3rd person Pov:
The hall was full of people and vibrant. Many nobles were gathered to make a good impression of themselves to the higher-status nobles. There were many groups made among the nobility. All in all, the mood was good. People in the hall, although making themselves look good to others, were also enjoying themselves. Carla and Joseph were surrounded by many nobles. Many nobles were congratulating them on the birthday of their son. Joseph was not having a good time whereas Carla was receiving their greetings all by herself. Joseph was not the type of person for gathering like his older brothers.
Carla on the other hand was good at handling such gatherings. Being a viscount herself, she has to deal with such people on daily basis. She learned to adapt to the situation after becoming a viscount. Contrary to Joseph, who had dumped all his responsibilities on his subordinates, Carla was used to doing the major work by herself, such as interacting with nobility.
Caleb and his wife were also in a similar situation. Even though Caleb was a count by title, he found interacting with nobles tiresome. He believes that such sly people are only loyal to strength, so being sufficiently strong to keep them in line was enough. His wife Amelia, however, thought differently. Even though she was not a noble by title, she was still the wife of a count. In other words, she was a count. All diplomatic matters of her husband's territory were handled by her and as such, she was great at interacting with people with ulterior motives and making them of use, unlike her husband.
The second son of the Revstein family was absent as usual but instead of him, his wife Anna was attending to the guests. She, just like Amelia, also handled the affairs of her husband's territory. But she had fewer problems on her hands as other nobles never tried to make it difficult for her for fear of offending Derek. Derek was exceptionally cruel to such people and after two incidents of nobles magically disappearing from the world after troubling Anna, other nobles learned their lessons.
The King was currently sitting at a table in the hall. Even though the nobles had greeted him with great respect and proper decorum, there were none of them around him right now trying to curry favor with him. This would have been a different story had he brought his sons with him. Nobles would have definitely swarmed around the royal family to show their support to the prince of their own choice. But since that had not been the case, the king was only surrounded by his royal knights and was in the company of a sole noble.
Duke Andreas Heraiz was currently conversing with the King. They were discussing the Star of the event of today, Michael. Though Andreas had a leisurely approach as he had found Michael to be easy prey, the same could not be said for the King. The King had a dark expression on his face right now. It was not because he felt that Michael was a threat. It was because he had been publicly humiliated in front of every noble by an arrogant child of three years old.
"That brat had the gals to treat me like that in front of the whole nobility. I will make sure to get rid of him." He said his thoughts loud enough for his knights and Andreas to hear but not for anyone else. "Please Calm yourself, your majesty. Though the child had acted disrespectfully, please do remember his worth. He could be our key to negotiating with the Revstein family. We could not use Caleb's or Derek's children because we lacked any cause. Right now, we have the cause. Michael is also a member of the Heraiz family. If used wisely, he can become a loyal member of our family. Then we will have full control of Carla. And from Carla, we will control Joseph. Even if not the whole Revstein family, having Joseph on our side is more than enough. So please calm yourself and think of the greater future. This humiliation can be returned tenfold then." Andreas sitting next to Phillip, tried to placate his anger. He could not let anyone screw his plans and he certainly did not want Phillip to do that because of his pride.
In another corner of the hall, three old men were gathered. Out of three, two were bickering like children while one of them was trying to be the mediator. "You call me a bandit but what are you huh? Sneak attacker, foul player, and cheater. Remember the time when I turned my back toward you, and you attacked me with the wooden stick? You cheater bastard." Noah yelled at Julian and reminded him of the past. "That was only because you attacked me before the instructor could announce the start of the spar. So, I also did what you did you fucker." Julian responded in kind to Noah. "That was only because that damned instructor was counting too slowly. I would have become an old man before he finished counting." But Noah was not the one to back down.
"You both were rotten to the core, so why not forget about those times? We are not young anymore and this is such a happy event. Your bickering is creating a bad atmosphere so stop recounting each other's shameless deeds." Blake said to both of them with a smile on his face. But it did not sound like he was placating at all but instead dissing them both.
"Who are you calling rotten and shameless you sadistic bastard." And they caught on and yelled at him in unison.
It was then that everyone in the hall from Joseph and Carla to Noah and company felt something. What they felt was anything but comfortable. For everyone else, it was just fear but they could somewhat handle it. But for Joseph, Carla, Caleb, Amelia, Anna, Noah, and company, it was not the usual fear. It was the fear they had all felt before on the battlefield. The fear of death. The feeling came and lasted only briefly but in that brief moment, they were all shivering in fear. Fear unlike any of them had felt before.
The royal knights also felt that and started shivering. No one could blame them for not raising their swords to protect the king because their king was in the same situation. Philip even though not so strong compared to others, had fought many battles, and was reminded of all those times when he almost died on the battlefield. For Heraiz though, it was the same situation as his grandson, though he had not wetted or soiled his pants, he was on the verge of doing it.
When the brief moment passed, everyone in the hall was frozen stiff. They did not move or rather they could not move. Their minds had been hit hard and they were still shivering from fear. There was complete and total silence in the hall. This silence was broken by Carla who rushed in the direction of the Children's area from where they had felt that intense bloodlust. And following her, Joseph also came back to his senses and rushed in that direction. They were fast but not faster than the three old men who rushed past them. Noah, Julian, and Blake were rushing toward the room at the fastest speed they could muster but they were still very slow compared to the usual. The fear they had felt, was still fresh in their minds and the last thing they wanted to do was to head in its direction. But they had to. Grandchildren of all three of them were in that room.
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