On the second floor, past the stairs, Priscilla and Candy walked through a long hallway that started next to a large window facing the main road, connecting to another hall at the end perpendicularly and similar to the one at the left wing of the castle, except much longer and slightly thinner. Instead of hosting multiple rooms, there was only one giant hall, almost as big as the throne room, except not as tall. It was spacious enough to host not only all the guests but also several round tables spaced out in an orderly manner, interweaving around the two rows of pillars at the sides of a long, wide, pink carpet in the middle, cutting across the entire room.
It was slightly dark at first as the stained-glass windows on both sides of the hall let very little light in, creating a moody ambiance, but it was only until Candy turned on the row of chandeliers hanging above the carpet. One by one, all the lights came to life, bringing different colors like blue, red, or purple that mixed to illuminate the room with a sort of gradient. The line of chandeliers led to a platform at the very end of the hall, which revealed a large, flowery seat placed in the middle, almost like the throne, except it stood out more as there was a huge painting of a colorful sun right behind it, aligning perfectly to have the fancy chair right in the center.
The tables were almost just as decorated, with each having a set of fancy tableware, long, floral tablecloths, and a small flower with little lights around it to bring even more life to every inch of the hall. And with almost every spot of the hall being covered in blue and pink balloons, streamers of all colors, garlands with the princess’ favorite flowers hanging from the sides of each pillar, and the stage being the most decorated section, it was more than enough to not only please Priscilla but absolutely astonish her as soon as she got the grand view of the birthday room.
–Oh my, oh my… This is just like I imagined! It’s perfect!– Priscilla exclaimed with joy before running through the hall to admire the decoration from up close and then heading towards her seat right away. Candy watched her with a smile, but despite being flattered, she had to sigh to relieve all her built-up stress and finally relax while the princess started exploring the room.
As people were now allowed to go upstairs, Candy ordered everyone to take seats at their respective tables, although they all had to first take a moment to share their praises for the good work she had done with the place. Surprisingly, they all calmly walked over to their tables in order, even though some split up from the group to head towards the other side of the hall, left to the hallway to the stairs, where there was another corridor leading to the center of the castle, as well as some bathrooms and a few mostly empty rooms nearby.
So, while everyone was sitting down, they didn’t interrupt the princess while she made her way to the stage, taking in all the amazing details on the walls and ceiling, completely enchanted by the colors in particular. But as she reached the end of the hall and walked up to the low platform, Candy returned to the stairs to bring her teammates to one of the tables closest to the princess. With everyone sitting down, Priscilla got distracted by the long rows of tables full of her lovely citizens, who began chatting and relaxing now that some drinks were delivered by a couple of servants. But as her appreciative gaze shifted from one side of the room to another, she eventually noticed Crisis, which seemed to spark one concern in her immediately.
–Where are my young heroes? Did they forget about the dance they had to perform? Are they still doing it??– Priscilla asked Candy with increasing nervousness as she got up from her seat, beginning to stress over the absence of the Heartaches, which, in consequence, agitated her as well. But since she already had a plan in mind, Candy remained laid-back, and despite the princess frantically searching for the missing guests, she managed to calm her down and get her back to her seat without much trouble.
–No, they were very eager to do it, but they were just called for a mission nearby. They might arrive soon, but we don’t know anything about their current status as of yet…– Candy replied reassuringly, managing to ease Priscilla’s mind, although her enthusiasm had quickly faded away.
–Oh, alright… I wish them good luck…– Priscilla muttered with a slightly disappointed frown. But upon seeing her low-spirited demeanor, Candy turned around to call some of the servants, and all of a sudden, the tables erupted in cheers as a couple of guards carried a huge cake from the other end of the hall.
–Here you go, my Highness, the cake you ordered!– Candy announced with a bright smile as four guards carefully brought the large cake down the hall, concentrating heavily to not drop it since it was almost as big as the tables, except much heavier. The pressure of having everyone watching was getting to them, especially when they noticed the princess admiring the cake from afar. But after some wobbling, they delivered it to the front of the platform, where Priscilla was shocked to see its design.
It looked like a replica of the city in cake form, with a big figurine of her at the top, holding what seemed to be a staff with flowers around the handle, and a sun on top of it, shining with a purple hue. It also appeared to have many candles, around twenty in total, sprinkled throughout the various sections of the city, lighting up the main road until reaching the castle, where a mini garden hosted berries and cherries that Priscilla promptly started picking to satiate her hunger.
