"Dude, are you sure that you don't want to come?" Leo asked as a slightly downcast expression appeared on his face.
(A/N: The strangeness in the next sentence is sponsored by Grammarly... It was too good for me to ignore, I just kept reading that phrase in a Mario accent)
"I'm a sorry dude... The people who are welcome are only the people with an invitation. Me coming will only cause problems for you which would make it a lot more difficult than it already is. I have something I want to check out anyways so there's no reason for me to come," Eupheme defended himself as he turned away from Leo and left the building as he had the feeling that Leo would've forced him to come if the did not get out of there quickly.
"He left quickly," Lex spoke in a slightly surprised tone that continued, "I guess that's a no?"
"I guess so..." Leo said defeatedly.
"Oh, don't be so down bro. You have me to keep you company," Lex spoke as he puffed his chest pridefully.
"Yup. Thanks for the support," Leo spoke absentmindedly as he put on a cool black hoodie with fluorescent cyan lights that Aurora had made for him back when she was around.
"Okay, let's go," Leo said as the duo left their room, only to be greeted with a surprisingly empty hall with a very tired-looking Delia who had just sat down on one of the comfortable chairs while letting out a very relieved sigh.
"Where is everyone?" Lex couldn't help but blurt out as he stared at the empty hall which had absolutely no trace of the previous muscle-y hunks.
"Ah! You guys are still here?" Delia exclaimed in shock as she immediately got up and began waving her hands erratically as she defended herself while having her eyes closed the whole time, unwanting to see the eyes of those barbaric people, "I wasn't doing anything! I swear!"
"Huh? Big sis, what are you talking about?" Lex asked with a very lost expression as he could not comprehend why she would be reacting like so.
Hearing that, Delia's words froze as her mind finally came back to sanity. She slowly opened an eye cautiously and then turned to her left and right extremely erratically. It was only after she did this, that she relaxed her body again and then she let out a very loud 'phew...'
"Are you okay?" Leo asked suddenly as his attention was caught on a burn mark on her arm that wasn't there before.
"I'm perfectly fine," Delia replied as she brought back here 'professional' work smile.
Leo deadpanned and just walked over to her and grabbed her hand and pointed towards the mark on her hand, "You clearly seem okay. This is just clearly a birthmark right?"
"Uh..." seeing that Leo had realized her injury, Delia's mind went full panick mode as her head began to flood with thoughts of Leo telling the owners of the inn that she was not good enough for the job or anything else that mean the downfall for her.
Thus, she subconsciously decided to speak the truth, "I'm sorry. I just can't lose this job. The guys from your Crystal Team eat like its the end of the world everytime that they have stayed here. They ordered so much and demanded that they all receive the food in such small amount of time. So I didn't get much time to rest at all. This happened yesterday night. I went to get first aid but they stopped me when I reached the door... they threatened to leave this inn if I stopped attending to them."
As she said this, her face gradually turned even more and more depressed until she was not able to stop tears and began sobbing slowly...
"Hmm... ok. Here, give me your arm," Leo spoke after a few seconds of silence.
Hearing that, the girl seemed hesitant as she did not know what Leo wanted to do with her hand but she subconsciously held her hand out, not knowing why.
"Tell me, what's wrong with losing this job?" Leo asked as he stared into her tear-stained eyes.
"This is the only way for me to make a living... I've tried many other jobs but they won't take me because my cultivation is too low. I come from a very weak background, my parents were servant workers and they died from fatigue. I never had any money to buy resources to get stronger so I couldn't do anything about it," the girl replied in a sad tone as she began loudly sobbing again but Leo was able to identify the frustration that was also hidden in her voice.
"I think I may be able to help you," his voice suddenly spoke out as she was crying into his chest.
"Eh?"
"Me and Lex come from the Lapis Kingdom, the weakest of all the kingdoms in the Crystal Empire, well... for now at least. You should go and look for 'Shenghuo Village.' I think that place will solve all your problems," Leo suggested as he pulled away and distanced himself away from her to get her to think clearly again.
