As soon as I entered the room prepared for the gathering, I involuntarily drew the attention of everyone present in the room. Their fierce and inquisitive gaze pierced me at once, immobilizing me for a split second. I could feel their eyes a.n.a.lyzing my profile from top to bottom, not just the people who were initially familiar with me, even the n.o.bles who had just arrived and were attending this gathering to improve their relations with the people from Hades were left dumbfounded at the sight of my being.

I was perfectly capable of viewing myself objectively, so I already had an idea as to the reason for this exaggerated display, however, I was unable to determine the way I should react to so many men staring at me like that.

"I apologize for making great n.o.bles such as yourselves halt your activities on my account. My name is Toru, I am a silver-ranked adventurer, and a fellow compet.i.tor in the Athena festival battle tournament."

I said so and then bowed my head in apology. I wouldn"t have mentioned the part about my involvement in the battle tournament if it were just another cliche introduction, for which I would be looked down on. However, considering the audience, it felt necessary to announce so.

I could hear a bit of ruckus being erupted in the crowd of n.o.bles at the mention of this interesting piece of information, I just decided to ignore then and turned my head around in order to find a seat to sit on. At a quick glance, there were more than 150 people in this hall, each and everyone is a distinguished n.o.ble, including the people from Hades.

"What does he mean "compet.i.tor", Vernyx-san!? This weakling will be partic.i.p.ating on the same stage as us?"

There are commoners who are Adamant.i.te-cla.s.s adventurer, you know?

He"s a filthy commoner! His kind is akin to freeloaders on our beautiful planet."

Buddy the population of your planet is less than one-tenth of mine.

"If he partic.i.p.ates, it will just taint the name of Athena!"

Isn"t Athena the G.o.ddess of wisdom and military victory? Nirvana was talking about her quite energetically, saying that she played a major part in the battle as a strategist and front-line fighter. It seems that she was defeated by Demon Lord Asmodeus in the end, but after the battle, everybody praised her skills in strategic warfare. She was invited by a school in the demon domain to teach the kids the ways of military arts, and as she had nothing to do, she appeared as a guest lecturer. Nirvana mentioned that she calls her "big sister", and they share a very family-like bond.

"Just who in the world gave him the persmi-"

"It was me."

Amidst all the commotion and complaining, there was one man dyed in the colour of confidence and wearing a smile which clearly stated his authority. After he said so, he looked straight at me and smiled.

His facial features were in a different league from those who surrounded him, even among men, he stood out as an impressingly good-looking one. I looked to his side and saw the other side of the two-person couch empty. He subtly gestured me to come and join him. I had a sudden and decisive thought about declining his ulterior-motive filled invitation, but it seemed interesting, so I accepted and moved in the direction of his position while ignoring the scowls filled with hostility directed at me.

I reached the elegant and magnificent couch and bowed in front of Vernyx, to which he responded with a small bow of his own. I surveyed the surroundings and spotted Sylvia and Celice occupying a three-person couch similar to this one. I locked eyes with Sylvia for a second and then proceeded to do so with Celice as well. During that one second, I extended my perception, and Celice did the same as well. We both narrowed our eyes in mutual agreement to talk a bit afterwards.

I turned around, and while moving my fingers through my hair, I lowered myself on the couch and ended up right beside Vernyx. I wondered if he was intentionally sitting this close to me, but I decided to let it go as I had a more troublesome problem to deal with-- n.o.bles. The n.o.bles who prided themselves to be superior to others, were forced to partic.i.p.ate in the compet.i.tion with someone such as myself, I knew how it felt like when your pride is crushed beneath authority and power, so I felt quite bad for them. But then again, I experienced this pain, and so should they.

They were surrounding me from all sides, blocking all the possible retreat routes, just in case things went south. Out of the 150 people present, I was already familiar with about 50 of them, and there were half of that number who were a witness to a fraction of my abilities. The people who were aware of my abilities seemed strangely relaxed. Perhaps they realized that if some unfortunate accident were to occur right here, I would take care of it as to not let my abilities be known. I was ready to erase all their memories during that night when we got attacked, but they were reluctant and swore to keep quiet, so I placed a curse on them with dark magic: Anyone who voluntarily talks about my abilities with someone who can be considered an enemy, would die on the spot. Of course, the exceptions were Sylvia and Meri-san.

"You weren"t the least bit sincere in that apology of yours."

The one who whispered these words while simultaneously exchanging words with the other n.o.bles was Vernyx. His face wasn"t facing my direction, but I knew that all of his concentration was focused on the conversation we would soon be having. He would choose his words carefully, considering he"s the next king, he should probably be quite skilled in that area.

