Chapter 08-Eye-Catching

Spring River Estate.

A beautiful blonde girl was seen trimming the blue roses in a large garden. She wore a simple white gown with some raffles on its hem. But her simple attire did not cover her beautiful appearance that had a striking resemblance with Gavinus.

She was the second princess of the Udeville empire, princess Geneva Udeville. Princess Geneva was also known to have a good relationship with her fifth brother.

"How was my fifth brother doing these days?" She casually asked Mila, her maid, while trimming.

"To answer the princess, prince Gavinus safely returned to his Estate," Mila respectfully responded.

"Is that so?" She handed the trimming scissor to Mila before walking to the table where her tea and snacks were served, "But I heard that he traveled through the dangerous Dead forest again."

"That is indeed the case."

"That means that there was another assassination attempt to his life."

She sighed.

"Sometimes, being too outstanding is not good if you are a contender to the throne. Would you please send a gift to my little brother to congratulate him for his safe return?"

"I will handle it." Mila bowed towards her.

*****

"A nobles gathering?" Lixon raised his brows when Damien placed an invitation in front of him.

"Yes. I have another appointment on that day, so you have to attend on my behalf." Damien answered nonchalantly.

"I don't know that a merchant like you needs to attend some nobles gathering such as this?"

"That's how significant a person I am back in the days."

Lixon stared at him intently.

"Do you want to ask me something?"

"No. Even if I ask, you will not answer it anyway, so why bother." He shrugged his shoulder.

The owner smiled before responding, "Don't worry. I will prepare everything from gifts down to clothes. Just tell them that you are my representative."

"Are there VVIP in that banquet?" He asked. That was the most concerning thing.

"I'm not sure. There are some surprise royalty guests, but it's infrequent." Damien answered leisurely, "I know that you can handle it. You were able to manage prince Gavinus and his party, including the family of Guardian. So this trivial matter shouldn't bother you too much."

Lixon sighed. He was grilled by this man last week, so he doesn't have any choice but to tell him about his adventures in the Dead Forest. But no matter how insistent he was in asking him about the case related to the family of Guardian, he kept his mouth shut. That is something that he needed to guard since it involved the Guardian spirit, Funis.

He opened the invitation and saw the date, time, and place. The event will occur on Wednesday evening of this week, so he still has at least two days to prepare.

Duke's Xander Creep, one of the prominent personalities of the empire, will host the event.

The Duke was one of the neutral parties when it came to the fight for the throne. He was also a close friend of the current emperor, Thomas Udeville.

Lixon would include parties such as this, but he did that to add some plot to the story. Now that he thought about it, he would engage the main and supporting characters with idle chatter.

I hope that no one from the royal family attended the banquet at all. It's not that he can't handle it, but he was just too lazy to bother.

***

The day of the banquet arrived, and Lixon found himself stared by three sparkling eyes.

"Wow! I told you he could rival the appearance of the princes of this empire." Thedios, the gray cat exclaimed.

Damien also clapped his hands, amazed by his looks. Lixon was wearing a red coat with buttons that had some magical patterns on them. He also wore an inner white shirt. The owner paired it with black trousers and leather shoes. Lastly, they placed three gold chains that connected to his shoulder and chest pocket.

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Damien also made some arrangements to his hair that made Lixon think he was a hairstylist. The owner also added a dangling male earring on his left ear.

"That looks so cool!" It was Aerious, the white cat.

"Am I not overdressed?" Lixon asked.

He felt like he was attending some cosplay as a prince at some party. However, if he thought about the standard of this world, this was something normal.

"Of course not!" Damien answered, "You will be attending as my representative, so I can't have you look pitiful."

"Why? Are you some illustrious figure in the past?" Lixon questioned in passing.

"Oh? Are you curious?"

"No." He immediately rejected when he saw the sparkling eyes of his boss.

'I don't want to know some useless secrets. I had enough,' Lixon added.

"I will have Aerious accompany you to the event. It would be best if you had a bodyguard, and he was also very familiar with these banquets."

A purple mist covered the white cat when Damien mentioned this, transforming him into a cute teenage boy with white hair. Lixon was expecting him to have some cat ears but remembering that humans often discriminated against beast people, Damien may have done something to make it like a human ear.

Aerious was wearing an all-black outfit and bowed towards Lixon.

"Tonight, I will be at your disposal. I hate humans, but since my master trusts you so much, I will make an exception."

Lixon shrugged his shoulder when he heard this.

