While Soren was feeling happy to have made his rival, he felt like was forgetting something for a little while, but then he rememebered what he wanted to do and that was to ask Toby a question:
"By the way, did you say that Tobias' full name was Tobias Ausgerius the Third? What is the reason for that?"
"He is actually the third member of the Ausgerius house hold that uses that name. I'm actually the second and my great-greatgrandfather was the first one, as well as the founder of the household." Toby the second explained.
'The Ausgerius household. That would be the third household that I know of, together with the Longinus household and Laventhign's household. 'It seems like there are at least, a couple of nobles that show a bit of sense, unlike the rest of them.' The moment he remembered the other soldiers, he immidiately felt disgusted with them, just by thinking about them.
"Then, there is somehing else I would like to know." Soren said.
"What is it?" Toby asked.
"Don't take it the wrong way... But, does the merfolk nobility suffer from a severe case of apathy?" Soren asked sarcastically.
"I am not sure about the apathy part, but they are defenitely suffering through small-mindness and a severe case of wanting to beat the living hell out of them. Hahahahaha *cough* *cough* Uhhh... That went down the wrong way." Toby answered jokingly. He clearly didn't like thise nobles as well and the situation from before, for Toby, was nothing more than just part of his daily routine.
*sigh* At that moment, the three of them sighed at the same time, even Lavenza herself, although she was more bored than caring about the conversation. After that, they continued swimming until they reached a big crystal pink door. The door itself was around 10 tall in height and around 4 feet wide and had a handle at the right side of it. Then the first one to speak was Toby.
"Well, we are here now. The Arch-Priestess should have been waiting for you for quite a while since we had a couple of distractions on the way. Go ahead and eat and don't worry so much." Toby said.
"Uhhh... Still, it is pretty nerve-racking, considering the fact we get to eat with the head of the church." Soren a bit nervously now. Although he wasn't feeling nervous before because of the conversations, he then remembered that the person he should having a meal with, is the Arch-Priestess, a woman who would go to such great lengths for her children, that she would be considered borderline insane. For now though, Soren prayed that she didn't know Lavenza's identity, but he had the feeling that no god would be listening on his prayers.
After that, Soren steeled his resolve, put on a serious expression and pushed the big crystal door with all of his power. The moment they entered the room, both Soren and Lavenza saw that the room itself was as azure as the depths of the seas, yet the walls had a shine that felt majestic, almost other-worldly. The furniture also had a similar color to fit the entire deciration of the room. The furniture itself consisted of a big bed on the right side of wall, a couple of bookcases which were full of all kinds of books at the left side, a big table in the middle that had a lot of food on top of it and a few chairs around it.
In the middle chair, Laventhign was waiting for quite a while for the trio to come. She also found herself a bit tempted to grab a couple of bites so she could satisfy her hunger a bit before the others came. But the moment they entered the room, any thoughts of her previous plan were completely thrown away and then she tightened her back so she could look serious , since she didn't want her first official meeting with her daughter to be remembered as something embarassing.
The moment both Soren and Lavenza saw the woman sitting in a serious and well-mannered way, they felt like something was a bit off. When they first met at the seats, they thought that this was the kind of image she would have, instead they got to witness a vulgar and tactless woman who really hated the nobles. Although the part about her being obsessed with her children was still in Soren's mind, he would still wait and see if this turns out to be true. After a quick moment of silence, the first one to speak was Laventhign herself.
"Welcome, my kind guests. How was your little tour of our facilities on the way here? Although I doubt you would have gone to every room of the facilty, I am a bit suprised that you took this long to come here." Her voice was very similar to moment when she showed herself. Domineering, elegant, yet this time it felt like it had a hint or playfulness, similarly to how she would enjoy herself. The next one to speak was actually Toby and said:
"Forgive us miss. We made sure to take the shortest path possible, but even then, it still takes a while to get your quarters." Toby said apologetiacally.
For a moment, Laventhign was thinking something to herself, before she said:
"You are forgiven Bishop Tobias, now come and sit down as well with the guests."
At that moment, the trio sat down on the table with Soren and Lavenza sitting the right of her, while Toby sat on the left side. After the trio sat down, Laventhign then said:
"Before we get started, I would like to say that I'm happy to have you today for my lunch and that I hope we can get along pretty well. Now cheers." At that moment, she raised her cup while she said that with a casual voice. Both Soren and Toby raised their cups as well, while Lavenza just raised a fork with her tail, since she was still too small to hold a cup but still wanted to join them.
