-20 minutes ago-
"Mom, may I ask the reason for picking up a random stranger from the road?" The young man asked the older lady with the red hair with a curious look.
"Now, now. Don't be impatient Dallius. You will know the reason soon enough, but I want to see what will that say. Anyways, Dallius and especially you, Kana, I don't want you two to have come into contact with our "guest", at least until I confirm that he poses no threat. Now, if you'll excuse me." The mermaid with the red hair spoke with a stern and serious voice, before getting up and entered into one of the other doors and then a couple of guards went to stand in front of said door.
"So, what do you think of that guest Dallius?" The young blue-haired mermaid named Kana asked the young merman Dallius.
"I don't know. Mom always has a good reason for this kind of stuff, so if she decided to pick him up for whatever reason, I have no reason to object." Dallius answered back with a serious and uncaring voice.
"Alright, then what about that little pet of his, what do you think? Isn't it the cutest thing ever?" Kana asked loudly and happily.
"I don't know what it is that you find cute about a sea snake, but I don't like dirty monsters tounching me." Dallius retorted angrily and with a hint of disgust in his voice.
"There's your fear for filth doing the talking for you, yet again." Kana teased Dallius with a happy expression.
"Well, excuse me but I don't like touching beasts in general. They are filthy and full of discusting diseases and stuff and I can't stand them." Dallius retorted back with pure disgust.
"Chet. You just don't-"
"OUCH!!!" Just as Kana was about to complain, Dallius' mother suddenly screamed from the other room.
"Mother! Are you alright!? Did somwthing happen?" Kana asked with concern, the moment the scream was heard.
"It's nothing." The mother of the two young mermen said in a casual manner, as if she was unfazed. After that little event, Kana went back to her sentence from before:
"Anyways, you need to know how to let loose Dallius. You can't be all stiff and serious all the time, instead you need to be a bit more relaxed and let loose every once in a while. Try reading novels or playing games with your peers, after all a health mind equals a healthy body." Kana spoke casually and with a hint of concern in the voice.
"I don't need to waste my time reading any fancy, fantasy, love novels." Dallius scoffed at Kana's proposal in a casual manner.
"Spoilsport. Oh well, you lose, you snooze. Now, where did I leave my Prince's Nightlight again?" Kana decided to not bother with Dallius and look for her book that she was currently reading. After searching a couple of rooms, the next room was the room where Soren and Lavenza were waiting, but the moment she opened the door, she saw Soren without her helmet and was in shock as well.
'Not good. Not good. This is definitely NOT! GOOD! Why did it have to be one of her stupid children? She knows that I don't get along with them, so why did she bring this rotten guy here?' These kinds of thoughts were going through her head right now while she was frozen in place from shock.
...
'Sh*t. This is bad. This is really, really, really bad. This is the one time I get to myself calm down for a bit and karma decides to literally give me the mother of all troubles.' Soren's mind was panicing and cursing at the same time his while his body was frozen from the huge shock of being discovered.
"E-Excuse me. H-How m-may I-I help you m-miss?" Soren asked while struggling to even form a normal sentence.
"I-I came l-looking f-for a b-book.' Kana answered back nervously while also struggling to make a proper sentence. At that moment, Soren realised that she may be looking for the book he was holding and asked nervously:
" Is t-this the book y-you were looking for?
"Y-yes!" Kana answered back nervously before taking the book with her and leaving.
After she left, Soren was internally screaming his lungs out, but on the outside, he looked like a statue.
"This is probably the worst situation posible. If things get complicated, we might have to fight our way out, but I'm not sure if we will be able to make it Lavenza." Soren said after putting his helmet off.
'At least that confirms my suspicions about the right door leading into another room. But the big problem now is the fact that, that girl saw my face and hair and all of it. If she thinks that I'm of the Laventhign's children, I guess that would be one of the better-case scenarios, but if she finds out I belong with neither of Laventhign or her family...' At that moment, Soren shivered and felt a nasty chill down his spine. The thought of that for Soren, was enough to give him nightmares.
"I guess we can only wait for now until our "host" graces us with her presense." Soren said in a sarcastic manner.
After around another ten minutes pasded, the homunculus started moving. Soren was a bit suprised, but decided to stay calm and look at the homunculus straight the eyes while it turned around to look at its surroundings.
"Forgive me that it took so long to welcome you. Unfortunately, we were notified of your arrivial in short notice, so forgive us if the introduction are... lacking." The homunculus spoke emotionlessly.
"We are thankful that you have graced us with your presense. So, may I ask what kind of "business" you have with us?" Soren said sarcastically while bowing his back slightly and staring the homunculus in the eyes.
"Now, now. No need to be in such a rush. Why don't you enjoy the scenery for a bit, while one of my servants brings us tea?" It said with an elegant and yet, emotionless manner. After around 5 minutes, a butler came out of the right door while with a platter that had a porcalein tea set with a simple design and poured tea for the two of them. After Soren picked up his cup, he decided to check it because he didn't an ounce of trust for any of her actions.
[Chamomile Tea (Poisoned/Sleep Poison Heavy)
A cup of normal chamomile tea that is cultivated on the mountains. This cup of tea has been poison with a special poison that will force heavy drowziness that lasts for 12 hours.]
'Why am I not suprised?' Soren thought to himself after reading the description with an unmoving expression and putting the cup of tea down. The homunculus drank normally the tea, but it wasn't affected by the sleep poison. After it finished drink the tea, it looked at Soren with scorn and asked:
"Why haven't you drunk any tea? It's rather rude to the host, isn't it?"
"Forgive me, but my mother has told me to not take food and drinks from strangers." Soren answered while looking at the homunculus with a spiteful expression.
"Hmmm... Anyways, I think it's high time we had an inroduction miss." Soren then added with a serious expression.
"You are quite the boy, aren't you? Fine, guess I'll have to introduce myself. My name is Diana Longinus, the Duchess of the Longinus Household." The homunculus introduced itself with a serious expression.
"My name is Soren. It's a... Pleasure to meet you. So, may I ask the reason why you brouhht me here?" Soren answered back while holding back his disgust with a smirk. He wanted to get immidiately to the point of this entire situation, so the last thing he wanted, was more pointless distractions.
"Now, now. No need to be into such a rush, we will get there when it's time to get there. Now, I want to hear a bit more about you, after all, you are quite the interesting... Individual. Not many have your looks, so why don't you stop hiding? That shabby little hat of yours doesn't do much in terms of hiding it, so stop with playing around." Diana spoke in a menacing and imposing manner.
Soren couldn't hide his shocked expression this time, because she knew Soren's true appearance somehow, hence there was no point in hiding his appearance and decided to take his helmet off.
"Well, now you can see my hair and my eyes and I don't think it takes a genius to realise the situation I'm in." Soren retorted with an angry and depressed expression while holding his head with his hand.
"Oh, so what do you think this "situation" of yours is?" Diana asked while giving an imposing look.
"You wish to know whose blood flows in my veins, am I right?" Soren answered with a serious expression.
"Congratulations. You found the answer without giving a hint." Diana congratulated Soren in a sarcastic manner while giving him a scornful look.
'This lady has is hell bent on grilling me today.' Soren thought to himself while he sighed, hoping for this situation to end.