novelraw Chapter 164: Behind the Veil
Chapter 164: Behind the Veil
As Emmett and Aldrich continued to converse, a group of three approached the Darkfells, or more specifically, Rose.
The three were none other than Alistair, Elsa, and Delilah.
"We greet Your majesty and your highnesses." Both Alistair and Elsa curtsied to Yvonne and the other Darkfells. Delilah on the other hand, only slightly bowed to Yvonne and said; "I greet Your Majesty."
Their statuses mattered after all. Alistair and Elsa were both nobility, while Delilah was royalty much like the Darkfells. The only one who outrank Delilah in status was Yvonne.
Yvonne nodded to both their greetings, Ariel on the other hand, beamed.
"Oh my God, looks like someone made some friends." Ariel pouted turning to Rose. The Phoenix princess didn’t deign to answer that.
"Its been a long time, Sister Ariel." Elsa smiled at Ariel.
"Its been a long time indeed." Ariel turned to her with a smile. "I see you’ve already found someone else." Ariel’s eyes flicked to Alistair, the snicker in her voice not hidden at all.
The atmosphere suddenly turned tense. The smile on Elsa’s face froze, while Alistair frowned. He wanted to step in, but a glance from Ariel froze him in his spot.
But still, he gritted his teeth and spoke in Elsa’s stead. "You could say she found someone better, Your highness." Even though Ariel’s stare terrified him, Alistair still retorted which was more than enough bravery on his side. Especially when even though it was forbidden for anyone to attack anyone during the Ivos Gala, in the entire history of Ivos Gala, only House Darkfell had broken this rule, not once but multiple times, and no one dared to impose sanctions on them.
House Darkfell wasn’t secretly called the House of Madness for no reason. Ariel could literally up an attack Alistair right here and now, and nothing would happen to her or the Darkfells.
Perhaps if the alpha ranked beings in the human domain was double their numbers, House Darkfell wouldn’t be that brazen.
Meanwhile, Ariel tilted her head. "Someone better huh? Are you insinuating that you’re better than my brother?" She asked.
"Stop intimidating them, Sister."Rose interjected at that moment.
"Ah, sorry, I got a bit carried away." Ariel’s expressionless face transitioned into a sweet smile. "You should go hang out with your friends."
Rose stood up and went along with Alistair and the rest. As they walked, Elsa smiled and turned to Rose. "Where is your brother, is he not attending the Gala?" she asked.
"I do not know, but he insisted on not tagging along with us." Rose replied.
"I heard the emperor had pardoned and allowed him back home."
"It is what it is." Rose curlty replied.
Elsa’s smile thinned. It seemed Rose was giving her the cold shoulder. But she wasn’t particularly bothered by it, Rose was mostly that way after all.
Delilah then turned to Rose. "Who is your partner for the Gala?"
"I do not have one." Rose shook her head. "Who’s yours?" she asked the Whetstone princess.
"What?!" Delilah almost exclaimed. "This is like the number one social event in the world, how could you have no partner?" Delilah asked eyes widened.
"I have no interest in it."
"You do you." Delilah shook her head. "Anyway, you wouldn’t believe it, my partner is Fabian. You wouldn’t believe how shocked I was when he asked me to be his his partner." Delilah ranted.
"I see." Rose simply nodded but she was just as surprised as Delilah if not more. She never took Fabian for someone who would go out of his way to ask Delilah to partner up with him.
"You know one thing though, I also didn’t see Sia amongst the members of her family. At first I wanted to go ask them why she wasn’t present but stopped myself. I realized I didn’t really know anyone from her family." Delilah explained.
"Speaking of partners, I don’t mind if you partner up with me also." Alistair smiled at Rose. "I’m sure Elsa doesn’t mind either." He said oblivious of how Elsa’s smile suddenly grew strained beside him.
"If Anastasia was here too, I’d propose the same to her. Since you two don’t have one, I wouldn’t mind." Alistair said.
