While Daimon and the girls might sound to be dressed in a flashy way, that wasn't the case at all, the pair of queen and princess sisters, were wearing their own attires.
Mellie was wearing a mix between a dress and a battle armor which included a skirt, leg and arm protectors, a chest plate, gloves, stockings and armored shoes as well as a tiara with blue gems and a pair of dolphins over a crescent moon, she perfectly fit the description of a princess.
For the queen, the theme wasn't battle but elegancy, so Anette was using a long one piece light blue sleeveless dress with white crystal ornaments here and there, she had long sleeve globes and was also wearing other accessories like crystal decorations on her fan like fin ears, and unlike the previous times Daimon has seen her, she was using a crown this time, as the queen her crown was pretty detailed, made of white coral like mineral and pearls, it had an spiky halo design with some trident ends and right on the middle of it a sun like design.
Daimon quickly looked at them and he admitted they looked stunning, but what really caught his attention was that despite the big differences in their attires, they were both using similar pendants, which he has seen them look at with different expressions.
"Mm?", while Mellie didn't notice it, how could the queen a Half Emperor by right, not feel at least a flash of the sensation of being observed by Daimon at such a short distance, she then playfully smiled and sent him a message through mana vibrations that only he could hear.
'I particularly don't mind, but other noble girls have protectors that will try to attack you, just for stealing a gaze~'.
Daimon chuckled as he got back at her.
'I wouldn't worry about it, regardless of how they look I won't take a second glance at someone I consider an enemy, leaving that aside, I must admit that this queen attire does indeed fit miss Annete'.
Needless to say, but the queen was surprised by two things, first besides Arch ranks, or late-stage Mortal realms as they knew them, only those skilled wind or sound affinity mages could send a message directly to other people's ears, by mana vibrations, and as far as she knew thanks to her Analysis Resonance ability, Daimon had lightning and fire affinities.
Second, his answer wasn't what she expected, but then she remembered what Martha told her this morning.
'Oh my, so it turns out, our little guest is a wolf in sheep's clothes, now things are getting interesting~', she thought, before saying out loud.
"I'm pretty sure all of you come from outstanding backgrounds, but at the same time it seems things are quite different from where you are from than a kingdom, so if you don't mind let me give you a small introduction to the "petty battles" you are about to witness".
While Daimon and the girls took a seat and started eating their breakfast, the queen pointed at her crown and Mellie's tiara before saying.
"First, only royals and those whose statuses are on par with them are allowed to use tiaras or crowns, that includes of course the princes and princesses, as well as the wives of the king, the only Archduke which is the head of the Arcarius family, his firstborn son, me and lastly the Trident Marshal, though the latter would rather eat a sword than wear a crown~".
"Second, of course your attire will be evaluated from head to toe, but nobody will say anything, those who do are looking for trouble, shall the case present itself feel free to handle the way you want to… as long as nobody dies there won't be any problem", added the queen as she stole a gaze at Daimon's shadow from where a pair of sleepy eyes peeked from time to time.
The queen tried to look for Horals but she couldn't find it, so she supposed he was also somehow hiding in Daimon's shadow, an ability that she was really interested in, but respectfully refrained from asking about it.
And the queen was right, while Rita had the capacity to live in other people's shadows indefinitely, she could also cast that spell on others, but they needed to be able to live without breathing and in complete darkness, so the only one available for the task was Horals.
The problem is that he didn't like it, because Rita once imprisoned him in the shadow of a toilet, during one of their fights to decide who was Daimon's right hand, that's why he looked for a way to always be at his young master's disposition without Rita's ability, ultimately finding that way to use the inventory as a portal.
Still since Daimon asked him to, he agreed to be kept in other people's shadow, but unlike Rita he couldn't leave as he pleased, because once he was out, he would be unable to return, so he limited to look from within the shadows and that's why the queen couldn't notice him.
"The third and probably most important comparison, will be held between the tamed magic beasts that the high ranked nobles have, of course the royals have a league of their own, like my Mellie's Pearl Seahorse~".
Daimon looked at the black chained beast pouch hanging on his waist before saying.
"Speaking of that, isn't that guy going to be confiscated since it is an inmate, or more importantly, aren't the tamed beasts going to be confiscated before the event?".
The queen elegantly took a sip of her tea as she shook her head.
"No, they are symbols of status, in any case none of the outside magic beasts will be able to do anything within the Wild Tide Reef, they can block a lethal attack from landing on their respective owners once, but that means the owner will be disqualified and forcefully transported out of the Wild Tide Reef immediately, a security measure to make sure the number of casualties is basically null".
"There is a list of banned magic beast races and a detection array set up anyway, but don't worry while Blacktooth is ugly as hell and a piece of trash overall, but its race isn't banned, in fact no one knows he was imprisoned besides the Trident Marshal and me, so use it as you see fit~", said the queen with a playful voice.
Daimon could feel the beast pouch slightly moving, a sign that Blacktooth was able to hear the queen insulting him, but he agreed with her, so the matter ended like that.
One everyone finished their breakfast, they got up the table and after the security head, Mina wearing a full body blue armor came, and the queen gave some indications to the head maid Martha.
