The rest of the lunch was rather uneventful, the girls enjoyed the food and talked about some random things with the three princesses, of course Daphne limited to listen and nod or shake her head depending on the situation, but overall they had a good time.
Daimon was surprised to see that they had gotten so close to the princesses, but it was to be expected they have gone through dangerous situations together and became sisters in arms, not to mention they have it easier at making friends than him.
But there was no problem, since he is intending to have all the presents in the room as his allies, and as far as he understands the feeling is mutual.
Feeling Aurora gazing at him, the Trident Marshal clapped his hands as he gave a simple but firm order to his subordinates.
"Leave us".
The maids, guards and even a couple of guys wearing black attires which have been hiding in the shadows, lined up in front of Vincent, bowed their heads and then left not without closing the door behind them.
The princesses and the Risha sisters were surprised as they didn't notice the guys in black attires until now, Aisha couldn't see them either but she didn't let it notice on her face, while Daimon noticed them since he entered the room.
It was obvious right now the Clear Water kingdom was in a turmoil, they were attacked in what could be considered their territory, everyone was quite wary of others, that being said, since Vincent is such an important figure for the kingdom there is always a couple of those guys following him in the shadows as well as his subordinates.
You might argue that what is the meaning of assigning bodyguards to a maximum Stellar ranked, but strength isn't everything in a battle as Daimon has proven recently, everything is possible in this vast world, and there are extraordinary people appearing in every generation.
Vincent has always kept an open mind about life, and the reason as to why he was able to climb mountains of corpses and reach the top even when there were people stronger than him back when he was young, it's because he never allowed himself to become complacent.
Daimon raised an eyebrow, he though that Vincent was going to ask for the princesses as well as he girls to leave for a moment, but to his surprise he didn't as he created a barrier around them with his mana.
"With that Black Beard punk being a pain in the ass, I can't help but doubt of the arrays, but I would like to see him bypassing my own mana, humph", snorted the old man, he was clearly angered that the pirates corrupted a barrier which was a legacy of his family, not to mention all the chaos they caused in his event, he might be tolerant but he isn't a paper tiger by any mean and the pirates will be paying for that.
"Ahem, sorry for all the secrecy but what we are about to discuss will stay between those who are present right now only, if anyone wishes to retire this is the moment, no one will hold it against you", added Vincent as he gazed at the Black Empress.
Out of all the presents, they share some history of past relationships, even Daimon is under a contract with the queen, Aurora seems to be an old acquittance of the Trident Marshal and the Valas Duchess is friends with Annete.
Thea who has sobered up using her powers, gazed at Daimon before saying.
"This Empress is very capricious when it comes to certain subjects, as a proof of it I'm sharing a table with people from the Mermen Sea, it's a bit late to take a step back now".
As always when Thea's eyes aren't closed, her attitude takes a 180° change, from the elegant aura of a ruler, to a sharp and wild demeanor akin to a magic beast.
"Ahem, Lady please don't be so blunt with your words", said the middle aged woman who was the human form of the white snake general, Theas previous words could be taken as an offense after all.
Thea shrugged, she tried to sneakily grab a glass with liqueur from the table just to get her hand tapped by the woman's, since this was a serious moment.
"Ahh, Lina you are too strict sometimes, I was getting bored in that castle without a single drop of "fun" for the last three or so months", mumbled the Black Empress.
Vincent was speechless.
'To think the bloodthirsty Black Empress who rules a side of the Maelstrom is this... childish, I guess it makes sense since she is still part of the newer generations', he thought.
That's right, despite her proximity to the peak of Neptune, the Black Empress is still below the five-thousand-year mark, which is considered extremely young for Stellar ranks, in Vincent's and the other survivors of the old generation, anyone younger than ten thousand years old is a teenager at most, so for him Thea is just a child.
Even Blackbeard who is a high ranked Stellar ranked is nothing more than a kid with a runny nose, despite he being nearly forty thousand years old.
"So be it, then I ask everyone to place one hand here and repeat "I promise" when I ask you to", said Vincent as he made a "cut" in the air to take something out of the space itself, something that drew Daimon's attention for a moment but ultimately it was a fake alarm.
In Vincent's hands, there was a silver badge, similar to the two that Daimon's have but with another type of design, different to the ones he has which he already knows are called "Sea Emblem" and "Devil Emblem".
Vincent noticed Daimon's gaze on his treasure and he chuckled knowing he had a lot of questions to make, but that could wait until everyone was on the same page.
The girls turned to see Daimon and only after seeing him nodding, as he didn't find any "surprise" in the silver badge, they did as Vincent told.
"I swear that the information discussed for the next thirty minutes in this room, won't be leaked by me to anyone, also for the next year or so no one here will plot or try to harm the other in any form, now please", said the old man.
"I promise", said everyone.
The silver pendant shone and then everything returned to normal, but Daimon could tell they signed a contract of some kind using the silver badge as the medium, of course it didn't restrict him, but it was interesting to see the people of Neptune had found heir own ways to compromise with others, instead of soul contracts.
