The Banquet

The Palace was now starting to look livelier. Varieties of delicacies were being prepared for the feast in the Royal Kitchen. There were decorations all over the Palace. Red carpets were being laid down on the path to welcome the distinguished guests from all around the Kingdom as well as from outside.

A large hall was prepared for the feast. The tables and chairs were already set in place. Three grand tables were set at the front of the hall for the guest of the three Kingdoms. And smaller tables were placed at the back for other noblemen and noblewomen, separately for each family.

At the front of the hall, five separate thrones were laid down with tables in front of them. They were for the King, three Queens, and Adeline. Other Princes and Princesses would join their respective maternal family.

Some of the guests were already starting to arrive to the Palace, especially those from the other Kingdoms who had to travel great distances in their carriages. They arrived early so that they could take some rest and freshen up for the gala event.

Three guests from Aberdeen had also already arrived -Queen Mother Blevine, Queen Tasha, and Prince Fenris. The King and the Crown Prince were not coming to this gathering because they did not want to leave their Kingdom unprotected. This was mostly the case with other Kingdoms as well. The King and the Crown Prince would not leave the country unless it was some political matter.

The three of them were led to the guest quarter and were assigned a room each. But Prince Fenris set out to meet his cousin, Prince Nigel, without even entering his room.

As the day passed by, more and more guests were arriving to the Palace of Wyverndale to congratulate the youngest Princess on her birthday. Because of the number of guests and their importance, the Palace was being heavily guarded by best soldiers.

After the clock stroke 5 in the evening, the guests were being led inside to the banquet hall. All of the guests were dressed in their best attires. Some of them were adorning blinding jewelries on their neck, hand, and head; while others were keeping it simple by wearing small yet expensive necklaces and earrings.

All the three Queens were already seated on their thrones at the front of the banquet. Queen Lillian was sitting on the right side of the King's throne. She was wearing a red gown with black feathers on the neck line and end of the sleeves.

Queen Vultrada was sitting next to Queen Lillian. Vultrada was wearing a maroon colored gown which was embedded with hundreds of diamond crystals. She was also wearing a huge necklace, which would make the other people looking at her feel choked due to how heavy it looked.

Queen Claricia was sitting at the left corner of the King's throne, leaving the throne right next to the King's for Adeline. She was wearing a light pink gown which had flower patterns embroidered on it.

All of the Queens wore similar crown on their head which was presented to them by the King when they were crowned as the Queens of Wyverndale.

Outside of the hall, Adeline was arguing with her father, "Father, why do I have to walk with you? I don't like the attention I will get if I go in there with you. I don't like when all the people stare at me like they are ready to pounce on me." Adeline was throwing a fit like a baby in front of the King.

The King laughed and caressed his beloved daughter's face, "Adeline, you deserve that attention once in a while. Why do you want to avoid the attention anyway? What if you become the queen in the future? What will you do then? Will you run away just because you want to avoid people staring at you? Or will you walk with your head held up high?"

"Father, that is not fair. The two situations are not the same. I can totally avoid this one if you let me." Adeline was still whining like a child, trying to get away from all that unnecessary attention.

The King pretended to be hurt by Adeline's words and said in a sad voice, "I organized this grand feast just for you and you are not even ready to walk with me. Do I embarrass you that much?"

Adeline dropped her jaw as she was impressed by her father's acting, "My god! You do know how to emotionally blackmail me, don't you father?" She took a deep breath in and said, "Alright, you win. Let's go inside."

King Dragomir immediately smiled when his daughter agreed to walk inside with him.

By now, all of the guests were already seated in their designated seats. One of the guards entered inside the hall and announced to all the people in the hall, "His Majesty King Dragomir and Her Highness Princess Adeline are entering the hall."

Following the announcement, everyone in the hall instantly stood up from their seat and when the two of them entered the hall, all of them bowed before the King and the Princess. King Dragomir was proudly holding Adeline's arm as if he was walking her down the aisle.

The King was wearing his royal outfit - an ankle length black surcoat with elaborate golden embroidery. He was wearing a pure gold belt on his waist. And outside of that, he was adorning his signature red cape with the dragon embroidery at the back. He was wearing a huge diamond embedded golden crown on his head. And he was carrying his trusty sword on his right hand.

As the King and the Princess were passing by the side of the guests, they were spellbound by the beauty of the Princess. Although the other families used to despise the Princess because she was born from the commoner mother, right now they could not help but stare at the Princess with spellbound eyes.

Princess Adeline was wearing an ocean blue gown which had pearls embedded on the neckline. The pearls were enhancing the beauty bones of the Princess. The sleeves of the gown were flowing loosely like waterfall from her smooth hands. And a golden belt designed to look like flower petals circled around her waist, making her waist more defined.

The maids had loosely braided the top of her silver hair and the rest were freely floating down her shoulder. A small golden tiara sat on her head making her look like a moon which was hit by the golden rays of the sun.

And with little bit of color on her eyes and lips, she looked as if the goddess of beauty herself was walking amongst the crowd.

The King and the Princess reached the altar and sat on their respective thrones. The spellbound eyes were still lurking on the birthday girl. And the King finally announced, "Let the feast begin!"

And with the order from the King, several maids and servants entered the hall with trays of delicacies on their hands. The food and wine arrived at the tables of Kings and Queens first. And after that it arrived at the other tables.

When all of the tables were served, King Dragomir raised his glass of wine and made a toast his daughter, "I would like to thank all of you present here today for participating in this joyous occasion of my youngest daughter's sixteenth birthday. I would like to wish her a happy and successful life ahead. To Princess Adeline."

All of the guests raised their glasses and spoke simultaneously, "To Princess Adeline" and took a sip of their wine.

Finally, the feast had begun. All the guests were having a fill of the dishes they liked. Some were diving into roasted chicken, some were slicing juicy steak and savoring it, while some were already devouring the sweet deserts.

Princess Adeline was feeling a little nervous from all the eyes that were staring at her. Now that all of them were focused on their food, she felt a little relieved. She started to cut through the juicy steak and have them.

Theodore was back in Adeline's room, lying down on her bed, waiting for everyone to get drunk so that he could enter the hall unnoticed and enjoy the rest of the evening with the Princess.

He was thinking about the Princess with a huge grin on his face. "Now I get it… why those maids were adamant about giving Adeline a beauty treatment. She definitely looked like an angel… no, not just angel, she looked like a divine goddess. I can't wait to wrap her in my arms and dance with her."

He rolled over on the bed and took a deep breath in. His brows scrunched when he mumbled to himself, "Those maids never left her side after they returned again. Maybe I should have brought in another snake or something."

And just when he was lost in his sweet imagination, he suddenly noticed something lurking in the shadows outside of the Princess's chamber. He could feel a strange energy which was not human. He swiftly got on his feet and tip-toed to see what it was.

He could clearly see a pair of amber eyes glowing in the dark. "Now this is interesting!" Theodore said with a smirk on his face.