"The carriage is waiting for you outside. I already loaded the gift for the Duke. You have to get used to this since this will become part of your obligation in the future." The owner explained.

'Well, I hope I don't need to attend many events before I can figure out how to return to my world.' Lixon thought while slowly nodding to his current boss.

"Then I will be going." He stepped into the carriage.

Aerious took the driver's seat, and they started their journey to Duke Xander's residence.

Lixon leaned on the carriage and closed his eyes. It took them almost half an hour drive before he felt that they were slowing down. He slowly moved the curtain and saw many luxurious-looking carriages ahead of them.

Well, his can be considered on par with them. Lixon had to admit that Damien was experienced when it came to these kinds of events. He looked at his back, and he noticed that he was the last person to arrive. Everyone got off from their carriages and walked towards the gate of the large mansion.

"Master Lixon, we have arrived," Aerious informed him.

Lixon raised his right brow when he heard how the white cat addressed him.

'Well, that's unexpected,' he thought.

He noticed that some of the visitors came in pairs. Others came with their families, and there were also some special loners. Every guest had to come forward to the Duke to present their gifts. When Lixon was nearing the area, something bothered him.

"Do we have to walk on that red carpet?" He asked Aerious in a low voice.

"Duke Xander sometimes can be eccentric, but this had been the tradition for the past five years. And I heard that the visitors like it." Aerious responded.

Lixon secretly rolled his eyes, 'Is this some red carpet fashion show of some celebrity? He is not attending some awarding ceremony, is he?'

"Is this one of the reasons why sir Damien is not attending this event?"

The white cat lightly coughed but did not answer.

Everyone gave their invitation to the attending servant, and almost everyone raised their chin when their name was called and had to walk on the red carpet.

'Wow, they are enjoying it.'

Aerious informed Lixon that their boss was one of the close friends of the Duke. But the white cat also added that the nobles hated him because of his straightforward personality. He also doesn't think twice when offending them, and this notorious personality made him so famous in a negative way.

Now it was his turn to be called. Aerious gave the invitation to the servant, and Lixon observed the change in his facial expression when he read the written name.

'He is indeed popular.'

Before the servant called the name, Lixon immediately cut him off because he noticed that he did not even bother to look at him and verified whether he was that person or not.

"Sir Damien is not here."

When the servant heard a different voice, he immediately looked up and found a handsome young man in elegant clothing smiling at him gently. He almost failed to react. If he said that his appearance could rival the princes of this empire, no one would criticize him.

"My name is Lixon Rayver. I am sir Damien's representative." The young man introduced himself.

"Ah, my apologies, my Lord,"

The servant coughed twice before announcing his name.

"Sir Damien's representative, Lord Lixon Rayver, has arrived."

When the guests heard this announcement, all their focus turned to the new visitor, but when the young man stepped onto the red carpet, he listened to some gasp around him.

Lixon was not used to getting some attention; this was too much for the thin-skinned like him to handle.

'Be cool and look forward.' He chanted while walking towards Duke Xander. Even the man was looking at him without blinking.

When he reached the host, the young man bowed and greeted the celebrant with a smile.

"Greetings, Duke Xander Creep. Sir Damien would like to ask for your forgiveness. He had another appointment to attend to, that's why he sent me here. So please accept his simple gift as his token of apology."

Aerious handed the exquisite box to the Duke. When he opened it, his face showed a pleased expression before closing the box again. Finally, he shook his head while smiling.

"Ayah, if he said that this gift is simple, I would be ashamed." He then looked towards Lixon amiably.

"Thank you for sending the gift, but I would say that your appearance did light up my banquet."

"You praise me too much, your grace. I am nothing compared to you."

"Hahaha, I'm flattered. Please guide sir Lixon to his table." He spoke to one of the servants.

When he finally settled, he felt that someone was staring daggers at him. He looked around and found the lady guardian, Madison Saintinne that he met recently. If looks can kill, he might be dead right now.

He shook his head and took the wine prepared for him, and started to sip.

When everyone settled, there was a surprise announcement from the doorkeeper.

"Prince Bryan Udeville has arrived!"

Lixon almost choked when he heard it.

If he ranked people among his written characters he doesn't want to associate with; this first prince will be among the top lists.

As if that announcement was not enough to shock everyone, the doorkeeper made a follow-up.

"Prince Gavinus Udeville has arrived!"

Lixon almost cursed, 'Didn't he say that royalties who attend this event are infrequent?!'