The six members of Xavier's party, alongside his bond, halted the moment Uriel spoke. They alternated gazes among themselves, but none of them dared to move. None of them could beat her even if they tried, and they all seemed to know it.

"Come on, Leon," Xavier muttered in frustration. "Stop this. These guys started it. You and I are of the same status. You are supposed to be backing me up here as my cousin. Not taking the side of low-ranking nobles."

When Leon's grip on his shoulder tightened, Xavier added, "Are you really going to keep embarrassing me like this?"

"You always do this," Leon finally answered. "You always cross the line. I already told you my decision, and you were meant to respect that. Yet you came in the middle of the night to start trouble?"

"Hold on a minute. I didn't come here to start any trouble."

"Then what the fuck are you doing here?"

Xavier looked at the hand holding him down, then replied, "At least let go of me first." He tapped the hand, then looked back at Leon. "Come on…"

Leon glared at him for a few more seconds, then sighed and said. "Apologize."

"What?" Xavier blinked a few times in disbelief. "You want me to apologize?"

He pointed to my party members. "These guys disrespected me!" Then he pointed a trembling finger at me. "That bastard slapped me!"

He turned his face and pointed to his cheek that had the mark of my five fingers imprinted on it. "Look. Look here! And you want me to apologize?"

"I know you very well. So I know you deserve it. Now, apologize if you do not want Princess Aurora to hear of what happened here tonight."

Xavier gritted his teeth when he heard Leon's threat. He clenched his fist and his eyes went unfocused for a moment. Eventually, his gaze snapped back up to Leon and he spoke with fury in his voice. "Fine! Dammit! Fine!"

His eyes snapped to me. "I'm sorry, okay?!"

He paused and added, "Although you also hit me, so let's call it even. I'll forget the disrespect that happened tonight!"

Hearing that, I sighed and shook my head while rubbing the bridge of my nose. This whole cringe bullshit had exhausted me. So much so that I walked up to a crate, sat down and began rubbing my temples.

Sometimes, it's easy to forget that these guys are all just literally kids.

Leon also sighed and finally released his hold over Xavier, who immediately stood up and straightened his clothes.

"If you didn't come here to start any trouble, what brought you here?" Leon asked.

Xavier was too embarrassed to speak, so his bond stepped up instead.

The lady cleared her throat and spoke in a calm, melodic voice. "Since you rejected the offer and joined this party instead, Princess Aurora sent us to invite Cedric and the entire party into ours. Although she only lets in dominants from the royal family and the noblest of families, she has decided to make an exception."

Leon exhaled hard and rubbed his face, while everyone else turned to me and waited for my reaction.

I stayed quiet for a moment.

'So she wants to absorb our party into hers?'

Actually, I had expected this already after bringing Leon in. Truth be told, I had just been waiting all this while for when they'd finally approach us.

'Looks like things are turning out just as I wanted.'

I looked up at the bond, whose expression was perfectly neutral, then at Xavier, who still looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.

Then, I smiled and replied, "I'd like to speak to the leader of your party, alone."

"What?!" Xavier blurted and cast a look of pure outrage toward me. "You want to speak to the Princess, alone? Who do you think you are?!"

Everyone also looked at me with the same questioning expression, including my party members.

Leon looked the most surprised with his eyes narrowed on me. He probably thought I'd just dismissed them. If I could read his mind now, I'm sure he's thinking something along the lines of, what are you planning?

I continued matter-of-factly, "You came to invite us on behalf of the Princess, but I'd rather speak to her myself."

I stood up. "And I'd like to speak to her tomorrow. I won't be free any time later."

"You…" Xavier wanted to snarl a retort, but his bond suddenly placed a firm hand on his shoulder, silencing him.

"Fine, I will pass on your message."

She turned to Xavier who was clenching his fists.

"Come on, let's go."

Xavier muttered something I could not hear under his breath as he stormed off, with her following close behind.

The other members of his party also followed suit, and slowly, the heavy atmosphere they had brought with them disappeared.

***

The next morning…

My party members all gathered in the general area for a long breakfast.

During this time, I brought up the plan for the level up quest and the need for the rest of the members to have a regalia.

Unsurprisingly, all my party members were on board with the idea. It seemed that they really had faith in me, as they didn't even argue and immediately began discussing the preparations.

Soon after, the others split up to gather the things we would need, such as refilling our pouches at the nearby stream, since we wouldn't be back for quite some time.

By the time it was noon, a young boy with messy, bright green hair approached our shelter. He was a fellow named Richard from Princess Aurora's party and had come to take me to meet her. Together with Aika, we followed the boy back toward the barracks.

The barracks was entirely different from the rest of the grove. To begin with, there was a large fence surrounding the perimeter in a circle. It was constructed from a mixture of both small and large pieces of wood. It wasn't built like it was made to really defend much, but more as a way to mark a boundary and obscure the shelters behind it from the rest of the grove.

The few boys standing in front of the entrance let us pass without question after seeing Richard.

Inside the barracks, the shelters here, which numbered more than a few hundred, were all large and well-maintained. There were even shelters owned by cadet merchants in here.

In fact, once inside, one might think that they had stumbled into a small village.

All the influential parties lived here, so we walked on to the section where the shelters of Princess Aurora's party began. We continued until we reached her shelter, which was located just a few meters in front of the roots of the weird-looking tree.

We stepped into the large shelter, and upon entering into the general area, we saw Princess Aurora sitting on a makeshift chair behind a large table.

Bathed in the soft light filtering through the entrance, she was dazzling. Her presence alone seemed to command the room, even as she sat casually with a small white fox curled and sleeping on the table in front of her.

It woke up when it heard our footsteps, and Aurora smiled when she saw us and slowly stood.

Despite her obvious effort to appear mature, she had this trace of childish playfulness that still lingered in her expression.

The three of us stopped some meters in front of her. Richard and I offered a small nod in greeting, while Aika just nonchalantly walked up to a chair and dropped onto it.

The fox on the table glared at her, and she returned a gaze of the same intensity.

Aurora giggled playfully when she saw the both of them.

Meanwhile, Richard turned around and left, while I spoke up. "Good day, Princess."

She replied, "It's nice to finally meet you, Cedric."

She tilted her head and smiled sheepishly. "I've heard a lot of good things about you."

When I arched a brow, she gestured to the chair beside Aika. "Please, sit."

I pulled out the chair and took my seat.

There was a small brown box on the table right beside the fox. It had the crest of the royal family embossed on the lid.

Aurora moved the box, then opened it and asked politely, "Uhm… do you mind a cold glass of juice? It's quite hot today."

She was offering politely, so I couldn't refuse. Plus, it was indeed really hot today. I opened my mouth to say yes, please, when Aika, who was fanning herself, beat me to it. "Yes, of course. I'm dying here."

Aurora smiled, reached into the box and took out three glasses. Then she took out a pitcher and poured the liquid into them.

She took both and as she extended them to us, cubes of ice magically appeared inside them.

"Thank you," I said, taking the glass and feeling the instant chill against my palm.

I took a sip, and Aurora also took a sip of hers while Aika took hers and chugged down the entire thing in one go before dropping the glass back on the table.

It was quiet for a brief moment, with me staring at the glass of juice. Then I shifted my gaze to Aurora and got straight to business.

"We won't be joining your party."

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