After the end of the meeting the place guards and a small force of maids and butlers arrived. While the attendants cleaned up the mess, the guards interrogated us on what had transpired. We all gave pretty much the same answer, that we were suddenly attacked and defeated them all. We also made sure to pass on all the information I had got from interrogating the Oni. The two Onis were taken by the guards and taken away, probably in the castles dungeon.
The guards interrogated my more throughout than the rest of the heroes. Bothersome but understandable, since I am an Oni and thus a suspect by default. The other heroes vouched for me and gave me credit for interrogating the enemy and helping like any other of their mages. They also emphasized me being a mage and an Oni as a means to make them understand that I am as unlikely to help the Demons as the other heroes. This made the guards finally back up and admit defeat.
We also got a compensation nobody asked for. After the we were back at the table an attendant of the king arrived and said that the king felt sorry about what had happened and arranged a stay for each one of us in the finest rooms of the castle. Furthermore we would all be guests of honor at the ball held the next evening. We shouldn't worry about anything as the castle would provide for us.
For better or worse they held their word. Each one of us got a single room, with a bath and a clothing room next to it. I confirmed with Bara that we got the same rooms from the layout, but they were completely different arranged to what they thought would fit to our tastes.
My room had red as its main color and bronze as its metals and secondary colors. The bed was definitely the highlight of the room. It was big enough that even I no matter how I positioned and stretched myself, I didn’t even reach from one end to the other of the bed. Furthermore this room is also equipped with a small cozy corner with books and armchair, a small open study if you want and a small workout area with some workout equipment and weapons.
The weapons weren’t really to my taste. I am a mage so I don’t need a great sword or a club as tall as me. These weapons might look impressive and be destructive, but I can’t use them. However It wasn’t really a complete loss. They had a short sword, which was the perfect size for me to use it as a big combat knife. It was only as long as ,my forearm. I probably won’t use it much, but I can at least sell it if I don’t need it anymore. Even the pommel a solid gem would be enough to have me not worry for a long time.
The bath and the clothing room, were special in their own way. They could be accessed from the main room and were equipped with magic. Most notably space magic to make them bigger than they actually are. The clothing room was relatively simply designed lots of space for clothes, with a space in the middle for trying out the clothes and seeing yourself in the mirror. Mirror and lights were enchanted, with a lot of small enchantments of different kinds. Enough that I couldn’t pinpoint which all. The enchantments are most definitely for trying on your clothes in different settings. On the other hand it was pretty clear what purpose the enchantments in the bath had, producing water in different temperatures and warm winds.
I decided to spent the rest of the day by taking a long bath in the bathroom. After that I looked through the books they had before deciding to read on of my own. The bathroom and the bath were just divine. The actual bathroom was embedded in to the floor and big enough to comfortably sit in it. With the help of the enchantments I had the perfect water temperature. The moment I started to fill water in maids knocked on the door offering to help me out. I let them. I had yet to experience the life of a noble. The maids wee splendid, trained professionals. They knew when they were needed and how to handled me best and take care of me. It was a pleasant experience, but definitely not something that I would want whenever I take a bath.
I was informed by the maids that there would be a grand meal for the heroes in the royal dinning hall. With a bit of questioning I found out that an appearance wasn’t obligatory, only worded as very favorable. So I decided to stay in my room and request that a meal was to be brought in my room. Surprisingly they complied with not to much fuss. I had a niece and relaxed evening and even mor relaxing night in a splendid bed.
The next morning I was accidentally woken up by a maid, who was given the duty to check if I was awake. She wasn’t at fault for that, after all she moved as quiet as possible. I still sensed her magical presence and was sitting vertical in the bed before I was completely awake.
I was given a fantastic lunch and was informed of my duties of the day. Those duties were rather simple, after teatime I was to be dressed with the help of the maids for the party or ball, however you want to call it. At the ball I only had to be present until after the king had finished his speech. In terms of etiquette, I was specifically forbidden from injuring or killing any and all attendants of the ball. I someone was rude to me I was allowed to intimidate them or inform the guards present at the ball, who would handle it. There were also some other rules I should follow, which boiled down to, behave like a civilized being.