"No, but thanks." Rose replied. "I’ll be fine." She has no interest in partnering up with anyone. In fact nothing had even come to her mind about such.
"I’m being honest, I really don’t mind." Alistair affirmed. "In fact..." he wanted to continue but was cut off by a tug of his arm.
"Since she isn’t interested, stop bugging her." Elsa said with the sweetest smile she could muster.
"Hahahaha! You are right." Alistair scratched the back of his head seemingly clueless.
Delilah and Rose on the other hand could clearly see the strained smile on Elsa’s face.
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"The forty-ninth item is 2 high grade aether stone mines in the Kamar continent." the auctioneer said.
"Well well." Sevas remarked.
"30 key tokens," Sevas said as he placed his first bid of the day.
Instantly, the rest of their eyes turned to the him, recognizing that it was Sevas who had bid for this item.
’Is he doing it again?’ Some of them had such thoughts in their heads.
Until now, everyone had gotten what they wanted, with a few bid wars occurring. They were relieved that Sevas hadn’t participated yet.
After all, they were aware of Sevas Necron’s habit of inflating the prices of items he wanted if he couldn’t obtain them easily.
"No wonder the Necrons have so many enemies," Alexa muttered, and Sevas ignored her comments.
"50 key tokens," Alvin Whitemore’s voice rang out from the second floor as he entered the bidding war himself. He was the head of House Whitemore.
"So it was true, there are some tensions between your two families." Alexa said to Sevas, witnessing Alvin’s bid.
"60 key tokens," another voice came, the Forge Family Head.
"I heard some rumors," Alexa continued. "Your daughter reportedly messed up his daughter real bad during the recent mid terms."
"If Sia did it, there must be a very good reason for it." Sevas simply shrugged.
"Oh, but I heard she did it on someone’s special directive." Alexa’s smile widened.
"On who’s?" Sevas frowned.
"I heard it was Amon’s kid, Damon, who told her to do so." Alexa responded in glee.
Almost instantly, Sevas and Amon’s gazes met. Cold grey eyes met serene blue eyes. It almost looked like they would tear into each other at any moment. Fortunately, the auctioneers voice shattered the tension for now.
"60 key tokens going once!"
"70 key tokens," Sevas said, withdrawing his gaze from Amon’s and pushing the bid.
"90 key tokens," the Whitemore Family Head said.
"100 key tokens," Sevas said.
"110 key tokens," the Whitemore Family Head spoke out again.
"120 key tokens," Sevas increased the bid.
At this point, no one else was joining because they knew doing so would be futile. At the second floor meanwhile, the Whitemore family head was immensely furious at this point. He knew that Sevas was just inflating the price, and that he wasn’t really going to buy it.
Alvis on the other hand, genuinely wanted those two high grade aether stone mines.
"130 key tokens." Sevas increased it once more.
Alvis gritted his teeth. "150 key tokens." That was the highest he could go. Anymore and he’d be over spending for nothing. 2 high grade aether stone mines would generally be sold for about 90 key tokens or a little over that.
Contrary to Alvis’s expectations, Sevas’s voice rang out from the top floor.
"If you want them so badly, you can have them." Sevas said, ceasing to bid.
Alvis clenched his hands so hard the air popped. If only he was stronger, he would give Sevas a piece of his mind.
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Back in the Darkfell Garden, Damon, in his pitch black suit, left the castle and made his way to the docks.
He was about to head out now, and even though there was still a whole day till the last day of the gala, he was going to have to head to the Necron empire first to pick up Anastasia. And from there together, they could head to the gala.
Just from here to the Necron empire would take about nine full hours. And from the Necron empire to the Ivos Gala would take around ten hours, if not more., so he had to set out now.
As he walked, Damon thought of the major event set to happen the next day at the Ivos Gala. The dark cult would be attacking, and the Alpha ranked beings would be indisposed.
The heretics would try to unalive Alistair at that point. Honestly Damon had no interest in interfering, but there were just too many things hiding behind the Veil.
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