"Wow, what an all-star cast!" Amidst a group of serious faces trying to get work done, Dane Obelisk gave a friendly wave to the lower workers, some of whom were fangirling over his mere presence.
The three people who he had directed his comment to, however, did not even acknowledge his presence. Well, Nox did, because he was the only one who respected etiquette.
Astaroth, Dane's 'buddy', rolled his eyes, and kept talking to the lady next to him, who was none other than Callisto Azel, the piece of coal that was slowly turning into a precious diamond.
It was a shame that her fiance hadn't realized it, too caught up in preconceived notions about everyone around him.
But the nasty glare Nox was giving Astaroth couldn't possibly be from just from Nox's hatred of Goetians! Looks like the crown prince's feathers were getting ruffled! Well, Astaroth has a knack for doing that to most people though.
What was up with his Goetian brother (in-Lux) obsession with the girl? Callisto was pretty interesting sure, but Astar was overbearingly territorial whilst also attempting to draw a boundary line between himself and whatever was going on with his emotions.
He may hide it well from everyone else, but lifetimes of chasing the Goetian noble have taught him a little bit about his patterns. Mainly, Astaroth didn't like getting involved with the 'main plotline'. It ruined Lux's idea of a perfect story since Astar was the 'final boss'.
Oh boy, those words used to sound ridiculous to him. It was only thanks to his magic prowess that he could remember some iterations from the past.
Thank goodness this time around Dane wasn't at the forefront this time around. It felt so good to be an onlooker to whatever mess was happening.
Speaking of said mess, it looked like something was about to happen. Nox had a hard grip on Callisto's wrist, and Astaroth looked like he was about to have a hard grip on Nox's neck.
Time for the great Dane Obelisk to intervene!
----
"Let go of me."
"Do you have no sense of duty to your fellow countrymen? You must help in the investigation, Callisto!"
"You said you're not going to annul the engagement. That's one of the things we agreed on!"
"Well, it was a ridiculous proposal. I assumed that accepting it would calm you down, but it just made you more manic."
"Excuse me?"
"It's obvious to me that you and the scion over here are colluding against the kingdom." He makes a gesture connecting Astaroth and Callisto together, which personally felt a little derogatory to the leucistic girl.
"Hahahah! Wow! You are really insecure aren't you?"
Astaroth taunted with a smirk, and though there were obvious implications of aggression, the light-hearted tone worked wonderfully in pissing off Nox. His hands balled up into fists and his gray eyes turned stormy.
"Diffusing the situation!" Dane jumped in and snapped his fingers, forming ice crystals in between each person that exploded into bright snowflakes.
Everyone scattered with the magic trick, Callisto prying her hand away amidst the chaos.
Rubbing her wrist with a grimace, Callisto gave an annoyed sigh.
"Does no one need to do any work around here?" She said pointedly at the three men who held high positions in government arguing with each other. She flicked her right hand, and a couple of purple sparks flew into the air with her movement.
Unlike everyone else, Callisto had actually been doing work. After weeks of collecting silly fantasy items, like dragon fangs, fire salamander eyes, and volcanic ash, she had finally received her newly-forged lance from the capital's finest blacksmith.
A weapon that could materialize with a wave of her hand, and dissipate with another. A summoning weapon like the one she had toiled over was precious even in the fantasy setting of this world.
The assurance of a readied weapon at her disposal felt oddly familiar to Callisto. A feeling she had come across multiple times during her stay in this new world, as contradictory as it sounded.
And yet, there was a deep, unresolved frustration when she thought about how long she had been in this world versus how much progress she had made towards her goal of finding [Him].
And she was even further from her dream of turning the world into [His]. It felt like at every turn, there were more questions and more situations that sidetracked her.
She needed to refocus herself. What did the old saintess say? Find relics of the 'other god'. Destroy Lux's orb. Weaken Lux by killing his favorite actors on his bad stageplay, and then the ball would roll downhill from there. So what she needed to do now was-
"Lady Callisto, are you okay? You've been standing there looking at nothing for the past five minutes…"
Right, she forgot that she was in the middle of a group of people. Callisto shook her head, clearing her thoughts.
"Right sorry, I was desperately trying to disconnect from the current situation. It did not work. Say, what is the relationship between you two?"
Callisto switched the topic, pointing at Dane and Astar. Apparently, they were a lot closer than she first thought. She thought they were quite hostile towards each other, but if Dane's use of 'buddy' wasn't generously given, it seemed like there was a deeper history there.
"Lovers," Dane said dramatically, and like his shirts shared his personality, the Master of the Mage Tower's top few buttons popped off his shirt to bring his point home.
Astaroth turned to him, a look of disgust.
"Please, I'm not a charity. I'm way out of your league."
They're friends, She decided. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince stood a few paces away due to Dane's intervention.
Out of reach from Nox's grasp, Callisto attempted to reason with him.
"You didn't even want the engagement in the first place? Isn't this good for you?" The dark-haired man cocked his head to the side, frowning as if he was talking to a child.
"Well, things are different. There have been some benefits in keeping you around."
Great. The thing she thought would be the simplest turned out to be convoluted.
"Your Highness!"
A guard came rushing out of the temple ruins, a strange look on his face. Callisto turned, sensing traces of magic coming off the guard.
"We found something!"