A lucrative dark wood style carriage with bronze metal outline was approaching the city's primary bank. The bank was used as headquarters for the Pheonix Kingdom army during the war but in reality, it was mostly being used for a place to rest for nobles while they sent their knights and forced soldiers to do the dirty work. But now outside the bank, it was being used to hold the victory ceremony to properly announce the end of this war.
Inside the carriage was Benjamin and Benedire on their way to the bank for the ceremony. Beside the carriage were many elegantly dressed knights with a gray and white color combination on their armor. On the chest of the knights was a large emblem that belonged to the Benedire family.
Behind the carriage were other important nobles that accompanied Benedire. The first one behind Benedire was Amora. She had her own personal carriage and was being escorted by two priority defender knights that Benedire had lent to her for the occasion.
Behind Amora was Dalya who was riding a white stallion that had light blue almost transparent hair. Dayla herself was wearing a clean white and green combination healing robe. Beside her was Junger in ceremonial knight armor and a priority defender she healed earlier today escorting her as well.
As Dayla was a noble, she had to be escorted at all times. The only reason she wasn't before was because her ex-fiance ordered the knights to only follow him and completely ignore her. Since he was the male who would eventually own her in a sense, they had no choice but to listen because if they didn't. They knew they would be punished once Dayla and Raveugur were married.
With no knights of her own, Ritzy and Benedire had offered their knights for the ceremony. Ritzy sent Junger since Dayla and Junger were in a relationship, and Benedire sent priority defender Kevin since Dayla had saved his life during the fight at the town hall.
Behind Dalya was Ritzy in Benjamin's hunting gear. It was a light armor variant that mostly used leather armor with iron plates embedded inside. Its colors consisted of green and brown, it was clearly made for hunting and not ceremonies, but since Benjamin didn't hunt, it was super clean which made it look fashionable.
Beside Ritzy was only Alter and another old knight that seemed close to Alter.
For the ceremony, nobles are only allowed to bring two protective personnel with them and anybody they recommend to be rewarded. The only exception for the two-person guard rule was vice-captains or higher. It's the reason why Benedire and Benjamin were the only people with more knights than the rest.
Ritzy also had asked Alter if he recommended anybody but Alter quickly refused to recommend anybody. It interested Ritzy why he refused so urgently but he didn't ask since there wasn't much time before they had to leave.
...
In a short time, the group finally arrived at the ceremony. The ceremony was right outside the bank. The bank had an enclosed gated area. Unlike before, inside the gated area was a recently made wooden stage. most likely made for Grasso to give his speech as head general and as well to commend all the noteworthy mercenaries and knights.
Arriving, a well-dressed person who had a noble like presence started walking closer to Benedire's carriage but as soon as he took two steps, Grasso appeared. Grasso rushed past the noble who seemed to be here for greeting Vips and pushed him down on the ground.
Pushing him out of the way, Grasso continued rushing forward and arrived at Benedire's carriage. In front of the carriage, Grasso was rubbing his hand together while a stupid grin appeared on his face as he waited for Benedire to exit his carriage so he could personally welcome him.
Benedire sighed at the sight at looking at Grasso's actions and Benjamin involuntarily made a disgusted face while looking at Grasso. Luckily for Grasso's honor, he wasn't able to see their reactions since they were still inside the carriage.
---
Even if Grasso did see their reactions, Grasso would still have pretended to not have seen their reactions. Like many nobles, Grasso's greediness would've made him ignore Benedire's actions even if they were negatively toward him.
Many nobles would ignore the hatred towards them so they can pretend to be in good graces with higher ranks nobles. This happens because even if they are fake friends with higher nobles. Many nobles wouldn't be sure of their relationship so they wouldn't dare offend the fake friend of a high ranked noble.
---
Knowing Grasso wouldn't leave, Benedire exited the carriage with resentment but pretended to be happy to see Grasso.
Benedire,
"Lord Grasso, you did not have to come here personally. I could've come to you once I went inside the ceremony area".
Grasso,
"Nonsense Lord Beneedire, it brings me great pleasure to welcome you personally".
At the end of Grasso's vision, Grasso saw Benjamin.
"Oh, is young Lord Benjamin perhaps accompanying you to the ceremony?".
