The crown prince seemed happy. Ramon showed his respect while still sitting on his wheelchair. He still follow the etiquette despite not being able to stand up.
Bang!
The banquet hall's door closed tightly once more. Ramon Dorga was wearing luxurious and formal clothes, even though he was on a wheelchair, and there was a relaxed smile on his face. Priestess Maria Lorenzo behind him was wearing the God of Death priestess robe.
*(God of Death is another name for God of Eternal Rest. The former is the informal name while the latter is the formal one)
"I heard that there was an opportunity for the empire's nobles to meet with and discuss with your majesty. I do apologize for coming without an invitation."
The Crown Prince Leonard had a smirk on his face. I could tell from that smirk that Prince Leonard properly understood what Ramon meant by being able to have a discussion with the crown prince.
'Instead of a discussion, it was more about making a deal with the crown prince.'
"I did ask for each household's representative, but if the household does not have a representative, there is no issue with who shows up. I guess you were probably upset that I only sent one invitation to the Dorga's household, young master Ramon?"
Romeo's face crumpled upon hearing the crown prince's word since he knew the crown prince was taunting him while slyly implying about the Dorga family who still didn't decide their official successor yet even after Ramon was crippled.
Some of the nobles families would prefer their eldest son to be the heir of the family while some were personally chosen by the current head of the family.
Take Carion for example, he is the eldest son of the Heizt family thus he automatically trained as the official heir since he was young.
Eris on the other hand was personally chosen by the current matriarch to be trained as the official heir even thought she's not the first in line to succeed the Zanuki matriarchy since I heard Amma has a daughter and Karin is three months older than Eris thus Eris should be third in line if they followed the royal family tradition.
Both Kiba and Soraz chose the strongest in the family to be the next patriarch. Tadraz also just like the Heizt but a bit different since the other children other than the first would be sent to their branch family unless the first child was weak, the others could compete and take his place.
Zanuki is the only noble family who specifically chose female as their family head. Usually the direct descendant of the matriarch will be prioritized and chosen like Eris. It was said that the Zanuki believe their clan's prosperity depends on the women since they played more important role and women were treated equally with men.
However, in Dorga family's matter, everyone assumed that Romeo would be the one succeeding the family since the Dorga family was a family that always shed blood among family members in order to become the head of the family. Their motto was basically the strongest take it all. It kind of suit with their family insignia of a vicious black cobra curling on a rock.
It reminded me of my previous family. Their method were exactly similar.
The Dorga family was a wealthy noble family that have a big company involved in real estates and constructions in the empire thus they were
respected by many noble.
The Dorga children who didn't managed to become the heir would either be demoted to be commoners, send to join the army in the border or be killed.
It was one of the family that most of the readers of the novel didn't like.
The crown prince's words reminding Romeo that he is not the Dorga official heir yet.
The crown prince obviously giving a warning to Romeo as he was one of the nobles who didn't support the crown prince but he was supporting the princess, Fiona Von Hargan to succeed the throne. The other nobles in the same faction group as the Dorga also supporting Princess Fiona.
The crown prince never let go anyone who would interfere with his ascension to the throne. He needed the nobles' support to succeed the throne smoothly.
Later the crown prince looked around and suddenly our eyes met.
'Don't tell me he....'
"Servants, put an extra chair for miss priestess and Young master Ramon at the northeners' table" he instructed while pointing towards my table.
Its understandable since this table only have one prominent noble family and the other northern nobles were all low profile and most of their families didn't outwardly showing their support to any of the royal children and always tried to remain neutral.
Other than that, one of the strongest prominent noble family was also here, the Zanuki. In terms of wealth, they only fall slightly behind the Dorga but they have a lot of authority where other nobles won't dare blindly poke at them.
"Hi young master Ares" Ramon greeted me after he moved his wheelchair at the empty spot beside me. The priestess also sat between him and Steph.
"Hi" I greeted simple and polite.
The crown prince then resumed the event like nothing happened. Even though, physically he was not as strong as Prince Theo, as someone who aimed for the throne, he sure was not stupid and have some strong connections.
Since the Empress was from one of the noble family from the East, he used his mom lineage to create connections with the Eastern nobles although his mom never involved in politics.
I glanced at Ramon a bit but not that interested to talk to him while he always flashed a friendly smile at me. Ramon's legs were badly injured and even the most advanced technology or magic they used on him, didn't work. He was thoroughly crippled.
However, the crown prince had an artifact which could even cured a disease which is impossible to cure. Ramon must wanted to try making a deal with the crown prince if the crown prince agreed to heal his leg.
How did I know about this you may ask, it's because a month ago, someone requested from Truth Agency about an artifact or elixir that can cure crippled legs and he was willing to pay no matter how much. Seeing the confident in the request, I immediately knew the requestor most probably was a wealthy noble.
I immediately remembered about the artifact owned by the crown prince. After recalling the novel, I quickly realized the requestor might be Ramon Dorga.
Because of that I investigated about Ramon's current condition and even helped him to evade being assasinated by assasins hired by Romeo.
The reason Ramon and his priestess friend managed to attend tonight's dinner event was because Ares had put a few Shadows to guard them while disguising as merchenaries hired by Truth Agency.