'I wonder if they are lacking something... or if we excel in the subject', thought Daimon referring to the fact that everyone back at the Wonder Myriad Stellar Chart could do soul contracts, not to mention that each Lord ranked had a manifestation phenomenon, the worst were weak but they still had it and here only no one had it, the same applied to Arch ranks every single one had domains, some were "pathetic" or limited in a lot of senses but they all had it, unless one walked down the path of being a Magus King, but here only the crème of the crop seemed to even know about the existence of domains.
And if Daimon's calculations were right, based on what he saw during Annete's fight, using their a domain even for a Half Stellar ranked is extremely challenging.
Vincent pointed at his treasure and then directly asked Daimon.
"You seem to be interested in this, may I ask you why?".
Daimon smirked.
'We are being straightforward huh, fine I prefer it this way too', he thought as he took out the so called Devil Emblem from his "pocket" of course he sent it back from the inventory, and was just acting.
"Well, I happen to have found a similar one, so I was wondering what are these?", asked Daimon as he showed the lifeless gray badge to the Trident Marshal.
Vincent's eyes glowed for a split of a second, he then scratched the back of his head before saying.
"Kid... you surely like to surprise others, that is a "Devil Emblem", though it looks similar to the one I own, mine is a "Elemental Emblem", though to be honest the difference is practically only the name and the place where they can be found".
"Oh, I would be glad to hear more about it", added Daimon, he also had a Sea Emblem, but compared to others, either sea, devil or elemental, his was different, as he had the rune shark engraved into it.
Vincent nodded as he took out a book from his storage ring, something which made Aurora's eyes to narrow.
"This is a book where all the information regarding the emblems is recorded, I once used it to get mine and no one besides me, little Annete and Aurora who used to be on missions with me, know about it".
"But you aren't going to lend it to me unless I answer to your question first", said Daimon with a frown.
The Trident Marshal cleared his throat in response.
"Ahem, don't see it like that, I'm not trying to keep the book away from you to extort an answer, it's more like I need an answer from you before I can lend you such a thing, besides it's not like there is a map to find one here it's more of a historical and rumor compilation, but there are some parts that are "sensible" from Neptunian's point of view", explained Vincent.
Daimon evaluated the old man's expression and deemed it as honest, also he noticed Jasmine, Aurora, Daphne, her mother, as well as Karmandi, the female general and the Black Empress raise an eyebrow after hearing Vincent using the term "Neptunian", it was the generic term used for the people that was born in Neptune.
Besides Vincent, Mellie and the queen, no one else knew Daimon's group weren't natives of Neptune, they just thought they were part of some of the families that had isolated from the rest of the world, in some faraway island, he four seas were so vast and mysterious that no one has mapped even a third part of it, especially the Maelstrom Sea.
But now based on Vincent's words, that wasn't the case.
Daimon looked at the Trident Marshal and then nodded.
"Tell me your question, if I can answer it, I will do it, but I can't guarantee anything".
Vincent inwardly let out a sigh of relief, though Annete has told him the truth, he was still amazed at the idea of people from other places coming to Neptune, and of course he knows the dangers that come with them, so he wanted to make sure they weren't being played with.
"Who are you really... below that disguise, I know you might have your reasons and I respect that, but you can't expect me or the people from my culture to trust someone who hides below a mask, because for us this is an existential level crisis".
While Vincent had a hunch that Daimon was hiding his true appearance, he couldn't see what was behind the disguise, there was something preventing him a maximum Stellar ranked from doing seeing through him, of course he felt wary, it was normal, he was more like that because if he wasn't for his sharp instincts and all the years he had lived, he wouldn't have noticed anything, it was a bit scary.
Daimon remained silent for a moment, to be honest the disguise of "Gabriel" wasn't there for the people of Neptune, he only used it because there were people from the academies in Neptune, if not he wouldn't have cared to use his real appearance.
Under the expectant eyes of all the presents in the room, Daimon's hand grabbed the mask which was covering his face and slowly took it off, everyone besides Mellie and the queen, was surprised to see the revelation, a silver haired handsome youth with amethyst eyes who seemed to drag the light, like black holes.
His factions also changed but nothing too extreme, or appearance altering, it was more of an aura change, besides some minor cosmetic aspects, but which combined indeed made him look like a complete different person.
To begin with, while he was mysterious and interesting as Gabriel, Daimon was a kill for the ladies, they also noticed he was younger than what they expected and yet he was so strong as he has demonstrated.
And that meant that he was even more talented than the publicly recognized number one, crowned prince, just because of his age alone.
"This is how I look like, my name is Daimon Licht, you can call me Daimon and I guess I can be considered a "prince" of some sort, though at my galaxy we don't have kingdoms, but clans and forces".
The Trident Marshal raised an eyebrow as he looked at Daimon's hair, which made him realize he didn't change it back, and then a moment later it turned black inked, technically silver was his original hair color, but he dyed and the black color was the natural one, while he was using the bracelet of the god of mischief to make it look silver.