"It"s creepy if you read into me like that, y"know?"

I replied him with a tone which could be considerable quite rude against royalty. It was informal speech, and quite informal one at that. Nonetheless, I believe that this will have more of a positive effect than not. I noticed something when I took a glance at him interacting with his surroundings, and I decided to test it out, even if it goes wrong, I can still improvise.

"My, why the informal speech? Speaking to the next king like that is punishable by death."

He was clad in his usual super-relaxed atmosphere, one could feel sleepy just by being in his presence.

"Well, it seemed to me like you were annoyed with me speaking in formal speech, so I just stopped. Isn"t it what you wanted?"

I said so and then turned my head in the other direction to answer questions originating from some of the n.o.ble women who came up to me with flushed faces. There were many women who came up to me, I could spot a wedding ring in some of their hands, while the majority seemed to be single. They just asked me for my basic informations and thoughts about the recent events and Athena festival. I answered honestly and received quite the laughs when I mentioned some of the details.

"Vernyx. Vernyx will be fine, Toru."

He said with a cheerful smile, and then narrowed his eyes to a.n.a.lyze my magical power. I could feel his gaze trying to decipher the authenticity of my displayed mana, so I fortified it. He looked for about five seconds, and after breaking contact, continued talking normally with the people gathered around his side of the couch.

"So your true nature is that of a battle-maniac, huh. Seems like Great General Bernard Lenach-sama wasn"t lying."

"That guy has no right to say anything. b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s a bigger battle-maniac than I am..."

He became a little too informal and friendly… Was that a bad idea. I mean… a crown price, soon to be the king shouldn"t use these kind of words.

"Also, seems like his daughter is totally crazy over you. She"s been talking about you non-stop for the past five days. Bernard seems to like you as well, so he doesn"t mind giving precious daughter to a commoner."

Instead of worrying about other people"s daughters, worry about your own sister. I know it was on impulse, but I did take her virginity, and she is such a tremendously overwhelming beauty. I guess even my mental resistances were unable to restrict me from succ.u.mbing to my primal urges.

I don"t regret it though, it was awesome.

"Well… Aneeka is a good girl. It"s just that I don"t have any plans on committing myself to a woman in the foreseeable future."

These were my honest feelings. My motives have changed, I am no longer driven to close the gap between n.o.bles and commoners. I am only interested in things that would entertain me, I don"t mind a fight to the death if it ends up in me being amused.

"What about my sister?"

He asked with a serious tone, and with a demeanour which was completely unfamiliar to me. He was asking seriously, and needed to be provided with a clear and decisive answer.

"She"s my woman. However, I don"t plan on marrying her right now."

Hearing so, his eyes widen and he shifts a little bit to fix his posture. After a little bit, he looks straight into my eyes and speaks clearly, as if showing his true colours.

"Let me be frank with you, I don"t care even a single bit for her, but she is a princess. You know what that means, right?"

This conversation was proceeding with the same level of seriousness with which it had started.

"Yeah, yeah, I"ll beat up a bunch of n.o.bles in the battle tournament. But tell me, are you really okay with this. A commoner is taking away your sister, or rather, the first princess away from you."

Hearing this, his relaxing and accommodating smile changed that of an emotionless one.

"I couldn"t care less... She is weak..."

His voice was low… and cold. His world shook my very core, I looked in his direction and found his eyes completely devoid of any emotion. The people around us were completely lost in their conversations, many were hitting on the ladies, and many were just making connections, so none of them noticed this form of their loving and caring Crown Prince. While I was thinking of such things, I felt a pat on my left shoulder.

"You are not weak… so don"t you dare disappoint me… I don"t care about anyone else… Everyone else in the whole world could just go and die… Only the powerful shall remain…"

His voice kept getting lower, and his voice more cold. He had already lost all touch with reality and was now in a daze, muttering these words which clearly originated from the bottom of his heart.

So his true nature is something like this… exploitable. The only thing that I was thinking in the moment ended up being that. I gripped Vernyx"s hand and applied some pressure, snapping him out of the monologue he was trapped in.

"Sorry, I went on a little tour. About what we were talking about, show me that you can protect that girl, and I shall gladly give my blessing."

"Leave it to me. Don"t worry about it Vernyx."

I said so, and then Vernyx proceeded to regain his original self, or rather, outer self.

After this whole ordeal with the long and troublesome introductions was over, I was left in a large corridor, waiting for a certain someone who should be coming here to meet me right about now.