Outside of the room, a middle aged man wearing a full body armor was waiting for Daimon and the girls, funny enough the Trident Marshal had more combatants than service staff stationed in his mansion, so the soldiers had to fulfill some miscellaneous tasks.
As they started walking towards the dining room Daimon looked at the outside through the windows and saw it was raining, which made him lose himself in his thoughts.
This time it was convenient ad the Clear Water kingdom just got attacked by both Skelefiends and pirates, the young generation of the nobles was "traumatized" in their own words.
Some were grieving then lose of their descendants, while others had a deep resentment against those who survived… or those who could have helped their relatives survive, not that Daimon really cared about any of them.
He has always followed an iron rule "before making enemies, one must make allies", and so he signed a contract with the queen, who he is sure is more than what meet the eyes, which already saying a lot considering her front is pretty imposing as of right now.
It didn't escape Daimon's eyes that practically everyone showed different levels of apprehension, when Annete used that spell to mess up with Sting's body and everyone who had a similar "rhythm" in the vicinity.
She crossed realms and stood up against a Stellar rank as a Half Stellar, in other words she is a genius, Daimon even doubted her lineage was just in the 15% of concentration, she should have surpassed that long time ago, so to why she hid it, he had no idea, but that was normal as there is a lot of things he doesn't understand about Neptune.
Everyone seems to have a hidden agenda of some kind, or a feud with each other, anyway since he could pry into that as an outsider yet, he instead focused in what he could control, in other words bringing more people to his side.
And he achieved his goal during the beast hunt.
'Ironically these opportunities like meeting Mellie, Daphne and Jasmine originally should have belonged to Adam, impressing the Trident Marshal, heck maybe even getting to know Karmandi was prepared for that guy… it's not funny how they believe they can play with decent people's lives as they like', once Daimon's mind train unconsciously reached that point, without noticing his aura escaped his body, it was just a bit, but it was enough for the lights in the hall to dim and the temperature to drop.
Luckily Daimon was using the bracelet of the god of mischief which covered his aura so that others wouldn't feel he was the origin, not to mention he was wearing the mask of the hollow suit so that no one noticed his eyes glowing in a mysterious amethyst light, but the physical phenomenon took the guard who was guiding them by surprise.
Vincent's subordinates aren't greenhorns as the guy immediately took a battle stance, while looking at his surroundings, thinking they were going to be ambushed, as the negative sensation that flooded the whole area was akin to the high ranked Skelefiends or the most dangerous pirates.
But to his surprise nothing happened and the lights and temperature returned to normal, and after inspecting everything and seeing there were no breaches in the perimeter, but the light mana crystals on the lamps showed some corrosion, he took it as a simple failure in the manufacture, combined with the current rainy weather.
Only one person besides the guilty knew what truly happened, Aisha, she isn't affected by the effect of the bracelet or the hollow suit because Daimon so decided it, as the host of the system he was immune to the "negative" effects of the items that were sold in the store, unless they implied penalties, so even when the girls used the bracelet or the hollow suit, he could see through it.
But the same didn't apply to him, so to make it "fair and square", he set the bracelet and the hollow suit to not affect the perception of the girls, he did the same for the Risha sisters recently when he handed them bracelets, but he kept anything related to his powers hidden from them, since he didn't want them to notice the huge change he undergoes when using Core Synchrony, that was his trump card.
Only enemies could tell because they were clashing with him and they didn't survive to tell, so the truth died with them, of course if they stuck together to him, they were bound to notice it, but as of right now they just thought he had something that allowed him to harm those who were stronger than him, just like their wings, in their mind those white flames were some kind of outrageous innate ability as they have seen Daimon's prowess when he uses them.
Returning to what happened a moment ago, Aisha felt the usually relaxed but confident aura around her son, changing she knows that he wears the fear he has caused to others like a mantle thanks to overlord's pride, but this was different, this wasn't fear… it was hatred.
Daimon was brought back to reality, as he heard the mellow voice of his mother echoing in his mind and that wasn't all, Narasha and even Evangeline followed.
'Darling?', said Aisha.
'Are you okay Daimon?", asked Narasha, trying to understand why Daimon's mood changed like that, which was a difficult task for her considering she has yet to understand all the emotions humans have.
'Earth to the perverted host, a bit more and those little birdies are going to notice it, your mana is in their bodies too'.
