The group received a warm welcome , the king took a moment to hug his daughter before he welcomed the rest of them and invited them to help themselves to the buffet that waited for them on the table along the side of the room.

The queen was quick to realize that there was nothing going on between her daughter and Ajax as it took less than a minute for her to stop analyzing them, at the same time her attitude warmed up considerably now that she only saw them as friends of her daughter.

The same could not be said for Elara’s father who had also been in the room and was now judging every move Benedict made. Just as it was obvious to the queen from their interaction that there was nothing going on between Ajax and Arianwyn it was equally obvious that Benedict and Elara were circling each other.

“Should we help him?” Ajax asked in a whisper.

“It won’t do any good.” the queen said with a warm smile. “He’s a lot like me and it will just take some time until he reaches his own decision on how he feels about their relationship. Once he reaches that decision and if he doesn’t approve then you can help.”

“Any chance you can skip that next time you think I am in a relationship.” Arianwyn called out her mother as she had also noticed the way she had been sizing up Ajax and Lexi after they entered.

“No, darling.” the queen said with the same warm smile, the cheerful tone making Ajax feel a little sorry for whoever dated Arianwyn.

“Get a good acting skill and pretend to date a really bad match for a month before starting to date the person you’re really interested in.” Anna said with a deadpan face. “The positive emotions from dropping the walking disaster and the size of the upgrade should be enough to override the vigilance period out of sheer relief.”

Arianwyn looked at Anna with a look of awe while the queen had a look of mixed outrage and dred at the idea.

“You are not doing that.” the king said with a perfect poker face, the fact that he wasn’t even looking towards Anna giving away just how hard his social skills were working to maintain said poker face.

For most of the evening nobody ventured into any important topics, the royal family had realized quickly how stressed the journey into Deepwood had made everyone and decided there was enough time for them to have a night to just settle in.

“I would like to apologize for my previous behavior, Baron Heathbound.” Once Elara’s father stopped his deep interrogation of Benedict he moved towards Ajax.

“I took no offense, Duke.” Ajax said with a wry smile.

Ajax’s defeat of Elara in their fight during the tournament combined with him sharing that she had the Witch Trait with the Gryndor royal family had made the Duke very hostile throughout their initial joint travel towards the first of Sylvanthal’s dungeons.

“It was still very inappropriate of me, especially after you sold my family one of the slots for delving Deepwood’s dungeons.” the duke pressed on.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I think you will find such chances are going to become more abundant in the near future.” Ajax said as he tried to downplay his actions, his discomfort in the social situation was so obvious that Lexi was holding herself back from simply interjecting and acting as a middle man between all of Ajax’s conversations for the rest of the evening.

“Oh?” The Duke was very interested in this. “Why is that?”

Benedict was quick to answer the question as he not only noticed Ajax’s discomfort but also sensed an opportunity to improve the Duke’s impression of himself. He went on to quickly explain their thoughts on the delve exchange between Sylvanthal, the Republic, Gryndor and possibly Brightstone.

The queen had also taken notice of Ajax’s awkwardness and asked her daughter about it. “Does he have an issue with elves? Or is he just shy?”

“Hmph.” the prince suppressed a chuckle.

“No, he didn’t strike me as shy and he definitely doesn’t have a problem with elves.” Arianwyn blushed a little in embarrassment as she remembered the outfit she wore back when she was trying to seduce Ajax and the way it had drawn his attention.

“Best enjoy that while it lasts.” the prince said with his trademark smirk.

“Oh,” the queen said with a challenging tone, showing her Blackthorn heritage and not backing down. “And why is that?”

“Ajax was born a commoner.” the prince let out a dejected sigh. “Not only that but the nobles that were ruling over the area weren’t ideal.”

“Is it nobles he has an issue with?” A slight bit of panic entered the king’s voice. “He wasn’t mistreated, I hope.”

“Not directly, there was an issue with management but there wasn’t anything specific to him, thank the gods. His upbringing just steered him towards an admittedly healthy level of paranoia that took a while for him to overcome, even now I doubt he has fully outgrown it.” The prince explained.

“That doesn’t look like paranoia.” the queen nodded towards the conversation Ajax was having.

“Oh no, like I said he has mostly outgrown that.” the prince said as his smirk returned in full force, even growing a little predatory. “It’s the overly polite and indirect way nobles interact at these events that make him uncomfortable. Something I am sure he will overcome once he has the power to ignore any perceived slights. With the speed he is growing at I don’t see that taking too long.”

The longer the party went on the more relaxed Ajax got as everyone started to drop the formalities more and more. While Ajax hadn’t realized that this was all led by exampled by the king and queen most everyone else did with Lexi even pulling Arianwyn aside to thank her for it.

As Ajax’s sociability grew it didn’t take him long until he found himself talking with the fortress guardian. The elf was on the younger side being only one hundred and fifty years old with a level of one hundred. It didn’t take long for Ajax to start talking about the maintenance of mana infused plants and the elf was more than excited to discuss the subject.

The situation ended up as a small issue for the king and queen, Ajax and the fortress guardian had slowly retreated to one side of the room and while they would welcome anyone in their discussion about growing mana dense plants nobody else was that interested in the topic to listen for more than a minute.

As the night had started to drag on the king and queen were looking to bring the small welcoming party to an end but Ajax looked so animated talking off to one side that they didn’t want to send him away like that after how the evening started.

“You can call an end to the evening.” Lexi even went to reassure them as she noticed the glances they kept throwing at him. “He’ll keep going well into the late hours of the morning if you let him.”

“We can have the royal alchemist set aside a few hours to teach him about some of our more area specific ingredients and recipes.” Arianwyn also joined in, she had seen just how dedicated Ajax was to the profession. “He also won’t mind, as soon as he leaves he’ll just be glad it's over and think that this wasn’t such a bad party.”

The king was just about to call an end to the evening now that he was reassured it won’t be making a bad impression when everyone’s attention was drawn towards the pair discussing things off to one side.

“WHAT?!” the fortress guardian exclaimed in shock. “BEES?!”

Nobody had any issue’s reading the clear look of ‘I fucked up’ on Ajax’s face. Silvia, Alana and Anna were working very hard not facepalm as Ajax slipped up and revealed something in his excitement. The prince didn’t even attempt to resist as he brought his hand up to his forehead and started shaking his head. “We were so close to the end,” he muttered.

In the end the king didn’t have to call an end to the evening as the groups started reforming after the outburst and it wasn’t long before their guest from Gryndor and Darkclaw departed. Unlike Deepwood both the Republic and Gryndor had a staffed embassy in Sylvanthal so there was no need to go to an inn. Ajax spent the entire trip to the embassy with Alana glaring accusingly at him for revealing something for free and Lexi reassuring him that it wasn’t that big a deal.