Chapter 62 - Missed Opportunity 

Aile felt that Laila was quite weird, just introduced herself and then left.

This did remove the tense atmosphere for everyone else.

He noticed this and was wondering if she did that just to lighten the atmosphere. Well, at the very least she was someone interesting. If he had not felt so restricted today, perhaps he would get to know her more. He followed her to the exterior of the social circle with his gaze. There, she stopped in front of another girl that looked similar to her and started talking to her. Aile took note of them and continued on.

He then looked around and noticed that everyone was still quite tense and stealing short glances at them. He was not fazed by them and looked around to finally find what he was looking for. Ahead of him was a small water fountain made of beautiful glossy marble.

He was not interested in the fountain, but the little wall around it that made for a perfect seating location. While holding Sara in his arms, he strolled towards the fountain, as the nobles emptied his path.

They finally sat in the little wall, hearing the splashes of the water and the murmurs of the crowd as they silently looked ahead. Here the sounds of everyone slowly vanished, and both Sara and Aile were contemplating.

Sara had a worried and anxious expression. She was not used to being helpless, although she had resolved herself to improve in the future, she was confused about how to feel in this situation. This was the first time in her life that things did not go her way, and her mother could not resolve it either. She was feeling lost and did not know how to proceed from this point onwards.

Aile had an annoyed expression. Every time he accomplished something worth celebrating in cultivation, an event would happen to show his incompetence and make him feel useless. Aile was just feeling great about his breakthrough and had a sense of pride, but all of it disappeared now. It seemed like someone was messing with him and never allowing him to feel fulfilled.

They were silent for a while gazing ahead, and slowly the atmosphere of the nobles was getting livelier. They had forgotten about Aile and his eyes. The place became more cheerful. One thing that they did was almost all of them avoided the area around the little fountain. More nobles would arrive, and they were warned to stay away from Aile and then they would continue with their conversation, not bothering anymore.

Aile was the first to come out of his trance when he noticed a few noticeable smells that entered the vicinity. He looked in the direction of where the adult nobles were at and saw that Duke White, Hunter, Marcus and Ellie had arrived. Next to Duke White was his eldest son. He looked very much like him, it would be hard to not recognize him. He had short brownish-black hair, dark green eyes. He did not have Duke White's small moustache and goatee. He was not too tall and dressed in a long grey overcoat with red patterns on it. The only difference was that his overcoat was grey and the Duke's was black. As soon as Aile looked at him, he got a feeling of a typical overbearing child that would use others influence to further his cause.

He had greeted the higher status nobles while not glancing at the others. He had a disgusted expression when he passed the commoners. He was looking to be around the age of 15. His arrival would definitely cause problems.

Aile looked at Sara's expression and sighed. Such a lovable disposition would get the first taste of the real world today. Aile could have shielded her, but he knew that a flower grown in a greenhouse would never be able to surmount the changing seasons outside. So, he wanted to use this environment to toughen her up a little.

Aile also noticed another girl that was shadowing Hunter. She kind of resembled Hunter but she had a cold temperament.

She had a chilly gaze, even her smile was not inviting, and a sign of coldness was given off by it. This reminded Aile of Emily's smile before she opened up to him. She was indifferent to most people, only nodding to acknowledge their existence. Once she was done with the introduction, she closed her eyes, not even wanting to observe her surrounding and people.

Ellie was more cheerful as she walked around, she would greet people with a handshake and tap them on the shoulder. She seemed more like a mercenary greeting close friends. Ellie was beautiful and had taken many of Diana's characteristics. She had gorgeous brown hair. Her eyes were dark royal blue, and she had an attractive face. Ellie was dress elegantly in a sapphire-purple dress, and Aile was surprised. She is usually under a chainmail and beast hide armour with a bow and arrow quiver behind her.

Aile then saw Duke White with his son go towards Hazel.

Aile then amplified his hearing as Duke White reached Hazel.

The first person to speak was his son.

He muttered, "Wench,"

Duke White was about to talk when there was an announcement.

"His majesty has arrived!"

The announcement woke Sara up too.

Then they saw the sea of people partway, and a lot of guards wearing a red armour stood in front of the crowd forming a wall. The king, princess Alice and prince Yegon leisurely walked towards the centre. They gave a few smiles and nodded to the commoner crowd as they passed them.

The group of noble children, including Aile and Sara, started to move towards the grown-ups as soon as they heard the announcement.

By the time the king, princess and prince arrived in front of the crowd, all the young nobles were present.

Everyone bowed twice and one more time. This surprised Aile and Sophie as they were not told, but it was easy following the crowd. It seemed that the king will get three bows while the prince and princess will get two.

Aile looked at the king, who was sturdy and standing tall.

He had slightly long black hair with dark black eyes. He had a tall stature; he was physically large that gave him an aura of authority. His movements were swift and with purpose. As soon as he arrived, he swept his gaze, making eye contact with the nobles. His look was very domineering and made everyone feel a sense of oppression.

He then said in a regal tone, "Welcome and thank you for coming to Alice's birthday. No need to make things too formal. Let's begin the celebrations."

With that, the birthday celebrations officially started. Then the nobles took turns to visit the king and gave praise to him. While their children presented a gift to the princess. Most of the time, the young nobles praised the princess, but she was unfazed and hurried them to finish. All the while her eyes darted around, she only stopped it when she spotted Aile and Sara waiting for their turn with Hazel.

After each gift, the young nobles turned disappointed as they came back failing to gain the princess's attention. Some of the more clueless ones rejoiced at her cold thank you. The nobles were also disappointed that their heirs did not get the favour of the princess. In their disappointment they paid even closer attention to her, hoping that all of their rivals receive the same treatment.

Soon it was Hazel's turn. She gave Sara a present as they approached the king and princess. They reached them and first bowed a little. Then Aile and Sara approached the now smiling princess. She gently greeted them and even warned Aile to not forget her gift tonight. She even smiled and reminded Hazel again about tonight's gathering.

This surprised everyone. The cold princess had finally smiled, and she was even cordially talking with someone. The king too gave Aile and Sara a look. While it was a great irony to the nobles. Hazel, who was ignored for one reason or another, was the only one that had gotten the respect of the princess.

This made the nobles sigh; they had lost an opportunity to create a closer tie with her. Not to mention that it seemed Aile and Sara, who was with her, even had a friendly and close nature friendship with the princess. The nobles on the king's side had lost the biggest opportunity. From their point of view, siding with Hazel was now more appropriate seeing how the prince and princess treated her. However, none of them was aware of this, and they had lost their opportunity. They were annoyed at their intelligence department for failing to notice such a piece of information.

Prince Yegon too came and greeted both of them and talked. It was the first time that the king and a noble finished talking first and the younger generation had to leave because of them. Aile and Sara promptly said goodbye as the next nobles approached the king and princess to wish her a happy birthday. The princess and prince were both reluctant and then nodded to continue the repetitive tradition.