Dinner
Long Xi guided Hans to the Imperial Palace, it was far grander and much more dazzling than the royal castle.
But comparing the two of them would be wrong since the Royal Castle was built with a domineering note whilst the Imperial Palace focused on the beauty of its architecture in mind.
The halls were pristine, full of decoration and ornaments in it. The sheer value of the things around here ranged around a million MD to even merits.
Though Hans visited this architectural masterpiece in the game, it was far more stunning seeing it with his own eyes and besides, Hans only saw some parts of it since he can only visit this place as a mercenary at the game.
He suddenly felt a chill in his bones, it felt eerie but knowing where he is, Hans just got more interested.
Long Xi noticed Hans interested expression so he explained, "Our Imperial palace, despite its magnificent structure, was actually built under a leyline of a yin-rich mana node," to which Long Xi pointed on a painting of an old man, "Actually this is Yi Zhou, a ghost that guards the Imperial Palace."
Hans then saw it waved towards him like a real person.
Wait… this wasn't in the game!?
It prompted Hans to wave towards Yi Zhou absentmindedly, such a security system was actually placed in the Long Empire.
This reminded Hans to get of his high-horse, despite knowing key and central pieces in the plot of the game, he would use them only now as references of surface level information.
I need to remind myself every-time that this world is not a game, its not as simple as that. Hans thought.
Long Xi didn't notice Hans changed so he presented more of their decorations and treasures to him when they were walking. He enthusiastically told their uses and a bit of their history, it reminded him of Long Xi's talent.
[Absolute Memory (S): records everything possible.]
It was a cheat ability enough to make anyone envious, he always had bad memory since he was a child but once he had this, everything changed.
Hans remembered at the time of Long Xi's awakening banquet, he was practically in a daze at the time. But looking at him now, it seems that he soon got used to his talent and has been utilizing it well.
Soon they arrived near at the end of the hall, it was where guests would stay at and Long Xi pointed out to one of the doors.
He had to also take care of Su Mei so he left immediately after showing him the room, Hans sat down at the sofa.
His father is kidnapped and Sae's whereabouts are unknown and he, right now— is just resting in a room.
Hans forced himself to calm down, he is asking favors right now and potentially putting his friends father in danger.
He removed all unnecessary thoughts aside and did what he could do now— planning. Hans squeezed out every single detail he remembered about cultists in the game, they are cunning individuals who would do anything for their lord. Other than that, they also love the high of absorbing negative mana which twists their minds.
Their abilities is not much differet to species who uses mana, its just that they become stronger faster and their mana has corrossive properties.
They are far more proficient in the arts of sealing, torturing, poison, and mental abilities.
Their Exalted-Class beings would always carry on them a specific Heavenly-Class artifact. This is because despite the advantage that cultists have, they are far few in number and they especially take care of every single valuable chess piece.
And for their lords, the Demons. What they give to them is close to trash anyway, and if not for their class being high, it would practically be useless.
They are Invaders at heart, they even live on a different dimension called Hell. This is only the loot they deemed not worthy for them as they harvest other planets and dimensions alike.
The only good thing that Hans knows is that this is the remnant's of the cult of Lucious, he practically threw them away after getting what he wanted on Tellus.
Even if he annihilated them, it won't even alert Lucious, especially now that he is consolidating his strength after just breaking through.
Now that Lucious is out of the way… that only leaves the pope, bishops, and the priests.
Their bishops are not necessarily stronger than the priests, they focus on other things like poisons and traps. Whilst the priests heavily focused on combat, he knew that there are two priests and two bishops in the Corrupt Cult.
One of the bishops specialized in sealing, while the other in poisons. Luckily, the bishop who mastered the poisons died ten years ago.
Then there is the priests, the one that they saw on the time rewind spell that Su Mei did was the one who specializes on the attacks, then the last one is just a tank who is very hard to kill.
The two of them together combined terrified the Royal Castle at that time. Numerous families and royals were killed by the two of them.
Then the pope, he is a mystery since he was present at the fight last time, but only as a backup.
But remembering his skillset back in the game, he basically fought like Lucious, no he was Lucious's vessel.
He was only made pope because of the compatibility of the pope to Lucious.
Lucious is the most shameless bastard in existence who would do anything, absolutely with no bottomline and hesitation to complete his goals.
With that he is a master of poisons, it is a pain to deal with but luckily the pope is basically powerless now, it was because it has been a long time since Lucious descended on his body.
Only the remnant negative mana of Lucious is all that is left on his body that could be used.
But that poison is enough to weaken Emperor Long by 50%, if they played cautiously and wanted to gain the maximum amount of benefits, they would wait for him and Sae to arrive.
Because his father Dante, even if they killed him, would not be enough for them to share.
They have to torture or torment his soul further to make him go crazy.
Crazy enough like Knight Gunther that they would manifest their law.
People like that… they become—
"HANS DINNERS READY!"