I lazed around until the maids returned with my clothes for the ball, spending my time with reading and doing a bit of workout with the prepared equipment just out of curiosity. After that I took another bath and returned to reading.
The maids came right after the time, the moment the bell ended its ringing announcement of the time. This time there came four maids and not the usual two. They carried along with themselves some boxes and a small cart. After some preparations they brought me in the clothing room and started to work. They put me in a royal red evening dress with a slit on its right side all the way up to my thigh and a fitting pair of tight red saintlike gloves. They beautifully braided my black hair, even placing some light blue gems in it. My shoes were in the same read and ornamented with some gems and flat, there is no need to make me taller than I already am. They didn’t use any make up. I am a peerless beauty and that's not some sort of objective statement. It is a simple fact.
I was led into the ball together with Bara, Henry and Charles. We were brought in with the other heroes. All of us were dressed up like nobility. On some it looked awkward and on others it looked like they were born for it. Somehow Bara manged to be in a suit and not in a dress like the rest of the women among the heroes.
“How did the nobles allow you to be in a suit?”
“The usual stuff. A bit of gaslighting, manipulation and intimidation. I know all their tricks I just had to make sure that my dress wasn’t presentable and there was no option to have a second prepared. Interested in raiding the buffet?”
“… Yes.”
And we did, all the heroes went to the buffet after they had finished their initial greetings. The all took the first chance to bolt in appropriate walking speed to the buffet and plunder it. A big group of scary looking heroes advanced towards the buffet, scaring all away. We didn’t scare them away on purpose more by accident. The feast started the moment the first reached he buffet, we talked and laughed, telling stories and exchanging food and drink, urging others to taste, what we believed to be the best snack at the buffet. A happy joyful atmosphere, a noble would be embarrassed by such a behavior. We were rearming ourselves, apparently heroes don’t like to be unarmed. Unfortunately the maids had put us in our clothes and made sure that we didn’t bring any weapons with us. There are no weapons allowed on a noble ball. Nobody noticed that in all the happy commotion the number of small skewers, forks, and knives sunk. After a while we broke up in smaller groups each one of us doing what they wanted and enjoying the ball.
The tried to make sure we couldn’t hide any weapons on our clothes by preparing the clothes for us, but they failed spectacularly. Although I was wearing a tight dress without any pockets I still managed to hide two knives on myself. Bara signed me that she had some skewers and a knife hidden in her uniform. Of course these aren’t our only weapons. I made sure to always have a champanger glass in my hand and something usable in my surroundings. The other heroes were just like this too, all having something unsuspicious in their hand.
Nothing might happen and we just needlessly committed theft, but if something happens all will praise the heroes for their awareness.
The ball was boring nothing interesting happened. After us other high ranking nobles arrived and promptly moved in their own corner. Until the king arrived we spent our time mostly alone eating and drinking. Occasionally a curious noble came by and wanted to hear some stories. According to Bara I was an excellent ward against nobles., keeping them away from her simply by being here. I fell a bit used, especially when other heroes came to us to hold meaningless small talk for a while. Their intentions were clear as night and day. They used me to take a break or ward of a noble they didn’t want to deal with. Well I can’t be mad at them, I would have done the same if the positions were reversed.
And then the king appeared. Finally! The music stopped and all eyes were directed to him as he moved to his throne. Once he reached the throne, l he started a speech about the greatness of the kingdom on how humans and especially his kingdom were better than demons and how the evil demons attacked the glorious heroes, who heroically fought them off and were no preparing to avenge humanity.
A toast to the glorious heroes, who will st out and murder demons until they killed their leader the Demonlord. Well I don’t care, as long as I get the compensation for my Inn.
During the kings speech, I quietly moved backwards to the doors leading to the balcony. Not even Bara noticed it, somehow. I don’t know how I, a 2m tall Oni, managed to sneak all the way towards the doors and nobody noticing me but I managed to do so. Bara noticed it the moment the king ended his speech, turning her head towards with a desperate look me. I simply smiled and disappeared onto the balcony, while Bara was swarmed by curious noble ladies.