The image of seeing Lavenza picking up a fork with a cute expression, made Laventhign's heart melt and reminded her that when her children were little babies, she would coddle them until they fell asleep. So she tried very hard to resist the urge to do that, since she still didn't to do or say anything yet.
At that moment, Lavenza decided to dig into the food, since the smell of it, was pretty enticing and just couldn't resist her urges anymore the moment she took a bit.
Soren himself didn't feel as hungry as Lavenza, because he was actually on high alert during the whole meal and he couldn't fully enjoy the meal, but he did savour a decent amount of it. Although the food was fancy as well, for Soren it felt like he was eating from a slightly fancy restaurant so he didn't feel too excited for it.
Soren then felt like this silence was nearly suffocating. Although the silence from before with Toby, was awkward, he still felt like he could talk with him since he gave a feeling which showed that he was approachable and you wouldn't feel intimidated. But Laventhign felt like any move you tried on her, would end up with her preaching you for the next couple of hours. So he couldn't find any conversation topics to try and break the silence.
So for the next ten to fifteen minutes, Soren was in a world of constant silence and felt like those minutes were the longest of his life. In the meanwhile, Lavenza was indulging herself in all the food on the table, while Toby was eating without a care in the world. Laventhign herself however, felt like she was internally screaming from the cute expressions that Lavenza did whenever she indulged in her food. Of course, she had her serious facade on the entire time, so she didn't even let a peep out, but that made her to not even pay attention to her food, so she hadn't eaten much as well.
At that point, Soren felt that he wouldn't be able to take anymore of this silence, so he decided to steel again his resolve for the worst and then broke the silence by saying:
"So... How you usually spend your days miss?"
The moment the silence broke, everyone paid attention to Soren's words. His voice definitely felt a bit shaky, yet it was firm and had a casual tone. Whenever Toby had to join Laventhign for lunch with guests, usually the conversation would start after everyone finished their meals, but Soren decided to interupt the meal. But what Toby saw next completely suprised him.
Laventhign wasn't even paying attention to Soren so when she heard his question, as she didn't actually care and answered in a casual manner:
"My days usually consist of the normal 24 hours a day and seven days a week, type of work with the work itself just consisting of rituals and government work. The church itself may be in charge of deal with any matter that could potentially threaten the peace of the world, but that doesn't mean it's exempt from government riff-raff. Now whenever I get my day-off, it usually is spent in my room sleeping or stalking my children from afar. Aside from that, I don't spend my days any differently."
Once Laventhign finished her answer, both Soren and Toby were suprised. Soren was expecting to get ignored at the best case scenario and at worst, he would be chewed out, but thankfully none of those happened. Toby however didn't expect her to answer so thoughroughly. Usually she would just give a scornful look at the guests, if anyone broke the silence, but in certain cases, there were even kicked out the moment they made noise. He then wondered if the apocalypse was coming or something.
"Kuuuu...~" At that moment, Lavenza seemed like she was in a lot pain and Soren who was next to her, decided to check on her. After checking her, he saw that she had just overeaten and now her belly was going to hurt for a little while.
"Honestly Lavenza, what did you expect if you kept eating? Of course it would be a tummy ache." Soren scolded Lavenza a bit. He wasn't actually angry, but he was a bit upset seeing her do this kind of stuff, so he thought to teach her something so she wouldn't do it again.
"Uhhh... Kyuuuuu~..." She had an apologetic expression, yet she still felt like she was in pain.
At that moment, Soren came up with an idea and then asked:
"Miss, do you have something to help with stomach-aches or maybe a place to let Lavenza to rest for a bit?"
"She is free to rest on my bed until she recovers. Toby, go bring some medicine and read her a story to help her sleep a bit better." Laventhign said before Toby left the room for a bit.
While Toby was away, Soren then picked up carefully Lavenza, who was in pain and laid her down gently. Laventhign was actually pretty worried about Lavenza as well, because she always feared the worst, but after Toby came with a bottle of medicine and fed it to Lavenza, she then started to calm down a bit. After that quick event, Soren and Laventhign went back to the table, while Toby was checking on Lavenza's condition.
While Toby was checking on Lavenza, Soren and Laventhign were just sitting in silence while waiting for Lavenza to be better. Suddenly, Laventhign's eyes shined a cyan color for an instant before they turned green again and said:
"I guess that we now have an opportunity just the two of us, we can finally talk business."
At that moment, Soren's only thought was:
'I knew it.'