Upon hearing a familiar voice, a feeling of resentment surfaced inside Kale. 'Another bitch' he thought.
"Hey, brother Kale, why aren't you saying anything, perhaps you are still angry that I called you out on stealing my brooch," said a girl with a pair of golden eyes with silver hairs that were tied into a braid.
"But you see I made that brooch for our brother Adel, although if you beg me I would consider making you one too" she added.
"Aisha come now, that's not how you talk to your big brother... even though he's a stain on the family's name haha," said Sia while bursting into laughter.
"Hahaha yeah you're right sister, my bad I apologize," said Aisha with clear sarcasm in her tone.
'God I'm tired of these clichès' Kale thought.
"If I beg will you please oh sister dearest leave me alone".
"Oh my brother are you tired of us this early, the game of crown is yet to begin and you're like this now, what would you do then".
Ignoring Aisha's remark Kale left them and gestured for Haze to follow.
"Poor Haze, to have such a worthless master, well at least she could have fun if she wants to vent our hahaha" mocked Aisha.
Sia although had a frown on her face after hearing the last remark.
Although Kale ignored that remark too but seeing Haze was again a reminder of how she mistreated him, and with that came the anger, anger that he was barely able to calm, anger that he don't understand.
An hour passed, and men indulged themselves in fancy drinks and royal food while women enjoyed the attention of noblemen and even some Emperor's workers, as Emperor workers had a higher status than nobility they were called high nobles or archnobles.
While the emperor or prince Adel has yet to make their appearance, people were still enjoying their gossip about the 'cursed prince' who was present between them.
"Master are you feeling, bored by any chance?" asked Haze.
"No on the contrary I'm quite enjoying it... of course, I'm bored Haze what do you think?" Kale replied sarcastically.
"I think you are bored".
"... that was a rhetorical question".
"Master I don't mean to offend you but this banquet is meant for your pure blood brother, you should put on a good face to represent the royal family in front of other nobles," said Haze but Kale just ignored every word she barked-- spoke.
Instead of Haze's useless advice, Kale's attention was on the shiny golden door of the banquet hall, as it was just about time for the emperor and his blessed prince to make an appearance.
Kale didn't have to wait long. The majestic golden door opened and the royal court guard announced the arrival of their emperor.
"His imperial majesty, Emperor of the Zenith Empire, King of 3 kingdoms and 10 countries, the 7th Lord of Flazeret: city of the forgotten Pheonix, Emperor Arthur Dè Flazer is hereby making his appearance".
All the nobles, high or low, women or men, knelt instantly as they heard the royal entry.
A man in his forties who had any signs of aging stopped, with silver hair and a pair of crystal golden eyes appeared through the door, the man was dressed in a royal outfit and well-embellished tunic with goldwork thread with a fur coat on top of it, the coat was beneath the red robe that had a red phoenix symbol embroidered on it.
As the Emperor walked past the nobles, the two princesses joined him with Aisha on the left and Ambrosia on the right.
That indicates the Emperor's favor for them, as to allow them to walk beside him, which is indeed a big favor as Emperor Arthur is a Heroic legend and he has sired 20 children from 12 different women, and to favor some of them means even the church of sun that comes under the direct command of Sun God couldn't touch them.
It isn't an exaggeration to say that Emperor Arthur could hold his own against the current Moon God Chandra who is said to be the strongest entity only second to Sun God Sol Surya, making Arthur the one of the most powerful entities in this world.
As the Emperor walked passed Kale he noticed something through his peripheral vision, Kale wasn't kneeling. 'Ho, maybe he finally decided to man up' thought Arthur.
"YOU!! HOW DARE YOU TRASH" shouted Ambrosia before calming herself down a bit "You don't have the emperor's permission to walk beside him thus you have to kneel, so no matter how you treat us, kneel down in front of the mightiest in the mightiest"
Upon hearing that the cursed prince isn't kneeling everyone was tempted to look up, but every single one of them knew better, they knew if they would raise their head without Emperor's permission, a surge of battle spirit will be released and they would die instantly.
"Nah it's okay, I'm good with standing here, you guys go ahead don't mind me, besides if he wants me to kneel he can make me" although upon hearing this the nobles, women, and men alike forgot the fear of death or respect of the mightiest and instantly looked up to see the fool challenging the Emperor's authority.
"Master don't --" Haze was interrupted before she could advise Kale to just kneel, as she knew even if the boy here has a guardian at his disposal the Emperor could still kill him with just one hand.
"Kneel," said Emperor Arthur.
"Hmmm... but what if I don't wanna?" mocked Kale nonchalantly.
"Do you think this is a joke boy, I was about to leave you be since you're my blood but you dare challenge my authority? kneel" commanded Arthur in a voice that embodied monarchy.
Suddenly a surge of killing intent was released, mostly directed at Kale.
The emphasis there was mostly. Arthur saw how the nobles looked up without his permission and let loose a little part of his bloodlust intentionally, as the killing intent filled the room, a feeling of dread came along.
No one could manage to keep their heads up after that wave of pure terror, even Aisha and Ambrosia were having a hard time keeping their heads up even though it shouldn't affect them, they were way too close to the source of this sinister bloodlust.
Kale on the other hand felt nothing... literally nothing except a little chill in his spine, he knew the Emperor was holding back for the sake of all the people present there or from what he had heard about him, or rather from what he knew about him from his memories is that the Emperor is not the someone you would want to mess with.
But Kale had a theory in his mind and to test his theory he had to make him madder. "Umm I'm sorry, was that supposed to be making me, I don't know, kneel down? Is that our mighty Emperor?" Kale mockingly asked, with a smirk on his face he added
"Or wait was that by so you could look cool?".
No one could believe what they were hearing, not even Arthur himself, as he knew better than anyone else with the amount of bloodlust he's directing at Kale, he should be begging for his life but there he was, standing completely fine.
"Fine, you'll be kneeling till you beg boy," said Arthur before chanting a single word "Agni"
As soon as he did that a scarlet red hand of ether materialized and pushed Kale down on his knees in an instant
"Gahh" some air suddenly escaped Kale's lungs as he was pushed down, but in his mind, Kale just screamed 'I was right!'.