After a quick look around on the balcony I jumped down into the garden and hurried of into the dark. I didn’t run away from the ball, I decided to use my time for more useful stuff, than standing around and appeasing nobles. I always wanted to stroll around a castle in the middle of the night, visit the library and the dungeon beneath it. First I went back to my room, entering it through the window, which I conveniently had left open. As much as I would have loved to change my clothes I wouldn’t be able to put them back on perfectly. Instead I hid it behind a red cloak made out of the same color as most of the walls in the castle. A cloak which I had conveniently requested yesterday after my bath.
Now more or less disguised I left me room the way I entered it and started my adventure through the castle. I walked through the halls of the castle, sometimes they were dimly lit sometimes completely. It could change from one hallway to the other. I aimlessly wandered through the hallways and open rooms in search for the library or the entrance to the dungeon. Each hallway looked about the same, filled to the brim with gold, gems and other art. I lost my way before I even knew. The only thing keeping me informed that I wasn’t sneaking in circles, was a magical beacon I had left in my room. With each hallway I moved further away from my mark, proving that I wasn’t running in circles.
Having a map would be good, or some kind of marker that indicates where I am. I decided to stop my aimless search and dedicate my time to carefully analyze the hallway I am currently in. Positioning myself roughly in the middle of the hallway, next to a door leading into a room, I sat myself down. Then I activated my sensing magic, sending a fine ripple of magic like a sonar through the hallway and through the walls. This spell demands a lot of control and attention. I couldn’t concentrate fully on the spell, since I had to keep attention with my other senses that I wouldn’t be discovered by others.
Slowly a picture of the hallway formed itself together in my mind, detailed from top to bottom. The image in my mind lacked any colors and was only consisting out of the forms that made the room up. I could even see through the walls. I saw another hidden corridor behind the walls smaller than the hallway only equipped with magic candles.
Steps fast and precise, loudly announcing their presence growing louder as they come closer to where I am. The steps echoing in my head as they come closer and closer.
“Are you sure there is someone here?”
“Yes I swear. I saw someone walking in this direction!”
“Don’t worry I believe you. Hurry up and check if they are on the other side of the hallway I check if they are in that room.”
“Okay.”
The voices fell silent and two steps of steps could be heard, moving away from each other. After a while the steps could be heard again, coming closer to each other. The two guards were regrouping.
“Did you find something?”
“No the hallway ahead is empty and all the doors are undisturbed. Did you find something?”
“Nothing the room is empty and nothing was moved.”
“The hallway has a faint scent of alcohol. Maybe someone was her put left.”
“Dammit! Why can’t the heroes sit still and simply enjoy a ball! Why do they have to sneak around a castle the moment they see a chance to do so!?”
“At least we don’t have to look out of a drunk Oni roaming around the castle.”
“Shut it! Don’t trigger any flags! I don’t want to end up like some sacrificial lamb in a horror story!”
They left, arguing with each other and talking about the various horror stories they had read. Their steps grew more and more silent the more distance they put between me and themselves.
Shortly before they had entered the hallway I was in, I managed to shift into the hidden hallway. From there I listened to their discussion. I learned some interesting things from their discussion. Apparently someone, probably Bara, had covered for me and I wasn’t the only one roaming around the castle. I wonder what they are up to. Lastly I reek of alcohol. I don’t know how many glasses I had, but enough to reek of alcohol.
The hallway I found myself in was a hidden passageway normally used by servants to travel unseen by the nobles. Luckily I found it before the guards found me and was able to use my magic just in time to do a small scale teleportation, a shift, to hide myself in here.
I decided to continue to use these hidden hallway instead of the open ones. They were dark, hidden and closed of. I checked for a door only to find out that it was closed with a lock. However the ground wasn’t dusty so the paths were well maintained and probably used. The best part of these hidden passages is that in each cross section there were collection of symbols giving my a hint what was where. Finally I had defeated the maze and could go where I wanted to!