"Is that where you guys are from?" she asked with a hint of expectation.
"No... We come from a village that was destroyed during a war. However, I currently live there. I think you'll enjoy that place, I can tell from the colour of your personality," Leo replied with a smile but Delia did not reply and she seemed a bit hesitant.
"Don't worry... It was just an invitation. You probably won't find much information on it but I can tell you this, this invitation is exclusively for you, please don't spread it. You can have all the time you want to decide," Leo continued trying to give her another action that she would have if she was ever in another desperate situation.
"Thank you for the invitation, I'll consider it," Delia replied as she could not think of any other way to respond and an awkward silence appeared for a few seconds...
"Welp, Lex and I have a banquet to catch, so I guess we will be going..." Leo spoke out, trying to get rid of this uncomfortable feeling.
"I think we're late..." Lex commented as he walked to the entrance where Leo was already standing.
"Huh? No way. I am a professional timer keeper. Look at the clock, we still have..."
"Uhuh, how much time do we have?"
...
...
"Crap! We're going to have to run!" Leo shouted in sudden realization and he then picked up Lex and ran out, disappearing in a flash across the dusk-shaded street.
The destination of the duo, the Imperial Banquet Hall. The hall was located on the west corner of the Jade Palace and the path to it was actually extremely simple, you just had to take a straight left after entering the palace. The hall was decorated extremely beautifully. Its outer walls were pure white quartz with golden streaks highlighted the walls that shone beautifully with the sunset.
Inside the hall, dozens of circular tables were set up with two chairs on each side, and on the back of the hall was a long line of divine smelling food that looked and tasted like heaven. There were around a hundred people currently just standing around and conversing. It was not uncommon for empires to have friends from other empires, especially the kings, since they were very often busy back in their own kingdom, they wouldn't get much time to spend outside and travel to visit other 'king' friends, so there were many people who are catching up.
But among all these human beings who were enjoying themselves, one person was not having a very good time... He was currently pacing back and forth across the food tables with a calm face but his body language could not hide the fact that he seemed like he was worried.
"Edgar, is there something wrong?" a voice sounded behind him in a genuinely concerned tone.
Edgar immediately turned around to see who was talking but as he did, his face dropped as it was some of the few people that he definitely did not want to meet.
"What do you want?" he spoke out coldly.
"I've been looking around and still am not able to find your chosen boy," the man spoke as an evil grin appeared on his face, "I wonder if he has been scared off. You told us that you haven't meet him since you guys split up a few weeks ago."
"Ryan, what are you doing here? Come, the Crystal team are talking strategy. Edgar's champion has definitely deserted him, why bother talking to the irrelevant?" another man spoke out as he walked over to them and pulled the man away, leaving Edgar all alone as he began considering if that did really happen.
'I really haven't done anything for him, yet I somehow decided to trust him so much... Did I really get played here?' he thought as he stopped walking and decided to get a glass of wine to calm himself down.
"Phew! Made it!" the voice of a young boy sounded from the entrance of the hall and immediately, everyone's attention turned to the source.
"You nearly killed me!" another voice sounded, this time sounding a bit younger than the original voice.
"It wasn't my fault you can sit still"
"SIT? You weren't even holding me properly! Add that to the fact that, YOU, were running at a thousand kilometres an hour! How in the world am I supposed to sit?"
"Such a drama queen... we've arrived," the voice spoke as they got to the entrance after a long flight of stairs.
"Hmph!" the younger voice harrumphed loudly as he complained, "You really need to keep a better track of time."
"Fine, you win. Let's go inside and have fun... I wonder how those dumb hunks are dressed... I really can't imagine them wearing anything formal," the older voice spoke as he admitted defeat nonchalantly, making the younger voice's victory seem less meaningful.
The door at the entrance shuffled open and the silhouettes of two younger boys, younger than the crowd has expected, appeared walking into the hall.
"Big bro... We might have been a bit too loud..."
"Nope. We were definitely too loud"