The knights escorted us to another large door, the knight knocked using the knocker. The door was slowly opened, and what greeted us were rows of long tables all of which were empty except for the one near the dais.
“Young heroes, please follow the servants to your table.” said the knight before he bowed and promptly left the room.
After the knights left, the servants inside the room led us to the table near the dais. In the table was an array of food: bread, meat, soups, and fish. I’m sure everyone will be able to eat a lot, except Cess, because she’s a vegan and there’s not a lot of vegan food here. I think I can already hear her complaining.
We sat down at the table; everyone was looking forward to eating. As we were about to dig in, the doors opened once again. The King and the old man entered the room, the King was joined by a woman and 2 young men, the Royal Family is here, I think.
“Don’t mind us, enjoy the food.” said the King as they made their way to the dais. As soon as the Royal Family was seated, servants brought in more food and set them up on the Royal family’s table.
The old man sat alone on the table adjacent to ours, food was also served separately to him. He started eating immediately after the food was served.
The Royal Family also started eating immediately after all the food was served. Once they started eating, our group sat down and also began eating.
Everyone started reaching out for whatever they wanted to eat, I only took some chicken and some bread. Servants holding several jugs entered the room, they went around the table while asking what we wanted to drink.
"Sir Hero, what do you want to drink?" the servant asked, "We have mead, ale, water, or wine."
I haven't tasted mead yet, so I guess I'll go for that. "Can I get some mead please?" I replied.
"Of course Sir Hero." the servant said before pouring some golden liquid into my wooden cup, "Here you go Sir Hero."
"Thanks." I said as I took the cup.
I took a sip to get a taste of the mead, 'Whoa, it's sweet, but there's still some kick from the alcohol, I kinda like it.'
"Hey Ian, what did you get?" Carlo asked.
"Mead, coz I wanna know what it tastes like." I replied.
"Thought you'd go for some wine." He said.
"Damn it, I want some beer. There's no carbonation in this ale." Kelvin complained.
"The food, while not bad it's not good either, the spices and seasonings are too much, I can't even taste the damn pork." Carlo added.
"Yeah I know right, it would be nice if we also had some rice. The bread was hard and the grilled chicken was spiced way too much." I said in agreement, "It would be nice if they had some fried chicken or some chicken inasal, you know."
"Yeah." Carlo replied.
"And some carbonated beer." Kelvin added.
After our little conversation, we resumed eating while having some more conversation, 'It would really be nice if they had some chicken inasal and rice doused in chicken oil.'
After everyone was done eating, the King stood up and raised his goblet for a toast and said, "To the young heroes."
The other members of the Royal family stood up and raised their goblets too. Even the old man stood up and raised his cup.
Marvin was the first one to react, he stood up and raised his cup, "C'mon guys, stand up too, let's have a toast."
Each of us slowly stood up and raised our cups and had a toast.
After the toast the King announced, "We will now be retiring for the night, you heroes can still stay around and enjoy more food and drinks."
The King and the entire Royal Family left the room. The old man also stood up, "Heroes please gather around me for a second, I would like to tell you something."
Once again, Marvin was the first to act, he quickly went to the old man.
'Dude, you seriously need to think twice before acting.'
Everyone gathered around the old man after seeing Marvin. I was one of the last people to go to the old man.
"Now then young heroes." the old man behan, "God of trickery, Maloko, hear your servant's request, bind these mind's to do thy bidding, Hypnosis."
'WHAT THE HELL!?'
Black mist starts to spread out from the old man's hands. The girls in our group were the first to react, they ran to the doors but were grabbed by the servants.
I also tried to run away but knights held me down, the same thing happened to the other boys trying to resist.
The one's nearest to the old man, Marvin included, were out cold in the ground. The mist slowly made its way to us as if it had a mind of its own.
When the mist touched me, I felt my head hurting and my consciousness fading.
'Trying to resist hypnosis… resistance failed… Trying to resist hypnosis… resistan-'
+ + + + +
Outside the King's study an hour after the banquet, Antonius knocked at the door.
