Chapter 56 - Apollo's Invitation.
[Chapter Size: 1486 Words.]
Third Person POV
Orario, Abandoned Church.
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The next day, Lucius followed the same routine as the day before, training with Mikoto and the Takemikazuchi family in the morning, while spending the rest of the day immersed in reading in the abandoned church. The day passed quickly as he finished four more books; his pace was becoming quite satisfactory, and his notebook was filling up rapidly. He had a lot of knowledge about magical introduction theories, making him feel that he could enhance his magical abilities even further with it.
It was when he met Bell and the others in the evening that he learned new information about the events that had occurred a few days ago. Bell received a letter containing an invitation from Apollo for a ball at his mansion with gods and their children the next day. Each god had the right to invite two children to join them at the event, something that changed from the original due to Lucius's interference in recent days. The humiliation the commander suffered must have prompted Apollo to reassess his plans.
"It seems he wants both Bell and me to attend," Lucius thought internally. "Apollo and I have a history in Tenkai, but this is quite suspicious. What should we do?" Hestia asked a bit lost. It was clear that it was some kind of trap set by the god. "Do we have a choice?" Lucius asked calmly, and Hestia expressed her opinion. "Hmm... Lucius is right. We have to go, and I have no choice but to take you both. I plan to invite Takemikazuchi and Miach to join us. With that, I feel safer."
Lucius sighed. So, he would participate in a banquet he never planned, as his initial plan was to let the story run as canonically as possible. But the banquet, unsurprisingly, wasn't the case. "Alright, it will be tomorrow night. Let's organize ourselves, then. I'll talk to my friends and get our clothes, as we have a lot of money saved up." Hestia concluded excitedly, while the rest of us had the rest of the night as usual.
The next day, I spent the morning with Mikoto and studied in the afternoon with 3 books, completing 8 out of the 15 read. "I'm quite satisfied with this. I might even boast to Riviera the next time I meet her. I hope she shows up at the banquet too..." Lucius reflected calmly as he finished his third book.
As night fell, Hestia appeared with clothes for me and Bell, traditional social smoking attire that Lucius always found strange to exist in a medieval world. But he was in an anime world, so anything was possible, and some things would always be quite illogical. Wearing his suit, Lucius liked how it looked. He had an athletic body that had grown even more in the last month, so the clothes fit him very well, making him look quite "chad."
A carriage appeared to pick us up in the slum in front of the church. Hestia had arranged this during the day, taking us to one of the richest neighborhoods in the city. After a while, we arrived at the location, the large mansion seen in the anime. Really grand, Lucius noticed. Getting out of the carriage, the trio headed towards the gate. There, there was an adventurer known to the family with level two. Lucius knew him from the anime, but it was the first time he saw him without his mask that appeared in the war game.
"The invitation." Hestia, leading the group, handed the invitation to the elf member of the Apollo family at the gate.
"Yes, Goddess Hestia, you and your family can enter," he said, but I could see a look of hatred and malice coming in my direction, which I wasn't surprised about after what happened.
Another reason why I wasn't surprised was the new nickname I gained the next day after the bar fight.
[Nickname: Enemy of the Apollo Family (NEW)]
'Why am I surprised? I earned this nickname in the last few days.' I wanted to laugh out loud, but just smiled back at the elf, staring at him intensely.
Seeing that the elf still stared, not unnoticed by Hestia or Bell, Lucius decided to play a little with this level two.
"Wow! It's a grand mansion, I admit. I'm tempted to steal it for myself someday." Lucius let slip, still maintaining the same smile.
The elf raised an eyebrow at the statement and stared at him even more intensely, knowing that Lucius was provoking him.
Seeing that the listener didn't respond to his provocation, he continued, wanting to see the reaction of Apollo's members, so he kept talking.
"Hm? Oh, I apologize. Where are my manners! Let me introduce myself. I'm Lucius Draknar, sir...?"
"Lissos, just Lissos." He said with a bit of thinly disguised anger, ignoring Lucius's extended hand.
"I understand. Well, anyway, I must thank your family for the invitation. I look forward to seeing Apollo tonight. I've heard that your God is quite interesting and tends to have a taste... well... quite peculiar..." Lucius commented, earning not only a stunned look from Lissos but also incredulous looks from Hestia and Bell with the kind of statement Lucius was insinuating.
"Tsk! Put yourself in your place. You won't be disrespectful to Apollo-Sama. Otherwise, our family will make you pay for it!" The elf growled like never before, breaking his posture with my provocative words.
"Hey, hey, no need to be in a bad mood. I'm just curious. I've heard a lot about how the God Apollo is grand and spectacular in the eyes of mortals!" Lucius said loudly, but everyone could see that he was being ironic. Even another God who arrived to deliver the invitation just behind the group with two members of his family was open-mouthed at this mortal speaking like that about a God like Apollo.
"Why... don't you... come in...? Good... party... to... you all..." He spoke slowly with anger, not wanting to respond to the provocation or hear more from Lucius in front of the gate.
"Let's go!" Hestia spoke quickly, pulling Lucius forcibly into the property before he could react.
"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Hestia yelled at Lucius, very dissatisfied, stomping her foot on the ground as she spoke.
While Bell also wanted to know why this behavior, Lucius sighed and began to speak.
"Hestia, do you think we're having a peaceful stroll here?" Lucius spoke seriously now, making Hestia stop screaming indignantly and look at him equally seriously.
"Remember, this was set up precisely for our family to fall into their trap." Lucius said to her. They were now quite far away in the mansion's courtyard, with no nearby ears.
"Trap?" Bell asked, raising one of his eyebrows.
"Yes, it's very likely that we'll leave here with a war game." When Lucius said this, both Hestia and Bell were alarmed.
"No, that can't be possible..." Hestia tried to deny.
"The bar fight was planned, Hestia. Even though it didn't go as they wanted, they will still proceed with their plans," Lucius said calmly, earning silence from the trio.
"That's why I won't wait for Apollo and his family to attack us first. I intend to create as much chaos as I can tonight..." Lucius showed a sadistic smile here, frightening the two in front of him considerably.
After a while in silence, Hestia broke the silence after this declaration. "Just don't kill anyone!" Hestia finally spoke, trusting in her son's word, who always solved the family's problems, even if recklessly most of the time.
"Great, so shall we go?" Lucius asked for them to head inside the mansion.
"Wait, Miach should be arriving now; let's wait for him," she said.
"They're already here," Bell commented, pointing to the gate as Miach and Naaza approached them in formal attire.
"Hestia, it's good to see you again, as well as Bell-kun and Lucius-kun," he said with a friendly smile.
"It's good to see you, Miach."
"God Miach."
"Miach-Sama."
"Hello, everyone," the demihuman girl greeted everyone.
Lucius never interacted much with her; he bought some potions from their pharmacy when he first joined the Hestia family, but after he obtained healing, he never needed to appear again, choosing to get more expensive and higher-quality potions from Dian Cecht in case of emergency. She also helped in the rescue team when Bell was in danger, but Lucius never interacted with her at the camp; he doesn't even remember her...
After greeting Naaza Erisuis as well, she was the only member of the Miach family, so only she appeared.
"Now, let's go!" Hestia said, and we headed towards what Lucius could define the next day as...
"A very crazy night, full of ups and downs, furious gods, joyful gods, and many bewildered beings!"
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