astoria was the center of attention. Just not the way she wanted to be.