You can never do it.

You’ll come crawling back to us.

You know what, maybe it was better if I never took so much medication just to have you.

I woke up with a sour taste in my mouth. I might have eaten too much sweet stuff and forgot to properly rinse my mouth last night. My bad.

Yawning, I caught a glimpse of the morning sun. Crap, I overslept.

Sighing, I skipped my morning run and instead just chose to have a leisurely walk and then a shower and then put on my good clothes, the expensive stuff we ordered at the shop. I hadn’t even seen what it was like. I wasn’t allowed to. Complimentary underwear….

I put on the shirt and pants and then the suit. Looked purple on some lighting, blue on others, and even black sometimes. Nice!

I checked the tall ass mirror and wow, I looked good. The suit was perfect but what was I going to do with it next year? Wouldn’t it just shrink and lose all its value?

Sigh.

But the fabric was really comfortable and when I willed some mana into it, it became cooler or warmer depending on what I wanted. I tried to see if I could use the mana in the threads but I couldn’t. I didn’t know how to and even if I did, if I ended up using all the mana, the suit would lose its luster and I wouldn’t be able to control its temperature of all things.

Still fancy as hell though.

Knock, knock, “Sol, you ready?”

“I am,” I said, opening the door.

Shia was there, wearing her violet dress. It actually suiter her well. “You look good Sis,” I said.

“Well look at you, you could look handsome.”

Was she implying I didn’t look handsome as I was? “Let’s go.”

“No need to pout,” she made a smug face.

She was getting annoying, so I walked away.

The actual party would start sometime past the morning, just before noon. But we figured it was best to arrive early. After all, wasn’t that the reason we came here so damn early to begin with?

We had a lot of guests going about today. Most were in really good clothes and wore a considerable amount of makeup. Even some of the guys were wearing makeup. Weird.

Meanwhile, Shia hadn’t bothered. I mean, she did have makeup on but she mostly used it to enhance her beauty, not overshadow it with white powder. “Something on my face?” She said.

“Nothing.”

At the end of the hallway, we saw familiar faces. Namely, Mike and his father. We passed each other by, nodding and heading for the stairs.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I hoped he wasn’t too offended by Shia but for now I decided to just roll with the current situation.

The reception hall was vastly different today. For starters, they had actual proper tables and chairs. And long tables with lots of food. Servants and maids were running around with wine and other sort of drinks.

Every single noble I saw, had at least some sort of suit on. The girls mostly wore dresses but every now and then you’d see one wearing a suit.

Duke Alzania and his family were nowhere to be seen. Which was the norm. They would probably take another hour at least.

“The head butler’s acting weird,” Nisa mumbled.

“Huh?” He was just chatting with the guests. Seemed perfectly normal; the guests were… strange, I hadn’t seen them before. They probably arrived later? “If you say so,” I shrugged. Even if he was, it wasn’t my problem.

My attention mostly focused on the prime ribs on the table. Cowpig steaks, skewer and even roast! They have fowl and mutton too.

I was craving some mutton but just thinking about eating it gave me goosebumps. It’s not like I’m eating Sisna. I still couldn’t bring myself to eat any though.

Sigh. So, I picked a steak and some skewers and some fowl drumsticks on my plate and started chomping. Their food was laid out in buffet style and people were just helping themselves. Of course, the high nobility were being cared for by the servants. One maid was panicking when she saw me pick my own food and offered help while apologizing. “It’s fine,” I said. “I like picking my own food.”

She looked relieved. Well, her salary depended on the satisfaction of the guests, so that was understandable.

The meat was good, really good but halfway through I was full. Not finishing this would seem bad and…

“Having fun?” Mike said. He wasn’t with his father.

“Kind of. How about you?”

“Pretty fun. You guys actually stood up to my old man. Wasn’t expecting that.” He wore a suit similar to mine but it wasn’t changing color like mine. Was it me or did he seem a little… thinner?

Me neither. “Hope he’s not mad.”

“Oh, he was fuming. Good going.” Mike chuckled.

Good going my ass! Controlling my urge to run away, I put a skewer on my mouth, chewed it qwell and gulped it down. Yeah, I shouldn’t eat. We didn’t want everything to come right back after all. “Are other dukes here too?” I asked.

“Not really. Only my old man since we’re neighbors.” He leaned closer. “Most of the sovereigns aren’t on good terms,” he whispered.

“I see,” I casually put the plate down and the maid quickly dispatched of it. Phew.

Hmm… The head butler was gone. But the three people he spoke with had moved to the very corners of the room. Of course, there was nothing wrong with that, but… after Nisa said it, it just felt odd. Kind of like when you buy a new blue phone and all you see is a damn blue phone on everyone’s hand. Maybe I’m just overthinking it.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” Duke Alzania descended from the second floor. With Nisa, and two boys. One of them I’d already met. That Niv something. Fucking Pedo.

Wait, Nisa was younger and… Does that make a pedo too?

Ah… fuck.

My mind spun around. It just kept on spinning like the world was ending. It kind of was. Okay, okay, calm down. She’s young. You’re also young and for the most part you’re just a child. Surely, you’re not a pedophile! You don’t even like little girls!

Yeah! It wasn’t like I was into her or any- no… I might actually-

“Sol,” Mike whispered.

“Yeah?”

“You should move to the front.”

“Right.”

The duke was introducing his two sons. Nivrim, the elder one, and Nirvan the second one. What’s up with so many Ni’s?

Walking through the crowd felt a little strange though. For some reason, some of the nobles were looking at me with odd eyes. No, not the usual odd. There was more. Like they were… up to something.

By the time I reached the very end, I could get a feel of what was happening.

It was like things were playing out in slow motion. The duke was trying to shield his kids while three assailants, presumably guests were charging at him.

The duke did have knights and guards of his own but almost all of them were on the floor. Dead? No, sleeping, probably.

They’re gonna die. And so will my shot at life and the cult.

Fuck it! I grabbed a fish bone from someone’s plate and gave it a crunch.

Whoosh~!