Playing around the castle

Damian who was leisurely looking at the sky suddenly heard some noise and looked towards the gate.

The huge gate soon opened and a few of the soldiers came out and looked at Damian.

Once they recognised him they immediately kneeled down in front of him and one of them said, "Welcome back lord Damian."

Damian stood up and stretched his limbs and stored the chair back. He looked at the guards who were blocking him earlier and said, "Well then I should be going back to the castle. Get up all of you and get back to your work."

The soldiers got up from and gave Damian a bow before they went back to do the work they have been assigned to.

Damian started walking towards the castle and said, "Keep up the good work you two and no need to worry, you both won't be fired."

The guard who were pale from fear felt a bit relieved by what Damian said and just gave him a salute.

Walking towards his room Damian was not recognised by many workers because of the change in his clothes and appearance which made him question whether he looked that bad.

But keeping those thoughts in his mind Damian reached his room and soon entered inside.

After making sure that the room was locked Damian stripped down and entered the bath and had a long and relaxing one in there.

After nearly an hour Damian came out of the bath with his face cleaned and back to normal, though he looked pretty skinny because of the lack of meals he had during the past month.

'...Let's go and have a eating contest with Gryph and Phen...' thought Damian as he looked at himself and thought, 'Even the time when I was in the forest when I first came here, I looked better than this.'

Shaking his head to snap out of those thoughts he changed his clothes to turn back to the glorious self he looked like before returning to the kingdom.

Coming out of the room and walking around the castle to find his two gryphons Damian surprised many of the maids and servants in the castle who were shocked to see him after such a long time.

He was greeted by them but he could notice that they were slightly doubtful of him, probably having the same thoughts as the people in the town.

'Oh, well can't be helped. Gossips are liked a lot in this kingdom and is also a very effective way to increase popularity.....which is not always positive.' thought Damian as he entered the office he used to work in.

"Gryph Phen, you two in there?"

"..."

"Guess not."

Damian closed the door and then stood to the side.

And after a minute he opened the door once again and saw three men wearing masks inside the room.

"Yo, I didn't know there was a masquerade today?" said Damian with a smile on his face.

The three men panicked and tried to run away from the window, but just as they tried to jump through it they crashed to the barrier that Damian erected to prevent them from running away.

He walked towards the three of them and made a barrier around them. He took of the mask of one of them and said, "Oh, don't you have a pretty face.....looks like one of the heads that will be chopped off today would be a handsome one....."

Damian nodded his head as he just took the three of them with him as he made the barrier in the form of a ball and just rolled them.

"Chris, take these as well and get some info out of them....but make sure that this one don't get his face ruined, he will be the star of today's show amongst those ugly or average looking nobles." said Damian as he left the three of them with Christopher and the rest of the knights.

Just like that Damian searched through most part of the castle and caught even more people lurking here and there and was just amazed to see how these were the people who worked for various noble houses of the kingdom.

On the way he also met Gryph and Phen who were sleeping in the garden where there were no dragons nearby and called them.

The Gryphons immediately got up hearing Damian's voice and with a happy look on their faces ran towards him.

""Brother Damian!!"" said the two gryphons who learned how to speak during the time they were in Dragonof. They also got a tad bit bigger than before which made it hard for Damian to carry them like before, much to the Gryphons' sadness.

"Wow, you two are getting better at speaking. Looks like both of you are very smart." said Damian as he hugged the two gryphons making them very happy at being praised.

"We are smart. You are our brother afterall." said Gryph.

"Will you play with us brother?" asked Phen with a hopeful look on her face.

Both of them have been trying to spend some time with Damian and play around but because of his work they were mostly turned down by him. But seeing that Damian was looking more cheerful than before they tried asking him once again hoping that he would agree.

Damian looked at the Gryphons who were looking at him intently and said, "Alright, let's play together. I have anew game that I have in mind. Want to play that?"

"Really? Of course I will play." said Phen.

"Me too, me too." said Gryph and got excited.

Damian nodded and said, "We will be going around the castle and will find the people who are hiding from us and capture them, alright? The one who finds the most wins."

"Hmm....alright let's play." said Gryph.

"...Is that red haired or yellow haired human joining us as well?" asked Phen with a slightly sad tone.

Hearing that Gryph too realised that and looked at Damian waiting for his answer. Both of them were not able to interact with him that much for quite a while and now when they finally got the chance to, they would like to spend the time alone with him.

Damian patted the two of them making them make some noise and said, "Nope, just the three of us. Once the game is over, let's have a lunch together as well."

The Gryphons' faces got bright and as they nodded their heads vigorously and pushed their bodies against Damian's affectionately.

Damian just laughed at the two spoiled gryphons he raised and just went on his quest with them.

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.

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In the end the three of them searched through the entire castle and were able to take out all the suspicious looking people they could, and even though Damian knew that there must be quite a few still lurking around here and there, he also knew that the ones left behind would be willing to do anything stupid, seeing how Damian and the two gryphons were taking them out.

'Well after tonight's show, those people won't have any employers anyways.' thought Damian as he along with his two gryphons went to have a meal.