Banquet

When Hartley opened the door he saw Anguo Chen standing there, behind him was a massive man, the tanned man could only be described as gigantic, he had course black hair matted to his head in no particular style with a nose as twisted as a pretzel.

He stood there straight and upright like a spear as he eyes surveyed the room and its surroundings.

The bear of a man wore a military style robe with the eagle insignia of prince Jian printed on the left breast.

"Busy?" asked Anguo Chen.

"No come in, what are you doing here?"

The two men entered the luxurious room, after entering, the gigantic man strode over to the window and lingered, looking out as if scouting out possible entry points for ambushers, after checking the window he made a satisfied grunt and nodded at Anguo.

Hartley looked to Anguo with a puzzled expression, Anguo Chen shrugged at Hartley with a wry smile, this was something he had seen a million times from the commander. Hartley went and sat beside Zhi Ruo and raised his hand towards the empty seats inviting the men to sit.

At this moment Zhi Ruo got up and glided out of the room, she returned minutes later with a platter of snacks, "these are the specialty of the inn" she said as she placed the platter in the middle of the table.

Hartley glanced at her with a smile, he loved when she was in full housewife mode, she gave him a stare then turned her attention to the men sitting across the table, she too was curious about what the men came to talk about.

"This is Commander Genk of Prince Jian first legion imperial army" Anguo Chen introduced.

Hartley nodded, then gave a formal bow and asked " how can I help you commander?"

Without any formalities the commander got straight to the point.

"I heard what happened with that Wuss Sir lingwei." he said with a scowl then went on to intimate that he had heard of Hartley from one of his subordinate who spoke highly of his talent, he had recommended that Hartley be recruited and placed in a position where he could grow his strength and make contributions to Prince Jian but Sir Lingwei was playing petty politics for some reason.

He had come to invite Hartley to a Banquet a few days later, there would be youngsters of the three Prominent countries of the Aldora continent attending and at the end of the banquet it was a tradition for the younger generation to exchange pointers. The gruff man told Hartley not to bother with the petty politics of the capital and just show his strength at the function, that would make more waves than trying to maneuver among the weasels of the capital.

Most of the famous officers in the army had first made their name at such banquets.

Even though the prince wouldn't be there, there would be people high up in the hierarchy and if Hartley made a good impression it could raise his profile with the prince.

He told Hartley that the prince had tunnel vision, the prince only saw strength or benefits, aside from that, everything else was dead weight in the Prince's eyes. Apparently the prince wouldn't show too much concern about what happened with Sir Lingwei unless he felt he was missing out on something.

After leaving details of the invitation the two men left.....

Alighting from a classic open carriage drawn by two white horses was the most fantastically gorgeous creature, she wore her red hair tied in a bun at the back with a couple gleaming golden hair pins sticking out in opposite directions, these caught the light of the mounted lamp as they glinted in golden splendor.

She wore a regal lose fitting long blue dress which twirled and danced as she moved, stepping out of the carriage to join her was a black haired youth with striking blue eyes, he wore an expensive black silk brocade robe which made his pale jade-like skin stand out even more, the beautiful redhead cupped her hand around the elbow of the handsome youth and they made their way towards the hall hosting the banquet.

There was a buzz of chatter as the couple walked in, earning stares from the capacity crowd inside, soon people came up in droves and introduced themselves, nosily trying to identify the two.

The handsome youth introduced himself as Sir Hartley of the Sanzu House and didn't delve into any further details about himself or Zhi Ruo. The red hair goddess stood next to Hartley stayed quiet and smiled politely at the people coming up, she was not going to disclose or discuss her identity just yet.

Soon commander Genk made his way out of a crowd to greet Hartley and Zhi Ruo, he nodded in approval towards Hartley with a smile, "welcome, I'm glad you guys made it." he said.

"Thank you for inviting us," Hartley said while giving the barreled chested man a slight bow. Commander Genk laughed and said "no need to be so formal" as he led the way to their seats.

Hartley and Zhi Ruo sat at the table with the high ranking officials of the first legion imperial army, this garnered even more attention from the attendants of the banquet, the elders at the table looked inquisitively at the lovely young couple sat with commander Genk but didn't ask any unnecessary questions.

Soon the host of the banquet stood up and introduced the delegates from the country of Buju attending the banquet, an elder sat at the table of the Buju section nodded his head towards the host in appreciation and sat back down with pride.

Then the host introduced the delegates from the country of Sasko, an elder from their table also nodded at the host with a wide smile. The host then went onto to yammer endlessly about things Hartley cared little about, after a while the delicacies were served and Hartley finally starting to enjoy himself while exchanging stories with the good-natured commander Genk....

Hartley was looking forward to meeting people from other countries, he knew precious little about the other prominent countries on the Aldora continent but as he paid close attention to the groups from other countries his excitement was punctured and deflated like a balloon.

At first Hartley was intrigued and excited to meet these youths from other countries but after paying attention to them he was sorely disappointed, they were all the same, a bunch of pampered and spoiled adolescents who thought the world revolved around them because of their surname.

Those looks they gave him as their eyes met occasionally, reminded Hartley of his horrible days in the Lou clan, he could tell what they were thinking because he had no elemental fluctuations they could sense.

The whole thing became boring as he watched the prideful youths strut around like self important peacocks.