But as elated as she was, the princess didn’t get to say anything or even get the chance to thank Candy for her work as the entire hall echoed with the voices of the guests singing a happy birthday song in unison. The off-key singing was irritating Priscilla's ears, but she kept smiling as at least everyone sang, except Crisis. The squad was struggling to keep a straight face as they watched how Candy got more anxious the longer the guards held the cake. It was too heavy for them to keep in place, and their arms eventually started flaking, causing great stress in Candy, who clearly couldn’t do much since she would get in the way and block Priscilla’s view of her citizens singing.
Before the guards could drop the cake, the song ended and another round of cheers followed, which distracted the amused princess for a second, allowing Candy to send a fifth guard to sneakily join the others and hold the cake steadily for Priscilla to blow out the candles safely. Once everyone went silent, the princess’ attention shifted back to the cake. She kept smiling but quickly turned to Candy with an eager expression as she froze in place. The latter took a second to figure out why she was staring at him, but then she was reminded of a tiny detail. She panicked for a second but then ran towards Crisis’ table, only to drag Frost out of there, shush him up as he resisted, and then bring him to the platform.
He was put in the spotlight next to the princess, and while he didn’t seem to mind having everyone look at him, he became more annoyed as both Priscilla and Candy looked at him. The former seemed enamored by his outfit alone, while the latter tried to nudge him to get him to comply, which he kept refusing until Priscilla showed slight worry. Her reaction instantly drove Candy to force Frost to do what she wanted with a deadly stare, and after some consideration and a sigh, he changed his attitude to do what he was told, but without looking over at his teammates to not get distracted by their teasing.
–Happy birthday, my princess…– Frost said reluctantly in a sort of melodic tone, but he showed little to no enthusiasm as he kept a straight face and mumbled his words, not even faking a smile or even looking at the princess in the eye. He wasn’t loud enough for the other guests to hear and sparked some confusion, prompting Candy to pressure him into trying harder with a strict look, but he refused. And as she started panicking, despite his low effort, Priscilla was suddenly exhilarated by his short but sweet comment.
–Oh my, I love it!– Priscilla exclaimed gleefully, trying to reach for Frost to hug him, but he quickly dipped out and returned to his table, with Candy getting in between to calm her down, drawing her attention back to the cake as the guards were getting tired of holding it for so long.
–Come on now, make your three wishes! The cake might melt in a few seconds…– Candy ordered impatiently, hiding her anxiety behind a forced smile, which Priscilla didn’t notice but her teammates did as they laughed back at the table, infuriating her for a second. But with all of the guests eagerly waiting for the princess to blow out her candles, she took her time to think hard about what she wanted.
–Princesses get ten wishes, so let me think…– Priscilla replied in a casual, slightly pompous manner as she began thinking, causing Candy to get so worried and impatient that her smile faded away and she revealed her true emotions with a disdainful frown.
But just before she would try to hurry up the process, Priscilla came to a decision and seemed stoked to make her wishes. She leaned forward, with the guards struggling to bring the cake closer to her, and as the guests cheered loudly while she blew out all of the candles, they awkwardly watched as she struggled to reach them. The guards had to carefully turn the cake around for her to blow out the candles on the other side, drawing out the moment for a good while. But once she was finished, the audience rejoiced, getting a lively smile out of Priscilla, which ended up calming Candy down a little.
–Alright, I did it! I hope they all come true!– Priscilla exclaimed with a hopeful but gullible smile before Candy laughed and stepped off the platform to leave her alone as the guards and servants started serving the cake. But in the meantime, she also called for everyone to bring their gifts to the princess, who was very excited to see that her people brought so much stuff for her, even though she seemed to be expecting it.
But with Priscilla getting distracted for a long while by receiving gifts, greeting fans, and eating cake, Candy relaxed a little and watched as her plan came to fruition. She had successfully put a smile on the princess’ face, but most importantly, she had met most of her unrealistic expectations, or at least it seemed like it. While she was still visibly anxious and a bit insecure since one bad thing could ruin the whole event and disappoint the princess, running their friendship forever, it looked like everything was going great so far. Satisfied with that, Candy took a break to calm down, have a drink, and return to her table with her teammates, who wasted no time sharing their opinions about the event, mostly in the form of laughs and mocking looks.
–Good job, you somehow managed to please the most entitled person in the world!– Tricky praised her sister with a sarcastically proud voice that got a few chuckles out of the group, although Candy was still so focused on the princess that she couldn’t even tell her sister was mocking her, despite everyone clearly laughing.
