The marble floors shimmered and the usual dusty crimson curtains now gleamed as the light came through it. The entire room smelled of freshly baked goods and wine.
The room filled with chatter as demons scattered around within it, moving into groups to discuss the recent events of what occurred just yesterday evening.
"Hey did you watch that game yesterday? It was insane!"
"Of course I did idiot! I don't think there is a soul alive in the kingdom who hasn't seen what happened yesterday."
As the conversations grew one particular group spoke out the loudest with their pride held high and their chest puffed out.
"Tell us what it was like fighting Iratai!"
"Yea we saw you three fighting out there and you guys were surprisingly handling your own very well even though you were going up against a noble demon"
Sova just let out a hearty laugh before wrapping his arms around two beautiful ladies pulling them in close. "Well ladies I'll let you know that without me, that human would've totally lost. If I didn't trick Iratai, Dormire would've never been able to catch him by surprise!"
"HA! YOU'RE SO FULL OF IT!!" Hashi roared while he also had his arms wrapped around two women at his sides. "If it wasn't for me they would've never been able to get close at all!" He stated, smirking like he won the conversation.
Sova frowned, let go of the two girls, and marched toward Hashi grabbing him by the collar and growling in his face. "All you did was get trapped in a wall!"
Hashi followed suit grabbing onto Sova's collar as well bumping heads with him. "You missed your very first swing!"
The two continue to yell back and forth at each other while the ladies slowly backed away from them as their aura began to clash until-
"You two are so embarrassing."
Both of them stopped clashing heads and snapped towards the direction from where the insult came from.
"WHO THE HELL SAID THAT!"
"Me you idiots," Dormire said in a calm voice. "You're doing nothing but embarrassing yourselves."
Dormire was surrounded all around by ladies giggling trying to gather his attention while some of the men in the background glared at him full of envy.
"After all," he said, looking down upon them with his weary eyes. "I'm the only one who managed to lay damage upon Iratai, while you two did nothing but flutter around."
The area fell into dead silence.
Then Hashi and Sova snapped, shouting in frustration!"
"You think you're some hotshot now just because you managed to land a few measly hits!"
"Let us remind you that you were only able to land those hits because of us! Alright!"
Dormire simply turned away, not saying anything else in response.
As he walked away both Hashi and Sova yelled after him in anger.
"DORMIRE YOU LAZY FUCK GET BACK HERE!!"
"WE'RE NOT DONE TALKING TO YOU!!"
Meanwhile, the main focus of the entire party was still nowhere to be seen despite his name being discussed around the room.
"Has anyone seen the human yet? Wasn't this entire thing meant for him?"
"Maybe he got too scared to come thinking we would attack him as soon as he entered the room or something," The demon said with a grin.
"Also did you guys see those fake horns he was wearing the entire battle?"
"Ha! How could we not. Some of the guys in the tavern had such a laugh at it that they even gave him the nickname false horn.
After more time began to pass a strong aura filled the room, as a group of four older demons with fierce eyes that looked to have seen more than a millennium entered the room with as if they were searching for someone.
"Does anyone see the human?"
"Not at all, doesn't even seem like he has arrived yet.
All the other demons inside stared at older demons in awe, but dared not to allow them to notice that they were staring. Some of the demons started to whisper in order to avoid catching their attention.
"Why are the elders here?"
"They never come to these kinds of things usually."
"Must be because of the human. He did just beat two noble demons in the mock war-game Siege after all."
"They hate when things start to change, and it just so happens the human is influencing a change."
As the whisper continued on and tension within the room grew from the presence of the elder demons, a cheerful voice finally sprung out for all to hear.
"Sorry for the long wait everyone! I had to get prepared just for this event!"
Velmira then appeared outta thin air slowly descending onto the main stage within the ballroom, wearing a beautiful red and purple dress that started just below her shoulders. Silver hair tied into a lovely ponytail.
You were dressed up enough for this already. Everyone thought.
Velmira threw her hand out into the air casting a yellow glow into the room that slowly faded away. This was magic that was made in order to project someone's voice louder. "So as you all may know already, This event is being held in honor of the winner of Siege! Aka my human advisor Rivel!"
Silence filled the room.
"Clap." Velmira said with a sweet, yet menacing tone hidden within."
Everyone started to clap without a second of hesitation, besides the elder demons who glared at her without fear.
"Also in agreement with Rivel! I had formed a binding contract that I would award any of the demon soldiers who fought in the battle with everything they got, would receive any reward from me that they so wished… as long as it's something reasonable.
A group of demons cheered with grins of greed written all over their faces, while demons who were from Iratai's and Bastien team just groaned in displeasure.
"Oh! Almost forgot!" Velmira yelped while tapping her head. "I would also be awarding the demon who made the largest contribution within the battle as well with a special reward! But that is something I'll allow him to announce!" She proclaimed while pointing past everyone in the crowd towards the huge burgundy doors.
Everyone turned towards the doors in curiosity.
Pushing open the doors was Rivel, who stepped inside reluctantly dressed in his uniform, wearing his fake demon horns headband, while wearing the expression of annoyance. "Is this really necessary?"
Velmira clasped her hands. "Of course it is! You're the man of honor and this is your big moment! You should be happy about this!"
Rivel's frown deepened, as he walked past everyone towards the stage where Velmira was waiting for him.
One of the elder demons within the crowd reached out for Rivel, but was stopped in the process as he felt a murderous gaze from Velmira being directed onto him.
Once Rivel finally made it onto the stage, Velmira dragged him over quickly to her side with a smile on her face. "Go ahead and introduce yourself to everyone."