Annete transported everyone to the front yard of her mansion, where the same white and blue large carriage pulled by adult sized seahorses, was already waiting for them along with most of the maids lined up to see their young lady off.
The full armored Mina sat on the driver's seat while the head maid Martha opened the door for the queen.
After Annete and Mellie got up the carriage, Daimon and the girls followed and once everyone was properly sitting, at the order of the head maid all the maids bowed towards the carriage and softly said.
"We wish young lady and young miss a safe trip!".
"Mm, thanks to you all, Martha you are in charge while I'm out".
"Understood young lady, please have a safe trip".
After saying that Martha closed the door of the carriage, she then nodded at Mina and the carriage started advancing towards the center of the city, where the mansion of the city lord in other words, the Trident Marshal was located.
Inside the carriage the queen saw Daimon and Aisha putting on those masks that covered their upper faces, and was surprised to see that Daimon's presence became really thin, if not for the fact that she knew it was him, she wouldn't have paid him any attention and just considered bystanders.
But they weren't the only ones, the Risha sisters also turned to see Daimon, because for them it was as if they vanished for a split of a second, it's worth mentioning, that Daimon wasn't using the concealment effect of the hollow suit when they knew the queen or Mellie, which was the first time Yvonne, Leslie and Liliana saw it too.
Daimon noticed his mistake and then changed it so that they wouldn't be affected by it, he also regulated the effect to about 30% of its maximum output, just enough to be ignored by those who he considered unimportant, as he didn't want to be participate in social stuff involving spoiled brat nobles, which he was sure there were going to be.
Feeling the slightly accusatory gazes of the Risha sisters, and the mocking gaze of his mother because she had already changed hers to not completely vanish her presence, Daimon bitterly smiled.
"Sorry, it wasn't on purpose".
"Speaking of that Lili and the others told me to call them by their nicknames while they are in disguise, so how am I supposed to call you now Daimon?", asked Mellie.
Lili, Yvi, Les and Asha, where the nicknames the girls called each other, and being honest they did sound like demon race names, since they often had long and strange names for some reason, so they shortened them in their daily life.
Daimon had already thought about it since he decided to use his identity as a knight like a separate entity and while he for a moment was tempted to use the name "Van Helsing" since that was the name of his system, he didn't know if Adam was from earth just like him, and if that was the case, he would be giving his origin away by doing so and failing the mission as he isn't supposed to be known as a system user yet, and there was the possibility that the administrators of Adam and Marcus's systems knew about his system.
So instead, he chose a name that was still related to the universally known as the best monster hunter that has ever existed, at least in the stories back at earth, but less known.
"Gabriel, while at least in public while I look like this, Gabriel is fine".
"Mm", the girls nodded, it was a simple, easy to remember name, which wasn't related at all to Daimon's real name, so there were no chances of them mixing it up.
Soon they reached their destination and as Daimon expected, there was already a crowd waiting at a respectable distance from the mansion of the Trident Marshal, the reason is pretty simple, only he had the access to the portal needed to go to the Wild Tide Reef, as it was one of the legacies of the Malleus family.
The other nobles saw the eye-catching carriage of the queen and while some opened up a path for it, others didn't move, unfortunately for them, the one driving was Mina, so for those who didn't part a way, she literally icked them out of the way.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing!", some of the drivers of the carriages that were pushed aside complained but were immediately suppressed by Mina's mana pressure, which made them fell from their seats ending up being the laughing stock of the other nobles.
Mina didn't even bother to look at them and she directly drove the carriage to the entrance of the city lord, where the guards received them with utmost respect.
"The guard of the Trident Marshal, greets her majesty the queen!", the guard made a military salute, while they greeted Annete's carriage.
The door of the carriage opened and all the gazes fell on Annete who graciously descended from it, followed by Mellie and to the noble's surprise and delight, Aisha and the Risha sisters, then to the general displease of some of the male spectators that weren't tricked by the hollow suit, they saw Daimon leaving the carriage, before the door closed, Mina then kept the carriage in her storage ring, before she silently stood at the left side behind the queen, while Mellie was at her sister's right.
Daimon inspected his surroundings, to notice that they arrived pretty early, or at least the other nobles whose statuses allowed them to get so close to the mansion of the city lord weren't here yet.
The doors of the mansion of the city lord opened and then a tall old man with blue robes, came from inside the mansion.
At the first sight of the old man, as if it was pre-discussed, all the nobles, guards and the bodyguard who were also drivers, slightly bowed their heads towards him before they shouted.
"We greet Lord Trident Marshal, and wish him prosperity and longevity!".
The old man nodded at the crowd, but his eyes especially looked at Annete's group, of course the queen and the princess were excused to greet him like that, not because of their status, since this is his home and even the king has to show him face and respectfully call him ancestor, given his seniority second to none in the kingdom, but because of personal reasons.
But it got his attention, that the silver haired youth he evaluated the other day not only felt pretty different, but he and his group just stood there without even trying to feign, while he didn't care as he knew they weren't part of the kingdom, he could tell other nobles felt insulted as they had to show respect, or truly respected the Trident Marshal, while that unknown group didn't care.
'What an interesting kid, little Annie has never been wrong once before… let's see if you can become the first and probably only exception', thought the old man as he walked towards the queen.
