Chp.7: The party starts

The guests began to show up at the palace as the clear sunlight was beginning to give way to the darkness of night. While the sky was tinged with a thousand colors and the big yellow ball turned orange and red and sank beyond the horizon, several carriages began to appear in the courtyard of the building, and dozens and dozens of people got out of them. Before long, the hall where the party was to be held filled with hundreds of individuals dressed in extraordinarily elegant clothes.

A party wasn't just an occasion to dance, laugh, eat and get to know each other. It was a battlefield to display one's authority and wealth, as well as a place to strengthen one's connections. For those nobles who sought to approach the king, a feast was a chance to get noticed by him, both by introducing themselves and by showing him the benefits they could provide him. It was a sort of competition: whoever managed to bring more nobles to the sovereign's side or to convert the opposing ones earned his approval and consequently had more chances of obtaining favours, lands and titles.

And it was also a good opportunity to build bridges with those of higher ranks they might never normally have hoped to meet, and with nobles of opposing factions or ideologies. During the festival, new alliances were forged, enmities were created, or even trade agreements were decided. Often even the marriages and fates of entire families were chosen right in the middle of the dances.

Therefore, regardless of the king's invitation which in itself was an excellent reason to participate, it was imperative for all the nobles of both factions to attend and show off their wealth and power, in a fight to the death over who shone the brightest. inside the hall. In fact, as early as six in the evening, many well-dressed nobles had gathered and were enjoying a peaceful conversation, despite the official invitation advising them to present themselves not before eight. The topics of those conversations were superficial, talking about the recent weather or one's hobbies. But it was beneath them that lay darker and more gloomy topics such as updates, talks with other factions, and the pressure exerted on one noble or another. Wives and young daughters evaluated the fashion of their peers under a mask of smiles and kept their eyes peeled for any potential enemies, all while maintaining a facade of trivial discussion.

In a sense, high society parties were created precisely to hide the uglier aspects of the aristocrats under a veil of celebration.

Now Haku could clearly see what the king had been trying to explain to him. Even though everyone in the room was laughing and joking, his animal instincts could clearly sense their tension. Every single move of each noble was calculated so that the other nobles reacted exactly in a certain way. It was a real war, a game of chess where each pawn tried to cheat the others and checkmate.

And such battle certainly didn't just stop at the aristocrats. While the smiling nobles weaved their webs, many servants completed their preparations for the start of the party. Around the buffet tables heaped with food the waiters checked that everything was in order, at the top of the stairs the servants gave a further polish to the gilded railings, and on the small space at one side of the room reserved for the orchestra a group of musicians played silently in the background so as not to spoil the atmosphere. Apparently they were just doing their job, but Haku knew spies when he saw them: the maids moved calmly and smoothly through the crowd of nobles, all while listening to their every whim. Their movements were too perfect and studied to be the result of chance. Besides being waitresses, they'd clearly received precautionary training against homicides by poison and the like, making them professionals among professionals; of course there was only a sliver of people who didn't know the aftermath of an assassination at a party hosted by the most important person from the king himself, but with so much greed merging into that venue anything could happen anwacaution was needed. Furthermore, it wasn't hidden that almost all men got stuck by a pretty face, so they could become a source of distraction or, even better, steal information from their victims on behalf of one or the other faction. They were war machines and, as mentioned above, they were likely to know every dirty secret that was circulating among the upper echelons better than even the nobles or the king himself.

Haku understood very well that everything that would happen at that party, even just a wrong word or a mocking smile, would determine the fate of thousands of people. He understood very clearly why Marcus was so concerned with pleasing all of his guests.

First came the barons, then the viscounts, then the counts proper. Very soon Haku realized that the tallest members of society would come last. Most likely it was a way to denote their superiority over the common nobles. In fact, only after a while did the marquises arrive, then the dukes, finally even the royal families from other countries began to arrive. Haku was able to recognize them by the increasingly expensive clothes and increasingly expensive jewels they wore... and by the way they behaved. Not only were they more revered by the other nobles, but in their eyes Haku could see the classic light of a predator stalking a prey. They were on the hunt, prestige hunts, and they knew the moment they entered the hall a battle had begun between all of them.

"What a magnificent specimen!"

Of course, it hadn't taken long for the various nobles to mass around the cages and admire the creatures held there. And obviously, the one who got the most attention was Haku. Many people were interested in seeing a dragon up close. Apparently the cage trick worked: the nobles showed no fear in his presence, and even the young bridesmaids approached within inches of the iron bars, oblivious to the fact that Haku could break through them in an instant and devour their faces.

"It's really extraordinary!"

"Is it really only one and a half years old? It's already so big!"

"If it is like that now, who knows when it will become an adult!"

