The first person to arrive is some big shot that Tien knows along with his son whom Sen has met only on his birthdays. Sen politely greets the two of them along with his family, and then the parents head off to talk about important things while the children, though only Sen is legally not an adult, go to mingle.

Sen looks over to Lynna to see her trying very hard to not groan or complain, and understands why when the guy starts to very excitedly chat with her. He’s very proud of the fact that his team had made it to the second round in the tournament, and the only reason Sen doesn’t shove his face in how well he and his sister are doing is because it was drilled into him in both lives to be humble.

Lynna has completely put on her mask of politeness as she interacts with him, and he seems to take that as encouragement to keep bragging about how well he’s doing in Fifth Dimension, and hinting very heavily that it’s going to make him a very important person in the future. At this point, Sen decides that if he’s so talkative, maybe he can get some information out of him, so he signals to his sister, and whispers to her about trying to dig for the information.

“So why exactly is this going to be important?”

The clueless guy looks around in a cautious manner before replying.

“Don’t tell anyone I said this, but if you do well enough in game, you’ll end up getting recruited by the people from Earth. I can’t say anything else.”

That only raises yet more questions, and Lynna seems to share Sen’s confusion, but both of them refrain from inquiring more as the doorbell rings yet again. This time, it is only Lynna and Sen who go to greet the door, the random hanger-on staying in one of the dining halls with the hor d’oeurves.

The next to arrive is actually Jennifer, and both Sen and Lynna greet her with a hug before greeting her parents. She’s looking very beautiful, a very proper long green dress that flows down to her ankles, and long sleeves down to her wrists, setting off her matching green eyes. Her ears show a hint of gold, and her brown hair is straightened, flowing down to her upper back.

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Sen is honestly quite surprised that she hasn’t been to any of the parties before, seeing as how her parents are politicians, but soon learns that her parents are from an opposing party, which clears it up. Sen is glad that her parents are willing to let her come to the house of the enemy, and Sen leads them to where the adults are hanging out on the terrace.

They’d recruited a few waiters and waitresses for the party, hired through the high end catering company that is handling all the food and drinks for the party. Sen figures that even if his parents aren’t much for having people serve them, they need to look the part for events like this.

Sen’s parents seem to care more that the newcomers are parents of their children’s friend rather than from the opposing party, and cheerfully greet them.Sen leaves them to find that Lynna and Jennifer have basically ostracized the other kid, and Jennifer has given no qualms in crushing his spirit, straight up telling him that their team is still in the final round of the tournaments.

Sen chats with them for a bit before snagging what seems to be cucumber piled with shredded crab, and snacks while he zones out the girly conversation Jennifer and Lynna are having.

The next few people to arrive are all colleagues of their father, and they simply send their kids to the side as they go to network with others. Sen chats with a few of them, particularly one guy who had been very into gladiator before being forced to play Fifth Dimension. They share their happiness at the fact that Fifth Dimension doesn’t have any sort of autocorrect for your sword strikes, unlike many other games.

As Sen is chatting about the different fighting styles in Gladiator, even if most of the top thousand use either sword and shield or spear and shield, Sen is interrupted by the doorbell again.

As Sen answers the door, Xue is there, and she’s absolutely stunning. Her usually masculine face has just a hint of makeup on it, yet she looks far more feminine, more like a princess than a prince, and her generous assets are well emphasized by the simple black dress she’s wearing, silver jewelry on her ears and neck contrasting with it. Her black hair and eyes seem to be almost darker than her dress, and she’s back to wearing her cold expression, which cracks a bit as she sees Lynna and Sen.

She greets Lynna with a hug, and hesitates for a moment before giving Sen one as well. As Sen leads her parents to the rest of the adults, he learns that they’re prominent businesspeople, though getting invited to a party like this is actually quite important for them, as they don’t often get the chance.

He finishes seeing off Xue’s parents, who seem to be examining him for any fault they can find the entire time, and heads back to the group of children, who are actually mostly adults, but still being prepped for their role in life by their parents.

When Sen gets back, he gets a very pointed look from Lynna, who very obviously looks from him to Xue. Trying to ignore her, but now feeling a bit awkward, Sen chats with the group, interspersed with visits to the front door to greet any other comers. One of the times, Sen is surprised to see someone he hadn’t seen in a while, and someone he definitely isn’t expecting, John and his family.