Long Xi's shout woke him up in his planning, anyways with that item, all he had to do is make the prideful Emperor Long to become cautious and use that.
It would be hard but it would ensure that Long Xi and him would not be fatherless after this fight.
Hans fixed himself a bit before heading out the room to meet the smiling Long Xi and the awakened Su Mei.
She had a sickly aura right now so he didn't bother him.
Guards were around them as they headed to the dinning room.
He would practically meet his friends family for the first time.
Despite being close enough to be actual brothers, they only met because they attended the same prep-school for the academy.
Anything but that, they just superficially knew each others families, since technically— they are competitors.
Long Xi and company soon arrived in the Dinning Hall, the princes, princesses, concubines, consorts and the empress are all seated.
They all looked at him curiously, Su Mei was already known by them but this is the first time that their crown prince brought a friend to attend the Dinner.
Long Emperor himself has long already been there, his noble aura seem far more refined than earlier.
Hans doesn't know but it is a huge honor to be dinning in this area, only family is allowed— making the emperor himself approve of him as family.
"Welcome Prince Hans, and Daughter-in-law." The emperor nodded to Long Xi as he beckoned for the three of them to sit down.
Hans sat down with a sweat on his forehead, their gazes were to overbearing for him.
"Psssst! Would father let me marry him?"
"Don't even think about it Ning'er, he's mine!"
"There is a guest, act accordingly!"
The whispers of them were heard by Hans strangely, he attributed it to being used to the maids whispering gossips of him.
But hearing what they were talking about…
HE ALREADY HAS A FIANCÉE!
Hans lowkey showed his engagement ring on the table, some princess noticed this and turn into disappointment.
But… why are there some who got more interested!?!
He saw some of them winking at him, Hans face couldn't turn red, but it was not from embarrassment, it was the consequences of possibly offending his fiancée!
The Long Emperor has noticed this, he wanted to tie Hans to his family since he knew that he would not be inheriting the Sin Kingdom.
He finally noticed the ring and couldn't help but sigh, sadly he can't poach talent from that handsome nerd.
Now he even has to save him, well— it was just killing some strong sewer rats anyway.
The food arrived saving Hans from the numerous predatory gazes of the princesses, it was perfectly timed as he was also hungry.
They all ate peacefully while the Emperor inquired their studies and hobbies, despite the large size of this family— it was very harmonious.
It appeared that even the wives and concubines of the emperor didn't have a bit of animosities.
Hans was reminded of his family, it was full of joys and smiles, what went wrong…
What did we even do wrong..?
Pit~ Pat~
"Aaah…" Hans felt tears streaking down on his face, he quickly tried to hide it but all the people here are superhuman.
Long Xi and Su Mei had a worried expression while the ladies who fancied him felt their hearts break.
"I'm sorry for my unsightly display—"
He suddenly noticed that his voice is not leaking out, a spell was casted on him by the Long Emperor.
"No, crying is human. If you didn't feel anything, I would've thought you were possessed by a demon. I won't ask you why you cried but let's get to the point of this dinner."
Hans felt thankful for the Emperor, the sooner this is done, the more he felt secure of his family.
Taking a second to regain his bearings, Hans started, "My father has been kidnapped by the same group who murdered my mother— The Corrupt Cult, it is a cult of the followers of Lucious the demon king. I know they plan to harvest my father's negative mana to advance, they already planned this long ago… thinking that they could treat us like livestocks."
His last words were full of grievances to this group. The emperor was patient enough to wait and Hans soon calmed down to continue,
"Their last siege in the Royal Castle confirms that they have at least one bishop who specializes in seal and the two priests who massacred a quarter of the royal castle. Though they are only Exalted's, they could not be underestimated as they are pawns of Lucious, they certainly have strong trump cards."
The emperor look disinterested, though he was planning to oversee and fight himself, a bunch of Exalted-Class was too below of him to fight.
Hans knew this so he put out his card, "And as you all know, the Pope is a vessel of Lucious… meaning—"
"A mana of a Peerless-Class..."Emperor Long muttered, if that was true then he might see what the next stage is like.
Hearing the emperor, Hans knew that he got his interest flared. But as a ruler, he has long since become comfortable and arrogant in his throne, he just has to poke a hole into his cautiousness to prompt him to sacrifice a bit.
"Lucious, is known to be shameless. But only my family knows, that he himself mastered the arts of poisoncraft… and seeing the priests wielding Heavenly-Class artifacts, I wouldn't be surprised if the pope pulled out an Empyrean-Class artifact."
Long Xi looked worriedly to his father, he thought they would just be clearing out some scums in society, not someone that could rival his father in strength.
Meanwhile Hans look at the emperor. He basically implied to him, "You're too arrogant."
Emperor Long sneered, this brat… but then he saw the worried faces of his families and he sighed.
"Fine, I would mobilize the Yin guards, wait for me to prepare. I will get something first to the Eternal realm."
The dinner ended in a solemn note.