Haku did his best to ignore them. He hated being called 'it', as if he were a stupid beast, but he held his nerve and ignored them. Freaking out wouldn't do him any good. So he just lay there and motionless to observe what was happening around him. And if someone tried to get his attention, he just stared at him badly: anyone under that gaze felt his survival instinct activated and immediately stopped bothering him. The fear of dragons, rooted in the blood of all living creatures, was impossible to ignore for even the bravest ones.

Finally all the guests were present. It was then that someone announced: "His majesty the king of the Jurao Kingdom Marcus Junio ​​Kaidor, her majesty the queen of the Jurao Kingdom Mirta Junio ​​Kaidor, and his royal highness the prince of the Jurao Kingdom Percival Marcus Kaidor"

Everyone turned to where the voice had come from. An elegantly dressed pageboy had spoken, and behind him came three people.

The first person was a little boy, and he was the one on the far left. He had extremely well-groomed jet-black hair, green eyes, and a clean, shiny face. He wore an elegant black and white dress, which matched both his pale complexion and black hair perfectly. The studs, the buttons, every single part of his dress that wasn't made of silk was made up of gold and silver. Though he was only five years old or so, he walked with adult assurance, holding his head high and showing no tension or doubt.

The second person, further to the right and arm in arm with the central one, was the one that attracted the attention of several males in the room. Her skin was as white as snow while her brown and auburn hair instead recalled more the color of the bark of a beech tree; she wore a beautifully ornate silver gown, and around her neck she wore a gold necklace adorned with what were undoubtedly sapphires. Many wondered if it was a real woman. She was as beautiful as a goddess and had the bearing of a queen. Also, even though there was still some distance between them, the nobles could feel the arrogance on his face and the mocking laughter hidden in his magnetic smile. However, such an appearance went just fine with this woman: such a pearl who was not aware of her own beauty was a practically impossible thing. Even that was a way to show his superiority after all, or at least that Haku had understood by observing the other ladies in the room.

But it was the person in the center who drew the most attention: Marcus strode confidently, his beard and hair immaculately trimmed and the crown on his head gleaming like never before. No one could help but notice how extremely rich those robes were: they seemed to be sewn from something otherworldly and every edge of them shone with golden light, a sign that there must be gold underneath. Furthermore, some nobles recognized on his waistcoat several stones that adorned it which turned out to be diamonds as big as melons, while on the sides of the sleeves there were undoubtedly rubies. Even the gloves were so lustrous they looked as if they were woven from silver and gold thread. Everywhere it was also possible to notice sapphires, onyx and emeralds that served as ornaments. Finally, the enormous epaulettes that supported all of her elegant dress resting on her shoulders were undoubtedly of ivory and orichalcum forged with extreme skill. With just a single piece of that magnificent attire Marcus could have easily bought all the land in half the kingdom.

The trio entered the hall in the same order as they had appeared at the door, the prince on the left, the king in the center, and the queen on the right, arm in arm with her husband. As they walked the nobles could not deny that they all had the bearing of an undoubted member of the high class: their movements and the perfect distribution of their steps denoted impeccable etiquette. This was especially true of the queen, who moved as if her every gesture were to inspire admiration in the hearts of those who looked at her.

From what Haku understood by looking at the other nobles, men often changed their female partners and used them as status symbols, so it was obvious that whoever had a more beautiful lady belonged to a more important family. That's why men would never come to these events alone but always with a woman, obviously with very rare exceptions: in these events, women were seen as the gems with which men decorated themselves. The brighter the women shone, the more they showed their man's power. A woman's beauty was nothing more than a man's proxy war. That's why all the nobles, and Haku himself, understood perfectly what Marcus was saying to them.

The king had adorned himself with his most precious gem to show that he had far greater power than that of any other aristocrat. Several nobles felt they had lost as men and looked down. With just his entry into the room, they knew, Marcus had already won an important battle. Even the haughty way his queen, his jewel, was looking at them underlined their defeat; in practice it was as if she were yelling at them: 'Forget it, you can't compete with him'.

Haku was beginning to have a clearer idea of ​​how things worked in aristocratic society, or at least in human aristocratic society. Therefore he couldn't help but mentally compliment the king: despite the fact that he was walking along an extremely dangerous path, he was tackling everything masterfully and with just his presence he had already won several rounds. While that whole label didn't make sense to Haku, since he wasn't human and wasn't subject to human rules, he could understand how important it was to their society given the difficulties Marcus was facing.

The trio went to one of the tables, the nicest and best decorated, and there they each took a glass of wine. As soon as they did, all the other aristocrats did the same. Marcus raised his glass and announced: "Gentlemen, thank you for responding to my invitation and coming here today. Tonight we celebrate a very important event, one that we have been putting off celebrating for too long: our victory over the Baudonia City Alliance!"