After Cassy closed the door behind them, Daimon and the others observed the insides of Jasmine's room, it would be more accurate to call it a one floor house though, the castle itself was quite large and since only Jasmine and Aurora lived here, there were actually only three bedrooms.
One for Jasmine, one for Aurora and one that so far has only been used by Sylvie, which is the guest's room, the maids and other staff which were Sylvie's disciples, worked here in turns and after they finished their jobs, they were allowed to train in the backyard of the castle, before leaving to their own homes.
It might sound like they are servants, but that's not the case, the mana filled atmosphere of the white hill is beneficial for them, and when they train here their results are naturally better.
Similar to spending time in the main residence of he Flying Citadel, they will get double the results with half the effort, the difference is that it only worked for light affinity knights and mages.
In exchange of that doing some chores here and there was nothing, Sylvie used that to teach their disciples humility, since Aurora hates haughtiness and arrogance a lot, in part that's why she didn't have a good impression of Daimon at first.
His confidence can easily be mistaken as arrogance by outsiders, but after she got to know him better, she realized that the silver haired youth, is incredibly realistic, despite being the strongest member of the young generation she has ever met or heard off, he doesn't care for glory or fame.
The things that normally blind those who are called "geniuses" don't affect him, he doesn't rely on his strength nor shows the usual recklessness of the young generation, calm, merciless, smart and reliable, that was Aurora's current image of Daimon, well she resumed it to a single word later, after she got to know his real name, the word "Demon" was perfect to describe him.
And after that she decided to support whatever Jasmine felt for him, because someone like Daimon makes other suffer, but never allows those near him suffer, unfair maybe but that's how this world worked, and so far, she hasn't regretted her decision, beating the Minister in his own game, destroying the royals were achievements that one would never think will come from a member of the young generation and her they were.
Leaving that aside, Jasmine brought them to the small living area of her room, her bed and other personal things were in a separated area that could be considered a studio, she also had a living room, a large private bathroom and even a training room, all in one place.
The only thing it was lacking was a kitchen, but that's not only because they have a chef, but because Aurora knows how bad is her granddaughter's cooking as she once accepted something she prepared for her, a mistake she still regrets to this day.
Daimon observed the door while his eyes glowed behind his mask, the moment they entered the castle, Narasha's voice could be heard in his mind.
'Daimon, there is a thing Disaster wants to devour at the northeast of our current position'.
Daimon was naturally charmed by the idea, surprisingly the capricious sword didn't find the unknown alloy of the Flying Citadel to be of its liking, which made Daimon sigh, the properties of it were really good, an incredible sturdiness and the capacity to disturb any darkness affinity formation, it could have gone well with Gram's form.
Aurora went as far as saying he could destroy a couple of benches or some other furniture without any problem, but the picky eater sword refused the treat, which left Daimon powerless regarding it.
"What's at the northeast of this room?", he asked to Jasmine.
"Mmm, if my memory doesn't fail, the treasury should be there", answered Jasmine, truth to be told, contrary to Mellie, she was always out of the castle, with Sylvie watching over her of course.
Daimon suspected that the situation where she was attacked and somehow Sylvie wasn't there, was caused by the interference of Adam's system, since one of the requirements of the mission created by the opportunity, he stole him was "Make a hero's entrance".
He fulfilled it when he saved Mellie from the pirates, but Adam probably forced the situation, since that was his modus operandi.
Daimon came out of his daze when he heard Jasmine's voice saying.
"Grandma will take you there later, for now let's play some games… the party is going to be quite overwhelming".
"Oh, I'm always in to earn some crystals out of you~", happily said Marlene as she took out a set of cards from her storage ring.
The other girls glared at her, Marlene won quite a few times before thanks to her ability of stealing luck from others, who knows how many disgraces had the male members of the Blackfin family who are weaker than her have experienced at this point.
Unfortunately for her, Daimon could notice when she used her ability, so he simply told the girls and Thea gave her a nice beating, after that she refrained from using her ability but she still won a relatively high number of times.
…
While Daimon and the others were enjoying their time together at Jasmine's room, at the castle on the black hill that was next to the white hill, things weren't as peaceful.
Aurora appeared inside a corridor that led to the main hall of the castle, she casually opened the gates and was met with the sight of a throne room where a middle-aged man with black hair and a short beard, black robes and a severe expression on his face.
Curiously, despite being older than Aurora and Vincent, he looked younger as if it was in his late forties, Aurora seemed to be in her fifties and Vincent on the other hand seemed to be in his sixties.
This man was the patriarch of the Black Fortress and the Shaman of the Elemental Sea, a title which gave him an equal authority to the king, Abaris Jet, normally it would have shown a positive reaction after seeing Aurora, since they live in separate castles and don't see each other often, but judging by his expression that wasn't the case.
"It's good to see that you have recovered of the backslash earlier than expected, now what do you want Abaris for you to call me as soon as I returned?", said Aurora as she took a seat on a table that was prepared for those who had audiences with the Shaman.
The man frowned a black light shone in his eyes and darkness laws surrounded him, the amount was slightly higher than the ones that gathered around Vincent.
