The Dinner Party 2

After walking very fast and reaching the end of the corridor, he still wasn't able to find his brother. He chased corridor after corridor, still didn't see him. Not to mention the corridors are not even ending. He felt like he was walking again and again on the same corridor. He had this nagging feeling on his mind like he was forgetting something. Something very important. He slowed down a bit to catch his breath. He cleared his mind and started to think rationally.

Then it hit him. The castle defence mechanism. The illusion. He felt so embarrassed about himself. He felt embarrassed that someone who has eidetic memory like himself actually forgot something like this matter. He was once again reminded about his limitations. If he were to calmly think, he could have remembered it earlier.

He took a deep breath and calmly expelled it. He did it for couple of times. After composing himself, he merged his mana with the atmospheric mana. After that everything was basically normal. He began to walk. Small noises began to sweep through the far end of the corridor. He followed the noises which increased as he neared the corridor's far end.

He stood before a massive double wooden door, carved with intricate runes and patterns. Unlike many other important rooms, this room didn't have any guards manning it. Daemon was fairly certain as this was the dining room as the noise coming from the other side is pretty loud.

Not to waste anymore of time he tried to twist the door knob. But to his surprise the double door suddenly opened itself revealing the festival traversing inside. He was perplexed by the sight he saw inside. Though they call it a dinner party, it was far from it. The room- large hall was tightly packed with peoples. Different people of different races were interacting with each other like they are old friends seeing after two decades. There was Pegasus, elves, dwarves and humans. He didn't see any orcs among them. And he knows the reason too. Today was just an introduction of them. They will join the party next time.

Within in the crowd so many elves and dwarves were singing and dancing. He didn't saw these many elves nor dwarves in the meeting hall. Though he has heard about their partying this was the first time he has seen anything like this. They sang songs he has never heard of. Arms locked against each other, some of them is even singing while standing on the various round tables on the hall. He was very excited. Though there were many people singing and dancing some group of people was at the far end of the commotion just sitting and sipping their drinks. The higher ups. He thought. The people who are dancing and singing must be their entourage.

Among the various group of singing and dancing he saw his brother on a round table at the back of the hall. He wasn't alone. Couple of people were sitting around the table chatting. Upon closer look he could see that the other people that was sitting around the table were actually elves and dwarves. And there was also one Pegasus among them.

Daemon slowly walked towards Reiner's table. Taking all of the view from the party. He saw four of his commanders of the duchy among the crowd. They were drinking meads and sharing war stories to their counterparts from other races.

Reiner saw his brother trudging towards him. He was surprised he took this long to find the dining hall.

"Took you long enough." He asked with a toothy grin.

"Not so much of a dinner here." Daemon answered while pulling an empty chair and sitting on it.

"It is the 'dinner party' and we are partying, right?"

"Wow brother, your humour is getting worse and worse." Daemon mockingly said which earned him a laugh from other table mates.

Sigh. "This is my beloved brother, Daemon Reinheart." Reiner introduced him to other table mates.

"Hello." Daemon said after sitting comfortably and taking in all of the peoples present. "I can't believe you guys are sitting here and taking all of the shit my brother is unloading."

This made all of them laugh out loud. Reiner also laughed. He always took joke as a joke.

"Enough with that Daemon, this here…" he subtly pointed at the people sitting, "these are members of the zeroes."

"Oh…" Daemon paused. "The zeroes"

It didn't click on him. The covert team of the alliance sitting on the same table, he couldn't process the information.

"Holy shit!" he called out. "You guys are the Zeroes?"

"Shush!" Reiner said. "Relax… are you going to announce it to everyone."

Only then Daemon was able to calm down properly. He was too excited to bother with his voice.

Like whispering he said;

"Sorry, I didn't thought about that…"

"It's okay, you can talk normally." whispered one of the Elf. She had shoulder length green hair and blue eyes.

"Okay. Besides, is this some sort of secret meeting. Was I interrupting something?" Daemon inquired.

"Don't worry about it, we are just relaxing a bit." Answered one of the Dwarf with a crooked smile. He was small like any other dwarves but the clear face devoid of any wrinkles shows his young age.

"Okay. So where is your dragonborn member."

"He probably must be among the King's party. It's a good thing he didn't join us today." Said the same elf.

"I see… are you guys the only members or…"

"No. there are some others beside us. They didn't come with us, as their presence is required in the kingdom."

Daemon relaxed a bit seeing that they are not another Marakin.

"I've heard about you many times from Reiner." Said the pegasus.

"I pray it must be good thing."

"Ha ha ha. It is. He boasts about you so much. Saying you are some sort of rare genius even among other races. Though Marakin always interject with it saying you was just a early bloomer and that's just it."

"Well can't blame him. He is a rare genius himself after all."

The group laughed a bit.

Then the conversation drifted towards other non-trivial matters. Just like they said, they were just relaxing. They avoided the classified matter and tried to enjoy maximum as they are not even sure they might be able to enjoy like this in the near future.

Somewhere along the line of conversation, Daemon's vision drifted towards the room. He saw many people whom he was acquainted with, chatting with each other like some old friends meeting on a tavern after a long time. Among them his eyes particularly caught one of the people he was acquainted with. The old man was chatting with someone he doesn't recognise. But all of a sudden, like he was seeing everything, the old man turned towards him. He smiled brightly at Daemon and walked off to the far end of the hall where a balcony is located.

"Excuse me." Daemon pushed back his chair and stood up.

"Where are you going?" inquired Reiner.

"I've to meet some people. I'll be right back." He left the table without waiting for Reiner's reply.

Reiner suspiciously looked at his brother's back and shrugged off the nagging feeling and continued chatting with the others.

For Daemon, it was time to meet the old man. Even though he knew this would happen, he wasn't prepared to talk to the old man. Bracing himself he walked towards the balcony.