–I know, it was sooooo hard… But thank you all for your help. I wouldn’t have done it without you…– Candy replied in a genuinely grateful manner, with her usual sweet and gentle voice that the group couldn’t make fun of anymore. They all nodded in response and reciprocated her gratitude, but they all could tell she was still on edge, so they tried being quiet and giving her peace, except Frost, who remained somewhat bitter about what he had to do.
–No problem, just promise you’ll never do this again, and we are cool…– Frost said with a teasing smirk that made Candy giggle and release some stress. Her teammates started smiling to see her loosen up, but they didn’t get much time to enjoy the moment as she couldn’t even take a seat next to Frost without worrying about what was going on back on the platform.
–Alright, now you can relax and enjoy the party… I doubt I will, I still have to make sure she doesn’t get upset at something…– Candy responded with a playful but exhausted tone before turning back to the princess, as it seemed like some of the guests were bothering her for not getting many hugs or kisses from her for their mediocre gifts.
–No wonder her exes try to murder her. Look at her. Imagine having that many people after you just because of your status. She literally has it all and just rejects everyone…– Nitro commented with slight contempt, staring at Priscilla judgmentally and getting upset over the few guys that she turned down after failing to meet her expectations. The rest of the team appeared to disapprove of Priscilla’s actions just as much, but once they noticed Nitro’s keen interest in the situation and how he became too invested in it, they didn’t waste their opportunity to mock him for it.
–Well, just be lucky you'll never relate…– Frost replied with a sarcastic grin before sharing a laugh with Kiwy and Tricky, even getting a brief chuckle out of Indie, who remained mostly indifferent and serious as always to play the part.
–Why don’t you drink some more? You are much more likeable when you are drunk…– Nitro retorted with a witty tone, cracking up at his response, although it only seemed to fuel Frost’s playful side, giving him more ideas to play around with.
–No, because then Tricky gets the wrong ideas, and she-...– Frost replied in a playfully modest manner, pretending to be respectful as he turned his back to Tricky with a coy smile, which only seemed to cause great insult with her implications.
–Alright, that’s enough. Go try to screw someone else this time, would ya?– Tricky responded harshly, giving Frost a hostile stare that he partially ignored as he pretended to not listen while she tried to push him away. He scoffed at the reaction, and so did Nitro, but it prompted Tricky to stand up and excuse herself, which put an end to the conversation and prompted Indie to stand up as well.
–Actually, we should go check how Panda and Saint are doing. It’s too loud here. we should go outside for a moment…– Indie suggested casually as he approached Frost, although she had a suspicious undertone that concerned him slightly. Their teammates were just as confused as him, but he didn’t get much of a choice, and instead of arguing, he reluctantly followed Indie back to the hallway leading to the stairs, where they made their escape from the party, sparking some curiosity for what they were going to do.
–See, why is she wasting those lines with him when they are not even boinking?– Nitro asked in a mix of frustration and disappointment, but mostly confusion, upon witnessing more of the strange tension between Frost and Indie. They both soon disappeared around the corner, and it was only Nitro, Kiwy, and Tricky left, but the latter quickly grew uncomfortable around him and his terminology, so she began looking around the hall in search of something better to do.
–I don’t know, they are quite effective, but you should try using them. You might be able to boink someone tonight…– Tricky replied sarcastically, with an estranged expression that seemed to give Nitro the wrong idea as he suddenly focused solely on her with his suggestive eyes.
–You think? Would they work even on a fancy girl like you?– Nitro asked flirtatiously, trying to get closer to get a smile out of her with his silly, coquettish grin. It almost seemed like she was going to crack up, or maybe even lean forward to look at him, as Tricky stayed silent for a moment while slowly turning to face him and look him in the eye. He grew eager, begging for an answer, but at the same time, he only repulsed her the more she looked at him.
–No, now get lost…– Tricky replied bluntly, with brief aggressiveness and disgust, before turning her back on him, which left Nitro dumbfounded, unable to say anything in response as she began walking away with Kiwy. But after taking the time to process her rude response, he seemed to forget about it and focused on enjoying himself with the rest of the guests. Tricky did the same, although she just stuck close to Kiwy to keep her company. But as she was more curious about Indie and Frost’s whereabouts, she began looking for them, only to catch them walking out of the castle from one of the windows on the right side of the hall.