"Skyfire handed me an interesting report earlier, but I wanted to hear it directly from you, is it true that you allowed not only Jasmine but also the daughter of Underwood to change teams to help the team of some random brat?".
Aurora's body leaked light mana in response, light and darkness are generally neutral towards other elements, depending if they are negative or positive, but regardless of anything they are the weakness of the other, light is strong against darkness and darkness is strong against light, they are the perfect example of the relation between mages and knights for that same reason.
"Is that really the first thing that comes to your mind after the information I sent you, the Skelefiends targeted little Jas, and she would have been kidnapped if not for that "random brat" as you call him, he helped despite not having the obligation to do so, not to mention she was put in danger by the little bastard you praised so much and asked to be in the same team as our granddaughter!", she exclaimed, the anger was clear in her voice.
If Abaris was paying more attention to the fact that they didn't win any glory for the Elemental Sea instead of being worried about Jasmine's wellbeing, she was ready to start a fight on the spot.
Abaris gritted his teeth as he smacked his fist on the armguard of his black throne.
"Do you think I let the members of the young generation go to play at the Mermen Sea without a proper reason, with the current state of things we'll most likely have to join hands with the White, if they think we are weak then we'll end up getting the short end of the stick".
"Even if you were going to let Jasmine enter another team, you should have chosen Triten's son, to show goodwill, you didn't even bring anyone from the Purple Haze and Grey Workshop sects, our result would have been different if not for that", s
"And not only that, you even allowed some outsiders to use the main residence of the Flying Citadel, you were the one that told me it was a last resort reserved to one day save the Elemental Sea!", said Abaris as he raised his voice, just to be met with Aurora's mocking response.
"Let alone the fact that little Jas didn't feel comfortable with Purplecloud's son, even if he would have gone, the result would have been the same, besides I knew you will complain and brought Skyfire even if he isn't my subordinate, I didn't think he will "tell on me", with you the very moment he set a foot here".
"Listen I'm not in the mood to discuss with you, I have seen what I need to do for the sake of our survival and I will do it, it is as simple as that, this time we people from the older generation can't change the result of what's about to come, but the youngster can, so I decided to use the main residence and not only that, I will be using the treasures and materials inherited from the past generations for it, what's the use of having wealth if you aren't alive to enjoy it anyway".
Abaris shook his head, he didn't understand what was happening with Aurora, she wasn't being the calm and composed woman he knows, but instead it seemed to have changed after going to the Mermen Sea for a few days.
"I can't tell you what to do with the resources of your Light Palace, you are free to waste them as you like, but don't expect me to do the same, I don't care who you brought, little flame and little haze will be the ones in charge of accompanying Jasmine from now and onwards, give that brat his prize and then sent it back to the Mermen Sea…", Abaris couldn't finish his sentence before Aurora interrupted him.
"Unfortunately for you we only returned for a day because I needed to retrieve something out of my treasury, we'll leave first thing in the morning to visit the Maelstrom Sea, since we found another ally thanks to the one, I brought, also you can forget about little Jas leaving both my or that kid's sides now, in fact as we speak, he is staying with her in my castle".
Abaris's body shivered due to anger, he actually stood up from his throne and his mana pressure flooded the room.
"What did you say, you left her alone with someone you met a couple of days ago, I remember you refused to even let her be courted by little flame or little haze, and now you are pushing her at the arms of some shady brat!".
Aurora softly snorted and her light mana clashed with Abaris, in a direct confrontation she didn't have the upper hand, but strength isn't everything in a battle, she showed Abaris the ring which she had in her right index finger, which was the master control of the Flying Citadel, and as if a bucket of cold water was poured on Abaris's head, his retracted his pressure on the spot.
"You!".
"Are you even threatening due to some unknown guy, how far will you go against me, Aurora!", he shouted.
Aurora sighed, Abaris has always been like this, his temper was short due to his darkness affinity, and things had to be his way no matter what, even their daughter had an arranged marriage, with a candidate he chose alone, though she didn't regret it, Aurora wanted Jasmine to take her own decisions and control her future.
She didn't know what did Skyfire told Abaris to make him this angry towards Daimon, but to be honest she didn't care, the world might end for them in six days, so there is no time for this kind of drama.
Ultimately, she stood up from her seat and turned around to leave not without saying.
"Once you calm down you can attend the welcome party, I'll be leaving tomorrow in the morning, don't show your face if you are thinking of causing troubles, or I will kick you out of my castle, and get this in your head, my priority is little Jas's happiness, I won't let the same tragedy repeat again".
Abaris saw the door od his throne room closing and a vein popped on his neck, darkness mana exploded out of his body and the air trembled as if the space was about to give in, but ultimately, he calmed down and took a deep breath.
This isn't the first time he has a discussion with Aurora and he is sure it won't be the last, and now he wanted to see with his own eyes, the brat that was causing him all these troubles, so he was going to attend the welcome party and not alone, but with his subordinates too.
'If you are as outstanding as she makes you sound, then you will be able to handle the situation later, if not humph, don't blame me for being rude', he thought.