"Come in." said the voice inside the room.
Antonius entered and saw the King and the Crown Prince sitting at a table. He bowed and greeted them, “Good evening Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness.”
“Have a seat.” said the King as he beckoned him to sit on a chair, “I presume that the hypnosis was successful?”
“Yes Your Majesty, no problems occurred.” Antonius said as he sat down.
“Great, now we have an additional 13 people for the 3rd King’s Guard Regiment, too bad we can’t continuously summon otherworlders.” the Crown Prince, Eliyas Paleña de Heraña, said.
“I agree with you there, they make great soldiers but we never have enough of them.” the King said in agreement, “The 3rd Regiment only has 92 soldiers left, plus those newly summoned otherworlders.”
“Your Majesty, about the 13th otherworlder. What shall we do about him?” Antonius asked.
The King creased his brows, "Hmm. The one with the weakest status, right?"
"Yes, Your Majesty,the one named Ian." Antonius replied.
"Hmmm. I do need a tracking dog right now, a servant ran away right after the banquet." The King said, "I don't want to send my hounds to chase some lowly servant, send that dog instead."
"By Your Will, Your Majesty." Antonius answered as he bowed his head.
"Father, after you use that dog, can I have him next?" The crown prince said, "My last toy is already dead, and I guess that dog of yours would be a nice replacement."
"You can have him, if he even returns alive that is." The King scoffed, "Well if he doesn't return you can just pick someone from the dungeons or have your guards kidnap someone in the city."
"I hope he comes back alivr then, I've always wanted to play with an otherworlder." the Crown Prince said with a sadistic grin on his face.
"I shall take my leave now, Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness." Antonius said as he turned to leave, "I still have to give that dog of yours some orders."
+ + + + +
in the empty streets of the Royal Capital, a lone woman was running away from the direction of the Royal Castle.
'I must report to the duke that all the otherworlders have been hypnotized again.' she thought to herself.
After running for some time, she turned to an alleyway and knocked on a door.
"Who is it!? Do you know what time it is?" an angry voice replied.
"It's Elytia, I have to report something." she said.
She heard that the door was being quickly unlocked and opened, "Come in quick, were you followed?"
"N-no I don't think so." she answered.
"You don't think so? What do you mean, 'I don't think so' huh?" the man yelled as he slammed the door shut, "Shit they're gonna be here in no time. You, go run now, go through the back door."
As she was about to run, the front door suddenly burst into splinters, a man wearing armor and another young man could be seen outside.
"Whoo boy, this sniffing dog that the old man lent is the real deal. It didn't even take me an hour to find this place." the armored man said. "Think I'll borrow him again if I go out hunting."
"RUN LASS!" the man shouted as he grabbed a sword.
Elytia was still shocked but came to her senses when the man shouted at her. She ran out of the backdoor as quickly as she could.
The armored man was about to run after her but was stopped by the man, "You'll have to go through me if you want to get to her."
"HAHAHA, YOU!? Do you even think you can stop me? Me? The leader of the 2nd Knight's Guard? " The knight proudly said.
"You? A knight leader, don't make me laugh" the man scoffed, "God of War, Lakipoa, heed thy servant's call, strengthen thy servant's body, Boost Strength."
The man slashed at the knight leader, the knight leader managed to evade, but only by a hair's breadth.
"Tsk." the knight clicked his tongue, “At least you can fight, I’ll give you that.”
“I don’t need praise coming from a scum like you.” the man roared as he attacked again.
The knight parried the blow, “Hmm. This might be interesting.” he turned to the young man accompanying him, “Hey Dog, go after that woman.”
The young man nodded and went to the direction that the young woman went off to. The man tried to chase the young man but was stopped by the knight, “Uh-uh-uh, I don’t think we’re done here.”
“Tsk.” this time the man was the one to click his tongue, “I don’t have time to play with scum like you.”
“Hahaha, maybe you don’t. But I have all the time in the world.” the knight said before charging.
