Walking out of the luxurious hotel called “The Red Swan”, the two passed through its two large gates with a Swan motif in the middle that overlapped the two gates. After passing the gates, the two began making their way, not to the restaurant that was to be the spot of their date for the night, but to a secret meeting spot in the opposite direction of the restaurant.

 

As they began the long 40 minute walk in silence, Allen turned to the silent Diana and asked her:

 

“Are you still in a bad mood from earlier?”

 

“...”

 

“Babe, I-”

 

Not letting him finish, Diana turned around and looked at him in the eye as put her hand up to interrupt her and said:

 

“That’s enough, I don’t want to hear it. I already had to hear your words of apology for a whole bloody week and I’m not in the mood to hear them right now. I already forgave you for it, so let’s just hurry up and meet with Ventome so we can get on with our date. I’ve heard quite a few amount of good things about that restaurant, so I’m pretty excited to finally get a chance to dine in there.”

 

Deciding not to press the issue, Allen decided to move on from the topic and take the out he was given as he said:

 

“Me too, I’ve had a few acquaintances who’ve dined there tell me that the quality of the food is excellent.”

 

In this manner, the princess of the kingdom kept walking along with her escort through the streets of Dene, not minding that her status might pose an issue to doing such a leisurely action.

 

Though she was a princess of the kingdom, she was still allowed to travel around by herself as long as she was accompanied by one of the members of her party, though Allen took on the role the vast majority of the time. The reality was that most of the common folk had never seen any of the members of royalty, and the few that had, had only been able to glance at them from afar, so it was very unlikely that anyone outside of the capital city would be able to distinguish her. Nonetheless, there was still a chance that someone would recognize her, especially someone troublesome.

 

Because of that threat, she used to be escorted around by the Royal Guards. Now however, the only reason why the King only requires her to have one companion with her, was that she was a prodigy who at the age of 20, had already reached level 203 and therefore stood among the elites of the world. Accompanying her at the moment was an even greater prodigy. The Captain of the Royal Knights who at the age of 23 was already level 234, as well as being her fiancé, Allen Forell. It was rare in the world for people to reach levels exceeding 200, with most talented adventures maxing out at 150. Therefore, there were few things that could pose a threat to her, especially if she was accompanied by another member of her party, who were all at least level 200, except for Charlotte who was still at a respectable 181.

 

As the took kept walking while talking about the sights, their expectations for their date, and other trivialities, two brown haired girls with light blue eyes approached them as the older one put up her hand and mumbled out:

 

“Uhmm, excuse me-”

 

Seeing the sorry state of their clothes, Allen had felt a slight amount of pity and was about to listen to their request. However, Diana did not allow him to do this as she reached into her purse and took out some coins as she handed them off to the two girls before simply telling them “Excuse us” and pulling Allen along.

 

Seeing Diana’s actions, Allen simply gave the two a wry smile and allowed himself to get pulled along. Once they had separated themselves quite a bit from the two girls, Allen turned to Diana and said:

 

“You know, it wouldn’t have hurt to see what they wanted…”

 

“Oh come on, just look at them. They most likely saw how we were dressed as well as your stupid gullible face and decided to come and ask us for some money. So I simply gave them some change instead of having them waste our time”

 

Hearing the slight jab at him, Allen was sure that Diana was still in a bad mood from earlier and he couldn't help but curse somewhat at the little mage that always seemed to bicker with him.

 

After around 42 minutes of having left the hotel, the two had finally reached their destination. In front of the two was a deadend in an alleyway. However, when Allen went up to the wall and pressed his hand against it, the stone began to move backwards as a set of stairs leading downwards was revealed.

 

Seeing the stairs revealed, the two began walking down the stairs into the darkness until they were at a lower level than the wall, at which point it began moving forward again. Though it would appear that their only source of light was about to be cutoff, the reality was that as soon as the wall returned to its starting position, white gems began giving off a bright light as the stairway was fully lit. Once they reached the end of the stairway, they turned right into wooden door before inserting a key to reveal a large storage area filled with crates and a different array of items. Sitting in a crate by the edge of the room, was a man wearing a black cap who was also dressed in an all black outfit. Turning his dark brown eyes to face the two guests, Ventome put down the stack of paper he had been reading and began reaching inside his black coat as he pulled out two envelopes and said:

 

“Greetings princess Diana, forgive me for greeting you in such a manner and not giving you your proper respects. Here’s the detailed instructions from your father the King, make sure to read them to the rest of your group. Also, here’s some information that some of our spies were able to discover in our time here that the King also wants you to know and keep in mind.”

 

Receiving the two envelopes was Diana as she put the first one away in her purse. However, holding on to the second one, she looked at Ventome as she inquired:

 

“What information did your group discover?”

 

Standing up from the crate and adjusting his position, Vatome put on a serious expression as he said:

 

“We have discovered activity in this city by the ‘Golden Hand’. The King put on the envelope where they were discovered and the probable reason behind their actions. Also, it appears as though one of their executives has arrived here in Dene to oversee the mission.”

 

Hearing the troublesome information, since an executive of the Golden Hand appearing was never a good sign, Diana’s expressioned darkened as she asked:

 

“Which executive is here.”

 

At her question, Ventome looked at Diana with a fully serious expression on his face as he answered:

 

“Love Machine”

 

With that answer, the expressions on Diana’s and Allen’s face turned grim as they both understood that even more troublesome events would be occurring in the near future…