Rivel sighed, dragging a hand down his face clearly not wanting to do this. "I'm Rivel, and uh… I guess I'm Velmira's "human advisor" although I never agreed to such a position, but here I am."
He clearly hates this. Everyone thought.
"And I'm so happy to have you here!"
"I know you are," he said with exhaustion in his voice. "You make it evident every minute."
Rivel rubbed the back of his neck while looking at the crowd before him.
I really hate doing these kinds of things.
"Anyway let's get this over with so you all can go back to enjoying yourselves. So first off I would like to thank all the soldiers who helped me achieve victory. And a special thanks to all the fall-"
Velmira covered Rivel's mouth very quickly and pulled him back to whisper into his ear. "Sorry forgot to mention that no one truly dies in siege, unless it's from magic. Which is why using magic in siege is forbidden, since the magical residue doesn't allow us to bring back the people who died unless we use necromancy."
Rivel's eye twitched. "Well, was there anyone who officially died?"
"Not anyone important … So no!"
Rivel grumbles and returns back to where he was originally standing to resume his speech. "Ahem! Continuing on, I guess I'm meant to choose the biggest contributors to battle, which I'm sure everyone already knows."
Rivel pulls out a list from his uniform pocket. "Please forgive me I butcher your name when I'm pronouncing this. But please come up… Hashi, Sova, Dormire, and Nalu."
Nalu, a tall demon with tanned skin, blonde hair that was bright as the sun, and eyes full of ambition stood up with a leer on his face.
"Looks like he didn't forget after all."
Sova and Hashi raced to jump onto the stage, meanwhile Dormire and Nalu just walked.
"Like I said, before during the "game ", thanks for saving me. And you three, thanks for helping take down the sore loser."
They all just gloated, smiling wide with pride.
Rivel turned towards Velmira. "Velmira would you ple-"
"Wait a second."
The room went quiet as everyone turned towards an Elder demon. He had black hair stopping just before his neck. Two long horns that resembled that of a bull. His violet eyes shining with a glow that could pierce through anyone's soul that dared to look. His entire aura was nothing more but overwhelming.
Velmira's aura started to leak out as well as she glared at the elder stepping past Rivel. "What is it, Natlas?" She asked, voice leaking of menace.
Natlas stepped forward as the crowd separated for him, not daring to even allow his aura touch their skin. Even the air around him seemed to repeal in fear.
"I have a question for the human."
Velmira was about to speak, but Rivel interrupted her as he stepped forward looking down at Natlas.
"Yeah? What is it?"
Velmira looked at Rivel, but just sighed after seeing how calm he looked.
"I had a burning question that we've all been wondering? How exactly did you defeat Iratai?"
The crowd began whispering, clearly wondering the same thing.
Rivel stood there silent until a smirk broke out on his face. "It was simple. I just made a plan around my perception of him."
The room went silent, until whispers of confusion arose.
Natlas just narrowed his eyes onto Rivel, not blinking once during his explanation. Studying him as if he were an animal he was dissecting.
"You mean to tell me you formed a plan on the basis of perception."
Rivel simply shrugged like it was no big deal. "I guessed that he would've wanted to end the match fast. So I figure he'd probably place a traitor within my team. So I had to make a plan to force the traitor to reveal himself if there was one."
"Finally when I had a guess about who the traitor was I allowed them to deploy the troops for me. It just so happened that the traitor gave me a great situation to work with."
Nalu who was standing there watching eyes widened, as he started to remember everything that happened. "Ah. That's when he spoke to the 10 of us still within the castle and told us about Velmira's contract."
Rivel pointed at Nalu. "Exactly, at that point I just gathered who was left in the castle and told them to attack the rear of Iratai's forces."
"Then during that time I talked Nalu into protecting me from the traitor who I guessed was going to take me out. If it was actually the person I assumed it was. Then everything from there should be pretty obvious."
Velmira whipped Rivel around to face her. "So that entire time I was asking if you had a plan, you mean to tell me you actually had one!?"
"Well… yeah I just didn't say it, because I wasn't sure if there was a traitor or not."
The crowd breaks down in murmurs calling Rivel insane, for using a plan such as that and still managing to win.
Natlas broke out into a sharp laughter. A humorless laughed that shown not a single inch of joy.
Everyone remained stunned, even Velmira who looked over at him with a mix of wariness and shock.
"You're an interesting one." Natlas stated.
Natals turned around, waving his hand as he signaled the other three elders to leave. "I have no further questions."
As Natlas and the rest of the elder demons walk out the doors, the air in the ballroom started to feel alive once more.
But before Natals left he looked at Rivel with a deadpan expression. "See you next time human."
The crowd still kept quiet despite him leaving as sweat dripped down their neck from the extreme pressure of presence that was no longer there.
Rivel shudders.
Sorry, but I hope I never have to see you ever again.
Velmira grabbed onto Rivel's wrist tightly digging her nails into skin just enough to cause bruising.
"Stay. Away. From. Him."
For the first time since Rivel know her, her voice and expression wasn't cold or playful. It was just fear.
"Trust me I wasn't even thinking about going near him."
'Keep it that way."
Velmira then let go of Rivel and turned towards the crowd. "If there are no more questions then I'll begin hearing out the rewards!"
Rivel watched as Velmira listened to the wishes of everyone who participated from his team, while he thought about Natlas.
Who could that guy possibly be to have Velmira act like that. It's not unusual for her to be mad at someone, but she usually does it with that creepy smile.
He pictures Velmira's expression into his mind.
Just what the hell can possible scare Demon Queen?
Rivel looked up towards the ceiling and groaned. "I want to leave."