The compensation Ares got was an Ice Crystal that Ramon got while searching for the cure for his crippled legs.
There was a rumor about an Ice Crystal that could cure a man's body perfectly inside out thus Ramon thought it could cure his crippled legs since his mind and mental fortitude had became stronger since he was crippled.
Thus the Ice Crystal might at least helped his legs be able to walk.
However upon further inspection on the crystal that they've managed to procure after an ardous journey in an icy plain for a month, they bound to be dissapointed.
The Ice Crystal cannot cure any injuries that had happened before consuming it. If Ramon consume the Ice Crystal before he was crippled, his legs would heal by itself due to the balance and cure function of the Ice Crystal.
Thus the Ice Crystal was useless for Ramon and because of that he gave it away as compensation for Truth Agency for helping him.
To be honest, Ares didn't care much about the Ice Crystal since he would still helped Ramon even though the payment wasn't satisfactory.
'Ramon is better than Romeo since he is opposite of him. Unfortunately, he was killed by Romeo after Romeo became Dorga's official heir.'
Ares thought it might be great if one day he could use Ramon when he had problem in the east area.
When it was around 8 pm, Ares excused himself while the other nobles went to talk with the crown prince. Prince Theo also went out of the hall after he finished his dinner since no nobles came to greet him.
Stephanie and Ramon also went to greet the crown prince since they said they wanted to propose a deal to him. I just watched them walked away before I exited the hall.
None of the representative from the prominent noble families came to greet the crown prince as they usually never show any favouristism for any of the royal family members. If the emperor was here, they would only went to greet the emperor and that's it.
[Crazy Prince: Hey I saw you didn't eat much during the dinner event so I packed some food for you]
Suddenly I received a message from Prince Theo just before I got into the car. Not long after that, a four tier meal box full of food was given to Ron by a Royal servant.
[Me: Thanks]
I replied simply and went back to Zanuki mansion as I'm truly starving. I couldn't eat comfortably during the event as a lot of the nobles kept on staring at me like they wanted something from me but I tried my best to ignore their stares.
Ramon on the other hand kept on talking to me like we were old friends and I just listened to him since he looked like a friendly person. The priestess happily drinking wine beside him while ignoring people's stare on her.
'She drank wine, run away from the church and wanted to be excommunicated. That's why her nickname is a crazy priestess'
If I'm not mistaken, in the novel, she became a mercenary after Ramon's death and after being excommunicated. She had ability that is kind of similar to necromancer except she couldn't summon the undead.
She was able to put a strong curses on people and at the same time have healing ability which is kind of weird when two powers that contradict each other is in one person.
'It's better not to get too close with the two of them.'
********************************
[POV: Ron Moran]
At midnight, Royal Plaza
"One, two,.....seven. Ok I think that's it since young master said from the information they would be seven pre installed mana bombs" I said to the Shadows as I looked at the mana bombs they had found hidden around the plaza.
Unfortunately despite carefully surveiling the plaza for a few days, they still didn't manage to find any suspicious person.
"Please look around some more and the rest, start dismantling the bombs now before keeping them inside the mana restrictive metal box young master gave you"
"Sir, should we go on standby at the teleportation coordinate?" asked one Shadow.
"When young master had arrived at the plaza later, all of you split into two. First group protect the young master while the second group wait at the teleportation coordinate after you finished dismantling the remaining mana bombs. Catch the guy young master had shown you the picture. Young master said if it's too hard to catch him alive, just kill him but none of you is allowed to die."
"Yes Sir!" all of them replied at the same time before they dispersed and went to do their designated job.
I looked around and make sure no one realized of our existence here. Since young master would also be here later, every preparation must be completed perfectly since young master's life also at risk.
'I don't care about the royal family or other people except young master.'
The Moran was actually a big noble clan but their status fall 50 years ago after their territory got attacked by high orcs and elves. Not all elves were peaceful creatures since some of them were crazy and they attacked the Moran since they realized the Moran had the ability to adjust their body to suit their environment no matter how harsh it was.
Thus, the Moran were kidnapped and became experiment subject to the elves. Luckily, the wandering Zanuki clan members accidentally found the elves laboratory and save the remaining Moran clan members. Starting from that event, the Moran pledge to become the Zanuki vassal and serve them forever.
Even the Moran was not poor and had their own business in producing furnitures, they still served the Zanuki after more than 50 years had passed. Usually, the Moran from the branch family will become special servants at Zanuki household, like me and Ran.
We will be assigned based on our talent and ability. The stronger the Moran is, the more possibility for them to serve the direct descendent of the Zanuki matriarch.
As a former nomadic clan, the actual number of the Zanuki is unknown as many of them didn't stay at one place except the matriarch's family line. Only the matriarch knew their exact number.
The Shadows also are Moran clan members and they have been trained since young to become expert in assassination and infiltration. Me and Ran were former Shadows before we were assigned to young master Ares as we were considered one of the strongest among the Moran young generation of the branch family.
"Sir everything seems fine" reported one of the Shadows.
"The rest continue surveiling the area while the rest go back and make preparation to protect young master to the best of your ability" I said before going back to the mansion to wake up young master Ares as the sign had started to rise from the horizon.