Daimon slightly shook his head and his aura was absorbed back in his body, it was then when everything returned to normal.
The previous took some time to describe but it was a matter of a couple of seconds and the guide didn't stop walking as to not alter the honored guests of his Lord, and to not let whoever he thought was targeting them to realize he discovered it, truly well trained soldier.
'Sorry you three, I still need to recover more stamina, I'll be fine after a nice meal', said Daimon which made Narasha laugh.
'Don't scare me like that', she said.
Of course Aisha who knew her son better than himself, noticed there was probably more to it, but since it happened out of nowhere she let it go, maybe he was affected by the penalty of Core Synchrony she thought.
As for Evangeline, she remained silent about it and just returned to sleep.
…
Leaving aside that small interruption they soon arrived at the dining room, they weren't the only ones arriving at the moment, the old Aurora as well as Jasmine had just entered the dining room, so they met at the door.
The old woman noticed Jasmine's expression which has been down since she returned illuminating and she stole a gaze at Daimon's group before she turned to see her granddaughter.
"Go with your friends little Jas, I will sit with the old Trident to have a good conversation about some boring stuff from the past".
Jasmine nodded and she then approached Daimon and the others as they entered the room, but they were interrupted by Annete's voice.
"Don't worry senior Aurora, adults have to deal with boring stuff while youngsters should only worry about their studies and making friends to team up with, so the tables were set with that order".
"Oh, is that so", answered Aurora.
Daimon could have sworn he saw sparks flying between the queen and Aurora, not only that the Valas Duchess also added.
"Team work is important in these reckless times after all".
While those three were having some kind of competition, Daimon suddenly felt a presence appearing out of nowhere behind him and the next thing he saw was the Black Empress manifesting herself out a black vortex that spawned on the ground below him.
"Have you thought about this Empress offer, boy, how about you come to have a drink with this Empress so we can seal the deal", said Thea as she strongly patted Daimon's shoulder.
A pair of middle-aged people, a man and a woman dragged the Black Empress away with them.
"Lady, please don't overdo with alcohol, or at least use your powers to remain sober", said the woman, while the man turned to see Daimon with an apologetic gaze.
"Sorry, Lady Thea is strong in every aspect… besides alcohol, if she doesn't use her powers, she gets drunk with just a cup of even the most mellow drinks, and she often ends up getting frunk just by the smell".
The guy who was talking was tall and elegant, with trimmed beard and moustache as well as brown hair, if it wasn't for the small-scale patterns on his neck, Daimon would have though it was a human, well, that and the voice which clearly belonged to Karmandi, he was using formal clothes instead of his full body armor made with his own scales.
"No problem, so that's how you look like under that armor", said Daimon with as he chuckled.
Karmandi bitterly smiled, he was fighting the uncomfortable feeling of using clothes not made with his own scales.
"We aren't leaving any time soon and it surely gets annoying to be looked by others, so it was better to take human form", she said.
The maids had started to bring the plates, so Daimon and the girls went to the "young" table, where Mellie, Daphne and Jasmine were already sitting.
Daimon and the girls occupied their seats which were in the middle of the others.
Vincent clapped and the kitchen staff placed the dishes on the table, everything looked delicious and just by the smell and vitality in the food it was obvious these weren't just mere dishes, they were made to help all the present people to recover and heal, which wasn't cheap at all.
"Enjoy the food", said the Trident Marshal as he gave the greenlight by putting some food in his plate, according the noble etiquette the host tried the food first as a sign of goodwill, it was more of a symbolic than practical thing, but it was still tradition.
"Woah, Gabriel you have to try this grilled vegetables~", said Leslie as she offered Daimon some of her food.
An strange silence fell on the room, while the other two sisters inwardly gritted their teeth and also picked some food with their forks and offered them to Daimon.
"This fruit is fresh… try it", mumbled Liliana.
"The meat is also delicious", added Yvonne.
Aisha giggled and then directly fed Daimon a piece of meat from her plate, making the sisters pout.
'The early bird gets the worm~', thought Aisha as she gave her friends a knowing gaze.
The others only looked at that strange scene and didn't say anything, the woman general was trying to make the Black Empress let go of the bottle she was holding, while Annete, Aurora and the Valas Duchess were staring at each other.
Vincent and Daimon exchanged gazes and they both inwardly sighed.
'What kind of battlefield is this', they thought.