Benjamin seeing he couldn't avoid Grasso, he decided to exit the carriage as well. Stepping off the carriage, Benjamin spoke with a fake respectful voice.
"Lord Grasso, it's nice to see you again. I thank you for welcoming my grandfather personally".
Grasso,
"Do not worry, it was my pleasure. So.. Tell me, Lord Benjamin, how was it taking lead for the mission I assigned your team?".
Benjamin,
"We were able to defeat the enemies but sadly Ritzy's knights suffered many casualties".
Grasso gave a slight grin in hearing Ritzy's knights losses but quickly hid it. Instead, he replaced it with a fake pitying voice.
"War is a cruel mistress. It takes the weak with no mercy, luckily your team was strong enough to survive and complete the task".
Benjamin frowned internally from hearing Grasso's words. The words sounded heartfelt but if read closely, Benjamin could tell they were made to make fun of Ritzy's team.
...
The ceremony had a large entrance so at least three carriages could stop at the entrance and have personal respectable nobles welcome the ceremony's Vips. This allowed Amora and Dayla to go past Grasso and straight into the ceremony.
But unlike Dayla and Amora, Ritzy had promised himself to enjoy this world more than his past world so he decided to have fun with Grasso. Ritzy had been angered with Grasso sending him on a suicide mission so he wanted to spook him before he got his revenge.
Getting of the white steed Benedire lent him, he handed the lead to Alter so he could take the horse at the designated horse resting point.
Without the horse and only the second knight with him, Ritzy walked to Grasso who was still speaking to Benedire.
Getting closer, Benedire noticed Ritzy was coming which made him find a way to escape.
"Lord Grasso, Lord Ritzy seems to want to speak with you. Since you two might have something to talk about, I will head inside first".
Hearing Ritzy's name, Grasso was confused and thought,
'Didn't I send him to die, why is he here? Wait, did he abandon the mission?!'.
Grasso then grinned and thought,
'If he did abandon his post, then I can execute him myself for treason'.
Grasso then turned around and looked at Ritzy as if he was an insect.
"Lord Ritzy, may I know why you are here? I thought I sent you to take care of the special problem at the black market district?".
Grasso's mind,
'Speak, you damn insect! In seconds, I'll slice your head off in front of everyone!'.
Ritzy said with no worry, knowing what Grasso had in mind.
"It was a series of lucky events which makes me proud of being able to help you with this mission".
Grasso became confused but then quickly hid his confusion.
Ritzy,
"What happened was that when we were fighting some very important people, which I could tell with their incredible armor and lucrative weapons, I told them we were sent here by you to stop them".
Grasso's face showed fear and panic but this time he couldn't hide it.
Ritzy,
"When they heard your name, they went crazy with madness. Maybe because they knew they had no hope since your so powerful".
"Sorry, I shouldn't embarrass you with praises. You just wanted to know what happened. Anyways, after hearing your name, they started running and I chased them. After a good while of running, we reached the town hall. At the town hall, I think he tripped which allowed me to kill him with an advanced fire spell".
"After killing the runaway, I heard a familiar voice and then realized it was Lord Benjamin. Hearing he was in trouble, I ran into the second-floor town hall and saw him injured on the floor. Angered for my friend, I used a terrifying amount of mana which allowed me to kill the beastkin that almost killed Benjamin with one move".
"With him dead, I was able to save Benjamin and get him to a doctor. With me saving him, our friendship grew".
"After that, I heard we reconquered the city and that you invited Benedire to the ceremony. Since Benjamin is Benedire's grandson, he naturally tagged along and since I saved Benjamin, I was invited as well".
"Being invited and knowing you would be here, I decided to report back to you in person. And that's how I arrived here right after Benedire".
Grasso's face began to pale from hearing that Ritzy is now indebted by the Benedire family which now makes him untouchable and that Ritzy said the attack on the black market district was his order. Meaning that the black market guild is now after him.
With Grasso in shock, Ritzy decided to extend his hand on Grasso's chin and make Grasso look at him.
Grasso looking at Ritzy's golden eye's, Grasso couldn't breathe. Killing intent was drowning him, causing him to not be able to think correctly and suffocate from sensing death nearby.
Ritzy whispered in a low enough tone so the old knight escorting him couldn't hear his word and with a devious smile he said,
"I enjoyed our little game. Thank you for showing me how to play against nobles".